“Hey Sonya, you didn’t answer my call. I need to ask you something,” Navya said, slowly making her way to Sonya.
“Oh, you called, did you? I didn’t notice. Must not have heard it,” Sonya responded but didn’t turn to face her. Navya saw the back of Sonya’s head for a moment as it bobbed in and out of view. It almost looked wet, like she had just come from a workout but hadn’t showered.
Navya shoved a few tools away with her foot making just enough space to stand in. She was about to reply but the whole situation didn’t feel right.
“Yes,” she said after a few moments. “I was hoping you could help me with something in BSL4. I’d like to look at the sample again, but you know how it goes. Shouldn’t go into the room by myself. I’d ask Alice but she’s leaving in the Nomad.”
At this, Sonya paused. Her body was still halfway through the panel.
“Of course she is,” Sonya said and continued working. “To get Little Missy and get more credit is what I heard.”
Navya didn’t understand what Sonya meant by that last comment, but being in charge of everyone's health she decided to try to talk and help.
“Hey, what are you up to, anyway?” Navya asked.
Sonya got back to work in the panel and said, “You wouldn’t understand at all.”
“Try me,” Navya said. She had a very strange feeling and made a careful step toward Sonya to look over her shoulder.
“Look, Navya, I said you wouldn’t understand, and I’m busy here. Can you just leave it alone?” As Sonya said this, she took her right arm out of the control panel and waved her hand in the air in a way one would use to dismiss a subordinate. Her hand was only in the air for a moment, but Navya noticed her hand glisten in the light, the way water looks when the sun hits at just the right angle.
“Sonya,” Navya began.
Whatever Sonya had been working on, she stopped, her body motionless. Slowly she backed herself out of the panel and turned around and looked at Navya. As she turned, Navya was shocked. Sonya was white. Deathly white. Sickly white. Sonya pulled her hands away from the panel and began to crack each knuckle. Navya looked down at Sonya’s hands to see that they weren’t wet from a workout, they were wet because they were bloody. Looking over at what she was working on, the communication panel looked like a disaster. Cables and wires were sprawled all over the place.
Navya refocused her attention on Sonya’s eyes. They were bloodshot red. As a doctor, Navya wanted to step forward and take a closer look at her eyes but her instincts took over, and instead, she took one step back.
“What’s wrong Navya? Nothing more to say? Go ahead, you and Alice already started that meeting without me,” Sonya’s words began slowly but picked up speed as she continued. “I mean, it’s always nice to get work done for you and get credit for it, isn’t it? Just a simple message, that’s all I need to send off, but it isn’t working right and I have to change it.” As Sonya said the last word she took her hand, balled it into a fist, and slammed it on the communication panel. She inadvertently hit a few buttons, and lights and sounds came on as the machine began to come to life.
Sonya looked suddenly at the machine, clearly distraught.
“Now look at what you’ve made me do! I didn’t want to turn this on yet! It’s not done!” Sonya shouted.
Navya wasn’t sure exactly what to say. She felt as if uttering the wrong words might not end well for one of them. Navya thought for a few moments. She decided to try to be calm about the situation.
“Okay, Sonya. Your hands are bleeding. Maybe we should go to the medbay so I can look at them and help.”
“Help! Ha, right. I don’t need help. I’m just trying to send this message, that’s all. Now you’ve come for this, too?”
“I better let you get back to work,” Navya said and began to move to get out of the room.
Sonya suddenly leapt at Navya. It took Navya completely by surprise as Sonya slammed into the top of Navya and both of them fell to the ground.
“Sonya! Stop! What…" But Navya’s words were pointless. Before she could even try to get back on her feet Sonya was on her, clawing at her, like she was trying to rip her apart.
Navya pushed with all her strength. Sonya was the smallest and lightest of the group and the low-g environment helped. Sonya was flung away from Navya.
Navya scrambled to get up and move away, but she stepped on one of the tools littered about the floor and fell again. As she fell, she turned to see that Sonya was coming straight at her. There was barely any time to react as Sonya crashed into Navya on the floor.
With one hand held above her head to try and protect herself, Navya’s other hand reached for anything that she could get a purchase on. Sonya flung fist after fist into her, sometimes hitting Navya’s arm and sometimes hitting her head. Navya’s whole world was getting dizzier and dizzier with each blow. Navya knew she didn’t have much longer before she was completely blacked out.
She gathered what strength she had left and faintly said, “Sonya, why?”
At that moment, Sonya stopped and looked at her, She seemed to be calm. A look of recognition came across her face that said ‘why am I doing this?’ The look gave way, back to its fierce determination again, but Sonya had relaxed just enough for Navya to regain her senses a bit. Navya grabbed a wrench from the floor with her free hand and swung it at Sonya’s head. Navya felt like it was a weak swing and she was surprised to feel the weight of Sonya come off of her as Sonya fell.
Navya stayed where she was, rolled her head to one side and saw Sonya scrambling to get up off the floor. Then, she rolled her head to her other side. She saw Felix, standing next to her. He had pushed Sonya off Navya.
