“How could things get any worse,” she thought to herself, and she rested on her bed hoping to put it all beside her, but she was further than ever from what she wanted.
CHAPTER 17
Sol 16; Mission time - 06:52
Hanson was just waking up in his private quarters when Morrison and Larue barged into the main bunk room down the hallway.
“Johan is calling an emergency meeting,” he heard Larue say, yelling across the room to the other men.
Hanson heard him shouting from his private quarters. An emergency meeting was not the typical routine before a launch. Hanson was suspicious immediately when he heard the announcement. The men in the bunk rooms stopped whatever they were doing and moved into the galley, and Hanson stepped from his private bunk and followed them.
He had packed for the launch and done all the necessary prep. He suspected the meeting was to discuss their next destination, although that was usually done after the launch was completed. “Maybe Johan wants to get a jump on our next destination,” he thought to himself.
He was one of the last men into the galley, where Johan was standing at the head of the room. He was in front of the large bay windows that looked over the icy surface, and the face of Jupiter stared into the room from behind him like it was listening in on the meeting.
Johan looked his way immediately. He straightened himself in front of the men and began his address.
“I know you all expected to be leaving this morning,” he said loudly, so his voice would carry across the room. “However, I’ve come across some interesting news.” He paused and let the words sink in. He seemed to enjoy the attention that he had in front of his team.
“The scientists have been making major breakthroughs in their research,” he continued. “And I’ve learned that they have been keeping some secrets from us,” he said. His eyes drifted across the room looking for the reaction he knew he would be getting. They briefly made contact with Hanson.
He became nervous. This was highly unusual, and he felt a lump form in his throat, wondering if Johan knew what he knew. Before he could think about it any longer Johan had continued.
“Deep on the ocean floor there is a treasure they don’t want us to know about,” the captain continued.
Heads turned. There was immediate chatter that overtook the room. Johan reached for his cup of coffee, and he took a casual sip from it, like he had known this information the entire time; like it was old news. He was stringing the announcement out, letting the men ruminate about the news.
Hanson felt himself bracing for whatever was about to be divulged to the crew. He feared the worst. He watched Johan at the head of the room. He seemed to relish having a captive audience. He set the mug of coffee down, ready to continue.
“We’ve been told that we can’t drill or operate anything under the ice because we’ll endanger the mission, or we’ll endanger ourselves, or we’ll endanger whatever is down there,” Johan said, clenching his jaw. “Well, that’s a bunch of bullshit,” he said. He raised a finger to get the crew’s attention as they began to stir, and building slowly to the announcement.
“They’re hiding something from us,” he said. “They’ve been trying to scare us away and misinform us, and now I know what they are hiding. But…” he said with a dramatic pause. “First, maybe we should ask Hanson what it is they’ve found?” he suggested, looking toward him.
Hanson saw Johan looking his way, and he felt his heart skip. He reflexively took a gulp of air. The men all turned to him, and every eye in the galley was suddenly on him.
“Do you have anything you want to say, Hanson?” Johan asked.
It felt like an adrenaline shot had hit him in the heart. He swallowed hard as tension built in his throat. He wasn’t sure what to say. He knew stammering like he was would be a bad thing. It was a set-up, and Johan intentionally put him in this situation to catch him off guard.
He was frozen, afraid to say anything. The attention put on him had overwhelmed him to the point of immobility.
“Ask him,” he heard Johan say forcefully, but nobody answered. “Ask him!” he repeated as the men roused for a second.
The room was deathly still. Only Johan was speaking. The men were waiting for either Johan or Hanson to say something, but it was quiet.
“Nobody?” Johan asked. “Ok, I’ll tell them if you won’t,” he said.
“Ask Hanson about the diamonds,” he said, drawing the last word out for emphasis. “Ask him about the fields of diamonds. Mountains of diamonds. Real diamonds, mates. Not small little tiny diamonds that go on a finger. There are diamonds the size of houses down there,” he said. “Diamonds the size of buildings.”
There was a collective rumbling from the men, but Johan spoke above the din of excited talk. Hanson felt his heart sink, and he lowered his head, knowing this was a worse-case-scenario for him and the NASA team. Johan began speaking again before he could even finish his thoughts.
“NASA thinks they can keep this information from us, scare us into leaving, or lie to us about what they are finding. To that I say, the crew of the Zephyr has always made our own decisions. We know this is a dangerous job, and we don’t need those scientists telling us what we can and can’t do. We don’t need scientists telling us what is safe for us and what is not.”
The men began to stir even more. Johan’s angry words were transferring onto his crew, as intended. He was winning them over, and he could tell in their mannerisms and their body language. The crew were falling in line. He knew they would for the chance to do some real work and make real wages.
When Johan saw that he had their support, he continued where he had left off. “Screw these scientists and their rules and fake warnings. We got their sub to the bottom of the ocean — we can do it again for ourselves. The diamonds on the seafloor, and anything else, are just as much ours as it is theirs,” he said.
