Wrath of the Carnelians (Europa)

by Jason Gehlert

  “Adrian’s dead. Deader than a doornail,” Shaw confirmed.

  Kaspar worked his hand over the ship’s controls, eventually bringing up the planet’s topographical map. “The Abagail’s course us being altered by the planet’s gravitational pull,” Kaspar explained the situation to Gillian and Shaw. “I am studying the map, looking for any alternative route.”

  “Where’s our best chance at a landing?” Shaw prodded the Commander.

  “Seventy-five percent of the planet harbors water, fresh and salt water according to these readings,” Gillian read from the updated screen. “So, I’d say our chances of a water landing are highly probable.”

  “Any native wildlife?” Shaw looked up from the bench, trying to knot off his shoelaces. His black boots were a bit uncomfortable, but he preferred them to be tied tightly around his feet.

  “According to the ship’s data thermal scan, there are possible signs of marine life down below.” “I suggest a detailed look at the thermal scan.” Gillian tapped the Commander on the shoulder.

  Kaspar leaned over in the Captain’s chair and brought up another screen with another glide of his fingers over the smooth surface.

  Gillian’s eyes scanned over the looming pockets of red and orange blotches aboard the screen. “Shit me white,” her mouth gasped at the finalized picture.

  “What is it?” Shaw rose from the bench and tried to catching a peek at the screen hovering just ahead of him.

  “It’s tough to tell,” Gillian noted, pouring over the new information. “I suspect there’s some life down there, and in rather large schools, or packs. I’m crossing my fingers that this unique collection of thermal scans is indicating that our survivors made it and are floating about in boats or even rafts,” Gillian replied with an uneasy feeling in the pit of her rolling stomach. Something didn’t sit well with Gillian, her senses were experiencing a spooked feeling. “I think if we land, we should take every possible precaution necessary. I’m getting a really bad feeling commander.” Gillian noticed the small pack of orange colored blotches moving quickly across the screen towards another series of slower, larger specks of reddish orange dots. Within a few seconds the small colony of blotches had consumed the larger specks, like Pac-Man eating power pellets. A sudden wave of nausea swallowed Gillian in its sticky grasp while she attempted to cope with Adrian’s stymied legacy.

  “I’m starting to lose control of the ship’s navigational system,” Kaspar’s voice heightened with concern. The commander fought stubbornly to maintain the course.

  “Odd,” Gillian said while she approached the bench. “I really don’t understand what’s going on down there, but I’d love to go and check it out.”

  “What’s odd?” Shaw leaned over, rubbing out the tightened kinks in his legs.

  “The way the pack of dots moved across the screen and then seemingly ate up the other cluster of dots,” Gillian said, scooting over another inch or two away from Shaw’s bristling body.

  “Weren’t they underwater?”

  “Yeah, that’s the odd part, remember?” Gillian rolled her eyes about, wondering if Shaw could really be that dense, or that stupid.

  “Well, maybe it was a pack of sharks, or whales eating a school of lazy fish,” Shaw hinted at with a wry grin. “It happens you know, it’s a cruel part of nature. Back on Earth, they actually have a whole network devoted to this stuff.” Shaw had not only regained that glint in his eye, but his restored wit emanated as well.

  “Whatever,” Gillian cranked her head from side to side in a playful snide response.

  “Hang onto your bootstraps,” Kaspar shouted back to his team. “The auto-pilot’s ineffective. I’m going to have to land this bird naked.” Kaspar swirled his tongue about. “I’ll have to hopefully avert a water landing.”

  “Wise choice,” Shaw quipped back. “That’s why you are our fearless leader.”

  “Oh, shut up,” Gillian hammered back.

  “Oh, but then where would you get all of your great ideas from Miss Shea? If I was a mute, then we’d still be flying around in inverted fart circles.” Shaw extended his left eyebrow in a corny salute to oddville.

  “You’re such a fucking dork.” Gillian punched Shaw in the right arm just soft enough to equal that of a long-gestating sibling rivalry.

  Hey kids,” Kaspar called to the squabbling duo, “let’s keep our hands to ourselves. Don’t make me come back there.”

  “She started it,” Shaw bristled Gillian’s feathers a little bit more.