“Sonya! Stop!” Felix shouted. But Sonya seemed crazed. She picked up a wrench off the floor and lunged at Felix. She swung the wrench directly at Felix, hitting him in his jaw. Felix was so shocked by what Sonya was doing he hadn’t put his arms up to defend himself. He fell toward the wall and Sonya swung again, hitting him in the ear.
Navya regained her composure and reached out, grabbing Sonya’s foot just as Sonya was lunging at Felix again. Sonya fell on the floor.
Felix then took his body weight and pinned himself on top of Sonya. Her small body didn’t have enough mass to effectively fight back while Felix took hold of Sonya’s arms.
“Navya, are you okay?” Felix asked Navya over Sonya screaming.
Navya nodded her head up and down and pointed at Sonya. “Yes, but she is definitely not okay.”
Sonya continued to squirm and scream. When Felix turned her over, she spit directly into his eye. He reached up and rubbed his eye with a free hand, giving Sonya enough leeway to get her arm free and she scratched at Felix’s arm, leaving a large red gash. He immediately put both hands and his entire body weight on her.
“Navya, a little help here please!” Felix looked around and didn’t see any sign of Navya. Only a few moments later Navya reappeared with a syringe. She impaled the needle into Sonya’s leg and depressed the plunger. Sonya’s struggle relaxed until she was unconscious.
TEN
The Message
Li sat with his arms folded across his chest, motionless. He floated while he listened to the last message. After hearing it, he played the last message back. He tried listening to it very carefully and furrowed his eyebrows as he heard it once again. It didn’t make much sense, so he played it one more time. It still did not make any sense.
Li gently pushed himself away from the console and floated toward the hatch in the room. As usual, his aim was true and he floated through the hatch into the main hallway running throughout the entire ship. As he passed the hatch, he reached out and grabbed a handle, changing his trajectory ninety degrees directly down the hallway. This entire ballet of movement had been done instinctively. Zero-g was second nature to him at this point, and Li had learned to navigate in the Seeker very adeptly. As he floated through the hallway, he kept thinking about the message.
He floated by
the research lab where many thousands of tests had been performed while on their journey. It was such a strange message. All the others had been nominal and largely-expected, but not this one. He floated by the Seeker’s communications hub where the hardware for the main antenna was located. It wasn’t yet time for the report; the satellite for communications wasn’t in position for a report.
Finally, he passed by an opening where he once again reached his hand out to a handle and changed his trajectory into another hallway. This time, though, he had to maneuver his entire body 180 degrees, placing his feet first as he moved. There were handles everywhere on the Seeker, but this hallway had rungs, like a ladder. As he moved feet first, he began to feel some weight on his body. He was feeling the centrifugal force of the circular g-ring. Once he reached the ‘ground’ floor, his full weight of 120 pounds presented itself to him.
It always took Li a moment to get used to walking ‘normally.’ He did enjoy the weightless experience more than the weighted one.
“Still having trouble walking?” A voice from behind spoke out, startling Li, making him fumble for a few steps.
“Jesus, Bailey, yeah, when someone scares the hell out of me, I do,” Li retorted. He quickly recovered his composure. “I received an odd communication.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?” Bailey asked.
“Come with me. We all need to hear this,” Li said as he began walking along the curved path of the circular ring. Bailey followed. On the other side of the g-ring, they found Dimitri, sitting, and drinking a beverage. Dimitri noticed Bailey and Li approach and raised his head to greet them.
“How nice to see you again!” Dimitri said, raising his cup with a mock toast.
“Long time no see,” Bailey responded.
“Ha, right.” Dimitri was about to say something sarcastic to Bailey, but he noticed that Li had a strange expression on his face.
“So, hey, what’s up?” Dimitri asked.
“A few minutes ago I received a report from Europa.” Li stopped his explanation there and paused for effect.
Bailey grabbed her beverage and sat down next to Dimitri.
“Didn’t we just receive a report from them a few days ago?” she asked.
“That’s the thing, we shouldn’t have received anything. Not yet anyway,” Li continued. “The com-sat around Europa hasn’t made its way back to the point where it could send the message.”
“So how did we get anything at all?” Dimitri asked.
“I was doing the regular checkup on our communications when I noticed a very faint signal. There wasn’t supposed to be anything in the wavelength at this time, so I focused on it and tried to get as much data as I could from it,” Li said.
“Well, okay, so the signal was from Europa?” Bailey asked.
“Yes, it came from there. Not only was the source from the direction of Europa, but I was able to pull some data from the signal as well.” Li paused again.
“You’re killing me here, Li. What did you get?” Bailey said.
Li relented, “The message I got doesn’t really say anything. At least, nothing that makes much sense. It seems to be a bunch of random noises and clicks.”
“A bunch of random noises and clicks? And you’re sure it came from Europa?” Dimitri interjected.
“It had to. The signal wasn’t strong, but it was on the same band we always get the reports from,” Li said.
“Maybe something is wrong with their equipment? A malfunction maybe? Or even a test?” Dimitri said.
