SciFi Thriller & Romance
Nikki’s unexpected meeting with Kiron triggers a chain of disasters in Europa’s perilous oceans. Can the daredevil scientist and scarred Watcher forge a new alliance despite their people’s antagonism?
Read the first Chapters:
CHAPTER 1
Solar
Spirit shuddered, slamming Nikki onto the steel floor of the passage.
Alarms
wailed. Lights flashed red warnings.
Biting
back a scream, Nikki scrambled onto her feet. She glanced right and left along
the corridor. A second jolt tipped the floor into an awkward angle. Her boots
lifted from the tilted floor and she spun slowly in midair. Styx! The ship’s
artificial gravity had failed. What next? No life support? She groaned
inwardly.
Her
arms flailing for a grip, Nikki struggled to catch hold of the handrail. Her
emergency training kicked in. Primed by drills every third day of the voyage,
she knew what to do. She dove for the nearest oxygen canister. Working one
handed while grasping the rail, she fastened the mask around her mouth and
nose. Her mind cleared, clicking into logical mode. The spaceship was damaged,
possibly hit by a stray asteroid on the outer fringes of the belt. What blasted
bad timing. Solar Spirit had begun decelerating and she had expected to reach
Europa in less than two days.
Heavy
partitions clanged shut, separating the next section of the ship. A second,
fainter clunk sounded in the opposite direction. Her section was isolated from
the rest of the ship.
The
ship’s layout fixed in her mind, she kicked off, traveling diagonally from wall
to wall to propel herself along the empty corridor to the nearest life craft.
The
overhead lights flickered and faded to black, leaving only the line of red
arrows marking the direction of the exit. The corridor bucked. She banged
against the wall and stumbled onto her knees, cringing at the creak of
overstrained metal.
The
siren’s whine cut to silence.
What
the styx did that mean? She had to get out. Nikki struggled upright and flipped
on her headlamp. The bay with the lifepod was a few steps ahead. Its door was
shut and no one was visible in the annex.
Nikki
staggered to the rack of spacesuits on the wall by the airlock. She selected
the correct size and
clambered
into the bulky spacesuit, balancing against the juddering of the ship. Pulling
an emergency kit from the shelf, she entered the inner airlock and fumbled at
the door handle of the lifepod. She flung the door open, climbed into the cabin
and dropped into the pilot’s seat. Panting with relief, she looked around.
Where was everybody? The lifepod was sized for six people. She must be the
first to reach its safety. Surely Alita and Karl would arrive soon. She had
left them in the gym only minutes before the alarm sounded.
Uncertain
of her best course of action, Nikki waited in the lifepod. She didn’t want to
leave anybody behind. Involuntarily, she touched her chest where her data stick
hung on a chain under her overalls. She always carried a copy of all the files
and software for her research in a pendant shaped like a spiral shell. Once she
reached Galileo Station on Europa, she would be ready to set up her lab.
The
incessant blare of the alarms revved up her stress level until the delay seemed
interminable. At last, she heard voices outside and a scrape at the door. It
swung open and Roy stumbled into the cabin, his right arm hanging limply at his
side. Alita and Petris followed, already in their suits and carrying helmets.
Petris toted an extra spacesuit over his shoulder.
“This
section is sealed off,” Petris said, between pants of breath. “The hull must be
breached in three or five.”
Tears
poured down Alita’s pale cheeks. “I don’t know what happened to Karl,” she
moaned. “He’s behind the barrier. When we left the gym, he went to section five
to fetch a snack from the food dispenser.”
“Did
you see anyone else?” Nikki asked.
A
groan from Roy, and negative shakes of the head from the other two confirmed
her suspicions. They were the only ones to reach this lifepod.
Clamping
down her fears, Nikki took charge. She pointed at Alita. “Get Roy a pain killer,
and find a bandage for his arm. He’ll need help with his suit.”
“What
about Karl? Can’t we wait?” Alita whispered.
She
silenced Alita’s faint objections. “Karl is probably in a lifepod in the next
section. We’ll meet him on Europa.” Once they launched from the ship, their
target was obvious. They were close to their destination and the lifepod had
enough fuel to reach Europa.
“Does
anyone know what’s the problem?” Petris asked.
Flipping
on the intercom, Nikki said, “Let’s find out.”
