There was nothing on the horizon but a thin uneven line of blue-white ice that reflected red shimmers from the eclipse up at them. The entire effect of the multi-colored scenery on the barren landscape was a vision of sublime beauty. The black disc in the sky was an awesome and awe-inspiring marker to use as a guide to return them to the landing site.
“Flip the battery and hit the accelerator,” Hanson told her. “And I’ve got the anchors out, so be sure to retract them before you go.”
Mara found her way through the controls and jolted the rover out of park and began driving. Hanson grabbed the roll-bar with a tight grip as they bounced down an embankment a little faster than he would’ve liked.
“It’s responsive, and you’ll get good traction even on this ice,” he said.
Mara enjoyed playing with the wheel, steering them around outcroppings and the occasional crack or fracture. The ice was uneven and made for a bumpy ride. They were fortunate that the surface was not more jumbled than it was after the recent quakes. The wheels would jump up now and then off the ice as they bumped over an unexpected ledge or a stone-sized chunk of debris, but they were making good time.
“You know how to get us back?” Hanson asked.
Mara was a bit insulted. She turned to look at him, taking her eyes off her driving.
“Do you?” she said.
“No, that’s why I’m asking you. I’d say we follow our tracks, but we lost them yesterday. Just keep heading the way you’re going, we’ll spot the Zephyr first when we come up on the site,” he told her.
“That’s what I’m doing,” she told him. “I think the radiation wore away some of the surface ice,” Mara said. “The terrain looks a bit more uneven than before.”
“Affirmative,” Hanson answered.
They continued in the low light with the face of Jupiter still in eclipse. They could see random flashes of blue light pop in and out of existence on the dark surface of the planet. It was lightning. Mara had seen that before from the orbiter. The flashes of bluish light were surrounded by pinks and browns as it lit up the cloud tops around it.
They could sense the energy brewing within the orb as the lightning flashed. The planet hovered above them like an angry muse; silently brooding and watching. It was a place of friction and violence, torment and rage. It made their surroundings seem serene by comparison. They were on a vapid plain of cold and quiet ice as this monster in the sky, roiling hot, tossed and stirred before them, seemingly angry that they were outside of its reach. It helplessly observed them traverse its tiny moon with an impotent rage as it loomed over them and guarded its domain.
Mara worked the wheel in and out of danger, choosing the path of least resistance, aiming for the black disc in the sky that would direct them home.
Then they noticed a dark patch in the surface ice directly in their path. The field of dark ice slowly emerged ahead of them and extended from one side of their view to the other. Mara slowed down as they neared it. She stopped as they arrived at the sudden change in landscape.
She was surprised at what she saw. It was a huge pit carved out of the ice. “Likely by the radiation,” she thought. She noticed it ran from horizon to horizon, as far as they could see. The bottom was three to four meters below where they stood, and the rest of the surface ice was eroded away. Inside the massive field were spires of ice, each pointing tenuously into the black sky.
“This is going to be a problem if we can’t drive through that,” Hanson said as they parked the rover, standing over a field of ice spires each at least three to four meters tall.
Mara had known of this phenomenon from her time in the Antarctic. The ice had sublimated away in the intense radiation and sunlight. It had formed a huge pit on the plains they were trying to cross. Only these massive spires of ice had been left as the rest of the ice had turned directly into vapor. It was a forest of spires; ice needles that were thick at the base but raised out of the surface and pointed into the sky. “They’re penitentes,” she told Hanson. “A whole forest of them.”
“Pene-what?” Hanson asked.
Mara stood above the pit examining the spires. They were numerous. Their bases were wide, nearly touching each other, but their tops tapered until they were as thin as needles. They reached nearly to the elevation of the plain, indicating the point at which the ice had begun to vaporize away.
“They’re spires formed from sublimating ice,” she finally answered. “The warmth of the sunlight bounces around and reflects on the surface at odd angles, focusing on a spot that causes it to melt away. It’s a phenomenon that happens on Earth too. I’ve seen this in Antarctica, but never on this size or scale.”
“This wasn’t here on the way up,” Hanson told her. “Surely we would have passed this way and seen this.”
“I think you’re right, this is new,” she said, breathing heavily as she looked. The spires very large, easily three or four meters tall, as she suspected.
“We need to hurry and get through this,” Hanson told her. “It’s going to cost us time.”
Mara walked a short distance to the ledge for a closer look. She looked down into the valley that had formed from the sublimating ice. The forest of ice spikes was huge. There were hundreds of them, maybe thousands. They formed a jagged landscape that looked like a never-ending saw blade.
“Incredible,” she said.
“These formed while we were in the shelter?” Hanson asked.
“I think so. It probably wouldn’t take long in the vacuum here, but they are surprisingly big,” Mara answered.
“How do we get around it?” Hanson asked. “You’re the scientist here.”
Mara gave a begrudging look. “I don’t know. It’s going to take a lot of time. There’s no way to know what the shortest way around them is.”
Hanson nodded as he stared at the impossible landscape.
“We could just walk through it,” Mara suggested.
“And leave the rover?”
“Ya, why not? We can always come back and get it.”
