The Europa Effect (The Vega Chronicles) Read online

  THE

  EUROPA

  EFFECT

  COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER

  Parchman’s Press, Publisher since 2013

  Copyright © 2017 by Mengel, A.L.

  All Rights Reserved. This book, or parts therof, may not be reproduced without permission of the publisher. Mengel, A.L. – © 2017 PP/AL

  Cover Design by Shoutlines Design. Boston, MA, United States of America. Title Page(s) by Shoutlines Design.

  Author Photo Rudicil Photography, Des Moines, IA, United States of America.

  Published by Parchman’s Press, United States of America.

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 || 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  All rights reserved. All plot elements originally created by author. Any similarity to any other work in any format, written or filmed, published or released; unpublished, unproduced or unreleased, is purely coincidental and unintentional. All elements of this book, for the purpose of storytelling, are fictional. All characters are originally created by A.L. Mengel. Any similarities to any person, living or deceased, is also unintentional and purely coincidental. Any similarities to any other fictional character, from filmed, published or unpublished work is unintentional and coincidental. Review quotes printed with permission. Research sources for Glossary based on multiple widely available sources of generally accepted scientific theory.

  Film and Television interests should contact Parchman’s Press, the author or designated representatives. This novel was published in the United States of America by Parchman’s Press, printed by Createspace and distributed worldwide.

  ISBN-10: 0-9963269-6-0 | ISBN-13: 978-0-9963269-6-4

  REVIEWS

  THE WANDERING STAR

  “Sad to see the last page come…captures the imagination…hang on tight for this one…Sci-Fi fans rejoice, this book’s for you!” - Jeremy Croston, Author “The Negative Man” series (via Goodreads)

  “Fascinating and Unusual Science Fiction to Love…a book you don’t want to miss!” – via Amazon

  “Fantastically cosmic and thought-provoking...the story is rich, robust, detailed…clearly for the sophisticated, thinking reader.” – via Barnes and Noble

  “We make our world significant with the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.”

  –CARL SAGAN

  A.L. MENGEL’S BOOKSHELF

  Ashes

  The Quest for Immortality

  The Blood Decanter

  War Angel

  The Wandering Star

  #Writestorm

  Curtains and Fan Blades

  The Other Side of the Door

  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  BELOVED FRIENDS of ‘The Writing Studio’,

  Like many young boys and girls growing up, I have always held a deep fascination with the cosmos. I think that’s why I initially sat down to write The Wandering Star. That book will always hold a special place in my heart, being the “little story that could”. It started as a writing exercise; I sat down to write a Science Fiction short story, and over the following weeks, it ballooned into a novel.

  And then a series.

  With the sequel, The Europa Effect, I was presented with new challenges in my writing. I envisioned a novel which would be set deep in the cosmos – featuring our own home “Milky Way” galaxy, among others. And I wanted to be as realistic as possible with the storytelling – set against backdrops that readers might have studied themselves.

  The Europa Effect was conceived in mid-2016, shortly after the first novel of “The Vega Chronicles”, The Wandering Star, went into print. When I had written The Wandering Star, I didn’t want to make it too long of a novel, so I consider it a “short” sci-fi novel, although it’s still a significant novel at 350 pages. Still, that story ended rather abruptly, and I knew that the story was destined to continue.

  Primary research on The Europa Effect began in summer of 2016. It started with revisiting much of the same research that had been conducted for The Wandering Star, but also reading the works of Carl Sagan (Cosmos, Contact) as well as studying publically available NASA documents for space missions (Cassini, Voyager, Juno, among others).

  In addition, this novel required the study of interstellar space travel (and methods as to how it can be achieved) as well as worm holes, black holes and cryogenic hibernation.

  There is a short glossary of terms following this message which the characters use throughout the story. It’s not entirely necessary to study to glossary – it’s optional, as the characters do explain the process in various scenes – however reading through the glossary and its terms will educate readers to a degree (perhaps) enriching the story just a bit more.

  – A.L.

  GlOSSARY OF TERMS

  ANTIGRAVITY – A force by which a body of positive mass would repel a body of negative mass.

  ICEQUAKES – A phenomenon of Jupiter’s ice-covered Moon ‘Europa’ where the tectonically linked plates shift and quake, similar to earthquakes.

  EDL (Entry Descent Landing) – The NASA process of entering a planet’s “atmosphere” and landing on unexplored terrain. For example, the Mars EDL is 7 minutes from 1) Entry into the upper atmosphere; 2) descent down towards the planetary surface; 3) landing on the Martian terrain. The EDL will vary based on the planet/moon and launch pod.

  HEAT SHIELD – Protective shield for landing pods from atmospheric entry, where temperatures can exceed 1600 degrees.

