Quantum Publishing Group
www.QuantumPublishingGroup.com
Copyright © 2013 R.T. Carpenter
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Quantum Publishing Group,
a division of AppIt Ventures, LLC., a Colorado Company
www.AppItVentures.com
Quantum Publishing Group and AppIt Ventures are registered trademarks of
AppIt Ventures, LLC
Cover design by Tobias Roetsch
The Last Revolution-1st ed.
ISBN: 978-0-9898341-0-0
This book is dedicated to my family for their enduring support, and to Grandpa Bob for sharing the joys of creative writing.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Glossary
Prologue
Xander watched as Jupiter slowly rose over the horizon. The moment they’d landed on Europa the gas giant had captivated his imagination. He reached up and pretended to hold it in his hand. Their orbit on the tiny moon was so close he could almost touch it. What mysteries lived beneath the swirling gasses and hellish storms? The great red spot came into view. It was a storm larger than Earth, and one that had raged for centuries. Something of interest had to exist beneath the surface.
That was more than he could say for Europa. He’d spent years studying it. Confident beyond all doubt that life existed in the massive oceans beneath the frozen crust. The last time he’d felt like that was when he was on Mars. History had ended up on his side that time. All it had taken was a small sample of bacteria to rewrite humanity’s place in the universe. If it was possible to find life on our barren neighbor, what would that mean for a fertile ocean like Europa? Bacteria, crustaceans... vertebrates?
They’d drilled hundreds of holes, taken thousands of samples and spent more nights defrosting equipment than he cared to remember. But what had they achieved? A few false positives and some frostbit fingers? He’d asked his only friend to risk his life and break international law to travel beyond the moon. It had been the same request last time, but the risk had paid off. The media accolades that had followed their announcement had kept them safe.
Nathan was inside his spacesuit, sprawled on his back beneath the drill rig. “Any luck locating the source of the data failure?” Neither of them mentioned it, but their celebrity status had long faded. It bothered him more than Nathan.
“I’ve unthawed several gears that were stuck together, but that wouldn’t cause the problem. Do you think it’s either the sub or the cable?”
“It’s possible. I can’t find anything wrong up here. Let’s go ahead and bring the bot to the surface.”
Nathan pressed several holographic buttons on his wrist deck. The large machine rumbled to life and slowly reeled the thick cable back in.
“The most recent data indicates the bottom of the crust is melting faster than anticipated,” Xander offered.
“We knew that would happen as we moved closer to Jupiter and the friction started to warm the core.”
“The calculations we ran didn’t predict this amount of corrosion to the subsurface ice structure.”
“Is it dangerous?”
Xander shook his head. “No, we have more than enough to support us. Just don’t jump around too much.”
Nathan smiled. “I’ll be sure to remember that when—”
Suddenly there was a loud snap, and the drill rig shook violently. The metal boom that guided the thick cable through the hole in the ice bent.
“Shut it off! Shut if off! It’s going to break,” Nathan hollered.
“I’m trying but the controls are unresponsive!”
Nathan jumped up and scrambled to the other side of the rig to manually shut it down. “What’s wrong with it?”
Xander typed as fast as he could to try and access the data. “I don’t know. I think the line is caught on something. This may be the reason we lost contact in the first place. Why haven’t you stopped the re-spooling process yet?”
“Nothing is responding!”
The metal arm violently lurched down and then it sheared completely in half. It flew from the metal cable like an arrow from a bow. Xander watched helplessly as the jagged piece hurtled towards Nathan. He wanted to yell or push him out of the way, but the lack of gravity made it impossible to react in time. The piece lanced off the ground inches from Nathan’s foot and then catapulted into the rig’s helium-3 tank.
They both dove for cover as it ruptured and a massive fireball exploded into the air. The force threw them into the side of their rover. The explosion raced several stories high before dissipating into the oxygen-less environment.
After several moments Nathan lifted himself off the ice. “You okay? How’s the suit?”
Xander pushed himself up with some difficulty and leaned back against the rover. “I’m okay and I think the suit’s fine. Let’s not do that again.”
They both looked up at the nascent smoke trail that lingered over the twisted metal of the tank. It wouldn’t take much for the heat to stand out against the endless expanse of ice. “Do you think that was visible from space?” Xander asked.
“We’re on the dark side of Jupiter. I doubt any of their telescopes could have picked it up.” Nathan looked off in the other direction as he brushed the snow off his arms. Xander watched him study the ice crystals on his glove. He ground them up between his fingers. “It’s amazing how fragile we truly are. All it takes is one mistake out here…”
Xander sighed. He’d known this was coming. The situation had been wearing on both of them. “These things happen, you can’t beat yourself up over it.”
Nathan shook his head. “That doesn’t cut it anymore. What would’ve happened to my family if I’d been killed? I can’t get myself into these situations with you anymore. I’m done.”
“Constantine and Stefan risked everything to fund this trip. We’ll find what we came here for. There’s life down there, I know it. We just need to push a little longer.”
