AMERICA ONE - Return To Earth (Book 4)

by T I WADE

  The flight crew entered the Bridge and everyone including Roo grabbed a fresh cup of coffee. He had become addicted to this new hot drink.

  Ganymede, directly in front of the hip, looked large. Within the hour they were to begin orbiting the large moon at an altitude of 200 miles.

  “This briefing is a short description of what we can expect on Ganymede,” began Ryan. “Captain Pete has been studying the planet, and to make our flight to Saturn shorter, we are going to look for signs of life only around Mr. Roo’s base; we will try to find ice to fill two dozen canisters and then head out. Frau Von Zimmer and Frau Bloem will be here shortly; they are trying to locate Ms. Tow. They believe we will find water on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, which will be our farthest distance from Earth before we turn back. Since there are no faucets on the moon that we can just open, and in case we don’t find water on Titan, we will try to locate water on one of the next two moons, or our last chance on Titan, before we can return towards the center of the solar system. We know for a fact that we can resupply water needs at our watering hole on Mars, but we need a minimum of 29,000 gallons of water to separate into hydrogen for fuel and oxygen to replace the air we have fed into the dome and caverns on DX2017. To give us a buffer and fuel reserves to Mars, 31,000 gallons would be better, or 580 of our canisters filled with ice. Unfortunately, we won’t know the breakdown of the ice is until we get it into our chemical lab up here. Remember, we don’t want any more dry ice. Mr. Jones did not appreciate Frau Von Zimmer’s suggestion to use it for ice in his drinks. Captain Pete, please share what you have learned about Ganymede now that Frau Von Zimmer, Frau Bloem and Ms. Tow have arrived,” Ryan said as the three ladies entered.

  “Thank you, Boss. Ganymede is composed of approximately equal amounts of silicate rock and water ice, so some sort of ice shouldn’t be impossible to find, however, we will not be able to return this way on the way home; Jupiter’s orbit takes these moons well away from our return journey’s direct path. The moon we see outside our forward windows is iron-rich, and has a liquid core. A saltwater ocean is believed to exist about 150 miles below Ganymede's surface, sandwiched between layers of ice. Its surface is composed of primarily two types of terrain; a dark region called Galileo Regio, where Mr. Roo’s base, or where the red dot on the globe on DX2017 was situated, right in the middle of this round area’s circle,” he said, pointing to a large picture of the moon. “Galileo Regio is not an impact crater but a region of ancient dark material that has been broken apart by tectonics and is now surrounded by younger, brighter material that has been upwelling from Ganymede's interior. The area is thought to be some four billion years old and is heavily cratered. This upwelling is where we could find the purest water ice, and hopefully, Rare Earth minerals that we will always collect to store aboard, and sell as retirement annuities for those who want to stay when we return to Earth. Now that we have several empty supply cylinders inside and outside our ship, we might as well fill them with any materials valued on Earth. We also want to collect any rare materials we might not find on Mars, or even DX2017, where some of us could one day call home.

  “Ganymede is the only satellite in the solar system known to possess a magnetosphere likely created through convection within the liquid iron core. The meager magnetosphere is buried within Jupiter's much larger magnetic field and would show only as a local perturbation of field lines. So, astronauts, you will be getting magnetic directions and interference with your directional computer, but we are used to similar conditions on Earth. Don’t be surprised if the compasses aboard the smaller ships bounce, or spin around. Anything is possible, but we will have visual on you and your landings from the Bridge. This moon has a thin oxygen atmosphere that includes O, O2, and possibly ozone; the ozone is of no use to us at the moment, we have enough. Atomic hydrogen is a minor atmospheric constituent around this moon, and you could notice a change of readings on your external measuring systems.

