by T I WADE
Within the allotted time, the crew boarded the three ships with two dozen filled canisters, and the spiders already asleep. Two of the ships returned to the mother ship while Asterspace Three, with VIN aboard, went back to retrieve the spider at the base.
Minutes before takeoff the mining craft became too light to stay fixed to the surface. As they flew upwards Michael Pitt told VIN that the controls had gone a bit weird, but calmed down when they left the planet’s surface. They left the nuclear battery and the shield on the surface securely nailed down with pegs, to prevent their floating off into space. Since VIN didn’t know if the spider had opened up the whole underground system by burning through the metal wall, it was best to leave the equipment there.
They could partially see the moon Europa rising over the horizon as they climbed out of the thin atmosphere on their way to meet the mother ship. As they rose high, they could clearly see the closest erupting geysers down below. The clouds from the geysers weren’t falling to the surface anymore, but rising upwards into space forming massive white clouds.
Europa could be seen from America One each time they orbited Ganymede, but VIN noticed that the moon had nearly doubled in size since he had been down on the surface; it was very near to its closest path to pass the most outer moon.
“We are seeing slight variations to our orbit,” Captain Pete reported over the intercom as Michael Pitt also orbited the moon gaining height.
“I see a change of direction of 5 degrees every time we float out of the dark side,” Michael responded, “plus we seem to rise additional feet on the lighter side only.”
“I think it is going to be far worse on Europa,” Ryan commented from the Bridge. “So far we have only a 13-hour window on the next moon; we do not believe we will be affected by the proximity of Ganymede or the smaller Lo on her other side.”
“I only felt a noticeable change within the first several thousand feet,” Michael reported, with everybody listening in. “I would say below 10,000 feet, and now the changes in direction are being controlled by the onboard computers.”
“I believe Allen and I saw no variations, but we were already at a 12-mile altitude, when Asterspace Three left the surface,” added Jonesy. “We are currently at 27 miles and do not notice anything different. We might when we get back to where we can see Europa and exit the dark side in about an hour.”
They all felt gravitational pulls, even America One climbing at 250 miles altitude; the pulls were especially prevalent when they reached the line marking dark to light and Europa was directly in front of them. The change was serious enough to cause the crew to seal the cover on the pool. It was also strong enough to cause the liquid in a glass to slope at a three to five degree angle. Other than that, and a slight queasy feeling, nothing much changed, except the crew felt much better on the midlevel.
During the two days Europa passed close to Ganymede, the crew unloaded the canisters and delivered the contents to the lab technicians for analysis.
VIN was sad to hear that the diamonds weren’t diamonds after all, but perfectly formed water droplets. The temperature in the research room was lowered to deep freeze conditions to keep the remaining droplets frozen while they were separated from the ice and the metals that colored the white ice brown and silver.
After two days, half of the canisters had been opened and liquid from the melted “diamonds” totaled 292 gallons of absolute pure water. Ice from the second level was a 50/50 mixture of pure ammonia and dry ice, or carbon dioxide, and the ice from the third geyser was same weak dilution of sulfuric acid. The ammonia was a bounty but not the dry ice.
The metals took two weeks longer to detail, but the crew had salvaged eight pounds of titanium, six pounds of cobalt, and 170 pounds of the most valuable Rare Earth metals like rhodium, osmium and iridium, which was certainly worth the effort by the crew. Finally, 112 pounds of salt and two air tanks of liquid nitrogen gas were separated and collected from inside the frozen acid from the first load.
Hoping to collect another 1,000 gallons of water from the diamond droplets, Martha persuaded Ryan to send a bigger team to the third geyser and load up on as many of the frozen “diamonds” as possible.
VIN suggested that the crew go even higher up to look for even bigger water droplets. While the build crew of a dozen men filled canisters with millions of “diamonds” and loaded them into the three craft, VIN, Ryan, Boris, Roo and Tow returned to the shaft in SB-II to inspect the base for life.
