“In fifteen minute intervals,” said another crew member.
“Fifteen minutes,” she echoed, nodding.
“Doesn't sound impossible.” I said. “The plant itself is not far from the electrical field.”
“It seems that way and frrrom the inforrrmation we have so farrr but things always look differrrent on the grrround,” said Tenar. She spoke with that curious accent that told me she may have descended from a different ethnic group of Mikus than Tulos or most of the others I'd met so far. It was very much like Judzou's accent. Slightly guttural with rolling rrrs. Except her voice was softer and her “r” rolls weren't hard like Judzou's.
“We have not seen any evidence of patrrrols outside of the plant. Only the searrrch alarrrm sweep frrrom inside it. We don't know what other unknowns we're dealing with since the shut down of communications,” she said. She put a slender hand through the holo-image of the plant and pulled it inward so that the image zoomed closer.
“When you finish planting yourrr detonatorrrs wait on the grrround until the rrrest of the crrrew is done and worrrk as look-outs. When we all finish I will contact the otherrr unit to let them know ourrr job is done. Hopefully they will have finished with the drrrilling of the lake. Do you all underrrstand?” She asked. We all nodded.
Admiral Suttu, his great bulk held in by an armored suit, strode down the corridor. He saw me studying the maps and plans of the latest information about the layout of the power plant and monitoring the weather reports in a small room with a few other crew members, along with my new unit members which were a growing concern to us. He back-tracked and came into the room to visit with us. On another table console were weather holograph maps and 3-D drill-down readouts of the current weather patterns of Jupiter, Europa and Io. He gave them a hard look and shook his head.
“The weather patterns seem a little odd on Jupiter. Barely noticeable if one is not paying close attention.”
“What do you think makes them strange?” I asked.
“I'm not sure. Certain anomalies I've never seen before. Anomalies that last for barely a whisper. Dark vortexes, perhaps.”
“You mean, black holes?”
“Yes. They last a fraction of a second. Especially in and around the Red Eye. For the past few weeks the activity there has been slightly unusual. I've asked a few of the captains, especially Wykrim, to keep an eye on the vortex activity. He commands the Vestair. One never knows what might come of it and we do have a more pressing matter.” He nodded to the other unit crew members. The put their fists to their chests in a sign of respectful acknowledgment and bowed slightly. Admiral Suttu turned his attention back to me.
“About the base and electrical plant locations. These are accurate, Admiral Suttu?” I asked.
“Just Suttu. And as accurate as we can get them. How do you feel about our mission, Robert?”
“Scared to death.” I came from the light table where the others were standing to talk with the admiral. I'd learned that Syzygyians were a free wheeling folk in many respects and that though there were some class distinctions, they weren't strong nor were these distinctions inserted into everyday life because they didn't matter much. My speaking with the admiral didn't bother anyone, least of all him.
“I would think I strange if you weren't.” he rumbled. “Your android. Can he really detect anything from the enemy mechs?”
“I only know that he has the valuable hive wire programmed in his mind. He underwent repairs by Genevieve before we left. We think it may work better now,” I said, hoping this was actually true. Will had only said that he no longer detected static. But whether or not it would work was something else entirely.
“We hang on shreds of hope out here. Any shred, no matter how small. We have no other choice,” said the admiral.
There was talk outside the corridor from others passing by, talking in Hanga, Chinese and German and other alien tongues I didn't recognize. I'd nearly forgotten those were the other universal languages spoken on Mars and the outer rim.
“This may be my last battle. In fact, it will be.”
“Why?”
“I'm very old, in case you haven't guessed. Many want me to step aside. And I think I'm ready, if I live through this. I have fifty battle ships in all traveling with me. I hope most of this fleet will be able to come back in victory, if not all. This is our first major, orchestrated attack since the battle on the Mothership.”
“I've heard of that battle. It must have been some fight.” He nodded and took up a seat. His tentacles quivered as he spoke, dripping with saline water and mucus. He looked down to his tentacles and pointed.