“You know it’s not that simple. The world’s changed, we’ve changed. I know there’s a greater good in what we’re doing, and when we were younger I was happy to follow you on these crazy adventures. Heck, the risk of getting caught was half the fun. But it’s not about me anymore.”
“Do you mean Sasha? There was no way you could have known she was pregnant when we left. We planned this trip for years. She knew what she was getting into when she married you. You should be psyched that you’re a new dad.”
Nathan grunted. “If that metal had been a meter higher he’d have grown up without a father. For the first time in my life it just doesn’t feel that important. What kind of parent misses the birth of their child?”
Xander was speechless. They’d known each other since childhood. Nathan had always been the stoic one, the mission commander, the guy who could handle any problem. Xander never heard him speak like this before. It was true that things had become more perilous in recent years, but they’d always known this would be a dangerous journey. What was the fun in groundbreaking research without a little risk?
Nathan lifted himself off the ice. “Let’s clean up and head back to base.”
Mars this was not.
Suddenly the ice began to shake. The vibrations were so strong he struggled to keep his balance.
“What’s going on?” Nathan hollered. “Is the ice fracturing? Did we compromise the stability of the crust?”
He
scanned his wrist deck. “No, the ice sheet is stable.”
At that moment the black space above their head lit up in the most spectacular display of blinding lights. An object engulfed in flames appeared and then streaked past at supersonic speed. It was followed by a trail of debris as it hurtled towards the surface. Xander watched as it disappeared over the horizon. A moment later the ground shook with tremendous violence as the object made impact. An invisible shockwave slammed into them and they were thrown to the ice sheet once more.
Nathan scrambled back to his feet. “Get in the rover now!”
Both men raced to the rover and jumped inside. A giant plume of ice and fog rocketed into space where the meteorite had hit. Xander took as many pictures with his helmet camera as he could.
“What is this going to do to the integrity of the ice?” Nathan asked.
“I don’t know. The ice is incredibly thick, even with the sub-surface corrosion, but craters can easily be several kilometers deep. Whatever that was it didn’t look very big and the fallout’s not as bad as it could have been. We should be okay.”
Nathan narrowed his eyes and pressed the rover’s accelerator. First the H-3 explosion and then a meteorite impact; they either had the worst luck or the best. Jupiter still hung low on the horizon. I hope you’re protecting us. Xander ran several calculations on his wrist deck as they sped towards the impact site. “Something’s wrong.”
“Thanks for stating the obvious.”
“No. Based on my calculations the blast radius should have been much larger than it was. I compensated for the mass, gravity, trajectory, and surface structure. The blast should have mimicked an H-3 bomb detonation.”
“You’re complaining that it wasn’t as catastrophic as it could have been?”
“What I’m saying is there’s only one variable that would explain the reduced impact.”
“And what would that be?”
Xander’s heart raced even faster, his palms began to sweat inside his gloves. “It slowed down.”
As they sped towards the impact site he could see giant chunks of ice floating above the surface. They’d been ejected from the impact site, and hung in the air like a crystal fortress, stuck in suspended animation. Nathan weaved through the debris field with the precision of a fighter pilot. Their dull reflection appeared on the frozen blocks as they passed. The ice was so clear.
The full scale of the crater materialized in the distance. They were through. The rover came to a slow stop at the edge of the impact site. The entire area resembled a frozen crucible. At the center was a jet black boulder, perfectly smooth on all sides. It looked like obsidian, but that was impossible this far out into the solar system. Not to mention it would have shattered under the force of the impact. It also didn’t appear to refract any of the suns light, instead it seemed to be absorbing it.
“Have you ever seen anything like that?”
Nathan shook his head. “It doesn’t appear to be made of any mineral I recognize. It’s so smooth.” He killed the engine, and stepped out of the rover. “Do you think it’s manmade?”
“I have no idea.” Xander tapped his helmet to make sure it was still recording.
“Is it a weapon? Maybe the explosion gave away our position?”
“I’m not worried about that. There’s no way they could have pinpointed our location and reacted so quickly. What I am worried about is the force of the impact on the corroded crust. If the ice becomes unstable we could risk losing it forever.”
Nathan glanced over at him. “You can’t be thinking about going down there?”
“A few years ago it would have been your idea.” Xander returned to the rover and un-spooled the cord from the bumper. “You know what we’ve risked. That meteorite could be the answer we’ve been waiting for.”
Nathan put his hand on Xander’s chest. “As the mission commander I can’t let you go down there. You said it yourself, that ice isn’t stable.”
Xander wrapped the cord around his waist and locked it into his suit. “Let’s do what we came here to do. We need this. If not for yourself, do it for Sasha.” If things went south, they needed the insurance policy.
Nathan nodded, and removed his hand. Xander stepped back into the crater and rappelled down the side. The surface was surprisingly tacky and it afforded his boots plenty of traction. The ice was so pure it was almost opaque. It had the most arresting shades of blues and purples. Void of any oxygen bubbles or other contaminants, he felt as though he could see right through the ice. It was a feature he’d noted in the hundreds of core samples they’d taken around the area.