“I suppose it could be. I mean, it had to have been sent by someone on the team, otherwise, there’s no way we’d even get that message at all. Another odd thing is that I don’t think we were supposed to get the message. The signal wasn’t aimed directly at us, but somewhere past us and we happened to be in its way. Without more data though, it’s very difficult to extrapolate and estimate where it was going.”
“That’s odd,” Dimitri said, trying to imagine what it could mean.
Li said, “I’ve already sent a message back to them asking if they’re okay. If we don’t hear back soon, we may have to head back early to make sure everything is okay.”
“When is the earliest we can leave?” Bailey asked.
“Realistically, about three weeks. We’ll see if we hear from them in ten days when their next report is due,” Li continued. “If we don’t hear anything by their next report, we should head back at the next window.”
“Yes, we’re scheduled to stay in orbit for another three weeks. I assume we can’t leave immediately even if we wanted to because we’re not in position.” Dimitri said.
“Right,” Li responded. “I had the computer run some calculations. Based on the positions of Ganymede and Europa right now, we don’t have enough fuel to leave now and get back to Europa. I’m hoping to get confirmation on that from Earth soon. We’ll have to wait for at least twenty-two days before we can do anything safely. The initial simulations from the computer say that on day fifteen we could do a burn that would put us on an intercept course with Europa. It’s not as efficient as the original, optimal plan of thirty-one days and we’d use up nearly all of our fuel to do the maneuver that soon. We would have no safety margin. No matter what though, after we do our burn, it’ll take several days to get to Europa, and then a few more days to be in the right position to use the lander.”
“Alright, we don’t need to make a final decision right now. Let’s wait to hear back from Earth and see what they say,” Bailey said and stood up, sipping her drink. “I’m sure it’s just the crew doing a test with their equipment. Once we hear back, we’ll know everything is fine. But if we don't hear back, then we can leave as soon as practical.”
They all nodded in agreement.
ELEVEN
Locked Out
After making it to Outpost One, Kato and Alice made their way underground to grab Little Missy. Like clockwork, they retrieved the drone and brought it up to the Nomad.
Alice was on the opposite side of the Nomad from Kato loading Little Missy when her suit chirped indicating an incoming call. It was from Navya. Alice accepted the call.
“Navya? What’s up?” Alice asked.
“Alice…..” There was static.
“Navya? I can’t understand what you’re saying,” Alice replied and then listened.
“....there wa…. elix…. can….. Sonya….attac...” Mostly static again.
“Navya, I don’t know if you can hear me, but I can’t make out what you’re saying. We’ll be back soon,” Alice said.
Alice and Kato had already loaded Little Missy and were about to check to make sure everything was secure and ready to go.
Kato tightened the last strap on Little Missy and hopped over to Alice.
“What was that? I thought Felix fixed the antenna on the Nomad,” Kato said.
“I don’t know,” Alice responded. “Lots of static. Something else didn’t seem right though. I think she was saying that Sonya was attacked?”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Kato said. “Attacked by what?”
Alice walked around the vehicle, making her way to the antenna on the Nomad.
“Our antenna looks fine. Let’s do a test to see if there’s anything wrong,” Alice said and she moved to the hatch on the Nomad. “Either way, we better get back as quickly as we can.” She opened the hatch and moved into the Nomad.
Kato finished the last bit of his work and also checked the antenna. Alice was right, the antenna looked perfect. He joined Alice in the Nomad and started the vehicle and began to move out of the hangar onto the surface of Europa.
Alice sat in her chair and began to perform tests on the antenna from her communication panel. After a few minutes, the tests were complete.
“All tests indicate our antenna is fine. Whatever is wrong, it must be on their end,” Alice said.
Twenty hours later the Nomad made its way back to its familiar place in the hangar. The moment the hangar pressurized, Kato and Alic
e opened the hatch on the Nomad and stepped out, eager to learn what was going on at the Habitat. Navya’s face was bruised in several places and was limping toward Alice and Kato as they exited the vehicle; she seemed stressed and was visibly worried.
Navya immediately began to recount the story of how Sonya had attacked her and Felix in the communication room. Navya and Felix had decided to tie Sonya up and lock her in the workout room.
Both Kato and Alice listened very carefully to the entire story. It was difficult for either of them to believe that Sonya would physically attack one of them.
“She’s in the workout room?” Alice asked Navya after she finished telling the story.
“Yes, I’ve had her locked up there. She hasn’t had anything to eat or drink since then. She won’t answer any of my questions either,” Navya said.
“And Felix? Is he okay?” Kato asked.
“Felix got hit in his left ear, rupturing his eardrum. He also got scratched pretty bad. I’ve done what I can, but he’ll have a slightly harder time hearing out of that ear for a while. He’s in the medbay right now. I was doing a checkup on him when you arrived.” Navya replied. “Come on, I need to finish.”
As they rounded the corner to the medbay, they saw Felix, walking down the hallway.
“Felix,” Navya said as she moved next to Felix. “I know you want to talk to Sonya, but I have to insist that you rest.” Felix begrudgingly made his way back to the medbay on the table.
Kato looked directly at Felix and said, “Felix are you okay? We’re all here now, so we can take a look at this while you rest.”
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