Diamond Moon

by B K Gallagher

  She took the ring and placed it on her finger. It fit. A strained smile came to her face. They hugged and leaned their weight into each other, embracing themselves against the forces trying so hard to fall them both.

  His mother leaned away from her briefly. “Go for him,” she said. “You can make his dreams come true. He knows… he knew, it will be good for you.”

  Mara looked into her eyes. Her sincerity and resolve were obvious. Mara felt the same sense of resolve growing within her. She nodded and accepted. She was going to do for George what he would not be able to. She would go for him; it was her duty, she felt, and she would honor his dream for the both of them. She decided then and there and without any doubt, she would be his emissary to space and the stars.

  CHAPTER 25

  Sol 17; Mission time - 14:58

  Docking went smoother than anticipated, a moment of good fortune among disasters. The Zephyr approached the Copernicus orbiter and matched its orbit without fail. The computer guidance system locked the docking portals together, and the hatch between the two ships was ready to be opened. Mara stood at the entry, waiting as the air pressure equalized with long hissing sounds between the vessels.

  She didn’t have time for greetings when she came on board. She rushed toward Stenner and snatched the enzyme from his hands, then returned quickly to where Hanson lay inside the Zephyr. Stenner and Dr. Aman followed her, walking into the massive rig for the first time. They had to find their own way Mara had moved so fast.

  Dr. Aman was the first to get there. He bent down over Hanson and took his pulse as Mara prepped the syringe. “He’s barely hanging on,” he said, sharing a worried look with Mara.

  “Mara,” he said. “You realize this has not been tested, and there are no guarantees,” he warned.

  Mara shook her head. “I know.” The last of her spirit left her body along with the words. Her hopes for the mission had dwindled as she realized she would be using the last drops of the enzyme to save Hanson.

  She injected it into Hanson’s suit, and she watched. She knew the effect would not be immediate, but she couldn’t help staying near him. She sat next to him while the enzyme absorbed into his system. It coursed through his body and entered his being, just as it had hers. Time passed excruciatingly slow. She held his hand and she hoped for a miracle, like she had before so many times before.

  Sol 17; Mission time - 16:03

  Hanson’s skin was flush with blisters. His eyes were yellow, bloodshot, and watery. His breathing was rapid, and the shallow breaths were agonizing to watch. Anyone of them could be his last. Mara worried as she sat nearby. The enzyme was gone. There would be no more research, no more miracle cures. She considered it a price paid for a life saved.

  She turned her attention to Dr. Aman and Stenner, while her mind dealt with one catastrophe at a time. “Luis” she said to them. “He told them about the diamonds.”

  Mara’s accusation was met with silence. Dr. Aman and Stenner stood over Mara, not speaking to her.

  She grew more vehement with their silence, raising her voice. “Someone told Johan about the diamonds. I thought we were ordered to keep it to ourselves. I thought it was too dangerous to tell anybody? That’s what you said,” she yelled as she glared at Stenner.

  Neither man wanted to engage with her.

  “They’re all dead, you know,” she informed them. “They didn’t make it back to the Zephyr. Only Hanson and I made it.”

  Stenner and Dr. Aman remained quiet, listening to her, not knowing what to say.

  She shook her head. “It was Luis. He told Johan about the diamonds, and he tried to pin it on Hanson.”

  Dr. Aman finally tried to calm her down. “Mara, the miners have their own equipment; sonars, radars, probes… they easily could have found this out on their own. Maybe that’s all it was,” he told her.

  “No” she said. “Johan knew that Hanson was keeping it a secret for us. Whoever told Johan wanted Hanson to pay for it. He tried to turn the miners on him. He tried to get me to turn on him. There’s only one person that would have done that.”

  Mara stood up and left Hanson to gather some water and check the first aid supplies. Her adrenaline was still coursing through her, and she stormed into the med bay with an angry gait. She returned and carefully dabbed Hanson’s face with a wet towel. She tried to pour water down his throat. Most of it fell to the side.