“Forgive me, I am old. The older you get, the more you leak. It is inevitable,” he said. “Especially when you are an aquatic-based life form living on land and in air out of necessity,” he said with resignation. I grinned.
“All of us carbon-based life forms leak when we get old. Nothing new there.” Now it was his turn to smile. I could discern a low rumbling that sounded rather merry. He was chuckling, or his version of it anyway.
“That battle, that. . .war, it was terrible. I thought that we would all go down in fire and smoke and the black coldness of space. I thought it would be the end of the our species. We had reached the outer rim of the orbit of the last planetoid in your system. The one called, ah, how to say? Pluto. Resentments, machinations and rebellions had been simmering for years. First there was sabotage of different sections of the ship and throughout the gorgons. It started small. Then the attacks became more frequent and soon they began to cost lives. Fear ran rampant through ship. You must understand the Mothership was like an entire world, a microcosm of Erautian life floating through the sea of space, our only island of safety. Those of us who began the rebellion were so afraid. We thought, was this a mistake? Still, we had to shake off the last of the conditioning they had instilled in us, to look to the Realm for everything. The Realm was both father and mother to us, the Mothership was life itself. To wage war in such circumstances when there was no where else to go. . .you have to understand that we were beyond desperate to take control of our own lives at that point. They began holding trials and executions but this did nothing to stave off the final great rebellion. In fact, it lit with fire. When a young Suwudi woman who was a fine soldier and rebel was executed she died saying the words: “Curse the Realm. May it die. Freedom forever!” It was a siren call for us and the battle began. After that there was an assassination of one of the high ministers on board. That and the execution of the young woman tipped everything off. It was massive. So many people on both sides died. Luckily, we were near this system when the final big battle started. We rained destruction down on them, surprising them and we eventually defeated them, after decades of secret meetings, secret planning. We took back our lives. Though, the defeat was a woefully incomplete one.”
“I can't imagine what that must have been like.” I said. “How many battles were fought over the ship?”
“Hundreds. Like a fire, it started and spread until the whole ship was on fire with warring factions. We had the element of surprise in the beginning. They didn't know who we all were, which gave us a huge advantage. It was the classic case of the enemy within. Now we go to face some of them again. I wish we rebels were more organized as a people, like we were back then.”
“I worry about Syzygy sometimes, Suttu. How do you know who is a rebel and who is a loyalist?”
“Ah, but that is the question. You aren't the only one who wonders. I also wonder. In the past we could tell who was a loyalist by their ships. They would land some miles outside Syzygy and walk into the city but we had watchers everywhere who reported such activity. Word would spread and everyone would be on alert. So when they arrived everyone knew they were loyalists, even if they were dressed like rebels. But now? So many people have their own agendas.”
“Are you a separatist?”
“I am. If I survive this, I will retire on Ophir. That is where the heart of the rebellion still
lies. The separatist movement still carries ideals I believe in. Honor, duty, family, culture, those things. I belong there now and will finally have a home where true Eruatian cultures can flourish. Even so, I have no idea what the future holds.”
“I have a friend there. He's a separatist too. There's something I've never told anyone. Not even Genevieve,” I said. He listened intently.
“What is that?”
“I was never sure if I had truly destroyed the plans for the stargate. It still bothers me.” He leaned back in the chair and regarded me quietly. Then he nodded.
“In these kinds of conflicts you never do gain clean victories. Those are hard to come by. What you did was put a temporary stop to their plans. That has to be good enough. Besides, it is not enough to have a stargate, Robert. One must also learn to plot a safe way through the fabric paths of space opened up with such a device, paths that are stable and will not collapse. One must know how to avoid anomalies and other heavenly objects and dangers that may interfere and make such travel lethal. Plotting a main, stable course through space and time is difficult. And they have many ships with them.”
“So even if they did still have the technology, it could still be dangerous for them to use?”
“Oh yes. And that gives us all the more time to plan and to act. We need every second of it.” It made me feel slightly better. I turned back toward the overlay map of Europa.
