Europa Contagion

by Nicholas Thorp

  Samples were, of course, taken around these vents. Unbelievably, the samples from this hydrothermal area contained very basic microorganisms: life! The structure of the microbes was certainly unique. Some features had been present on life on Earth but other features were unlike anything seen on Earth. The microbes were, as expected, carbon-based.

  Finding life on another planet was one of humanity's largest achievements and the greatest moment of Alice’s professional life, securing her name a position in the annals of history. The crew was ecstatic at the finding and eagerly prepared a summary report and sent the awesome news back to the Seeker for relay to Earth. With this discovery, no reasonable person could fault the mission, despite its enormous cost.

  Both the tethered Big Bertha and remotely operated Little Missy had been used extensively and had collected many different samples and deposits. Sonya, Alice, Dimitri, Bailey, and Li had had their hands’ full researching this alien material when they first arrived.

  ----------

  The Construction bots placed the final assemblies together. It had taken twelve days, and now the new station was complete. It was named Outpost One. Outpost One was much smaller than the Habitat. It consisted of a small hangar big enough so the Nomad could fit, an elevator, and three rooms. One room held a small decon room with the thermal drill and underwater drones. The second room was a basic control room where one could operate the drones or the drill and had space for storage. The third room was a basic survival room with minimal supplies. One could sleep, use the bathroom, and make food, but not much else.

  Even before the completion of Outpost One, the thermal drill had been installed and had begun its drilling down toward the ocean. It was more efficient for the drills to work while the rest of the station was assembled. While the construction and thermal drill made its way to the ocean, Felix and Kato prepared Big Bertha to be transported from the Habitat to Outpost One.

  “Alright, time to move a few hundred pounds of drone,” Kato said.

  Felix and Kato stood in the Habitat’s docking bay. They had brought Big Bertha up from the ocean and let it go through its decontamination process. The bright yellow paint reflected the lights in the Habitat as it sat in front of them. Of course, Kato was only partially joking. Big Bertha would weigh 300 pounds on Earth, but here on Europa, it only weighed forty pounds. That didn’t make it much easier to move, however. Even a light object can be tricky to move if it’s large enough. Big Bertha was large enough.

  Moving Big Bertha from the water had been considered beforehand and the docking bay had a mechanical system, a type of crane with a lift, in place to raise and lower the bulky Big Bertha. After raising Big Bertha from the ocean and decontaminating it, Big Bertha was carefully moved onto a hydraulic platform next to the decontamination chamber. Kato and Felix then lowered the hydraulic platform until Big Bertha sat on a specialized, wheeled cart.

  There were multiple ways to get from one part of the Habitat to the other. To get to the hangar from the docking bay, there was a very direct approach. Kato and Felix slowly wheeled Big Bertha into an adjacent room, which contained the second-most spacious elevator in the Habitat after the Hangar. The elevator closed its doors and moved up to the top floor, directly next to the hangar. Connecting the elevator to the Hangar was an equally large hallway. The large elevator and hallway had been designed specifically for moving the large Big Bertha from the bottom of the Hangar to the docking bay and back again if needed.

  Slowly, as always, Felix and Kato wheeled Big Bertha out from the elevator and into the hangar where the Nomad sat. Using the crane on the Nomad, they lifted Big Bertha. Once fully lifted, the crane swiveled around and gently placed Big Bertha in the cargo hold of the Nomad.

  Moving Big Bertha to Outpost One was going to be a dangerous operation. Not only would Kato and Felix have to travel for many hours to get to their destination in the Nomad, but to get Big Bertha into Outpost One they would have to step outside of the Nomad while on the surface of Europa. To do this as safely as possible, they would have to wait for the limited time period when Europa was in a position around Jupiter that reduced the dangerous radiation to the surface. This alone wasn’t enough, though. They would also wear the specialized POWER modifications to their normal suits which would further decrease the radiation they absorbed. Even with this, they would limit their time on the surface and not linger any longer than necessary.

