The Europa Effect (The Vega Chronicles)

by A. L. Mengel

  She looked up. “What do you mean…save our kind?”

  In her mind, an image flashed: she saw a massive wave coming towards her. It was fleeting, and then it was gone.

  She shuddered, opened her eyes, and looked back at him.

  He was sitting across from her, smiling, holding a steaming cup of coffee, his eyebrows raised. “Are you starting to remember?”

  She shook her head, looking down at her half-eaten plate. She placed her fork down. “I…”

  “You could be having a memory,” he said.

  He leaned forward.

  “And I want to ask you, dear Abby, are you remembering something…right now?”

  She closed her eyes.

  In her mind, she saw a wall of water rushing towards her. She shuddered and opened her eyes. “I remember the wave,” she said as he nodded.

  “That’s progress, Abby.” Moses raised his head and looked up.

  “Inikia,” he said. “Thank you for bringing them over.”

  Jeremiah, Winston and Eli each sat down with a breakfast tray full of food. Moses picked up a small, white pot and held it up in front of them.

  “Coffee?”

  *****

  The breakfast table was awkwardly silent until Moses started a conversation about the ship. That got Eli and Jeremiah both commenting about how they found the corridors interesting, how Town Square was fascinating, and how they each loved the views of space through the hull. Counselor Abagail listened and watched as Winston raised his eyes and looked at her. He spoke softly, underneath the rather benign breakfast table conversation; he drew her attention. “You’ll remember soon.”

  There were no specific revelations at the table, other than they were the selectees for the Mars mission. Moses discussed the reason why each of them were chosen.

  Each of them had undertaken significant roles in Sector B.

  They got up as Moses started walking towards the bay of doors on the other side of the Breakfast Hall. Counselor Abagail made eye contact with Jeremiah as he swung around and followed Moses. “This actually sounds exciting!” he said. “I still can’t believe we were chosen!”

  She extended her arm and ushered Eli and Winston along as they made their way through the sea of white; of the dining faces who were similar, yet so vastly different than those in the Town Square.

  “Inikia,” Counselor Abagail said. Inikia walked close to her, shoulder to shoulder, and leaned her head close towards Abby’s.

  “Certainly there were others, weren’t there, Inikia?”

  She looked up at Abby. “Others?”

  She went on to explain how she couldn’t understand that Sector B had been the only society with scientists. As the doors on the opposite wall swung open, Moses stood waiting, facing them, his hands clasped behind his back. Jeremiah stood next to Moses, beaming a smile and nodding.

  Moses chimed in. “You four are the most qualified. And the fittest as well. Your endurance will be tested, Counselor Abagail. You are now the youngest. That’s why we have been keeping you in cryogenic stasis. Your qualifications back on Earth make you essential to our team.”

  Inikia nodded and made eye contact with each of them. “You have been chosen. You have a very important task.”

  “And we will be entering areas of the ship which are prohibited for the other humans on the ship. You are getting a key to the inside.”

  They exited the Breakfast Hall to a long, white corridor. There were others dressed in white, but this hidden network of corridors were not as wide as the public halls near the residences; nor were they as busy.

  It was far quieter.

  Counselor Abagail thought she could hear the steady hum of the ship. And faint audio tones every few minutes. “Is that some sort of an alarm?” she asked.

  Moses turned around. “They are proximity tones. We are close to Mars orbit. And not far from the bridge.”

  Winston tapped Jeremiah on the shoulder. “I know why they wanted us. Remember I said I remember everything?”

  Jeremiah nodded.

  “You’re the botanist,” Winston said.

  Counselor Abagail’s eyes widened. “You’re not leaving us there, are you?” Both Moses and Inikia laughed.

  “No,” Moses said. “Not in the least. We have been planning this mission for our kind since before we arrived in Earth’s orbit. And we have continued to modify the pressure suits and procedures to benefit your kind the past two years you were in stasis. Your natural knowledge for Geology and Meteorology will be a great asset to this mission. Now please, all will be explained at the briefing.”

