Europa
By Gene Denham
Copyright 2013 Gene Denham
Cover Image : “jupiter_family”
https://www.freeimages.co.uk/
License Notes
Bishop stared past the other moon at the gas giant. It was one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen. He was anxious to return to Earth so he could see his family. Nevertheless his heart was saddened to be leaving the frozen cue ball. Europa might be a barren wasteland but there was something about it both majestic and serene. A crackle in his headset pulled him away from his daydream.
“Give me a hand, will ya? This damn thing is stuck.”
Bishop turned to see Larsen struggling with the sampling drill. “What do you mean it's stuck?”
The other man raised his head. “Whadda ya think I mean? It's stuck. I don't know how, but it is.”
“Try reverse.”
Larsen slapped the side of his helmet. “I shoulda thought of that.”
“Okay, hang on.” Bishop grabbed the carrying handles near the motor.
Larsen flexed his hands and repositioned them on the operating handle. “On three. Two. Pull.”
At first the tool didn't budge. Then there was a small amount of success. Then nothing. The men pushed down on their feet, using their boot cleats to brace themselves. Larsen counted to three and pushed reverse. The pair pulled up on the drill. Whatever was holding the tool in place loosed its grip and the drill sprung from the ground. Larsen tumbled backward, his hands clutching the handle of the tool.
The spinning tip shot upward at Bishop's face. He threw his hand up and screamed as the tool tore through the fabric of his space suit and into his flesh. “Damn it! Turn it off! Turn it off!” A sweet metallic odor seeped into his nostrils.
Larsen threw the drill to the side and jumped to his feet. “Hold on!” He picked up the drill cover. “Shove your arm in this. It'll have to do till we get you back to the Cousteau.”
“Shit, that hurts,” said Bishop. “You'd think the cold would've numbed it.”
“It's all in yer head.”
“Screw you.”
“C'mon, let's go.” Larsen pulled the wounded man towards the buggy.
*****
Once he was satisfied that he had pored enough disinfectant on the wound, Alvarez reached for the salve. “Just like super glue, almost. Takes about a week to fully dissolve. Your skin should be holding itself together by then.” He grabbed the gauze. Alvarez could feel Commander Romero's matronly eyes on him as he wrapped Bishop's hand. “I recommend light duty for a day or two.”
“Shouldn't be a problem,” said Romero. “We're scheduled to take off in nine hours.”
Alvarez nodded. “And I'll need to look at that drill bit. There shouldn't be any pathogens to worry about, but I want to make sure.”
“Aren't you the one who said that if there's any life on this rock it would be in the ocean under twenty kilometers of ice?”
“No ma'am. I said twenty-five,” answered Alvarez. “But I don't want to take any chances.”
“I know there's oxygen in the atmosphere, but enough for life?” asked Romero.
“Possibly. Surprising how little it takes. Besides not all life requires oxygen. Methanogens use methane because they live in thermal vents on the ocean floor. Earth's oceans. Plus there's always the chance of toxins. Just want to know what we're dealing with.” Alvarez taped down the bandage and looked at Bishop. “There, good as new.”
Romero cleared her throat. “How do you feel?”
Bishop smiled. “Like I need a drink.”
“We have plenty of water,” Romero responded. “Afraid you'll have to wait two weeks for anything stronger.” She patted Alvarez on the shoulder. “Good work. I'll have Patil and Kimura retrieve the drill. They'll bring it to you as soon as they get back.”
*****
Cardboard may have better flavor, thought Romero. She sat the pouch on the table and grabbed her cup. “At least they didn't screw the coffee up.”
“What's that boss?”
She looked up at Alvarez and smiled. “It just amazes me. We have the technology to create artificial gravity but not to create a decent vacuum sealed meal. How's our patient?”
“So far so good. No sign of infection.” He glanced at his watch. “Thirteen hours. I think we may be out of the woods.”
“Nothing unusual showed up in the ice sample?”
Alvarez shook his head. “Nothing unexpected. Water, hydrogen peroxide and sulfide. Those can be organic byproducts, but we've seen nothing that indicates they are. And his blood samples have been clean.”
Romero nodded. “Good. Keep me informed.”
“Will do. What did the agency say about our situation?”
“Don't know if they said anything. Solar storms are garbling our radio signals. Not even sure if our messages are reaching Earth.”
“How long before we get back?” asked Alvarez.
“Fifteen days, seven hours, and forty-two minutes, but who's counting?”
“Off hand, I'd say you are.”
“Part of the job. We're all supposed to be counting,” said Romero.
Alvarez did his best Deforest Kelly face. “I'm a doctor, not a clock.”
Romero chuckled. She heard footsteps approaching. “Bishop, we were just talking about you. How are you feeling?”
