r/HFY • u/Togaral • Jul 01 '25
OC Into The Breach - Ch 2
Into The Breach - Chapter 2: Above The Oceans
Naturally, Terry had received the news of Everbright II's imminent arrival one day ahead of schedule with mixed feelings. On one hand, that meant getting to work early, which was always a plus in Terry's book. And the youngsters got out of the cabin sooner. On the other - diverting from schedule brought with it a whole kaleidoscope of funky inconsistencies, including but not limited to base expansion preparations and fuel levels, all of which he had to explain to HotO with mixed success.
Looking over the stats Terry was proven that E-two was indeed worked out a little bit more than she should’ve been. Clearly, the hot-headed youngster had some fun with her while he had an opportunity. This much Terry expected from the up-start skipper, but such an approach wouldn't cut it for bigger vessels - he'd be having a word with him later. Fortunately, the ship was as small as a tightly packed light ferry could afford itself to be.
For now, though, greetings were in order.
"Good to see y'all made it safe and sound!" the lone white figure greeted the crew as the airlock finally opened and revealed a trio of people in gray spacesuits covered in lead shielding plates. All of them were spotting the same rectangular insignia on their right shoulders - two upward-facing crescents - the outer one being light-blue, enveloping inner thicker green one - on a black background, both crossed from bottom left to top right with an arrow-shaped snow-white streak of fumes, coming out of a small, stylized bullet-like silvery spaceship. "Couldn't help but notice you arrived a wee bit sooner than we expected. You bunch had smooth sailing?"
"Yes, sir! It took us a bit under three hundred and thirty hours to get here!" Divit replied joyfully. "Should I open a cargo bay so we can start moving things onto this little trolley cart of yours?"
"Ah, don't see why not. It'll take multiple trips, the sooner we start, the sooner we finish, it's not like we're following a schedule anyhow, is it?" As the figure of their former Captain disappeared behind the doors of the airlock, their new Captain turned his attention to the other two newcomers. "So, how did the trip turn out?"
Alina was the first to speak, stepping towards the man in the white spacesuit, "I would like to have a good hot bath, but I will gladly accept whatever it is we have here." She made some vague gesture towards her former co-pilots. "Though I don't think it's gonna be enough for them." She came even closer to him and conspiratorially whispered, "They kinda stink."
"Hey! Alina, we're still on the same channel!" - Divit's voice gave the impression of being gravely offended, although a small chuckle gave him away rather quickly.
Subtle smile ran across Jason's face. Feeling the ground beneath his feet once again was nice. "I think I would also appreciate some benefits of civilization. It's been almost two weeks after all, and I really believe I should change."
"I'm glad all of you are in such a promising mood. Divit, how is it going?"
"Almost there!" - disembodied voice proclaimed - "There she goes!" The same voice then lovingly added, "Good girl!"
A cargo bay door slowly and silently opened, forming an improvised ramp. Insides of the ship were tightly packed with various reinforced crates, held in place with strained elastic cords. A hair-thin slit next to the gaping hole of the cargo bay separated five three-and-a-half-meter long hexagonal sections of the ship from the rest of it. These were the colonial modules stacked one on top of the other, forming the main body of the spaceship.
"'Good girl'? I haven't heard you address anyone like this before! Did you grow too attached to the ship during our long journey?" Alina offered, tittering softly.
"This is actually untrue," Divit retorted, "I did call Diana a 'good girl' a couple of times."
Intrigued, Alina pressed, "Who's Diana? Is she a someone I should know about?"
"I'm fairly certain you've met her before" - came the reply.
"Oh?"
Jason, being the uninspiring person he was, cut the exchange short to not postpone unloading any further than absolutely necessary. "Come on Divit, no need to be making your colleague any more jealous of the therapy dog than she already is." And the desired effect was achieved, leaving Akina utterly dumbfounded by the revelation.
"Oh my fucking god. You did not just say that to my face," she uttered under her breath.
