The Jovian Conflict

Chapter 2

The Jovian Conflict

Survivors

The three survivors continued to gaze at the large ice spires, as though one would suddenly come to life and assist them on their journey home. Ashley got tired of standing around very quickly. Her attention was turned to the broken and damaged ship they had crashed in. A brief inspection of the outside saw a large gash along the outer hull. There was no knowledge of any debris in the area or natural satellites nearby. While a single panel from an old ship floating through could have caused problems, the damage was clearly done by something else entirely.

"We were shot down," she stated to the wreckage. Her hand ran gently over the surface of the ship, feeling for herself where the fatal blow was struck.

"Who gives a s**t what happened? Let's figure out how to get off this iceberg," Romeo said. He was already at the windows of their repair ship and pressing the emergency latch to break them off. Ashley joined him as he stuck his torso inside to rip and claw at the console there. He was trying to find something to salvage. All they had was in that ship, and they needed to build a radio or a transmitter somehow.

Shelton was slowly recovering from the initial shock of his wounds. His eyes were still focused on space. Artificial lights from ships and manmade satellites sped through his vision. Hadn't someone seen what had happened? If not, hadn't either their communications specialist or navigation officer managed to sneak out a distress call moments before impact or right after? He tried desperately to recall what had happened right before his forehead bounced violently off the console in front of him but his mind was blank.

"God dammit, this piece of s**t junk!" Romeo cursed. Everything was fried. Despite his experience and knowledge, there was nothing he could do with any of the parts available to him.

"There's only one thing we can do, then," Ashley said. From a holster on her hip, she pulled out a flare gun and went to raise it toward the Heavens.

"You i***t!" Romeo yelled as he tried smacked the gun out of her hand. The movement failed to remove the object from her grasps but he did prevent her from firing it. As both shook the pain from their hands he said, "We were just shot down! Do you want whoever is trying to murder us find us faster?!"

"Oh, and building a radio that they can hack into is better?"

Romeo bit his tongue. He had no argument and didn't want to make a bigger fool of himself. Besides, they needed to save as much oxygen as possible. Yelling wasn't going to help them. He checked his levels. With each light touch his finger made against his helmet a new screen popped up in his visor. 6 hours of oxygen. The nearest known Jovian Outpost was a nine hour walk, but patrols reached many miles past the buildings. Yet those patrols were not consistent. What if they missed them?

It was time to make decisions. He took lead without thinking. He announced, "I'm going to try and reach JOC on foot. You guys stay here and stay close to the extra oxygen tanks."

Shelton decided it was time to speak before Ashley started screaming. "Wouldn't the JOC Patrol already be headed out this way? They would have read us on their sensors and surely JOPA would have told them we were crossing over their airspace."

"Don't count on the Port Authority to communicate s**t, kid. But you have a point," Romeo said. Ashley remained unusually silent. Romeo turned to see what she was up to. Her hands were again on the beaten ship. Annoyed, he raised a brow and harshly barked, "Leave the ship, Captain! She's dead!"

Unfazed, Ashley quietly said, "No. We were shot down from the surface." Neither Shelton nor Romeo said a word. They looked at her with confused expressions and waited for her to explain. As her hand traced the large gash, they realized its angle could have only come from below.

"Then what about the ship we were sent here to repair? Is She already gone?" Shelton mused aloud.

"Maybe The Quantum was never here to begin with," Romeo guessed.

"A conspiracy?" Shelton said, not quite believing it. Tired of sitting on the frozen ground he struggled to stand. The gravity was pleasant enough but his bones still ached. Regardless of whether they waited or walked, he couldn't be motionless forever.

Ashley pulled herself from the ship and faced her comrades. "No. The Quantum was here. We last registered Her moments before the first impact. I don't think this has anything to do with the Jovian Orbital Port Authority. But now that I think about it, once JOPA HQ sent us the coordinates, Riedel said it was the exact same as the two others we'd been sent to the last deployment. There's no debris field near here."

"This is an important part of the trade route and heavily traveled. Of course we get called here often," Shelton tried to argue. Truthfully, he just didn't want to believe they were marooned on one of Jupiter's satellites with no hope for escape. The argument was made to rest his own mind from hopeless thoughts.

"Then why were we sunk?" she asked. No answer.

Romeo threw his hands up and said, "Whatever! Look, we can sit around here, wait, and suffocate. Or we get off our asses and go figure a way out of here!"

"And how? We're on marooned on Callisto, not some small island in the middle of a river. This is space, Escobar! We can't just walk off of it!" Ashley screeched.

Her voice was so high pitched it made the small speakers in Shelton's helmet crackled. He had to wince. He stepped between his two bosses, his hands on a shoulder of each. The glares they had been sending each other were now targeted at Shelton.

"Guys. Listen. Stop yelling. Stop panicking. We started with about seven hours of oxygen, but if my helmet wasn't damaged, its reading both of you down to only about three hundred and fifty minutes. That's less than six hours. We've got less than six hours to save our asses or suffocate," he calmly informed them.

Silence followed. Facing death on icy tundra wasn't what any of them had planned. Space travel was dangerous, of course. Yet no matter how dire a situation they had crossed before, nothing scared them as much as that very moment. Still, the need to survive had slowed their perception of time and given them more control over their bodies. Somehow they found a way to slow their breathing down just enough to make a slight difference.

Noise from their ship ended that immediately. All three jumped and their hearts beat ever faster as their attention turned toward the origin of the noise. From the emergency escape hatch they had busted out of a new body appeared. His hand gripping his hurt side, his body leaning against the frame of the exit, a man heaved out, "Holy f**k. What happened? Are you guys alright?"

Ashley bounded against the light gravity and was at his side immediately. Romeo and Shelton weren't far behind. "Riedel! You're alive!" Ashley gushed out, relieved.

"Of course, Captain," he managed to say against gritted teeth. A fearless grin plastered itself across his face. Romeo assessed Riedel's injuries. He explained, "I tried to patch myself up. Got skewered by a broken console. Part of it is still in there. Had to hurry. Blood was already freezing. Our life support system went out within minutes. Passed out about forty seconds after landing. Thought everyone was dead."

His heavy breathing obscured part of his words but the point was made. Traveling with Riedel would be difficult, yet no one wanted to leave him behind. The sudden change in atmosphere didn't go unnoticed. Riedel felt his positive attitude turn upside down. Would it have been better if he had died? Surviving didn't seem so grand at that very moment. Regardless, he wouldn't give up. The shaking hand that had been clasped over his wound was presented to the others; they watched curiously as his fist uncurled itself and revealed an emergency beacon. Being the navigation officer, he had one hidden inside his suit.

"Your choice. Push it and we're saved. Or, maybe not," he said. Romeo and Shelton both turned to Ashley, knowing the beacon was being presented to her. Being a Captain of a repair ship also meant being a Captain and leader to Her crew.

Of course she hesitated. There was something about how Riedel presented it to her that made it clear even he thought that the inhabitants nearby had tried to kill them. Maybe even JOPA, the very peaceful organization they had worked for, was behind the sudden attack. No one could be trusted. Yet alone, they could not survive. Time was of the essence. A decision had to be made. Lives were at stake. Options were little and all seemed to be disappearing by each careful and calculated breath.

Shaking, her hand reached out to grab it.

Before it was fully in her clutches the ice particles at her feet began to whirl. A bright light shone from the darkened sky and illuminated them. Blinded, they were barely able to make out the ship that hovered above them. White letters across the dark gray belly of the beast read "J.O.C." No longer than sixty feet long, it was mostly like a patrol ship. Whether they wanted it to or not, their fate now rested in the hands of the mythical JOC Patrol.