16 September 2099 AD – Europa, Moon of Jupiter
Eleanor rattled the comms beacon switch in a frustrated manner. The Orbiter was late. It should have emerged from its orbit around the planet. It had no reason to be late. The whole thing had been calculated perfectly.
She turned her head, and stared out of the view-port and the dark icy landscape of Europa. Jupiter dominated the sky above, and cast a wan orange glow across the tundra.
Suddenly the radio came alive.
‘..ayday this is the Horizon Orbiter calling the Descent Probe can you hear me?’
‘Hey Robert, we were beginning to wonder what the hell happened to you. We made it down. The eagle has landed. You are now talking to the first woman to stand on Jupiter’s moon Europa. I hope you’re impress-.’
‘Eleanor. That you? Thank God!’ Robert’s crackly voice sounded desperate, ‘Listen we’ve been hit! Something just came out of nowhere and slammed into the side of us while we were on the dark-side. Blown all our goddam xenon tanks the shit’s really flying up here. We got fires everywhere. The whole Command Module’s burning up. We’re trying to maintain a steady orbit here but the damn thing was so big it whacked us right out of line. We’re losing oh-two, and Systems are working on some TCM’s to get us back on track.’
‘Well what was it? A meteorite?’
‘Haha! A meteorite. If only! No it wasn’t a goddam meteorite, it was the Pioneer probe. It’s got the words NASA written on it in big fucking letters on the side. Can’t miss it! Ripped through side of the hull, we got C&W’s wailing left right and centre here. The situation is critical. There’s no way out of this.’
‘Okay Orbiter, I can see you now. I can see your hull breach, it looks pretty bad. Correction, it looks goddam awful. Should we make an ascent to aid-‘
‘No you’ll have to stay on the surface for now, there’s a problem with the docking bay doors. They won’t open. How are you guys doing for oh-two?’
‘Oh-two’s okay for now we’ve got about six hours on the clock,’ replied Eleanor, ‘We need to lift off Europa in three hours to leave enough of a margin to get us back to-‘
‘Don’t worry. We’ll have this baby fixed in two. Give us two hours.’
‘Okay, good luck Robert, and keep me informed,’ added Eleanor.
Two hours seemed like a very optimistic assessment from Robert.
Too optimistic perhaps.
