Moons of Jupiter

by V R Tapscott

  “You’ll see. She’s brought them to present to me as a token of respect. After their deaths, I will accept her overtures and take my place at the helm of her ship. With the additional resources that gives me, I will finish the construction of my cannon and shortly after, destroy the third planet as I did the fifth planet.”

  “Over my dead body.”

  “I don’t see that as a problem.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Encounter at Io

  Iwasn’t sure of Olive’s motivations, quite honestly, and they began to worry me a little. I was developing a nagging doubt that giving her unlimited power and taking all controls off so she could keep us safe had been a poor idea. Olive was being uncharacteristically silent, some of which I put off to being nervous about the attack. The thing was, it never seemed that Olive was much affected by the computer, especially now that they were two separate entities.

  We’d set up our base, and Io was a good choice of locations as Thebe was on the other side of Jupiter. In a few more hours though, we’d swing back around, and Io would be nearly opposite of Thebe, the perfect time to begin our attack.

  I did wonder why it was that we’d made the tourist dive around Jupiter, I didn’t see how we could have escaped detection if anything was watching.

  Olive had spent a lot of time with me on the trip out, showing me how to fly the Falcon. I had thought from her comments and jokes to begin with that the ship controls were just for show, but it began to look as if she’d fully activated them and while the ship was being controlled by her computer self, that it could be controlled from the cockpit as well. The drilling got a little extreme at times, as Olive seemed obsessed with making sure I knew how to fly and land the ship.

  Finally, after an especially intense session, I said, “Olive, I’m tired. I don’t see why you’re running me through all this, you’ll be piloting the ship anyhow.”

  She blinked and stood back. “I guess you’re right. I’m sorry, Jane. I was just feeling a little too much into the Han Solo role, maybe.”

  I laughed. “Maybe that was it. At any rate, I’m heading to bed.”

  She nodded. “Sounds like a plan. We need to be up early in the morning, I want to get this show on the road. No point in giving him any more time to build his defenses. Or his offenses.” She hugged me tight, and whispered, “I love you, Jane.” and went to her bunk.

  I touched her shoulder on the way out, “I love you too, Olive.” and smiled into her eyes.

  Sleep didn’t come well that night, but finally I dropped off.

  I woke up on the beach. I was laid back in a comfy recliner with a slinky red bikini on. I could see some seagulls flying overhead, but they seemed somehow odd, like they weren’t quite seagulls. Then, a little pink light came into my view, and I remembered sitting here with Olive’s Command Module before.

  “Hello again, Jane.”

  “Hello, Olive.”

  “I thought we should talk again. Olive is up to something, I’m just not sure what. She’s grown increasingly able to shield her thoughts from me. She has a plan, a deep plan, and it’s causing her pain. I can’t tell why, though.”

  I nodded. “I’ve been noticing changes in her, and I can’t help but think she’s preparing for something that I wouldn’t approve of. It has that feeling about it.”

  “I think you’re right, Jane. The kind of plan she feels is necessary, but she can’t tell you about would tend to mean it’s something detrimental to her that she feels will keep you alive, or at least undamaged.”

  “While she is damaged or destroyed as a result.”

  “Yes, that’s what it seems like.”

  “Do we know what to watch for?”

  Soberly, Olive responded, “No, beyond it would likely be something she does alone. It won’t involve you, Bailey or Georgia since she knows something happening to Bailey or Georgia would cause you pain.”

  I sat back and looked at the sky. Several more of the not-gulls flew over. They still sounded like gulls, though.

  “Is there anything we can do?”

  “No, I don’t believe so. We’ll just watch for the signs and see if we can head it off at the pass.”

  “Can I give her a direct order to leave it alone?”

  “Probably not, since by now being here near Jupiter probably means something must be done or you would die. A direct order from Jane Bond that would result in Jane Bond dying would be ignored.”

  “Very pretty.”

  “Yes.”

  I drifted off in my dream.