  She took deep breaths as she looked over him. The seriousness of his condition was not abating. “Help me get him to the med room,” she asked the two men next to her.

  Dr. Aman and Stenner grasped Hanson’s upper body while Mara went to his feet and handled his lighter half. Moving Hanson wasn’t hard in the zero gravity, but his body gave them a good resistance for their effort. They guided him to where a bed waited, and Mara hooked him into the monitors.

  Hanson’s color was returning to his face. The monitors were showing his vital signs normalizing. He remained unconscious, but his body, spent from fighting the microbes, appeared to be turning in his favor. His breathing was slowing, reducing the sense of immediate danger.

  Dr. Aman checked his vitals, encouraged by the signs they were seeing. “He’s going to sleep for a while, Mara,” he told her. “C’mon, let’s get you something to eat. You’ve had a day.”

  “You left me,” Mara said.

  Dr. Aman looked surprised to have this brought up to him. He lowered his head, and he didn’t say anything.

  “I know it was you,” she said, looking at him.

  Dr. Aman sighed. “The landing site was collapsing all around us,” he replied. “We were watching the signals. We barely made it.”

  Mara felt heavy breaths passing through her lungs. She was angry, but also too relieved and too tired to make a scene about what had happened. “It’s my fault, Aman,” she said to him. “I put you in a bad position,” she admitted.

  Dr. Aman seemed to relax. He smiled with a complimentary look. “Let’s get you something to drink,” he said. “I am sure you could use it,” he said, and he left for the mess hall, expecting her to follow him.

  Mara got up to leave but stopped when she realized she was leaving Hanson.

  “Go ahead, Mara,” Reese told her. “I’ll watch him,” she said.

  Mara was delirious and exhausted, but she followed Dr. Aman to take off her bio-suit and get that drink. When she exited the medical bay, she saw Luis. He was standing in the doorway at the other side of the room, looking into the med bay at Hanson. He appeared surprised to see him on board with them. Mara’s eyes met his.

  Her anger overtook her. She charged at him as he tried to back away, and she threw her forearm hard into his neck, pinning him to the wall. “I know it was you, you fucking prick!” she yelled, pressing her elbow deep into his throat.

  Luis struggled to get air and his face turned red. He looked at her and then at the other two men in the room. There was fear in his eyes, and they were calling for help.

  Mara’s anger had made her stronger than she knew she could be. She was hurting him. She held him against the wall for several seconds while she glared into his eyes. She had him, and he knew it.

  Stenner and Dr. Aman came to Luis’s aid and pulled Mara off him. He cowered when he was released and ran quickly down the hallway to his bunk room.

  Stenner held on to Mara as she tried to follow him. “Mara,” Stenner warned, sternly. “I won’t have the crew fighting during the mission,” he said. “At ease, soldier! At ease!” he yelled several times as he and Dr. Aman held her at bay, waiting for her to calm down.

  Luis stopped at the end of the hallway and turned to the others. He cradled his neck in his hands. An astonished look befell him as he considered the strength he had just witnessed; the intensity of Mara’s rage. She glared at him from the mess hall, and their eyes met for a second time.

  “Did Nathan put you up to
this?” she yelled. “What did he tell you about me?” she asked him. “Did he?”

  Luis stared blankly at her.

  “What are you talking about Mara?” Dr. Aman asked.

  Mara let out an incredulous laugh, trying hard to disbelieve what she was about to say. “Nathan thought Luis might be good for me,” she said. “He put him up to this. Nathan hoped we would hit it off and he would help me through my grief.” She shook her head and laughed in disbelief at what she was saying.

  Luis stood at the other end of the corridor, slowly shaking his head in denial, but his body language and his posture had already acknowledged his guilt.

  Stenner and Dr. Aman pulled Mara into the next room and sat her on the floor. Dr. Aman left to talk to Luis while Commander Stenner stayed with her. She was still shaking with rage. He leaned down to her.