  “Once we land, I’m going to personally kick your ass,” she alerted Shaw to her plan.

  Gillian and Shaw had quietly and momentously built a unique bond in their short time together on Europa’s space station. Each had seen the other in a sibling vein, where Shaw made it his duty to protect Gillian at all costs, like an older brother would watch over his younger sister. Shaw emphatically expressed his feelings to her before the stasis saying, “that loving you will always be one of hell of a daunting task, and damn near impossible to achieve. I’ll leave that to the Commander to tackle. I will however, break anyone’s kneecaps if they even think about invading your personal space.” From then on, and the whole sacrificial stunt that Shaw pulled with Adrian, so the two lovebirds could enjoy their honeymoon, {as he frequently tells the story on many occasions during their lengthy trip to New Earth}, urged Gillian Shea to develop a newfound respect for the craggy hero. “I plan to land this scrapheap in a clearing if I can.” Kaspar’s senses tightened. He fought bravely to regain control of the downward spiral the craft was embroiled within.

  “Is it?” Gillian asked part of her question rather early.

  “Yes it is. The clearing’s on the sunny side of the planet.”

  “God, I hate that,” Shaw chimed in, adding spark to the conversational dialogue.

  “Hate what?” Gillian pressed the Lieutenant for an answer.

  “When one of you finishes the other’s question,” Shaw ribbed the pair of star-crossed lovers.

  “You’re just jealous,” Gillian responded, her face beginning to flow with a reddened stream of embarrassment.

  “I’m jealous? I’m jealous that for the last trillion or so miles I didn’t have to hear the two of you chirping back and forth like you were on the goddamn mating channel.” Shaw flicked his finger at the side of Gillian’s left leg.

  The Abagail’s hull rumbled about, inevitably decimating from the spiral through the planet’s atmosphere. Her crew teetered about, knocking the Commander around like a marble in a glass maze.

  “Buckle up!” Warned the jittery Commander.

  Gillian and Shaw without hesitation, clamped down the seat belts. Gillian even managed to squeeze off a flick back at Shaw’s leg. She began to enjoy the brother/sister dynamic, fostered by Shaw’s unique protective demeanor towards her.

  “I’ll get you once we land Hotshot,” Shaw grumbled back in his typical retort.

  The Abagail continued her distorted decent uninterruptedly, tearing through the first sizzling layer of New Earth’s atmosphere with a tumultuous velocity. The craft then continued to scream through each descending atmospheric layer, igniting the ship’s hull into a fiery blaze.

  Inch by inch, the white clouds smacked across the spaceship’s expansive windshield, allowing Kaspar a personalized first-hand view of the looming crash site below.

  “There’s no clearing!” Kaspar’s eyes widened as the cloudy cover dissipated. His voice chattered about in a seamless loop repetitious loop.

  “Hold on,” Shaw said to Gillian. “It’s gonna be a bumpy ride down.”

  Gillian reached out and squeezed Shaw’s hand, digging her nails fiercely in his palm, causing a premature purple shade to emerge.

  “What? No dinner first?” Shaw barked back.

  “Shaw, you better keep my girl safe,” Kaspar ordered the Lieutenant while he attempted another fragile attempt at avoiding the impending crash. “Otherwise, I’ll kick your ass when we land, and that my friend is
a promise.”

  “Aye, aye. Your orders are crystal clear commander,” Shaw acknowledged his direct orders. “You have my word.”

  “Excellent, because we are moments away from collision.”

  The tattered underbelly of the craft grazed past the swerving treetops, snapping them off with a furious flick as the ship crashed in the heart of the sprawling jungle. The momentum bounced Kaspar around in the chair, while Gillian and Shaw felt their bodies jerked around in place.

  The Abagail suffered severe damage to her hull, careening through the dense jungle and into a small river filled with sticks, inverted branches and several craggy rocks. A mountainous spray of water washed over the front of the craft while her large ass lifted high in the air, eventually thudding back down the wet river beneath.

  The Commander, barely conscious, felt a stream of blood cruising down the right side of his ripped face. He swiftly deduced that it was pouring from somewhere near his left ear, and tried to release himself from the chair’s buckle. Through the sudden jar of the impact, Kaspar managed to bite down deep on his tongue, swelling his mouth full of fresh, cranberry-colored blood.

