Europa Contagion

by Nicholas Thorp

  Alice then felt the reverberations as all six engines came to life and roared to their maximum thrust in the reverse position, something that was never supposed to normally happen. Slowly, at least a few of the six wheels made just enough contact with the ground that the vehicle began to move. At first, it seemed like things were getting worse, as the angle only seemed to become greater, but as quickly as the vehicle had lurched forward into the ground in the first place, it immediately fell back down and leveled out with a surprising crash. Kato fell to the floor on his knees, but Alice was more prepared and landed on her feet.

  Although the Nomad was now level and the hull had not burst violently, there was yet another immense shake. This time though, Alice was fully prepared and had put out her arms and hands into handholds to properly steady herself. Kato, too, was more prepared and didn’t fall down this time. Looking through the front window, they could see an enormous plume of water burst from the area they had been only moments before.

  Now focused, Kato let his training take over. He immediately threw himself into the captain’s chair and pulled the harness located above his head and locked them in place with the harness across his sides. Alice did the same in her chair. Kato disabled the audio system and the alarms, blanketing everything in a sudden silence. He began diagnosing what could be wrong. Reaching out he found the emergency checklist and strapped it to his knee. His eyes darted from the checklist to the gauges on his console. Hull pressurization? Green light. Oxygen? Green. Controls? Responsive. He glanced at the monitors and immediately his attention was focused on the monitors showing him the view of the outside. It was hard to believe what he was seeing, but the entire ground that the vehicle was on was breaking up. While the front cameras and the starboard-side cameras weren’t working, the port-side cameras and rear cameras were working. Kato could tell that they didn’t have much time. There were major parts of the ground crumbling before his eyes. The rear monitor seemed to show that there was a safe part of the ground some distance behind them.

  Although the front cameras weren’t working, Kato could still see through the front window, and while they were moving away from the area that had almost killed them, Kato did the exact opposite of what a normal person might do: he pushed the throttle to the full forward position. Alice, also watching the ground break up before them, couldn’t help but notice that the closest place that seemed to be safe was behind them, not in front of them. Even though her brain was screaming at her to move as quickly as possible to the nearest place of safety she also knew that Kato was the best pilot that could have been chosen for this mission, and decided to trust his judgment.

  The engines, needing to change gears from a reverse position to a forward position, slowed down at first. Then the engines fired back up to their maximum thrust in the forward position. The Nomad, like most vehicles, hadn’t been built to drive in reverse for prolonged periods and was thus more slow than moving forward. Further, the vehicle had a slow and wide turning radius when in motion. Kato knew all of this and could also see that, although the shortest distance to safety was behind them, the fastest way to safety would be going forward at full throttle. The vehicle began to move at a speed that neither crew member had felt before. With the safety disengaged, the full power of the six hydrogen engines truly revealed themselves. Now they were covering distance much faster than before, but with the ground breaking up it was difficult to know if they would make it to safety.

  “Mayday, mayday. Nomad in danger. Repeat, Nomad in danger.” Kato radioed the habitat while he perfectly veered left and right avoiding the crevices and cracks that were continuing to form around them. They could both see that there was one extremely large crack forming out horizontally in front of them. There was no response on the radio.

  Just as the vehicle reached its top speed, they passed what one could say was the boundary between doom and safety. Both watched as the ground they had just been on churned and crumbled into a completely unstable mesh of ice and rocks. Kato didn’t slow the vehicle down, however, instead keeping it pushed to its maximum.

  Only when the unsafe ground behind them faded away from the rear monitors did Kato slow the vehicle back down and engaged the normal safety features.

  With a sigh of relief, they both relaxed their tense bodies. Although the Nomad had gone through quite a bit, the hull seemed perfectly intact. Not wanting to take any chances, however, both Alice and Kato mutually decided not to remove their helmets. The adrenaline rush that had helped Alice and Kato get through the situation started wearing off, and both of them felt incredibly tired. This didn’t stop either of them from doing their duties, but it was difficult to not reflect on what had just happened.

  “What the hell was that? The entire ground was breaking up beneath us!” Kato said as he slowed the Nomad to a stop and began scrutinizing all the gauges more closely.

  “I’m not sure. Let me check and see what data the Nomad picked up. What’s the status of the Nomad?” Alice was talking and typing on the computer at the same time. She began pulling up information and changed the filters to show what was happening just before, during, and after the event.

  “There are a few things we’ll need to check out when we get back, but all the basic systems are nominal. No hydrogen leaks detected. Optimal oxygen in the cabin. All six wheels are responsive. There might be something wrong with the suspension on the rear wheels.” There was a short pause as Kato pressed a button on his console.

  “Communications are out. It looks like all those tumbles we took damaged our antenna. We won’t be able to communicate with the Habitat until we get back.” Kato continued going through where he had left off on his checklist.

  Meanwhile, Alice looked at the data that was filling up the screen.