The
raucous tones of the emergency system rang out, “Warning! Hull breached in
sections five and six. Air pressure low, entering danger zone. Damage reported
from sections seven and nine. Evacuate breached sections.”
Nikki
punched the code for the bridge, and then engineering, without receiving any
response. She decided, “We’ll wait five minutes, and then we’re shooting into
space.”
Behind
her, Alita was helping Roy into his suit, while Petris checked the supply
cabinets.
“Helmets
on,” Nikki ordered, “and don’t forget to switch on your mikes.”
His
helmet clicked into place, and Petris grinned at her through the faceplate. His
voice filtered into her ear plugs, “All secure, Captain Bell.”
Counting
the minutes under her breath, Nikki interrupted the repeating alarm call. “I’m
lifting off in two minutes.” Scanning the faces of her companions, she made a
swift selection. “Petris, you’re navigator. Plot a course to Europa.”
Sliding
into the seat next to Nikki, Petris bent over the control pad and tapped in the
codes. “You got it.”
Nikki
continued, “Alita, look after Roy. Help him buckle up in the rear seat.”
Checking that her crew members were seated with harnesses fastened, she hit the
starter.
The
exit hatch opened in the hull, revealing the bright stripes of Jupiter. The
size of a tennis ball, the gas giant’s red and yellow storm bands glowed
against the black of space. Ejecting on auto, the lifepod eased out of the
hatch and moved away from the bulk of the space ferry.
Petris
whistled. “Look at the size of that frikking hole.”
“I
can’t look!” Alita squealed, clapping her hands over her faceplate.
A
jagged tear ran along the side of Solar Spirit, and Nikki wondered if anyone
had survived in the ruptured sections. The passengers’ cabins were in section
six and the crew slept in nine. Anyone asleep in their hammock would have
little chance to escape. She nibbled her lower lip to dampen the horror,
knowing she had no way to help. “What on Earth smashed into the Spirit?”
“Something
big and fast,” Petris muttered. “An asteroid or stray moonlet.”
Nikki
swung round and frowned at her navigator. “How in styx did the sensors miss an
object of that size?”
Petris
groaned, “There’s a blind spot. Sensor on the blink in the stern. We planned to
fix it while the ferry was in orbit round Europa. Stupid mistake, though I
shouldn’t say it. Captain made the call to delay repairs.”
“Understandable.
Space walking’s risky,” Nikki said, aiming to soothe him. Emotional outbursts
would only heighten their stress and might lead to dangerous errors. Alita was
already close to hysterical with fear about Karl’s fate.
“We
should have fixed it.” Punching the console with his fist, Petris snapped,
“Styx! We’ll be blacklisted by Solar Ferries. It’s their first serious loss
since they started a regular service to the outer planets.”
“How
long is that?” Nikki asked.
Petris
shrugged. “Five years, if you don’t count the seven years of construction
runs.”
“I’d
call that a success, going so long without a major accident.”
Taking
manual control, Nikki steered the small craft around the vast hull of the
ferry. The bulbous cargo section was intact, but the crack in the hull extended
into engineering. She shook her head, and tried the intercom to individuals.
When she had almost given up, a ping came from the bridge and she opened the
channel.
“Hello,
lifepod eight, who’s there?” the voice stuttered.
“Chief
Scientist Bell with Techs Farrell, Steinhelm, and Wong. What’s the damage?”
“First
Officer Cummings at the helm. We’ve several problems. Captain’s injured. Chief
engineer noticed a glitch in the deflector field just before the ferry was hit.
The drive’s shut down. We’re on emergency life support. Gabby’s checking the
generator. Sections one, two and four are habitable.” His breath caught in an
audible groan. “By frikking bad luck, we’ve lost our third shift crew. They
were sleeping in their cabins when the section lost air. The rest of the crew
is searching for survivors.” The ferry was largely automated and its crew of
nine worked three shifts around the clock.
“What’re
your orders for us? Roy…Tech Wong has a broken arm.”
“Head
for Galileo Station. They have the best medics in the outer solar system. Ours
will be busy. Steer well clear of Spirit. We’ll be deploying the solar wings to
power life support.”
“What
will you do?”
“Round
up the survivors and count our losses. Passengers can ship out in the lifepods.
