She was tired of letting things happen to her. She realized as she lay there, like George had taught her — she was going to fight. She was going to fight as hard as she could. She knew this time would be different. She placed her hand on her chest and she felt the ring George had given her. She closed her eyes and rubbed the circular metal with her fingertips.
She remembered George’s innocent way of telling stories; stories about appreciating and protecting nature from harm, or greed, or misuse. She knew that George had told her those stories so that she would have them here with her. He had wanted her here just for that reason. For just this moment. He wanted her to be here so she could be the one fighting for what they believed in, even when he could not.
She needed to do something, if not for herself, or the creatures below, then for him. It was as certain as the metal of the ring she felt was solid — she was going to do something.
When she opened her eyes, she rose from her bed and she returned to the communications room. She needed to make a difference. She was here to do something good, and now she knew what that something was.
She was going to call her crew together. They would take what they needed from the Zephyr, and they would defend what they had found below. She picked up the comm-link and she called the crew through the radio.
“Emergency meeting in the Comm Room,” Mara said into the intercom.
“Mara, is that you?” she heard Reese say.
“Yes, it’s me, and I need you to get in here. All of you. Those jerks abandoned us so they could get the diamonds, and we’re going to do something about it!”
Sol 16; Mission time - 10:45
“Aman and Reese, where are you?” Mara shouted into the intercom. “We all need to get on the same page here,” she said. “Emergency conference.” She began anxiously looking outside the room to find her crew.
They worked their way into the room and converged in front of her, walking through the doors at opposite ends. The crew was assembled in the communications room. Only the emergency lights illuminated the darkened space.
“We need to figure out what we are going to do,” she said. “The miners left us here for the fissure. That’s why they won’t answer our calls. And it looks like it was Hanson that told them,” she said. She could hear the disappointment in her own voice. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “This is my fault, but I’m here to fix it. So, what are we are going to do about it?”
“We’re on our own without them,” Julian said. ‘Johan knows we were lying to him the whole time. We can’t expect any of his water or fuel.”
Mara nodded in agreement. “We need to start making our own, and we don’t know how much time we have.”
“It’s hard to know based on these signals,” Julian said. “But whatever this is… it’s big. And it is still twenty-four hours until max tides. The signals have time to get stronger.”
“We need to think about all of our options,” Dr. Aman said. “We have time to move far away from the fissure. I suggest we move to safer ground. We can triangulate the signals and get as far away as we can.”
“We can’t abandon the Hab,” Mara said. “If anything happens to it or the return capsule… there won’t be any reason to survive the quake.”
Dr. Aman immediately argued with her. “We will not survive another quake here,” he said. “What happens if the Hab is lost into the fissure? Or the capsule destroyed? We’ll be dead if we stay. I say we take whatever supplies we can and get far away from here. We can come back and see if the Hab survived after.”
Mara could hardly believe what she was hearing. It was bad enough they were in this position in the first place, but now she was going to have to convince her crew not to abandon the mission themselves.
“If we stay here and start making the fuel we need, there is a chance… a good chance, that we could launch before the quake hits. I say we stay here and begin making our own fuel and water.”
Dr. Aman appeared unconvinced. He shook his head. “We take what supplies we can and leave this place,” he said. “Copernicus can drop more until a rescue capsule is sent. We could construct a shelter, bring the food and oxygen that would be needed with us. Make our own water from the ice.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Mara said. “You don’t have any idea how long a rescue team would take to get here.” She looked at Dr. Aman with an angry grimace. “What would we do without electricity, or a pressurized habitat?”
“We can make electricity,” Dr. Aman said. “There are ways to provide power to a battery system.”
“How?” she responded. They were standing close to each other as they argued, but Mara stood her ground. “How are you going to get a battery…”
Julian interrupted her. “Let’s stop it, both of you. We’re wasting time. We need to think of our best chance for survival,” he said. We have twenty-four hours. We can think of something better than abandoning the return capsule.”
The group remained silent, expecting Julian to offer his opinion, but when he didn’t, they began to stir.
“Well, what do you think?” Dr. Aman asked, looking directly at him. Everyone was evaluating the situation, but none of them were speaking.
“Maybe we could overrun the Zephyr. We can force Johan to give us what we need,” Julian said.
Mara scoffed. “How do we do that? We’re outnumbered more than three-to-one.”
“The miners are at the fissure. We could break in and hi-jack the rig,” he suggested. “Take what we need.”
“Sounds risky,” Mara said. “And you think they’ll just let us leave after we take what we want. We’ll end up worse than we are now.”
Julian sighed. “Well, there is a lot of equipment over at the lab. I can put something together to begin making our own fuel. I can go over and see what we have.”
The scientists all nodded, with only Dr. Aman objecting. “I am not sure we have time to create the amount of water we need,” he said. “We don’t even have an electrolysis system to split the water into fuel.”
“I can try to put something together for that too,” Julian replied.