“Why Europa, I wonder? I was thinking of why they would choose this ice moon for their base. And it came to me, there's water there, an underground ocean under all that ice.”
“Next to Earth, Mars and Enceladus it is one of the best environments for living beings like us.”
“Do you miss your home, Suttu?” He let out a soft rumble, a chuckle.
“I never saw it with my own eyes.”
“Oh right. Forgive me.”
“It is fine. I know what it looked like. A beautiful place. Earth looks very much like it, only smaller. We have had to make do with Mars. Or Yiral, as we say in Old Hanga.”
“What does that mean?”
“Literally, place of fire.”
“It has always been regarded as the red plant, called Ares or Mars after the god of war among some human cultures because of its bloody color,” I said. He smiled.
“Our species can think along similar lines, it would seem. Yes, this dry and dusty place is my home now. And it has its own beauty, once you get accustomed to it.”
“Humans plan to terraform it one day in the future, Suttu.”
“What will they do when they find us here?”
“That's one of the trillion dollar questions floating around the universe. We've had this dream of making Mars, which was once wet and warm, a habitable place again. Green with vegetation and blue with water.”
“It's already being, ah, terraformed, as you say.”
“Yeah. You guys do have a head start on us. We're looking at starting with the atmosphere. They'll be bringing cloud-makers here, huge machines that can generate moisture, gases and dust in the right concentrations, then seeding the clouds on Mars with rain on a regular basis. A plan is in place.”
“It might be even more beautiful than it is now after such work. But it will have to be shared. I long to see such a thing. A place without environmental biospheres. To breathe free air again.”
“I just hope the discovery of you guys here by the powers that be won't start a war. Like we need more of those.”
'”Yes.” Suttu rubbed his face. “I'm tired of wars myself. I've lived and breathed war. It eats at our souls when there is no end in sight. And now we go to wage another one. And we take it to their doorstep.” He let out a slow, wheezing breath. “I am tired. See you in a few hours, Robert. Get your rest, war hero.” I detected a sardonic note in his voice. With that, Suttu hoisted himself up and left the room, and left me to ponder these things on my own.
. . .
After six days we reached the Jovian system. Diamond's Ghost protocol system was holding up well, allowing the assault fleet to approach the outskirts without being detected. How long it would hold was anyone's guess. They were invisible to us as well. But we knew where the places we needed to take out were located on the ground. I learned that the suit I'd be outfitted with would not have the benefit of a personal shield. Well, hot damn! I would feel nearly naked out there if people started shooting laserguns and everything. I suited up with a brand new issued environmental suit, alien make. It had a series of tiny fitted tubes running over my chest and waist. I could feel the material tighten automatically to fit like a second skin.
“They are called them kobarrrs in Hanga. It rrregulates moisturrre and body temperrraturrre to keep the body frrrom losing waterrr and becoming overrrheated in extrrreme heat orrr losing heat in the bitterrr cold,” said Tenar. “Much like the ones humans wearrr but in my opinion, morrre efficient.”
“Kobar. Thanks for the tip.” I'd learned a few other words in Hanga and I recognized a few of the readings drilling down over the helmet's faceplate. I saw Diamond pass by into one of the hangars, preparing to board a fighter along with a great number of other pilots. He saw me in passing. I saw Genevieve far up ahead climbing inside of another of the fighter ships we'd brought. I smiled and went over to his ship.
“Bob! You ready to do this?” I heaved a nervous sigh.
“Ready as I'll ever be. I can't believe it. It doesn't seem real.”
“Believe it, buddy. I'm scared to death to tell you the truth but I can't wait to get out there! It's a hard feeling to explain,” he said. I slapped him on the back.
