Hayato did not say anything. Francesca took the explosive and the detonator, and using duct tape, also from the tool bag, she attached the explosive to the tip of the telescoping rod.
“You said there wouldn’t be a blast wave, right?”
“Yes, I did. What are you planning to do?”
“Never mind,” Francesca replied. She took the rod, which was about three meters long, and stood it upright at a distance of two and a half meters.
“Watch out, it will happen in just a moment,” she said. Then she let go of the rod, giving it a slight push in the direction of the lava stream, while simultaneously jumping as far away from the explosion site as possible. She landed on her knees about seven meters away. She felt the ground vibrating, and a bright light flashed across the dark sky. Then it was still again.
“I think that was it,” she said.
Hayato could no longer stay back, and he ran toward her.
“What happened?” asked Francesca.
He looked at the effects of the small explosion. “We’ve got to act quickly,” he said. “I see a small crack we can use to get our samples from. Give me the rod.”
“The rod is... um...” Francesca pointed at its fragments on the ground.
Hayato glanced at what was left of it and said, “Oh well, then, give me the spare rod.”
“The spare rod… It’s in the bag, of course?” she deadpanned.
“In the bag. Where else?”
April 18, 2047, ILSE
Jiaying felt cold. The temperature aboard the spaceship had remained constant—she checked it. It must be the loathsome task awaiting her that was making her shiver. Today, she would use the computer to create the weapon that would kill the Enceladus creature. Watson called the creature Hydra, a name he had probably been told by his controllers from Earth. In Greek mythology, Hydra was a snake monster with many heads that could regenerate—if one head was cut off, two more replaced it. The monster was both immortal and evil, so the name did not at all fit the friendly, curious entity that dwelt in the depths of the Enceladus Ocean. Rather, it described the fears a group of powerful people developed after reading the reports sent by ILSE. The crew should have kept their experiences to themselves. They should have known that at least a part of mankind was not ready for anything new.
But now it was certainly too late for such considerations, and Jiaying sat down in front of the computer in the lab. It was linked with an analytical unit like the one in the Valkyrie drill vessel. In addition, though, there was also a manipulation module using the molecular scissors CRISPR/Cas for gene editing. This would have allowed the astronauts to reverse pathological mutations of their own cells, in the plants on board, or of the various bacterial flora, if required. A multi-year mission under the influence of cosmic radiation ran a higher risk of mutations happening. If, for instance, previously harmless gastric bacteria mutated into a lethal form, the crew could not protect itself without the CRISPR/Cas.
So this life-saving device was now supposed to bring death—according to specifications sent from Earth. Watson had analyzed the individual cells of the Enceladus creature, finding the most promising breaks, and now Jiaying had to perform the actual manipulation. For the past 15 years, AIs had been prohibited from accessing gene manipulation tools, just as they were not allowed to control weapons of war. The prohibition was hardwired—thus the people controlling Watson from Earth could not circumvent it. Therefore they needed a human slave to do the deed.
Jiaying hesitated. If she refused to make the changes there would be no lethal gene manipulation, but her parents would also die. Betraying her friends, forcing them to die on Io, all this would have been in vain. Why did she not confess this earlier? All this time she had only thought about her parents, whereas her colleagues—her friends—chose to be astronauts. The risk of dying in space had always been high, and they chose the profession anyway. Her parents, however, had just wanted to be simple people all their lives. They avoided trouble whenever possible and invested all their strength and energy into their only daughter. They should not have to die for that.
Even in retrospect the decision seemed correct, though the idea of being responsible for their deaths was unbearable. One could not balance human lives against each other. Nevertheless, her parents had the least to do with all of this conspiracy and should therefore suffer the least.
Jiaying launched the program and loaded the DNA data of the Enceladus creature. As a biologist she could appreciate their beauty—it displayed a simplicity allowing for a greater variety. Here, too, life had selected a double helix structure. According to first analyses, this genome was different from those of terrestrial creatures by containing almost no superfluous information. Perhaps the scarcity of resources on Enceladus was the reason. Each unnecessary bit of genetic information required two partial molecules in the double string of DNA. Shorter DNA could be assembled and reproduced using less material and energy—and all of life was based on the success of reproduction. While raw materials on Earth were plentiful, life on Enceladus had to operate in a higher-efficiency mode.
The results were a small miracle—life in the depths of the Enceladus Ocean did not need competition. Maybe there once was competition in early phases, which could no longer be proven, but today cooperation ensured survival. Humanity could learn something from this. Instead, Jiaying was being forced to destroy this positive example because certain people were afraid of it becoming too powerful and possibly endangering mankind.
The DNA strand of the Enceladus creature rotated on her screen. The spots where she had to insert the Cas molecule were already marked. This molecule served as the scissors, while CRISPR was the template she had to apply to the alien DNA in order to find the correct cutting points. Around the expected insertions she had to find characteristic sequences, which only occurred there, and then copy them with a CRISPR molecule. After Cas cut up the strand she could insert new genetic information at this location. The new DNA would eventually kill the creature.
