Mara would have to work through the constant motion and distractions. She checked Hanson for any affects from the booster. Still not working. “I need to get you another one,” she shouted at him. She left him lying in the chamber as she ran for the med-bay once more.
She heard Reese’s voice over the comm-link as she ran room to room. “Mara, you need to hurry. You have to launch now! We can see the fissure from orbit. You don’t want to know what’s coming!”
“Hold on… I’m losing Hanson! I need to give him another booster.”
“Can Hanson pilot the rig?” Reese asked.
“I don’t think he is capable of it right now. I have to help him with this infection, or we won’t find out.”
Mara reached the boosters again and returned. Adrenaline was coursing through her veins as she tried to administer the shot. Her hands were shaking, and the stubbornly thick gloves were hindering her movements… She could see that Hanson was nearly unconscious. She injected the solution into his arm again, hoping to see quick results.
The outpost continued to heave and shake with the eruption, and she waited for any sign the boosters were working. Lights began to flash on and off, and warning lights began to trigger. Sparks were flying from electrical boards, providing light.
Hanson somehow focused himself. “Mara, you can handle the launch on your own,” he said through startlingly weak breaths. “Start the sequence at the bridge. It’s mostly automated.” His words were taking forever to exit his lips. Mara waited impatiently for him to give her instructions. “Plot a course for the orbiter. The rig will pick it up on radar and guide us there,” he said.
Mara began to follow his orders. She helped him to his feet and brought him to the bridge with her. He was lucid enough to be able to walk, barely. Sirens and warning lights were still sounding all around. Hanson helped her log the sequences into the command panel.
“Maybe he was feeling better,” she caught herself thinking. It was a hopeful sign.
She had to track the Copernicus orbiter to determine a launch trajectory. She began the automated sequence built into the rig. “Reese!” she called over the comm.
Silence. The eruption was making communication difficult. Mara wasn’t sure the signal could get beyond the wall of water that was between them and the orbiter above.
“Mara,” Hanson called, fixing his gaze upon the geyser outside the bridge. “We need to disengage the fuel tanks and pumps. We can’t leave if those are attached.”
“Damn. Ok, I’ll take care of it,” she told him.
“I’m trying to tell you… You don’t have time to go out there!”
“I don’t think I’ll have to…” Mara said. She jumped from the bridge and over some railing into the drill chamber. She looked across the room at the bank of windows beside the rail-gun. She hopped onto the familiar seat and began charging the gun just as she had days earlier.
Hanson could hear the generator and battery building up from the bridge. “Mara,” he attempted to yell. “You better not be firing that at the tanks — you’ll blow the ship! Mara!” He shouted again, but his voice couldn’t reach her. “Mara!” he tried helplessly.
Mara moved the rail gun into a position aimed directly for the distributor at the oxygen and hydrogen fuel tanks. The battery was nearly charged up. She heard the humming sounds reach a familiar high pitch. She situated the crosshairs of the gun as precisely as she could for maximum effect.
The “ready to fire” message flashed up on her screen. There was little time for hesitation or second-guessing. Mara pulled the trigger and almost instantly released a silent, extremely violent explosion that sent hot shrapnel, fire, and clouds of water vapor lurching toward the entire facility. Metal fragments from the tanks and pipes pinged off the hull of the rig and belted the windows. Mara heard loud thuds on the sides of the Zephyr and metallic clanking sounds. A shower of freshly made water sprayed the outside of the facility like a fire sprinkler. Hanson saw a couple of cracks form in the bay window where shrapnel had hit the composite windows. The windows were suddenly awash in water droplets from the hydrogen and oxygen reaction, and they immediately froze in place. Mara hoped it would put out any fires she had caused. They could only hope there was no permanent damage to the exterior. It was a chance they would have to live or die with.
The blast had loosened the fuel tanks, or what was left of them. The Zephyr was free from its ties to the ground apparatus and was ready for launch.
Hanson began entering the sequences while Mara was away, surprised to be able to launch. As he worked the controls the foundation hooks that connected the station into the surface ice began to retract. Massive engines and rockets began to ignite. They sent rumbling vibrations through the entire facility as they roared to life, adding to the already rocking motion of the eruption.
“You’ve never launched until you go in a rig,” he tried to shout at her. “We’re good to go!” he said. “Get up here and hold onto something!”
Mara grabbed onto some of the railing surrounding the gun and braced herself for the launch. The engines continued to fire, roaring more loudly than anything she had ever heard.
Massive rockets at the four corners of the facility sent blisteringly hot plasma into the ice, and pieces of the shattered surface were being hurled from the base of the massive boosters. The heat from the engines forced steam into the space around the facility. The fires bore deep into the ground, boiling away ice that had been in place for millions of years.
Mara pulled herself up the stairs and onto the bridge before the launch could fully begin. Buckling herself in her seat, she watched through the windows as the ice beneath them began to fall away into the fissure. She gasped when she saw the ground sinking below them. She expected to feel a falling sensation, but the Zephyr was holding steady. The rockets had generated just enough lift to prevent the rig from descending with the falling ice. They began to rise on top of the massive thrusters as the ice fell away around them.
