The Europa Effect (The Vega Chronicles)

by A. L. Mengel

  “I’m going to contact Vega One,” Jeremiah said, heading back to the pod.

  “Let’s all go back to the pod and take a break from these helmets and think this through,” she said. “We don’t have time to waste.”

  They nodded and followed.

  *****

  Once they were back up inside the pod, Winston closed the door with a lengthy hiss. The monitor in the captain’s chair livened.

  ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE STABILIZING

  They sat in four chairs facing each other in their suits and helmets until an audio tone sounded from above.

  PRESSURE STABILIZATON COMPLETE

  They removed their helmets.

  Jeremiah raised his eyes. “Computer. Contact Vega One.”

  They swiveled their chairs around to face a flat wall monitor. Counselor Abagail looked over at Jeremiah and leaned forward. She made eye contact with him and nodded. He nodded in return.

  After a few moments, Copernicus and Moses appeared on the screen. They were sitting in the bridge but the crew was not surrounding them in the stations. Copernicus looked concerned.

  “Where’s the crew?” Counselor Abagail asked.

  Copernicus shook his head. “They are assisting engineering. We’ve sustained some damage from the wormhole. We’ve lost a significant amount of power and Jupiter’s gravitational pull is slowly pulling us towards her.”

  Her mouth dropped open and she looked over at the others.

  Jeremiah shrugged his shoulders as Winston leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. Counselor Abagail returned to the monitor. “So you’re in a holding pattern right now?”

  Copernicus shook his head but Moses replied. “We’re in a state of emergency right now. We’re drifting towards Jupiter at a slow rate but unable to pull out of it right now.”

  “What about the thrusters?” Jeremiah asked.

  “Negative,” Moses said. “They were damaged by Genesys 1 when we were pulling from the gravity of the black hole. I knew that we would damage them by doing it, but if we hadn’t escaped Genesys 1, we would have been vaporized.”

  Counselor Abagail nodded. “We understand. So you’re troubleshooting?”

  Moses nodded. “We’re attempting to repower but negative success thus far. Now what is your situation down there?”

  Counselor Abagail turned and made eye contact with Jeremiah, then Winston, and finally Eli. She turned back to the screen and sighed. “We’ve landed in the wrong location.”

  Copernicus returned to the screen. “What do you mean you landed in the wrong location?”

  “From our instruments down here, the cryobots are 22 kilometers away from us.”

  Copernicus nodded. “The excessive radiation from Jupiter is affecting your navigation. We haven’t the technology yet to combat that.”

  “What about the cryobots?” Jeremiah asked. “Are they in the right landing location?”

  “They have a homing beacon,” Copernicus said.

  Counselor Abagail leaned closer towards the screen. “We were planning on walking. But there looks to be the shadow of a ridge in the distance. From what we’ve studied about Europa, that would be a massive crack in the surface, correct?”

  Moses nodded. “Yes. Europa’s surface is filled with them. And you won’t be able to scale the crack.” On the screen, they saw Copernicus head towards one of the terminals on the far wall of the bridge. “I’m checking our historical data,” he called back. “I can’t show anything gathered in live time because of the damage we sustained but I can pull up the saved mapping from before. We’ve mapped Europa a number of times during pass-bys.”

  Counselor Abagail nodded and looked at the others for approval.

  “It’s going to be a long, frigid walk,” Winston said quietly. “Average temperature is -220 degrees Celsius.”

  “And there are ice quakes,” Jeremiah added.

  Counselor Abagail nodded. “I’m not sure we have much of a choice.”

  Moses leaned in closer towards the screen as Copernicus remained at the workstation along the far wall. Moses lowered his voice. “Our situation is dire,” he said. “Copernicus won’t tell you that,” he said. “But if we do not get power to Vega One, it will collide with Jupiter.”

  She gasped and her eyes widened. “You can’t orbit?”

  “That’s a negative,” Moses said. “We were unsuccessful in our last attempt and with such reduced power, we are drifting.”

  “How many are on board?” Jeremiah asked.