The ferry can limp along with a small crew. We have to save the cargo. Galileo
Station is low on supplies. We’ve sent them an alert.” He groaned. “Our best
estimate is their shuttle will take thirty hours to arrive here.”
“Okay.
Good luck!” Shutting off the com, Nikki turned to her companions. “You heard
Cummings. We’re flying to Europa.”
As
they angled toward the striped ball of Jupiter, another lifepod emerged from
the opposite side of the ship and sped in the same direction.
Frowning
at the controls, Petris said, “The course is set. We’ll arrive at the moon in
twenty-eight hours and eleven minutes.”
“Time
to relax and enjoy a delicious protein bar,” Nikki quipped.
“I’ve
got the channel open to Galileo Station. Do you want to speak to them?”
Leaning
over to grab the mike, Nikki called, “Hello Galileo. This is lifepod eight
departing from the ferry, Solar Spirit. Do you hear me?”
“Hello,
lifepod eight. Com Officer Patel speaking. We heard the emergency SOS from the
transport ferry. What’s your status?”
Nikki
named the personnel on board, and added, “Tech Wong needs medical help for a
broken arm. I’m requesting permission to land at Galileo Station.”
“We’re
on alert for three lifepods. The Station is on the side of the moon facing away
from Jupiter. Aim for the black and white circle around our hatch. It’s marked
in flashing green lights after dark. We’ll open the hatch when you’re overhead.
Land on the platform and we’ll lower you down the tunnel to the Upper Station.
Keep an eye out for turbulence. Jupiter’s in an active phase.” The station had
been constructed under the surface ice in the relative warmth of the ocean.
“Okay,”
Nikki said.
After they had traveled for about an hour, a third lifepod appeared in the rear viewer. Presumably, another set of passengers bound for Europa.
* * *
During
the tedious voyage to their destination, Nikki had plenty of time to agonize
over her losses. Without news of the other passengers, she wondered who had
survived the collision. After two years on board, she knew them all, some
better than she wished. The senior scientists, astronomers, Cleo Lane and Ahmed
Salam, and geophysicist, Bernard Fleming, were eager to study Jupiter and its
moons at close quarters. She chewed her lower lip. Alita, Roy and Petris were
safe for the present, but the fate of Sci Techs Prya, Denton and Karl, was in
question.
Greta
and Karl were replacements for the techs rotating out of Galileo Station. Penny
Weatherspoon and Jeremy, her ten-year-old son, were joining her husband on the
Station. Then, there was Greggor Falconer, the reclusive agent for Taxyon Space,
who spent most of his time buried in engineering. Three Belters had joined the
ferry when the Solar Spirit docked at Ceres. Stig, a lanky young man from a
mining family, and Clem, his very pregnant wife, were traveling to the Medical
Center on Galileo Station. Europa and Mars had the only full-scale hospital
facilities outside of Earth. Howie, a disgruntled prospector with a lame leg,
was on his way back to the colony on Mars. Had they survived the ferry’s
collision? Surely, some of them must have escaped in the two other lifepods.
Alita’s
whiny voice interrupted her thoughts, “What about the others? Do you think
they’re alive?”
“You
heard Cummings,” Nikki said. “We’ve seen two lifepods leave the ferry, and we’ll
learn more after we reach Europa.” She refused to speculate when her assistant
was already distraught over Karl’s absence.
“Galileo
Station will be on alert to receive casualties,” Petris remarked. “It may be
frikking messy for several days. Can’t imagine their Med facility is designed
to serve more than a couple of patients.”
“Blasted
catastrophe!” Switching to a safer topic, Nikki grumbled, “I wanted a peaceful
life studying the alien organisms in the oceans. Now, we don’t know when we’ll
be able to dive, and we might have lost our lab equipment.”
“Don’t
you even care about people?” Alita wailed. “Is nothing more important than your
research?”
Roy
spoke up, “Calm down, Alita. Can’t you see that Nikki’s only trying to distract
us?”
“She
doesn’t have a missing partner,” Alita sniffed.
“I
care,” Nikki muttered through clenched teeth. The accusation rankled. Her
friend had unconsciously delivered a crueler barb than she intended. Alita had
never met Simon. In the three years since his death,
Nikki believed she had worked through her grief, although she had deliberately
shunned intimate liaisons on the voyage. The close quarters of the ferry made
it impossible to have a short flirtation and subsequent breakup in any privacy.
