by Brian Kayser
“I think anybody who is interested in Europa wants one day for us to go back and land and answer, is life there? What’s down there?
Dr. Britney Schmidt, March 2012
Visit this book’s website for more great pictures, character bio’s, and a lot of other great information.
www.theCurseofEuropa.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to real people, future or historical events, or real locales are used fictionally. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Brian P. Kayser
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
First edition December 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1480252776
ISBN-10: 1480252778
Cover artwork by:
David Robinson
http://bambam131.com
Other artwork by:
David Robinson
Brian Kayser
Ship interior backgrounds by:
Daniel Brown
www.danbrowncgi.com
[email protected]
Author's Note and Acknowledgements
Thanks to the following people that offered editing services and provided story feedback and reviews:
Scott Stoecker
Edward Kayser
Matthew Kayser
Thanks of course to Wikipedia, Google, and the entire Internet for the wealth of information that helped me research Europa.
Thanks to Wattpad.com for providing a venue for budding authors.
But a very special thanks to Dr. Britney E. Schmidt who was kind enough to answer some questions from me, via email, about Europa. Specifically stuff like: the best landing site, could a geyser really happen, is there seismic activity, etc. She wrote back a very detailed answer to all my questions.
As of 2012, Dr. Schmidt is serving as science liaison for the DAWN asteroid mission, currently in orbit around VESTA, the #2 asteroid. She is a Research Scientist Associate at the University of Texas and the institute for Geophysics. Her specialties are astrobiology (extraterrestrial life), asteroids and comets, and of course Jupiter’s moon Europa. She was the lead author on a 2011 paper proposing the existence of underground liquid water lakes on Europa.
Checkout:
http://www.universetoday.com/91040/europas-hidden-great-lakes
Contents
Author's Note and Acknowledgements
Prologue: The Curse
Chapter 1: The New Mission
Chapter 2: Final Approach
Chapter 3: Eagle-2 Has Landed
Chapter 4: Extra Vehicular Activity
Chapter 5: Doughnuts and Tremors
Chapter 6: Relationship?
Chapter 7: Nuclear Heated Torpedoes
Chapter 8: Place Your Bets
Chapter 9: Communication Loss
Chapter 10: Seismic Activity
Chapter 11: Rain
Chapter 12: Whirlpool
Chapter 13: Too Little Too Late
Chapter 14: Avalanche
Chapter 15: Time Bomb
Chapter 16: Rescue
Chapter 17: Glistening Lion
Chapter 18: Good Bye Cursed Moon!
Chapter 19: Down the Rabbit Hole
Chapter 20: Dr. Evans, is That You?
Chapter 21: Hydrothermal Vents
Chapter 22: The Creature
Chapter 23: Top of the Food Chain
Chapter 24: Take Care
Epilogue
Extra Reading: The Queen of Crete
Prologue: The Curse
In Greek mythology Europa was the Queen of Crete, however the moon she was named after was dubbed “The Queen of Failure” in the early 21st century by the media. Every mission sent to Europa had ended in some sort of failure; thus also prompting jokes about it having an ancient curse on it from Zeus. Others also joked about the Alien Monolith from the book “2010: Odyssey Two,” preventing humans from landing there or even exploring it.
From 2020 to 2047 there were five unmanned missions sent to validate the existence of a water ocean under Europa’s thick icy surface. Unfortunately all of the missions were unsuccessful. Since Europa is almost one light-hour away from Earth, it was not possible to do any sort of remote control of a probe, so fully automated robotic probes were required and simply couldn’t get the job done with the challenging terrain.
By the 2050’s, the world space agencies had merged into the Global Space Organization, and they desperately wanted to prove the existence of water on Europa and look for evidence of life. By this time there were also huge advancements in Nuclear Fission Propulsion, which dramatically cut down travel times, and a first ever manned orbital mission to Europa was completed in 2055. They were able to remotely send down an unmanned lander and finally, were successful in sending a nuclear heated torpedo probe through the ice by remote control. They did confirm liquid water but shortly after reaching the underwater ocean all communications was lost to the probe. Is this moon really cursed?
Ever determined, the GSO is trying one more mission. This mission will send down the first ever manned lander to the surface. On board this lander will be two crews, each with basically the same mission, each will send down a separate nuclear heated probe through the ice. Two chances for success.
When the nuclear heated probes reach the ocean, underwater exploration probes will be launched that can be remote controlled to explore the ocean for evidence of life. Samples of soil, rock, and ice will also be gathered from the surface and ultimately returned to Earth.
Will this be the first Europa mission that doesn’t ultimately end in failure? Will they find evidence of life? Everyone jokes about the ‘curse’ but with the past history of Europa missions what is the crew really thinking to themselves in the back of their minds? Will they be successful?
Will they return home?