  A few days after Big Bertha had been prepared for transportation, the thermal drill at Outpost One bored through the crust and made contact with the ocean. The construction bots removed the drill and traveled back to their special hangar on the surface away from the Habitat. With the drill removed and everything ready, it was time to move Big Bertha to Outpost One.

  Felix had not only repaired the Nomad, but he had also cleaned it. It was back to its pristine white color. He had also loaded the POWER modifications to their spacesuits into the Nomad.

  Felix eagerly hopped into the Nomad, but Kato paused for a moment, thinking back to his last dangerous trip outside, before entering the Nomad himself and starting it up. It would take about twenty hours of driving to reach Outpost One.

  ----------

  Within forty-eight hours Big Bertha was secure in its new home: Outpost One. Kato and Felix had safely made the trek out of the Habitat to Outpost One, successfully loaded Big Bertha into the new docking bay, and had come back home again without incident, taking turns driving the Nomad while the other slept.

  Communication with Outpost One was done from the safety of the Habitat. With Outpost One closer to the source of the signal that Sonya had found, the tethered drone would have enough length to visit the source without pushing the limits of the tether or Little Missy.

  The same day Kato and Felix returned to the Habitat, they entered the docking bay, ready to pilot Big Bertha. Once again, they saw Sonya waiting for them.

  “Finally! Come on, let’s get a move on!” she said.

  Kato sat down in the pilot’s chair and checked to make sure everything was working. The link to Outpost One was strong, and he would be able to pilot Big Bertha from the Habitat without issue.

  “We’re receiving a signal from the drones. Power is looking good. The ReLaPTS is strong,” Kato said. He was referring to the Remote Laser Power Transmission System. With plenty of excess power at the Habitat and in order to supply power to the newly built Outpost One, a laser was used to transfer energy remotely over large distances to power collectors.

  He flipped a switch and the camera on Big Bertha turned on. It showed what Kato always saw before piloting the drone: nothing at all. Kato next flipped on the floodlights on Big Bertha and suddenly a large blue expanse became visible. A lighter blue area appeared at the top of the monitor. This was the crust of Europa, while the deep blue was the ocean.

  “All systems go,” Kato said and pressed on the joystick. Big Bertha began to move and descend into the seemingly bottomless blue ocean.

  It wasn’t long until Kato began to notice some interference on the camera. It started as very small flashes of white light randomly across the screen. Big Bertha had some basic shielding against radiation, and both Sonya and Kato hoped that it would be enough to protect it when they got close enough to the source of the signal.

  As time passed, the other crew members filtered in and out of the docking bay to check on the progress. Everyone was interested to see what the source of the signal would be.

  After a few hours, Big Bertha finally came to the edge of an underwater cliff that had been named the Benthic Plain. The Benthic Plain was an incredibly large and sloping flat area that extended down toward the seafloor. Such a place was not uncommon, both on Europa and on Earth. On Earth, the largest of these was called the Abyssal Plain.

  Big Bertha‘s floodlights were on but only penetrated about thirty feet into the pitch-black ocean. At the Benthic Plain, the camera showed completely barren ground. This was very typical of what the crew had seen from their previous out
ings in the ocean: No obvious signs of any activity or life showed.

  Kato commanded Big Bertha to travel just above the floor of the Benthic plain for a short while before coming to a sudden drop-off: the edge of a cliff. This feature appeared to lead down, many miles to the bottom of the ocean.

  The interference became worse as they proceeded to turn the drone around and inspect the face of the cliff. Sonya knew they were approaching the source of the signal. The drone’s camera was showing more static on the screen, making it difficult to see. This didn’t stop Kato, as he had all the instruments at his disposal that allowed him to pilot the drone without using the cameras to see around him. One such instrument was a series of infrared lasers around the hull, letting Kato know how far Big Bertha was from other objects, such as the edge of a cliff or the Benthic Plain currently far below Big Bertha.