She
said, “I’m sure we can rely the ferry crew to rescue our friends. Even if they
abandon Solar Spirit, we can retrieve our stuff later.” Her small cabin held a
few precious souvenirs of her life on Earth. A box contained her father’s
medals from the war, her mother’s wedding ring, and the engagement ring from
poor Simon. She had kept the ring as a bittersweet memento of three months of bliss
with her fiancé. In the years since his death, she had crushed her misery under
the burden of her research. She had become fascinated by the mysterious
inhabitants of Europa’s oceans. Besides her personal possessions, she might
have lost the instruments and research supplies for analyzing the Europan
lifeforms. And, possibly an assistant for her research, if Denton had been
trapped in the damaged sections.
Nikki had promised to keep her mentor, Astrid Andersen, informed, but she was reluctant to call until they arrived at Galileo Station. Astrid could do nothing from her office on distant Earth. In any case, as Chief of Xenobiology, Dr. Andersen would be among the first to learn of the disaster on Solar Spirit. Once they were safe, Nikki vowed to send her a report on the accident and describe the conditions at the station.
As
they approached, Jupiter expanded into a gigantic striped sphere, dominating
the sky like a festival balloon. Nikki stared in fascination at Jupiter’s
storms. Giant vortices spun within the bright bands, eerily beautiful and
deadly. The lifepod veered towards the moon of Europa, faintly visible as a tiny
disk in front of a swirling yellow band. The radiation sensors shot into the
danger zone. She hoped the shielding was sufficient protection for the flight
to the buried station.
Soon
they zoomed over the pale landscape of the moon, crisscrossed with ruddy lines.
The zebra-striped circle of their target appeared in the distance, conspicuous
against the glistening surface ice.
Pointing
a gloved finger at the target, Petris quipped, “Welcome to our new home.” He
adjusted their flight path, angling lower until Jupiter vanished below the
curved horizon.
“We’re
not there yet.” Alita shook her head, her face scrunched in worry.
“It
won’t be much longer,” Nikki said. “Call the station, Petris. Tell them we’re
in visual range and ask for landing instructions.”
“Will
do.” Petris keyed in the frequency.
A
high-pitched whine pierced the air. Their small craft jerked and the drive
stuttered to a stop. Spinning out of control, they plummeted toward the ice.
“What
is it?” Alita cried, gripping the arms of her seat.
“Turbulence,”
Nikki said, recalling the Com Tech’s warning. She leaned toward the monitors,
watching their altitude decrease, while Petris wrestled with the manual
controls.
“It’s
not working,” he shouted. “Feels like the tiller’s jammed. Styx!” He hammered
on the lever.
A
white peak loomed closer.
“Prepare
to eject!” Nikki yelled over the screech of the overloaded engines. Wearing
their full suits, they could survive on the surface for several hours, long
enough for a rescue shuttle to arrive from the station.
They
whirled past a huge pillar of ice. Eerie yellow lights played across the
glistening vertical surface. Inside the cabin, Alita unfastened the straps
holding Roy in his seat. Taking Roy’s good arm, she tugged him into the airlock
and jumped out. Their suits shot down. Seconds later, two parachutes ballooned.
Their descent would be visible from the station.
“I’ve
got it.” Petris thumped on the panel and held up his thumb.
Too
late! Glancing out the viewer, Nikki saw a solid wall of ice. She screamed and
hit the ejection switch.
Impact!
White exploded in all directions. Wind whistled and she blacked out.
Blinking
at the white glare, Nikki groaned. Her head throbbed with pain. Her entire body
ached. She lay on a hard surface, her thoughts a whirl of confusion. Gradually,
she remembered. The screech of the alarms, the lifecraft plunging into the thin
atmosphere, her screams as the ship hit the wall of ice. She remembered the
swift trajectory of her ejection, and the crunch of ice as she slammed on the
frosted surface. Now, an eerie silence surrounded her.
Where
was she?
The
lifepod had crashed onto Europa, thrust off course in a freak storm from
Jupiter. Rolling onto her side, too fast in the low gravity, Nikki banged her
arm on a hard, glossy surface.
She
stared. Ice was everywhere. She lay at the bottom of a steep ravine. Nearby, the
orange fabric of the parachute blossomed on an icy projection. The parachute
had served its purpose of slowing her descent, although she doubted any
rescuers would spot it within the deep canyon of ice. High above, the red glow
of Jupiter crossed a sliver of primrose sky. Blue-green pinnacles of ice
protruded from the rim.