Maggie and Penny landed the craft next to the shaft. The small blue dome was still in place and one by one the crew climbed out of the docking port. By now Roo was as familiar with the workings of Ryan’s ships as the rest of the crew.
Boris and Ryan helped to lower VIN down the shaft; Roo was next and his mother third. Ryan gave them an hour to look around; there was no power down there and communications were difficult.
Neither Roo nor Tow had ever been there. Tow told VIN and Ryan that they were going to stop off from DX2017 if a ship had come up to meet them; they thought they could only visit the planets which sent up craft to meet them.
VIN was lowered into the tunnel system several feet in from the shaft with the melted rock. It had taken the spider days to laser its way through the metal wall, and VIN‘s helmet light showed the same tunnel, except that he was only a foot inside the tunnel from where it turned right towards the forward cavern. Each of the bases had been built to an exact blueprint. He yanked the ladder and Roo began his descent. Roo would be able to easily open the doors, and if he couldn’t, VIN was not going to bother to cut through them or bring down a nuclear battery to power them up.
VIN soon found out additional efforts were not needed. When he, Tow and Roo entered the forward cavern all the main doors were already open and the place looked like a tornado had swept through it. In the central room he could see the silver metal globe that he thought to be this planet; Roo touched it with his glove and VIN’s telepathy told him nothing would happen. In the command room, the console was gone. He felt lucky though when he looked into the power room and found one black box, similar to the shield boxes he found inside the other bases. He immediately picked it up and handed it to Roo.
There was nothing else inside the power room. They searched the hospital room, or cryonics room, to find them empty of equipment; the cabinets were all there and all empty except for one that contained a helmet and half a suit; even the large air tanks were gone. It looked like Roo’s tribesmen had cleaned out the room piece by piece.
A quick inspection of the rear cavern determined it had also been vacated and within an hour they returned to the surface. Their only prize was another shield, which might or might not work.
On the surface, Roo said there was no need to close the shaft as no one would ever come back. They dismantled the nuclear battery and shield box, and SB-II left Ganymede within three hours of landing. VIN did not stay to help the crew dig for water droplets; after DX2014, digging for water “diamonds” was a bit of an anticlimax. The shuttle returned to America One with a disappointed group of astronauts.
During the next 65-hour window, the crew on the geyser’s dome filled every canister they had with a good mix of large water droplets and metal-grey ice; they tried not to shovel any white ice into the canisters. They had climbed another several hundred feet to where the geyser actually deposited fresh liquid with each spray, and the “diamonds” were twice the size of the tennis-ball sized ones VIN had found. Also, much to everyone’s surprise, real diamonds were found among the water droplets; there were not many, but a dozen diamonds didn’t melt when the temperature in the lab America One was raised. In total, nearly 4,000 gallons of valuable water was hauled off Ganymede, enough to get them to Titan, and back to this moon, if need be.
Ryan and the crew immediately decided not to visit Europa. Captain Pete was sure that the gravitational pulls were much stronger around Europa, and he proved it at a 300 mile altitude above the moon, where ten shaky orbits later they headed
out of orbit around the much smaller moon.
Twelve hours after Ryan ordered them to leave the weird gravitational pulls from the moons of Jupiter, Captain Pete swung the ship around in a 150-degree right turn towards where Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, would be in about 13 months.
Chapter 19
Titan
“A small but valuable bounty, Mr. Noble. You and the build crew are to be congratulated for a job well done,” Ryan commented three weeks later. All of the reports had come in from the dozen or so scientists working on the contents of the canisters from Ganymede. “Included in the new cargo manifest, we have 4,500 gallons of pure water, perfect for separating into oxygen and hydrogen. One of the most important finds is the ammonia, in ammonium sulfate, or NH3 I believe, remembering my chemistry; in solid form it is a remarkable find that will benefit our vegetation. We kept some of the sulfuric acid for further experiments, but the most common metal in the dust on the ice was titanium, 1,390 pounds of it.” Ryan was working from a list, and the list was a good recipe for extending the odyssey.