“I'm hungry. I'm also hot. Can we turn up the A/C?”
Alvarez stood and placed a hand on the man's forehead. “What the hell? He's running a fever. Let's get you back to the lab.”
Bishop shook his head. “Is that really necessary?”
“Afraid so,” answered Alvarez. “I need to take more blood.”
“Damn vampire,” grumbled Bishop.
Romero got up to help usher the sick man back to the lab. “Come on, Bishop, let's go. Alvarez, I want answers.”
“As do I,” Alvarez answered.
The trio made their way to the lab near the rear of the ship. Once there Alvarez drew blood and set about analyzing it. He looked up after a few minutes. “White blood cell count is up which indicates an infection, but I haven't found it yet.”
“Keep looking until you do,” ordered Romero. “I'll have Larsen assist you.”
“Until we identify the cause we can't land on Earth. We can't even dock at the station. We need to quarantine ourselves.”
“Quarantine?” Bishop's voice was weak. “But I really want a drink.”
“We all do,” commented Romero. “We also have procedures we need to follow. I'll try contacting Earth again.” She headed for the bridge, silently cursing the fact that the success of her first command was starting to unravel. Two exploratory missions had gone to Europa and returned without incident. “So much for third time being a charm.” She had the sudden desire for a tequila sunrise.
*****
“Think I found something,” said Alvarez. “Take a look at these molecules.”
Larsen looked at the electron microscope screen. “Almost looks like a crystal. Where did ya get this sample?”
“This is the ice from the drill bit.”
“The same ice we already examined?” asked Larsen.
“Yes. If we had gone down to the molecular level we would've seen this.”
Larsen examined the readout display. “Hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. Those should form sulfuric acid, but this is something different. I ain't never heard of them bonding like this.”
Alvarez changed the slides. “Now we have something to look for in Bishop's blood.”
Something clanged behind them. They turned their heads. Bishop was struggling towards the front door of the lab and the living quarters
.
“Just where do ya think you're going?” Larsen asked.
Bishop moaned. “Hungry.”
“Okay,” responded Larsen. “I'll get ya something, but ya need to lay back down and rest.” Larsen grabbed the man's arm.
Bishop spun, lunging at Larsen.
As the two men crashed against a wall, Alvarez closed the front bulkhead. He heard Larsen scream. Turning, he saw Larsen on the floor holding his arm.
“He bit me! That son-of-a-bitch bit me.”
Footsteps echoed from the aft hallway. Alvarez activated the intercom. “Commander, we have a problem!”
Romero's voice answered back. “What's happening?”
“Bishop freaked out. He bit Larsen and ran out of here towards the engine compartment.”
“What! Kimura! Kimura, answer me. How bad is Larsen?”
Alvarez answered, “Doesn't look bad.”
“Then get to the engine room and find Bishop. I'm on my way.”
*****
Romero threw the door open and rushed into the lab. Everything went black. A second later the blackness was largely vanquished by the emergency lights. Romero cursed as she floated in air. The momentum from her last step carried her to the ceiling. She pulled herself hand over towards the engine room. She ignored the emergency masks that had ejected from the wall. As long as the oxygen tanks hadn't been flushed there should be twenty minutes of air left. Hopefully that would be enough to handle the situation.
The lights flickered.
“Shit.” Romero threw her limbs out to brace herself.
The lights came to life and she crashed to the floor. Her hands and feet folded, lessening the impact. She bit her lip and a bitter taste filled her mouth. Romero sprang to her feet. She ran down the hall to the engine compartment. She found Kimura repairing the wires that ran between the reactor and life support. Even from behind, Romero could see blood on the engineer's neck. Alvarez was kneeling beside a motionless Bishop.
“What happened?” asked Romero.
Kimura finished her repair before turning. “I'm not sure. He came in here all wide eyed and bit me. I tried to fight him off, but he's pretty strong. The only thing that I could think of was to try and TASER him.”
“So you yanked the power to the life support?”
“I had a crazed lunatic trying to eat me and no safe word.” Kimura folded her arms. “Wasn't time to form a committee to explore potential actions.”
Romero held her hands up in defeat. “How's Bishop?”
Alvarez stood up. “He's dead.”
*****
The infection was progressing at a faster rate than it had done in Bishop. Larsen was feverish and weak. Kimura was worse. She had become delirious and the crew had strapped her down to prevent her from biting anyone. It wouldn't be long before they did the same to Larsen, but for now he had a purpose.
“This doesn't make a lick of sense.” Larsen wiped his forehead. “How toxic can this stuff be? Only an iota of it would've gotten into Bishop. That shouldn't have been enough to make him sick, let alone spread through his blood into his spit in a sufficient quantity to infect others.”
