Europa (Deadverse Book 1) (24 page)

Joyce looked down and her eyes grew open in amazement. She looked back at the screen, then back at the wristband.

“What?” Susan asked, utterly confused.

“Son of a bitch,” Joyce spat.

“What?”

“Someone has been changing my dishes, somehow, without me knowing. So I set up this independent feed to find out who was doing it.”

“And?” Susan asked. She had always found Joyce odd. Not weird in the odd school kid, that mantle had usually been reserved for her. No, she found her odd like that cousin at a family reunion who keeps talking about ancient history and how it relates to modern politics, something no one really cared about at a family reunion. You always wondered if that cousin was adopted. Whenever she stopped to listen to Joyce, she always found her talking about subjects that just didn’t make sense to her, or the context.

“My dishes just got changed again, and then back, and not a single person walked into my console to do it.”

“What does that mean? Can they do that from somewhere else?”

“Yeah,” Joyce said, sitting back in the tiny chair, “they can change the dishes manually, from the dishes themselves.”

“So, don’t you know where everyone is?” Susan asked. She knew Joyce could track anyone on the base at any point.

“Yeah,” Joyce said. Susan could sense fear in her voice. It was the first time she had heard that. “Every single one of our crew mates are on and inside the base. Even the soldier Paul. Someone, or something, else, is out there.”

- Thomas –

This was the second time he had undertaken a secret mission for his commander, both for the same reason and result. He had already used the plasma drill to vaporize the ice surrounding the cache of mech suits they had buried twice already and the rover’s crane was slowly lifting the block out. It was a smaller block this time, compared to the first time Thomas had brought Paul out here. The soldier had rearranged the suits and bodies in a tight layout. He must have known they would come back out.

He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, not even Connie, and while that last part was hard, it wasn’t troubling. He fully supported what Paul was doing, although he actually wished Ben had chosen him for the task. He wondered how Charles would react if he ever found out. Thomas didn’t really care. The greatest irony to him was that the one person he figured to understand gun rights would be the military man, and it turned out that Charles preferred to keep control over the weapons, and that set Thomas off.

Of course, many things set him off, but this one particularly made his gears grind.

One year into the mission, Thomas had requested permission to have and possess one of the several firearms that he knew were on the mission and that Charles had under lock and key. There were of course, the mech weapons, but that wasn’t his deal. Charles had denied him that, and many others on the base had questioned his motives. Why would someone need a weapon while working on a scientific mission three hundred and sixty five million miles from Earth? He was labelled a gun nut.

He didn’t care.

He grew up with guns, as had his father and grandfather. He had never shot anyone nor did he really want to. He hunted and enjoyed target practice and he felt that it was his right as an American to own a gun if he so chose to. He got that not everyone understood that, and that not everyone wanted a gun. That was their choice. He wanted a weapon, it was his comfort, and he was denied that by a government soldier who had the only access to the weapons.

Thomas would never say that if he’d had a gun that the tragedy with Cary would have been averted. Instead, as he truly believed, if it would have happened and he was near, he could have done something. And that part really set him off. It was why he believed anyone in America should own a gun if they wanted to, because horrible people existed, and he didn’t want to pay for their insanity with his life, or the life of his family or friends.

Thomas was passionate about it, clearly. He did find it quite surprising when Ben called him over the ear piece days back with the current request. But he had agreed instantly. Ben knew him, he guessed, knew him well.

The first time, Paul had only retrieved a single weapon, a mounted rifle that he then modified for personal use. The guy knew his guns, and Thomas had watched with admiration as the soldier had taken the larger assault weapon apart, and rebuilt it for a more personal use. He was jealous, but he respected Paul, especially after the soldier told him why he wanted the weapons.

“EXACTLY!” Thomas had shouted.

This time, Paul was digging out some more ammunition, and two smaller side arms. Thomas didn’t want to ask, and could only hope that he could get one of them after Paul fixed them. The soldier took with him one of the helmets as well, said he needed it for some of the tech inside.

“Most everyone at the base is a pacifist, you know?” Thomas pointed out on their ride back to the base.

“I don’t think that’s how it is. Just different people,” Paul said quietly.

“Maybe, but no one is going to want you around with a gun,” Thomas replied.

“I’ve seen how they look at me. I’m a nobody with no real skills, so I go ignored. They won’t even know I am armed, and it’s better that way,” Paul said.

Thomas shook his head.

The news from Earth had really shook Thomas up the most. He could deal with the tragedy in front of him, even Cary’s death, no matter how gruesome. What truly bothered him was the fact that a war had erupted on Earth, and from all accounts, his country had been destroyed. Thomas knew he was no soldier, never had the stomach for authority, the inane orders that contradicted everything he believed in, but he knew he was a patriot. He wanted to defend his country, his family. He wanted desperately to get back to Earth. His worst fight with Connie had stemmed from that thinking, and he had felt horribly bad.

