Europa (Deadverse Book 1) (5 page)

- Charles -

It was the closest she would get to the artifact, at least for now. Charles looked back upon the downtrodden Jenna. She had hinted to him more than several times that she was willing to go along with him and the soldiers ‘just in case’. That reason was why she couldn’t come along. Still, somewhere deep inside, he had almost allowed her to.

He liked her. She was the kind of kid he liked working with. He even liked calling her a kid, even though she was far from it. It was just that she reminded him of his own children.

The rover had brought him and the soldiers out on the ice plain. Deep below them, the artifact lay buried in ice. There was a large machine in front of him, one of the many plasma drillers that had been used to get to the artifact. Next to it was what amounted to a crane. It was used as a makeshift elevator that dropped down into the shaft which was about a mile deep. The shaft exited onto a small room carved out of the ice right above what was best assumed to be the entrance to the artifact. They were about to find out.

Charles was nervous and he knew why. It wasn’t because of the mission ahead of him, and therein lay the irony. He was about to lead one of the greatest missions of discovery in mankind’s history, and his mind was elsewhere. His dreams had been haunting him, and today, maybe especially today, he did not want to be on that moon. He knew what needed to be done, he just felt helpless. What was worse was that he was concealing the facts from his fellow crewmembers, especially Ben. That made it even more daunting.

“Let’s do this, captain,” came the sniveling voice of the mission’s xeno ‘specialist’.

Charles walked up the edge of the shaft and looked down, seeing nothing but frozen darkness. All of the soldiers had checked out; they were responsive and had the full mission parameters uploaded. Even then, their own AI software was extremely advanced, and he could give commands while under the ice. He was ready, too. He had trained for this specific mission in Antarctica three years ago. He knew what to do. It was the bumbling fool of an idiot he had to take with him that worried him.

“After you,” Charles said, pointing down in the hole.

The gangly form of Glorin came over. His helmet seemed too big for his tiny body and for a moment, Charles almost laughed at the thought of his helmet tipping him over. He wouldn’t mind seeing him plummet down the dark hole. Of course, the low Europa gravity wasn’t about to allow for his moment of pleasure. Glorin stepped back and looked up at Charles. The helmet LED lights glowed dimly. Most of the light here reflected off the face of Jupiter, as it took up most of the Europa sky.

Charles was about to step forward and jokingly push the man, but thought otherwise. How unprofessional that would seem.

“Uhm,” Glorin stuttered for a moment, “The soldiers go first, right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Charles said as he motioned for the first soldiers.

As automatically as they themselves were, the first two drone soldiers walked up to the edge of the shaft. Their metallic and carbon alloy mech suits actually glowed from the Jupiter light, making them look that much more impressive. Each was an exact copy of the other. There were no unique markings at all. That was the point.

“Command central, final check please,” Charles barked out into his helm.

“Loud and clear. Will follow descent on cameras,” Ben chimed in over the speakers. “Everyone is here watching. Good luck, captain.”

With that, Charles took a deep breath and nodded his head to the first soldiers. The soldiers designated #1 took a step forward, and for a moment, floated there above the shaft. Then, just ever so slightly, began to drop. Within a few seconds, he had vanished down into the shaft. The second soldier stepped up and repeated the same action, disappearing down the hole. A few minutes later, all but one of the soldiers had dropped through the shaft.

“Now it’s your turn, professor,” Charles said. He liked calling Glorin that.

Ignacius stepped towards the shaft and looked down. He looked back at Charles and the captain could see the fear in his eyes.

“I’ll be coming right after you.”

Glorin turned and took a step forward. Charles wondered if he had closed his eyes. A leap, or in this case, step, of faith.

As soon as the small form of Glorin’s suit had vanished down the shaft, the captain turned around and looked back at Jenna, who stood next to the remaining soldier by the rover. He waved, and walked backwards over the shaft. He felt the ground give away and for a second, he too was floating. Then, he felt that remotest sense of gravity begin to pull his body down.

