ganymede rising
by Jonathan Shepherd
EPISODE 9
“What is the DeViers effect?” Edward took a sip of his
coffee and looked at Alex intently.
“Hmmf?” Alex mumbled over the textured soy protein
sandwich he was eating and chewed what was left in his mouth. He didn’t
answer until he had sipped his soda and sat back, looking incredulously
at Edward. “What? What does that have to do with anything? I thought we
were just here to wait for this Jonas guy.”
Edward looked around the spaceport restaurant for a moment. Chrome and
glass sweeping up in gentle curves all around them, the smell of polish
and vinyl intermingled with the smell of processed food and alcohol, the
babbling of human voices having hundreds of conversations closing them
in. Not exactly private, but in some ways better, since no one would be
able to discern their conversation from all the others.
“Well?” Said Alex, “I’m right aren’t I? Aren’t we supposed to just
wait here for a while?”
“Chaplain asked me to get you up to speed on the movement, and what
we believe is going on. I thought you were interested in it… I don’t
think anyone can hear us right now, and this is as good a time as any,
seeing as we’re going to just be waiting.” Edward had leaned in, and was
talking in a low voice.
“Okay,” said Alex, finishing his sandwich, “The DeViers effect is
what makes the jump gates possible. Henry DeViers discovered it back in
2035 or something. But didn’t he die?”
“It was Harold DeViers, and it was in 2037 that the first
experiment was performed. He created a small-scale gate and tried to
send a fountain pen through it. It created an implosion that destroyed
his lab and killed him. Luckily he had a team of assistants working with
him and a few of them survived, and realized the problems with the gate.
It doesn’t work so well near a gravitational field like Earth’s. So,
they got with the space program and started experimenting up there. And
it worked. That’s why we have jump gates now.”
“So that’s why they call the implosion ‘fountaining,’ huh? Still…
what does this have to do with anything?” Said Alex.
“Just listen.” Edward leaned in a little closer. “Nearly half a
century later, the three-way network we use now was established, with
the Fuel Mining on Ganymede, the colonization here on Mars, and the
prime gate near the lunar station orbiting Earth. We got comfortable
with the technology. It became part of our every day lives. Then in 2120
the incident happened.”
“The Zeus Incident.”
“Right.” Edward looked around their table. “Keep it down. Anyway,
The Zeus Incident happened on August 11. The luxury cruise liner ‘Zeus’
went through the jump gate and something happened. They say that there
was an unforeseen solar flare, and it caused the gate to shut down
temporarily. Whatever the reason, the ship didn’t come out of the other
side. See, with the DeViers effect, things go through one side and come
out of the other side simultaneously, like stepping through a hoop. But
this time the ship went in, and nothing came out. They were lost for 11
minutes and 19 seconds. Then the gate came back online and everyone
breathed a sigh of relief. That is, until the ship docked with Ganymede
Station and communications cut off with Ganymede within hours. This went
on for days, then weeks- silence. Back on Earth, the superpowers were
freaking out. Ganymede had several countries funding it, and if
something were wrong, it would affect everyone, since that’s where most
of our fuel comes from. Needless to say, reconnaissance was sent out,
and their jumps were allowed. Only they didn’t come back. The
governments declared a state of emergency. No one was allowed to jump
from Ganymede to Earth or Mars. But we sent more scouts- back on Earth
we could control whether or not jumps would be allowed to the other
gates, so we sent more people to investigate. They didn’t return either.
Then, without warning, unauthorized jumps started happening. Strange
ships started coming from Ganymede and attacking Mars and Earth. Their
technology was unfamiliar, and their forces were silent and relentless.
Eventually, on October second, 2121, the world’s nations gathered
together and declared war on the unknown enemy, naming them the ‘ETH’,
Enemy To Humanity. Some official reports say that the people of the
original Ganymede project just wanted their autonomy, and that it was a
war of independence of sorts. But that doesn’t explain the horrible
technology people say they used. Everything they did
seemed to be designed to cause pain and suffering. There were no slow
deaths in the ETH war, but there were deaths. Nearly a billion people
lost their lives before the nations of Earth banned together in a
unified government and resolved to destroy the Ganymede project. We
waited until we were sure that the ETH forces were all present at
Ganymede, and then we made a decisive nuclear strike that destroyed the
first station and everyone on it. After that, the attacks stopped as
quickly as they had begun. No one was really sure they were all gone…
but the world became wrapped up in reconstruction after all the damage
that had been done, and since there was no more trace of the ETH, people
were ready to move on and not think about it. Well, most people,
anyway.”
“I feel like I’m back in high school twenty first century history.”
Said Alex.
“Well, that’s what everybody generally knows about the ETH war. But
there’s more to it than all that. There were transmissions that were
recovered during the first weeks of silence on Ganymede. There are first
hand accounts that have been recorded about what their forces were
doing. Chaplain, myself, and the others have been researching this for
years. There’s a lot more to this whole thing than a group of homesick
ice miners gone mad. We think that the ETH were exactly what some people
think they were, some kind of alien intelligence that piggybacked to our
space with the Zeus. And we think they’re still here. That’s why
Chaplain was so concerned about how your mother was killed. The weapon
that did it is the kind of weaponry the ETH used in the war.”