  MAGNETOSPHERE – The magnetic field around the gas-giant Jupiter, which is reported to reach millions of miles from the planet itself, outwards towards the sun. The magnetic field of Jupiter is extreme.

  CRYOBOTS – Long, cylindrical “tubes” which [in theory] would be launched to the planetary surface ice to melt it. They are long, about the size of a telephone pole.

  CRYOGENIC HIBERNATION – The process for interstellar space travel where the human body is cooled and hypothermia is induced for long periods of deep sleep.

  SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE – The largest type of black hole. A collapsed star with a huge and powerful gravitational pull. Once approaching the ‘event horizon’ escape from the “falling” is not thought to be possible.

  EVENT HORIZON – The ring surrounding a black hole; it’s the “point of no return” when attempting to escape its clutches.

  ICE MOON – A nickname given to Jupiter’s moon “Europa”. The moon experiences temperatures of -220 degrees Celsius and is covered by a thick layer of ice. Mankind believes that there may be an undersurface ocean which might contain life.

  WORM HOLE – A wormhole is a theoretical passage through space-time that could create shortcuts for intergalactic journeys across the universe.

  SPACE-TIME – Any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single theory. They are purported to be related.

  THE EUROPA EFFECT

  PROEM

  6 | THE RED OUTPOST | 49

  5 | MEETING OF THE MINDS | 135

  4 | WE ARE ALL JOVIAN | 171

  3 | MISSION: ICE MOON | 267

  2 | THE COSMIC POPULACE | 313

  1| BEYOND | 367

  WE

  HAVE IGNITION

  THE

  VEGA CHRONICLES

  FOR TY

  The one who I can always count on, and who I would most want by my side on a cosmic voyage towards the unknown…

  AND FOR SONG

  You now soar through the Heavens; reveling in the cosmos, on your new, intergalactic journey. Miss you terribly. Say Hello to Mehki for me.

  PROEM

  THE STUDY OF THE COSMOLOGY of the Universe had been overlooked in the latter days of the planet. It was when the days on the Earth had turned awa
y from the exploration of the distant and the interstellar; and on the planet, the appreciation of music, and of art, and of philosophy, had waned.

  It was during those years when there had been a transformation of such. A transformation of the human minds; but also, physically, of the planet; not only in the geology and the geography of the world, but also a change in the thought process of the people who populated the planet. Their beliefs, motives, and culture.

  The long period of the shift had continued for generations…the subtle changes were initially ignored. But over the years, and as the generations progressed, the planet gradually re-terraformed itself. The period of the shift, which had been considered “long” based on the percentage of a typical human life, was insignificant on a cosmic scale.

  And that period had become a quest for survival.

  After the period of what became known across the planet as the Great Shift, those who remained had been labeled “the survivors” and those who perished were remembered. And the world changed drastically in the generations that followed.

  During those years, man rarely looked up towards the Heavens. Those times on Earth had become a period of survival, and the thoughts of the cosmos were forgotten.

  Until the day when a man had arrived unexpectedly to a colony known simply as “Sector B”. He had been disheveled and dirty, physically near death as he had staggered towards the colony’s outer doors. Those who had witnessed his approach recalled watching his silhouette against searing sunlight, which had cast radiation on the planet in those days. The man, the scout, had collapsed on arrival, seemingly near death. The colonists risked exposure and rushed to his side, saw that he was still living, and had him taken to medical. Over the following weeks he was nursed back to health, and was known through the colony population as ‘the scout’.

  Rumors traveled through the colony about what the scout’s purpose was.

  And when the scout was well enough to speak with them, the people of the planet were urged to look up towards the sky once again: for there was a message.

  There was a beacon of hope; of light.

  There were those who claimed they had seen a star; and also rumors of those who were thought to have spoken to a mystical star with a message.

  And the message was survival.

  They believed that the human race could live on, if they looked upwards and outwards. Their destiny was not to remain living underground with dwindling rations, heading toward extinction.

  It was to journey outwards.

  To reach beyond.

  To trust, and to take a leap of faith.

  But the aura of the planet had indeed changed. Culture had vanished; no longer were there orchestral performances in city centers; many artistic masterpieces were lost forever under the sea in cities that had been swallowed by oceans.

  And it was then, quite unexpectedly, that the people of the planet had the visitor. It was he who was called the “scout”. After the colonists spoke with him, he was regarded as a messenger of sorts.

  But not everyone trusted the mysterious man. Some thought he had been a warrior, or perhaps a pirate.

  But there were others who did trust him.

  And even others still who thought he could be a ‘messiah’.

  But he had a message to deliver, and that was his purpose.

  People were given the free will to choose to accompany him, or stay behind. But those who chose to stay behind, he had claimed, would experience a fiery death as the planet was destined to perish.

  After the scout had come, after the people looked up towards the stars, and after the people’s journey, there had been a feeling of despair that washed over those who waited for what was to come next.