  “We have three hundred still on board,” Moses said. “And plenty of pods in the launch chambers to abandon ship. The pods are only designed for landing and launching back to the mother ship. The only place we could go is down to Europa. And that’s why we must find the portal. The cryobots have been recording data since the drilling began, so you just need to locate them.”

  Counselor Abagail shook her head. “The survivors were lost when the ship was damaged. But we are still here, and you can still be saved,” she said, looking over at the others. “But…how do we know where this portal leads? If it even will take us where you believe it will go?”

  “We don’t know,” Moses said. “But in these times of uncertainty, one has to learn to trust. A lot will depend on what you find down there. Hopefully that will give us some answers to go on. And then after that, it becomes a leap of faith.”

  A leap of faith.

  Counselor Abagail and Jeremiah made eye contact. Jeremiah nodded as she smoothed the side of her hair. She looked back up at the screen. “Okay,” she said. “So this has turned into a rescue mission. We have to find that portal.”

  Everyone turned to look at Eli. He looked up. “Hopefully there will be some clues as to where it leads.”

  Copernicus rushed back to the screen. “Ah ha! I have found a break in the ridge where you can pass over. It will be just to the north – on the pole side – of your present location.”

  Counselor Abagail looked at the team. “We don’t have time to waste. Let’s get our helmets back on and get out there. We have to find the cryobots and see how much of the ice they’ve melted through.”

  “We wish you God’s speed,” Copernicus said as Moses looked at him. “Gravity there is only thirteen percent of Earth’s, so you will find you will move quite differently than you are used to. Be careful of ice quakes which can strike randomly. And water plumes.”

  Eli looked up. “Water plumes?”

  “There is an ocean beneath the icy surface,” Copernicus explained. “Water can shoot upwards through the cracks in the ice out into space. Be very careful of these. Due to the low gravity, a plume can force you off the surface.”

  “We will lose communication while you are out of the pod,” Moses said. “So God’s speed and good luck.”

  *****

  The team got up and started to put on their helmets. “We can drag AMPHIBIA along with us,” Winston said. “She’s super light. Like a sled.”

  Counselor Abagail nodded. “Eli, put the equipment on top of her and get her secure.” She turned over to Jeremiah. He stood, his helmet on and ready, and looked directly at her. “We can do this,” he said. “All hope is not lost.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment and nodded. She hoisted her helmet up and they joined the others outside.

  Winston and Eli dragged AMPHIBIA out of the equipment compartment and slammed the door. “She’ll power up once she submerges,” Jeremiah said, standing next to Counselor Abagail. “She runs on liquids.”

  “Okay,” she said, looking at Eli. “You have the rope gun and pickaxes? I don’t know how deep this is going to be. I doubt there’ll be a set of stairs.”

  Eli nodded. “All ready and secured.”

  They started the journey.

  Eli dragged AMPHIBIA behind them as Jeremiah fell back to assist him. Counselor Abagail looked over at Jupiter and stopped walking for a moment. “Listen,” she said. Winston stopped walking and looked up as Jeremiah and Eli caught up and stopped wa
lking, their boots trudged on the ice.

  “Do you hear that?” Counselor Abagail asked.

  Jeremiah dropped the rope and stood next to Counselor Abagail.

  “It’s…like some sort of weird music,” she said, watching the rotating pastel gas giant, shaking her head. “Like a long, deep note playing…over and over. Holding and building its own crescendo for infinity.”

  “Impressive, counselor,” Winston said.

  “I was first cellist,” she said. “Before the shift, of course.”

  She turned and saw Eli staring at Jupiter. She could see the reflection in the whites of his eyes through his helmet visor. “It’s coming from Jupiter,” he said. “I remember from my astronomy class. It’s the vibration of electromagnetic particles…they create these sounds when they collide…it’s like a song. Beautiful and eerie at the same time.”

  “So we have a soundtrack to our mission!” Jeremiah said. “It’s beautiful, but we have to keep moving.”

