Installment #9

Chapter 17

Adrian could never get over the sheer size of transport ships nowadays. When he started, the cargo ships were small, cramped and anything but luxurious. Some of the smaller ones only had a pressurized crew cabins, meaning that any passengers were required to wear environment suits during the entire trip. That made the trips hell, particularly the longer one where you had to sit for hours, or sometimes days. And the gymnastics that you had to go through to go to the bathroom. He didn't want to think about it.

But this ship was nice. Huge, but nice. The passenger module could easily hold 50 or more. As a result, each passenger on today's trip had his or her own cabin, although he expected that most of them would spend the majority of the voyage in the forward observation module where they would have a panoramic view of the planet, the swirling clouds, and eventually the mining site. Although the trip was only a few tens of thousands of miles "as the crow flies," it would take up to five hours due to the prevailing winds and the turbulence remaining in the atmosphere due to the recent passage of "The Red Spot."

Adrian settled into his cabin to finish prepping for the mission. He had scanned all of the papers before the meeting on the space station, but wanted to read them in detail before landing. He was curious about the selection of personnel for his team. He could see why Campbell had assigned Maria and Gill. And even Michael Strong. But Professor Nordhoff was still a mystery to him. If the mission was simply to rescue the restart team and deal with the probable scenarios identified by Snyder, why a cryo-chemist, who hadn't been off of Earth for decades. While cryo-chemistry was an interesting field, and one that was beginning to have some applications in chemical refineries and pharmaceutical companies, he could see no application on an off-world mining site that simply extracted chemicals from the Jovian atmosphere and shipped them elsewhere for refining and purification.

Adrian reviewed the blueprints for the site carefully. There were no chemical labs anywhere on the site. The only thing that even came close was the infirmary, which had a testing bay for any worker who came down with something, and there was a single operating room for more serious problems like appendicitis or heart attack, serious injuries or even psychological problems. But nothing that could be used for cryo-chemistry.

Adrian then open the folder on Carla Campbell. She was the prize that this mission was all about. While her father cared about the mining site, the corporate insurance could replace anything damaged by the storm. But nothing could compensate for the loss of his daughter. It seemed strange that he would send his only daughter on what could have been, and indeed turned out to be, a very dangerous mission. There were plenty of safer places he could have sent her and still given her valuable experience. The fact that he sent her to Site 209 seemed to be the kind of reckless choice someone like Campbell would not make. There seemed to be something more to it than the explanation given. He would make a mental note of that and see if he could get any further information from Snyder, whose duty first and foremost was to rescue Carla. Somewhere far down the priority list was safeguarding he and the rest of his team. Adrian was just hoping that the safeguarding of his team thing was not too far down on Snyder's list.

Things just did not add up. On all of his prior missions, things made sense. His duties were well defined, there were no seemingly extraneous, unresolvable issues that caused him pause. This one was different. Was it because this was his last mission and he was being overly cautious, or had the years just made him naturally suspicious of things that wouldn't have bothered a younger wildcatter?

Just then a knock on the cabin door startled Adrian. He opened the door and Maria was standing there. "May I come in?" she asked.

He stood there for a second, not knowing if this was such a good idea, considering where they had left things the last time they were together. But he was trying to put those problems behind him, so he invited her in.

She closed the door and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Is this place bugged?" she asked.

He hadn't really thought about it until that moment, but realized that it might be. "I don't know," he whispered back to her. So let's assume this it is." If the cabin was under surveillance it could be aural or visual, or both. While the Galactic Code prohibited eavesdropping on passengers on a commercial flight, since this was a chartered flight, he was not sure the law even applied. So he thought, better safe than sorry. He motioned Maria over to a corner of the room where they could be relatively secluded, and took a pen and pad of paper with him.

When Maria and he were having their "fling," they had developed a synthetic code that they could use to communicate to each other without fear of their messages being read. One of the many things they had had in common was their love of languages. They had both studied linguistics in high school (and she had continued her studies in college). And, as a result they had been able to develop this synthetic code that they were fairly certain others would not be able to easily decrypt without a significant effort.

"Klankz qua zi? (What is it?)," he wrote on the pad.

"Crozeenq elpanazm perdersvld (Things just don’t add up)," she said. And she continued in code: "I overheard the professor and that soldier talking just now. I didn't hear it all, but I did hear Snyder say 'Don't worry about it, Campbell has it all under control. Your bonus is as good as in your bank account right now.' The next part was garbled, but then I distinctly heard him say 'I'll take care of the rest of them once they've done their job.' . . . I'm scared."

Adrian thought for a moment. The statement was ambiguous, since "take care of" could mean that Snyder was going to make sure everyone got their bonus, but added to the inconsistencies he already had identified, it made him increasingly uneasy about what they were getting themselves into. He shared with Maria his own misgivings about what was going on. That only made he more upset. She was now shaking and her code-writing was getting more difficult to read: "What can we do?"

Adrian took up the pen and wrote: "I know we have had our problems in the past, but we need to stick together, whatever is going on. You can hate me later, after this is all over, but there is no time for that now. OK?"

Maria took the pen. "I don't hate you, Adrian. And even if I did, I need you now. I don't know who else I can trust."

"We can't trust anyone else. We have to assume that whatever is going on here, they are all in on it. Although I doubt that Michael Strong or Sam Gill are part of this – they are too far down on the totem pole. But I think we must assume the worst," Adrian wrote. "If we need to discuss this further, we should speak in code. Assume that Campbell has eyes and ears everywhere – both on the ship and at the site."

They hugged. She was shaking and curled up in Adrian's massive arms. He just held her. It felt good. His mind was racing. What was going on here? How was he going to get out alive if he had no idea what he was walking into? He stretched out his free arm and grabbed the envelope. Whatever was going on, he thought there might be some clues in the file.

[Word count this installment = 1,355]
[Total word cound = 16,047]