“I wouldn’t count on that,” Mara retorted.
“How are we going to get back without the water we need?” Reese asked with concern.
“I don’t know. Has anyone tried the comms yet?”
“No,” Dr. Aman said. “Calling now.”
Julian came into the room buttoning the next to last button on his shirt. He still had his boxer briefs on with unstrapped sandals. The emergency lighting had turned him into a silhouette. His thin gray hair was standing straight up, and it glowed in the backlight. “Someone tell me what’s going on,” he said.
“Zephyr may have cut our power before launch,” Reese said. “We’re running diagnostics to check for problems, but we’re definitely not getting any power from their side.”
Mara looked out the window again, searching for anything odd. She suspected Johan would play his full deck against her and the crew to leave, but she didn’t think he would go so far as to strand them on the moon without power or fuel. It seemed extreme, even for him. “If they leave us like this, we won’t have much more time here,” she said.
“What are we going to do for fuel and water?” Reese asked again.
“Calm down. We have all the water we need right here,” Mara said, gesturing outside the window. “The ice can be converted to fuel…”
“But it needs to be melted, filtered, tested.”
“It will,” Mara snapped.
“Zephyr is not answering,” Dr. Aman said as he flipped off the communications. “Is there enough power to get a message to Copernicus?” he asked.
“Yes,” Reese answered quickly.
“Patch me through, we need to tell them what is going on right now,” he said. He turned to another bank of monitors and prepared to send a briefing to Commander Stenner.
“We go on back-up power,” Julian said to Reese and Mara. “Save the primary. And we need to start figuring how to power this operation if they leave us.”
“Are we set up to do that?” Reese asked.
Julian shrugged his shoulders. “Not really,” he said.
Mara interjected by raising her hand. “Conserve as much of our battery as we can for life support. All we need to do is contact the Zephyr and have them top off our tanks before they leave. It’s possible that Johan forgot. I can see the tanks from right here. Maybe someone should go over there and let them know we need filled up?”
“Keep trying the comms,” Julian said. “If that doesn’t work, we’ll go over and check on things. And put us on back-up power right now,” Julian reiterated. “Essential systems only.”
“Affirmative,” Reese stated.
“We’ll be good on back-up until we can get this sorted out,” Mara said.
“And if they leave us?” Reese asked.
“Then Johan is a bigger ass than we thought,” Mara answered. “We need to start coming up with ways to make our own power.”
Julian nodded yes. He was brainstorming. “There is a lot of equipment at the lab that could help. Maybe we should go over and see what we have,” he said.
Mara turned to grab her bio-suit. “I’ll go with you,” she said. “Once we get their I can always walk over and check on the Zephyr. Our first goal should be to get what we need from them. And keep trying the comms,” she ordered Reese.
Reese fidgeted with the console as she continued to check for power. “This could be bad,” she said. “Really bad. What are we going to do if they won’t give us the power or fuel?” she asked.
Mara didn’t answer. She thought about the situation at the Zephyr. Hanson had left angrily early that morning. She wondered if he was ok. She wondered if he had managed to mount a mutiny against his captain as she suggested, or maybe his attempt at one had been unsuccessful? Or, perhaps the Zephyr was damaged in the fighting? Whatever it was, she knew it wasn’t good, and she worried about every scenario she could think of.
Sol 16; Mission time - 09:49
Mara and Julian were rummaging through the lab equipment near the sample room when a message came in from Mission Control. It was a recording in response to the briefing from Dr. Aman. A voice could be heard through the monitors on the wall.
“We’ve contacted Astromine corporate, but we are still waiting for them to tell us what’s going on. They say the latest report indicates the Zephyr was planning to leave at morning sol due to unsafe conditions. That is all they are saying right now. They are also denying that power was ordered severed to the Hab One. They are worried it is a systems malfunction and they are awaiting word from their crew. That is the only information they are giving at the moment.”
“Astromine is also accusing us of not being as prepared as we needed to be for a mission of this scope. They are citing dangerous conditions and other unknown factors as a reason for them to abandon the mission, but they wanted to preface that they had no word from their crew so far this morning that a departure was imminent.”
“I have to say, the news outlets here are not being kind to us. People are demanding an update. They believe we may be acting recklessly with regard to our objectives based on the things they are hearing from Astromine. We’re in damage control mode here.”
The man on the monitor paused, gathered his thoughts, and then he continued slowly.
“Right now, we are ordering the Hab One to stay on minimal power until launch, or until we can restore ties to the Zephyr. We haven’t alerted the media to your present condition, but we will only be able to hold them off for so long before they know of the circumstances. When we miss your briefing from the surface today, it will be hard to continue to deny there is anything wrong. I can tell them communications are momentarily down, but that will only work for so long.”
“We’ll begin looking into the emergency measures we can take if you are abandoned on Europa without water or fuel. The important thing is to not panic, there are things that can be done, and we are working on them from here.”
“Good luck, crew. Mission Control, over.”