  Kato followed the cliff’s features downward and laterally. The cliff was mostly flat and linear with very few turns or twists, but soon Big Bertha came upon a sharp right turn in the cliff. The moment Big Bertha rounded this corner the interference became so bad that there was no hope of making out what the camera was seeing. The gauges on Kato’s console began to give strange readings. No doubt they too were being interfered with by the source. The area was heavily diffused with radiation. The exact amount wouldn’t be known, as the RIID had been put back in the Nomad.

  Sonya had been watching and seeing what the instruments were reading. As Big Bertha rounded the corner, she noticed something.

  “Now hold on, this is interesting!” Sonya said as she looked at her tablet, very excited. At this point, only Sonya, Kato, and Alice were in the room.

  Sonya continued, “It’s hard to tell for sure but the ice-penetrating radar on the drone seems to be showing something different than usual. It’s tough to see because the readings aren’t making much sense. This can’t be right. It says there’s nothing in front of the drone?”

  The drone had rounded the corner and stood still, looking at the face of the cliff.

  Everyone moved closer and squinted to try and get a better look. Kato looked at the readings on his console and commanded Big Bertha to move forward slightly. He noted how the readings differed as he moved closer.

  Kato said, “According to the infrared lasers, the cliff is flat, but the closer we get, it seems to be showing a clearing of sorts.”

  “It’s the entrance to a cave,” Alice finally said.

  “Oh, yes, that makes sense! Come on Kato! Let’s see what’s inside!” Sonya replied excitedly.

  “No ma’am, I don’t think that’s the best idea,” Kato said. He knew that the interference level must mean the source of the signal was extremely strong. Further, entering into any cave or cave-like system could lead to trapping or losing Big Bertha.

  “Come on! This will be the first underwater cave to explore! It’ll be a first. Plus, we need to know what’s causing all this strange radiation,” Sonya said.

  Kato reluctantly ordered the drone to inch forward slowly. As he did so, the interference continued to get worse. It was clear they were approaching the source of the radiation. He stopped at the entrance of what they all thought was the cave.

  “We can’t go any farther without losing the signal,” Kato said. “We can take some readings here and then have the drone come back.”

  Sonya gave a loud sigh, as she often did when things didn’t go exactly her way. She looked at her tablet and thought about the readings they were getting.

  Finally, she said, “The interference is making it difficult to get accurate readings. If we leave it alone for half an hour or so we might be able to piece together enough data to find out what’s going on here.”

  Kato pushed himself out of his chair. “I do have to do my workouts and check the hydrogen vents. I’ll do that, and when I’m done, we can turn the drone around to come back to Outpost One.” Kato walked out of the room. It wasn’t long before Alice followed as well, leaving Sonya alone to see if she could make sense of the readings.

  Ten minutes passed. Sonya wasn’t getting the readings she had hoped for. They were very difficult to parse and there was no clear sense of what they meant. Sonya wanted to know more. She could see the interference was bad, but she was also pushed by her extreme curiosity. Perhaps she could be the one to discover something interesting and get credit for it, for once.

  “Maybe I’ll get a better reading if I get it a little closer,” she said to herself as she sat down in the chair. Placing her hand on the throttle, she pushed it forward.

  The drone surged forward much faster than she anticipated into the cave. The monitors cut to a completely black screen. All the other instruments stopped displaying any information. The normally green lights indicating everything was working had turned orange or even red. The interference was so strong that even the tethered drone had been lost to the intense radiation.

  Uh oh. Kato is not going to be happy about this, Sonya thought to herself.

  SIX

  Moon to moon

  On the surface of Ganymede, Bailey and Dimitri sat in the Lander.

  “Alright, everything is looking good here,” Dimitri said. Both Bailey and Dimitri had strapped themselves into the Lander after making sure their samples were stored away for the next part of the trip.

  For one week they had gone on thirty-five surface walks. They had been able to complete all their primary goals for this mission along with their secondary and even tertiary goals as well. By all accounts, this part of the mission was another success. Now though, it was time to leave the surface for good.