  The cockpit became entrenched with flinging, severed electrical wires that snapped in half from the mighty collision. The craft lost her jiggling ceiling tiles one by one, crashing down around the embittered crew.

  Lieutenant Shaw lay slumped over head-first in his seat, the belt buckle still snugly snapped closed around his waist, but dug fiercely against his neck as it came down across his shoulders and locked into the waist buckle. Gillian in her own distorted pattern, wobbled about in her seat, her head corked back and forth like an overplayed bobble head baseball doll. She finally managed to locate the Commander and worked with a feverish pace to relinquish herself from the stymied belt buckle. Kaspar felt Gillian’s presence and worked his battered torso over to his girlfriend and assisted her in unlatching the seatbelt. Then, the two of them freed Shaw from his confines, moments before the ceiling gave way and obliterated the bench. Kaspar watched as Shaw slumped down to the hard floor in a crumpled cohesion of confusion and pain.

  “We need to get out of here, and fast,” Kaspar addressed Gillian as they toured through the dismantled cockpit, sidestepping a series of the downed ceiling panels, while dodging other fragmenting panels that dangled in mid-air.

  The spacecraft timidly came to a teetering stop in the river, as the ass of the craft became lodged in the mucky riverbed.

  The lights flickered about with a maddening blitz of darkness, alerting the crew to damage somewhere in the craft.

  Within seconds, the shaky voice of the Abigail came across the intercom.

  “Hull breach! Hull breach! Forty percent integrity,” the voice paused before continuing, “fifteen percent integrity.” The deliberate message replayed over and over again while the lights converted to a red swirling light high above the cockpit, allowing intermittent darkness to swallow up the interior of the craft.

  “Shit, that’s not good.” Kaspar searched for a way out of the cockpit, even scrambling to adhere to some sort of cohesive plan of action.

  Outside the windshield, the river continued along its natural course around the downed ship and ran southward downstream.

  “The ship’s compromised and taking on the entire river,” Kaspar leaned over to Gillian, taking her hand in his.

  “Commander, you are bleeding up a heavy flow.” Gillian noticed Kaspar’s dark steady stream of blood spilling from his injury.

  “Where’s Shaw?” Kaspar asked ignoring Gillian’s observation.

  “I don’t know, he’s in here somewhere,” Gillian responded, trying locate the Lieutenant’s body in between the annoying message and swirling red light.

  “We’ll gather what we need before we embark outside,” Kaspar added. He used careful diligence moving about the cockpit with a ginger step to his heels.

  Kaspar stopped suddenly and knelt down besides the fallen Lieutenant. He alertly placed two fingers on Shaw’s blood-streaked neck. “He’s got a pulse! It’s very weak, but it’s there.”

  “So, what do we do?” Gillian asked.

  “You stay here with Shaw while I scour the ship for weapons, food, water, and any other necessary materials.”

  “Hurry back,” Gillian blurted out, leaning over and abruptly kissing Kaspar on his bloodied lips.

  “I will.” Kaspar returned her act of kindness. “Give me some time to gather the items,” Kaspar bid farewell, leaping out of the cockpit, making his way down the corridor.

  The water level steadily rose throughout the drowning ship. The bottom third of the craft was submerged in the chilly waters. Kaspar was one level above the rising water, working his through the darkness searching for supplies.

  Among his travels, Kaspar felt the ship sinking further into the riverbed. A small trail of water snaked its way through Kaspar’s level. Kaspar trudged his way through the water, sloshing his way back to the cockpit, where Gillian and Shaw were on the damp floor.

  “We need to get out of here before these wires touch the floor,” Kaspar noted as the frayed electrical wires dangled dangerously close to the wet floor.

  “What no beer?” Shaw asked, groggily succumbing to the harsh reality. Shaw firmly planted his left hand against the ride side of his face.

  “I see you are better,” Kaspar quipped back.

  “Its going to take more than a crash to keep this old dog down, Shaw rose and stepped away from the pool of water. “What’s in the backpacks?” Shaw moved in closer to the Commander.

