Installment #2

Chapter 4

Adrian was sated. As he lay on his back staring up at the ceiling of his room, not quite focusing, he felt better than he had felt in a long time. Every nerve in his body was ultrasensitive. He could feel the sheets sticking to his sweat-drenched body. He could feel Eileen's warm breath on his chest, and he could also feel her soft, moist skin pressing against him. It was moments like this that made it all worthwhile – the stress, the wear-and-tear on his body, the life-threatening risks of working in outer space, and the simultaneous fear and exhilaration of not knowing when the next moment may be your last.

The company paid him well for his high-risk work that he did. But the salary was both too little and too much. It was too little, because how can you put a price on a human life – his life – which he gambled with every time he took one of these assignments. And it was too much, since he made more money that he could ever spend on his time off. As a result, his bank account just got progressively bigger, month after month. He put as much as the law permitted into his retirement account, but that barely made a dent in the inflow of cash. He had thought of giving to charity, but couldn't think of one that he really felt strongly about. So he just let the money accumulate.

Perhaps someday he would find someone he wanted to share it all with. He almost laughed out loud, but stopped himself so as not to awaken Eileen. Who would want to marry him? Oh, he was good for a couple of romps in the hay. And he could be very charming in short doses. But he couldn't love anyone as much as he loved his job. And what kind of a husband could he possibly be. He was out, zipping all over the galaxy for months, and sometime years, at a time. Many of his missions were top secret. What wife would want to be married to someone who could disappear at a moment's notice, be gone for who knows how long, doing god knows what, and then just reappears unannounced, unable to say where he had been, what he had done and how long it would be before he disappeared again. He couldn't do that to someone he loved.

And what about kids? It wouldn't be fair not to be there for all of the important milestones in their lives – their birth, first day of school, Little League baseball games, first date, senior prom, graduation, marriage, etc. No, it was better this way. Much better. But still, in a little place way back in his the recesses of his brain, he knew that something was missing. All of those silly little things in life, insignificant in themselves, were something very important in the aggregate.

What did he have to show for his life? When he died, who would care? What would be his legacy? Would there be young wildcatters who waxed poetically about his exploits? Or would they just stick him in the ground and forget about him? Hmmm.

He shook Eileen softly. "Eileen." She stirred but did not wake up. He shook her a little harder. "Eileen. Are you awake?"

"Now I am," she responded, slightly annoyed.

"Can I ask you something?" Adrian said softly.

"I guess."

"Would you ever marry someone like me?"

"Someone like you, or you?" she retorted.

"Either one," he said, trying to be nonchalant.

She sat up on one elbow and looked him straight in the eye. "There are guys like you coming through here all the time. Some are single. Some claim they are single. And some don't hide the fact that they are married. Most of them will tell the girls whatever they think will get them a little sex, including talking about marriage. You've already got me to sleep with you, so why talk about marriage now? What's your angle?"

"No angle. I'm just wondering whether a beautiful young girl like you would consider settling down with someone like me. I think that's a fair question."

She smiled and sat up. "OK. 'Someone like you.' Well, who are you, really? I've known you for about 10 hours now. I don't know where you're from, what you do for a living, or pretty much anything else. What I do know is that you are a charming, buff, older guy, who has lots of money to spend and is pretty good in bed. Based on that relatively slim resume, I would have to say, 'no' I could not consider settling down with you."

He didn't know what to say. Luckily, the visiphone made a reply unnecessary. He punched the button, and Twill's face filled the screen.

"Well," Twill said, half smiling, "I can see that not much has changed from an hour ago. . . . Eileen, could I have a couple of minutes with Adrian . . . alone."

Eileen shrugged, got out of bed and walked naked to the bathroom. She turned and winked coyly at Twill before closing the door. All Twill could do was shake his head.

Chapter 5

Adrian broke the silence. "Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it. But I want double my normal pay, and then I'm out for good. I'm retiring. This will be my swan song."