  “Ganymede also has a thin oxygen atmosphere – too thin to support life. Gravity is 14.65 percent of Earth, which means it won’t be heavy work to collect ice and metals. However, changes made to the gravity by the neighbor moon Europa, at this moon’s closest time of orbit could change that number drastically. It takes Ganymede about seven Earth days to orbit Jupiter. Europa, the second moon we are going to visit, is going to cause a gravitational fracture during your stay on the surface, and vice-versa. Europa is closer to Jupiter and has a faster orbital time. Our analysis indicates that there is a 65-hour window when the gravitational pulls from both Jupiter and Europa are not a factor on Ganymede; that is the only window when we want you to be down there. If your work isn’t finished at the end of the first 65-hour period, you will leave the surface and wait up here until the second 65-hour window begins a couple of days later.

  “Earth is 390 million miles from this moon. Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system and over twice the size of our own Earth’s moon. It is actually bigger than the planet Mercury. Daytime temperatures range between minus 171 degrees to minus 193 Fahrenheit, so the coldest temperatures will be much the same as you experienced on the north pole of Mars; damn cold! You will not be outside the craft after dark.

  “It is unlikely that any living organisms inhabit Ganymede,” interjected Martha Von Zimmer.

  “Roo’s people long ago left their bases on both moons we are going to visit,” added VIN. “We believe that the gravitational inconsistencies made living there impossible, and we are hoping to find Roo’s tribe on Titan. The globe on DX2017 shows that there is still life on Titan, and I expect that life could be either a vibrant society or a cryonic society waiting for people to come and rescue them.”

  “Thank you for your inputs,” Captain Pete replied. “Mr. Jones, Mr. Saunders, the highest rock peaks in the area where we are going are 2,000 feet. For gravitational differences, you will be on the Jupiter side of the moon. This moon is tidally locked, which means that the same side always faces Jupiter; it is the same with Europa, so any real interference in pull will come from Europa or even the next moon, Lo, as it approaches on its orbital path. Europa is much smaller than Ganymede, but since all Jupiter’s moons have different orbital speeds, we believe the worst gravitational variances will come from Europa. It is necessary that we visit this moon because it is known to be an ice-moon, important for water if we are unlucky on Ganymede.”

  SB-III departed first, its shield up and working before it exited the shield around America One. Astermine One the mining craft, flown by Allen and Jamie Saunders went next and, Asterspace Three, flown by Michael and Penny Pitt, third. There were no children aboard and everybody wore full spacesuits. Even Tow and Roo were fit into a small and medium-sized teenager suits.

  The newly found shield boxes were already attached to the undersides of all of the craft stationed on the mother ship, and the personnel on the Bridge watched as the three blue bubbles descended towards the moon’s surface.

  Each of the three craft had passengers. VIN, Boris and Roo were aboard the shuttle, Allen and Jamie Saunders carried Tow, Fritz and Martha Von Zimmer, and Asterspace Three had Petra Bloem and Vitalily, with Max Burgos as a seventh pilot; Vitalily and Max were also assigned to VIN’s mining crew. Two spiders were also aboard each ship to do any necessary digging.

  The dark region 200 miles below America One was a massive area. It could easily be seen in the weak sunlight as it sat on the brighter side, close to the top of the moon.

  Fifteen hours and four orbits later Jonesy brought SB-III to within a mile of the area Roo was pointing to. He knew where the base was, even though he had never visited this moon before and his telepathic sense helped Jonesy aim the shuttle; he must have been attuned to a globe on the moon’s surface.

  All three craft landed and parked in a neat, but dusty line a hundred yards from each other; Jonesy’s thrusters created a large light dust cloud that lowered the visual distance around the area. VIN went out through the docking port allowing the ladder to gently floa
t down towards the ground. He descended first, with Roo behind him. VIN had his helmet light on, and a second hand lamp strapped to the suit. Even though they were in light from the sun, it was still pretty dark compared to Mars, and he would have to locate the telltale melted rock in the hole where he would find the underground base.

  It didn’t take long. Roo quickly found his space legs, and even with a dust cloud around them, he immediately headed off and stopped less than 100 yards from the shuttle. VIN scanned the area with his light, and found a three-foot wide hole a few feet in front of him identical to those he had found on Mars and DX2017.

  He surveyed the surrounding area which didn’t look much different than the surface of Mars. The rocks and dust were about the same color, although much lighter than the dark blue surface of DX2017.