Two nights ago, he asked Connie when the next flight up to the Odyssey would take place, and she mentioned she had to delay it one day because of some issues on the Tin Can that needed resolving, and without even thinking, Thomas had exploded. He shamefully remembered his little tirade about how she needed to work harder and faster and that the situation was unacceptable. Looking back, he couldn’t believe he had accused her like he had. Instead, he only remembered hot flashes of anger. Connie had taken it all in, laughed at him, then told him to go find somewhere else to sleep. He had tried once to apologize, but she was so busy with her work that she didn’t have the time for him.

It was his fault. It usually was. Everything set him off, and he needed to find a way to calm down.

He needed to say sorry too, but Connie had already departed for yet another run up to the Odyssey.

He wanted to find the dirt bag that killed Cary and make him or her pay. Truth be told, he had absolutely no idea who it could be. He really wanted it to be that creep, Emir, but Jenna had already pledged his innocence. He was afraid to think Jenna had done it, his longtime friend. It couldn’t be, but, maybe it just could. It had to be someone who had been on board the alien ship, and that included Charles, the man who kept all the guns locked up and was the one ‘investigating’ the crime. The Captain hadn’t informed the crew of any new findings.

“Paul, what do you think of Captain Hoarry?”

“Navy. That’s the only opinion I have,” Paul said, followed by a quick laugh. Thomas didn’t laugh. “Um, why do you ask?”

“I’ve just been trying to figure out who to single out, who it could be. It has to be someone from the alien ship, right?”

“It could be anyone, Thomas. Hell, it could be you.”

Thomas slowed the rover down and looked over at the soldier.

“I didn’t do it. I know it.”

“Maybe, but it could be anyone. I don’t think we are going to find out who did it now. Someone snapped, though, so it’s going to happen again. Someone has lost it for whatever reason and they are only coping with it all by killing. I may not be able to stop it, but I’m going to try.”

“Are you serious? You think it will happen again?” Thomas asked, his mind racing through all the different people on base, trying to image them committing the murder. Up ahead, the large command dome came into view as they came around a bend on the ice cliffs. Two of the collapsed domes lay cracked, like egg shells. Beyond it, the Green dome, largest of the domes, rose above everything else. The shattered base, both outside, and with its people, inside.

“Is one of those guns for me?” Thomas came out and asked.

“Once I get a finger trigger opened up on it, yeah,” Paul replied, much to Thomas’ relief, “but you can’t carry it around, someone will notice. Just keep it somewhere only you would know.”

His mind began thinking about where to hide it.

“Wait, so you don’t think it was me then?” Thomas asked, a smug look on his face.

“No, I don’t,” Paul replied, “you’re dealing with the shit you are all facing by just being an asshole to everyone. I don’t think you kill them.”

Thomas sat back into the rover’s seat.

“Thanks, I think,” Thomas said.

Paul was right, he thought.

I am an asshole.

He tapped a button on his wrist pad.

“Ben, we are getting close to the outer pad. Let me know when we can go in,” Thomas said into the helmet comm.

The commander would then make sure no one was near the small entrance hatch on the far side of the command dome. He didn’t need much distraction though, as everyone was entirely too busy to notice them walking in from the outside. And if they did, they probably wouldn’t even ask why. Everyone had their reason to be doing what they were supposed to.

As soon as he got back inside, he needed to rush back out through to the other side of the green dome and get to where Jenna and Emir were still digging at the ice blocks they were going to shoot off into space. Emir didn’t talk anymore, but that didn’t make him hate that smug Arabian face any less.

He wanted that gun.

- Connie –

It was the first time she didn’t have to actually do anything, and she thought, by now, that she had earned the break. Crysta had ridden aboard the Tin Can with her and the servers she needed for her AI to fully integrate with the Odyssey, but compared to the last couple of trips, the actual cargo was, thankfully, very little. Crysta insisted on moving the cargo off of the cargo pod herself, so Connie hadn’t even docked with the ship itself, and remained attached to the cargo pod. When it was empty, she would undock and drop the empty cargo pod somewhere on the other side of the moon before coming back down herself.

In the meantime, she slept.

Hammy kept the cabin warm this time, as it was drawing power from the ship. As she drifted into a gentle slumber, she ran through the numbers again. Susan was up with her plants, both shipments. Joyce was up with her gear, as was Crysta now, with hers. She had brought up three cargo pods full of hydrogen fuel for the ship’s reactor and on the trip just before this one, she brought up two cargo pods with supplies and food.