Alex sat there silent, letting all the information soak in. He
wanted to run screaming from the restaurant and forget the whole thing.
But if those things killed his mother…
“What are you going to do when you find them?” Alex asked. “If
they’re so bad-assed, what makes you people think you have a chance?”
Edward sighed. “I’ve asked myself the same question every day for
the last five years. I don’t know. That’s why we have Chaplain I guess.
He seems to think that we have a chance to stop them from whatever
they’re doing. Or to expose them. I just don’t know. It could mean more
war, or death. All I do know, is that until we’re sure what’s going on,
we can’t just sit idly by while they run the show. For all we know they
could be everywhere.”
“Then we’d better get busy.” A new, deeper voice broke their hush.
“You boys should really pay better attention to your surroundings.”
A tall skinny black man with long braided hair was standing next to
their table. He wore a white plastic trench coat over a white turtleneck
sweater and white slacks. He was staring at them from behind sunglasses
that had polished silver frames and was gesturing with fingernails
painted the same shiny color.
“May I sit down?” He smiled. “I’m Jonas.”
•••
Jenna stood in the corner of the bar waiting for her contact to
come back and join her. He had gone for a drink, and she had asked him
to bring her a vodka straight up too. Why not? It would relax her while
she tried to feed off this guy for some information. His name was
Richter and he worked with her on a project on Ganymede for a couple of
weeks a few months back. She remembered that he knew a bit about the
systems out there, and that he had connections. She also remembered that
he wanted to fuck her. So with a little sweet talk, maybe she could get
him to help her access some of the data files that she and Tanya needed
to confirm her suspicions about the freighter that was destined to
crash. And maybe she wouldn’t have to really sleep with him to get it.
“Here we go. Hey, cool yellow hair!” Richter had returned and
handed over her drink. He was large and muscled like so many who work
the ice mines, but he had a layer of fat all over him that made him look
beefy instead of strong.
“Thanks. I noticed someone else was doing blue… so I had to change
it.” She took a sip of her drink and let its warmth run down her throat.
“So… Richter, I guess you’re wondering why I contacted you so
desperately?”
He moved in a little bit closer to her. “No. I wasn’t wondering at
all…”
“Oh stop it silly,” Jenna laughed nervously, “I really do need your help
with something. We can make up for lost time later okay?”
She looked over his shoulder into the bar. Polished wood and brass
decorated the bar with lighted cabinets of liquor behind the bartenders.
People were everywhere crowding one another and talking, laughing,
singing, and even one woman was crying. Typical. The music was flavor of
the week chic rock belting out raspy pleas for understanding over a
hushed bass line and snare drum.
“So…” Richter moved into her line of sight. “So what’s up Jenna?
I’m willing to help a friend in need.”
“Well,” she said, after finishing her drink, “I was wondering if
you still knew how to get into the computer systems on Ganymede. Didn’t
they give you some access to the shipping logs for our project?”
“Yeah. They did. I don’t know if they’ve changed the access.
Probably not though, since I work on those projects about every other
month. Why do you ask?”
Jenna signaled for another drink. Three. She would limit herself to
three. “Well, I know this might sound weird, but a friend of mine is a
sensitive. And she thinks that one of the freighters that go to the
station is going to crash soon. She has an idea of which one, and she
thinks looking at the latest docking reports will help her see the right
one.”
“Does she party?”
“What?”
“Your friend. Does she party?” Richter was starting to get that
glaze to his eyes that people get when they’ve had enough.
“Well… I don’t think so. She’s pretty caught up in this whole thing
right now. In fact I left her at home meditating and promised her I
wouldn’t be gone too long.”
“That’s a shame,” said Richter, “I was thinking the night could get a
little interesting…”
“Business first big guy,” Jenna said, nodding thanks to the
bartender who brought her the drink she had motioned for. “And then
we’ll see about the pleasure.”
“Okay.” Richter looked down at his shoes. “I thought you liked me.”
“I do sweetie… it’s just that my friend is worried that people
could get hurt. And she’s really good with this stuff. She thinks that
if I don’t find out something fast, that it’ll be too late.”
“Well,” said Richter, “I guess I’d better help you then, huh? You
belted that one back pretty fast though. How about one more drink… and
then we’ll go to my place so I can get to the terminal.”
“Oh man.” Tanya looked at her wristwatch. “I was hoping you could
get back to me with the information. I mean I promised my friend I
wouldn’t be long.”
“She’s a big girl Jenna. You can call her later from my place okay?
C’mon. If I’m going to help you, you might as well do things my way
right?”
Dear God, Jenna thought. What am I getting myself into? The Vodka
sure felt good. One more wouldn’t hurt. Just four. That would be her
limit. And then she’d call Tanya from Richter’s, and get the information
they needed. Everything would be okay. Tanya would be fine. One more
drink. Everything will work out.
Outside the bar, across the street, a figure that had been waiting,
turned and walked away smiling.