White-Bull-2 Europa Mission (Human Landing)
GSO-ID: 2056-110197
Launch Date: Sunday, 09 July 2056
Launch Vehicle: White-Bull-2
Launch Site: Cygnus Space Station, Earth
Arrival Date: Friday, 21 July 2056
Landing Module: Eagle-2
Landing Site: Thera Macula, Europa, Jupiter
Return Date: Wednesday, 16 August 2056
Funding: GSO-Office of Manned Space Flight
Human Crew
Chapter 1: The New Mission
Friday July 21, 2056
From the port window of the White-Bull-2 science vessel’s command deck, Lieutenant Commander Patrick Turkovitch is awing at the sight of the fifth planet from the Sun as it is growing larger and larger. He of course knows that Jupiter is the largest planet within the solar system but that knowledge had not prepared him for such a breathtaking sight. Jupiter is two and a half times as massive as all the other planets of the solar system combined, and to say it is huge is an understatement.
The ship is close enough now to observe the motion of the volatile atmospheric bands and the circulation of the great red spot with the naked eye. There are colorful wavy cloud patterns and a lot of white oval storms all over the great gas giant. The moons of Jupiter are also becoming visible as they make their approach. He can see Callisto and Ganymede in their distant orbits around the planet.
Turkovitch leans his head closer to the window, as if those extra few millimeters will help him see his next target closer, and he squints.
“I see it, I see it!” he shouts. He whips his head around to the seven other crew members and says it again, “I see it… I see Europa,” as if he were an early pioneer
yelling “land-ho!”
“Great! Then we haven’t wasted a trip coming out here,” he hears the deep booming voice of the mission commander declare.
That hint of mockery brings him down a bit from his euphoria and he composes himself. After all, he has been to and walked on Mars; seeing a moon shouldn’t get him that worked up – although he remembers being pretty excited about his Mars approach as well. Plus it has been two years since that mission and he hasn’t been beyond the Earth’s moon again until now. That silly curse is the furthest thing from his mind; it is just a running joke based on a very long run of bad luck. He knows this mission will be different – how much bad luck can the Global Space Organization have anyhow? The GSO has actually had generally great success. All the Mars missions went flawlessly.
Lieutenant Commander Turkovitch is young to be second in command of a mission like this. He is actually the youngest member on board, two years younger than the junior officer, Lieutenant Mark Tucker. Turkovitch is a boyishly handsome man with gelled jet black hair that he combs back and over. He is sporting sideburns down to his earlobes and usually goes with the unshaven look (a full beard would hide his cleft chin.) While he is almost 30 he is still a boy at heart, sometimes a goofball, sometimes oblivious, normally a daredevil, but always charming. He tries to find humor in all situations even though that doesn’t always work so well as an astronaut. But he is also extremely smart, has a memory like an elephant, is very physically fit, and is quick on his feet; which does work out very well for an astronaut.
Turkovitch wipes the condensation off the port window caused by his breath as he continues to gaze at Jupiter and Europa. Europa is slightly smaller than Earth’s Moon and is primarily made of silicate rock with a surface composed of ice. It has a weak atmosphere composed primarily of oxygen. Certainly not enough oxygen to breathe however, so a protective suit is needed at all times to provide the adequate oxygen/nitrogen mix, body pressure, and protection from the massive amount of radiation that Jupiter bombards Europa with.
“Jeez,Patrick… Let me see!”
Turkovitch jumped a bit as he is startled out of his gazing trance by the voice of Doctor Juliana Evans, PhD. Thirty Four year old Doctor Evans is a mission specialist – a scientist. He turns to look at the slender handsome woman walking his way, with her red hair that is just long enough to slightly rest on her shoulders. A few freckles are scattered on her high cheeks but she tries to conceal them with makeup. He can’t understand why she tries to conceal them as he rather likes the freckles. The Lieutenant Commander slides over to let her get a glimpse.
“Which one is it Patrick?” she asks as she brushes her red hair away from her left eye and tucks it behind her ear. “I see three… four…no, five of her moons.”
“If you look closer you can see even more of her moons, but just to the right of Jupiter is Europa… right there,” he points to a bright coin-sized dot while placing a hand on her shoulder.
“Jeez… what a beautiful sight,” Evans beams, then says with a slight snicker, “It doesn’t look cursed to me!”
She turns to look at him and says with a big smile and a laugh, poking him in the cleft of his chin, “Jeez, I bet you can’t wait to get out on all that ice with the rover and do some doughnuts,” remembering a story he once told her about trashing his car in an icy parking lot.
“Ju-li-ana,” he slowly replies with a sound of shock, and then continues with a straight face trying to sound all official, “that would not be the proper use of expensive GSO equipment. Now if it is a bit slick down there and she slides around a bit… well what can you do?” he concludes slightly under his breath with a little laugh.
Doctor Evans is not your typical astronaut; she is on this mission due to her expertise and experience with aquatic and macrobiotic life forms which is what she hopes to find on the moon. She has been on many deep sea expeditions on Earth, exploring the bottom of the oceans for new and exotic life forms down there. She was formerly married to another scientist and they have two children together; Sean who is 10, and Mary who just turned 13. She and her husband divorced amiably three years ago. She has not seen any of them for over four months and she misses her kids very much. Even though she and the crew have only been on this ship for twelve days, they spent three and a half months completing their training on the Cygnus Space Station in orbit around Earth.