Gingerly,
she sat up and craned her head to peer in all directions. In the distance, the
steel frame of the lifepod smeared across a white slope like a child’s broken
toy. The cabin had burst open, spewing its dingy contents over the pristine
ice.
She
scrambled onto her knees and shouted into her com. No answer. Only the loud
crackle of static. Terror speared into her befuddled brain. She rapped on the
audio sensor over her ears. No signal! Her com unit must have broken, probably
when she hit the ground. Nobody would hear her call for help. They might never
find her in time. In a day’s exposure, the fierce radiation would kill her or else
she might succumb to the frigid temperatures. But, she would exhaust her oxygen
supply sooner. She trembled under the weight of her imminent death.
The
wrecked lifepod was her only hope. Wincing at the pain, Nikki clambered onto
her feet. She had to climb across the icy terrain to the ship’s wreckage and hope
the emergency signal worked. Had Petris survived the crash? Where had Alita and
Roy landed?
Her
mind numb with fear, she picked her way over the slippery surface toward the
crippled ship. While she trudged on, she scanned the slopes for a potential
route to the top of the canyon. Her emergency gear included a rope. Could she
climb the cliff via the cracks and protruding fingers of ice?
Even
though her suit protected her from the frigid atmosphere, Nikki shivered with
fear and exhaustion. She crunched through crisp snow and veered around the
blue-tinted pillars of ice. Instead of rising, the ground sloped down to a
trough. At her next unwary step, she skidded on the smooth surface, lost her
balance, and toppled to the ground. Disheartened by the relentless struggle,
she lay prone for long minutes.
The
oxygen supplement pinged and she switched to the final cylinder. She had to
keep walking. Surely, rescue teams from the station were searching for her.
Clambering onto her feet, she plodded towards the next jagged peak.
Her
right foot slipped. She stumbled into a hole in the fresh layer of snow and
slid down. White clouds of snow rose around her. She crashed against an ice cliff
and grasped for a hold. Her fingers clutched onto a projection. The jutting ice
snapped. She dropped, flailing her arms and legs. Her fingers caught in a crack
and she jammed her boot into the ice wall, finding a precarious purchase.
Perched
on the vertical cliff, Nikki gasped for breath and waited for the snowy
blizzard to clear. After a few minutes, snowflakes settled on the ground and
the eerie orange light of Jupiter revealed her peril. She clung to a ledge half
way down a deep hole in the ice cap. Looking up, the arc of Jupiter shone across
the jagged rim of the shaft. Below the ledge, a glint of green lit the bottom
of the well.
Gripping
the edge of a tiny crevice above her head, Nikki pulled one knee onto the ledge
and struggled to raise her other knee. With her full weight on the shelf, she
realized her mistake. The ledge crumbled and she fell. She tumbled into the
depths, screaming inside her helmet.
She
slammed onto a hard surface. Pain flared. Her vision grayed and her mind
fogged. Terror jabbed her into full awareness. She assessed her condition with
scientific detachment. Her head throbbed with pain and her whole body felt sore
and battered. Her headlamp shone on powdery snow. Scraping the snow with her
gloved hands, she uncovered a glassy sheet of ice. Thin cracks radiated across
the smooth surface from the impact of her fall.
Greenish
water rippled under the ice sheet. A movement drew her gaze.
A
face in a helmet stared back at her.
She
blinked and the eyes blinked back. Was it merely the reflection of her face and
her helmet? Tears pooled in her eyes and blurred the reflection. Cold and
helpless, Nikki pressed her faceplate against the shiny surface. She scrunched
her eyes closed and lay motionless, dazed and light-headed from exhaustion and
low oxygen.
Seconds,
or maybe hours later, she opened her eyes and bit back a cry of shock. A new
face stared up through the transparent layer of ice. A finely chiseled face
with green eyes under straight reddish eyebrows, and prominent cheekbones, one bearing
a triangular mark. A man’s face with auburn hair and darker tuft of mustache.
Nikki
stretched her fingers toward him, and his lips curved in a handsome smile.
She brightened with hope. A rescuer. He
would save her life. If he were not merely a dream born of her fuzzy
imagination.
