The Solar Sea (20 page)

Looking out the window, Vanda caught her breath. She passed near the red and yellow moon Io. One of the great volcanoes on the surface was erupting, spewing a cloud of sulfur high over the moon where it spread out like a golden fountain and rained back down to the surface. She towed the
Aristarchus
out beyond the orbit of Io. Once she arrived at Pilot's target location, she disengaged the towrope's magnetic clamps and reeled it in. She pushed forward on the joystick, so the shuttle moved out, further ahead of the giant ship.

"Vanda,” came the voice of Myra Lee. “The captain says he'd like you to take a look at the number three sail to see how bad that stress fracture is. Neb says it's about two miles in from the tip. I'm sending a schematic now."

"Acknowledged.” Berko maneuvered the shuttle around in a wide arc, coming up behind the
Aristarchus.
Activating the keel thrusters, she moved three miles out from the hub, so she was at the same level as the damaged part of the sail. She then matched speed and watched as the sails rotated in front of her. It was soon apparent which was the damaged sail. She executed a long spiral, keeping her in one place relative to the sail and evaluated it carefully.

"I see the fracture,” she reported. “It doesn't appear to have broken all the way through. I'll take some pictures, so you all can decide the best course of action. If needed, I think we could construct a patch from some melding straps and metalized fabric. But I'm not even sure that's absolutely necessary. I'd be inclined to leave it alone. If we need, we can repair en route."

"Thanks much,” came the captain's voice from the intercom. “Bring the shuttle home."

In C-and-C, LaRue stepped up to Pilot. “I have to admit that maneuver you executed was pretty clever,” he said. “I would never have thought of using Jupiter's own magnetosphere as an alternate ‘wind’ to save the ship."

Pilot looked down at the deck. “I always planned to use the magnetosphere to get us into the orbit we needed. Thing is, we came up on the bow shock sooner than I expected. It caught me by surprise."

The captain stepped up to Pilot. “Let's talk.” He looked around to LaRue. “You have the bridge. We'll be right out in the corridor."

As Jefferson turned his back, Pilot rolled his eyes and followed the captain out into the corridor. There, Jefferson turned on Pilot, pushing his finger into the other man's chest. “You may be Thomas Alonzo Quinn, son of the most powerful man on Earth, but you hired me to be captain of this space vessel. The course of action I took would have guaranteed our safety. The course of action you took could have ripped the sails right off the ship, preventing us from returning home."

Pilot took a deep breath. “Congratulations, Captain Jefferson, you figured out who I really am. How long have you known?"

"That's beside the point,” said Jefferson. “What matters is that in countermanding my orders, you put this ship in more danger than necessary."

"Your actions would have forced a return to Earth. My actions put us in a position where we can still salvage this mission.” Pilot took two steps down the corridor, away from the captain's accusing finger and stare, then stood straight. “Since you know who I am, you probably know that this ship and this mission are my dream. They have been ever since I was nine years old. I can't let you jeopardize my entire reason for living."

The captain gritted his teeth, took one step forward, and punched Quinn, leaving him sprawled out on the deck with a bloody nose. “I don't care who you are. Your dream doesn't give you the right to take matters into your own hands, to kill every man and woman on this vessel because you want to save the mission. You hired me to be the captain, to keep this crew together and because of my expertise in space. I can't do that job if you keep interfering."

Pilot wiped blood from his nose. A single tear escaped his eye. He wiped it angrily away, leaving a bloody smear on his face. “You're right, of course. I'm sorry."

Jefferson reached out his hand and helped Pilot to his feet. “LaRue is right. What really matters is that you saved the ship. Just be aware I won't tolerate you putting your dream ahead of the ship's safety again. Understand?"

"I understand.” Thomas Alonzo Quinn sighed, then straightened his coveralls. “How did you figure out who I am?"

Jefferson took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “I saw your picture on a website."

"What website?” Quinn's brow furrowed.

"It was a biography of your father."

Pilot closed his eyes and shook his head. “I never thought about.... “He sighed and looked up at Jefferson. “Does it bother you that I haven't finished college?"

