by Casey Herzog
Alphred nodded, unsatisfied but understanding. “I’ll leave you to get ready then.” The Commander’s eyes squinted, seeming to gaze off into some far distant space. He was definitely puzzling something out. “I think I might review the mission docket for your expedition. How many of our people are going out to help the Europans?”
“Ten, I think,” Peter said. “Showing willingness to help them in their work is a big part of the next phase of reassurance and integration, so it seemed important to show we were willing to commit meaningful numbers to help them through their work.”
Alphred nodded. “Thank you, Peter. Good luck out there.”
Peter was the last to assemble at the main holding bay. The others going out were all half way through putting on their EVA suits and checking their equipment. As he stepped into the room, he was greeted with smiles by Nisha and the others from his crew, as well as respectful nods from the Europa colony geologists and meteorologists who would be analyzing and risk assessing the new fracture lines that had appeared in the moon’s ice layer.
Grabbing a suit from the wall, Peter began to dress as quickly as he could, knowing he’d be holding up the others if he took too long. Still, it had been some months since he had been forced to do any EVA work, and his hands seemed to have forgotten the intricacies of putting on a suit quickly.
“Stupid thing. I swear the suits the colony use have different locking mechanisms than ours.” Peter grumbled loudly, earning a few chuckles from Thomas and even some of the Europans who were listening in.
Nisha, who was fully outfitted except for her helmet, pulled off her gloves and gave a heavy mocking sigh. “I’ve got to dress you now? Honestly, between this and having to coax you out of a closet you’d gone to sulk in, anyone would think I’m your mother.”
There were a few more laughs and Peter smiled as he watched Nisha quietly lock his suit’s pieces into place. She wore a smile of her own, her teeth brilliantly white. As his eyes met hers, he found his breath halting momentarily.
“Hey, are you about ready?” Minerva chimed in, impatience and irritation obvious in her voice. It’s a long drive to the nav point, and the mission timer started clocking five minutes ago.”
Peter’s brow knotted and his eyes flickered to the Martian in annoyance. Had she really requested to join the expedition force just so she could make jabs at him?
Nisha took a step back from Peter and handed him his helmet. “I trust you can put this on yourself.”
Peter smirked and raised the domed helmet over his head. Feeling for the catch, he locked the suit up and powered up the onboard computers. The little terminal on his right wrist lit up and an array of important data and suit system functions also displayed on the inside of his helmet. “Okay, I’m good to go, team.”
CHAPTER 16
The journey across long stretches of the Europa’s landscape in large trucks was the single greatest experience Peter had ever had. The drivers were competent and sped across the ice with great speed, the vehicles often pulling off insane drifts and turns as they wound across the continental plane toward their destination. All the while, Jupiter loomed large overhead, a brooding behemoth of storms spiraling in an eternal dance that held Peter’s attention for whole stretches of the drive out to the anomalous ice crack.
“Hey, are you going to hog the view port all to yourself? Give someone else a turn will you.” Thomas gave him a nudge, and Peter reluctantly shifted out of the way for someone else to admire the moon’s wonders. The view port was small and, in bulky eva suits, it really was one person at a time when it came to admiring the view. Peter envied the drivers in their little compartment at the front of the truck.
Even clad in a thick space suit, Minerva was always easy to spot, partly due to her greater height, and also owing to the fact that she was the only one who insisted on carrying a spear in her hand inside the trucks. As he watched her, seated in the back of the vehicle by herself, Peter decided he may as well take the time to talk to her. She had made a point of boarding his vehicle when they had set off, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was waiting semi-patiently for him to say something to her.
Sitting down by her side, Peter put his hands on his knees and turned his helmet to face her. The glare of the lights inside the truck meant that he could only just see the outline of her face. He tapped the controls on his data pad and opened up a private channel to her.
“You alright?” He knew he should probably have found something less generic to ask, but it was still hard conversing with Minerva since she had become so changeable. It was even harder now, when she was encased inside an EVA suit, and he could not see her expression.
“You don’t have to sit next to me to open a private comm channel you know. You could easily have stayed where you were.”
Peter’s mouth set in a hard line. Minerva clearly was not going to make this conversation easy for him. “Look, if you’re angry with me about something you’d be better off coming right out with it rather than giving me the silent treatment. It’s getting old, and I’m getting tired of having to second guess you.”
“Second guess me?” Minerva’s voice seemed hurt, but still very much annoyed.
Peter plowed on, reasoning it was better to offend her and try and find closure to their issues than back off and let the awkward distance between them grow ever larger. “Yeah, I’m having to second guess you. You’ve been pissed off with me ever since I called for Dean to be locked up for striking a colonist. I get that bit. You’ve always put loyalty to our own crew ahead of the Europans here. I understand that, even if I don’t agree with it. What I don’t get is why you’ve been stalking me around the base with that pissed off look on your face for weeks on end. If you can’t stand the sight of me and don’t want to talk, then quit jumping in on everything I do.”