She
mouthed, “Help!”
The
edges of her vision grayed.
Her
thoughts flickered. Help…Safe…Dream…Nothing.
CHAPTER 2
Kiron Arqin Ramis stared through the thin
plate of ice at the space-suited body. It must be the missing Earther. One of
the latest arrivals from the third planet with the breathable atmosphere,
Earth, in their language, had fallen into a hole in the ice crust. Kiron had
been listening to the flurry of messages ever since the accident to the
incoming spacecraft. He had heard alarmed voices on the radio, and later, calmer
exchanges with small escape craft flying to the moon. A third of an orbit
later, dismayed reports had described a lifecraft damaged in a freak outburst
from the gas giant. When he heard the muffled crash vibrating across the ice
crust, he had come to investigate at a discreet distance.
The Earther lay
with the faceplate of the suit touching the ice and one gloved hand with five
fingers flattened against the sheet. A female, judging by the delicate
features. Her face was white and strained. She would certainly die if she
remained out there on the frigid surface. Somehow, this woman had traveled a
long way from the site of the crash. Her people might never find her in time.
They had sent out a shuttle and rescued the other survivors from the lifecraft.
He heard the frantic calls as they scoured the surface for the missing person,
the unconscious female lying a finger’s breadth above his nose. But, the
electromagnetic turbulence interfered with their communications. They had
temporarily abandoned the search until the storm subsided.
He pondered the
dilemma posed by the stray Earther. Her people must never learn of the
Watchers’ existence. Yet, she would die without his help.
Her eyes flicked
open and focused on him, blue eyes in a pleasantly contoured face. Her fingers
scraped the ice sheet between them, and her mouth opened in a soundless
exclamation. He leaned closer and smiled in greeting. Her mirrored smile
transformed her pale face with an alien beauty. Within seconds, her lovely
smile faded and her eyes shut.
Kiron punched his
fist through the thin ice.
The Earth woman
slid headfirst into the water.
He pulled her
underwater and rotated her body, checking for telltale threads of bubbles. No
leaks in the suit. Instead, he discovered a loose connection to her air
cylinder. He glanced up at the shrinking hole in the ice. A crescent of orange
striped Jupiter gleamed far overhead. Night was closing in fast. He tapped the
gas cylinder strapped to her back. Surely the mechanism for air storage was
similar to the oxygen tubes his people used. The cylinder sounded light. He
feared it was close to empty. She would expire from lack of oxygen. How could
he save her?
Kiron considered
the options. He could take her to the hidden base of the Watchers, or else he
could transport her to the other Earthers. Narrowing his eyes, Kiron stared through
the water in the direction of the submarine residence of the Earthers. If he
swam warily, he could deposit her near their sensors without being observed and
let them retrieve her. The alternative of bringing her into the Warrish Base
was less attractive. His people would not welcome an alien female. Some would
wish to kill her to prevent disclosure of their clandestine existence.
Quickly coming to
a decision, he wrapped a strap around the suit and hauled her toward the
Earther station. In a dozen lengths, he halted under a depression in the ice,
an inverted trough gouged out by the tidal waves. He had often sipped
oxygen-enriched air from these pockets. He enlarged the cavity and tethered the
spacesuit to the ice. Holding her head above the water, he deciphered the
unfamiliar mechanism and unfastened her helmet. Loose strands of her brown hair
clung to his hands as he examined her pale face in the dim glow of his night
light. Under the fine arch of her brows, her eyes were shut. Her sweet lips held
a hint of a smile as if she hoped he would rescue her.
He could not
detect her breathing. Inhaling a gulp of air, he parted her lips and blew
oxygen into her lungs. The touch of her soft lips elicited a mixture of
embarrassment and desire. He had not touched a woman during the four years he
had been a Watcher. He leaned back to observe her face. Her mouth relaxed into
a curve and a faint moan percolated to his ears. She still lived. Her eyes were
shut. Yet, small motions of her nose and lips indicated breathing. Her pallor
lessened, her cheeks darkening to the reddish brown natural to her species.
He searched in his
emergency medical kit, a relic of his stint in the military. Tests had shown the
meds worked with Earther physiology. In earlier years, Watchers had captured an
Earther, taken tissue and fluid samples, and returned the alien without arousing
suspicion. For his security and her protection, he injected a fast-acting
sedative into her neck. It would keep her unconscious and lower her metabolism
for the short trip to the Earther Station. She might have broken bones or other
injuries, but he could do little more without risking discovery.
