Installment #10

Chapter 18

Adrian finished the file. Maria had calmed down enough for her to freshen herself up so they could leave the cabin and join the rest of the crew in the viewing room. Snyder gave them a weird look as they entered the room. Adrian couldn't tell if Snyder was surprised that they were together, curious, or angry. Adrian tried to ignore it.

"Well, how close are we to touchdown?" Adrian asked, of no one in particular.

"We have about two hours left," Snyder responded. "The captain has encountered significant turbulence, so he has had to make a wide curve to come up from behind the direction of the superstorm. He thinks that will give us the smoothest approach."

"Lt. Colonel, what is the game plan once we land?," Adrian asked. Everyone who had been looking out the viewing port, turned and faced Snyder. Obviously, that was a question on everyone's mind.

"Well, once we land, my men and I will enter the station first. We will check the life support system and for any other obvious dangers. Mr. Strong will need to accompany us, since he will need to tap into the computer system through the external remote port and instruct JENNI to open the airlock. Normally, the captain would do so as he approached the station, but because the antenna is broken, we can't communicate with JENNI except by a direct connection. Mr. Strong will need to suit up. Since we can't communication with JENNI, she won't be deploying the gangway, so the transport will be pulled as close as possible to the entrance, and a cable will be stretched from the ship to the entrance. Everyone will need to be attached to the cable to avoid being blown away. It is not the best option, but it is our only option. Once contact is established with JENNI, she will deploy the gangway, and the rest of you can enter the station without suiting up."

"Once we are in the station, we will be offloading the portable antenna first. Once that is operational, we will have communications with both the ship and the orbital station and things should move forward much more quickly. After the cargo is unloaded, the ship will return to the station and await our call."

"OK," Adrian continued. "That sounds good as far as it goes. But then what? What if we encounter hostile forces? What if there is an airborne pathogen? What if, what if. I am not used to going into a location with absolutely no idea what I may encounter. Generally I know exactly what the problem is, and the only unknown is how we are going to solve it – whether it's a mine collapse, an oil well blowout, a hazardous waste spill. This is the first time I have been asked to take in a team blind. And it, frankly, scares the hell out of me."

"I wish I had the luxury of knowing what I was going to encounter when I went on a mission," Snyder replied. "Generally, I have no idea what the danger is, where it may come from, and whether I will survive. That's just part of my job."

"Well, that's not generally part of my job, or that of my team," Adrian stated, more forcefully. "I am not going to permit any of my team to enter the site until I am convinced that we are not in mortal danger." Turning to Professor Nordhoff, Adrian continued. "And it would be extremely useful to all of us, if we knew what information was provided to Professor Nordhoff' by Mr. Campbell," pointing to the envelope sitting next to the professor, "as well as what you and the professor have been discussing so intently since we left the orbital station."

The professor started to reply, but was cut off by the wave of Snyder's hand. "Unfortunately, Mr. Masters, Mr. Campbell has found it necessary to compartmentalize certain information for security purposes. You have been provided certain information, I have been provided particular information, and Professor Nordhoff has been provided with other information. That's just the way Campbell is. If you had worked for him as many times as I have, you just get used to it."

"In my book, the less information each of us has, the more at risk we all are. The more information we have, the safer we are," Adrian said. "If I had known we would be working blind, I wouldn't have agreed to this mission. Is there anything more you can tell us?"

"Nothing I can think of," Snyder said dismissively. Just then there was a discernible change in speed. "Let's just get ready for the landing."

All eyes turned to the viewing screens. Everything looked the same as it had for some time now. White clouds in all directions. From a distance, the Jovian clouds were multicolored – pinks, blues and whites. But up close all was white. Weird. Good things for sophisticate navigation systems. Otherwise, there would be no way even an experienced pilot could find the mining station.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said the captain's voice over the PA system, "we have begun our initial approach to Site 209. Please take your seats and fasten your restraints, this is going to be a bit rough." Just as he finished the sentence, there was a jolt that had everyone staggering forward. The captain wasn't kidding. They are moved quickly to the nearest seat and tightened the restraint as much as possible. The next 10 minutes were not pretty. Everthing that was not tied down was jumping around the floor like oil on a hot skillet.

To take his mind off the turbulence, Adrian stared at the screen, trying to discern the station from the white clouds. Several times he thought he saw a dark spot, which could have been the station, but the spot quickly disappeared. And then, there it was. It was enormous, generally grey in color, but with sections that were dark blue and rust brown. It was build in a generally circular configuration, sort of like the proverbial "flying saucers" that 20th Century authors thought were extraterrestrials. In all of the time that there's been space travel, no one has run into any "little green men" or grey creatures, or any of the other creatures that sci-fi authors had imagined alien beings would look like.

As far as we could tell, human beings are the only intelligent life in the universe – or at least in our arm of the Milky Way galaxy. No creatures, no evidence that any intelligent life has ever lived or visited all of the worlds that humans had visited. Somewhat disappointing to those who had hoped to tap into advanced alien intelligence that could have jump started human knowledge. Instead, we have had to go it alone – making all the mistake that humans are bound to make along the way.

But we had come a long way. No one could have imagined that humans would be able to visit, let alone build a permanent (or at least permanent, so far) base on Jupiter. And who could have imagined a frozen shell surrounding Jupiter that could support such a base? And who could have believed that humans could have built a base that could withstanding the severity of the Jovian superstorm? But there it was, still intact. And in a few minutes, the transport would be landing. And, got willing, in a few hours the base would be secured and the transport (and his team) would be heading back, significantly richer.

[Word count this installment = 1,269]
[Total word count = 17,316]