“Ti-tan-iiiu-uum, the metal you call titanium, is powerful and strong,” stated Roo in his new language. “We used it on Earth. Our ships were made of what you call titanium, and also a part of our metal walls on our bases on the planets.”
“Our spiders sure found that out!” laughed VIN.
“Yes, and Roo, I’m hoping that one of your people can show us how you melded spider silk and pure titanium together,” Ryan replied. “Our scientists are totally baffled by how your scientists managed to join these two wonders of the universe to create a stronger, softer material than we ever thought possible.” Roo did not respond, as that wasn’t his angle of expertise. He didn’t know what Ryan was describing.
“I really want to learn how these fantastic shields work,” was Igor’s wish. Again, Roo couldn’t answer, except to say that only the person with the rank of commander knew those things.
“Let us get on with our new list of treasures,” Ryan continued. “The following Rare Earth metals are, in order, the most common found, and are extremely important in the development of engine parts, batteries, and the sealants used aboard ship. We now have substantial quantities—three pounds—of rhenium aboard for the first time ever. We have added to our existing storage 97 pounds of silicon dioxide, 81 pounds of lithium carbonate, and as yet unknown amounts of two very special, much needed metals, lutetium and yttrium. In addition, we have added 50 pounds of rhodium, 48 of osmium, and 36 pounds of iridium. Included in the filings found in the ice were scandium, cobalt and nickel. Every one of these metals is an important factor in space travel. With the additional water supplies, we will have enough hydrogen fuel for twenty hours of rear burn for our mother ship’s engines, seventy hours of pulses from our mother ship’s rear pulsers, and of course, that doesn’t include the weaker ion drives fueled either by the nuclear reactor or our plentiful xenon gas reserves. We also have enough hydrogen fuel on board for 65 hours of small-craft propulsion, ten hours per craft, which is one landing and launch on a moon with less than 20 percent gravity from a 200-mile altitude. It might sound like a lot, but is less than 10 percent of what we left Earth with four years ago. Before Ganymede, we were down to 6 percent, and we used that 6 percent to get to the moon and back. So, we are still in a precarious fuel position until we find a large amount of water. Forty thousand gallons will fill two of our three main tanks, and we must find 33 percent of that on Titan to return to Mars on time. With less, we will still get home with the ion drives, but at greatly reduced cruise speeds, and that could add another ten years to our return journey. Remember crew, Mars will only be at its closest point to us for a 90-day period before it begins to lengthen its orbit away from our incoming direction.”
The scientists studied the new cargo for the next several months. The biologists continued to grow food, and the astronauts did daily stints in the flight chambers. The pool was a popular diversion for many, and five baby girls were born. Even experiments using light, and conception achieved while staying in higher gravity on the planetary surfaces of Mars and DX2017 produced girls. The increasing numbers of female babies aboard were causing the gender ratio to become very unbalanced.
Of serious concern to the doctors was the increasing number of miscarriages aboard ship. Maggie, Suzi and Kathy Richmond, all pregnant for the second time, lost their babies at the end of the first trimester. The miscarriages hit Jonesy, VIN and Ryan as hard as it did their wives.
Before the beginning of year five, and three quarters of the way to Titan, two more of the crew died, both males, and both over 65 years old. One was on Martha’s team and one on Suzi’s. There also was a possibility of a wedding on board, the first in four years; Fritz and Tow had grown extremely close. Only Dr. Nancy, the most beautiful single lady on board was still available and Captain Pete, twenty years her senior, was doing his best to change her status.
The German, Fritz Warner had grieved over the loss of his first wife for the first couple of years, but following his first meeting with tiny Tow, 24 inches shorter than him, he completely changed his attitude towards life.
Tow had also grieved for her dead husband for a few months, but it seemed that Tow and Roo more easily accepted death as a natural part of life than the rest of the crew. Tow appeared to have an urgent need to produce more children, and when she learned about Fritz’s loss, she followed him around even more. When the crew saw Fritz approaching, they always expected to see Tow following a few feet behind. She never seemed to walk next to him, always a few feet behind him.
