Europa (Deadverse Book 1) (8 page)

Now it was everyone’s turn to be completely confused.

“Mr. Ignacius,” Gary said, trying to be as polite as he could be, “You’ve been missing for ten hours or so already.”

Glorin stopped short of the small ramp to where the five mission members stood. He looked around and then back up at them.

“That’s impossible,” he said, “I just walked into this room maybe five minutes ago. I’m not sure since none of my gear works. But yeah, it really hasn’t been that long.”

Charles looked around at everyone, then back at Glorin. He began walking down the ramp into the small room. “Are you sure? Is it possible you just got distracted and have been looking at this stuff for hours?”

“Oh, I’d love to do that,” Glorin said, the huge kid smile popping on his face again, “Just look at all this.”

“Concentrate, please,” Charles barked.

Glorin spun around, his lips squeezed shut, clearly annoyed. “No, CAPTAIN,” he spat, “I just got here. Then you came with me, just now.” He turned around and walked back towards the columns.

Gary walked up to Charles and pointed at their breathable air gauges. “Captain, his digital air feed is off. He probably only has a good hour of air before his CO2 levels in his suit get toxic. If he’d been in here that long, he’d be dead. We completely forgot he was on the digital air feed. If we had remembered that, we probably wouldn’t have even come in after him.”

Charles turned clumsily in his suit and looked right at Connie.

“What?” she asked.

“Tell me you know what’s going on?” Charles asked.

“Captain, you need an astrophysicist, or something like that. We sent a bunch of engineers and lab monkeys because we just wanted to dig this thing out. No one thought we might need an expert on temporal distortions when digging out a ship from ice.”

“Can someone tell me that what I think is happening, is actually possible?” Charles asked out loud.

Jenna chimed in. “Do you even see where you are? What kind of a question is that?”

The captain spun about and walked down the rest of the ramp up to Glorin.

“So, can we even say what might be happening out there?” Charles asked.

“It doesn’t matter. We need to get the professor out of here as soon as we can or he’s gonna run out of air, here, there, or anywhere,” Gary pointed out.

“And how do we get out?” Connie asked the obvious.

Loud laughter erupted from Glorin’s helmet. He turned around, sporting that kid smile again.

“That’s clear,” he said, stepping towards the large sphere. He stopped just under it and suddenly shoved his arm into it. “We ask it.”

- Ben –

It had been a rough couple of days. They only had enough air for two days really, more or less depending on how everything went. The entire crew had watched as the five volunteers had vanished under the hull of the alien vessel, disappearing beneath it like sailors lost in a storm at sea. It had been disheartening to see them go like that. Still, he had maintained hope. Charles was a capable man.

But that day was the last they had heard from them. Seven days had passed. There was very little hope left.

The crew took it as they could. Thomas was the most visibly shook up, while Cary and Susan grieved in their own manner. Otherwise, the mission was essentially over. Two days after the crew had vanished into the ship, the next phase of the plan was put into motion. The main mission had been to try to extract anything of worth or value from the alien vessel, but if that were impossible, then the crew would setup the vast quantity of probes and drones that would remain behind on the moon to continue studying the vessel, remotely, from Earth. A large communications array was setup along with the hydrogen reactor that would power all the devices left on the moon. Little drones would sweep through the ice extracting the fuel for the reactor and power it for twenty to thirty years. NASA expected to be back with an even larger mission in the future if this one ever failed, as it appeared it was destined to.

Setting everything up had kept everyone busy, which was better than thinking about the loss of friends. But while the crew worked, Ben had been waylaid by even worse problems. Communications with Earth had come to a standstill. Joyce let Ben know that Captain Charles had still been receiving data up to a few days ago, but that all NASA laser links were completely dead. Ms. Hunter had been sending regular radio messages back to Earth on various channels, but there had been no responses. Ben hadn’t even been able to let Earth know about the losses.

He had spent an entire day with Joyce going over all of their equipment to make sure it wasn’t something wrong on their end. It was during this work that he detected hints of nervousness in Joyce, which was unusual for the overly confident woman. Something else was going on, but at the moment, there were other pressing matters.

With a sigh of exhaustion, Ben sat at his lonely console. Everyone had reported in already and most everyone was already sleeping. By his monitor, only Geoff and Susan were still awake. Geoff was finishing off some drone maintenance for tomorrow’s work in the engineering dome. The last couple of drones needed to be driven out to the secondary hydrogen reactor and configured. Once that was done, it would be a matter of waiting.