Hanson walked toward the rover. He grabbed a couple of oxygen tanks and the drill he had used to create the shelter. “Just in case,” he said as he handed her one of the canisters.
They began walking down the embankment towards the forest of spires with Hanson in the lead. They stopped as they neared the edge of the icy plain.
“If it gets too thick to pass, we’ll call this your fault,” he said, just to get a rise out of her.
Mara resisted the urge to respond and stared into the field of ice spires as she walked towards them.
The low light levels and the dark eclipsed face of Jupiter hanging in the sky created a surreal experience as they walked through the forest of ice. “If there was a landscape foreign from Earth’s, this was it,” she thought to herself. “We should hurry if we’re not on the rover,” she said, hoping to get Hanson to move faster.
They began walking more rapidly. Mara and Hanson dodged the spires, using the dark face of Jupiter as their guide, helping to not get turned around in the disorienting environment. It was nearly an hour walking through the field of spires that they finally arrived at the other side. Hanson was first to climb the slope and rise above the ridge, climbing out of the field. He yelled at Mara as his visor raised over the top of the ledge. “Mara, we made it!” he yelled into his headset.
He stood above her looking beyond. In the distance he could see the lights of the Zephyr, the two large tanks of hydrogen and oxygen fuel sitting next to it, and the Hab not far behind, smaller and less conspicuous.
Mara rounded the last spire and Hanson helped her climb the slight ledge and she stood near him. She looked out over the icy plains at the distant lights of the Zephyr and the Hab. It was as desolate a sight as anyone has ever seen. “Hab One, this is Mara. We’re on the home stretch,” she said into her headset.
“Ma
ra, good to hear from you. Expected you back by now. Any trouble?”
“We had to ditch the rover. We went through a field of ice-spires, penitentes… looks like about a kilometer from the Zephyr. We’re walking the rest of the way.”
“Good. Hurry Mara, you have been out a long time.”
“Copy that. We could use some good chow,” she said.
“I will be happy to have something waiting for you,” Dr. Aman told her. “And, I have got some good news for you. For both of you,” he said.
“I’ll take any good news you got,” Mara answered, breathing heavily as she traversed the final part of the landscape.
“Copy that, Mara. Listen, part of the good news we want to share with you is that you can come straight to the Hab. We ran a scan on the blood samples you both gave us before you left. It has tested negative; no foreign pathogens,” Dr. Aman said.
“That’s surprising. No infection from the cut?” Mara asked.
“You both have a clean bill, Mara. We can take you out of quarantine immediately,” he told her. “And Hanson is free to return to the Zephyr.”
“What a relief. Score one for protein bars and bad sleep,” Mara said.
“I know you are joking, Mara.”
They began walking the remaining distance. In the low gravity and the flattened ice, it was much quicker than it had been through the spires. They bounded along, excited to be so close, their adrenaline fueling them the last bit of the way.
As they approached, the sun worked its way out from behind the narrow limb of Jupiter. A wall of light traveled over the entire surface of Europa from right to left as the small moon orbited its planet. Suddenly everything was illuminated in warm sunlight. It was a blessing upon their return, a sign of the planets and the moons aligning for them.
“You’re having dinner with me, aren’t you?” Mara asked.
Hanson hesitated without intending to. The invitation had caught him off guard. “Wouldn’t miss it,” he said, and he smiled at her as they neared their sanctuary.
CHAPTER 13
Sol 15; Mission time - 12:17
Dr. Aman entered the room with a tense face. The usually punctual doctor was late and disheveled in appearance, and he was patting himself down trying to find his glasses somewhere inside his lab coat.
Mara and Hanson had started eating, but they put their silverware down when the doctor appeared. Mara was immediately suspicious of his behavior.
Dr. Aman found his glasses and put them on, but paused when he saw Hanson.
“Hanson, it is good to see you again,” he said, before acknowledging Mara.
Mara watched the doctor sit rather uncomfortably, then he shuffled several folders of paper onto the table before him.
“You had something important you wanted to tell us?” she asked. The doctor fidgeted with his papers with an urgency that only increased her anxiety.
Dr. Aman shifted again, trying to get comfortable. “We might wait until you are finished eating, Mara,” the doctor said, folding his glasses into his hands. There are some findings in our research we need to go over that are sensitive, so let us eat first,” he said.
“We don’t have to wait,” she replied. “Hanson knows about the diamonds, if that’s what is making you uncomfortable.”
The doctor had a surprised look, then cleared his throat. “I am guessing you told him during your excursion then?” he asked. “I thought we agreed our orders were not to reveal the nature of our discoveries here.”
“I was with Mara at the drill outpost when the sub was under,” Hanson said. “I’ve known since then. There’s no need to keep secrets.”
Dr. Aman appeared even more confused or concerned.
“I do not mean to offend you, Hanson. Our orders come from Mission Control,” he said. “It is not… was not… our decision to make.” He looked toward Mara.
“Hanson was with us at the console when we lowered EUNICE,” she told him. “He helped us get down there. He helped us procure the samples and guide the sub back. He’s known the entire time and he hasn’t said anything,” she replied.