The men in the room agreed with him. “And Astromine doesn’t know about it,” he continued. “No corporate percentages here. We’re on comp time, boys, and comp time means we keep what we find!”
Hanson couldn’t believe what was happening. It was a nightmare situation to suddenly be in. He wasn’t even sure what he could say. He had watched Johan fan the men into a frenzy, and they clamored for more. They were anxious and excited to explore the moon and the potential discoveries that awaited them. They were each imagining the riches they would soon have. They were imagining themselves wealthy men.
The excitement shown on their faces. There were hollers and screams coming from the group of men as they got more and more excited. Johan had given an arousing speech, and Hanson knew the crew would do anything for him, anything for the treasure that awaited them. His heart was sinking, unable to do anything about it.
“We are taking the crawlers to the fissure, and we’re moving this operation away from the NASA outposts. We’ll launch the grinder heads and bring up our own samples and our own diamonds. And when we get back to the colony, we’ll be leaving this life behind us once and for all,” Johan yelled.
Johan stood before the men, reveling in the excitement he had created. He could sense the anticipation and eagerness to get started. He basked in the adulation.
Hanson felt a knot growing in his stomach while he watched. He’d been set up. He wondered when Johan would deliver the blow, knowing and expecting it at any time. Before he could continue with his thoughts Johan spoke again.
“Now, since this isn’t a corporate operation, you won’t be forced to go if you don’t want to. So, I want to know who is with me, and who isn’t.” The captain of the Zephyr looked over his men, confident that they would all be following him. He knew he had won them over.
The men were waiting for Johan to give the signal and release them to the surface of the moon, and nobody would leave until he issued the command from the front of the room. But Hanson knew that would n
ot be the end of Johan’s announcement, and he felt himself bracing for what was about to come. Johan finally turned to him.
“But first,” Johan said, “I’m afraid we have a bit of a mutiny on our hands here, boys.” Johan gestured toward him. The men had nearly forgotten him, and he felt his gut churn as the attention was squared on him again.
“Hanson has been working with the scientists. He’s been helping them hide their secrets — helping to tell lies about the quakes. He’s been getting us to do their dirty work, and trying to scare you,” he said. “Do you remember last night? You remember what he said about predicting quakes?” Johan laughed, and the men burst into laughter with him.
“Do you think we should let him come with us, or should we lock him in his bunk?” he asked.
Hanson backed away, and the men watched, listening to their captain.
“You don’t know what you are doing, Johan,” Hanson said, but he knew it was too late. It was too late for him to try and talk sense or reason with any of them.
Morrison and Larue, two of Hanson’s friends who were already standing near him, walked closer, ready to grab him as soon as Johan gave the order. They kept their distance, but their intentions were clear.
Hanson wanted to back away from them, but he knew if Johan gave the order he would not be able to fight them.
‘It’s too dangerous to go out there,” he yelled to the men. “Don’t listen to Johan. There are deadly microbes down there.”
The men weren’t listening. There was nothing he could say at this point, and no reason for them to believe him. The majority of the men began to hustle through the doors and put on their bio-suits to go to the fissure. Johan picked up his coffee at the front of the room, drank one last sip from the cup, and propped his foot on a chair. He watched his crew as they went into action. He seemed to admire how well-trained they were. He prided himself on how efficient and eager they appeared. A satisfied smile crossed his face.
Johan then looked at Hanson, still smiling. Morrison and Larue approached him, and Johan made the gesture. The two men lunged and grabbed at him.
“Listen to me! Johan!” Hanson yelled as he struggled against his friends. He began yelling… “You don’t know what you are doing! It’s too dangerous!”
Johan barely acknowledged him, nodding his head in disapproval. He watched Hanson struggling against the two crew
members.
Johan yelled from his vantage at the front of the room. “Yesterday things were all fine and it was safe, you said. Now you say it’s dangerous? We know your friends were keeping secrets, and their secrets were intended to keep us away, to keep us scared. And you knew about it, didn’t you? You knew about their plan.” Johan shook his head. “I’ll tell you… do these men look scared to you, Hanson?”
Hanson’s face grew tense as Morrison and Larue began to pull him to his bunk. “You’re lying! Just like the scientists lied. You’ll lie for whatever you want,” Hanson yelled.
“But I was the one that was right,” Johan replied. “They were hiding things just like I told you they were. And now I’m sending these men to see for ourselves.” He greedily licked his lips as he smiled. “You made another bad decision, Jack,” he said. “I told you the rig comes first.”
“It’s more dangerous than you think out there,” Hanson shouted, attempting one last time to warn him.
Johan ignored him. “Too bad you won’t get your cut,” he said as he turned away. “I bet there’s enough down there to pay off your debts,” he yelled. “You would have been free… Free to captain your own rig. But not now.”
“You said I was finished at the end of the mission!” Hanson yelled.
“No, Jack. You’re being removed from the crew and charged with mutiny. I can’t trust you, and certainly not to captain a rig.”
Hanson began struggling even harder as he was placed in his bunk room. “You son of a bitch!” he yelled to Johan. He glared at him with an intensity that reflected his years of servitude.