Peter thought he heard Minerva sniff, but it could just have been static on the line. “Do you remember what I said to you when we had that little heart to heart a few months back? I told you I am not going to let anything happen to you because you’re all I’ve got out here.” Peter felt a chill pass through him as Minerva spoke in a cold tone. “You’re right; I am angry that you had Dean locked away. I think that was really bad for us and split our people right down the middle. But what really ticks me off is just how you keep painting targets on yourself for people to take pot shots at. You’ve already been attacked by our own people. I don’t want to see that happening again. So, yes, I have been following you about, but only because I want to make sure you don’t get stabbed in the throat by some lone wolf from Neptune cohort looking to get revenge for Dean.”
Peter bit his bottom lip and closed his eyes shut as frustration took ahold of him. He had come so close to patching things up with Minerva before, or at least creating a new understanding between them. Now this? There would be a lot of trouble if he let Minerva in on the secret, told her why he had become even more of an activist for the Europan’s cause over the last weeks, why he had suggested locking up Dean. If he could only explain to her that he was acting under orders from the Admiral.
He was silent for forty-eight seconds. The handy dial in the corner of his helmet screen keeping a running timer on the conversation for his convenience. Something snapped in Peter at that moment and he decided he would tell Min the truth. If there was any way of recovering their friendship fully, he had to be honest with her, and he had to trust her to keep a secret. He opened his mouth to speak but noticed suddenly that the comms line had been cut dead. Minerva must have cut the feed when he had failed to give a quick answer to her. He considered patching through to her again, but thought better of it. He didn’t want to risk setting her off into a real rage.
After another hour and a half of driving, the crack line along Europa’s ice layer was visible as a long trailing line on the horizon. This was what the drivers in front said, anyway. For those in the back, the side view ports offered only the same vistas they had seen the entire journey. It seemed even t
he wondrous sights of Europa could lose their appeal after five and a half hours of watching it from a small window.
“Mr. Gabell.” One of the drivers from the colony had opened up a private channel.
Peter had been close to drifting off in his suit, and he reflexively moved his hand to rub his eyes before realizing the dome of his helmet was in the way. He yawned and tapped his data pad to answer the call. “Yes, what’s going on?”
The voice came through uncertain, shaken. It brought Peter to full life and attention. “It’s probably nothing, sir, but we just had a blip in our systems.”
Peter tensed and looked over to Minerva. Her head was turned to the view port and she didn’t seem to be paying him the slightest heed. “Do you want to define a ‘blip’?”
“Routine communications to the colony, Sir,” the man explained. “We send an update to Europa colony every hour and give our map coordinates in case the vehicles give out or something else goes wrong. Our last check in wasn’t answered over the comm relays.”
Peter frowned. It was probably nothing. Even on the Unity, scheduled check-ins were sometimes missed. The business of mindlessly calling someone to let them know you were alive and to hear that they too were alive was tedious and on the whole pointless. Still, after what Alphred had told him earlier, Peter couldn’t help but worry a little. Once again, he looked back to Minerva, who still seemed to be uninterested in the back. “Have you informed Commander Tharsis? She is the highest-ranking Unity officer accompanying this mission.”
The man in front didn’t answer right away. “No, I put this straight through to you.”
Peter had figured as much and blew out his cheeks. “Right, open up a comm to her and let her know the situation...and try not to mention you’ve told me this first. We need to be seen as going through the proper channels.”
“Yes, Sir, sorry for my mistake, Sir.”
The comm channel went dead, and silence reigned once more in Peter’s helmet. He waited for a few minutes, expecting a call to come through from Minerva at any time. His eyes checked the bottom left corner of his screen for an icon letting him know he had a call, but none came.
Five minutes passed, then ten. Peter was growing desperate for news and decided to open up the channel himself, calling to the driver in the front. “Hey, did you relay your concerns on to Commander Tharsis?”
“Yes, Sir, I apprised her of the situation, and she asked me what our standard protocol is for such a lapse.”
Peter waited for the man to elaborate, but he didn’t. “And what is the standard protocol?” he prompted.
“We continue our course and continue to check in. If after three attempts the colony doesn’t respond, we turn around and abandon the mission.”
“That’s three hours...heck of a long time to wait. How long till the next check in?”
“Twenty minutes, sir.”
Peter frowned. It was too long for him. “Do me a favor. Can you make the call every half an hour instead of the hour?”
The driver was silent for a moment. “Y... Yes, I can do that, Sir. If I can ask, is something wrong?”
Peter frowned. “Just call it a precaution.”
“Very well, Sir. I’ll send the next call out in ten minutes.”
Ten minutes came slowly, and Peter watched his chronometer with mounting anxiety. He had to remind himself when the ten-minute mark came that it would take time for the driver to try and secure a connection with Europa base; he was unlikely to get an update from the man for another five minutes. He was just about to make the call to ask for information when the truck they were in began to swerve. The movement in the back took the passengers by surprise, and Peter felt the crewman next to him press against his suit as they all tried to keep their balance. There was no need to look out the viewport to know in which direction they were going. The way the truck had careened in such a wide arc, it was obvious they had done a complete 180 and were now returning back to Europa base.