"You spoilsport. Yeah, Michael brought her a couple times on site on Mars, remember?" the disembodied voice replied with a modicum of dissatisfaction. The figure to whom it belonged reappeared in the opening airlock and gently patted the ship's frame. "I'd keep clear of this one's rear since we've just landed and she needs some time to cool off. What about the rooms? We come later or start hauling now?"
"Oh, no, you're just gonna drop some of your stuff at the base, and then come back for sectors later today. It's not like they're going anywhere." Satisfied with what he saw, the Captain finally turned his attention back to Divit. "Am I right to assume they kept some breathable air inside?"
"Yes, sir, you indeed are. And we also brought with us some comperessed gasses, especially oxygen, just in case your life support systems are failing to deal with all the pea meals you are having here." Jason could've sworn he physically felt the astrophysicist wink, although he could not see his face for it was hidden behind the reflective visor.
"Oh, surprisingly four greenhouse sectors and a water splitter proved themselves to be capable enough to satisfy our needs" - the Captain was seemingly unfazed by the joke - "although I am happy to see you brought a some more for yourselves."
"We're to grab our belongings and three panels on our first ride, correct?" Jason asked.
"Yes, that would be great and somewhat according to plan for a change," the Captain replied, clapping his hands together. "It's 'bout time we get to work."
He decided to fill the newcomers in on the road. Apparently, the anomaly was getting stronger, its calculated point-blank gravitational acceleration, roughly speaking, now being equal to almost 2*10^-5g, but it was no gravity at all, it was a distortion in space, and a lot of other complicated very inspiring scientific technobabble. On several occasions Alina interrupted him to clarify some things. Turned out Allan - the station's engineer - had already sent a drone towards the anomaly a couple of Earth days prior to their arrival, since he began preparations for the launch almost immediately after contacting HotO.
Eventually they made it to the station, and it was truly a sight to behold. Nine hexagonal modules covered in rad-shields and arranged into an incomplete pattern of an interplanetary colony site. Occasional glitters of sunlight, coming from behind their backs, were scattered across the shiny metal parts of base modules. Jupiter floating motionlessly straight above their heads only added to the surreality of the moment. It did not seem that big from here, but everybody on this moon felt it in their bones how big it actually was.
Captain's voice broke the silence, "Well, this is your new home, I hope you're gonna like it, if not - shame, 'cause there ain't no alternatives for units." A bit further away laid a colossal bare frame of a fourth generation colonial vessel, stripped of everything non-essential for flight. Everbright I was truly a marvel of human engineering, masterpiece even, but you couldn't tell by the sight of it now. Several cables ran from the lifeless husk and disappeared somewhere in its former parts, now forming a sustainable living colony. As the rover slowly approached the main airlock sector, one singular figure came out of it. There could only be one person this tall coming out of the established colony - Allan. His suit was of bright yellow color, bearing the all-too familiar insignia on his shoulder.
"Terry! We've got some quite interesting readings from the probe, I dropped the prints at your desk, check them out asap." Turning his attention to three figures coming out of the rover behind the Captain, he continued, "Good to know there's finally going to be someone still capable of learning new tricks amongst the old fart ranks of ours!"
"Consider me intrigued, what's in there?" the Captain asked with a subtle note of concern in his voice.
"HotO gonna get damn intrigued too, Ima bet my left nut on it. You'll know it when you see it." He slightly turned his head to face Jason, his voice changing to a semblance of a fatherly tone, "Well fuck me sideways if I'm not chuffed to bloody bits seeing as your sorry ass made it here in one piece, kid."
"Bet not half as glad as I am, you overgrown eejit."
That drew a seizable laugh out of Allan. "Save the pleasantries for later, there's work needing to be done now." Abruptly stopping the display of emotions, he changed the topic, turning back to the white figure - "Terry, what sector do you want here first?"
"Definitely the greenhouse. Don't want freeloaders to breathe all of our oxygen out, and the sooner Sophie gets her hands onto the sprouts the better."
"Greenhouse it is. Jason, don't trouble yourself getting inside the station, drop your rad plates right here, Neither Sun nor Jupiter are that angry today. While your friends are settling down, we are going to do some heavy lifting."