“Good luck, man.” I nodded to Genevieve and Rychik who were across the hangar on the other side climbing into their fighters. The hangars were filling with pilots, crew members of the Dyra and those of us from the teams who would be leaving the flagship. I followed Tenar toward a different bay where our carrier ship awaited. Unit Two, six people in all, would be riding in this ship, named the Selus. A human woman named Sarah owned and piloted this craft. We had two that would remain on board communicating with Unit One, Sarah and her co-pilot Arauto, and the rest of us four who would knock out the auxiliary power plant. This plant was a few miles east of the base. Sarah nodded to us as we boarded and entered the cockpit, strapping ourselves down in the seat harnesses. Arauto was sitting at the control board running through a pre-flight inspection. I touched my laser dragon on my hip. I had also strapped a second lasgun to my other hip, wondering what we'd find out there and whether this was enough. I feared to find a gorgon ship out there waiting to incinerate us. You can't think like that. It's too late anyway. Our detonators and bombs were sealed and stored in a metal case kept in a special compartment of the ship. We were given jet packs by our team leader.
“We have one hour before the jet packs will be rendered ineffective and run out of fuel. We must get our part down within an hour,” she said briskly. No pressure. I had some familiarity with them, having used them in training here and back home but now I'd wished I had more time with them. If only it weren't for the hassle of Will being kidnapped!
Flying in ghosting protocol, the Selus entered the hostile, wintry atmosphere of Europa, following behind the other small ship carrying Unit One. Soon the first ship disappeared from view in the driving snow. At first I could barely see anything through the view ports but a flurry of snow and ice. We were flying blind, using the navigator to find our way to the surface to our specific location. I felt the pressure from the ship and in my suit adjusting for the radical difference in the pressure of the moon's atmosphere, deepening, becoming stronger to make up for the slight atmospheric pressure of the moon. Turbulence shook the Selus mercilessly. As soon as I thought that we might crash I felt the thrusters beneath turn on. The ship slowed down and our descent stabilized until we finally landed on a plateau about five miles from the tower. According to Diamond we would have to let our ghost shields down temporarily to exit the ship. Here on the surface it seemed the storm was milder and the s
nowfall slight.
“Turning on sensor sweep now,” said the pilot.
“We'll have to be fast,” murmured Tulos. This was in case any sensors from the enemy could pick up on our presence and track us and alert the base. The main base was ten miles to the west. We would have to travel a few miles to get to our destination by speeder. The ship might attract too much attention and set off alarms even in ghost protocol if we settled too close to the plant. Any signatures or other activity from the engines of the speeder would be harder to pick up under ghost protocol a few miles out. It occurred to me that the snow and wind was really a boon to our mission instead of a hindrance. Sarah opened a comlink channel to call the other unit.
“Unit One, this is Selus. Come in.” After some static of which we were all deathly silent, waiting, they finally responded.
“Unit Two this is Unit One leader. We have just landed, We are on site and setting up to begin drilling.”
“Copy, Unit One leader. Unit Two is now on location.” The pilot turned around in her seat and faced us.
“Let's do this!” We fastened on our helmets and immediately got to work. Outfitted with my jet pack, I took up one of the packs of tiny detonators out of the steel box. Each pack for each crew member had five detonators. The team leader opened the hatch to the back of the carrier ship and drove the speeder out. Me, Tulos and the other team members, our leader, commander Tenar Sul and the other, a Glia male named Ven, climbed in the speeder and rode out toward the power plant. Sarah and Arauto followed us on a bike speeder with the Selus shut down and monitored by a small security mech. Watching the small holographic map in the speeder, I noted when we were within a fourth of a mile within the plant, touching the location point with my finger. A small chime sounded. The unit leader slowed down and stopped and we hovered. She got out a pair of binoculars and eventually stepped out of the speeder. The wind was picking up and the snow fall was starting to become heavy. Though this made things more difficult for the enemy to pick up on our presence it was worrisome because until a few days ago snow was not in the forecast, nor did anything indicate that the atmosphere would be this thick. It would make things more difficult for us too. But information and predictions weren't certain anymore since the cloaking technology had been put in place by the loyalists. Tenar made a start.
Mission: Attack on Europa Page 14