Alvarez turned away from his microscope. “It's as though it's multiplied.”
“Exactly.”
“Which it has.”
Larsen raised an eyebrow. “How is that even possible?”
“I don't think it's a chemical compound,” stated Alvarez. “I think it's a lifeform. It's gotten into the white blood cells and taken over their nuclei. Instead of fighting infection the cells have become the infection.”
“How do we stop it?”
Alvarez shook his head. “I've tried everything we have on board and nothing seems to work. Hate to say this, but we should probably get you secured.”
Larsen rolled his head and looked at Kimura. “I know.”
The engineer moaned. She pulled at her straps. Suddenly one of them ripped.
Alvarez hit the intercom. “Need help down here. Kimura is breaking free.” Not waiting for a response, Alvarez rushed over to Kimura. He grabbed her arms and pushed down. “Damn girl! Been working out?” He felt a hand on his back. “Larsen, go sit down. I've got this.” Then he felt something wet near his shoulder. “No!” Alvarez twisted and shoved his attacker against a desk. He didn't expect to see that face. “Bishop! What the hell?”
*****
Romero entered the lab and dodged a lunge from Larsen. She spun and saw the dead geologist taking a bite out of the doctor. Kimura was on her feet and charging. Romero kicked the woman backward. Larsen grabbed her and she barely wrestled free. Romero thrust her hand at a table. She needed a weapon. Her fingers found something metal as Kimura charged again. Romero clutched the scissors and drove them into the engineer's forehead. Larsen slammed into her and she felt his teeth tear into her shoulder. Romero twisted free and sprinted out the door. She slammed the bulkhead shut and watched through the glass as Kimura stood up.
“So much for head shots.” Romero bolted the door.
Larsen tried to open it as Kimura and Bishop ran out the other side.
“Shit, they're heading for the bridge. I gotta warn Patil.” Romero ran to an intercom. “Patil!”
“Yes, commander?”
“Seal the bridge. Do it now.”
“What's going on?”
“Don't argue. Just do it! There's no time.”
“Yes, m... Aarrgh!”
Romero hit the wall with her fist. She gently touched the wound on her shoulder. She scoured the recesses of her mind, looking for the missing piece. The one piece that would make sense of it all. Zombies. She almost laughed as the word swam in her head. Romero knew people would say was impossible, but people used to think space travel was impossible. “Fucking space zombie virus and we're all infected. “
She pushed aside the urges to laugh and scream. She needed to access the situation and figure out her options. “Just treat it like any other contingency. It's an illness, so it should be curable. Of course our resident biologist and doctor is infected. He'll turn long before he can find a cure. I should contact Earth and warn them, but communications haven't been working. Besides I have a ship full of zombies between me and the radio. Ditto on changing course to send the ship into deep space or crashing into Jupiter. If we get home, there's the danger of this spreading to the space station. Or worse, to Earth. There has to be a solution.”
Romero stared at the wall. Her gaze focused on a small panel marked “Emergency O2”. She rubbed her tongue over the sore spot on her lip. “Shit. That's it.”
She walked to the engine compartment. Romero activated the emergency fuel ejection system. Next she activated the ejection valve for the oxygen tanks. These were procedures designed to extinguish a fire, but she hoped they would be effective for zombies. She opened all of the emergency vents. It would be a matter of minutes before the ship was completely empty of breathable air. Then she reached for the wires Kimura had repaired. She yanked them loose and shut off the engine as she started to float.
Romero smiled. She had stopped the virus from spreading to Earth. Or had she? The thought soured her stomach. “What if they don't need oxygen to survive?”
*****
Once everyone had donned their HazMat suits Dr. Greenburg picked up the open file. As they walked down the hall, he decided to test his youngest assistant. “Give me a summary, Harry.”
The young man cleared his throat. “The Cousteau limped into Earth proximity three days behind schedule. It had no power, no fuel, and no O2. All of the crew was found dead. There were signs of violence including bite marks, burns, and a stabbing. According to the logs one of the crew was injured by a drill on Europa's surface. The ship's doctor believed that lead to some type of infection, the nature of which is still unknown. Since the space station isn't equipped to perform autopsies the bodies were brought down
so we could examine them. That's why we're decked out in these fancy threads.”
“Very good.”
They stepped through the plastic and resealed it. As they approached the examination room they saw people shambling out.
“Hey!” Greenburg called out. “You're not authorized to be here. And you don't have a suit. This is a quarantine zone. Identify yourselves!”
The figures sprinted towards the group of doctors. Greenburg looked down at the photographs in the folder. “That's impossible,” he said as the crew of the Cousteau attacked.
###
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