The murder weapon would be a small cellular powerhouse based on terrestrial biology. It seemed harmless, since it even strengthened the affected cells so they could prevail against unmodified variants. At the same time, they needed a lot more energy. This would lead to a brief flourishing before the entire system collapsed once the energy supply was exhausted. Billions of years of cooperation in order to conserve energy resources would have been in vain.
Jiaying marked the areas that were important for being copied as a CRISPR form. Then she passed on the respective code sequences for synthesis. The actual process would not take place in the computer. The original molecules, the CRISPR patterns, Cas scissors, and the fragments with the new genetic information, would be placed in a nutrient solution, where mixing and chemistry did the rest. It was as if one put fabric, sewing patterns, and scissors into a box with needle and thread, shook the box several times, and then a dress, or many dresses, fell out, just like magic.
Eight minutes. It had taken her only eight minutes to create the ultimate weapon against a being billions of years old. Well, this did not include the time some unknown biologists on Earth had taken to find the correct cutting points and to generate the genetic information to be inserted. Still, Jiaying shuddered to think of what she had just done. She was a monster. Had her parents raised a monster? Could there be one person in the world who understood why she had acted this way?
Jiaying got up and noticed the lab was smelly. Had she created this obnoxious odor? She definitely needed a shower to wash everything off, this filth that had been poured on her and that she too was pouring on herself.
“Watson, I need to take a shower,” she ordered.
“Just a moment, I am blocking off WHC 2 for you. Blocking off will be finished in three minutes,” the AI announced.
Jiaying hoped this did not mean Amy and her son would be driven from the affected part of the habitat ring. But Watson was probably clever enough to select a currently unoccupied segment of th
e ring with a WHC for her.
She turned off the computer. She was sweaty all over. Her own body odor became unbearable, yet she still felt cold. She climbed down from the lab to the pivot joint of the habitat ring. The rubber lip leading to Spoke 2 was open, the second of the four spokes, leading to Segment 2, where WHC 2 was located. Martin’s cabin was also there. She forced herself to think of something else, concentrating on climbing down. While ILSE was accelerating, the habitat ring did not rotate—the acceleration generated enough artificial gravity. Instead of gracefully floating toward the outside of the ring, driven by centrifugal forces, she had to climb like an animal on all fours.
By the time she had reached the ring her body seemed to be dissolving into a sweat. The connections to the other segments were closed. For a brief moment Jiaying considered knocking on Martin’s cabin door. Maybe he would come out, take her in his arms, and everything would have just been a bad dream. She shook her head. She needed to get into the shower, quickly. On the floor of the WHC there was a white object. She did not pay attention to it. The hot water, set at 40 degrees, drove away all of her thoughts.
She did not know how much time had passed when she awoke. The shower was off, and she sat naked on the floor of the WHC, leaning with her back against the wall. She could not remember what happened. Between her spread legs there was a piece of paper. She leaned forward and picked it up. There was writing on one side. Cautiously, she turned her head in all directions, but no one was watching her. There were no cameras inside the WHC.
Jiaying read what Amy had written to her. Then she leaned back and wept. There was relief, lots of relief, in those tears, the salty taste of which she licked from her lips.
She would have to write an answer to explain to Amy what had happened and what was going to happen. She needed a pen, so Jiaying got up. She was already partially dry. How long did I sit on the floor, sleeping? She dried off the remaining moisture and got dressed. Stupid of me not to have brought fresh clothes, she thought. But the odor was already a bit weaker. She placed the letter in the WHC at a spot where it could not be seen from the outside.
She went to Martin’s room. It was not very difficult to open the door, and she found that the room was empty. She was more than familiar with how it appeared, yet she was still surprised. Where might Martin keep pens? While looking through his things she found a clean T-shirt. She put it on in place of the one she had worn previously. Martin’s shirt was a bit too large for her, but she was glad just to have a clean one.
She found a pen in the inside pocket of a jacket. She hid it in her pants pocket and walked back to the WHC. She closed the door and sat on the toilet. Holding the sheet on her knees, she started formulating a reply. Jiaying described what had happened to ILSE and what her own role was. The hardest part was explaining her reasons. Amy would have to watch herself and her little son dying together—how could she have even the tiniest trace of sympathy for Jiaying’s action? Jiaying struggled and finally found words that seemed to fit at least halfway.
She hid the letter where it could not be detected from the outside. She still had to be careful to avoid arousing Watson’s suspicions. If both of them chose only this WHC from now on, the AI would surely notice—and in the future she should not take more than one shower a day, either. She felt a glimmer of hope, now that there was a means of communicating. Perhaps Amy would have an idea to save them all? She could not fully imagine how they could wrest control from Watson, but the mere fact that there were now two of them increased their chances.
April 19, 2047, Io
“Great work with the shower, by the way. I intended to tell you yesterday, but I was so exhausted I just crawled into bed.”
Martin was happy to hear Francesca’s praise. She and Hayato had returned to the lander after walking almost twenty hours, and the German astronaut could hardly believe they wanted to head out again today. While the way to Reiden Patera was a bit shorter, he would not want to walk a single kilometer with chafed skin on his thighs. But Francesca insisted on it. They had to become familiar with their surroundings and all of its dangers if they wanted to survive for more than a week on Io.