Just a few more months on the frozen moon. The supply ships would arrive, Geoff would get the return vehicle assembled and they would leave. It was going to be a long two months, and one they would have to tread carefully without their doctor. Missing two engineers was going to make building the ship much harder and it take longer as well, but missing Connie was just a pain. She was responsible for the SEV and supply drops, so now Ben would have to get someone to train very quickly before the next drop was available. Geoff had volunteered, but Ben had already tagged Bobby on it. He was a smart kid and could get it done.

Ben looked at all the files in front of him on the console. Susan had already resubmitted her data for the food and water needed for the flight home. The issue was that there were less people heading home. Less people meant less food and water, and also meant less weight. He would need a new flight path to counter the change in the vessel’s weight. NASA would have to provide it, but he couldn’t talk to them. If it came down to them, it was going to take some time. He could do it, he just didn’t want to.

And that’s why he was paid the big bucks. Of course, truth was, he was doing it all for free. It was cheaper that way, since he was running. Running from a failing marriage. He didn’t want to face her anymore, so when NASA approached him as one of the candidates to lead the mission to Europa, he had offered his services for free, in hopes it would entice them.

It had.

Of course, 365 million miles makes the heart long for those you love. After thousands of messages back and forth, he reconciled with his wife. Sometimes, not being able to scream and yell at each other was the trick. Now he just wanted to get back home.

He had hoped to get back with a clean conscience. None of it had been his fault, he knew it, but it didn’t take the reality away that he had lost six people under his watch.

“I think it’s time you get to bed, Ben,” a voice echoed over the speakers at Ben’s console.

Startled, Ben looked over at the audio stream and tapped the button. Geoff’s face popped up on the screen.

“How?” Ben asked, rubbing his eyes.

“You must have left the microphone on,” Geoff explained. He had listened to the mission commander working in central for the past hour.

“I recognize those breaths. They are breaths of exhaustion, like mine.”

Ben scanned the video. “You done down there?”

“I am. Everything ready for tomorrow. Any luck with the communications?”

“Nothing. Joyce has some ideas she is going to work on over the next couple of days. She’s good at it and will figure something out,” Ben added. “By the way, have you noticed anything off about her?”

There was a pause and Ben saw Geoff on the monitor turn around and look away from the camera. For a moment, he looked up as if looking at the sky. Then he turned back to the camera.

“Weird,” he said.

“What?”

“Nothing. I thought I heard something, rattling. Anyways, what did you…,” Geoff began, but was interrupted by the sound of a loud crash. Geoff spun around.

“What the hell…”

Suddenly, the world started to move.

Directly in front of Ben was a large red button. It was a joke to the rest of the crew. The panic button. Ben had used it just three times before, and on all three occasions, it was just to make sure it still worked. In the video stream on his console, Ben could see Geoff running off, stumbling as crates came crashing down all over. Ben began to feel it too, as the floor under him began to crack. The sound of splitting ice cracked through the room, piercing his ears. The last image he saw on the video before it went out, nearly made his heart stop. On the far side of the dome, the wall vanished. The white was replaced by the utter blackness of space. The dome had cracked.

Ben reached out and slammed the button and the base came to life with the scream of the alarm.

“Earthquake?”

- Horace –

They all thought he didn’t have any problems sleeping. He was the cool, calm and collected one on the base. They all had to talk to him, and he had to help them. That was his job. And he had to do it with a smile on his face. He couldn’t let them on to the fact that he had lost friends, too. Sure, the captain didn’t like him, but he and Gary enjoyed spending time together, and Jenna was always cheerful. He relied on her cheer to get through many days.

Now, all of this had happened, and she wasn’t there. Instead, he had to shoulder the weight of everyone’s grief. It wasn’t easy sleeping at night. Sometimes, he needed to use sleeping pills or alcohol. Tonight had been one of those nights. He had taken the pills just ten minutes ago, so they weren’t supposed to take effect yet, but there, for a brief moment, something was wrong.

He was floating.

Horace wasn’t sure how long he was floating. It was a great sensation, not unlike when sleeping pills first started to take effect. Problem here was that he was very aware.

“What the…” he started to mutter out loud before the ceiling came crashing onto him.

The shock was immediate and the room was an utter mess. The base alarm sounded off, but the alarm right outside his door wasn’t working. All he heard were the alarms down the hallway. There was a strong hissing sound coming from somewhere too. His room was compromised. Horace stood up quickly, nearly falling over in a dizzy spell, and felt the blood gushing down his head. His mind was cloudy, but he remembered one thing from training: if anything goes wrong, get in the suit.