They accelerated away. The horizon was being left behind while out in the distance the geyser continued to spew water-ice high above them. They ascended above the loud rocket boosters. The engine noise vibrated through their helmets and into their skulls. Mara looked to the side windows and watched the nearby eruption pass below them.
Within a minute they had matched the speed of the geyser erupting outside their windows. Peering out the bridge window Mara caught sight of a large boulder of ice that had been ejected from below, following them into space at nearly the same speed they were traveling. It held steady a few hundred meters outside their window, matching speed with them as it tumbled through the sky amid the other pieces of destruction. Then, as the Zephyr began to move even faster, the boulder appeared to slow and fall beneath them. Its fate was to land back down upon the surface and not to soar into the heavens with the rig. It was one of hundreds of ice boulders that were coursing through the skies above the moon, reaching astounding heights and then falling back to the surface. Mara tracked them as she watched the destruction from an ever higher and higher vantage.
Smaller bits of ice began clanking against the hull of the craft as they ascended. Mara heard them pinging off the hull above the din of rocket noise. They clanked like a thousand bugs hitting a windshield. Drifting outside the cockpit window, the shards of ice danced before them for a short while, maintaining speed with them as well, before they also were overmatched in speed and began to sink below them like rain. They were passing them by faster and faster as they went into space.
Hanson continued monitoring the flight trajectory, barely remaining conscious. “Mara. We’re not on a good launch path,” he said rather alarmingly.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the computer put us right through that geyser. We’re getting closer to it. Look. We can’t fly through that, look at the size of those boulders. We’ll need to alter course, and quick.
”
“I told the computer to match orbit with Copernicus like you said,” Mara told him.
“Yes, you did it right, but the Zephyr didn’t know that we’re escaping an eruption, or where it was. It plotted our course right through it. We’ll need to manually correct.” Hanson raised his head high enough to study the diagrams on his console. “But, there’s a problem.”
Mara let out an exasperated breath. “just one?” she said, sarcastically. “It’s a good day then…”
“If we correct course now, were going to come out of this in the wrong direction. Look, we’ll have to correct over this way. When we come out of this thing, we’ll be heading the opposite direction that Copernicus is orbiting.”
“That’s okay, just get us out of this mess,” she told him.
“Ok, disengaging launch vector,” Hanson called out. “Switching to manual… You’ve got the controls. Watch that larger chunk of debris out there,” he said as she steered the Zephyr through an array of flying icebergs and showers of ocean water.
Hanson watched Mara work the controls. He was impressed with her steadiness. “Not bad,” he complimented her.
“Who says I lose my head in a crisis?” Mara chided as she monitored the craft’s heading through the bridge window.
She saw Hanson smile through a wince of pain.
The craft rounded the limb of the small moon and the violence of the eruption slowly faded into the distance. They peered across the surface of the moon they had just barely escaped. Mara looked down upon the surface in a completely new way.
Frightening chaos had transformed into beauty. The slivers of ice soaring above the limb of the terrain reflected sunlight as they arced over the moon, turning the massive geyser into a continent-sized rainbow. Sunlight refracted through billions of tiny droplets of water and ice, each of them microscopic lenses of light, and it created a wash of color nearly the size of the entire moon. The stark and colorless scenery Mara had seen upon her arrival was now awash in vibrance, transformed into a prism of beauty and splendor, erupting with life.
Material blasted into space by the eruption was collecting above the moon. Most were falling back down to the surface, but some were going into orbit. A cloud of water-ice over the geyser had already formed into a faint, but certain, orbital ring around the moon. Europa had a ring of erupted ice.
Mara looked upon the rainbow of colors and the forming ring. From above, where the Zephyr now traveled, it was staggering. She was lost in the unexpected beauty. She saw how in all the tragedy, in all the destruction, and amid all the chaos, there could be something unexpectedly wonderful.
The rainbow below her was rising above the horizon, coming completely into view. As they ascended, she saw more and more of it until it formed a complete circle. “Stunning,” she said. “Tell me you can see this, Hanson?”
There was no answer.
“Hanson?”
He mumbled something unintelligible.
“Is the booster working yet?” she asked. “Can you feel it?”
“I don’t know. I still have a fever, the shakes.”
“You should be feeling better by now,” she told him. “Adrenaline should be making the boosters work faster. Are you sure you aren’t feeling better?”
“I’d sure like to be,” Hanson told her as he leaned back in his chair; the chair where Johan used to sit.
She slipped the glove of her suit off and into the open cabin, and it floated weightless before her. She placed her delicate hand upon Hanson’s. Unafraid of exposing herself to his infection, she removed his glove as well. She grasped his hand firmly, her skin touching his, knowing these may be the last minutes of his life.
Hanson’s eyes locked on hers. He was delirious. She wasn’t sure if he could comprehend what she was doing. She could see that he was trying hard to stay focused, but he was faltering. A smile melted away as he felt pain and winced. His skin was blistering as Johan’s had. He was beginning to look like Larue and Morrison right before they had succumbed to the disease.