  For the journey that the people took had been a quest for survival. Leaving the safety of Sector B, out into an increasingly hostile, now foreign world.

  The people, though, learned to trust the scout.

  They followed him as he led them to salvation.

  The masses of people found themselves standing in the midst of a large, sandy desert, on a planet which had become dangerous and uninhabitable. Radiation threatened from above during six months of sunlight. It had only been safe to venture out during the six months of darkness.

  Half the world was flooded, and the other half was a barren desert. Forests and agriculture had slowly died off after the physical transformation of the planet took place once the rotation had slowed to a stop.

  But the scout brought the people hope.

  As they stood exposed to cosmic rays in a large desert clearing, underneath a rapidly lightening sky, they felt a twinge of the unknown. Dusty, sandy hills rolled along the plains around them towards the horizon. The sky was starting to turn from black to dark blue.

  But they still felt safe, at least to a degree. For they didn’t quite remember much before seeing the massive, dark cylinder in the sky that hovered over the dry and dusty landscape. As they looked up at the dark hovering spacecraft, the rest of the thoughts of the dying planet gradually faded away.

  It was a massive ship; one that was miles long and wide, one that would travel vast distances at speeds that mankind had never been able to achieve.

  *****

  She stood and looked up at the gargantuan, dark structure which hovered in the pre-dawn sky. It looked like an immense, hovering silhouette, as the sky became lighter behind it. The cylindrical ship was like nothing mankind had ever seen before: it levitated above the surface of the planet, and stretched for miles, causing a shadow in the fading darkness of the sands.

  The sun was about to rise.

  But the planet, the Earth, had not rotated; it had not experienced its twenty-four hour day in many years. Man had science and knowledge, but the specific reason why the planet ceased to rotate remained a mystery. Newscasts, over the generations, had many scientific experts discussing the matter; theories abounded. But no one really knew why things happened the way they did.

  The sun, as it approached with its light, was no longer thought of a friend…but rather a foe. For the atmosphere changed, along with the topography, and the ozone layer – and its protection – faded.

  The weakened troposphere caused radiation concerns during daylight months, and the phenomenon only slightly abated during the months of darkness.

  For during the period when the Earth’s rotation slowed, and the topography of the planet changed, society and culture crumbled; it devolved into underground societies of those who had nearly forgotten the world above; the cities were reduced to skeletons, overgrown and partially reclaimed by nature. The once thriving cities had been abandoned. The emerging cultures of the underground had different levels of civility; others were simply uncivilized.

  But she remembered her own group as being quite orderly and sophisticated.

  Sector B had been the name of her organization. It had been built in the years when those on the planet discussed the Great Shift.

  But it was reported to be one of the most technologically advanced underground cities in existence. Many of the inhabitants were philosophers, scientists, engineers, theologians. And a result, they were one of the most scientifically knowledgeable underground societies, if not the most.

  Located in the dry sands underneath the skeleton of abandoned skyscrapers of what had once been known as Miami, construction began on Sector B once news of the shift had been confirmed and the evacuations commenced.

  But, she remembered, at Sector B, they had been just as skeptical as the others when the scout had arrived.

  As she stood in the imposing shadow of a ship which they had been led to, a ship which had not been built on Earthly soil; a ship which the survivors had been told would be the ultimate leap of faith; the ultimate mystery, and take them to the even more mysterious.

  But she had never thought that her life would amount to this: to a period of total and utter dependence; on a quest for her survival, standing in sands that she would no longer see, or feel between her toes.
/>   She looked down towards her feet.

  Her boots were caked with the mud from the journey, and the logo from ROVER 1 was almost completely covered in the dark, wet sand. She closed her eyes as a single, solitary tear streamed down her cheek.

  Her face showed experience.

  The ridges on her cheeks caused the tear to fall erratically, but its destination was always the same place: the corner of her thin lips.

  She wiped it away, raised her head and opened her eyes.

  The sky was warming and the horizon was lightening. The sand was no longer dark and dirty but a light brown as the sky brightened in minutes.

  The shadow the ship cast had been cool and comforting in the lightening sky; and the people huddled in the inviting darkness. There were several others in stark white uniforms; they appeared to be the ones in command, but she did not know their origin. They looked human. But they could not have been. Had the eternal question been answered?

  It appeared so.

  When she thought of the scout who had arrived at Sector B so unexpectedly, thoughts of a cosmic origin entered her mind.

  But as they dashed through the crowds, barking orders to get inside, bringing the people who stood in queue throughout the sand leading up to the ship to ignore the lines and seek shelter, they seemed all too…human.

  All too familiar.

  “Seek shelter now!” one of those in white commanded. “Avoid the sunlight!” A group of those in white filed down the deck, and turned towards the outer planks.

  She watched them. They truly looked the same as the people of Earth.

  Exactly the same.