Twill didn’t see that one coming. He was stunned. It took him a good ten seconds to catch his breath. "Adrian, I don't know what's going on in your head – as usual. But let's not be hasty. Let's get through this one, and then let's talk about the future. You know that you're one of our most valued employees, and your years of experience are invaluable to the company. If you are tired of the travel and the stressful work, we could talk about a management position. A desk job. You could settle down, perhaps have a family. White picket fence, stainless steel bar-b-que, the whole suburban experience. OK?"

He didn't wait for a response. "But right now I have undoubtedly the most important job I have every asked you to do. You're the only one I can trust to do this one successfully. And, I'll pay you triple your normal fee, if you'll waive the union rules and do this one for me. What'dya say?"

"I'm all ears."

"Good. This one is absolute top priority. The CEO of Juno Mining has made it clear that we are to put our best team on it; money is no object," Twill said. "But it must be done immediately. He has a personal interest in this one."

"Personal interest?" Adrian said, his curiosity piqued. "Matt Campbell has a heart of stone. The only thing that is 'personal' to him is money. He'd let an entire mining crew die, if it meant higher profits. And he'd sell his mother for a lucrative contract."

"But not his only daughter," Twill interjected.

A look of surprise came across Adrian's face. "Daughter? Some woman was willing to have sex with that guy? Please excuse me if I throw up."

"Yes, we all know your opinion of Matt Campbell. Even Matt Campbell. But despite that, he has specifically asked for you to lead the team to rescue his daughter," Twill responded.

"Before I agree to this rescue, whatever it might be, have you picked a team for me? Or do I have to scrounge one up myself," Adrian asked.

"Campbell has chosen the team – you, Marty Blair, Colin Jenkins and [muffled]."

"What?" Adrian said, "I couldn't make out that last name."

Twill hesitated. He knew this was likely to be a deal breaker. "and Maria Santos." He waited for the explosion. Adrian got the strangest look on his face. "Maria?" He looked straight into the screen. His eyes squinted. He suddenly burst into laughter. "Maria? Boy Campbell is really trying to screw with me, isn't he?"

Twill waited until Adrian calmed down. "Santos is a crackerjack mechanical engineer. We may really need one on this job. And . . . she is available. I already checked."

"You already checked, without clearing it with me first? You know we have a history. I hope you didn't tell her that I had asked for her on the team?"

"No, I told her that Campbell specifically requested her for the team. Your name never came up," Twill said.

"What!! You didn't tell her I would be leading the team?"

"No, I thought it better that I defer that fact until you were definitely on board. . . . So, what do you say? Are you on board?"

Adrian rubbed his chin with his open hand. He felt the stubble. "Maria Santos," he said to himself. He thought for a moment. "Yes, I'm in. What the hell. It's my last job, might as well bury a hatchet at the same time. I just hope the hatchet doesn't end up being buried in my back. She is a bit vengeful – to say the least."

Twill signed with relief. "Great. I was hoping you'd agree. I already sent a courier with the project file. He should be arriving any minute now."

There was a sharp knock on the door of Adrian's room. "Right on cue," Adrian said, smiling. He punched the button and the screen went black.

Adrian got out of bed and walked naked to the door.

Chapter 6

Adrian settled into the chartered personal cruiser that Twill had sent for him and set the destination to "Jovian Orbital Station #3." He then laid down on one of the leather executive couches for a little nap. It would take him about 12 hours to reach the station, and he was extremely tired. Out of his 10 hours with Eileen, he had slept around an hour and a half. He set the alarm for six hours and closed his eyes.

It seemed like only a matter of seconds before the alarm went off. He checked his watch. Six hours. He could have used another couple of hours, but he needed to review the project file and be prepared to brief his team as soon as he got to the station. He freshened up, poured himself a cup of coffee, and sat at the conference table in the back of the cruiser.