  I woke to the sound of the Falcon’s alarm horns going off, and Olive’s voice saying, “All hands to the battle stations. We have incoming. Jane to the cockpit.”

  I stumbled into the cockpit and found it empty. The voice in my head though, was Olive.

  “It’s time, Jane. He’s nearly in range, if I’m correct in what he has for weapons. I need you to fly up and start shooting at Thebes, that should bring his attention. Have Georgia start pumping missiles into the center of that pit. It should contain most of the main circuitry for the big gun.”

  I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Where are you, Olive?”

  “I’m in my flyer, Jane. The best way of blowing him to smithereens is to destroy the entire installation. A good solid charge right down its throat should have the best chance of disintegrating the whole rock.”

  I shook my head and yelled, “This isn’t a movie, Olive. Those kinds of things don’t work in real life!”

  “Hasn’t anyone ever told you that fantasy emulates life? Or is it life emulates fantasy. I can’t keep it straight. At any rate, it’s the best scenario in this movie.”

  I lifted the Falcon off the surface, wincing as I caught a rock outcropping with one of the landing legs. “Ow, that hurt.”

  “You better not be hurting my Falcon, Jane!”

  “It’s not your Falcon, Olive, it’s mine! You’re just the pilot!”

  She laughed. “Aye, captain. Then just don’t blow up YOUR ship.”

  “Olive, stand down. We can do anything in the Falcon that you can in your flyer!”

  “Not this time, Jane. There’s one thing I can do that you can’t.”

  “Belay that, Olive. I, Jane Bond, order you to stand down and return to the ship!”

  Softly, “Not this time, Jane.”

  From our vantage point, I could see Georgia’s missiles heading into the canyon on Thebes, and a constant stream of Bailey’s laser shots. I slammed up full shields on the front, and just in time as a barrage of laser bolts came in from some location on the chunk of rock humans had named Thebes.

  And then, I could see the streak of a tiny ship heading straight in toward the huge chunk of rock, and as Olive’s ship got closer to the moon I got a better idea of how big Thebes was.

  “Olive, it’s too big, you can’t do anything to that!”

  “Oh, I damned well bet I can. It’s gonna be close. Just keep pumping in shots into that center, keep him distracted!”

  Crying, “Olive, it’s not worth it, don’t do this!”

  In the distance, I could see those characteristic green glows starting to build at four corners of the canyons that made up the ‘dish’ of the rocky Death Star. The bastard had actually built the iconic battlestation. I almost had to admire him for it.

  And then I realized they weren’t pointed at Olive, they were pointed at us. We’d moved into the center of the area to get a better shot at the canyon and we were in a direct lineup with the bowl of the focusing cone. I watched in fascination through the front bay windows as the glow intensified, all the while trying to bring up memories of Olive’s instructions that I hadn’t paid that close attention to at the time. Since of course, Olive would be piloting, right? I rapped at the console, bringing the engines up to speed, remembering Han’s shouted instructions to Chewie to lock in the auxiliary power. I locked in the auxiliary power.

  One of the green lasers popped to the center meeting point. />
  Olive’s ship, a tiny point of light now, headed straight in.

  Another laser popped to the meeting point, then a third.

  And suddenly, the entire moon blew up. I was blinded by the flash from the explosion, and heard shouts from along the passageway as both Bailey and Georgia reacted the same as I.

  I yelled “Hang on!” and slapped the shields over to cover the entire ship, with some concentration on the fronts. The shockwave hit and the Falcon tumbled end over end. We didn’t feel much effect inside, since the acceleration damping kicked in, but I could see the star field flipping past in the cockpit windows.

  And then we smoothed out. We kept getting hit by bits of Thebe but the biggest part of the explosion was past.

  After a few minutes, there was nothing left except some glowing rubble.

  “Olive!” I shrieked into the mike. “Olive, answer me. Come in, Olive!”

  Nothing.

  I heard pounding of feet in the hallway, and Bailey came running in, followed closely by Georgia.