"If it did, I would have confronted you about it sooner.” The captain ran his fingers through his white hair. “What matters to me is your ability—and you've proven that by building this ship."

"Thank you,” said Pilot.

Jefferson put his hands in the pockets of his coveralls and looked to the deck. “When I was twenty, I was at the Air Force academy learning to fly planes. If I had taken a plane and did what you did, I would have been booted out of the military. My career would have been over.” He looked into Pilot's eyes. “Just because you're Thomas Quinn and you built this ship doesn't mean that you aren't responsible for your actions."

Quinn's eyes narrowed. “Anything else?"

The captain shook his head. “Go get cleaned up. Vanda will be landing soon. I'll need you to look at that stress fracture on the sail to decide if we need to take any action. Then we need to prep for the Jupiter mission."

"We're still going down?” asked Pilot, hopefully.

"If the ship doesn't need repair, or we can repair en route to Saturn, I don't see why not. We're here, let's look around."

When Jefferson returned to the command deck, he dismissed Neb O'Connell, so he could go to the infirmary and see Lisa. Most of the rooms aboard
Aristarchus
were small enough that it was hard to tell that the floors were curved. However, the infirmary was a long room with five beds. At one end of the room was a desk and supply cabinet for Dr. Garcia surrounded by a privacy screen. Lisa sat up in one of the beds, propped up on pillows, holding an ice pack to her head. Her shoulders were slumped and her feet were slightly splayed, body language indicating she was bored and wanted to be somewhere else.

"How's it going?” Neb folded down a seat mounted to the wall next to the bed.

"Other than a headache, I'm doing fine,” said Lisa. “Doc wants to keep me here for some observation, though."

"What happened?"

Lisa sighed and rolled her eyes. “Do you really want to know?"

"Well, I am concerned about you."

"I was in the shower when the ship started shaking.” Color rose in her cheeks. “I slipped and konked my head against the showerhead.” She saw Neb's drawn features and reached out and took his hand. “I'm okay, really."

"I've been so worried about losing my mom,” said Neb, his voice quavering. “The thought that something could happen to you never crossed my mind before."

She shushed him and placed her other hand on top of his. The doctor stepped out from behind his privacy screen and folded down the seat on the other side of Lisa. He pointed a flashlight into her eyes and examined them. “You're looking pretty good."

"They're talking about resuming the Jupiter flight,” said Neb. “Will she be able to go?"

Dr. Garcia pursed his lips, then looked into Lisa's eyes again. “I'd rather you not."

"All I did is slip in the shower,” she protested.

"And you gave yourself a concussion. You can go to work in C-and-C on the next duty cycle, but I'd rather you not go into a shuttle to be jostled around."

Lisa looked down at the sheets.

"If you want, I can stay here with you,” said Neb.

She looked up at him and smiled bravely. “That's sweet, but you don't have to. You're the one who found the disk on Mars, remember? They might be able to ground one of us, but not both of us. We're a team, now, and that's part of what a team's about. One of us can do what the other can't."

Neb squeezed her hand, silently thanking her.

In C-and-C, Pilot, Berko, LaRue, Jefferson, and Freeman huddled around the thruster control console. Photos of the damage to the number three sail were displayed on the screen.

"Looks pretty bad to me,” said Freeman. “The crack's awfully long."

"What we have to keep in mind,” said Pilot, “is while this
is
a sailing ship, we aren't dealing with the same kinds of stresses. We're basically talking about light pressure pushing us through a vacuum. There's very little actual force on the sail and we don't have air friction. The only real stress the sail is under comes from gravity."

"Or from rocks like that dust field we went through,” said Natalie.

Pilot inclined his head. “True, but we're through the asteroid belt. It's unlikely we're going to run into anything like that again, even when we go back through the belt on the return trip."

"What about the ring plane at Saturn?” asked LaRue, shifting from one foot to the other.

"You do have a point there,” conceded Pilot.

"What about the resonance we encountered coming into orbit?” asked Freeman.

"That was the result of numerous effects that were a little larger than expected,” said Pilot. “With the measurements I have, we can compensate for the problem when we come back. If we decide the risk is too great, we can bypass Jupiter altogether.” He looked hopefully to Jefferson.

