Europa Contagion

by Nicholas Thorp

  Felix nodded his head up and down. He then placed his hands on his head and said, “My head hurts.”

  Navya went to a dispenser and grabbed some medication, then walked back over to Felix. Navya handed Felix the drugs and said, “Felix, you need some rest. I’ll give you something to help you relax a little. Let’s get you to your room.”

  Felix took the pills and put his hands on his head again. Kato and Navya helped Felix to his feet and to his room where he fell into a deep sleep.

  Stepping out of the room, Navya said, “He’s been acting odd since the attack. I think he’s in shock that Sonya hit him. Here, I’ll show you where Sonya is.”

  Navya, Alice and Kato made their way to the workout room. The door to the room was closed and a solid red light above the door indicated that it was locked.

  “You’re sure she’s locked out? Both doors?” Kato asked Navya.

  Navya nodded her head ‘yes’ and they opened the door. As the three of them walked in, they saw Sonya sitting on the floor, hands behind her back. Her skin was a pale white color, and she was breathing harder than normal. Her head hung down, looking at the floor.

  “I tied her up while Felix held her,” Navya said.

  Alice walked over to Sonya and knelt to be at eye level.

  “Sonya, what’s going on here? Why did you attack Navya?” Alice asked.

  Sonya sat without saying a word, continuing to stare at the ground. Alice stayed where she was and waited. For one full minute she waited, but Sonya still said nothing.

  Alice stood up as Kato came over and knelt next to Sonya.

  “Sonya, why did you do this?” Kato asked in a very matter-of-fact tone.

  Then, Sonya said something very quiet, under her breath. Alice and Navya couldn’t make it out.

  Kato stood up and left the room. Alice and Navya followed, leaving Sonya in the workout room. They stood outside the workout room as they spoke.

  “Kato, did she say something?” Alice asked.

  “Yes,” Kato replied. “She did. I think she said, `She interrupted me for the last time.’ ”

  Alice couldn’t understand it. That sounded like something an insane person would say.

  “Navya, what’s going on here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so white before,” Alice asked.

  “I’d like to do a check-up on her, but doing that alone would have been dangerous considering what she did. Now that everyone is here I’d like to do that,” Navya responded.

  “Okay, we’ll do that soon,” Kato said, “I’d like to check out the room where it happened first.”

  Next, they all went to the communication room. It was a complete mess. Tools were littered everywhere. Wires were sticking out of the panel on the wall. There were bits of blood splattered around.

  Kato peeked his head in the open panel on the wall while Alice sat next to the console and began to look at some information on a monitor.

  “It looks like Sonya sent a message,” Alice said.

  “She put in a message for the report?” Navya said.

  “No,” Alice replied. “She sent a message.”

  “What?” Navya said, surprised. “We can’t send a message yet. It’s not time for the report to go out. What did the message say?”

  “I’m trying to figure that out,” Alice said as she worked on the computer.

  Navya saw Kato continue to look at all the work Sonya had been doing before. Kato had a surprised expression on his face.

  “Kato, what is it?” Navya asked.

  Kato walked over, picked up a large metal object and said, “This is odd. It looks like Sonya took out this particular piece of equipment that controls the communication dish.”

  Alice looked up from the computer. “What is that?” she asked, looking at the device Kato was holding.

  “The communication dish needs to be able to move so it can send messages to the satellite, but there’s a limit to how far it can move in any particular direction. I know because I’ve worked with Felix on this before. Sonya took out the piece that limits the communication dish’s movements to a safe range.”

  Alice looked back at her computer for a moment and said, “I’ve had the computer run some tests. The communication dish seems to be stuck at an angle outside its normal range.” She turned around to look at Kato. “That must be why Navya’s message wasn’t getting to us clearly when we were at Outpost One.”

  Kato looked around the room again at the mess. “Yeah, that would make sense,” Kato said.