The sun slowly diminished in size as they travelled farther and farther away. Doctor Rogers began to notice slight changes in the crew in their monthly check-ups, a large portion of his daily work with his wife Martha. Dr. Nancy spent time in other areas of the ship, often with Martha and Petra, studying blood samples from Roo and Tow, and also the remains of the tribe found on Mars. Even though most of the remains were nothing more than dust, they learned much from the slow breakdown of tissue, and could now determine the periods of time it had taken the bodies to return to dust. Others studied the material of their suits. Tow and Roo often helped out explaining where some of the materials came from. Some were from insects, some were cultivated crops, and others metal.
The seeds and other crops found on DX2017 were planted, and even Suzi was surprised when almost 10 percent of the crops actually grew. So old, and yet they still had life in them. Corn, wheat, barley, several other grains, and fruit trees germinated in the natural soil and began to grow.
Every day some new bit of information or something of interest was passed around the ship.
Mars, Saturn, and Lunar, as well as other babies, celebrated their fifth birthdays on the way to Saturn. The cocoa trees could produce enough to bake the special chocolate birthday cakes, often a couple each month.
The stores from Earth were long gone. The fine chocolates from Amsterdam, the beef from Iowa, the herring from Amsterdam, and the fish from the Seychelles were now only memories. Several of the crew became vegetarians. Tow and Roo were instrumental in starting that life style change. There had always been vegans and vegetarians aboard America One, but the numbers grew when they found out that this ancient African tribe admonished killing animals for food or their warm fur. Tow and Roo had never eaten meat, and some of the scientists were now arguing the concept that perhaps eating meat underlay the killing, destruction, and general rage inherent in humans on Earth over the centuries. Discussions occurred everywhere: in the laboratories, the cafeteria, and even the pool which Jonesy frequented as often as possible with Maggie and Saturn.
“It’s all over the ship that eating meat makes us kill each other. What do you guys mean?” Jonesy asked Martha, his “best friend”, and Dr. Petra Bloem, when Maggie invited them to join their family pool hour several months into the journey to Titan. Maggie hoped that her husband could get to enjoy Martha’s company.
“If we don’t eat meat anymore, then we won’t
bite or eat each other one day when we are very hungry?” asked Saturn Jones seriously. She was looking forward to her first sight of her name planet.
At five years old she was already two years into the ship’s school curriculum. On America One, kids began Kindergarten at three, mainly to help them converse in the English language. Many on board wanted the children to begin their educations at two, but language abilities at that age varied from child to child.
“Yes, Saturn,” replied Martha smiling kindly. “We think it will help.” Smiling at Maggie she added, “Who knows what our chief astronaut will do, if he ever gets hungry, and the schnapps runs out.”
Maggie smiled at the older lady. Her jabs at Jonesy always had a funny side to them. She knew that Martha certainly respected his flying abilities, but his other habits, maybe not so much.
“Some of us believe that animals that eat grass and plants are less aggressive than insects, or meat-eating animals. Saturn, think about how mean a cow, or a horse is,” Martha led the young girl.
“Well, I’ve never seen a cow or a horse, but the rabbits are friendly, and so are the chickens when Suzi allows us to help her and we get to pet them,” Saturn replied. “But in my science book about Earth, it said that horses can bite people, and even get angry and kick people.”
“Only if they feel threatened or are getting old,” Martha replied.
“I agree with the getting old part, especially getting-old scientist horses,” remarked Jonesy smiling, and resting on his back on a lounger, his eyes closed and an empty beer glass on a table by his left hand.
“Do they really have scientist horses Daddy?” asked Saturn.
“Of course not, Saturn!” replied Martha. “They are only in the minds of crazy pilots.” Maggie enjoyed the love/hate relationship between these two as Martha continued, unsmiling in her direct German way. “We are starting a research project on what would have happened if human beings had never eaten meat, and their brain patterns and bodies may have the changed. Since we have Roo and Tow and their ways of life to compare to what we are, for the first time in human history, we can artificially change the progression of humanity through the ages.”