Minerva opened up general communications as soon as she had righted herself from the sudden swerve. “Report, what is going on?”
“We’ve been recalled, Commander. The base is reporting system trouble...something to do with some kind of fire? They said the incident has been contained, but to err on the side of caution, we should return to base at once. They’re going to send an incident team out to meet us part way.”
Peter didn’t like the sound of it. Without bothering to set up more private channels, he just spoke into the open comm line. “Why would they send out an incident team?”
“Could be all number of reasons, Sir. If the fire on site was bad enough, maybe they can’t have us re-enter straight away. Could be they are coming out with extra fuel and oxygen supply.”
“They said it was a small incident though?” Peter pressed on, still not comprehending why such an incident would require them to be met by another team of trucks.
“Something on your mind Peter?” Minerva asked the question in a clipped voice.
“Yeah, do you know who you spoke to on the comm channel when you got through to Europa base?”
“No one I know. I thought it was one of your people, to be honest.”
Now, Peter opened up a private channel. There was no sense worrying the Europans out with them if his suspicions were wrong. “Minerva, this is important.” He said the words quickly before she could think of cutting off the private line. “Alphred mentioned to me earlier that the fleeing Secessionists shuttles were passing over Europa about now. He wasn’t definite about anything, but I know he was concerned. Call it a gut feeling, but I can’t help thinking something’s happened.”
“An attack?” The annoyance Minerva had held in her voice when talking to Peter before was gone as professionalism sunk in.
“I don’t know. As I said, it’s just a feeling.” Peter expected Minerva to respond. Instead, he was greeted with a momentary silence. Then out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the driver had been added to their private chat.
“Can you play back your conversation with Europa base just now? I want to cross reference the voice with those we have on file.”
“Good thinking,” Peter praised, and he listened carefully to the message that played back to them.
“Yes? We have your signal report please?” The voice that spoke was definitely a man. By his heavy breathing, it sounded like he had just gotten off a treadmill.
“Coordinates in bound. Is everything okay there? We had trouble connecting to you before.” They listened as their own driver’s voice came over.
“Yeah...we’re fine, just some localized trouble. A small fire broke out, and we’ve had to isolate a few systems in the facility.”
“A fire? Has anyone been hurt?”
“No, we’re fine.” The strange voice went silent then spoke again with sudden conviction. “Okay, we’ve got your coordinates. Your convoy better come on back. We’ll send out an incident team to meet you.”
“If you think that’s best. We have more than enough fuel and supplies to make it back to base and wait it out for a few hours if there is problem re-entering the-“
“-Just call it a precaution.”
The driver sounded uncertain as they replied. “Very well, return home to Europa base; we’ll look out for your incident squad on route. Stay safe over there.”
“That definitely didn’t sound like anyone from Pluto cohort. Can’t say I know everyone from Neptune though.” Peter voiced his thoughts as they came to him.
“I’m isolating the voice now. I agree though, it doesn’t sound right.”
Peter could barely contain himself as he waited for the results to come through. “Well, do we have anything?”
“Don’t pester me. I’m just doing a second analysis. But, yeah, the first one came up negative.”
“This sucks. Our suit comms don’t have the range to contact our people directly.” Peter breathed a deep breath as he made up his own mind about things. “The team they’re sending
out to meet us has to be a trap.”
“Probably,” Minerva agreed. “If the Secessionists have landed on Europa and are trying to take the colony, they could not have picked a better time. A whole sixth of our military strength is stuck in these stupid trucks thanks to you and your, ‘Let’s help the Europans with their work schemes.’”
Peter didn’t appreciate the mocking impersonation Minerva did, but let it go. “Make a complaint against me to the Chiefs later if you want. Right now, we need a plan.”
“Well, we have spears, thanks to my insisting we remain armed at all times, I might add. But we’re not in combat armor. These EVA suits are civilian issue. Without grenades either, we’re looking at a serious disadvantage if we’re to turn this into a fight.”
Peter nodded. “Even so, the enemy is sending out a team to intercept us by the sounds. That’ll thin their numbers straight out if we can avoid that ambush. As to the rest, we have two heavy trucks. As far as brute force weapons go, we couldn’t ask for much better.”
Minerva laughed. “Glad to hear you get into the spirit of things, Peter. I think I’d better take over the controls then if we’re going to do this.”
CHAPTER 17
The atmosphere in the trucks had changed. The members of the Unity sat in perfect silence, backs straight and spears held firmly in hands. They were still a long way off from their destination, but battle readiness was a state of mind, and the crew preferred to keep their bodies wound tight, ready to be uncoiled and flung upon the enemy they had come to space to fight. The comm feeds were mostly quiet. Preparation for a battle was a very personal thing, and everyone had their own private rituals.
In the cockpit of the EVA vehicle, Peter did not have the luxury to be quiet and mentally prepare himself. Minerva had installed him as her co-pilot, and he was now busy checking the sensors and formulating plans of attack, while simultaneously trying to get a long-range signal through to their people of Europa base.