“I expect you to be part of this crew and follow my orders,” Johan scolded him. “When you stop doing that you are no longer part of my crew, and I will inform Astromine of your unreliability,” he said.
Johan yelled to his next in command. “Murph,” he called. “You’re my number two. We’re taking the crawlers to the fissure,” he said. “You’ll captain the second crawler. Let’s go.”
Murphy nodded, then turned to look down the hallway where Hanson was being thrown in his bunk. He looked dismayed at the sudden events, and then the door closed.
“Get that loser locked up and follow me,” Johan commanded. “And cut the power to the Hab before you go.”
Larue and Morrison stood just outside Hanson’s bunk room. Both men looked through the small portal window at him. They were stunned and bewildered that the mission had taken this sudden turn, but neither would challenge Johan.
They went to the master switch that fed electricity to the Hab. It was the switch that supplied the power from their nuclear generator to the entire NASA facility. Johan stood and watched approvingly as they cut the power and flipped the massive breaker into the off position.
Morrison looked one more time through the window in Hanson’s door. Hanson saw him staring in at him with a sad expression, questioning what was happening to their team, but then he turned and walked away.
Johan walked through the airlock and disappeared to the outside, and Murphy followed right behind him, ready to take the equipment to the fissure and happy to be the new first-mate.
Sol 16; Mission time - 07:43
As a lumbering group the mining crew marched past the hydrogen and oxygen tanks that provided the fuel and water for the rig, and past the electrolysis system nearby, and then they shuffled into the large crawlers sitting under the framework of the Zephyr. One by one they split into separate teams and disappeared into the massive machines. Johan entered the lead crawler. When the door shut behind him, the cabin pressurized, and he released the visor on his suit and took a deep breath of pressurized air. The crew followed his lead, opening their masks for the fresh air the cabin provided, and they took their seats.
The electric motors that powered the monstrous machines warmed up and the treads began to turn in a lurching motion that shook the morning out of the men. The crawlers were designed to operate in low gravity, and their proportions made them appear oddly back weighted. In higher gravity the design never would have been practical, but on an asteroid or a moon, in the low gravity, they were extremely efficient. They could haul far more for their size than anything on Earth ever could.
The crawlers began to roll on their giant treads, looping around and around as they traveled. The machines cleared the frame of the Zephyr and traveled out onto the plain, becoming nothing more than tiny protrusions upon the razor-thin horizon. The crawlers cast long shadows in the low sunlight, and the dark lines they created on the surface stretched nearly back to the outpost.
The heavy treads dug deep into the icy surface and left a scar upon the plain wherever they traveled. The tracks lead away in their direction of travel — directly towards the fissure.
The two machines rolled steadily and silently, one just ahead of the other. Crawler two stayed back and to the side of the first, following Johan’s crew about one length to the right. Together they labored over the crevices and uneven terrain of the quake-riddled moon. The treads crushed boulders of ice the size of small cars, and traversed deep fractures that descended to the heart of the moon. Micro-fissures that may have been hundreds of meters deep posed little resistance to the long and wide treads. The crawlers easily handled any obstacles in their way.
“We’re one kilometer from base,” Murphy called out after about thirty minutes. He would routinely relay information to the other miners, providing travel speed, distance, and trajectory at regular intervals. “No sign of the fissure,” he added.<
br />
Johan turned his head slightly but seemed disinterested in the details. He held another cup of coffee in his hand, and he took a sip without responding to the pilot.
They continued to travel the featureless ice. Then Murphy called out another reading. “Large depression or surface feature, about twenty degrees starboard,” he said. “Looks like about half a kilo away.”
Nobody said anything. They were all standing and looking out the bridge windows with anticipation. A few more hundred meters and the evidence grew more convincing. They began to gather in front of the windows and look outward, eager to see whatever they could.
The large opening before the two crawlers became an unavoidable, ominous, and dominating sight. It was like a monstrous sea creature had opened its mouth to envelope the tiny crawlers.
It was still and quiet aside from the sound of the mechanical treads beneath them. Fearlessly they approached the fissure, and it dwarfed the large machines as they pulled near to the edge. The crew were silent as they rolled closer, and they taunted the large crevice with their presence. The crawlers began to sally beside the chasm, waiting for Johan to make the call to stop, and it didn’t take long for the captain to grow impatient.
“Right here,” Johan said. “Let’s get out and see what it looks like.”
Larue stopped the first crawler while the second closed in from behind.
Johan turned to him. “Figure out how to get our equipment down there,” he said.
“Aye, captain,” Larue replied. He was already studying the landscape. He flipped his visor down, and he jumped out of the crawler, down the stepladder and out onto the ice. He walked close to the edge, and he leaned over to look into the void.
He gawked at the giant opening. There were faint wisps of vapor that filled the bottom of the chasm. Murphy and Morrison climbed down after him and walked up behind him, staring into the abyss. Murphy was the new number two, and he would have to give the signal. They stood in front of the giant opening, gawking at its size.
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