Jefferson nodded, satisfied.

Neb O'Connell returned to C-and-C and stepped up behind the others. He whistled when he saw the damage to the sail.

"I think we should patch it.” Jefferson clasped his hands behind his back, then looked at Berko. “But you said something about repairing en route?"

"Yes.” Berko leaned back against the console, facing the others. “If you think about it, we're going about the same speed between planets as we do when we're in orbit. Also, outside of orbit, we don't have a planet's gravitational force to contend with. Though it sounds a little strange, I think we'd actually be better off patching the sail between Jupiter and Saturn."

LaRue and Pilot looked at one another, and nodded.

"That sounds good to me,” said Jefferson. “Berko, LaRue, I want you two to put together a plan of action.” Then the captain turned and looked at the schematic over Pilot's console. “Now, I think those of us who've been on duty should get some rest. I'd like to get started for Jupiter in about eight hours."

Neb cleared his throat. “Sir, the doc won't clear Lisa to go on the shuttle."

Jefferson frowned. “I know she's disappointed, but the fact of the matter is we're not very likely to find life on Jupiter. It's a gas giant planet. I don't think we need two biologists to accompany us.” He looked to Pilot. “I was going to have you replace Berko this trip. Any recommendations for someone to replace Lisa?"

"Bring Jenna Reynolds,” said Pilot, without hesitation.

"The computer tech?” Jefferson raised his eyebrows.

"I hired her away from the National Weather Service. She used to model storm patterns on the Earth. I kind of wanted her along for this trip anyway, so she could see Jupiter's weather first hand, work with Dr. Nagamine to help him develop some good models of the wind and cloud patterns."

"Until tomorrow, then,” said Jefferson.

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Whales in the Clouds

At breakfast, the morning of the launch to Jupiter, Myra Lee and John O'Connell sat forlornly across from each other, eating in silence. Both felt lost without Lisa Henry, who was on duty in command and control, still recovering from her head injury. Dr. Nagamine and Jenna Reynolds held an animated conversation, discussing the measurements that were required to improve their understanding of Jupiter's atmosphere. Pilot showed Captain Jefferson a chart of Jupiter that gave atmospheric pressure as a function of depth.

The captain pointed at the chart. “It doesn't seem like we have to get all that deep before it's more like traveling underwater than in an atmosphere of methane, water vapor, and ammonia."

"Indeed, we used that fact to our advantage in designing the shuttle for Jupiter.” Pilot beamed in spite of his swollen nose. “The
Zeus
is equipped with a ram scoop option. You can suck in the atmospheric methane and use it to power the ship, conserving fuel."

Myra looked up at Pilot and the captain. “I've heard there's a solid core at the heart of Jupiter. Will we be landing?"

Pilot shook his head. “No. There probably is a solid core, but it's so deep that the atmospheric pressure would crush the shuttle. For the most part, we'll be flying around in the upper atmosphere."

"Very good.” The captain looked up at the others. “Are we ready to go?"

The others nodded. They stood and followed the captain to the
Zeus
shuttle bay. Once there, they suited up, then boarded the shuttle. After completing his preflight checklist, Jefferson requested permission to launch.

"Have a good field trip,” said Natalie Freeman from C-and-C.

With that, Jefferson launched the shuttle and started a long, slow drop toward Jupiter's cloud tops. Dr. Nagamine leaned forward in his seat, looking up and down at the sheer vastness of the solar system's largest world. Alternating brown and white bands swirled and churned as they circled the planet. Jenna Reynolds caught sight of a small, white storm dancing its way along one of the belts like a dervish. Myra was surprised by how bright the planet was, especially when she turned in her seat and saw how tiny the sun was.

"Mars was so dead, yet Jupiter is so alive,” said Nagamine.

"I thought you said Earth was the solar system's living world.” Jefferson turned the shuttle on a southward course, crossing the terminator to the night side. Several flashes of lightning arced across the cloud tops.

"Earth is alive because of the plants and animals that swarm across its surface,” said Nagamine. “Jupiter is a living, breathing world, alive in its own right and a force to be reckoned with. It's fitting that it should be named for the king of the gods."