  Counselor Abagail nodded and grabbed the tug rope. “Take a break, Eli. I’ll drag her for a while.”

  He nodded and started ahead.

  “Lead the way, Eli,” Jeremiah said, assisting Counselor Abagail with AMPHIBIA. Eli started ahead as the ground started shaking. He lost his footing and fell to the ground.

  “Eli!” Jeremiah called. They all fell on the ice as the shaking increased in intensity.

  “It’s an ice quake!” Winston called. “Hover down!”

  Eli was lying a good fifty yards ahead of the others. The ice quake continued shaking as a crack formed ahead and around him.

  “Eli!” Winston called. “Get back by us! The cracks are building all around you!”

  “Eli!” Counselor Abagail called as she tried to lift herself up.

  The shaking stopped and then water exploded out of the crack below Eli, shooting him from the surface, upwards and outwards. They looked up and saw him in a cloud of water vapor; the escaping plume they had been warned about. Through the crack and up into space.

  “Eli!” they called out. They each got to their feet and ran towards the plume of water vapor, but they couldn’t get too close. When Counselor Abagail looked up at Eli, he was higher…and higher…caught by the gravitational pull and heading towards Jupiter.

  Winston screamed. “Eli!”

  Counselor Abagail felt tears well into her eyes. She grabbed Jeremiah’s arm. “We have to save him! If he enters Jupiter’s orbit he will die!”

  “Abby! There is nothing we can do! He is too high to retrieve. We have no contact with Vega One! And we are too far from the pod to get the retriever line!”

  “Eli!” she called. “Talk to us!”

  There was static but he was trying to speak.

  “I am fine,” he said amidst the heavy static. “No pain…no pain at all…”

  “No, Eli!” she said. “You aren’t going to die today!” She tore through the equipment and aimed the rope gun up at Eli, who was now drifting in orbit above the ice moon.

  “Don’t use it,” he said through crackling static. “You will need that. Let me drift. I will be fine…no pain…no pain there will be…”

  She looked at massive Jupiter swirling behind him.

  “No, you won’t be fine!”

  She turned to Jeremiah. He placed his hands on her arms. She looked up at him, and made eye contact through their visors. “We have to save him! The gases will kill him!”

  Jeremiah closed his eyes and shook his head. “He won’t have any pain, Abby.”

  “What are you talking about? How could he not have pain?” She looked over at Winston. “Why are you both standing here acting like nothing’s wrong?! We just lost a member of our team and no one except me is acting with any type of urgency to save him!”

  Jeremiah looked over at Winston and Winston nodded. Jeremiah reached up and unlocked his helmet with a hiss as Counselor Abagail watched in horror.

  “No!” she screamed. “Don’t! There’s too much radiation! You’ll die!”

  Jeremiah did not listen and removed his helmet. Winston stood in front of her, reached his arm over and placed it on her shoulder.

  “Eli will be just fine,” Winston said. “He will not have any pain.”

  She looked up at Winston. He kept his hand on her shoulder and looked at her directly in the eyes. Jeremiah stood and dropped his helmet to the icy surface with a thud. He stood in front of them, standing and watching them. Their eyes met, but he said nothing and remained expressionless.

  She gasped.

  She had thought there was something different about Jeremiah. Something not quite the same. Ever since they had returned to Vega One from Mars…but still…he was the same. And that caused her to forget about it.

  As Jeremiah stood facing her, she looked up and saw that Eli had drifted even further away, closer to the gas giant Jupiter. Jeremiah unclasped his glove and tossed it on the ice. He looked directly at her, never breaking eye contact, as he clasped his wrist and clicked. He held his hand up in front of her face and she gasped.

  Several wires and tiny lights blinked in the wrist interior.

  Her eyes widened. “You’re – you’re…”

  Winston’s helmet clicked and let out a hiss as he dropped his to the ground at his feet. His voice sounded a bit muffled as he was no longer speaking into the helmet auditory system, but she could hear him. “Our DNA was harvested during our first stage of cryogenic hibernation. From Earth to Mars.”

