The Curse of Europa (10 page)

As the last of the now slushy water starts to get sucked in, the force of the whirlpool’s pull is increased for a few long seconds and they both slip and fall, as if their feet were kicked out from under them. Turk still has a hold of Juliana’s hand, but he can feel them sliding… sliding towards the hole. He tries to dig the glove of his free hand into the ice to no avail. The only thing around them is wet slippery ice.

Turks eyes widen as he sees Juliana slip down into the hole and he screams her name. He is thrust over the top of the hole but is able to use his free arm and legs to desperately hang-on and to keep from following her. He can hear the pulse of his heart in his ears, pounding like a drum. He can hear his rapid breath and he can hear her heavy breathing also through the com.

He suddenly sees part of the torpedo probe’s support rig sticking out of the ice where it apparently collapsed and then got encased in fresh ice. He frantically reaches out and grabs hold with his free hand to help secure his hold.
Finally something to hang onto!
He digs his cleats into the wall of the hole and is also using his head and neck to secure himself even better.

So Turk is looking down the hole, hanging onto the support rig with one hand and hanging onto Juliana with the other as she just dangles there. The cleats of his boots are firmly anchored and he is using all of his neck muscles to help hold up his body by pressing his head onto the ice surrounding the hole. He is firmly anchored but is in a very awkward position to be able to pull her up, even in the low gravity. Then he feels the grip of his hand, which is hanging onto Juliana, slip slightly as he does try to pull up. The whirlpool and the water are gone now – sucked down the drain to God only knows where. For Juliana, the only thing down there is death. He tries to pull her up again, but that only weakens their grip more.

“These damn gloves, I can’t get… a good grip, just hold on… Can you hear me?”

“Yes, I can hear you now,” she replies between heavy breaths of panic. Being this close they are able to communicate even with Turk’s damaged com unit antenna.

“Can you - grab on - with your other hand?” Turk pleads, as he feels his grip ready to give out at any moment.

Juliana reaches up and grabs hold of Turks hand with her other hand; now their combined grip feels much better. “Good, good, that’s better,” he says to her.

“I don’t know… if I can pull you up… with the way I am positioned. And my com unit… must be damaged – I can’t raise the ship,” he tells her with much strain in his voice.

“Let me try,” she says. “Eagle-2, Eagle-2, do you copy?”

“Doctor Evans, this is Hicks, I’ve been trying to contact you, we are aware of your situation and are on our way. We should be there in about five minutes. We are traveling as fast as we can!”

“Okay… acknowledged… please hurry!” she responds. She is glad they are on their way, but worried it will take them five more minutes.

“Did you hear that Patrick?” She asks.

Turk responds, “No… All I can hear is
your
communications”

“Commander Hicks is on his way but they are still five minutes out,” she tells him, hoping he thinks the five minutes is better news than she thinks.

“Well, shit.” He responds and then grunts with strain, which instantly answers her question. “I don’t think… I can hold this pose… for five more minutes. I don’t think I can hold-on… for even
one
more minute. We’ve got to try… to get you out now… we can’t wait for them.”

“Okay, I agree. And Patrick… I love you – too, by the way,” Juliana says in a half exhausted whisper; dangling like a rag doll. This gives Turk some added strength to pull up. She isn’t
that
heavy, especially with the low gravity; it is just that he doesn’t have ample leverage. He tightens his grip and starts to pull her up with all his might, then
POP
, the seal on his glove breaks and starts to slip off. Instantly it feels as if a thousand pins are poking into his wrist as the thin frigid Europa air touches his bare skin. He winces in agony as he still tries to hold on and pull up; desperately maneuvering his legs to try to get more leverage.

He pulls her up a few centimeters then tells her, “Can you grab my body? Can you get your arm around me and climb on my back to get out?”

“I’ll try…” she says and reaches for him, but the backpack on his back makes that very difficult. All she is able to do is grab some material from his suit but then her hand suddenly slips and she has to grab his hand again.