Turkovitch and Evans have developed a good friendship the last few months of working together; actually they have become a little more than ‘friends’ the past three weeks or so. He thinks it is kind of a strange friendship (or relationship, if he would admit to that) as he has found himself talking with her about almost anything. Stuff he wouldn’t normally discuss with his guy friends and never any of the girlfriends he has had in the past, although he’s never had a girlfriend for much more than a month. It seems Juliana makes him feel comfortable discussing any topic or even sharing his most secret dreams and desires with her without a fear of judgment or mockery. She will even listen to him rant about the latest comics and how they don’t compare to the classic comics of the 20th century.
They have had even longer conversations during their twelve day voyage as there isn’t much else to do; and you can only spend so many hours playing GSO approved video games, reading comics, and watching video entertainment programs. Plus, being a small ship they’ve had to refrain from being ‘more than friends’ since they embarked on this trip, which has become harder and harder as the days go on. They have been hiding their relationship from the rest of the crew… but pretty much everyone can sense their vibes.
Even with the age difference, and the fact that she is divorced with children, there is a strong attraction that he can’t quite figure out. He usually goes for the young blond or brunette co-ed types, which are easy to come by being a famous astronaut that walked on Mars and all! But he has never been with anyone that makes him feel the way he does with Juliana. He has never been in love, not even close; he thinks he may be close now and that scares him a bit. It is just the way she makes him open up, the way she always calls him by his first name when no one else does, the way she looks at him with those big blue eyes when they talk, the way she laughs and strokes her soft red hair at the same time, the way she is always tapping him on the shoulder when making a point about something, even the way she says ‘Jeez’ all the time. Maybe some of it has to do with the fact that this caught him completely by surprise. This was just a work colleague who became a good friend.
Even though she is very beautiful he never planned on anything but a platonic professional friendship. He’s worked with many other pretty women who became great friends but never pursued anything beyond that. He liked to keep his personal life and relationships, personal, and his work relationships strictly professional. But this was different, something he’s never felt before, something he couldn’t control, nor-she it would seem either.
Evans continues, “So… how long until we reach orbit?”
“We still have about two hours,” Commander Hicks injects from behind and then continues; “Turk, Glover, and Tucker; come here please, I’d like to review the approach plan one last time to make sure we are all on the same page.”
Most people have been calling Patrick Turkovitch by the name Turk since he was in grade school. He doesn’t mind and actually likes the nickname. It is much better that being called ‘Pat’ in his opinion.
Commander Jason Hicks prefers to be called just ‘Hicks,’ or ‘Commander’ will do also. He is an imposing man with his deep voice, short brown hair that is always neatly trimmed, and his solid six foot two frame. He almost wasn’t allowed in the space program because of his height but allegedly crouched down just enough to be measured at six-one. He is 44 and in great shape. He is normally very serious and meticulous about details, a no-nonsense kind of a guy. When he talks, people listen.
Hicks also visited Mars a few years back during the first ever manned landing mission to the planet. He, however, did not get a chance
to walk on the surface, as it was his job to remain in the orbiting command module. He had hoped to return for a chance to put his own footprints in the red soil, but it didn’t pan out. However, in less than 24 hours he will be the first man to set foot on any of Jupiter’s moons. He doesn’t believe in the Europa Curse (at least that’s what he tells himself – that’s nonsense) and he is looking forward to that first historic step that will put his name in the history books.
The command module officer on this mission is 31 year old Lieutenant Mark Tucker who will be in command of White-Bull-2 while Hicks and the rest of the landing crew go down to the surface of Europa. This is Tucker’s second visit to a moon, as he spent six months working on the construction of the Tranquility Moon Base on Earth’s Moon back in 2050. He is a technical wiz, which is critical in the event of any malfunctions during their trip, which his friends joke will be important on any trip to the cursed moon of Europa!
Turk gives Juliana a smile and a wink, then brushes his hand across her back as he moves away to join the others. The three pilots crowd around various computer display panels with Hicks, to look at all the trajectory data and discuss the plan, even though they all know it by heart.
Doctor Evans returns her gaze back through the window, back onto Europa. She can’t wait to get down onto the surface to explore. Her thoughts drift and she imagines deep sea diving in Europa’s ocean. At first she thinks it would be cool if she could actually explore down there in person, in the ocean below the ice, instead of letting a robotic probe have all the fun. But realistically she knows she would be scared to death to do so. Diving in Earth’s oceans is scary enough to her sometimes, even though she’s done it many times. But to go diving in pitch dark waters, of which we know nothing about; she realizes that would not be fun after all. She thinks she is too much of a coward of the unknown. Maybe it’s good to let the exploration probe have all the fun! This time at least.