She wouldn’t do that again. Too risky. The Tin Can was being pushed far too much, and if anything happened to it, they would be stuck.

She still had fifteen more trips up and down, give or take one or two, and that included every passenger as well. The Tin Can was designed for one person to fly, but there was a smaller compartment under her main cabin where she could technically put one person in, two people completely cramped if necessary. Taking Susan, Joyce and Crysta had been one thing. Jenna would be easy too, but she hated thinking how Thomas and Paul, the largest of the men, would deal with it. They would just have to.

Thomas especially.

She loved the man, but he just wasn’t coping with the stress well. It was one thing to turn into a jerk, but it was something else to lash out at everyone else. And now he spent all of his time talking about getting whomever killed Cary and ‘messing them up’. She didn’t doubt he would, but it was all he focused on, and it was coming out on everything else he did. He was a time bomb, and she just hoped his fuse wasn’t too short.

So she gave him some space. Kicked him out of the house, really. Probably hadn’t been the best thing to do, so as soon as she got back down, she needed to sit him down and talk. Connie didn’t like talking though, she just preferred doing.

“All clear, Connie,” the speakers blared. Connie startled herself awake, looking around in shock.

She checked the time quickly on the console. She had slept for five hours, and she hadn’t even realized it.

“Um,” Connie bumbled about the panel, looking for the comm switch. “Roger that, Odyssey. Gonna start to decouple here in a minute.”

“You OK in there?” This time it was Susan.

“Yeah,” Connie answered to the Odyssey’s general channel, “I think I fell asleep.”

“Didn’t you want to?” Crysta asked.

“Yeah, just didn’t realize I had.”

She could hear Jenna’s laughter already. She would have loved to hear that but she was too far away.

“Hammy, start decouple pre-check,” Connie asked out loud.

“Beginning.”

Connie watched as the AI went through the checklist, every item on the list checking off one at a time. Every time she landed she went through the ship, inch by inch. It was a time consuming task, but so critical. She had spotted some hull stress after the last trip, and had to spend a few hours reinforcing it. What little sleep she got she spent dreaming of fuel and gravity.

The last check turned green.

“Odyssey, I’m off. See you in two days.”

“Roger. Safe trip,” Crysta responded.

From her tiny window she watched as the long ship spun around a few times, and then the whole ship vanished from sight as the Tin Can brought around its cargo pod and pointed down towards the planet. Connie watched with a redundant curiosity as the plot for the orbits around Europa were displayed on the screen. She had zero to do here, as the AI calculated and flew the ship the entire time.

They orbited the moon twice, and on the third time around, they dropped the cargo pod. It would orbit around nearly six more times, slowly falling towards the surface, where it would most likely crash spectacularly on the dark side of Europa, far away from the base. She could only imagine how it looked, because as soon as they dropped the pod off, they began their descent. Thankfully, it was controlled.

Then she remembered.

“Hammy, are we flying over it this time?”

The AI remembered, and quickly looked through its maps.

“We are.”

“Get it on screen when we do please. We will barely get a look at it before we go down in earnest,” she said, reaching forward to open up a recording program.

Twenty-six long minutes passed until the AI informed her they were over it, and a new image popped up on the screen. It stood out in an amazing contrast against the white silvery ice on the surface, a long emerald, shining like a hidden treasure among the sand. The alien vessel, part way out of the ice. She began to record the video as the Tin Can came flying by miles over head. The AI was also programmed to take multiple extremely high resolution pictures. If anyone was left back on Earth, maybe they could at least make something out of the images.

Connie sat back as the program took pictures and video. The images flashed past her in rapid succession, and about all she could make out of them were the green against the white. It had no shape; it resembled a potato more than a majestic flying vessel. The surface was smooth though, through its dimples and bumps, even the ones on the ice.

Connie sat forward quickly.

“Hold on,” she said, swiping at the pictures to bring a few of them up.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing at miniscule green points just outside of the vessel.

The AI didn’t respond, so Connie peered even closer in. It was such a tiny pin prick, but it was the exact same color as the rest of the ship, that emerald green that stood in sharp contrast with the dull white surface. She quickly reached forward and began zooming in. The picture was taken at such high resolution, the zooming kept getting closer. The object was at least a hundred feet away from the main vessel itself, and as she zoomed in even closer, another, even smaller speck appeared just in front of the now larger green speck.

The zooming went until it began to pixelate and then she stopped. She still couldn’t make out what the green circular object was, but it was clearly part of the ship. But the small brown shape in front if it she could.

It was someone in an external suit. She could just make out the arms, legs and the bubble like helmet.

It was someone from the base.