  “We each get our own backpacks,” Kaspar responded, tossing each of them their own arsenal of supplies. “Briefly, we each have medical supplies, dried fruits and granola, several canteens to fill up with water and some flare guns in case of emergency.”

  “Neat,” Gillian added, catching the backpack with an awkward twist of her hands.

  “Cool.” Shaw turned the pack around, slipped over his aching shoulders and with a firm shake snapped it securely in place. “Weapons? I mean, since we’re on some indigenous planet, and our knowledge is limited, no offense to Gillian, we’re going to need protection.”

  “I say you are definitely the chancellor of the dorks,” Gillian added her sublime wisdom to Shaw’s wise remark.

  “I agree,” Kaspar added. “Let’s head back to the artillery room. The water has yet to make its way to the end of the corridor. We will regroup with the plasma shooters, grenades, handguns and shotguns.”

  “I love the way he thinks,” Shaw responded with a quick flick of his finger. “He’s a keeper.”

  “Your telling me,” Gillian replied with her patented gaga stare at the Commander that always pissed off Shaw.

  Kaspar and Shaw immediately left the room with Gillian in tow, and headed for the artillery room.

  The room was medium-sized, moderately enough for half a dozen people to congregate within. In retrospect, no one knows why Adrian wanted to construct each room with decently sized windows, just large enough for a person to escape through. Some even suggested his ego had even reached out into space, and he wanted to be able to see the stars no matter where he was inside the ship.

  “You know what sucks?” Gillian presented the question to the fellows.

  “You have more hair under your armpits than he does?” Shaw quipped back.

  “At least he has more on his head,” Gillian quickly shot back.

  “Feisty, I like that.” Shaw looked over at the Commander. “She’s a keeper.”

  “Yeah, I’ll hold onto her for awhile,” Kaspar said with a quiet wink in Gillian’s direction.

  “Oh, get a room already,” Shaw said, working his way over to the ammunition case, while Kaspar unlatched the other silver cabinet.

  “Anyway, you know what sucks?” Again she repeated her question.

  “No, but I’d say you’re going to tell us,” Shaw tossed the ammunition over to Kaspar while he fully loaded the guns.

  “That through it all, the
shitty ride and the crash,” Gillian said, motioning over to the commander and waved her hand about suggesting that she wanted the small 9mm handgun. “There was no in-flight movie.” Kaspar tossed over the weapon as Gillian continued along with her chattiness. “No classics like ‘Jaws’, or ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or even “Independence Day’ I mean, would it be too much to ask of that pompous asshole, Adrian to include a fricking movie?” Gillian was unlocking her sarcasm and displaying all over the place. “Shit, I’d even settle for last year’s dreck, ‘Werewolves in Space.’ Anything would satisfy me at this juncture.”

  Shaw and Kaspar simply stared at the fiery redhead while she continued rambling about the movie’s finer points. The two men had awkward stares draped on their faces, not completely sure of how to handle Gillian’s feisty lecture, as she brazenly brandished her 9mm about.

  “What?” She questioned their stares. “You’ve never seen a woman with a gun before?”

  “Yeah, she’s a keeper,” Shaw retorted, brotherly nudging Kaspar in the side. He then lowered his voice to a whisper. “You’re going to have your hands full with her, I can tell you that.”

  “We are still going to need to find a way out of here with the water rising and the electrical wires about to set the whole craft alive with electricity.” Kaspar interrupted the awkward moment.

  Gillian wasted no time in finding the escape route. Raising her weapon, she aimed directly at Shaw and Kaspar. “I’ve found a way out.”

  Their confused stares delighted her.

  “Are you off your rocker?” Shaw questioned her intentions.

  “If I were you, I’d duck your heads right about now,” Gillian squeezed off several shots at the window behind the two men. Glass shattered everywhere, spilling over Shaw and Kaspar’s heads, and onto the water drenched floor.

  “Kickass!” Shaw looked up at the streaking daylight coming through the shattered window.

  Gillian walked by and slapped Shaw on the shoulder. “What are you waiting for? An invitation? Let’s go Cowboy.”

  “Oh yeah, she’s a keeper,” Shaw mumbled, following Gillian, then Kaspar out the window.