  *****

  They arrived at a single door which opened after Moses waved his open hand in front of it. The team crept forward, and Counselor Abagail was first to enter the room. A white bearded man dressed in white sat on the far end of a long, rectangular conference table.

  A large screen in the center of the table displayed a graphic of the red planet that they were hovering close to. As they slowly entered the room, the man stood, smiling, and walked over towards Counselor Abagail, extending his hand.

  “Copernicus,” he said, smiling and nodding. He greeted each of them, giggling and giddy. Quite happy to see them. He looked over and made eye contact with Moses. “So this is our team?” There was a twinge of excitement in his voice. His long, white beard moved back and forth when he spoke.

  Moses nodded as Inikia showed each of them to their seats. Counselor Abagail looked across the table at Jeremiah who leaned over to smell the leather as he sat in his chair, with an exaggerated inhale.

  Counselor Abagail shook her head and took her seat.

  It was soft, comforting and supple.

  She could smell the fresh scent of the leather waft upwards as the cushion expanded beneath her. “Some things are not adding up for me. And possibly not for the other members of our team.”

  Copernicus raised his eyebrows, now sitting back at the head of the conference table, as the others took their seats. Moses sat down next to her.

  “Like these leather chairs, for example?”

  “What about them?” Copernicus asked.

  “What is it made from? Cosmic cows?”

  Copernicus smiled, nodding. “Is the idea so far-fetched?”

  She looked over at Jeremiah as he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. Eli was sitting next to Winston, both of them watching her.

  Counselor Abagail continued. “What about your name? Copernicus? Like the astronomer?”

  Moses leaned closer to Copernicus and smiled. “Exactly like the philosopher, am I right?” He patted the old man lightly on his shoulder. Copernicus was strumming his beard, leaning back in the chair. He looked straight at Counselor Abagail, apparently waiting for her to say something else.

  He stopped strumming his beard. “Will you trust us, Abby? Will you take the leap of faith?”

  Her mouth dropped open as she wheeled her chair close to Jeremiah. She leaned in close to him. “I remember something!”

  Jeremiah’s eyes widened.

  She looked up directly at him as he sat back in his chair. “I remember when you were telling me about the star!” Her speech shortened, pitched higher and increased in volume. She looked back and forth from Copernicus to Moses and again focused on Jeremiah as she spoke. “Yes! You told me about a star! That you were having visions!”

  Copernicus leaned forward, as Counselor Abagail lowered her arms and looked back over at him. He folded his arms. “Do you see?” he asked. “Your memory will return, in time. Little things like that may trigger it. Or they may not. But will you trust us Abby?”

  She felt all eyes on her until Winston spoke and broke the trance.

  “I remember everything,” he said, clearing his throat. “And I do know that Jeremiah talked about a leap of faith. Back in Sector B.”

  Jeremiah’s face lit up and his eyes widened. “We were going to head north!” Counselor Abagail raised her eyes and studied Jeremiah. So young and naïve, wasn’
t he? At least he appeared that way. Clearly excitable, but also fit. Was he former military? And what a revelation. She was supposed to have known him? How deep was their relationship? Was it professional?

  Or could it have gone beyond that?

  Copernicus stood and walked over to the side wall. “Enact visor!” he called out. The wall faded away, to an expansive display of Mars. The red planet was a stone’s throw away, surrounded by a field of tiny, white stars. Eli gasped and jumped from his chair as a massive asteroid filled the screen, flying across.

  Copernicus let out a whistle and looked over at Moses and Inikia. “That came mighty close,” he said.

  Moses nodded. “The deflectors had to be disengaged. We’re too close to Mars.”

  Copernicus nodded and headed back to the front of the room as Eli took his seat again. He stood in front of the table and clasped his hands behind his back.

  “So let’s get back to our mission,” he said.

  He looked out at each of them, sitting around the table. “Do you know why we are here?”