  “Take a look at this. Twenty hours and thirteen minutes into our field test, the Nomad picked up some minor seismic activity, measuring a Richter scale of two point three.” She was looking at a graph on her screen showing the time on the x-axis and seismic activity on the y-axis. There was a small spike at twenty hours and thirteen minutes.

  “Then one minute later the seismic activity increased and the Richter scale increased to eight point four.” Just as she said, one minute later into the graph was a very large spike.

  The Richter scale was measured logarithmically. What this meant was that the difference between a magnitude of two and a magnitude of eight wasn’t as simple as the second being four times as big as the first. It meant the second magnitude was 1,000,000 times as big.

  Although she wasn’t the resident physicist, the data on her screen was clear: two earthquakes, one small and one very large, had shaken the entire area they happened to be on, causing ground ruptures and surface faulting, leading the surface to destabilize.

  Depending on the size of the earthquake and location on Earth, an earthquake could cause severe damage to buildings and roadways. This wasn’t Earth, however. This was Europa. Here, the earthquake had caused the ground to collapse around the Nomad, nearly killing them.

  “I think,” Alice said slowly as she continued monitoring the systems, “That makes us the first humans to survive a dangerous earthquake out in the solar system.” She was right after all. No human outside of Earth had ever gone through what they just experienced.

  Alice looked over at Kato and saw the faintest of grins form on the corners of his lips, then his serious demeanor returned quickly.

  Kato said, “When I took this mission, I knew there might be a chance we would die. I’ve accepted that I might have to do what’s necessary and die for this mission.”

  Alice thought for a moment about what Kato was saying. Then she replied, “I know that there might be something that could kill us out here, but I also know I’m going to fight as hard as possible to make sure I get back to Earth.”

  Kato looked back at Alice for a moment and then went to monitor his station. If Alice hadn’t just been through the experience with Kato, she would have been very worried. His face
was covered in dried blood, making his normally hard features look soft. His normally visible scar was hidden by his eye and was beginning to bulge and show signs of bruising. It was as if he had come out of a boxing match.

  Kato turned back to his console and pulled up a topographical map of the area on his main monitor and said, “I’m going to see if we can find a route back home.”

  “Whatever the fastest way back is my vote,” Alice said, half-jokingly.

  A few moments passed as Kato looked at his map and said, “Unfortunately, the shortest route back would take us through that area we just survived. But I think we should avoid that area entirely. We’ll need to find a way around it. Let’s hope it’s not too big.” Kato was entirely back in command and serious mode.

  Alice was rather annoyed at the fact that it would take longer to get back. Although calm on the outside, she truly wanted to be back in the safety of the Habitat.

  “I’d like to get out and inspect the Nomad before continuing,” Kato spoke up again.

  Alice looked at him surprised and raised her eyebrow.

  “We both know that’s too dangerous,” Alice replied.

  Kato thought for a moment. He knew she was right. This time the danger didn’t come from the ground, but from the sky in the form of radiation. Right now was not a safe time to do an outside walk.

  “Yes, ma’am. We’ll have to trust that the Nomad is structurally sound enough for us to make it back,” Kato said as he placed his hands on the steering column.

  Piloting the vehicle, Kato turned the Nomad around and began to head back in the direction of the Habitat. It wasn’t long before they reached the area they had escaped from. Kato parked the Nomad just shy of the now potentially unstable ground.

  It had taken longer to get back because Kato had decided to not travel at their normal speed, but reduce it in case something else was damaged too.

  Sometimes the scale of something is hard to fathom. This case was no different. Looking across the surface all one could see were the remains of the earthquake: crumbled ice and unstable-looking ground. Like looking at the ocean on Earth, it simply stretched on to the horizon.

  Kato turned the Nomad to his right and began to drive around the perimeter, hoping that at some point he would get the chance to start driving back in the direction of the Habitat.

  For six hours they drove until they found such a place and Kato turned the Nomad to his left. Now traveling back in the correct direction, they could see how long the other length would be and could estimate just how large the area was that was affected by the earthquake.

  It turned out to be quite massive. They traveled another eight hours before it visibly ended. Their estimation put it at 13,000 square miles; the size of a large city! During training for this mission, one of the many things they had covered was the fact that Europa was the only body in the entire solar system other than Earth known to have active tectonic plates. An earthquake - still amusingly called an earthquake even on Europa - wasn’t something that they considered when they began their mission here; it was expected.

  The sun began to set over the horizon, so Kato switched the Nomad’s night vision mode on and set their course back home. The drive back wouldn’t take as long as it took them to drive out since they’d be driving straight back to the Habitat with no stops. Still, it would be many more hours until they would even see their home again.

  As they neared their home, they passed by a unique landmark. Most of Europa was smooth and flat. Here and there one could find some hills and cave-like structures. Fairly close to the Habitat stood a series of hills that contained hundreds of small caves. As they passed the cave-like structures, Alice noticed a particular cave that was larger than the others.

  It could probably hold the Nomad, Alice thought to herself.

  Kato knew they were on the right track and getting close to the Habitat.