  “We’ll get this sorted out,” he told her. “If anyone broke orders there will be consequences, I assure you,” he said.

  “Johan took advantage of us,” she said. “Luis… This happened because we kept those diamonds a secret. If we had been honest with them, they would have listened to us.” She clenched her jaw and looked away.

  The commander looked down at Mara with a blank stare. His face was tense as he mulled her assessment. He took a resigned breath as he considered the decisions that had been made and the outcomes that had resulted from them. He lowered his head and turned it from side to side slightly.

  “They had no right to do what they did,” he said. “They could have killed you. All of you.”

  Mara had a blank stare on her face. “They wouldn’t listen to our warnings. Why would they after we lied to them?”

  Stenner didn’t respond at first. He was still composing his thoughts.

  “Look,” he said. “We need to send an update to Mission Control. We need to tell them you are ok. When they last heard from us the capsule had left Europa without you… We told them you were with the mining crew; condition unknown.” He paused for a second. “What happened down there?”

  Mara was still breathing heavily. She tried to focus on Stenner’s question. Her eyes skirted the ceiling of the room, retracing the events in her mind. She couldn’t formulate any words or know where to even begin.

  As Stenner waited Dr. Aman came in. He saw Stenner squatting down near Mara on the floor.

  “Mara, we need to send a message to Mission. We’ll send something when you are ready,” Stenner said. “But we need to decide what we are going to tell them.”

  “What to tell them?” she asked. “Why wouldn’t we tell them the truth? Tell them Johan and his crew found out about the diamonds. Tell them they began mining them and caused the eruption.”

  “We don’t even know what the truth is right now. There’s no way to prove the miners caused that eruption. We don’t know what caused it. It happens to have occurred at almost precisely the moment of max tidal stress. It was probably natural,” he said.

  Mara became even angrier than she was. “Natural?” she cried, shaking her head. She rested her head hard against the cabinet she was next to, banging it against the metal drawers. “That can’t be true. You’re saying they just happened to begin mining for those diamonds and tearing up the seabed just as a major eruption occurred? The largest eruption we’ve seen on Europa in at least the last century? You’re saying it just happened to occur at that same location and at the same time the miners were there? I’m not buying it, and neither will Mission — or the public.”

  Stenner maintained his gaze, unphased. His eyes pierced hers as he figured what they would say. He stood above her and walked to the communications console and prepared the comm-link. Before Stenner could flip the switch to record, the console sounded a message. “It’s incoming,” he said, even though they could see the blinking lights and the monitors themselves.

  Stenner flipped the comm-link and a video of NASA chief Nathan Bergman appeared. It was a recording, as all communications from Earth were.

  “Copernicus, this is Mission Control. Nathan Bergman here.”

  “Copernicus, we have a message to you by way of Astromine Corporate. Astromine is reporting a major disaster regarding their Zephyr mining rig. They are reporting the rig and all crew members missing. They are informing us that communications were lost a few hours ago. …Last transmission was from two crawlers outside of the drilling outpost reporting a May Day, and a massive surface-ice event. Astromine is claiming the crawlers and all crew were likely lost in subsequent ice collapse.”

  There was silence. The room fell still as the words echoed through the chamber, then the silence was broken again by the man on the monitor.

  “Copernicus. We need an update from you. Can you confirm the Astromine communique? This last message has us on edge here. We would like to know the status of Dr. Parrish and her whereabouts. Please report asap…”

  Tension was filling the voice of the Mission Chief. The crew of the Copernicus stared into the monitor, unable to answer, waiting for the recording to finish. They knew they had approximately thirty minutes before the Mission operators would pick up their response. There was one more desperate request from the Mission Control Chief.

  “Copernicus, please report back asap… Last received transmission indicated the Hab One return capsule was launching without Dr. Parrish. Can you confirm? Can you confirm the Astromine report from Europa that the Zephyr rig and all crew are lost? Requesting a briefing asap. Over.”