Within moments, he was enveloped in darkness. He looked up and could see a small pinprick of light slowly growing smaller and smaller. He reached down, touched a button on his wrist and the lights on his helm came on. He shielded his eyes as they were too bright. Once they were dimmed properly, he looked around. He could reach out and touch the sides of the ice shaft. In fact, everyone descending was using this as a braking mechanism. Even in Europa’s fraction of gravity, you would keep speeding up.

He brought his other wrist up and uncoiled a small display. He brought up the data links with all of the soldiers, showing their vitals. He could pull up each one of their cameras if he needed to, but all he would get now would be darkness.

At about the ten minute mark, Charles checked on the status of drone #1. He brought up the camera, checked the link, and then was about to turn on its lights, but saw he didn’t need to. The camera showed an already lit cavern. The EUAs had done their job. Two were lodged into the ice walls, shining their flood lights into the room. Charles focused on the camera, but couldn’t make out much. He tried looking down, but couldn’t make out any light sifting up through the bodies still descending the shaft. The captain continued to watch his monitor as the drone soldiers emptied out into the lit cavern one by one. When he saw #19 empty out of the shaft, he knew he was close.

Charles closed his eyes for a moment and thought about the turmoil that was wrecking his mind. For the moment, he would have to try hard to forget it, but all he could think of was his family. He was just forming an image of her face in his mind when he collided, ever so softly, into Glorin. The short man had braced himself against the ice, slowing down his descent just before the shaft emptied out into the artifact cave, but had come to a complete stop.

“What are you doing? Drop through!” Charles yelled into the comm.

“What’s going on Charles?” Ben chimed in over the helmet speakers.

“This idiot is stopped here just at the end of the shaft.”

“That’s a seventy foot drop. We can’t do that.” Glorin’s voice was visibly shaking.

“We’ve gone over this. You will float down just fine, especially since you’re at a complete stop now.” Charles was really annoyed now.

“Seventy feet…” Glorin began, but Charles wouldn’t wait. Instead, he gripped onto the side of the shaft as best as he could, raised his feet up, and slammed down onto the little man’s shoulders, pushing him through. Screams filled Charles’ helmet and he quickly switched off the comm link to Glorin.

“Idiot,” Charles mumbled, allowing himself to follow through into the cave. “Every single one of the soldiers dropped through Ben, just fine, and here that idiot is getting scared. IDIOT!”

“He’s, uh, still screaming, Charles.” Ben pretended to act concerned, but Charles knew his friend. If he wasn’t laughing out loud back up in central, then everyone else was. For a moment he regretted his actions. He was sure to hear about it later.

He took a new look at the giant cavern. He looked around and quickly spotted the two EUAs, both on either side of the cave, frozen into the walls. Their flood lights reflected oddly blue light all over the cave. He was inside a diamond. He turned his head down and saw the spinning body of Glorin, his helmet LED lights shining as he spun about. He quickly voiced commands into his comm to soldiers two and seven to make sure they caught up. Further down, he saw both of the mechs spring into action, looking up. The rest of them were already taking point. Three of the soldiers had gathered the plasma drill that had already been dropped and were positioning it at the very edge of where the alien vessel disappeared into the ice.

That’s when he took gauge of the artifact. He already knew that it was nearly a kilometer long, shaped like a green crystal out of the depths of the Earth. But looking at it now, up close, he felt a moment of awe. He wasn’t sure if it was natural-looking or not. There were clear lines that ran down its length, as far as he could see. Either line ran parallel to the other down the length and sides. It was too even to be a fluke. There were ridges, like the bumps on a dinosaur’s back, long yet smooth and round. Towards its rear, or what they considered its rear, the ridges divided and covered its entire back end. Two large fins extended out, like a dolphin’s tail, but without the smoothness. Both were buried into the ice.