  TWO

  Habitat

  “Alright Kato, I read you loud and clear. We’re receiving all the data too. Over and out.” Felix stopped his communication by pressing a small button on a wristband that he, like everyone on the mission, wore. He had stayed behind while Kato and Alice took the Nomad out for its first extensive and long-range drive. Shorter trips had been performed near the habitat during the safe hours of the day. This trip was going to test the long-range capabilities of the Nomad. Kato and Alice had been doing a check-up at the top of every hour. Everything had been going exactly to plan. The monitor on the main wall showed a topographical map of the area. On it was a small blue dot indicating the location of the Nomad.

  There was a heavy sigh next to Felix.

  “Oh, look at this. Another set of data that’s the same as the last time,” Sonya had been in charge of checking all the information from the Nomad and comparing it to the Habitat’s readings to make sure that the Nomad’s equipment was calibrated properly. Even though she had a paper-thin tablet that she could take with her and use anywhere in the habitat, she had decided to sit next to Felix. Maybe it was because he didn’t seem to get annoyed at her the way the others could.

  Felix looked at her and shrugged. He was always surprised at how short Sonya was. Standing at five feet three inches tall, she was the shortest person of the crew. In space, though, being smaller tended to be more advantageous. It meant not taking up as much room, having slightly less mass to move around, and using up fewer resources. Sitting in her chair she wasn’t much taller than when she was standing.

  It had been rather exciting when the Nomad first left for long-range exploration. Felix had been the one who installed and tuned the long-range antenna receiver on the Nomad and wanted to know that it was working. It had even exceeded expectations and had transmitted farther than anticipated. For the last twenty hours, he had done twenty check-ups with Alice and Kato, and for twenty check-ups they received the information without a single hiccup in the system. He too was beginning to get a bit bored.

  “I think it’s pretty clear that everything is working fine at this point,” Sonya said and sighed again. “I’d much rather not be interrupted every hour.”

  “Yeah,” Was all Felix decided to say. After spending many years together, he had learned that Sonya said exactly what she was thinking. He found it was nice to know exactly what someone was thinking. Still, though, he liked being around Navya more. He had always found her vast medical knowledge very impressive. Plus she was, without a doubt, the most logical, calm, cool, and collected person he had ever met. Even Kato’s military discipline came second to Navya’s calm demeanor. Under stressful times she was always able to think clearly and do the logical thing. It was a shame she never seemed to notice him.

  Felix noticed that the blue dot revealing the location of the Nomad suddenly disappeared. Perhaps they had finally gone out of range of the tracking device. After a minute without it coming back, he decided to do a reboot of the tracking system.

  A light flashed and a small sound chirped on Sonya’s wristband and a warning alarm appeared in her contact lens. Always one for technology, she had decided to have a computer that was built into her contact lens in addition to her tablet and her wristband. She raised her eyebrow and eyed the information in her contact lens carefully while tilting her head.

  “That’s odd. There’s only one time I’ve seen seismic activity this small before,” Sonya said. Felix perked up. He knew to listen when Sonya said something was going on. He got out of his chair and stood behind her to look at her tablet.

  Sonya’s fingers flew across the virtual keyboard on her tablet as she pulled up some old data. She was very skillful when it came to technology.

  “Right here. See that?” She had called up two graphs and physically pulled the tablet from the opposite corners, expanding the size of the monitor to make the graphs easier to see. Pointing at the two graphs, she continued, “This graph on the right is from now. This graph on the left was from two years ago, the day after we got here.”

  It was a difficult time to forg
et. It was only the second day since they had arrived on Europa when they had picked up major seismic activity. It was the biggest one they had ever experienced since then too. Felix vividly remembered the whole habitat shook as the rumble went on for minutes. Luckily the habitat’s location had been chosen as one of the best spots to be safe from earthquakes, among other reasons. Of course, the habitat too had been constructed to withstand an earthquake with a Richter scale of nine, even if the earthquake was right on top of them. Considering that Felix had been involved with the design of the habitat, he was perfectly confident that nothing would happen in the event of an earthquake.

  “That day we were here, we had that big earthquake, remember?” Sonya continued. “We gathered a lot of useful information from that and Bailey and I researched it quite heavily. Turns out that the small earthquake triggered a much bigger one, the one we felt for minutes. The earthquake lasted precisely for seven minutes and thirty-seconds. It’s pretty rare to have that happen around here, so we were lucky to have measured it in the first place. We even had the chance to write a paper about it,” Sonya always lit up when talking about her areas of interest, but she looked a bit annoyed at that last part.

  “Of course Bailey’s name had to be first on the paper even though I did most of the…”

  “Did you ever find out how far away the earthquake was when that happened?” Felix interjected, getting a little worried.

  “Did I find out? Of course I did. I had to do a few tests first, but I found out that the shockwave traveled slower than our original models predicted it would. So by the time we felt it, it had already been going on for at least ten minutes. I estimated it to be between 60-70 miles south of here. It’s quite interesting. In fact...”