  “So,” Navya said, “Sonya sent this message and then destroyed the communication array?”

  “It doesn’t look like she destroyed it. More like she was changing it,” Kato replied.

  “Changing it? How so?” Navya asked.

  “Other than the safety mechanism being ripped out, she had redirected several power cables to it, increasing its power by quite a bit.”

  “Why would she do that?” Navya asked.

  Alice was still working on the computer and said, “She had the dish sending her message and programmed it to aim at a specific set of coordinates, which ended up having the dish aimed down at the ground as far as it could go.”

  Kato put the pieces together, “Since the dish wasn’t designed to go beyond a certain angle below the horizon, and she ripped out the safety mechanism, the dish was pushed beyond its limits. The whole unit basically tore itself apart.” Everyone sat for a few moments thinking.

  “Where exactly did she point the dish at?” Navya asked.

  Alice’s hands moved across the computer’s keyboard. “Let’s see here. It’s not the satellite. It’s not the Seeker either. I’m not sure. We might want Felix to look at it. I bet he'll know how to find out what these coordinates are.”

  “And the message?” Navya said.

  Alice pushed a button and the message played. It sounded like random noises with clicking sounds. It didn’t mean anything to anyone.

  “What about the others on Ganymede? Is there a way for us to communicate with them?” Navya asked.

  “Until we get this dish fixed or replaced, I don’t think so,” Kato responded. “I’ll take a closer look at it soon and see what I can do. I won’t be as quick as Felix would be, but I think I can fix it. We can use the replacement dish if we need to.”

  TWELVE

  Quietus

  She had been so close. If she hadn’t accidentally hit the button before it was done, she might have been able to do it. Maybe it still worked. It could have still gone through. Perhaps it did work. She knew she had pushed the dish to its limits, but she also knew that the limits were where she wanted it to be. No matter what, though, at this point, she was sure that the communication dish wasn’t going to work again without quite a bit of work.

  She had destroyed her locator, disabled all biometrics, and any incoming calls to her were immediately disconnected. Yet, somehow, Navya had found her in what seemed like record time. All the work she did was for nothing. It was infuriating.

  Her annoyances were alleviated for a moment when an idea came to her: the Nomad. If she boosted the power on the antenna she could easily do what she wanted to do. She could even reprogram the satellite. Then it would work. She could take the power that was going to the main dish and redirect that power. It was a good thing Felix had mentioned that. It would come in handy.

  The thought of it working made her feel some satisfaction. But only some. Her work was not done. She felt the intense desire rise up again. She could not understand why or how, but she just knew it. The others. They would know. They would know exactly what she deserved.

  There were a few problems, however. She thought she could handle the crew if she needed to, especially if she could get them in a one-on-one situation. But Kato was a military man. He was disciplined and had experience. Dangerous experience. Engaging with him one on one was essentially suicide. She’d need some kind of weapon to even have a chance of getting the better of that one. There was no way she was going to
be able to do what she needed to do now, at least, not easily. The crew wouldn’t let her roam freely about.

  Navya had tied her up and left her in the workout room. Navya’s knots weren’t really up to par though; she could imagine Navya making some excuse. “I’m a doctor, after all, not a sailor.” Over the many hours since she had been put in the workout room she had been working at the knots. Slowly they were coming undone. Fraction of an inch by fraction of an inch.

  Finally, there was a moment when she knew she had done enough to the knot to release it entirely. She got her hands free and stood up. Her wrists were red and bleeding from where the knots had been rubbing up against her for so many hours.

  As she had been sitting, she had had time to think. She knew what her next move was. Bending down on one knee she began to take apart one of the strength training machines next to her. Four thumbscrews later and she had access to the inner workings. She unscrewed and took a few small pieces of machinery she knew she’d need in just a few minutes. Next, she took out several pins, releasing the main metal rods that ran through the interior of the machine. The metal rods would do well as a weapon.