It was Nathan Bergman with Mission Control who had been speaking.
Mara leaned against the console after hearing his message, half believing this was a drill, or maybe a bad joke. The other half was terrified at the possibility of being stranded on Europa with dwindling power and zero means to melt the vast quantities of drinkable water and rocket fuel they were blessed with. The prospect of dying on top of an ocean of water and fuel that they did not have the power to melt into usable materials had crossed her mind.
She prepared a return message. Mara held a prepared statement from the crew in front of her and cleared her throat, then depressed the record button into the console.
“Dr. Mara Parrish responding via the laboratory at Hab One. Situation here is currently stable. Battery back-up power is down to fifty-three percent. We estimate we have thirty hours. We continue to run vital systems only. Still no contact with the Zephyr. Still no obvious signs of a launch on their end. There is no sign whatsoever that they intend to fill our tanks for fuel or water. Repeated attempts at communication have been unanswered. Julian and I are sorting through the laboratory equipment for sources of power should we be stranded on the surface.
I’m sure Stenner and Luis can fill you in on the rest from the orbiter. Situation here is critical, but currently stable. Hab One out.”
Mara watched Julian filtering through the technical equipment inside the lab. He had caught the very last of the recorded message as she signed off.
“We’re dead in the water without Astromine,” Mara said to him.
Julian sighed and looked at the communications equipment next to her. “It’s strange we haven’t heard anything. If they were going to launch, they would have done it by now,” he added. “I’ve got solar panels arranged outside the airlock, but it won’t give us much juice. I’ll have them wired within the hour. I’m not sure what else we can do to keep our batteries
charged. There isn’t a lot of useful equipment here to produce electricity,” he said.
“Maybe the miners are in trouble?” Mara suggested as she looked out the window. “I spoke to Hanson last night. He said the crew was very restless. Maybe I should go and check it out?” she suggested.
Julian sent a disapproving look. “If I tell you not to go would it even matter?” he asked.
“That’s all you had to say,” Mara said.
She began to move toward the airlock and push the buttons to release her outside, but just as she was waiting for the door she saw a distinct flash of light. It was just a flutter at first, but then it quickly grew into a tremendous glow that forced her to look directly at it. It was coming from the specimen room. It was a bluish-white, intense, pulsing light.
It started to change colors. Then it undulated in intensity, changed hue, and returned to the same pulsations as before. She was captivated by it, momentarily lost in the spectacle, paralyzed by it.
Julian noticed her, wide-eyed, looking behind where he stood. He turned to look at whatever it was she was seeing.
The specimen room was awash in light. He took a step back when he saw it. The light was so great that it spilled under the door and onto the floor like a fluid. The ceiling and the walls of the lab glowed like neon. As Mara had seen before, the creases in the door, even the hinges, were allowing slivers of light to come through. The door became almost transparent. The light was nearly bursting through the thin, but opaque, metal. It had become difficult to look at. Hands went up before their eyes like shields.
Julian began slowly walking toward the door. He turned his head away from the light as far as he could, peering out of the very corner of his eye. His hand went tight over his forehead, shielding his pupils. He turned to Mara with a worried look.
Her accident — the cut on her thumb. She remembered the blue light that had proceeded the quake. Rays of the heavenly bluish light were streaming from the room again as if to share an announcement — a proclamation so great it could not be contained inside a mere storage room, or the lab, or the moon itself. Mara looked upon the light in fear. To her, this was a dangerous omen, more than an omen, it was an admonishment.
She quivered at the sight, and her hands began to tremble. The instruments she held in her hands fell from her grasp and clanked on the floor. She felt herself giving in to panic. She was not in control of her own body, knowing a quake was coming — coming for her.
She felt something in her bones again. Something inside her being. It pierced her in the heart the way an arrow would, silently and stealthily. This light, the light that had portended the previous disaster, was going to kill them, all of them. And she could feel it, inside her, inside her very veins filled with her blood. She could sense the intent of the animals creating the heavenly light.
“Julian,” Mara yelled. “Your sensors!”
Julian turned from the light and accessed one of the monitors on the wall. He pulled his glasses from his eyes and quickly rubbed them on his shirt, then put them on his nose again, as if the phenomenon could be better understood through cleaner lenses.
He thought quickly. He pulled up his readouts from the seismometers. He began to check the monitors on the wall, bristling through screen after screen of the twisted and squiggly lines that ran across them. He leaned closer into the readings with a bewildered look on his face.
“Something’s off,” he said. “According to this, there is trouble nearby.”
“Trouble?” Mara asked. “A quake, or an eruption?”
“Something else. A disturbance… maybe. Something is happening. They’re telling us something. I think they are trying to give us another signal. We’ve seen this before. But never… never as strong as this…”
Julian continued to study his monitors. “I’m triangulating the potential epicenter based on the readings,” he said. He typed on the keyboard and ran some numbers through the computer. “According to the seismic monitors, we’re looking at something near the fissure,” he followed. He turned to face Mara with a worried face, waiting for her to respond.