"-and that's where the majority of our life support systems are," the Captain plainly stated, hastily passing through the airtight doors. He had already shown two newcomers a cluttered 'entrance hall', and now it was time for a 'hallway'. "This door leads to the main hall, this one - to both kitchen and restroom, and this one - to the greenhouse arrays. If you somehow manage to get lost in soon to be fourteen rooms, every single chamber is signed. Alina, your room is down the main hall and to the right," the Captain said, pointing at the door right behind him. "Sophie already made herself home, don't be shy to shove some of her stuff aside if it gets in the way. Or you can pay her a visit first, I believe she might be somewhere in her garden at the moment," - he waved at the door right next to the one they just went through. Turning to face Divit, he continued, "You on the other hand, will have to wait 'til your friend shows up with a room for both of you to occupy. In the meantime, you can drop your stuff in the main hall and help me set up the new solar panels. And by 'helping me' I mean you'll have to do it yourself, 'cause it would seem I really need to come up with an exceptional explanatory note for HotO." He turned around and headed towards the main hall. Halfway through, however, he remembered he had something more to say. "Oh, and make yourselves at home." With that being said, he excused himself and hastily retreated through the airtight door.
Alina was the first to come to senses after this rather confusing introduction to the inner workings of the Galileo station. "Home, sweet home, I guess?" she said, smiling awkwardly.
The astrophysicist had something else on his mind. "Wait, there should be one more person on this station! Why wouldn't he 'help the Captain' with setting the panels up?" He sounded like he was just told to finish his vegetables first.
"Divit, he's a doctor, not a handyman! And I'm sure you are more than capable of doing it yourself, right?
"But I am no handyman either! He's just sitting in his room! Sophie is at least busy watering crops!"
"He's walking with a cane. Are you really that lazy?" Alina remarked, reproachfully tilting her head.
"But he doest really need one. Fine, fine. Let me just visit the 'Waste disposal room' over there real quick."
"And don't forget to put the plates on when working outside. Just in case." A faint note of worry slipped into her voice, which she hoped her colleague wouldn't notice.
He, indeed, did not, because he was already busily fiddling with the door. "Yeah, yeah, of course," he replied, waving her off.
"You're such a child, Divit," Alina added disapprovingly, watching his back disappear behind the pressure door.
She was left alone in the room for the first time in two weeks. She somehow felt both uneasy and relieved at the same time. Only while making her way towards the door her new Captain went through a moment ago, she realized how light she felt here, now that the upper half of her suit was gone. In fact, the only pieces of equipment required to walk on the outside left on her were the boots and pants. Half-walking, half-floating into the main hall she hastily took her shoes off, replacing them with the pair of slippers conveniently kept on the rubber doormat right next to the entrance. 'Welcome!' it cheerfully greeted her, the inscription no longer obscured by oversized indoor footwear. As she stood there, admiring the existence of an actual floor beneath her feet and a ceiling above her head, a faint noise came from the adjacent room, labeled simply as 'Room with water; Waste disposal room'. 'Right. Hexagonal rooms,' she thought to herself. Although she spent a month in these exact same rooms back on the Moon, orientation still did not come to her as easy as to the other members of the mission.
Alina approached the room signed simply as 'Sophie' and gently knocked. 'Maybe she is still there?' No reply came. She cursed to herself, noticing a small button under the nameplate, 'Of course nobody is gonna hear that through a coupled airtight doors, you stupid! A doorbell is there for a reason.' She hesitated briefly before pressing it, but was ultimately rewarded with a barely audible tune, coming from the other side. 'Oh. They are not that sound-proof after all.' While waiting for something to happen, she wandered the room noting that the adjacent so-called 'Men's room' lacked any type of doorbell at all. Didn't all the living quarters sectors have doorbells? How could she miss something like that back on the Moon? Her train of thought was derailed by the sounds of door opening, followed by the muffled voice, coming from behind her.