Hanson dipped his head to her ever so slightly.
Dr. Aman’s eyes went over his two guests inquisitively, and his posture relaxed. “Very well,” he said. “There is a lot to go over. I am going to bring Luis on the monitor to go over the latest imagery, and Julian will be coming in. He’ll want to go over the crystal structures. Hold on…”
Dr. Aman called Luis by depressing a pre-set button on the communication console. Luis came up almost immediately. When his image appeared, he looked toward Mara first.
“Mara! Thank God you are ok,” he said. “I was worried about you.” Then he turned to Hanson, noticing him at the table next to her. His expression changed. “Hanson?” he asked. “That’s your name, isn’t it? What are you doing at the Hab?”
“Hanson went with me to the fissure,” Mara said. “We were both hungry. I invited him to eat.”
Luis nodded, but his expression did not change.
“Something wrong?” Mara asked.
Luis appeared hesitant. “I thought I was here to discuss the scientific implications of our mission. I don’t see why Hanson is here. Our orders were to…”
“Luis,” Mara interrupted him. “We already explained this to Dr. Aman. Hanson is fully appraised of the situation. He was present during the descent of the sub. He knows about…”
“Excuse me,” Luis interjected forcibly. “Our orders were not to discuss this with anyone but the NASA team. Hanson, you will have to step out if we are to discuss the mission further.”
“I’m trying to tell you he already knows,” Mara said. “He helped us get EUNICE below the surface. He helped with the samples. He can stay. We’re hungry. Let’s eat…” She sent a piercing gaze toward Luis on the monitor.
“Dr. Aman?” Luis asked, staring into the monitor, waiting for the doctor to side with him. When he didn’t, he leaned backward indignantly. “I’m pretty sure we can’t trust such a delicate mission to…”
“Hanson hasn’t said anything,” Mara said.
“Luis,” Hanson said loudly. He leaned forward in his seat and stared directly at him. “I’m not interested in your diamonds. My plan is to sabotage the NASA crew and hold you all here for ransom.”
Mara cracked a smile, but Dr. Aman jumped in quickly to regain some order to the meeting. “Let us stop this and begin the meeting,” he said. “I am sure these two are hungry,” he continued as he gestured toward Mara and Hanson.
“First,” he said, trying to keep the momentum he had created. “I want to say I am sorry you were sent on the mission to the fissure. I mean that to both of you. I had no idea the radiation would be that bad. Stenner also sends his apologies. Luis, you have stated you will keep a better eye on the reports and watch for another solar flare so that it does not happen again. Agreed?”
Luis nodded, and his head turned slightly away from the monitor.
“It’s fine”, Mara said, brushing hair from her eyes like she was dismissing the apology.
“It is not fine, Mara,” Dr. Aman said. “My job is to make sure we are all healthy… and safe. We should have assumed the possibility of a radiation spike over the duration of your excursion. It is too far to send someone, and we will be more diligent about those decisions in the future,” Dr. Aman said. There was a sorrowful expression on his face.
Julian then walked in. “Good morning both of you,” he said as he placed his notepad on the table and carefully flipped through some papers. “Mara, good to have you out of quarantine and back from the fissure. The doctor and I have been doing a lot of work while you were out,” he said.
“Yes, let’s get to it,” she said.
“In a minute. First, we need to discuss in detail what you found at the fissure.”
“Yes,” Luis interjected
. “I’d like to go over the observations at the fissure compared to the orbital images,” he said.
“I told Dr. Aman everything last night,” Mara said.
“Yes, you did, but we’ll need to go into a little more detail,” Luis replied.
“I already told you the fissure was huge… and deep. I couldn’t see the bottom.”
“We know, Mara. You did say that,” Julian responded. “We need to know more. Any other details you can think of will help. Did you notice any outgassing? Smoke? Was the ice an unexpected color? Could you see it moving, or the cracks growing larger?”
Mara was trying to remember, not answering him, and Hanson jumped in to help.
“The fissure was growing larger. The sides were collapsing as we stood and watched. Just small fractures here and there, but some larger ones too. They were falling into the canyon. There was some mist way down at the bottom. I thought it looked like water vapor.”
“That makes sense. If the fissure reaches to the ocean below, we’d expect some vapor to work its way upward in the vacuum,” Julian said. “That’s a valuable observation.”
“I want to know why Hanson was sent on that excursion,” Luis interjected. “What kind of training does he have to describe the fissure or the geology of this moon?”
His question caught Mara’s attention, and she spoke before anyone else could. “Hanson was sent by request of the mining crew,” she said. “He has plenty of experience mining on several asteroids and he’s seen the reaction that small planetesimals have to deep drilling. His knowledge on these matters is extremely valuable.”
Luis leaned backward. He had pursed his lips angrily, like he wanted to say something but had resisted the urge. Mara continued.
“I didn’t see the fissure growing, except for the sides falling loose as described. And the ice wasn’t moving, at least not quickly. It was a beautiful blue color. Like it was fresh,” she said.
“That made you believe it was a recent fracture?” Julian asked.
“Yes, I remember saying that to Hanson.”
Diamond Moon Page 24