“Patrick! Oh God…” he hears Juliana shriek.

His heart is pounding even harder and it feels as if it may explode. He grunts and frantically pulls up even harder but he is losing feeling in his hand and can’t maintain the grip, then his glove slips completely off.

“PATRICK! OH MY GOD…… PATRICK!” he looks down in horror as she falls, paying no attention to the pain in his hand from the extreme cold and lack of air pressure. Everything is in slow motion as time seems to stand almost still. He can see her eyes widen and the terrifying fear on her face through her helmet as she falls. From the bio-suit com unit he can still hear her. He hears her haunting screams and gasps as she goes down, slowly out of sight. Then her final words, “Oh God, Oh my God I’m {sssssst}ing… it’s dark... I’m {ssssssst}{ssssst},” then nothing but silence. Juliana is gone.

Turk just lays there, nearly lifeless, staring down into the black hole of death.

Chapter 13:
Too Little Too Late

** 10 minutes earlier **

H
icks and Fedoseev are at their drill location checking their equipment. Their drill is still working and everything looks good. Fedoseev is gathering surface samples and placing them into buckets when they both feel the ground shake slightly.

“Commander, do you feel that – yes?” Fedoseev asks as he freezes in place to try to determine if it is just him or if the ground is shaking.

Hicks responds, “Yes… I do! That’s some pretty major movement isn’t it?”

“Da, little more movement than I think good,” Fedoseev responds with concern in his voice, reaching up to twirl his mustache out of habit – but of course unable to in his bio-suit. He walks to the equipment that is measuring seismic activity, sets down his sample buckets, and starts interacting with the controls, to see what levels they are measuring.

Then they both hear over the public com, and look at each other’s concerned faces, as they hear Doctor Evans’ plea, “PATRICK, PATRICK, I NEED HELP!”

Hicks instantly yells into the com, “Turk! Turk! Do you copy? Lieutenant Commander Turkovitch do you copy!” He does not get a response.

“Doctor Evans, do
you
copy?” Hicks pleads.

All they hear back a minute later is, “PATRICK, I’M SLIPPING, WHERE ARE YOU?”

Hicks tries to contact them again, “Doctor Evans, Turk! Do you copy? Can either of you hear me?” No response.

“Lt. Glover, do
you
copy? This is Hicks”

“I copy Commander – I’m monitoring a situation… Turkovitch and Evans seem to have a problem on their hands; I lost com-link with Turk. I’m tapping into Evans’ helmet video feed right now. Please hold a moment.”

“Holy crap! What the hell?” Glover blurts out.

“WHAT! What’s going on Erick?” screams Hicks.

“Holy crap commander, it looks like it is
raining
over there. And there are huge piles of ice chunks…. DAMN… the rover is trashed; it is on its side in all that ice. Let me review the recorded video from a few minutes ago.”

What seems like an eternity of 10 seconds pass when they hear Glover back on the com unit. “Holy…, crap…, a geyser of water is shooting up from Turk’s drill location, that must be the rain… obviously.”

“Are Turk and Evans okay? Are they near the geyser?” Hicks asks in a panic.

“I can’t tell yet… Oh crap! I think Turk got hit by a huge ice chunk that got launched into the air by the geyser, that’s when I lost his com-link!”

“FEDOSEEV! Get in the rover NOW, we’re heading over there. Erick… transmit their coordinates to our rover’s navigation system ASAP. For right now I’m just going to head in that general direction.”

“Will do, sending it now,” Glover responds.

As soon as Fedoseev jumps into his seat in the rover, Hicks punches the accelerator and spins it around, kicking up snow but agonizing at the slow 15Kph rate of travel that it maxes out at. The rover receives the coordinates and estimates about five minutes travel time at top speed.

The five minutes seem like an eternity as all they can do is listen to the mayhem and play-by-play from Glover.

“Commander… I see Turk from Doctor Evans’ visor camera, he just emerged out of that pile of ice… He is making his way to Evans. I still don’t have a com-link with him.”

