Starfire

by B. V. Larson

  He staggered back a few paces. It was a hole. A hole in the ice.

  He tried to contact Kira, but there was only static. Much of the radiation on Europa came in the form of radio waves, so there was interference on every channel.

  He trudged back toward the ship, wondering about what he’d found. He felt fairly certain something had come up from that hole in the ice. Something that had investigated their ship with interest.

  Wondering how many rounds it had taken, and how tough it might be if it could live after being shot, Lev only looked up at the ship again as he came close.

  He almost dropped his rifle into the dark snow. The ship had tipped over onto its side.

  Lev began a skittering run over the ice toward the ship. When he was close enough for his radio to work, he heard an emergency tone.

  “Kira?” he called. “Can you hear me?”

  “Lev? Something’s happened. Come help me.”

  He’d forgotten his primary duty in the excitement of the hunt. He cursed himself for getting distracted.

  Chapter 58

  Europa far orbit, Aboard Starfire

  Starlight

  The crew of Starfire let their ship glide into orbit over Europa. They carefully took passive readings of the moon during the approach. They continued scanning everything they could get from outside sensors as the ship swung around the frozen moon. Their orbit was highly elliptical, but they did nothing to correct it as this might demonstrate they were capable of powered flight.

  “We’ve found them—I’m sure of it,” Dr. Tanaka exclaimed over the broadcast channel. “The Russian ship is right in the middle of a large crater in the ice. The region is discolored and darker than usual, and it corresponds to where the projectiles struck the moon earlier.”

  “Are they transmitting anything?” Sandeep asked immediately.

  “Yes, telemetry back to Earth,” Yuki said excitedly. She was glad she had discovered the ship first. She’d done precious little on this trip other than tinker with her drone.

  “What are they reporting?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “It’s in code. I can’t get anything out of it.”

  “Right. Good work anyway. Let’s meet in the planning chamber and decide how we’re going to proceed.”

  Yuki felt a surge of pride. She’d been omitted from planning meetings up until now. She’d only been invited to meetings that were really briefings, informing the crew what had already been decided. She hurried to the chamber and made it there first.

  “We’ve got them pinpointed,” Tanaka announced as the other two arrived. “The ice here is unusually dark. Maybe that’s why they chose this spot.”

  Sandeep and Linscott leaned on the planning table, their palms making parts of the huge touchscreen glow, ready for gestured commands. They stared intently at the new data, which Yuki distributed by flicking files at them with her fingers.

  “That dark area—what is it?”

  Sandeep and Linscott looked at Yuki. After all, she was the expert on the topic of ice and seas.

  She felt a little flustered, but she zoomed in to show them what she had so far.

  “See this? A curl of dark ice? I’ll draw a line from there, to here.”

  She worked with her fingers, stretching and conjoining with over-image tools that were meant to highlight portions of a projected report. The software was limited, but it served the purpose well enough.

  “See this? These two curls are mirrors of one another. That matches up with something else I’ve seen.”

  They looked at her. She smiled. They didn’t know. They hadn’t been given the reports from Barrow. This was to be her moment.

  “I was up at Lab 126 when it was hit. Up at Barrow.”

  “We know that, Dr. Tanaka, could we get to—” Sandeep began.

  “Just listen for a second. What you may not know is that I stayed on after the strike on the lab. I worked my drone underwater, and I found the Russian Artifact that emitted that signal.”

  She had their attention now. “I’m not supposed to talk about national security issues,” she said, “but right now that seems pretty silly out here.”

  “I agree,” Sandeep said. “I’ll officially take any heat that derives from your breach.”

  Jackie Linscott smiled. “I second the motion. What happened?”

  “We found it. We found the Russian Artifact, lying at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. But it was defended, and I lost my drone.”

  “I see—” began Sandeep again, sighing.

  “But,” she said insistently, “before it died it sent in data. Data which showed an Artifact quite different in composition and shape from this ship. Here, let me display what I kept on my drive.”

  She brought up another file, and overlaid one image over the other. She expanded it by a factor of twelve, spun it around with her fingers, and the others made appreciative noises.

  “I see it,” Jackie said. “That’s the same shape. At least, the two arms match up closely.”

  Sandeep was frowning. “All right,” he said. “It’s vague, but I’m willing to go along with your theory.”

  “Vague?” Yuki demanded. “It’s a match! Look at the arcs. Two starfish shapes on different worlds. Both under ice. One is many times the size of the other, but—”

  “We can only see a vague outline under layers of ice,” Sandeep said. “There’s no proof that isn’t a naturally occurring phenomena.”

  “If so, why did the Russians land here?” Yuki demanded.

  “They were following the signal,” Dr. Linscott said, putting her hand to her face thoughtfully. Yuki felt grateful for the support. “They had to be tracking exactly where it went. They caught it better than we did and marked the destination with greater precision. After all, they were the ones that caused it and were expecting it. We had to dig it out of background noise and interpret its meaning.”

  Sandeep nodded. “All right. We have a theory as to why the Russians landed here. Let’s assume we’re correct. Let’s assume that another Artifact like the one they found under our own polar icecap is right here, and they’re here to investigate it. What’s our next move? We’re still late to this party.”