  They were about to launch from Ganymede, match orbits to, and dock with, the Seeker. The process of placing two bodies, one already in orbit and one stationary on the surface, into the same orbits, close enough to meet and dock, was mathematically and technically laborious. The exact procedure had, of course, been figured out a century before when humans were first rocketing objects into orbit from the surface of the Earth. With the advent of smaller and more powerful computers, the procedure ended up being a trivial task for humans. The computer was able to make hundreds of small corrections at every step of the process and was thus far more efficient compared to a human attempting to do the same thing.

  The first step was to get into orbit along the same plane as the orbit of the Seeker. With the checklists complete and everything green and ‘good to go’ on the dashboard, the only thing to do was wait for the Seeker to be in the correct location in its orbit. Finally, the Seeker’s orbit brought it nearly overhead of the Lander.

  Li spoke up, “I’ve already done all the checks on the Lander. Bailey, are you good to go?”

  “Good to go,” Bailey repeated.

  “Dimitri, good to go?” Li asked.

  “Good to go,” Dimitri also repeated.

  It was time for the launch.

  “Alright crew, once you launch you’re on your own. Here we go,” Li counted down. “Launch in ten seconds. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.”

  The Lander’s rockets fired and the vehicle shot up, away from the ground. Bailey and Dimitri were pushed into their seats as the Lander accelerated upward.

  “Whoo-hoo!” Bailey shouted as the whole cabin shook and the Lander shot straight up into the black sky. Only a few moments after takeoff the Lander began to rotate and turned toward the horizon along the same path the Seeker was traveling. As the Lander used up its fuel it weighed less, allowing it to accelerate faster. The burn didn’t need to be very long with the low gravity of Ganymede.

  Although Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system, even larger than the planet Mercury, its mass is nearly the same as Earth’s moon. Gravity on Ganymede, as on Earth’s moon, is only about 1/6th of Earth’s. Thus, in only ten minutes, the Lander’s main engine stopped firing and the cabin stopped shaking. Time to check the results.

  “Burn was good, engines performed perfectly,” Dimitri said as he looked at the main panel in front of him.

>   “I never get tired of that!” Bailey said and she also looked down at her instruments to see their status. “We’ve matched the orbital plane of the Seeker,” she reported.

  Launching in a rocket was one of the most exhilarating things Bailey had experienced. One of the more technically interesting, but actually boring, launches she had been part of was departing from Earth’s Moon. Low gravity on the Moon meant it was far easier to leave the Moon compared to Earth. But fuel was fuel. Fuel was expensive and dangerous to make and/or transport to the Moon.

  Instead of a standard vertical rocket launch, therefore, a long, electromagnetic railgun system, called the O’Neill Mass Acceleration System (OMAS), had been installed on the Moon which could catapult objects into orbit. OMAS was named after the Princeton professor, Gerard O’Neill, who had first proposed the system back in 1974. The only fuel required for the railgun was electricity, which there was plenty of once the first lunar nuclear reactor had been built. Anyone lucky enough to have been on the Moon and who had used the OMAS rail said it was the smoothest launch of their lives.

  Now that the rockets on the lander had completed their first burn and were no longer firing, technically Bailey and Dimitri were in freefall. If it hadn’t been for their horizontal velocity, the craft would have simply fallen straight back down to the surface. However, precisely because of the combination of their horizontal velocity and the pull of Ganymede’s gravity did they stay in a ‘permanent’ sort of freefall: constantly falling down but moving fast enough to never actually hit the round surface of Ganymede.

  Without their seat straps, they would have begun to float out of their seats. Bailey gently removed her helmet and placed it beside her head, removing her hands and leaving the helmet floating in mid-air. It remained exactly in place and didn’t move. She turned her head to face Dimitri and her long black hair, also floating in place, got in front of her face. A pen that had been sitting in her lap also began to levitate.