“Turkovitch, do you copy,” Glover broadcasts out a few times at full power to no reply.

“The geyser just stopped, there is no more water shooting up from it.” Glover announces.

“Well that’s good news! We are still going to go over there to make sure everything is okay.” Hicks responds.

“There you are… Patrick, can you hear me?” they all hear Evans plead on the com.

“Doctor Evans, do you copy?” Hicks asks again, but again does not get a reply from her for some reason. They do hear her say, “Oh my God, Patrick, did you see that? Well… there’s our water!”

Hicks just drives on, over the bumpy terrain, anxious to get over there to see what happened and to make sure they are both all right. Glover continues with his play-by-play as he watches Turk try to reach Evans. They cannot see the whirlpool through Evans’ camera though as she is not looking in that direction.

“Oh crap!!” yells Glover into the com. “They both just fell down and seem to be slipping. Oh crap… what just happened? Oh Jesus! I think Evans just fell into the drill hole; holy crap!! She did! It looks like Turk has a hold of her hand though… trying to pull her up.”

Hicks presses down on the accelerator even harder as if that will make the rover go faster, which it doesn’t. “Crap, crap, crap! What’s going on now?” Hicks pleads.

“I don’t know, she is just dangling there I believe, looking up at Turk who has a hold of her. You guys better hurry!” Glover begs.

“I’m driving this damn thing as fast as it will go,” Hicks responds, bouncing around on the bumpy ruts they are now driving through.

They hear Evans, “Eagle-2, Eagle-2, do you copy?”

Hicks responds before Glover has a chance. “Doctor Evans, this is Hicks, I’ve been trying to contact you, we are aware of your situation and are on our way. We should be there in about five minutes. We are traveling as fast as we can!”

“Okay… acknowledged… please hurry!” she responds back.

They are about 90 seconds away when they hear Evans say: “PATRICK! OH MY GOD…… PATRICK… Oh God, Oh my God I’m falling … it’s dark... it’s very dark… Ahhh…. Oh God, I’m in water… I’m floating… {ssssst} I can’t see anything… {sssssst} turning on {ssssst} {ssssst} {ssssst} {ssssst}imming towa{ssssst} can you hea{ssssst} {ssssst} copy {ssssst},” then nothing.

“Holy… Jesus!” Glover cries into the com. “Evans… Evans… He lost her! She went down the hole… oh shit… oh shit…” he stutters. “She’s gone… she has two kids! She’s dead! I’ve lost her com-link!”

When Hicks pulls the rover into the deep groove he instantly slams on the brakes as he sees the nearly 2 meter drop off, then veers to the right. He has to drive about 90 meters along the ridge to find a spot where the drop-off is only a few centimeters down and can safely cross; then speeds over to the drill site, but adding another minute to their arrival time.

Turk is still straddled over the hole, looking down. He is now slowly loosening his grip on the support rig, ready to voluntarily join Juliana in the abyss that he just watched her fall into; like a lady bug down a drain…

Chapter 14:
Avalanche

J
ust as Hicks bends over to grab Turk’s free arm, Turk lets go of the support rig and starts to head down the hole head first. A startled Hicks slips and almost goes down the hole himself but manages to pull back. Fedoseev, who was reaching for Turk’s feet, desperately lunges to catch them and grabs hold; with his own feet now dangerously straddling the hole. Hicks regains his balance and then grabs Fedoseev from behind, pulling on his bio-suit’s air-tank. Together they both pull Turk up out of the hole and slide him away from the opening. Turk’s suit is covered in ice, then they notice… he is missing one of his gloves; his right hand has swollen significantly in the thin Europa atmosphere and is a mixture of colors from purple to red.

“Oh shit, his glove came off!” exclaims Hicks with a look of despair on his face. He shakes him and yells into the com, “Turk! Turk!” He doesn’t respond but his eyes open for a quick second, however he doesn’t seem to focus on anything.