Jeff Carlson - The Frozen Sky

The rest of his time went into his job. In addition to managing the ESA crew, Koebsch was their liaison to the thousands of scientists back home who wanted specific data, experiments, or new missions into the ice. He also dealt with administrators and politicians who had their own questions. He’d been given a staff on Earth to assist with these demands, but he couldn’t have been busier if he’d given up sleeping, showering, and eating.

More than once, he’d mentioned to Vonnie that overseeing her media sessions was the most fun he’d had in weeks, a subtle kind of praise. Did he want more time with her?

Peter Günther Koebsch wasn’t bad-looking. Gene smithing had made age differences of ten or twenty years irrelevant. In many countries on Earth, the average lifespan had increased to a hundred and ten with the bulk of those years spent in active good health. But when Koebsch acted protective and possessive of her, Vonnie felt annoyed.

She didn’t need a daddy.

“Reopen channels,” she said, making sure she tamped down her irritation with Koebsch before turning to the showphone. “Hi.”

“I will need to study this data,” Tavares said.

“Please share it with Ribeiro. We’re prepared to denounce his actions to the Allied Nations if necessary.”

“Do not think you would be alone in that,” Tavares said. “Three weeks ago, we filed protests for a cyber assault on our operations.”

“I know,” Vonnie said.

Tavares stared at her. She opened her mouth to answer, stopped herself, then began again. “Was it you?”

Being a celebrity has its advantages , Vonnie thought. Like Koebsch, Tavares was more inclined to listen because she thought Vonnie was a living legend.

“The assault was non-lethal and it was a preventive action in accordance with A.N. Resolution 4545,” Vonnie said. “Ribeiro brought gun platforms into the ice in violation of international law.”

“That resolution has changed. Even your team has mecha in the ice.”

“Our mecha are intended for scientific and diplomatic efforts, not war.”

“And yet you have spies near our operations.”

“Claudia, the blasts we’re hearing aren’t small,” Vonnie said. “The NASA base is forty klicks from your base. They’ve confirmed the biggest explosions. My guess is you’ve felt the explosions yourself.”

“Sometimes there are cave-ins,” Tavares said, but now she sounded uncertain.

“We’ll give you eight hours,” Vonnie said. “Quit shooting. Extract your team. Maybe we can work together to repair the damage you’ve caused.”

“I will ask Colonel Ribeiro.”

“Thank you. We want to be friends, but if you’re killing sentient creatures…”

Tavares lowered her brown eyes, hiding her dismay and something else. Anger? Recrimination? “I will ask, Von,” she said, allowing Vonnie the smallest victory of calling her by name. Then she cut their connection.

Thirty minutes later, after helping Koebsch arrange their next response to the Brazilians, Vonnie and Ash suited up and left Module 01. As usual, Ash took control of the jeep. Not letting Vonnie drive had become a private joke between them, deepening their friendship.

Vonnie loved being outside. There was room to stretch. She’d been trained to endure being cooped up inside their landers and hab modules, but she didn’t like it — and after five weeks of living inside Lander 04, it was a relief to look around.

Europa’s sky was peppered with other moons. Vonnie identified Io and Himalia as they trundled across camp, and there were other dim shapes set against the stars.

Jupiter had seventy-one satellites. That number included the four largest Galilean moons such as Europa and Io, four medium-sized bodies like Himalia, and sixty-three hunks of rock in a variety of prograde, retrograde, or irregular orbits. They formed a dizzying system which would have been deadly to ships without navigation AIs, which were vital to piloting spacecraft through the ever-changing revolutions.

In time, some of those tiny moons would be drawn too close to Jupiter, where its gravity would crush them into dust. A very few would drift away, expanding their orbits and tugging loose of Jupiter’s grasp.

Which is better ? Vonnie thought, feeling a familiar touch of melancholy. The moons that break free will survive, but they’ll be lost forever, while the moons that disintegrate will become a part of Jupiter’s rings. Eons from now, they’ll help create new moons. They’ll stay home.

She knew she was projecting her own emotions on an inanimate system, but her head felt as chaotic as the debris surrounding Jupiter. Did she have the right to feel like she belonged to Europa? Or would she always be an outsider?

It was a short drive to Lander 04. Inside, Ash and Vonnie took off their pressure suits and stripped down to their blue jump suits. Then they joined Metzler and Frerotte in the living quarters.

Metzler had folded up three of their bunks, leaving one of the low beds open as a bench. A table was extended from the wall. He gestured to the box of fruit juice he’d set out. Vonnie declined. She was too riled to sit down, and it increased her agitation when Ash sat between Metzler and Frerotte, smiling at both men.

The girl was nowhere near as hard-edged as she’d first been with the group. Vonnie wished she weren’t so skittish herself, but everyone knew she was in trauma therapy. That made her self-conscious.

She said, “Did you watch me talk with Tavares?”

“Yeah.” Frerotte nodded. “She won’t help us.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I don’t think they’re hunting sunfish.”

“They wouldn’t go down there with explosives for anything else. Six men don’t have the resources to build a subsurface base. Even if they did, the blasts are spread over nine kilometers. They’re chasing something.”

“What if they’re chasing Lam?”

Vonnie sat down, taking the last spot available on the bed beside Metzler. Then she grabbed the juice and filled a bulb for herself, delaying the question as long as possible. “You heard another signal?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t tell Koebsch.”

“He’s going to find out,” Metzler said, and Frerotte said, “The Brazilians will tell him if we don’t. That’s their excuse for blowing things up. They can use it against us. They wouldn’t be using explosives if we hadn’t programmed one of their mecha with your AI.”

It’s nice of you to say ’we,’ Vonnie thought. Frerotte could have distanced himself from Vonnie and Ash, leaving them to take the blame. Instead, he’d kept their secret. So had Metzler.

Vonnie supposed their decision was one more example of the cohesion of a mixed-gender group. If she and Ash weren’t eligible females, would Metzler and Frerotte have been less inclined to protect them?

“I’d like to see Lam’s data bursts,” she said.

Frerotte handed his pad to her. “The signal’s attenuated,” he said. “Most of it we can’t read. There must be three or four kilometers of ice between him and our closest spies. The Brazilians are jamming him, too, which explains the distortion. He’s trying to bounce his signals through tunnels and caves.”

“It can’t help that he’s in a FNEE digger,” Ash said. “Our mecha have better data/comm.”

“Is he trying to reach us?” Vonnie said.

“You tell me,” Frerotte said. “Maybe he doesn’t know where we are. He might not know where he is.”

“No, he was active until you pulled me from the ice. He tapped NASA and FNEE signals before Koebsch shut him down. Even if he wasn’t able to co-opt the digger’s memory banks, he must have a decent idea what part of Europa he’s in.”