“Should we be expecting another quake? How big?” she asked.
Julian shook his head. “I don’t think it’s a quake. We’re still at least twenty-four hours until max tides. Besides, the pattern is different. Look here. Something odd about this signature. I haven’t seen this before. Seismic readings are different too.”
The light from the sample room wavered behind them as they watched the monitors feeding them information. The light pulsed to near darkness and then returned and brightened the room again. It lent an unnerving mood to the entire lab. The signals were more in control of the situation than the scientists. Ominous patterns were cast onto the walls from the equipment strewn around the room. The scientist’s dark shadowy figures rose and fell and raced across the room as the light undulated around them. It teased at them and frightened them with the mysteriousness of this place, and yet it graced them with a beautiful and intoxicating light.
Julian pointed to one of the monitors. “I can tell this is close. Look at the early triangulation,” he said. “Something is disturbing the vents… and I don’t think it’s natural.”
A signal from the comm-link suddenly came upon the monitors overhead. It was the Copernicus orbiter. A flashing red light said “incoming message” over and over. Julian and Mara were so distracted by the lights that they had nearly missed it. Mara hit the button to receive the communication. Luis came upon the screen when she pressed it.
“Luis, I’m guessing you are seeing what we are seeing?” she asked.
“Seeing what? What is that behind you?” he asked.
“The creatures. There’s activity near the fissure. Signals from that direction indicate a disturbance. It doesn’t appear to be natural. Can you see something from the orbiter?”
“I think I may know what it is,” Luis replied. His voice grew solemn, knowing he was bringing her bad news. “I’m afraid that’s why I’m calling you. I’m sorry Mara,” he said. “Hanson has told his crew what we’ve found. He told Johan so they could take it for themselves.”
Mara wasn’t sure what she was hearing. She couldn’t believe the words, even though she was sure she heard them correctly. “What are you talking about?” she asked.
The light from the creatures continued to undulate around her, and the silent wavering of colors was only lending to her confusion, making it difficult for her to concentrate.
Luis continued. “I knew we couldn’t trust them. You just can’t trust their type.”
Mara was still trying to determine what was happening. Luis repeated it several times to her, but it didn’t make any sense.
She asked him again. “You are telling me Hanson told them? Is that why we’re seeing this?”
“It had to be him. I’m looking at the surface imagery now,” Luis said, scrolling through his orbital images off the screen where Mara couldn’t see them. “Who else would have told them? I can see mining activity underway at the fissure. There appears to be two crawlers out near the edge of the opening. Is that what you are seeing on your seismic readings?”
Mara couldn’t speak. She thought Hanson could be trusted. He had won her trust. She wondered if she had pushed him too far. She wondered if the things she had said to him had backfired. She was humiliated by the news, and she lowered her head in anger. “Do you have a copy of the imagery?” she asked. “I want to see it.”
“Sending now.”
She looked back up at the screens. The monitor displayed an image from hundreds of miles above the surface of Europa. It was enhanced, and grainy, but when it zoomed in it showed two large vehicles traversing their way near the edge of the fissure.
“Hanson!” she said under her breath. “Why?” She stared at the image. Her jaw fell loose, and her hands began to shake. They clenched tightly into fists.
Julian took a step toward Mara and placed a hand on her shoulder. The images were clear. More readings came in from the fissure. The activity was accelerating, and the light signals were increasing. Mara knew their discovery, and all the potential they had for them, were likely being ground to pieces below them.
She stared into the monitors and watched the lights dance on the walls with a sense of fury she hadn’t known possible.
Then she felt it and sensed it again. The strange sensations were washing over her. she sensed it within her soul. She felt the anger and the disappointment and the betrayal. And she felt it all inside of her. The lights, the rage, the sense of helplessness, all of them hit her again. It was too much. Whatever these sensations were that she had been having, they were overwhelming her.
“Those signals are a warning,” she said to Julian. She turned from the monitors to check his reaction.
Julian looked intently at her, then back toward the monitors. “Are you suggesting they are creating the quakes?”
Mara held her eyes steady. “They are protecting themselves,” she said. She looked at Julan, expecting a disagreement or an argument, but he said nothing. He had a puzzled look on his face while he stroked his beard nervously.
Mara sensed the quake was going to be big. She had to get away from the crew, or from the mission itself. She charged out of the room and toward the Hab.
“Mara?” Julian called as she walked away.
She burst through the airlock before he could follow her, and she walked the lonely distance to the Hab, across the cold and barren ice fields. When she arrived there she went directly to her bunk room and slammed the door.
She was devastated. She looked out the window. The large metallic framework of the Zephyr loomed at her in the distance. Her mind raced for ways to stop the miners, but there wasn’t anything she could do.
She stared upon the icy plains outside. The anger she felt had ignited something. There was a sensation that welled inside her she hadn’t known for some time — a determination that felt frighteningly new and strong.
Diamond Moon Page 34