  Silence followed, as Counselor Abagail looked at each of her team members. They were all focused intently on Copernicus.

  “Anyone?”

  Counselor Abagail cleared her throat as the others glanced over at her. “You said were we were scheduled on a mission to the surface. But why?”

  Copernicus smiled and nodded. “Yes, yes.”

  He walked to the side, stared out at the red planet, his hands still clasped behind his back. After a few minutes, he turned back to face the group. He made eye contact with each of them as he spoke. Eli craned his neck up to see him.

  “We have been studying your kind for many centuries,” he said as the graphic in the center of the table zoomed in. “And we learned, over time, that mankind explored Mars quite extensively, until they launched a single, final mission. The SALVATION, I believe it was called. And during that mission, built a station in an area of the planet called Utopia Planitia.”

  “Utopia Planitia?” Eli asked. He leaned forward, looking down over the center of the table as the graphic zoomed closer in on a large surface area, covered with craters and sharp edged mountains.

  “Yes,” Copernicus said as the others looked for a few minutes, and then leaned back in their chairs. They looked up and refocused on him.

  “Utopia Planitia is an area of Mars that is thought possibly to harbor life. There are indentations on the surface that indicate that water may have flowed on the surface at one point. Tiny ridges in the sand. Of sea beds and river beds that may have dried up billions of years ago.”

  “And where there’s water,” Winston said, “there can be life.”

  Copernicus nodded. “Exactly!”

  Moses leaned forward, making eye contact with each of them. “And man wrote Mars off to be a dead planet. We have reason to believe that it is actually teeming with life.”

  He sat down and looked at the team in the eyes. Counselor Abagail studied the man intently as he spoke.

  “Now man explored Mars for decades until their own planet started its demise. But the Earth you left behind is not the Earth that you were born into.”

  The graphic changed to the blue planet. “You all recall the orientation that Moses gave earlier?”

  They nodded. “Yes, we remember,” Counselor Abagail said. “The land on Earth formed a massive supercontinent that spanned the equator as the oceans moved towards the poles.” The graphic followed as the continents were initially joined, drifted apart, and showed the blue water shifting towards the poles and creating a land mass which surrounded the equator. The graphic rotated to show the phenomenon was planetary wide.

  “The trouble you experienced was caused by the rotation of Earth slowing and eventually stopping. The rotation of your planet kept the surface water evenly distributed throughout the surface. When the rotation slowed, there was a gradual shifting. There was a migration – of sorts – of the water flooding the poles. And at the same time, the surface around the center became dry and barren. That’s why you’re here with us.”

  Eli’s eyes widened. He stared forward and nodded. “I remember the wave,” he said, looking around the table, a crack in his voice. “I remember when the wave came.”

  Winston placed his arm around Eli’s shoulder. Eli’s voice quivered as he looked over at Winston. “I remember you pounding on the door and shaking me awake. And standing next to you, looking over the railing and all my paintings were floating in the water downstairs…” He hung his head down as Winston reached over to wipe the tears from his cheeks.

  “Your memories will return to you,” Copernicus said. “As we stated. The memory loss is an unfortunate side effect of the current cryogenic cooling process. We are getting close to a solution, however. Our scientists are working on a preventative solution for when you go into cryogenic stasis again.”

  Counselor Abagail raised her eyes to Copernicus. “We are going under again?”

  “Let’s get back to the current mission,” he said. The graphic on the table returned to the red planet. It swiftly zoomed back towards Utopia Planitia. “As man explored Mars, over the course of nearly a century, a lot was ‘stored’ at the Red Outpost in anticipation of a possible need to colonize beyond the Milky Way.”

  Counselor Abagail raised her eyes and looked over at Copernicus. She looked at the others around the room. Jeremiah was nodding. “I remember when it was on the news,” he said. “When the SALVATION went up. It took them what…almost two years to get there?”

  Counselor Abagail nodded. “Yes, I remember too.” She was staring at the graphic in the center of the table. “Nothing was said of that, though. It was an exploration mission, at least I thought it was.”