He had assumed the ice would be littered with eons of bombardments from comets and micrometeorites. Water geysers pumped fresh snow into the atmosphere, filling in depressions and cleaning the surface. He’d assumed that any particles that did land would have sunk into the ice as these new layers were created. However, their close proximity to Jupiter’s gravity must have spared it from the heavier potential impacts.
Xander had descended several dozen meters and was over halfway to his target. The object sat at the bottom of the bowl, patiently awaiting his arrival. The flat black exterior was so… perfect. He couldn’t identify a single abnormality. It reminded him of the smooth rocks he would find on the edge of the loch’s back home. It was the most basic, yet extraordinary thing he’d ever seen. The crater started to flatten out, and he inched his way closer.
“Hey, I’m getting some weird seismic readings up here,” Nathan said over the communicator. “This whole situation makes me uncomfortable. Let’s wrap it up and come back tomorrow.”
Xander ran his glove over the surface, but then took a step back in surprise. A very subtle pattern appeared in the black material where he’d made contact. It was an intricate pattern devoid of any curves or bends. Instead, there were only straight lines. It disappeared as quickly as it arrived. He touched it again. The pattern returned, and then vanished once more. This was not some random meteorite, it was an artifact. He was not leaving it behind.
Xander pulled several lengths of rope from his harness and then wrapped it around the object as tight as he could. A tremor from deep below the crater shook his entire body. He grabbed hold of the object to stabilize himself. Please be an aftershock. Then another, more violent tremor shook the area. A jagged crack ripped across the sloped ice wall to his right. It was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain his balance.
“Pull us up now. We have to get out of here! The crust is fracturing!”
“Forget the meteorite,” Nathan hollered back. “Get out of there.”
“I’m not leaving it behind!” Xander moved to the back of the object and gave it a push. It didn’t budge. He dropped his shoulder, and pressed the cleats of his boot into the ice. “Now!”
He could hear the rover’s engine struggling in the back of Nathan’s comm. The sound of another giant fracture reverberated across the crater. The crack to his right grew. It stretched down towards the center. He bent down and put all his energy into pushing the object forward. There was a moment of final resistance and then it popped out of the small hole it had melted into the ice beneath it.
He was able to push it over the flat surface of the crater with relative ease, but as they approached the incline of the wall, his progress quickly slowed. The slack in the line tightened and now it was up to the rover to do the heavy lifting. The tremors were growing more frequent by the moment. Xander held on to the object as it was winched out. There was a deafening roar behind him. His instinct told him to ignore the sound. Focus on the task at hand.
In spite of that, he stole a quick glance over his shoulder. Just as he did a massive chasm ripped the crater in half. His blood ran cold at the sight of the exposed void.
Xander whipped around. “Pull harder! We have to get out of here.”
“Cut the rock loose. That’s an order!”
“We’re not leaving it behind. We just need a few more seconds. Pull!” Xander dug his cleats int
o the ice and pushed with every ounce of energy he had. The break beneath them had reached up to several spots around the crater. A chunk of ice broke off beneath him and disappeared into the abyss. They were running out of time. He gave it one last push. The artifact slid over the lip and onto solid ground.
Xander groped for something to pull himself up with. His muscles were failing and he was out of energy. The bottom of the crater was breaking apart. Nathan grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him the rest of the way up. He collapsed to the frozen crust, gasping for air.
“Let’s get this thing onto the rover and get the hell out of here.” Out of his peripheral vision he saw a fracture cut through the ice beneath him. Before he could react it gave way to the void. He was going to die. Xander reached for the object, but his hand slipped off its smooth surface. Nathan dove across the ice and snatched his hand. He landed with a thud, but managed to keep his grip.
“Grab my other hand,” Nathan yelled.
Xander clasped on to his arm as tight as he could. He put all his energy into his free hand, and swung up, making contact. Nathan screamed as he turned and pulled him up over the edge.
Xander stumbled back to his feet. “I won’t leave it!” He picked up the rope that was still wrapped around the object and dragged it with them. Nathan picked up the other end and together they were able to throw it on to the back of the rover.
They jumped in and Xander gunned the accelerator. As they sped away he could see the extent of the growing canyon. Giant pieces of ice were breaking free from both sides. They quickly gained speed, but it was tough to maneuver through the field of ice boulders. He didn’t care if they were spotted from space. Xander pushed the rover beyond the safe zone for heat expulsion; one mortal danger at a time. His hands flew over the switches as he fired the stabilizers to keep them on the ground.
A crack appeared in the ice beside the rover and then quickly stretched out several kilometers ahead. He pressed the accelerator several more times. They were already traveling at the maximum rate, but it made him feel better. In an instant the fracture changed directions and cut to the left directly in front of them. The entire piece broke free. The back of the ice chunk dropped off into the void behind them and the front end arched straight in to the air. They were watching a small mountain take shape before their eyes.
The Last Revolution Page 1