The envelope delivered by the messenger had an official seal on it – "Only to be opened by the named recipient." He had intended to open it in the hotel and review the contents at his leisure. However, the courier told him that a private cruiser had been chartered by his employer, and it was ready to depart immediately.

He had to dress and say goodbye to Eileen. This was not his first one-night stand, and hopefully it would not be his last. But somehow it made him sad to leave her so soon. He couldn't tell whether she felt the same way. If she did, she didn't show it. She just dressed next to him in silence. He told her that the room had been paid for, and she didn't need to leave, but she said there was no reason to stay. So they walked out of the room together and took the elevator to the lobby. They kissed briefly, and he watched her walk out the front door and get into a cab. She had given him her contact information, but probably didn't expect him to call or write to her. He put the paper into his pocket and walked toward the aerocenter, where the cruiser was prepped and waiting for him.

He opened the envelope and dumped its contents onto the table. There was a pile of nanopaper clipped together with an encryption cover on it. Once the cover was attached, the content of the nanopapers was automatically encrypted and looked like gibberish. It was impossible to decrypt the materials without the key. And since it was marked for his eyes only, he had the only key.

He placed his left thumb on the space indicated and left it there for several seconds. The cover had a biochip built into it that no only read his thumbprint, but analyzed the DNA from his skin cells. Once the biochip established a match, the chicken scratches on the nanopaper "magically" changed back into legible text.

In addition to the papers, the envelope also contained a disk. The disk fit into the reader built into the table. After going through another verification procedure, the disk generated a holographic image of Twill. He began to speak, and as he did so, the image changed to a series of still images with Twill's narrative as a voiceover.

[Image of large building]
"This is a rendering of a mining facility that was built on Jupiter by Juno Mining approximately 15 years ago. It was built just south of the equator in an area rich in valuable minerals. Because Jupiter does not have a solid surface, the facility was designed to rest on the crust formed by various frozen gases that comprise Jupiter's atmosphere. The facility is anchored to the frozen crust by numerous anchors and titanium cables."

[Image of Jupiter's surface]
"The mining facility was built where the greatest concentration of minerals was detected. Unfortunately, the location chosen was in the path of Jupiter's "Great Red Spot" – an enormous vortex in the atmosphere, which slowly moves across the face of the planet – as it has done for over 300 years. This storm is enormous -- large enough to contain two or three planets the size of Earth. It takes approximately 20 years for it to circle the planet."

"When the facility was built, it was known that eventually it would need to face the fury of the storm. So it was built stronger than anything ever built before. But despite that fact, the insurance company refused to issue a policy for the facility unless Juno Mining agreed to evacuate the facility for the duration of the storm. The storm approached the facility almost 20 months ago. It was duly evacuated, and the facility was placed in lockdown mode."

[Image of a group of people]
"Once the storm passed, a restart team was dispatched to the facility to evaluate its condition and to prepare it for the return of the miners. One of those on the restart team was Deedee Campbell – Matt Campbell's daughter. She is a metallurgical engineer, and was sent to check out the structural integrity of the facility."

"A few hours after they reached the facility, we lost contact with the team. While there were a few, scattered, and very distorted messages that came from the facility for a few days thereafter, there has been no communication from the team for over a week."

"Efforts to make contact with the computer system that monitors the facility have also been unsuccessful. It's possible that the antenna on the facility was damaged by the storm. But back-up electronics should have permitted low-power transmissions from the facility. But there have been none of those either."

"It's possible that some (or possibly all) of the team is alive but unable to communicate with us. It's also possible that some or all of them are dead. Your job, and that of your team, is to descend to the facility, secure it, and retrieve the restart team members – whether dead or alive."

The image ended. Adrian began shifting through the nanopapers, which contained further details, as well as pictures and biographies of the restart team members, and a transcript of the communications sent by the restart team before their disappearance. They also contained schematics and blueprints of the mining facility, and information on the computer system.

[Word count this installment = 2,648]
[Total word count = 4,620]