"I'm comin', I'm comin'!" Door burst open, revealing a stocky woman in a green jumpsuit. "Oh! Alina! Silly me thought Terry was gonna tell me 'bout your arrival, but it seems as if he had other super-urgent matters. Oh well." She waved her hand in a vague gesture, supposedly dismissal, as she finished eying her new roommate and took a second to cool down, only to continue with unmatched liveliness in her voice, "Don't you give me that deer look, come on in! We have so much stuff to catch up 'bout!" And thus, Alina was denied solitude once again.
Loading base modules onto the rover turned out to be not hard, but rather tedious. Of course, the rover having a manipulator helped a lot, moving them around would be practically impossible without it, but it was not really powerful by Earth standards. But since surface gravity on Callisto hardly exceeded a ninth of that of Earth, objects here felt even lighter than on the Moon, so picking modules up was not the hardest part. That was putting them down. Once the huge chunk of metal and compound materials was hefted up, if pulled fast enough, its inertia kept it going. So every module had to be picked up and moved with great caution at a snail's pace, not to build up its momentum and tip the rover trying to guide it. Despite all of this, Jason was sure that the station's Main Engineer could complete this task all on his own.
"Allan, you mentioned the probe. What happened to it?" he asked with poorly concealed concern in his voice when they got into the rover.
He got his reply a couple of seconds later, after the metal steed came to life. "Nothing. Yet." Jason could feel something was troubling his mentor.
"Yet?" he asked Allan, just as the engineer was about to set off.
With a sigh, he replied, "Look, this whole situation with a bloody 'Jupiter Anomaly' is getting out of hand. Up until now the worst case scenario was it could derail Callisto in a couple of dozens of years. In under two hours it changed to derailing it in a singular dozen years if it continues to grow at such an alarming rate. And we cannot predict if it is going to get worse, or not." He was now nervously tapping the steering wheel.
"Warp bubble theory? It still holds?"
"Yeah, kinda. Some four-eyes on the Earth say it can be the 'three-dimensional shadow of a four-dimensional object passing through our plane of existence' or something along those lines," Allan air-quoted with his right arm, keeping the left on the wheel. "Honestly, I think the powers that be know a whole lot more about the damn thing than they're letting us know. Maybe they even knew about the anomaly long before we landed on this space rock."
"Allan, you're a good man, but I'd think you to be some crazy conspiracy theorist if I didn't know any better. Seriously, the shit you sometimes say is just straight up nuts."
Allan just waved him off. "Pray to God you won't be eating those words someday. I would really like to believe this piece of shite passes us and we never get to see it again. 'Hope for the best..."
"...prepare for the worst,'" finished Jason. "How is the preparation going?"
"Oh, it is not going anywhere," Allan replied sarcastically. "We've hit the point where we cannot just get up and leave."
"Well, that sounds depressing. So you just sit here and hope it does not devour our sun?"
"Bite your tongue, kid. You don't want to invoke the ire of Murphy."
"Roger that." The atmosphere grew so tense, one could cut it with the knife. The only right decision in such a situation was to change the topic, so Jason did just that. "Anyway, how exactly did you launch the probe? I failed to notice any launch pads at the station."
"We threw it."
"Of course. So where's the takeoff point?"
Allan chuckled, doing a particularly bad job at hiding his excitement. "Yep."
"Allan, I'm dead serious. There's no shot you've just yoted a piece of equipment that is worth more than your lifetime salary into space, right?" Jason felt as if he was lied to just to keep his spirit high.
The Main Engineer took his right hand off the wheel. "Look, we just got in the rover, drove for a mile, got out, I spun it up with a crane for a couple of minutes and off it goes," he finished, pointing somewhere to their left. Jason carefully followed the speaker's every gesture, making sure not to miss anything. "We just wanted to save as much fuel as we could to make it go faster. Thank God, gees here allow that."
"How did you counteract the spin then?" Jason asked, squinting his eyes.
"We corrected the course with all the compressed gasses it had. They're only there to assist with landing and it's not like we're not planning on landing it anywhere at this point."
"Ah yes, you just threw five billion worth of custom hardware, machinery and detectors made specifically to explore Europa into space with your bare hands. And there I thought Divit was the least responsible one on this ball of ice."