  Moses stood and walked around the table, making eye contact with each of them. “But what you were not told…what your governments held secret, was that one of the directives of the SALVATION mission was to deliver the seeds for a new civilization on a new planet.”

  “And your mission is to retrieve it,” Copernicus said. The graphic in the center of the table changed to a sleek, black space rocket. “Your mode of transport,” he said. The graphic rotated and zoomed as each of the team leaned forward. Copernicus touched the side panel of the ship and it expanded, opening to reveal several cylindrical pods inside. “SB1. It’s our technology which has been modified to allow for human interaction.”

  There was a vehicle which looked familiar. Large, round wheels, which reached up towards the shiny, metallic windows. Three wheels on each side. The graphic changed as the ROVER was depicted moving forward along a rocky, red Martian terrain. Copernicus stood and looked at each of them. “You have experience operating this type of ROVER. It’s quite similar to the fleet you had in Sector B back on Earth, and if you don’t remember, I assure you, memories will return to you, the longer you have been out of cryogenic stasis. You will remember.”

  “Something’s not adding up here,” Winston said.

  Eli cocked his head to the side.

  “What’s not adding up?” Jeremiah asked.

  Winston stood, maintaining eye contact with Copernicus the entire time. “We have an assumedly alien race telling us to carry out their mission of going to the surface of another planet using their technology which we know nothing about.” He looked over at Jeremiah and Counselor Abagail. “Jeremiah, you may have the experience in Botany and Meteorology, and Abby, you may have the experience in Mind Exploration, but none of us have any experience in Astronomy.”

  “I studied it in college,” Counselor Abagail said.

  “But none of us are Astronauts,” Eli added. Both Jeremiah and Counselor Abagail nodded, as Copernicus returned to his chair.

  “And none of us have experience beyond theory,” Winston said.

  “Your concerns are understandable,” Copernicus said, looking directly at Winston. Counselor Abagail watched their interaction as Winston looked over at Eli and then over at Counselor Abagail. Copernicus folded his hands
under his chin, and also looked over at Counselor Abagail.

  “We talked earlier about taking a leap of faith,” he said. She looked at Copernicus, over at Winston and then back at Copernicus again.

  Copernicus made eye contact with them both, looking first at Counselor Abagail, and then over at Winston. Jeremiah looked over at Counselor Abagail and shook his head.

  “Look at the door over there, behind you,”

  Copernicus said. Counselor Abagail and Jeremiah turned around in their seats.

  “You each have the will to leave. To walk out of this conference room and you can join the others at the Town Square. But is that the choice you will make? Will you choose not to be a part of saving humanity?”

  *****

  After the briefing concluded, Inikia left with Counselor Abagail, Winston, Eli and Jeremiah. Copernicus and Moses sat across from each other at the conference table in silence. There was a slight hum from the acceleration system. Moses turned off the screen as the hull shifted from the clear visual of the cosmos back to the white, stark wall.

  “Do you think they’re ready?”

  Copernicus stood.

  He took a deep breath through his nose as he walked towards the door. After a moment, he spoke. “It’s like you’ve told them before. They each have to be ready to take a leap of faith. I have confidence in each of their abilities. But they need to find the confidence inside themselves. It’s a tough decision, I’m certain of that. And I don’t know what could happen on the surface. It’s hostile territory. Everything from the Bridge is saying that the sandstorms are worse than they’ve ever been.”

  Moses nodded as the men exited to the corridor. The door slid shut behind them. As they walked together towards the Mars 1 preparation area, Copernicus patted Moses on the back. “How long have we been doing this?”

  Moses whistled. “Wow, commander. You’re asking me a question like that? How can I answer?”

  Copernicus let out a chuckle. “You don’t have amnesia do you?” They stopped walking and faced each other.

  Moses laughed. “No, nothing like that.” They resumed walking. “It’s just been quite a long time.”