CHAPTER 27.
Hohenheim shook his head in pleased amazement, looking at the fantastic images transmitted only seconds before from Europa. “I believe I speak for us all on Odin, Ms. Fathom, Dr. Sutter, Mr. Buckley, and Mr. Conley, that we truly do wish we were there.” There was a murmur of assent from the others, and an added “Us up here on the surface, too!” from A.J.
“Larry,” Anthony LaPointe said, with an unmistakable note of envy in his voice, “I am doing calculations with Brett now, modeling that interior with the help of A.J., who has produced a general model from the stereo images you have sent. With your permission, General, I will increase priority to get the results as quickly as possible, so that we can advise as to how long you can spend in that region.”
“I’d sure appreciate it,” Joe put in. “None of us want to leave before we have to, but none of us want to do significant damage. Well, aside from blowing up the odd wall or two.”
Hohenheim considered briefly. The main number-crunching for other tasks aside from those related to the nozzle and the eventual unification of the three vessels was over, and none of the remaining tasks were time-critical. “As you wish, Dr. LaPointe. I agree with all here; we want as much initial data as possible, with as little damage as possible.”
Other than some continued exclamations of “Wow!”, “My God…” and “How gorgeous…”, there was silence for a time. Finally Brett spoke up. “Okay, mates, here you go. The size of that room gives you a reasonable cushion, and the fact that the average temperature there seems to be something like a mere minus ninety, warmer down at the bottom, means the temperature differential isn’t quite as bad. So you can spend about twelve hours there before you really should be getting out.”
“Make it eight,” Hohenheim said, adding, “If you concur, Ms. Fathom?”
Madeline’s answer came after the current second and a half pause. “I do, General. I trust Brett, Anthony, and A.J., but there’s no point in taking chances we don’t have to. A full workday, and then we start back. Joe, it’ll be hard on you, though. As we’ve already done some damage, I’d prefer we return to the last cavern we stopped in before resting for the night, which means you’ll be up a lot longer—”
“No, I won’t,” Joe said. General Hohenheim could hear both fondness and reluctant decision in those words. “I’m going to take a nap for about four to six hours right now, so I’m fresh for the drive back. I’ll still be able to help out for a couple hours at the end and I won’t be driving tired.”
The small image of Madeline wore a relieved smile; Hohenheim shared the emotion. Telling any of that small group that they’d have to give up any of the few hours they had to view and explore the alien wonders would be hard; by choosing to volunteer, Joe had made things easier.
Which seems to be his general personality; he makes things easier for those around him. I begin to truly understand why, of all the people she knew, Madeline Fathom married Joe Buckley. Perhaps she is just as fortunate as most of us have assumed Joe is. “An excellent decision, Dr. Buckley. Now, while we are already talking, allow us to bring you up to date. Jackie?”
“Nebula Storm’s nozzle mated perfectly with Odin’s connectors on the third try—it wasn’t easy to align everything at first. Good work, Brett, A.J., Joe. Horst and Mia finished the control integration and calibration this morning,” Jackie said cheerfully, “and we’re working on checking out all of our repairs to Odin’s reaction mass systems now.”
“So you’re going to be able to do a test burn today?” A.J. asked.
Jackie shook her head, something easy for Hohenheim to see as she was floating near one of the engineering panels only ten feet away. “Don’t jump the gun, A.J.; there’s a lot of Odin’s systems to check and double-check first. Remember, she had a lot of subsystems for the drive and auxiliary jets, and a lot of that got shredded when Fitzgerald’s frag round went blooey in the coilgun. We can’t afford to find out there’s a weak point in the system when we test the new nozzle—no second chances this time.”
“No, you’re right. Sorry, I just want to see you guys up in orbit around here, and not just to cut down that really annoying delay, either.”
“We are all looking forward to losing that delay, and to being in close and constant contact, Mr. Baker,” Hohenheim agreed. “In the meantime, Horst and Anthony have also completed another project which we were not sure would succeed, but has.”
Horst grinned from the General’s other side, and hit a transmit switch. The images showed the interior of a large room on Odin, with huge doors slowly opening. “The Munin’s landing bay was jettisoned with most of Odin when the General performed his successful maneuver to save himself and Odin from Io, you all know. But we do not want to lose Munin, yet putting Munin outside the Odin and locking her down will be difficult.
“The General pointed out that there was at least one major loading bay in this section of Odin, and calculations showed that we could probably fit Munin inside if we moved everything else out, and if we could fix the doors.
“So the doors are fixed, you see, and the bay is empty. We have had Brett model also the exact maneuvers and it is in fact practical to bring Munin home.”
A small spatter of applause—strongest from the other crewmembers of Odin—filled the little conference of airwaves. Hohenheim found that he was also grinning broadly. The Munin had saved all their lives in one way or another, and it would have been a great tragedy to leave the landing vessel behind. Now, he wouldn’t have to make that decision.
“I commend both of you for your work. It seems, Ms. Fathom, that we are approaching the time for departure.”
“Only a month or two, yes, General. I did receive a communication from Dr. Glendale earlier today, updating us on progress there.”
Hohenheim leaned forward reflexively. “Indeed? How goes the construction of Bifrost?”
“The joint rescue and exploration vessel is well underway,but launch won’t be possible for at least another six months. The name is actually still under debate,” she added, “but you’re correct that Bifrost is the front runner in the names so far. It’s symbolic of the bridging of the gap between the U.N., Ares, and the E.U., and the extraction of the name’s the same as that of Odin, so the EU seems to generally approve.”
The General shrugged. “I will welcome her by any name, but I believe Bifrost will be the one chosen. Six months?” he repeated. “In that case, I believe we shall be bringing ourselves home before the rescue itself can launch!”
Madeline smiled and nodded. “I certainly hope so. After what we’ve accomplished here, I think all of us would like nothing better than to pull into Mars or Earth orbit on our own—with a unified ship built from the pieces we were left.”
There was a loud murmur of assent, including a “Damn straight!” from A.J. and similar sentiments from Horst and Joe.
“Then let us impede you no longer,” the General said. “Finish your exploration of the interior, and by the time you return, Odin will be a living ship again—and we can begin the final preparations.” He looked out the Odin’s screens to mighty Jupiter. “In two months or less, we set sail.”