They approached a jagged hole in the base of the dome and bounded through. At the moon’s prime, the fully functional ring network would have been enough to deflect most of Jupiter’s radiation, allowing the Ganymedeans to line their geodesic dome with specialized glass to handle the rest. Rhea couldn’t help the awe she felt when she gazed at those frosted panes overhead. The glass would have been completely translucent before the dome was punctured, kept defrosted by a variant of the technology that maintained her faceplate, allowing the citizens to gaze out upon the naked sky.
If only I had been around to see it…
Upon further consideration, she realized she had probably indeed been around.
Shards of glass from the broken dome littered the frozen ground here, buried beneath a thin layer of snow. That glass proved slippery, and Rhea had to watch where she stepped.
“So, lamps or no lamps?” Will transmitted.
“I think it would be suspicious if we didn’t turn them on…” she answered.
She and the others activated their helmet lamps, brightening the dreary landscape. The cones of illumination from their helmets had a strangely sharp quality: that made sense, considering without an atmosphere the light would not diffuse.
She paused a moment to clear some of the snow beneath her with her boot. A few centimeters deep she discovered a translucent polycarbonate coating similar to what Centaar had. She wondered if the Europans had stolen the tech from the Ganymedeans. Probably.
They passed the wreckages of vehicles and bounded by rubble fanning out from partially collapsed buildings. She spotted belongings and furniture among the debris: faded paintings, intricate cupboards, frozen tapestries, clothing.
“A salvager’s paradise,” Will commented.
The occasional mummified body protruded from the rubble. Sometimes she saw a cyborg with its metal head blown open, at other times a robot laying broken in pieces. All of them were covered in a thin layer of snow like everything else.
“Not a paradise,” Rhea said, feeling the sadness grip her all over again. “But a crypt.”
The debris became denser as they advanced, intruding well onto the roadway, and the party slowed down from a bound to shuffle. Will and Rhea had to be very careful to avoid the jagged edges of rebar and other sharp objects that protruded: it wouldn’t take much to puncture their suits. While they were all equipped with repair kits, there was a good chance the occupant would be dead before any repairs could be applied, at least in Will’s case.
Rhea observed her surroundings as she shuffled forward. She searched the blown-out windows of the buildings, scanned the rooftops, and generally looked for signs of ambushers. The helmet’s limitations on her field of view meant she had to look farther to the left and right than she ordinarily would have; that, combined with the threat of puncturing debris ahead meant she could spare less time for each glance than she would have liked.
There was also still broken glass from the buildings. It was hard to see, so she had to be careful where she placed her feet when passing a dangerous wreckage, lest she slip and impale herself.
As they continued forward, the buildings fell away entirely to the right, leaving a wide plain exposed beneath the geodesic dome, which was mostly intact overhead. The icy surface below was smooth, unblemished.
“Why no buildings here?” Will asked. “Was it a park?”
Rhea walked a short distance away from the cover of buildings and onto that plain. She kicked at the snow with the heel of her boot, clearing it. There was no polycarbonate layer coating the surface within.
“Not a park,” Rhea said. “A lake. The Ganymedeans usually allowed some of the crust to melt along the peripheries of their colonies. They liked waterfronts. Let’s turn inward. I feel exposed here.”
Will nodded and proceeded back into the cover of the buildings. Rhea was glad when the plain was behind her—out there, it would be all too easy for a sniper to target them from beyond the dome.
“We’re almost out of comm range with the shuttle,” one of the escorting robots announced.
“It’s these buildings,” Will said. “Maybe we should tell it to circle overhead and maintain communications? That way it can call the cavalry if necessary.”
Rhea considered. “Circling wouldn’t be too unexpected… archeologists often use drones and other craft to scout the ruins for them.” She glanced at the robots. “Tell the shuttle to assume a holding pattern overhead.”
“It has been done,” one of the robots replied.
Soon the shuttle circled overhead, at least according to the overhead map. She glanced up at one point and caught sight of its thumbnail-sized underside, satisfying her that it was really there.
After ten minutes they reached a plaza of sorts. It was circular, with what must have once been a fountain at the center—a broken statue resided there, surrounded by a low rim.
“So, have you seen enough yet?” Will asked.
“No, let’s press on, just a bit longer,” she replied.
“Searching for those ever-elusive memories, huh?” Will sent, muting the two Centaar robots. “All right, well, if you want to cross this square, I’d advise hugging the walls of the surrounding buildings. Or avoiding it entirely… this would be a good spot for a sniper to camp out.”
“Leave it to humans to use the term ‘square’ to describe an area that is clearly circular in nature,” Horatio transmitted.
Rhea ignored the latter remark; she was too busy scanning all the different buildings that surrounded the plaza. Instead, she answered Will’s original suggestion. “I think we can cross. But we hug the walls, as you suggested.”
Will shuffled over the debris, keeping close to the wall formed by the buildings lining the left-hand side of the plaza. Rhea followed. The two escorting robots came next, with Horatio still bringing up the rear.
She scanned the rooftops and blown-out windows past the fountain, looking for enemies. She was beginning to wonder if there was anyone out there after all. Surely any assassin would have struck by now.
Her gaze drifted to the snow-covered ruins of the
