Europa (Deadverse Book 1) (22 page)

- Ben –

He was just as much to blame as anyone else. These past two weeks had been such a great relief, after the horrific disasters before then, the ice quake and the murder. He had fallen under the same level of contempt as everyone else had. He knew someone in front of him was a murderer, and yet, he had chosen to just ignore it and enjoy the peace that the past two weeks had brought them all. Still, he stood facing everyone, and one of them had carved Cary up in such a horrific way that just remembering it filled him with rage. And now, he had to deal with the next emergency at hand, and the murder was now freshly back in his mind.

They had all gathered together in the conference room, the room with the wooden table, the only wooden piece on the moon of Europa. Technically, it was also an experiment, something about the viability of wood as a construction material on such a foreign place as the Jovian moon. Susan was in charge, and had to swap the table once a week with some kind of chemical, analyze it and send the readings back to Earth. He wasn’t sure if she had done that in weeks now.

Everyone sat around the table except for the soldier, Paul, who stood up against the corner far in the back, and Thomas and Connie, who sat on a set of ice blocks in the opposite corner. Behind him, on the main screen, the AI had put forth a display showing the path from Europa to Earth that it had managed to calculate. Without contact to Earth, it was impossible to know for certain just how accurate the AI was, but all the information it needed was there in its databases, and it had the programming capability to make such determinations. They had no other options, they had to trust the machine.

“Are you serious?” Thomas glared from the back of the room.

The machine had told them that the best time to leave would be in forty-seven days.

“Is that bad?” Susan asked, looking around.

“Wouldn’t we rather leave as soon as possible?” Gary asked. He was seated next to Susan. The two had become inseparable after the murder, even more so than before.

“I was looking at the old files. If none of this shitstorm had taken place, and the return ship arrived in one piece, then the prep time was almost four months. You’re telling us we have to do four months’ work in one and a half, and that’s for a ship that’s broken the way it is,” Thomas continued.

“Why don’t we just leave later?” Susan asked.

“Crysta?” Ben nodded.

She hated that just because her AI had done the calculating, she became the space flight expert.

“Ok, guys, here is what I understand. Remember, the AI did these calculations, not me. In forty seven days, we will be at one of the points where we are closest to Earth. Well, we won’t be closer, but that at that point, Earth will be getting closer to us as we travel. Closer means less time traveling.”

“So if we just wait a while, it just takes longer to get to Earth?” Jenna asked.

“Um, yeah, but the time grows dramatically. If we leave when Hammy says, it has us down for an eight month trip back, that’s a month shorter than when we came here. Um, hold on, let me see if it can calculate the waiting time…” Crysta trailed off as she took her tablet out and began to click and type.

“When was our normal mission return date?” Susan asked again.

When Crysta didn’t answer, Ben did. “Thirteen months from now. Remember, even though the return ship was here, it was supposed to take us that long just to finish up the work on the alien ship and load up any viable experiments along with all the return supplies that were still going to ship.”

“We could wait that long. We will have enough food,” Susan pointed out.

“Another year here? After Cary? I don’t think so. The sooner I’m off of this rock and away from this hell, the better,” Thomas growled.

The room grew silent.

“Oh, what? Yeah, I mentioned her name. I know one of you did it,” Thomas spat.

Ben looked around quickly. He knew the matter was about to surface, and he hoped for any kind of reaction that might give the murderer away. When he saw nothing other than odd glances, he turned to Charles. The captain was focused on Gary though, as he always was. Ben continued to wonder if his friend had lost his ability to focus on the task of actually finding out who had killed Cary as opposed to his obsession with the black doctor. He certainly didn’t want to bring it up, but Charles had always showed a certain level of disdain towards both Gary and Crysta, and he really hoped it wasn’t a matter of race. Charles certainly hadn’t come across as such, but then, he was finding out more about how people really were in the past several weeks.

“I don’t know who did it, but trust me, if we ever find out, it will be a lynching like you’ve never imagined. Save yourself the trouble and just take a walk out on the moon without a suit.” Thomas was very clear in his opinion.

The awkward silence continued until Ben broke it.

“I don’t know what to say. That someone in this very room committed such a horrible,” Ben paused, and as he looked around, he smirked as no one would meet his gaze, “a horrible, crime, is beyond my level of understanding. I cannot understand how we have been able to continue functioning as we have. Charles is dedicated to finding the culprit, and until that happens, we all need to be cautious and most of all, we just need to continue working.

This is what I need to know. Can we do what is required to leave in forty seven days?”

There was some mumbling until Crysta shouted out. “Ok, Hammy says that, for every day after the forty seven days from now, it adds one day, plus twice the amount of days in difference, up until a point about seven months from now, when it starts shortening again.”

“Huh?” someone said.

“Ok, so, we leave on day forty seven, and it takes eight months. We leave day forty eight, it takes eight months and a day. We leave day forty nine, and it takes eight months and two days, but on day fifty, it takes eight months and four days, and then nine days, then seventeen days, and so on. It adds up in a hurry.”

“So it’s either now or in thirteen months,” Connie said, quietly.

“So can we do it?” Ben asked again.

“Let’s ask this first. What needs to be done, minimally, for us to leave?” Horace asked. With the least amount of expertise, his usefulness would be just in manual labor.

Ben looked around. “Bring up the normal check list.”

Joyce reached out and got her tablet and began pulling up the files. A few others followed suit.

“Before we even get to the checklist, there are two main issues we need to face,” Connie said, stepping forward. “First, the main transport hub on the return ship is completely damaged. That’s the section that I was going to bring down that would then take everyone up in one trip. We can’t do that anymore. Second, the debris shield on the front of the ship is also damaged. If we hit nothing on the way home, then it doesn’t matter, but if we do, we are toast.”