  “I don’t know,” Yuki said. “I guess we land, and we start digging into the ice right next to them. They can give us dirty looks if they want to. No one owns Europa.”

  Sandeep twisted his lips. “That’s an overly simplistic view,” he said. “Recent events suggest we might be met with hostility. Is the region large enough for us to work nearby but not right in their faces?”

  “You really think they’d attack us?”

  “What did they do at Barrow?” he asked.

  Yuki nodded. “We have to assume you’re right. We’ve got Brandt, Edwin and a few others that could fight. But we don’t know how many of the Russians might be armed. We don't know what their mission is and what they have orders to do if we show up and crash their site.”

  “It is unfortunate that we didn’t bring weapons and armament. Clayworth and Clark ordered us not to do so. It was assumed Europa was a large enough world for two ships to share. No one expected we would come into direct conflict with the Russians. We were supposed to beat them out here, in fact.”

  “You guys really think we’re going to have a fight out here?” Jackie asked incredulously. “On Europa? These people might be Russians, but they’re scientists like us. We’ve always gotten along well in research stations in places like the Antarctic.”

  “Things have changed recently, Jackie,” Yuki said. “You and I have both been assaulted by Russian agents.”

  “Maybe,” Jackie admitted, glancing at Sandeep meaningfully.

  Sandeep avoided her gaze, and Yuki wondered what that was all about.

  She hardly had time to open her mouth to ask, however, before the ship lurched, throwing them all off their feet.

  “What the hell?” Jackie said, clawing her way back to the table.

  “Dyson!” S
andeep shouted into his headset. “What are you doing? I didn’t approve any orders to change course.”

  There was a crackling moment of quiet, then Dyson spoke.

  “I don’t know, sir. I didn’t do it. Something happened. I think it’s the engines. They’ve fired up, and they’re pushing us.”

  “Pushing us where?”

  “Toward the surface of Europa, as far as I can tell.”

  The deck heaved under their feet again, and Jackie headed for the exit. She was using every handhold she could reach, even crawling.

  “I have to get to engineering!” she said. “Help me.”

  Sandeep and Yuki joined together and did their best to propel her down the lurching passages toward the hatch that led to the lower deck.

  When she got there, she found Brandt was already there, touching the engine cowling.

  “It’s no use,” he said. “The ship won’t respond.”

  “What did you do?” demanded Jackie.

  Brandt shook his head. “I didn’t do anything. When I heard the ship was changing course, that the engines had engaged themselves, I came down here to open the cowling. I figured that you would need to take a look at least.”

  “Thanks Brandt,” Jackie said. “I do need to lower that field. If we can dampen it by fifty percent or so, I should be able to ease the engines back into idle mode. I don’t know how they got into gear by themselves, but I’m fairly certain that—”

  Brandt was shaking his head. “You aren’t listening.” He held out his hands, palms upward. “I can’t do it. I can’t open this. Starfire isn’t responding to me anymore. It’s doing whatever it wants to do.”

  Yuki and Sandeep had joined them by this time. They all stared at Brandt and then one another.

  Yuki realized, in a single, sick moment, that they were aboard a ship they barely understood, and that it was flying itself.

  The next two hours were nerve-wracking. Starfire circled Europa erratically, fluttering like a leaf in a breeze at times. Eventually they gave up trying to regain control. Nothing responded to their goading or pleas.

  Sandeep ordered them into their harnesses. There had been several injuries already.

  Europa loomed huge under them, all blue-white with stains of rust-red. They were coming down, and they could not stop the ship. It was going to land.

  Chapter 59

  Europa Ice Cap

  Starlight

  Lev rushed back toward the ship. He put the gun up to his shoulder, and aimed it everywhere he looked. His breath came in puffs. His training had kicked in, and although he couldn’t maintain a natural pace, he shuffled rapidly over the snow as quickly as he was able.

  He’d known this would happen. He’d known they were in hostile territory. It didn’t matter what all these hairless technicians thought about this place—it was dangerous. Something had reconned their position, learned they were weak, and decided to attack.

  The ship was listing now, much worse than before. He moved first toward the spot where he’d left the welding crew.

  There was no sign of them. The welding cart was gone as well—but no, there was the cord. He followed it around the ship and hissed.

  The black cord on the white ice led under the ship itself. The ship had settled and crushed them.

  He lowered his weapon for a moment, attempting to open a channel with the bridge.

  “Lieutenant Burkov reporting,” he said.

  The radio crackled for a moment. He thought perhaps the external antenna had been damaged. He tried again, and again, switching channels. Finally, a voice whispered in his ear. It was a female voice he knew well. She sounded frightened.

  “Lev?” Kira asked in a whisper. “Can you hear me?”

  “Yes, Kira. What’s going on?”

  “There’s something in here, Lev. I don’t know what it is. It’s covered in some kind of bubble. I think it’s a field, a field that works like a spacesuit for these creatures. That’s so advanced—quite superior to our bulky suits. Imagine, we could live on any world with such a wearable device providing air and heat.”