  There wasn’t much he could do, except program the spiders to begin digging down 30 feet to find the tunnel. This time Roo did not know what to do to get inside the base. One shield box had been brought down, and while the two spiders from Asterspace Three were unloaded. Boris and Fritz came over with one of the nuclear batteries, and powered up the shield to its lowest power setting. This gave them a ten foot diameter around where the spiders would dig a shaft. This small dome, only ten feet high at its center, would only require one bottle of air to give it an atmosphere; if there was life down below the new atmosphere would prevent anyone from being endangered when they broke into the underground caverns.

  VIN’s suit showed it was cold on Ganymede. The sun, a faint burst of light in the heavens, was smaller than a quarter and there was little radiant heat coming off its rays, as it was also on a low angle slightly over the horizon.

  Boris and Max set the spiders digging. Roo helped VIN and Vitalily with the shield, and carried the tank of air into the dome. The dome’s controller was placed in its center a couple of feet from where the spiders were beginning to use their lasers.

  The tank was left to empty and the warm bubbles of corralled heated air collected inside the top of dome. The blue interior began to get lighter as the spiders slowly traveled in and out of the shield with their loads of rock. The rocks were deposited in an area where they could be analyzed with an MMA (Magnetic Metal Analyzer) in Astermine One’s cargo bay at a later date. The first objective was to try to find some ice.

  SB-III took off in search of ice followed by the other two craft. They had 60 empty aluminum canisters aboard. It didn’t take long for Jonesy to fly over what looked like a narrow strip of white, about a mile in width, only twenty miles from the shield. He carried 60 empty aluminum canisters aboard.

  By the time the other two caught up to Jonesy, he was landing on what looked like a glacier. A hill 500 feet high, a perfect dome of pure ice half a mile wide, was about a mile from its source. Martha and Petra already knew what they found and were as excited as kids at a rodeo.

  Chapter 18

  The biggest geyser ever seen.

  Jonesy did not believe what Martha was describing over the radio until he saw it for himself. Martha told Jonesy to park well away from the ice dome if he didn’t want his shuttle washed, melted, or possibly eaten into. He landed a mile farther away from the hill but laughed at her remonstrations until, while watching the dome, he had a flashback to Yellowstone National Park on a dark and cloudy day. He was glad he took her advice, especially when she said that it could be sulfuric acid, not water that the geyser spouted.

  Jonesy always got pissed off when Martha was right, and right she was. With slight vibrations under the craft, a jet of liquid, which looked like water, shot out from the high point of the dome two miles away. Watching it with binoculars, the jet looked at least several yards wide.

  “This is certainly not a powerless little fizzle of water like ‘Old Faithful’”, Jonesy reported as he watched the jet shoot up at least a mile high. For several seconds, the jet spread out at its peak, and with no wind or breeze, it gently floated down and settled onto the dome in a fine mist about where the shuttle first landed.

  When the rest periods were over, VIN and Max Burgos went out to fill a canister with ice. They took a spider to dig a ten-foot deep hole in the ice, out of range of the cloud of spray from the hourly jet of liquid. They filled a second canister from a spot about a half a mile away from the first. As soon as these canisters were packed away aboard Astermine One, Allen took off to take the first samples up for testing.

  Jonesy and Asterspace Three lifted off in search of a second geyser. On average, the geysers were about a hundred miles apart, with domes that sometimes were very white and sometimes dirty colored ice.

  They landed two miles away from the second geyser, which did not erupt as frequently as the first one. However, when it did, both craft had to lift off and retreat another couple of miles away from the blast of liquid. The eruption could easily be felt through the floor of the craft like a massive earthquake minutes before it blew. This geyser was many times larger than the first one and the jet of dirty brown liquid ejected under massive pressure, headed up into the dark sky in slow motion for what looked like miles. Jonesy guessed that this plume of water was about as wide and twice as high as One World Trade Center in New York. This geyser only gushed every ten hours or so, spewing a liquid that alternated between a brownish color and a dark silvery color.