  The knots were undone and she had a makeshift weapon, but she was still locked in the room. She went to the door, knowing it was locked. Reaching over to the access panel she pulled open a small plastic cap that hid an ‘Emergency Egress’ button. Each door had such a button in case of emergencies, but the lid was jammed shut. She went to the other door and found the same thing.

  “Easy fix,” Sonya said to herself as she walked over to the control panel next to one of the locked doors. She took the panel off and looked at the inner workings. With the parts she scavenged from the weight training machine it would only take a few pieces of metal in just the right spots to short the circuits and force it into its default factory mode. A few sparks flew out from where she connected the metal pieces and suddenly the door opened.

  She peeked her head out into the hallway and saw no one. Carefully checking each hallway and corner to make sure no one was around, Sonya made her way to the communication room and looked at the computer. The communication dish was toast. Yet, the message had been sent. Perhaps it would make it to its intended destination. She could fix the internal mechanical issues if she had the time. She’d also have to do a surface walk to reset the dish manually. The antenna on the Nomad would be much faster though.

  She next snuck to Felix’s room. He was out cold. Navya must have given him something to help him sleep just like Navya had given her something for her headache. This would be too easy. As she went up to him, however, she felt an odd feeling that stopped her. The odd feeling was replaced by an idea that came to her. A new idea. A better idea.

  She left the room and grabbed the cart that had been used to move Big Bertha and Little Missy. She was trying to be very quiet and careful, so she took her time. Eventually, she was back in Felix’s room. She picked up his feet and dragged them to the cart. He opened his eyes briefly and moved his arms, but otherwise didn’t resist. Felix was drugged. She dragged the top half of his body onto the cart. The low gravity on Europa assisted her efforts.

  She made it to the mess hall with Felix on the cart, locked the wheels and dragged him onto the table in the middle of the room. Sonya grabbed her tablet and walked to the closest computer. With her hands flying across the keyboards, she began to work with both the tablet and the computer. She knew she didn’t have much time so it would have to be quick and dirty, but this would do the trick. It would give her the edge over Kato.

  ----------

  No matter how experienced you are in any skill, if something completely unexpected happens, you might not be able to figure out what’s going on before it’s too late.

  Kato had received an incoming call from Felix. When he accepted his call, there seemed to be no answer on Felix’s end. Kato’s locator indicated Felix was in the mess hall. He must have been feeling better and was eating something and accidentally made the call.

  As he walked into the mess hall, Kato saw Felix lying on the main table. It was an odd scene, and he paused before moving forward. Seeing Felix simply laying there worried him. Kato stepped forward to see if Felix was okay when his head erupted in extreme pain and his whole world began to spin. He reflexively put up his left hand to touch the spot on his head that hurt when another searing pain erupted on his left arm as he staggered backward trying to figure out what was going on. For the briefest of moments, the pain relented and he had the chance to regain his composure and see what was happening: a construction bot was in front of him. The mental gears clicked into place for Kato: This was a trap, and he had walked straight into it. Kato moved his arms up in front of his head in a blocking position as his left arm pounded with pain again.

  The construction bot was swinging a metal pipe at Kato. Its hydraulics were far stronger than Kato was, and the next swing hit Kato on his left forearm again. This time, though, the velocity of the force was such that Kato was flung across the room. Kato’s back collided with the corner of the table in the room, but he used the momentum to help himself. Rolling across the table, past Felix and onto the floor, he stopped at the wall on the other side of the room. He was crouched on the floor but pushed himself up. He thought his left arm might have been broken, so he tried to make a fist with his left hand. Even though he tried, he couldn’t fully form a fist. This was not good. Fighting with a broken arm could be a recipe for disaster.

  Kato was now far enough away that he could finally make it all out. Sonya was using her tablet as a remote control and was attacking Kato with the construction bot.