Ben rubbed his stubbled chin.

“How do we go about remedying that?” Ben asked.

“The first is easy,” Connie continued, “well, not easy. Simple, maybe. I have to start taking people up one by one. They will have to live up there until we leave. What order I take people in, I have no idea.”

Ben sat down and began typing names onto a list in his tablet.

“Ok,” he said, “what about the shield? Do we have anything here to repair it?”

He looked around, waiting for an answer. Thomas stepped forward and put his tablet out on the table and began digging through it. Ben saw Connie and Jenna do the same. Cary would have been invaluable here. After a few moments, Thomas looked up.

“Even if we had enough time to melt all our metal down, I don’t think it would come close.”

“And if we could, I don’t think the Tin Can can blast off with something THAT heavy on it,” Connie pointed out, “even here on Europa.”

“So we just neglect the shield and hope for the best?” Ben put out there.

“We may not have much of a choice.”

“What does that do for radiation? Doesn’t that shield protect us against that?” Gary asked.

“No, that’s only for debris, floating space rocks, that kind of stuff. The living quarters are already shielded,” Connie explained.

“Ok, well, then we just hope for the best,” Ben said, moving his tablet aside.

“Why not just use ice?” Emir said, his accented voice standing out.

Everyone turned to face him.

“We have to make lots of trips up to the ship, why not just take some ice every time. When we have enough, I know I could shape it with the plasma drills, just like we do here.”

“That’s in outer space,” Thomas said, glaring down at Emir.

“It is barely any different than on the surface of this moon,” Emir said, sheepishly. “The only difference would be that we would have to spacewalk instead of moon walk.”

“Oh, you’re an astronaut now?” Thomas laughed.

“Mr. Astor,” Ben shouted, “enough!”

“He’s right. I am not an astronaut. Neither is Connie, and no one in this room is an astrophysicist, except for the AI. We are all attempting to be things we are not.”

Ben looked back at Thomas.

“Can it be done?” he asked.

“Dammit,” Thomas said, then turned his back on the group.

Ben nodded and then looked at Jenna, the other ice expert. “Well?”

Jenna smiled back. “Yeah. It’s just like building the domes here. Just need to figure out how much we will need.”

“I will ask the obvious then,” Gary said. “Will that be enough?”

Ben looked down at his tablet and swiped the list of people aside. “I have a feeling that it will be better than no shield at all. Emir, what do you need?”

Emir looked around, surprised. “Um, I guess I need to figure out how much ice we will need first. Then how many trips we will get to take it up. From there, I just need to start carving blocks out of the ground outside.”

“Jenna, Thomas, I expect you both to help. Start as soon as you can,” Ben ordered.

“Sure,” Jenna said with her typical smile. Thomas didn’t even bother to turn around.

“Connie, you need to come up with a number of trips we will need. Isn’t the Tin Can running at its limit?”

“We sure came close two weeks ago. I have absolutely no way of telling if it will last that many trips in such a short time. I used to rely on the data from Indy after each trip, and now that, well, is not happening now,” Connie said.

“Then sit down with the AI and start figuring it out,” Ben said.

“Yes, sir,” Connie said, nodding her head.

“Susan, I need food figures for the next forty seven days and then food figures for nine months. I’m adding an extra month. I’d love to add more, but I have a feeling we aren’t going to have much leeway in the way of space on board the return ship. Crysta and Joyce, you’ll have to link up with the return ship and see what you will need on board. Gary, the same. Horace and I will gladly serve as manual labor, but I have a feeling we will all be doing plenty of heavy lifting, even for being on the moon.”

Susan grabbed her tablet and got up to leave and everyone followed suit. They shuffled out one by one, although Thomas waited until Emir had left the room. He then cast Ben an angry glance before he left. Jenna followed right after him, smiling and shrugging her shoulders. Ben reached down and grabbed up his tablet, swiping away the files he had open. As he began walking towards the door, he saw Paul, still leaning up against the wall in the corner. His arms were crossed and he was watching him. Ben walked up to him.

“Something wrong?” Ben asked. He really hadn’t taken the time to get to know the soldier but had relied, instead, on Horace’s evaluation of him. The shrink had said everything was OK, so the base commander had gone with that.

“What can I do?” he asked. “You didn’t mention my name at all.”

“I’m sorry. It’s a force of habit. You weren’t really part of the mission,” Ben started, then stopped and changed his tune. “Well, you were. You know what I mean. Listen, son, you can help out with manual labor, just like me.”

“Do you think it was me?” Paul asked.

“You what?”

“Do you think I killed that woman?”

Ben took an inadvertent step back. Paul noticed and nodded just slightly.

“No,” Ben started, reaching out with his hand. “Don’t take that the wrong way. That just came out of nowhere.”

“Aren’t you concerned that there is a murderer loose on your base?”

“You bet your ass I am. But what do you expect me to do? Lock everyone up? We have a tiny window to get back home and I need everyone. All I can do is hope that Charles, or anyone else, can figure out who it is. If that happens, the last thing he or she will need to worry about is me.”

“So, until then?”

“We keep trying to get home.”

Ben started walking past him, but Paul reached his hand out in front of him. The soldier was a good foot taller than Ben, heavier and despite the fact that he had been locked up inside an AI controlled machine, Ben knew that he was probably still fully capable of hurting him badly, or worse. All that never crossed Ben’s thoughts. He was the commander of the base, and he acted as such. He stopped and turned, looking the soldier right in the eyes. Paul lowered his arm gently, and took a step back.