“I have to agree with Rhea on this one,” Horatio said. “The United Settlements has nothing to gain by confining her. She was perhaps the enemy of Aradne for some time, but the mayor of said city certainly has no reason to confine her, not anymore. Not after she set him free of Veil.”
Targon interrupted their conversation with a transmission. “Warden, would ye and your fine companions like to view the external feed during our approach?”
“Yes, of course,” Rhea said.
She received a sharing request on her HUD and accepted. She enlarged the resultant video feed so that it filled her vision and redistributed it to Will and Horatio.
The moon swallowed the stars below them, forming a big, dirty ball of gray and black illuminated beneath the sun. She’d read all about it before leaving: the surface was composed of a mantle of frozen water covered in grooves and ridges and pocked with impact craters. Beneath the icy crust, which averaged one hundred kilometers deep, lay an internal ocean containing more water than all of Earth’s combined. It was this ocean that had driven Earth to war against the Ganymedeans thirty years ago.
At the bottom of the ocean resided trenches of silicate rock, similar to that found within Earth’s crust. Above the ice mantle, Ganymede had a paper-thin oxygen and hydrogen atmosphere.
Though it was the largest moon in the solar system, with a diameter of five thousand two hundred six kilometers, it was also one of the least dense, giving Ganymede a gravity of only 0.149 G, which was comparable to Earth’s moon.
Ganymede had a weak magnetic field that was overpowered by Jupiter’s much more powerful field. She could see a portion of the satellites composing the superconducting ring network that once augmented the moon’s meager magnetosphere. Built by the superior technology of the Ganymedeans, the ring network had obvious gaps, denoting where swaths of satellites had been destroyed during the war.
As the Molly Dook continued its descent, she spotted an opaque geodesic dome squatting on the surface below: the Europan colony of Centaar. Because the damaged ring network was no longer powerful enough to deflect all of Jupiter’s radiation, the dome had BNNTS embedded throughout, similar to the spacesuit she wore, though at a much higher density and thickness of course. As such, she couldn’t see inside.
The Europans had apparently attempted to repair the ring network by capturing and dismantling some of the satellites involved, but they had yet to reverse engineer the advanced technology involved.
As they got closer to the colony, Rhea kept expecting the alarm to sound, but it didn’t. She was beginning to believe the attack had been by pirates after all, who were now long gone.
In the distance to the south she could see one of the self-contained drilling platforms that were apparently common to this moon. Towering metal frameworks were attached to each of the four corners of the platform, and at the center was a boxlike building that harbored the drill, which the Europans used to extract water from the frozen crust below. There was a large landing pad next to the platform where water transports could land and fill up.
Rhea returned her attention to the colony ahead. The Molly Dook descended to the same altitude as the base of the dome—a large, metal ring that protruded slightly from the rest of the structure. As the ship approached, doors opened in the side of that ring, revealing a hangar beyond. The ship passed through, and as it touched down on what looked like a large conveyor belt inside, she felt the deck rumble gently.
Large squarish LEDs embedded in the ceiling provided light, illuminating the other shuttles and vessels perched on similar conveyor belts nearby. Behind the Molly Dook, the bay doors closed.
Rhea exhaled in relief and glanced at Will. “No attack.”
Will nodded, saying nothing.
“We’re here,” Targon announced over the comm. “The hangar bay will pressurize shortly, and then the conveyor belt will take us to customs.”
4
Rhea watched via the external camera as white mist erupted from vents that lined the lower portions of the hangar walls. That mist was no doubt part of the pressurization process Targon had mentioned. It took several minutes, but slowly that mist became more translucent, until she couldn’t see it at all.
After another five minutes, a smaller set of bay doors parted ahead of the craft, just big enough to fit the Molly Dook. The conveyor belt system activated and the Molly Dook lurched forward.
In moments the vessel passed through the smaller opening and into an adjacent hangar bay. Actually it was more of a corridor than a bay, coming in at far longer than it was wide or tall. The doors closed behind the Molly Dook as the vessel slid onto another conveyor belt that abutted the first.
At the far side of the corridor, another set of doors opened, and once more the Molly Dook switched to another conveyor belt. It passed through into a much smaller hangar bay, and when the doors closed behind it, the craft came to a halt.
Large robotic arms unfolded from the walls next to the shuttle, preparing to unload the cargo.
“You might want to vacate the hold,” Targon said over the comm. “The robots will be wanting to unload your belongings. I’ve already marked off the necessary crates on the manifest.”
The bulkhead shuddered as external hatches began to open.
Rhea removed the straps that secured her to the floor and stood up. Gravity glued her to the floor. She finally felt the weight of the suit, but it seemed light, little more than the weight of a heavy cloak on Earth.