  Kato depressed a button on his left wristband four times in quick succession, sending out an S.O.S. to the rest of the crew. The construction bot was already coming at him, but it had to go around the table. It was clear, based on the bot’s movements, that Sonya hadn’t quite gotten the hang of how to remotely operate it smoothly. It moved in jerky motions and was barely able to round the table before coming straight at him. Luckily for Kato, the construction bots weren’t built for speed. It was slow enough that Kato was able to hop over the table in the middle of the room again and head straight toward Sonya.

  ----------

  Sonya’s plan had worked. Kato had come in looking for Felix. She managed to land several solid blows on Kato’s head and several hits on his arms with the bot. It had to have hurt.

  Sonya knew it was naive to think she could take Kato down in a single blow to the head. This wasn’t like the movies; people didn’t just fall over and stay unconscious for the perfect amount of time to sneak around undetected. Sonya was, however, hoping it would be enough to disorient Kato and let her finish the job. That, however, had been wishful thinking. Kato had backed away quickly and the planned relentless attack was brought to a momentary stop; it gave Kato just enough time to figure out what was going on. Surprisingly quickly, Kato had begun to muster his defenses. Even the blow that flung Kato across the room didn’t stop him. In an impressive display of acrobatics, Kato rolled across the table and was on the other side of the room.

  Now the bot would have to go around the table to get to him. Just as she got the bot centered on Kato, Kato was already coming straight toward her. Did nothing stop this guy?

  Fear coursed through Sonya’s veins. Kato was like the construction bot: a machine that wouldn’t relent. Except Kato was faster and more agile than the bot. Sonya would have to finish this hand to hand.

  She quickly dropped the tablet and picked up the other metal rod that she had kept hidden behind her. Sonya brought her weapon to the side and swung it as hard as she could. Kato didn’t expect Sonya to have another weapon and brought his arms to try and defend against the incoming attack, but he was slightly too late. The metal rod hit Kato squarely in the side of his left arm. Kato’s face scrunched up, showing that the impact had hurt. The fear that Sonya felt abated slightly; maybe Kato wasn’t like a machine after all. Kato was running on the fumes of adrenaline and was hurt badly. She
could still make this work.

  Sonya took a step toward Kato and swung the metal rod again. Kato hopped back, but the metal rod hit Kato in his right leg, making him stagger slightly and tore a hole in his elastic suit. For a moment no one moved. Kato and Sonya stood their ground, facing each other. Sonya noted Kato’s condition: he was a mess. He was breathing incredibly hard and his left arm was dangling, seemingly useless. His face was bathed in blood that ran down from his head. Kato’s leg was also bleeding from where she had just hit him.

  Kato was in no condition to continue. This could be it right here. Sonya took a step forward and raised her arm to attack. Kato reacted by moving only his right arm up. Yes, this was it. Kato’s left arm was useless. Sonya took her weapon in her right arm and swung it around in a right hook toward Kato’s head. This would be the final blow.

  ----------

  Sonya and Kato were facing each other head-on and Sonya took the bait. Kato intentionally left himself open on his left side and let Sonya swing her weapon directly at his head. The fight was over, but Sonya didn’t know it yet.

  As Sonya’s right arm came around, Kato brought his left arm up and took one step to his left. Kato’s left hand pushed against the outside of Sonya’s elbow. The combination of stepping to the side and pushing Sonya’s arm changed the trajectory of the rod, causing it to completely miss its intended target.

  Before Sonya could pull her arm back, Kato brought his right arm up and applied pressure on Sonya’s wrist in the opposite direction of his left hand. Kato pulled his hands together with an incredible amount of force in a single motion.

  Like a tree branch being bent from opposite sides, bones and surrounding ligaments snapped in Sonya’s arm. The sound was very audible and the pain was evident in Sonya’s face. The force had hurt Kato’s broken left arm as well, but he was doing what had to be done. Kato knew that a significant number of ligaments and tendons had been torn in Sonya’s arm, and he had probably dislocated Sonya’s elbow as well.