Martin did not argue with her as long as he did not have to go. He probably would not be able to avoid making one or two excursions himself. Last night they had performed a spectroscopic analysis of the videos taken at the steep escarpment. There were some minerals there that they needed and which could not very easily be obtained elsewhere. Hayato and Martin wanted to design some device to extract these materials from above. Hayato thought of some kind of scaffolding, like the ones used to clean windows on skyscrapers. Just imagining a depth of a thousand meters below him made Martin feel dizzy.
But he had another assignment for today. As soon as the other two were on their way exploring, Martin would examine the samples they had brought from the sulfur lake and the lava stream. In the CELSS, he had already set up everything he would need for the task.
Francesca was treating her thighs. She had put a thick layer of lotion on the chafed areas and taped everything in such a way that nothing would move in spite of the friction of the lower part of the spacesuit. Martin now had to take a piece of cloth and wipe over it as hard as he could. He looked at her face. She gritted her teeth. Her cheeks were still flushed from the exercise she just finished.
“Painful?” he asked.
She shook her head. Not me, you wimp, she seemed to express. Martin smiled, and she smiled back. He liked Francesca, who always tried to be so tough.
“The diaper,” she said. Martin handed her the MAG.
“Please turn around.”
Martin did as she asked.
“Give me my long underpants,” she said a moment later. She was referring to the one-piece thermal underwear called LCVG. Martin turned around and handed the garment to her. It was heavy, due to the integrated cooling and heating unit.
“Where is Hayato?”
Martin looked around, realizing the Japanese astronaut must still be in the CELSS. Martin answered Francesca by pointing upward.
“Well, he is probably still packing his bag. That bag was really impressive,” she said.
Then they heard a rattling sound while Hayato, carrying a heavy bag, climbed down the narrow ladder from the garden module. Something was sticking out of the bag, and to Martin it looked like two sticks covered in fabric.
“What nice stuff did you bring along?” asked Francesca.
“We are visiting an active patera. Let me just say there could be explosive volcanic activity,” Hayato replied.
“Meaning what?”
“I do not want anything falling on our heads, so I packed two umbrellas.”
“Two what?”
“Umbrellas, Francesca!”
“I didn’t know we had umbrellas on board,” Martin interjected.
“I almost forgot about them, too,” Hayato said. “I actually had built them as a precaution, to protect against methane rain on Titan. But then you took along the tent, Francesca.”
Hayato put down the bag and started to insert his body into the SuitPort.
“By the way,” he said, “you will have to pass me the bag through the airlock in the CELSS.”
“Great. So I have to drag it upstairs again,” Martin complained, but with a laugh.
Shortly afterward, Hayato stood on the surface of Io. Martin gave Francesca the okay signal, and she also separated from the SuitPort. He took the bag, climbed up to the CELSS, and placed it in the airlock, together with the spare oxygen tanks.
After a while there was a rattling sound on the outside of the hull. It must be Hayato and Francesca picking up their stuff. On the screen he soon saw both of them waving at the camera.
“Now get going, both of you,” Martin said via radio. “And get me a 100-meter crater!”
Hayato and Francesca turned around and took off in long leaps toward the southwest. They would be back within 15 hours.
He had more than enough time for examin
ing the samples, so he sat down in his comfortable seat, relaxed, and started to think. These 15 hours all alone in the lander module were a real gift for someone who found the company of other people stressful. It was only different with Jiaying. Martin slapped his cheek to chase away that thought.
He should, instead, focus totally on Io. Their survival here seemed to be assured for the next few weeks or months. They knew where to get the necessary raw materials, and they would not be roasted by radiation either. However, they still had not solved the question of why the Enceladus creature warned them about Io, plus they could not communicate with the outside world. Martin actually had a solution for the second problem.
He was just about to close his eyes for a few minutes when the lander module shook. There was a piercing metallic screech from upstairs in the CELSS, and then everything went quiet again. Martin sat upright.
“Neumaier to outside team. Did you feel that?”
“Confirmed.” Hayato reported via radio. “It was a seismic tremor. Maybe some tension was dissipated somewhere, since Io is tectonically active.”
“Should I worry?”
“Our scientists have found no indication of heavy quakes, and we can survive light ones without a problem.”
“Good, then we trust the scientists. So far, they have always been right.”
He heard Hayato laugh at the other end.
“Neumaier, over.”
Martin checked the displays of the measuring instruments. Its epicenter was somewhere toward the southwest. On Earth, this would have been a minor tremor. He stood up. “It’s no good,” he said aloud to himself. Now he was wide awake again. He pulled himself up the ladder to the CELSS and switched on the light. The interior looked messy. He had installed the shower yesterday, following Hayato’s plans, but there had been no time for cleaning up afterward. Martin sighed and began to tidy up, and then he wiped a wet rag across all of the flat surfaces.
Ice Moon 2 The Io Encounter Page 17