  “And then we were cloned to robotic androids after Mars,” Jeremiah said. “You remember the period on Mars when you woke up and couldn’t remember anything?”

  She nodded and took a few steps back. “I remember…your space suit, Jeremiah…I remember it lying on its side. Empty.”

  Winston extended his arms. “You have to trust us, Abby.”

  She shook her head. “You guys seemed a little different after we got back to Vega One. But I thought it was me…”

  Jeremiah took a step forward as Counselor Abagail fell backwards over a small jut of ice. Both he and Winston lunged forward to help her up. She sat on the small, protruding shelf of ice and rested her arms on her legs. She hung her head down for a moment and caught her breath. Winston and Jeremiah both stood a few feet from her, looking down, both appeared concerned.

  “Counselor Abagail,” Winston said. “Are you alright?”

  She looked up at the remaining members of her team. Jeremiah connected his hand back to his wrist connector. “Abby,” he said, looking over at her. She looked up at him. “The Vegans have the technology to clone. Not only our genetic codes, but also minute, intricate details of our personalities were imprinted on these physical droid shells. When you were marooned on Mars, we were put in place so the mission would not have upset your life so much, and the ultimate mission – the one we are on now – could continue.”

  Abby stood. “Can you guys put your helmets back on so I can hear you more clearly? Everything sounds so muffled through mine.”

  They agreed and reached down and reattached their helmets to their space suits. Now she could hear them loud and clear in her helmet audio system.

  She walked over and picked up the tow line. She turned around and gestured for Winston and Jeremiah to follow.

  After a few more minutes of walking, she popped the question. “What happened back on Mars, Jeremiah? Why did they have to clone you?”

  She instantly thought of the three mounds of dirt. They had to have been graves. “Those three dirt mounds I found near the ridge on Mars…they were graves, right?”

  Jeremiah stammered and assisted her with the tow rope as Winston took the lead. “I…don’t know…”

  “You don’t know?”

  He looked over at her and nodded. “Yes, I don’t know. I have no memory or recollection of what happened on Mars. I was imprinted based on data which was collected before the Mars mission. I have no memories of the time you were on Mars. It just didn’t exist for this version of Jeremiah.”
>
  “But did they die on Mars? Is that what those dirt mounds were? Did I bury them in graves?”

  Jeremiah shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, Abby. I just don’t know. But what we do know – now – is that Eli will not feel any pain when he encounters Jupiter. We don’t have pain receptors. We can have a memory of pain that occurred before the imprint – but no pain after. We’re still the same guys you have always known. New memories are forming in our sub systems as we speak.”

  “So he’s just drifting, lying there, watching the stars?”

  He shook his head. “No. When we are in a situation that cannot be remedied and ‘death’ is inevitable, we are programmed to shut down. Right now, he is just a piece of space junk floating towards a planet that will annihilate him.”

  “He is not space junk!” She looked up. She could see Eli’s silhouette, a tiny, dark figure against the swirling pastel palette of Jupiter. He was floating upwards and outwards, and now he was so high, drifting, that he was becoming a tiny dark spot. She could still make out his outstretched arms and legs, and as he drifted closer to annihilation, she felt the warmth of a tear stream down her cheek.

  *****

  Counselor Abgail listened to the scrape of AMPHIBIA on the ice as she closed her eyes.

  Flat terrain from here on out.

  Their boots scraped against the ice amidst the lonely cello; the single solitary note against the silence of space playing with a solidarity. She paused and opened her eyes when she heard the footsteps stop. They all looked upwards. Vega One had stopped rotating. She was a lengthy cylinder; and the tube like design had rotated to create synthetic gravity…and an atmosphere.

  But not anymore.

  She looked over at Jeremiah who was looking upwards, studying the ship. “She’s much closer to Jupiter now,” he said. “Much, much closer.”

  “What about the rotation?” Counselor Abagail asked.

  “There’s no gravity on the ship if it’s not rotating,” Winston said. “And no atmosphere.”