Each room had a suit. Each hallway had a suit. Each dome had several suits. They were all there for a moment like this. On the far side of the room, the container holding the pressure suit had cracked, spilling the bright white material out onto the floor in front of him. He dashed over, nearly tripping over his chair. He got into the suit quickly enough, and put the helmet on, turning the seal. On his wrist, he tapped a screen and air began pumping into the suit. He felt the blood rushing down his face and instinctively went to brush it away with his hand, but slammed his gloves into the helmet visor, startling him.

“I wonder how bad it is,” he spat out loud, drops of blood flying off his mouth and onto the inside of the visor.

He took two steps towards the door and immediately felt the unevenness of the ice floor. It had shifted at an angle. The gravity was all wrong, as the magnetic strips that lined the floor under the ice were all wrong and his boots weren’t working right. With a small hop, he reached the door, and saw the frame bent. The door didn’t budge when he tried to open it, so he stepped back and with one kick, sent the door flying into the hallway and himself spinning backwards into the room. He had forgotten about the gravity.

There was a crackle of static in his helmet and Horace remembered about the com links inside them. He tapped his wrist tablet and brought up the app.

“Anyone there? Anyone know what is going on?”

There was a hiss on the other end, some static and some broken up words. Then it got clear.

“Mr. Tarner?” Ben’s voice chimed in, clear, “Are you alright?”

The psychologist found himself nodding before he spoke.

“I think I’m OK. Hit my head pretty hard. What happened? Earthquake?”

“Icequake. The plates shifted.” There was a pause. “At least that’s my guess. I haven’t reached anyone yet.”

“I thought this spot was supposed to be free of quakes?”

There was no response. Horace walked out into the hallway and vertigo instantly hit him. It was a twisted and warped maze and for a moment, he thought he might be trapped. When he looked in the other direction, he saw the ladder that lead up to the living dome, still intact. He hopped over to it, using the twisted sides of the hallway walls to help him along. There was a light coming down through the hatch above the ladder, and with a strong tug, he tested its strength.

“Here goes,” he said, licking blood off of his lips. It was still flowing, and he needed to get it checked out as soon as he could. He hoped he didn’t need Gary for it.

“Are there any safe places?” Horace chimed into the helmet com link.

Static filled his ears. “Horace, I don’t even know who is alive. You are the only one I can reach.”

As he pulled himself into the living dome, he looked around. It appeared intact. He hopped over to one of the two emergency consoles and checked it. The first one had no power. The other console was on the far side of the dome. Looking back, he saw the mess of fallen over furniture, cracked ice chairs and couches, splintered all over the floor. As he began hopping his way over, he stumbled as his magnetic boots picked up on working floor gravity. The sudden movement brought him to his hands and knees. As he looked up, he gasped as he saw a pair of boots sticking out from under a mountain of ice.

“I found someone,” he shouted into the helmet.

Horace stood up quickly, and felt dizzy. It was the loss of blood. He had to move fast. He moved over to the pair of boots and began shoving the ice aside. The ice crashed without a sound. They were in a vacuum. He stood back for a moment as stars began to swim in his vision. That’s when he noticed the other bodies. He couldn’t quite make them out, but they hadn’t made it into their suits. Their blood was frozen into the shards of ice splintered across the dome. He started counting, two, three, and then seven bodies.

Something was wrong.

Stumbling over the ice, Horace continued to dig out the ice from over the first body he had found. The pieces of ice floated off before falling away slowly. It reminded him of when he was first on board the craft that brought them to the ice moon. The fantasy of floating pens and globules of water. It had all been so foreign to him, and yet now, all too familiar. What would it be like for them to go back home? To Earth? How would they all handle it? How would he?

He uncovered the last chunk of ice from over the body and the sight stunned him. It was Captain Charles Hoarry. There, in the flesh, or what was left of him. Horace stood up quickly and fell over backwards, in slow Europa gravity. He laid there for a moment as the stars continued to swim in his vision. For a brief moment, the realization that he was bleeding to death hit him. Panic erupted in his mind, if just for a second or two. Then, warm peace came over him, and he felt himself slipping away.

The dome roof tore away at the last moment, and the gas giant, the father-god of the Romans, Jupiter, stood there before him. Millions of miles of raging storms taunted him, made fun of him. He was weak, alone, and on the frozen moon, 365 million miles from Earth; he was dying.