“How will you do that?” the doctor asked.
“Maybe we can use the system at the Zephyr,” Mara answered.
“But we do not have power to run it, and neither do they,” Dr. Aman complained.
“I told you they have power,” Mara said.
“Can you patch into the system to send the fuel over here?” he asked her.
Mara hesitated. “Here’s what I am thinking,” she said. “I’ll go over to the Zephyr and see if I can patch into their systems and send what we need. Julian, you go to the lab and see what you can put together there. One of us should be able to find something we can use.”
Dr. Aman was shaking his head in protest. “What you are planning to do will require a lot of time,” he stated. “You are not even certain you can pull it off. I say we leave now. We can still reach higher ground in time.”
Julian began to speak over the doctor. “It won’t be easy to put together something to turn ice into fuel,” he said. “And if you can’t take what we need from the Zephyr?” he asked Mara. “What then?”
“We’ll find something,” she answered.
Julian looked at her with a confused expression. The Comm-link suddenly flashed an incoming message. It was Luis. With a quick press of the button Reese answered it.
“Luis?” she said, seeing his image come up on the screen. She started talking before he could answer her. “We’re coming up with a plan to make our own fuel.”
“A plan to make fuel?” he asked. “How?”
“We’re going to try and use the electrolysis system at the Zephyr,” Julian answered. “It’s sitting right there outside the rig.”
Luis looked concerned. “Can you do that?”
“We are going to try,” he sai
d.
Mara came over to the communications monitor. “Luis!” she said, from behind Reese.
“Mara, good, I wanted to speak with you. I can see the grinder heads extending into the fissure from the crawlers now. We just orbited for another look. I’m afraid it looks very bad. I hate that Hanson has done this to you.” He shook his head for her to see.
Mara clenched her fists when she saw the latest images. “I’m going over there. Somebody has to try to stop them.”
“No Mara, stay where you are,” he told her. “You don’t know what you are getting into. Stay away from them.”
“I need to stop them, Luis. Johan is trying to strand us here, and they’re going to cause another quake!”
Julian came and stood near the monitor with her. “You’re going to get yourself into a lot of trouble if you go over there,” he warned Mara. “There’s no telling what they will do now that they have something to fight over. Look, there are other things we can do. We can contact Mission Control. We can file an injunction with them in the courts.”
More images were coming up of the crawlers at the fissure. Mara’s gut was twisting. She was beginning to struggle with her breathing. “I’m not waiting for an order from Mission Control, or Astromine, or some injunction,” she said frantically.
“There is something better we can do,” she said. “If this is the wild west, I guess someone has got to be the sheriff.” She spun around as fast as she could and left the monitor.
“Mara,” Luis yelled. His voice became more and more desperate as she drew further away. “Mara!” he shouted again. “Don’t do anything stupid!” He continued to yell at her as she stormed toward the airlock.
Mara shouted at Reese as she reached the doors. “How is EUNICE?” she asked.
“EUNICE? Why?” Reese answered.
“Come with me. We’re going to go stop those assholes.”
CHAPTER 19
Sol 16; Mission time - 12:20
Mara and Reese walked the short distance to the Zephyr in the darkness of the Europa night. It became apparent from the outside of the rig that it had been left deserted. When they arrived at the airlock they found it locked. Johan had been smart enough to lock it while he was away. There was a keypad on the exterior door. “Can you override that?” Mara asked Reese.
Reese gave it a cursory look, but Mara could see she was not certain of her ability to hack it.
“There has to be another way in,” she suggested.
They started looking around the facility for a hidden doorway or panel. There were airlocks, vents, and loading docks all around the vessel. They would have to check all of them if they wanted inside.
They began to walk around the large facility. There was an airlock around the side where the crawlers had been. The massive machines that had been at the base of the structure were noticeably gone. Mara wondered why she hadn’t noticed that before. She saw the tracks from their large treads leading away toward the fissure.
She walked to the loading area with Reese behind her. They were at the back end of the facility, the part of the rig where the raw mineral ore and other mining debris was stored, sorted, then sent through the machinery in preparation to be refined.
Mara found two conveyors for raw materials extending away from the rig, each leading from the exterior staging area toward a small square door set in the exterior paneling. The conveyors ran through a chute and entered the rig near two larger, oversized doors, each big enough to drive a storage bin into or out of for transporting raw materials.
She could see how the materials would be fed through on the conveyors and taken through the chutes to the smaller openings, then into what she assumed would be more storage bins inside. The conveyors were each covered with a fine mesh material, a necessity in near zero-gravity where the materials could nearly float away on their own with enough velocity.
She studied the arrangement and realized the conveyor belts would possibly lead them into the entire facility.
She signaled to Reese to come her way. “You want to crawl through these chutes with me?” she asked.
Reese took a long look at the equipment. “There is a power button on the conveyor over there,” she said while pointing her finger. Reese walked a short distance to the loading area near one of the belts and hit the button.