“Stay with me,” Mara said, worried. She could see him fading right in front of her.
Hanson grasped her hand and stared into her eyes. He tried to say something, but he couldn’t finish the sentence.
Mara lifted his visor against all safety protocols, and she brushed his wet hair from his forehead. She gave him a tender kiss, risking infection herself. She no longer cared enough to be cautious.
“Don’t get sick,” Hanson told her, gaining enough strength
to speak.
“I’m already exposed. I don’t know why it’s not working for you.”
Then it hit her, in a sudden flash, it was so obvious she was angry she hadn’t realized before. She had been exposed, but she was exposed to the enzyme; the same enzyme that Dr. Aman demonstrated had healing properties… the enzyme that could cure damaged nerve cells. The enzyme that supposedly made the creatures immortal… That was the cure. She had never become sick from the microbes because she was already immune to them. It had never been the immune-boosters that had saved her at all, it had been the enzyme the entire time.
She felt a sudden surge of hope. She needed the enzyme. She knew that Dr. Aman left with it on the return capsule. It would be at the Copernicus orbiter by now. She would need to get Hanson there immediately to give him the last drops of whatever amount they had. Her spirit was suddenly revitalized. She realized there was a chance for him.
“Hanson, we need to get you to Copernicus fast,” she said. “I think I know what will save you.”
“I told you after that last maneuver… we’re on an elliptical orbit and moving in the opposite direction. We won’t meet Copernicus for… at least a day, maybe more.”
“Then we need to speed up. Hit the thrusters or something!”
“It doesn’t work that way. We speed up and it just throws our orbit outside theirs. We’ll get further from Copernicus, not closer.” He was barely able to speak, and Mara was having a hard time understanding him.
“Then slow us down…” she said.
Hanson sighed. He smacked his lips and mouth. He needed water. “Mara, I’m not sure we have time for me. Set an orbit to match Copernicus and stay on it. Stop trying to save me. It’s too late.”
“But I know what can save you! I have to give you the enzyme. We can still get you there in time!”
He shook his head. “Mara, you got us this far. Stop letting me hold you back.”
Mara shook her head. “I’ve already risked my life several times for you today… There’s no chivalry in sacrificing yourself now. You’re just gonna piss me off more than I already am.”
Hanson tried not to laugh. He lay on the floor in front of her, contemplating their situation and his condition. He could see the determination in her eyes. He could already tell she was going to do something reckless if he didn’t help her.
“I think I know what we could do. It’s dangerous… brings us dangerously close to Jupiter.”
“Mara’s face lit up. Let’s do it.”
Hanson sat up the small amount that he could. “Are you sure? You can make it, Mara. We stay on this orbit and you can make it…”
Mara nodded. “We have to try,” she answered.
Hanson waited for her to change her mind, but she wasn’t going to. He gathered the strength to begin to explain what to do.
“We’re not aligned right… we need to course-correct,” he said, his voice was weak and raspy. “We’ll sling-shot ourselves around.”
“How do we do that?” Mara asked. “You know this ship better than I do.”
“It’s like we did back on Ceres once,” Hanson said. “We cut across the larger mass; used it to catapult us over to the other side. It’s just… we’re going to get dangerously close to Jupiter.”
“Close?”
“Yes, we need as much
momentum as we can get. We reduce speed and let ourselves fall toward the planet. The gravity of Jupiter will accelerate us and we catch up to Copernicus on the far side. We do this right, we’ll be going fast when we get there — and it’ll happen quick. You’ll have to let the retro-boosters fire at just the right time.”
Mara looked worried.
“It’ll work, just depends on how thick that atmosphere is,” he continued. “Too thick, or too close, we burn up in the upper layers of Jupiter. Or, worse, it’ll slow us down and we fall in. It’s chancy either way.”
“Why not, it’s been a boring day,” Mara said under her breath.
Hanson breathed a deep sigh, resigned to Mara’s stubbornness. “Let me run it through the computer,” he said.
“You need to rest. I’ll run it… lay down,” she said.
“You just admitted I know this ship better than you do. Let me check it out. Then I’ll set the nav computer and let it take over.”
Mara agreed, and she let Hanson begin the sequence, but she was astounded at his resiliency. He looked terrible and was fading, but he was giving it everything he had to get them there quickly.
Hanson ran the numbers, and when he was done, he stammered back slightly and caught himself on Mara’s chair. The monitor before them showed the video feed of the calculations. Hanson was ready to collapse from exhaustion.
“This can work,” he told her. “We need to initiate the sequence soon, but let’s wait just a few minutes for a better angle.”
“Hanson, we need to leave now. The infection is getting worse. You saw what happened to Larue and Morrison. Start the sequence,” she demanded.
“We need to stay this course a bit longer. If we hold here, we get there quicker. Look at the orbitals… This cuts us closer to Jupiter’s atmosphere. Wait a bit, we get a sharper angle; sharper angler, quicker orbit. Ok?”
Diamond Moon Page 43