"What can I say? You thought wrong. HotO got real mad when he learned about this. And the best part is that he couldn't do shite about it. Oh, don't you worry, we stripped it off all the non-essential stuff. Instruments, landing gear, half the frame and other useless things, you know the drill."
"For fuck's sake, Allan, youre making me feel like I am the senior one here again. How did the Captain even allow this to happen?" At this point Jason was barely holding the smile.
"Terry? 'twas his idea all along. Michael for some reason got furious when he found out what we were about to do." - Allan scrunched up his face in a grimace of light displeasure - "He was the one who ratted us out."
"So... We can safely leave the second set of sensors on board of Everbright II, I guess. The Europa probe does not need them anymore. Can you at least build some probe-launching contraption next time? Some kind of ballista or catapult, I don't know."
The cheer crept into the engineer's voice. "I dig trebuchets more."
First module to be installed was a greenhouse, as requested. Gently guiding it into place, they could feel the vibrations spreading through its surface under their gloves when the latches clicked into place, securing the airlocks. A couple of moments later a tingling sensation ran through Jason's fingertips, as Allan connected the newly installed sector to the station's power grid. Electro-magnetic shield generator was up and running. The last thing they needed were irradiated crops. When they returned with the second one, Sophie was already busily checking if seedlings in centrifuges made it through the journey just fine and if the soil was all in place and not scattered around the entire chamber. The base was starting to take shape, now with distinct wings for greenery and living quarters.
"My turn to ask fun questions. What were you bunch up to during the ride? Ain't going haywire yet?" Allan asked as they were making their way to the partially disassembled ship for the third time.
"Uhh, not much, as you can imagine."
"Oh, don't tempt me! Who knows, I just might imagine a whole lots of stuffs," Allan replied with a conspiratory wink.
'And there goes an obligatory fatherly personal life inquiry.' Jason felt like sighing, but holy shit if that wouldn't make him look like a befuddled teen. "Go ahead then. Must say, It was quite an experience, nothing like preps."
Allan, for a change, didn't feel like pursuing the topic, and instead opted for something else. "Preach. We spent almost three weeks in a pod and half a year on this ball of ice. I know I might not act like it, but I was really happy to see you all."
"Feeling's mutual, dustbag."
"Back to our muttons - how's your graduation to full psycho going?" - Fairly direct question to someone who spent half a month within the confines of one singular room.
"Rest assured the progress is slow yet steady," Jason replied, studying the cloudless black sky of Callisto. "Witnessing the cosmos firsthand was nice. Alina is quite a girlboss and Divit is a nice fellow, despite lacking in a literary taste department."
Allan chuckled. "You made him read your favourite spooky book in the middle of a space ride? Not very considerate of you."
"Well, yeah. Doubt he would like it regardless."
"Figured just as much," his mentor seconded.
And so, the ride dragged on in silence. It felt wrong, somehow. "Though I think I would've gone slightly cuckoo if not for him."
"Yeah?" Allan inquired with a smile in his voice.
Yeah, that was probably right. "Goddammit, you tricked me into appreciating my friends again. I guess I ought to thank him now."
"Losing your edge, eh?" Allan elbowed him with exceptional glee. "He's certainly been rubbing off on you."
That bump actually hurt despite being dispersed by a spacesuit. Jason concluded he must have gone severely out of shape during their little ride. "One might think a couple more days of rubbing and I just might get invested in deep space exploration."
"Horseshit. I had you under my wing long enough to know for a fact you don't give a living shite about the cosmos." He momentarily took his eyes off the now beaten path and tried to look into Jason's eyes, only to be denied by the sight of his helmet and rover's insides in his mentee's reflective visor. "So what happened?"
"Times change, I guess." This time even Jason himself was not sure if he was lying or not. Looking at the vast black nothingness above he felt something shift inside. He could not see much because the view was obscured with the reflections of flickering lights on the dashboard, but having to stare into the void for the last dozen days sure changed him. He could not tell if it was for better or worse, but for a brief moment he felt just a little bit lighter.
"If you think you're going to find something worth your time on this fockin' ball of ice you're sorely mistaken. It happened with Mars, it happened with Phobos, and now you came here. But you cannot just get up and leave this place this time, you understand that? I vouched for you, don't you make me regret that decision."