  The extra time between eruptions allowed Asterspace Three, the ship VIN and Max were in, enough time to fly within a mile of the geyser. They landed on the side of the dome and with the spider’s help, dug a five-foot deep trench, and filled two canisters before they were ordered to retreat from harm’s way.

  Just before they left for their second dig, the bad news expected by several of the crew was relayed to the mining team. The content of both of the first two canisters was a weak, but still unusable, sulfuric acid. Traces of metals and salt were also found in the liquid.

  SB-III had the two canisters loaded inside her aft cargo hold, and Jonesy and Maggie took the shuttle up, meeting Astermine One on her way down.

  Astermine One met Asterspace Three back at the shield where the spiders had dug deep and hit pay dirt at thirty-one feet. The one remaining spider in the shaft was burning through the metal wall of the outpost developed by Roo’s tribe on Ganymede; it would take at least 48 hours to complete the job.

  Aboard Asterspace Three, VIN and the crew flew several hundred miles in the opposite direction in search of another geyser. They had been flying at 5,000 feet for over an hour when they spotted a big grey dome. Even at their altitude, the dome was higher than they were. This dome was huge, and there was no evidence of a glacier snaking away from it. The crew decided to land several miles away and monitor it for eruptions.

  The last geyser had been impressively powerful. In contrast, it took 30 hours before any liquid gushed from this new one and it erupted in a pathetic little stream. Martha and Petra, who were also aboard, explained that the dome was suffocating itself. The pressure inside was still lifting the liquid seven thousand feet up, but by the time it reached the opening, there was just enough pressure to allow a little liquid to escape, evidence that it was safe to park on the side of the grey dome and test for water and metals.

  When they found a semi-flat area to land about three quarters of the way up the dome, there were a few surprises waiting for them.

  This liquid looked different. The ice was like rock, and to VIN’s amazement, stones that looked like diamonds lay around everywhere. VIN knew a diamond when he saw one; he spent months digging them out all around the solar system. These diamonds were clean, as if they had already been polished, and the grey color of the surface beneath them made them sparkle faintly in the weak sunlight. Actually, the sunlight bouncing off Jupiter, the massive mother planet less than a million miles away, was brighter than the sun itself when it was above them, but since the mother planet never disappeared, there was always a gloomy faint light around them. Now that the sun and Jupiter were both in the sky, the diamonds sparkled with as much intensity as they ever would in t
his area of space.

  Martha and other scientists assured VIN that he was out of range of the weak spewing of the geyser, so he, Vitalily, and Max trekked out with canisters to get them filled up. They took a spider along, which began breaking up and melting chunks of ice, while the astronauts used shovels to scrape the surface of the dome and collect piles of the shiny diamonds in another canister. VIN was hoping that the scientists aboard America One would get excited at their diamond find.

  He was right, but not in the way he expected. For twenty hours, which included three spacewalks, the crews of the three craft collected ice and thousands of the little diamonds. The pilot of each of the three craft remained on the side of the dome ready for takeoff. VIN often picked up one of the bigger ones, the size of a marble and looked through it, surprised how clear and pure the hard diamond was.

  He thought about surveying the surrounding area. On the second walk, since there were more of the crew helping, he and Fritz climbed 300 feet up the side of the dome to a second flat area, big enough for one of the smaller craft to land.

  The diamonds there were larger, the size of a quarter. Allen Saunders flew up with two canisters on a cord and dropped them to be filled. Boris sent up one of the spiders to dig into the ice to help fill a second canister.

  On Earth they would have had to shovel a ton and a half of rock and soil to fill one of the canisters, but at 14 percent gravity, a filled canister weighed only 200 pounds.

  After the next geyser shower VIN took a third spacewalk. He climbed another 300 feet to find fresh, whiter ice, the color of which changed slightly, and diamonds the size of tennis balls.

  He asked Asterspace Three fly up to the third small ledge, where he and Vitalily filled two more canisters; the rest of the crew had been moved up to the second ledge. Ryan reminded them that they had two hours to get off the mound and the moon before their 65-hour period came to an end.