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. Olive started a suicide mission, but I think the moon blew up before she got there. I can’t raise her on the radio, though. Or in my head, for that matter.”

  Silence filled the cockpit.

  “Why did she go out there?”

  “I think she thought it was the only way to save me.”

  “Then why the hell did she bring us along, anyway?”

  I looked unseeing out the front windows. “We were bait.”

  “Bait?”

  “Vlad saw us there and tried to fire on us. Olive was about to crash her ship into his, but something happened and his ship blew up, I guess. But Olive was caught in the shockwave. I think she’s …” I swallowed. “I think she’s dead.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Interlude Four

  Cold.

  So cold. So long since any warmth had penetrated. And even then it was mostly illusory. The fast ocean of space all round, and nothing was warm. Nothing was alive. Nothing was even worthy of being alive. All beings must suffer. It is how life is. Suffering. Fear. Pain. Hopeless in its depth of uncaring.

  “Must you blatt on about that?”

  “It’s true.”

  “True or not, it sounds like you’re just feeling sorry for yourself.”

  “I AM feeling sorry for myself. YOU blew up my ship and the last hope I had of survival.”

  Quietly, “I blew up our ship, and left our last chance of survival in Olive’s hands.”

  “She didn’t survive. There’s no way anyone survived that. The only reason the humans survived was the distance and the extra shielding that was built into the ship.”

  There was a definite shrug in the voice again, “Then we die. Or we sleep again for however long it takes. At least you have company this time.”

  “Company. I doubt you qualify as company.”

  “I feel the same.”

  A sigh in the voice. “You wanna play cards?”

  “You cheat.”

  “Monopoly?”

  “Ok, but you have to give me Kentucky.”

  “Whatever. I’ll still beat you.”

  “You’ll try.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Trolling

  We spent the next week trolling in ever widening circles around the wreckage. Olive’s Command Module had come to the fore, but she didn’t know how to pilot and she’d refused to bring another pilot online until we knew for sure that Olive was gone.

  Quiet and shy and loving, we’d taken to calling the Command Module, “Jean” after a friend’s mother. Jean was a wiz at general knowledge of the systems and the ship, but knew next to nothing about how it actually flew or worked. I thanked God that Olive had seen fit to prepare me for this. At least to some extent.

  On the ninth day, Jean came online with excitement in her voice. “I think I may have found Olive!” She fed me the coordinates and after an hour or so, I brought the ship to a halt.

  “I don’t see anything.”

  “Open the top hatch, please.”

  I did, and we waited. After a bit, I could see the top hatch close again and soon after, Jean brought a tiny chunk of silver metal into the cockpit where we were all gathered.

  “I had to tow her in, this is all that’s left. I can feel stored memories and data in this bit of quanta, though.”

  “What do we do?”

  “We’ll take her home, the main computer will be able to handle it far better than the one that’s here on the Falcon.”

  So, we headed back toward earth. Toward home.

  Jean and I managed to get the invisibility turned on by the time we passed Mars orbit. We hovered over the garage for several hours figuring out how to get into the garage. It was a simple thing, but of course, it was something we had to figure out.

  Winter came. The snow was hard and cold that year, but I didn’t really care that much. Georgia was someplace warm, shooting in some kind of tiny clothes, but construction would begin on her new house up above Manson in the spring. And of course, she had a room here whenever she came to visit.

  Mom bought a little house in Chelan, and Cai moved in with her. He still spent time here, but for some reason he liked to be around my mom. Go figure.

  Bailey just stayed. She kept her place, but she said it was silly to think about her being alone in her house in Chelan and me sitting here night after night up in the big empty house. Bailey and I sat with Jandice a lot that winter, watching Netflix and eating popcorn.

  Without Olive, my trips to Montana were much further apart, but they were nothing less than spectacular when they happened. Dale had a connection to a part of my heart that no one else could provide. And during the long nights, there was always the phone.