A translucent disk
drifted from below and rotated under him, exuding filaments to taste the water.
Kiron ignored the curious spinner. The large, gelatinous creatures were
harmless, and fed on animals far smaller than a Warrish.
Shivering in the
cold water, he reattached the loose tube to her breathing apparatus. She had
oxygen, although he suspected little remained in the cylinder. On impulse, he
brushed his lips on hers and whispered a blessing for long life and happiness.
She would never know, and nobody could see him, apart from the spinner. Her
smooth skin felt strange, yet pleasant. Finally, he replaced her helmet,
carefully tucking damp locks of her hair inside.
When her suit was
sealed, he scanned the visuals for any sign of searchers. Nothing! The Earthers
had searched for her on top of the ice. Were they ignorant of the perilous
cracks penetrating through the surface ice into the water? By now, they had
retreated into the security of their station. He had to move quickly before her
oxygen ran out, and carry her close enough for their sensors to detect the
spacesuit.
Kiron held the
Earther against his chest and swam toward the Earther station. The spinner
followed for a short distance, slowly falling behind after Kiron fired his jets
to maximum velocity. He zoomed close to the undersurface of the ice to evade
detection, veering between luminescent patches of microbes. The magnetic storm
would serve in his favor by disrupting their motion sensors. In less than an
hour, the plateau with the lower part of the station loomed ahead. In his usual
cautious approach, he dove into the shelter of the forest of stinger trees on
the rim of the plateau. The dense forest of stalks topped with deadly branches
made an excellent hiding place. In previous explorations, he had established
that Earthers could not detect his presence within the tall stalks. Holding the
woman’s suited body upright, he dodged behind the white stalks of the stingers.
He twisted between the shell-encased tubes, keeping well below the wriggling
tendrils with their toxic darts.
Near the border of
the forest, he studied the Earther Station from a safe distance. The elaborate
structure consisted of two separate sections linked by cables. Dots of light
outlined the buildings and the connecting cables. The upper section was
anchored within a tunnel bored through the surface ice, and the larger building
stood on the seabed. He decided to deposit her near the upper building, a
toroidal construction that housed their medical facility.
Near the edge of
the plateau, Kiron ascended parallel to the stinger tubes. A stray tendril
brushed his bare arm, injecting droplets of toxin. Wincing at the pinpoints of
pain, he twisted aside. At the rippling surface of the ocean, he ducked into
the concealment of a shallow groove in the ice sheet. He narrowed his eyes to
peer at the torus of the upper station. Detecting no activity in the water near
the borehole, he placed the limp body of the Earther just under the ice. Aiming
carefully, he propelled her toward the borehole with its framework of cables.
The space-suited body rotated in the water, drifted into the tunnel and rose
toward the upper section of their station.
Kiron backed away
slowly to elude the motion sensors. When he had retreated into the swaying branches
of stingers, he halted and gave a grim smile. Their detectors would register
the spinning spacesuit, and someone would come to investigate.
He waited.
Voices crackled in
his ears from their transmissions. An incredulous voice cried, “There’s a
spacesuit in the water!”
“What? A
spacesuit? Must be the guy missing from the lifepod. Grapple onto the suit.”
After a brief
silence, the robotic arm swung out and gripped the woman’s spacesuit.
“Got it!” a woman
exclaimed.
After she was
carried into the airlock, Kiron expelled air from his lungs to decrease his
buoyancy and gulped water to increase his density. He descended, hidden behind
the thick bole of a stinger tree. Slipping below the edge of the plateau, he
repeated the process of inhaling water and dropped further into the ocean
depths. The clatter of the radio hissed into silence.
In the dark
waters, he sensed movement. A pod of pawlers circled the forest of stingers,
gulping water into their great mouths. They angled their triangular wings and
flapped away from the Station. Unafraid of the huge filter feeders, Kiron darted
into middle of the pod. He caught hold of the ragged edge of an enormous
triangular fin. Flattening his body against the dorsal surface, he let the
pawler carry him away from the Earther Station. He relaxed and patted his
animal transport. With luck, he had saved the woman without either the Earthers
or the other Watchers seeing him.
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