  His blood had chilled the moment he’d heard her say something was in the ship with her. He’d barely listened to the rest. He spun around, aiming his weapon behind him. For a second—but no, there was nothing there.

  “I’m coming,” he said.

  Kira didn’t respond. He thought perhaps she was trying to be quiet. Maybe she was hiding. He didn’t want to give her away, so he shut up and got moving.

  The first airlock he came to was now impossible to open. It was under the crusty ice and he couldn’t reach the handle. He didn’t have time or the tools needed to dig it out.

  He kept moving, climbing up over the ship. There were more airlocks. He found a hatch about ten meters up.

  Hauling himself over the surface of the ship wasn’t difficult, even with only one hand and two feet. He kept his rifle in the other hand. The low gravity on this world made him feel powerful. The ship was at a slanting angle now, and there were frequent handholds. Exhaust ports, equipment and ribbed plates were all he needed to climb upward. Even with all his gear, he calculated his body couldn’t have weighed more than twenty kilos.

  Reaching the hatch, he attempted to spin the wheel—but found he couldn’t. He strained for a moment until he realized that the wheel had already been spun open as far as it would go.

  Frowning, he heaved and the door flew wide. He climbed inside, trying to keep his weapon aimed ahead of him.

  He wondered about the open hatch. Could it be that someone had escaped through it before he returned? If so, where had they gone?

  The answer seemed obvious when coupled with the fact no one had answered him from the bridge. Something—perhaps an army of them—had gotten aboard. The ship hadn’t been built to repel invaders. It was built for safety. If someone wanted in, they had only to try. If anything, the doors would aid them in their efforts in case they were injured or weak.

  Silent powered hinges swung the outer hatch closed behind him, and air began to pump into the tiny chamber. He could soon hear the hiss of it, and then, when the inner door slid open, he heard other sounds as well. Someone was shouting and banging metal on metal.

  The ship was dark inside. That was acceptable. He searched the nearest compartments, sighting on everything as he went. He did not rush in headlong. As far as he knew, he was the only armed man on this ship, and he wasn’t about to be taken out by one of these creatures.

  The first thing he encountered was a body. At first, he thought it might be an empty space suit—but it was occupied. Sticking out of the faceplate was the bright stainless steel handle of a wrench. The other end had been thrust into the dead man’s skull.

  He burst through the next open doorway and swung his weapon, side to side, then up.

  There it was. Something clung to the roof of the compartment, hiding among the festooned equipment. It had five appendages like a starfish, a spiral of limbs circling a central knot of leathery flesh. The limbs were thinner than a man’s legs, but thicker than a man’s arms. In Lev’s instant of appraisal, he calculated they were either boneless or multi-jointed. What he didn’t understand about it was the shimmer that seemed to run over its body. It was almost as if it was englobed in a soap-bubble. A transparent coating that ran over its body. That must be what Kira had called their equivalent of a spacesuit.

  Then the thing moved, and Lev released a burst of fire. It was torn apart at close range by a half-dozen rounds. It fell to his feet, writhing. He resisted the temptation to put a few more into the monster. He didn’t have an endless supply of ammo.

  He was tempted to examine the dead alien thing, and the soap-bubble effect surrounding it, but he resisted the urge. There were others on the ship, and they needed his help.

  He didn’t know why, but he made his way toward engineering. That’s where Kira would be, he felt sure. When he levered his body out of the central passage and into the crowded lower compartment, he found he was
right.

  “Lev?” she whispered. She stood up slowly from behind the cowled engine.

  “Where are the others?”

  “I don’t know. I came down here, and the rest were in the living quarters or on the bridge. There’s been some kind of fight. I heard gunfire.”

  Lev hefted his weapon. “I know.”

  Kira came forward, aghast. “You had this with you? You brought it all the way from Earth?”

  “It’s a special design. Meant to fire in low-gravity, without air, under freezing conditions.”

  “A gun designed for Europa. I’m disgusted but unsurprised.”

  “Disgusted?” Lev scoffed. “If we live for another hour, this weapon will be the only reason we manage it. Now, we have to move. We have to find the others.”

  “Let me go first, Lev,” Kira said.

  “No.”

  She sighed and followed him. This did not stop her from talking, however.

  “We have to try to make contact,” she said. “This could all be a huge misunderstanding. They might be peaceful.”

  “They already sunk the ship into the ice, crushing the repair crew.”

  “That could have been an accident.”

  He told her of the tech with the wrench sticking out of his face, but she was still unconvinced. He decided to save his energy for the enemy.

  Going compartment to compartment, they found two dead humans and another dead alien. Someone had run it through with a knife. Two of the limbs were torn loose and discarded on the floor as well.

  “At least this man put up a fight,” Lev said, recognizing Gavril’s corpse.

  “We could be making a giant mistake,” Kira said. “We can’t afford to start a war!”

  “In that case, you shouldn’t have sent that signal. You helped make all this happen, Dr. Norin.”

  She stared coldly at him for a moment before getting to work. She took samples and photographs hastily. “Get me to the communications pod. I’ll try to upload this data to Moscow.”

  “They can’t help us,” he said, but he realized they needed to warn Earth. Things weren’t going well during this first-contact situation.