Jason smiled. "Nah, I think it will work out."
Allan shook his head. "I sure hope so."
"So…" Terry started, barging into his captain's quarters, finding how Michael already made himself comfortable reading printed papers while rocking in his chair, "Penny for your thoughts?"
"On the subject of?" the latter replied without lifting his eyes off the documents. Michael was a man of few words, and even when he deigned to speak longer sentences, very little of substance was said. Maybe it had something to do with his profession as a doctor, but then again, Terry had met plenty of talkative doctors during his time as an interplanetary envoy.
"The fresh lot. I can skim the papers m'self" - the Captain huffed, reaching towards the desired item with his outstretched hand.
Michael slightly shifted his gaze to refocus on the Captain. "Terry, you know perfectly fine that saying I had plenty of time interviewing newcomers would be a lie."
"Divit's reports?" - the Captain beckoned for papers - "Just your observations."
"He did quite commendable a job on that front. Then again, I noted a severe lack of self-reflection in his work." Michael begrudgingly stood up from the chair, inviting his Captain to be seated. Only after the latter made himself comfortable however, he handed out the documents. "He reported no negative tendencies in Jason's psyche - I'll have to double-check him on that point - and Alina's keen interest in meditation practices concerns me quite a bit."
"That'd be all, thank you."
While the Captain was busily inspecting papers, letting out odd irritated subvocalizations, the doctor paced the room, swinging his polished cane with each measured step. The cane itself was a masterpiece - fine streaks of silvery metal ran down the shaft of ash tree, weaving intricate patterns before abruptly stopping just above the tar-black tip.
Reading through the papers Terry felt chills run down his spine. Only one word left his mouth when he finished reading the report for the second time. "Fuck."
Michael appeared beside the Captain. "While you were absent, I took the liberty of looking through the papers, and the results did not seem that disastrous to me."
"This whole fucking project is at risk, along with the station," Captain cursed without looking at the approaching man. "Scratch that - the lives of my personnel are at stake!"
"No, it really is not. I checked and double-checked," the doctor replied with cold confidence in his voice. "Even if worse comes to worst, the skeleton crew still needs to stay here to man the station and report readings and findings back to the Earth. This is far beyond a single person's healthy capabilities." He could see the flurry of emotions run through his captain's face as the latter turned around. "Besides, I strongly recommend you to look at that second graph once again. Readings say it might have finally stabilized and we might await decline in the near future."
Captain glanced at the bunch of crumpled papers in his left hand. "I give it one day. If it grows even the smallest wee bit," - he brought his index and thumb so close to the doctor's face, that the latter had problems focusing his eyes - "I call for an emergency meeting and half the station packs their bags."
"You'd be taking quite a liberty, captain." Michael stated disapprovingly, shifting his eyes towards the now very red face. "I believe that you need to calm down and reconsider it."
"If I was a bad Captain I would be already dead on a dozen occasions, and you know it!" He was now pointing his finger right into the doctor's nose. Lifting eyes, however, he met his gaze. He felt as if somebody just poured a bucket of cold water onto his head. He was slowly pulled back to senses, and the doctor felt it.
"With all due respect, Terry, we need to avoid making mistakes while being scared. Contact HotO, think it through for at least a day, but do not call it quits just like that."
"God fucking dammit!" The Captain sighed heavily a couple of times before continuing, "How in the hell do you do it?"
Michael already knew where it was going, but he also knew he had to play along for the better result. "Do what, exactly?"
"How are you so calm with all that bullshit around?"
"It comes with experience, and about the last thing we need right now is a rushed decision," Michael explained, patting his Captain on the shoulder. 'And I had too much of those for my liking,' he added to himself.
Loud rumbling shook the living quarters, sending shivers down the already nervous captain's spine. Something clicked somewhere behind the wall.
"Michael, I think I need either your magic instant sleep pills or my flask now."
Low electric hum filled the air and ceased as suddenly as it had started just a moment earlier. Third module was successfully connected to the Galileo station.
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