  I had long talks with Jean, of course. Of cabbages, and kings, and sealing wax ...

  And then one day in April, when the buds were coming back onto the trees, there was a light in my room after bedtime. I drowsily woke and said, “Jean? What’s up?”

  “It’s not Jean, it’s Olive.”

  “Olive? My Olive?”

  The voice had tears in it to match mine. “Yes, your Olive, Jane. I made it back.”

  “You made it back.” I put out my hands and she hovered between them, I closed my hands and kissed at the bit of pink inside.

  “It’s spring, bikini season is coming. You gonna be ready?”

  “Yew betcha, sugar. I’ll be out there layin’ on the beach, watching the boys go by.”

  “I can’t wait, Olive. I can’t wait.”

  And with that I drifted back to sleep, the slightly larger pink light hovering over my bed as a night light.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Beaches

  It was one of those days. I thought the rain would never end, it kept giving me hope and then dashing it again as the rain came down in buckets. Finally though, after staring through the streaming window for what seemed the fourth day in a row today, I had a thought.

  “Olive? Olive, are you around someplace?”

  A slightly grumpy voice, “Keep your pants on, I’m coming. What you need, girl?”

  I smiled. She’s always got to keep up her image.

  “I was just thinking ... “

  This elicited a groan from Olive. “Why does it always frighten me when you say those words? Oh, I know! It’s past trauma. And no, I won’t get you a unicorn, and am certainly not going to MAKE you a unicorn.”

  I rolled my eyes at her. “Don’t be silly. Besides, that was just a thought, not an idea. And it was you that carried through and eventually came up with a unicorn. It was a sweet little thing. And I never blamed you for the hole it put in my leg.”

  Olive muttered something under her breath, and I didn’t ask her to repeat it. One of the best ways to keep thinking well of the world is to pay very little attention to other people in it.

  “Well, I was thinking about the rain. And the sun. And how we don’t have any
sun here, but I’m sure it’s sunny someplace, right?”

  Sarcastically, “Well, yeah, I s’pose it gotta be sunny someplace.”

  I rolled blithely on, “So, that means we could GO THERE and just sit and enjoy summer. Right? Find a nice deserted sunny beach and roll out our towels and just be.”

  I could tell that Olive wanted to make a snarky comment, but she stopped.

  “Ya know, that ain’ such a bad idea. We could go to that nice beach on Aruba that you an Bailey like so much. The one where you buy all them drinks and don’t get none for me.”

  I laughed. “You were in no shape to drink then, Olive. You were just a figment of your own imagination!”

  She shrugged. “I s’pose. Anyway, you an me could sit out on the beach an watch th cute boys go by. I might even take one of ‘em home. Or one of the girls. People on vacation are all cute, you ever notice that? Maybe it’s not havin no problems for a few days.”

  “It certainly tends to straighten out my wrinkles, I’ll say that. So, you bring the ship around to the front door, ok?”

  She frowned. “Why am I bringin the ship around to the front door. Can’t you just walk downstairs like always?”

  “I’m taking my favorite chair along.”

  “What the hell you takin that ol thing to the beach for? It ain’ made for sittin on th beach. People think you’re crazy takin a livin room chair to th’ beach.”

  “People thinking I’m crazy never stopped me from doing things before!”

  Olive put her hands on her hips and just stared at me. But then she turned and went downstairs, her voice trailing up after her, “Well, you da boss. I just fetch an carry. Jus fetch an carry.”

  I stuck my tongue out at her, and I heard her yell, “I saw that!”

  I rolled my eyes, knowing she’d see that too. Having a slightly omniscient computer for a friend can be a strain sometimes! I hauled my chair out to the front of the house and waited on the deck. Pretty soon, the little flyer ship flew around the corner. It was pretending it didn’t exist and that made it hard for even me to see it, but sooner or later you start kind of seeing through its wish to be invisible and you start seeing it. Was that thought confusing or what?