As he touched down, he was ready for a bit of an impact, but was caught off balance by his landing. It was soft. Too soft. He reached down and pushed himself up. Odd. Charles stood up straight, nodded slightly then knew what he had to do. From afar, the hull had the appearance of a crystal, solid. Pushing himself up though, the hull was almost leathery though. It felt…odd.

“Mankind has ever wondered if we were alone in the universe. Wonder no more.”

Ben opened up the comm link and Charles could hear cheering and clapping in the background.

“Good line,” Ben replied. “Going into the history books.”

The captain felt himself being spun around. He came face to face with the bright LED lights of Glorin. He could make out the angry face yelling inside his helmet, but he still had the comms off. Charles pointed up to the lights and tapped on the helmet. The angry face stopped moving, jaw clenched. In an angry sweep, the little man hit his wrist tablet and the lights turned off. He then started yelling again. Charles took a deep breath, then opened up the comm.

“…and I don’t care what they do to you! I don’t. I will have you expelled from the military, and your family, too! I will not have this…”

“Professor. The vessel. It’s soft.”

“…being done to me. I’m far too valuab….what?”

Charles pointed down at the surface of the artifact, where they stood. He got down on one knee, and pushed with his gloves into the surface of the vessel. When he removed his hands, the imprint, with all five fingers, remained for a moment, before filling in like sand. Glorin was speechless. Charles stood back with a smug look on his face; he knew that would shut up him.

Glorin began scuffling around the surface of the alien vessel, leaving imprints everywhere. He instantly took out what appeared to be a small scalpel from his side pack and began chipping away at the surface. He looked back in utter shock, surprise, and delight.

“It is completely soft to the touch, yet, I can’t pierce it with a carbon blade?” The professor laughed, cackling almost. “This is amazing. Truly amazing!”

“Ok, professor, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Stick to the plan.” Charles had already walked past him to where drones 3, 7 and 8 had moved the plasma drill into place over the apparent hatch. The EUAs had been studying the vessel for over a year now, once they had melted a layer around the entire thing. Echolocation, radar, magnetic resonance imaging and actual physical touch were some of the many tests that had been conducted on the hull of the vessel. It was interesting that the EUAs had never proven the softness or flexibility of the hull. It was only now, once they set foot on the vessel, that they discovered the truth.

Then Jenna, Thomas, and Emir with Connie’s and Ben’s help, poured over all of the data, and this was truly the spot that appeared to lead inside of it. Some imaging had shown a shaft that led down at least twenty feet that then opened up into a room. It was the only part of the ship that had such an entrance. Even there, just above the shaft, was a circular indentation.

“If that isn’t a hatch, I’m not a sailor.” Charles pointed over at the drones and they went to work. Before even using the plasma drill, the three drone soldiers crouched down and began looking over the hatch to see if there was any manual entrance available. No point trying to burn through it with high heat plasma if they could just open it. The scoured with their hands, pushing against the hull, feeling with their fingers. The advantage they had was that their mech suits were like an extension of their skin. They actually felt what they were touching as opposed to Charles and Glorin in their suits. It was to the drone’s advantage. Charles was a bit jealous.

Only of that though. Charles had never worked with drones before. Well, wrong choice of words. Worked. Military top command instructed them to say serve, instead of work. They were human. Charles knew it. He had been at one of the central drone commands in Fort Benning. He had watched as thousands of men and women crawled into the mechs and had them shut up around them. They were then lowered into a vat of siliconious gel and their minds were put to sleep. It was disturbing, to say the least. Like a coffin.

He had heard stories of mercenaries outside of the military doing the same, but their mech suits were generally of a lesser quality and build. Horror stories of these guys never waking up from the deep sleep were common-place. Still, many sought solace in the deep embrace of the machine.

The machine.

Charles felt a shudder rise through his skin. For a moment, reality came flooding into his mind. He forgot he was on Europa, and instead, found himself back on Earth. His heart began racing as he thought of his family.