Warning lights began to flash and the smaller doors at the end of the chutes opened, waiting for materials to be fed by the conveyors into their hungry mouths. The belts on the conveyors began working towards the doors, running through the mesh tunnels, and then dropping into the opening before returning on the underside of the conveyor.
“I’m going in,” Mara said, and she began walking to the end of one of the conveyors.
“You gonna fit?” Reese asked.
“I better,” Mara said without thinking much about the consequences.
“There’s an emergency shut-off button here. I’ll stay and push it if you have any trouble,” Reese suggested. “Open the doors for me once you are inside.”
Mara nodded and climbed onto one of the conveyors. She laid on her stomach and ducked down into the opening when she came upon the mesh tunnel. Her suit barely allowed her to pass through, but she fit. She began to ride the belt into the storage area. It grew dark as she progressed along the conveyor until the inside of the mesh tunnel was illuminated by nothing but the light of her visor. She descended through the tunnel without much trouble and began to wonder if she would be sorted into one of the storage bins at the other end or dropped onto a pile of raw materials.
“Reese, you hearing me still?” she checked.
“Yes, how much longer?”
“Hard to tell,” Mara answered.
She could hear her breathing becoming louder as she continued through the dark tunnel. The conveyor dipped slightly as she entered the rig, and suddenly Mara could see a drop-off approaching. The belt passed through the opening and dropped into a steep decline. She pushed herself up on her hands, gripping the conveyor belt to prevent herself from tumbling to the bottom. She held the rest of her body tight to the surface, creating as much friction as possible, and holding herself steady with the rubber tips of her gloves and the toes of her boots.
As the opening to the mesh tunnel approached, she saw a dim light beyond. She could barely make out what she was seeing inside. The conveyor was dropping into a crusher. The metal teeth of the machine drums were chomping at her as the conveyer belt ran to the end of the line and dropped into the grinder. There was little doubt where Mara would be when she reached the end.
“Reese, shut off the conveyor! Reese, you hear me?”
She was panicking. The conveyor continued. There was no answer from Reese.
“Reese, damnit! I need you to hit the shut-off!”
The belt continued. Mara began trying to crawl back up the belt. It was of little use. It moved too quickly, and she could see the teeth of the grinder looming larger and larger ahead of her.
She began looking for a way out. The mesh over the conveyor could be ripped. She clawed at it with her gloves. No use. She looked for another way. She would have to direct herself away from the grinder at the end of the chute. It would be her only chance. She began looking for anything to grab, anything that could give her leverage to move aside before falling in.
There was a steel bar running over the opening to the chute that was holding the mesh covering in place. It was a beam of some kind. She held out her hand to brace herself on the bar so she wouldn’t fall, the grinding teeth were directly below her. It was all happening so quickly.
“Reese, shut the conveyor off!” she shouted again. There still was no answer. Then it stopped. She held herself above the crusher, breathing heavily, thankful to still be alive. The teeth of the grinder spun slowly right in front of her face, and they slowed incrementally.
“Thank you! What was the prob
lem?” Mara asked.
“Sorry, shut off button was jammed, had to use the other one.”
Mara was flushed with a shot of adrenaline. She could feel that her heart rate had increased, and her breathing was labored. She was suspending herself over the grinder as the teeth wound down, slowing from their loss of power. She curled herself up tightly in the chute, trying to get her legs around in front of her. She held tightly to the steel bar and then lowered her legs over the grinder, which had thankfully stopped spinning. There was another half-meter she would need to reach before she could touch the sides of the machine underneath with her boots. She stretched to place her foot at the top of the machinery, but it was no use.
She lowered herself as much as she could, hanging from the framework. Her feet were searching for something, anything, to catch herself on. Finally, after lowering herself as far as she could, her toe found the frame of the grinder. She gingerly began to transfer her weight upon it. Carefully balancing herself, she lowered her second foot upon it. She now had to find a way down from the top of the massive processor without falling.
One step at a time she began descending the large machine, balancing for her life above the large processing room of the rig. She could start making out the contents of the space she was in. There was the grinder that she stood on, which led to a digester, and a large pressure tank that cooked the raw slurry. She saw pipes leading to a series of large tanks for precipitating the ores from the other waste material. The precipitation tanks were on drums, each spinning to create the centrifugal forces that would be needed in zero gravity to settle out the impurities. The precipitation tanks then led to a smelter and reduction pot. Mara could see where raw alumina was separated by electrolysis, and pure aluminum crystals were collected at the end. The entire process was squeezed efficiently into the back of the rig. She looked around and saw there were other smelting pots, other means of refining raw materials scattered around the room. She saw that there was a set of machinery for nearly all the types of precious metals that could be harvested in space right here on this one rig. It was an impressive set-up, and she wondered how much the entire operation could take in annually. “It would have to be a lot,” she thought, just judging from the investment in the equipment needed to run the operation.
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