  The man on the monitor appeared very worried, and his voice wavered as he signed off.

  The crew remained silent in front of the blank screen. There was a moment as they listened to the last desperate requests for information.

  Stenner looked around the room at Dr. Aman and Mara. Julian had entered, leaving Luis to himself in his bunk room. They needed to formulate a response, and quick.

  Stenner shifted his weight, took in a deep breath, and stood rigidly straight, pulling on his jumpsuit to smooth it out. “Let’s get on point here,” he said. “I’m going to confirm the loss of the mining crew in the eruption. I’ll tell them Mara and Hanson are safe and followed us up on the Zephyr. We’ll tell them the crew began mining around the volcanic vents and may have triggered an eruption… they likely caused the ice collapse and were lost on the moon’s surface… That sound good to everyone? Mara?” he asked again, checking with her.

  Mara nodded in agreement, and the others seemed to agree in silence. Mara watched Stenner prepare the cameras and then flip the communication to record. He would naturally conduct the briefing.

  Mara saw the message “recording” appear on the screens in front of them.

  Stenner repeated the debriefing into the cameras. He was describing the events with the coolness of someone that had watched them from far above the danger. He finished his report, then he raised his finger to the “send” button. Mara saw him reach for the switch and he looked her way for approval.

  Quickly she placed her hand over the button, preventing him from pressing it, and Stenner pulled away, surprised.

  “Stenner,” she said, waiting a few extra seconds to devise a story. “Tell them I was on board the return capsule when it rendezvoused with the Copernicus orbiter.”

  He looked at her confused.

  “Just do it.”

  Mara saw him give her a suspicious look.

  “Just tell them,” she said again. “Tell them I was on the return capsule and the previous transmission was inaccurate. Tell them the entire mining crew is missing. Tell them the Zephyr was lost, and we don’t know the status of the crew.” She looked up toward the Commander, and he was staring slack-jawed at her. “Just say it… ok?”

  “What are you trying to do?” he asked her.

  She let out a deep sigh and looked into his eyes. “Please,” she begged. “He’s the reason we got off the moon.”

  “I asked… What you
are planning,” Stenner insisted.

  Mara knew she didn’t have long. She knew her best bet was to explain to Stenner what she was doing.

  “It’s for Hanson,” she explained. “He helped us make the fuel we needed. He went out there to try and stop the miners. He got us all off that moon,” she explained. “We wouldn’t be here without him.”

  Stenner hesitated and weighed his options, and Mara watched him juggle his thoughts in his mind.

  “There has to be something we can do,” she said. She looked at him with pleading eyes.

  With a few short breaths Stenner coughed slightly to clear his throat, then looked at Mara as he flipped the switch, confirming that this is what she wanted.

  Mara looked at him without batting an eye, and the commander began for a second time. Everyone stood around him, listening.

  “Mission Control, this is Copernicus, Commander Stenner speaking. We have a report for you from orbit around Jupiter. The Hab One return capsule rendezvoused with Copernicus successfully about three hours ago. The capsule appears to be in good condition, all crew members accounted for. I can confirm Dr. Parrish was on board the Hab One return capsule when it arrived at the Copernicus orbiter. Repeat, Dr. Parrish is alive and well on the Copernicus orbiter.”

  Stenner winced knowing he was contradicting his previous account. He looked worried about how he was going to explain it away. He cleared his throat once more before saying anything else.

  “We can confirm the Zephyr mining rig and crew have been lost in an eruption and subsequent ice collapse. Let me repeat; Mining rig Zephyr and entire crew have been lost on surface of Europa… whereabouts are unknown at this time.”

  Stenner wrestled with the briefing… He bowed his head as he thought about the lives lost, and the lie he was telling. The only sound in the room was the flip of the mic switch as he turned on the recording one more time.

  “We are currently orbiting Jupiter awaiting instructions on returning to Earth. Over.”