The Whorls of Jupiter

Chapter 7 Encounters

July 24th 2521 Waning 4

"This is a bad idea. You need to let that fucking thing go, now." Keun said as the entity composed of pure energy howled and roared, bouncing about violently in its chamber.

"If I let it out it'd kill us."

"You know what I mean Doc, seal it off and open the top hatch. Let it fly out and go back to the clouds. Nothing good will come of it here."

"I'll take your opinion under advisement sergeant. But this discovery is progress. If not us then eventually another will find it."

"Oh I'm sorry doc, but the living lightning that you put on our boat doesn't seem too worried about your fucking career!"

Jorge eyed it as it flashed and continuously changed shape. From a ball of lighting, to an elongated bolt that snaked about ⅓ the speed of light. It formed claw-like appendages and swiped at the glass and began poking at the seams of its enclosure like a cat probing for a way out of its cage. Even through the tempered insulated glass they could still hear it crackling and hissing. Jorge shuddered at the sound and focused, "What have we learned so far?"

"Ah... Finally an intellectual aboard. I, have discovered that it is curious and learning. It's shapes are gaining complexity. The chamber may be sealed but sound still carries through. It's listening and learning. Trying different sounds and interacting with us. You could say we're the first to successfully communicate with this extra-terrestrial, nay extra-biological life."

"The fucking thing is learning?"

"Hour by hour it's shapes seem to become more distinct. Perhaps it is slowly revealing itself to us? Or perhaps it is learning somehow. It doesn't seem to react much when I address it however."

Jorge walked up and knocked on the glass. The thing shrieked and lashed out as Jorge's hand again and again clawing savagely.

"While I appreciate your efforts to help corporal, I must ask that you do not tamper with the glass. While the odds are astronomically low, if it were to break free everyone on the Prominent Rage would die in seconds."

"Is all Jovian lighting like this?"

"It would seem so. The Prominent Rage wasn't my first attempt. I had Bridgemoor try before..." Doctor Willoughby Vasquez swiped up on his tablet and entered a declassification code. "Look here at this video. You'll see that I requested the ships try and capture one of them. What the crew wasn't aware of were the high speed cameras I placed within their ships. This... is what I found. It was proof of what I've always known. That the kirin are alive."

On a large monitor they watched as a bolt of lightning flooded the ship. Crewman by crewman were struck dead as it ravaged the ship. However, it began changing forms even as it continued tearing through them.

"Now the same storm two days later," Willoughby said.

Another ship, another crew. An airlock opened unexpectedly, allowing the Jovian lightning to flood inside. This time however it took a more humanoid form. Then it formed a rifle. It fired little pellets of lightning into its targets before launching itself as a lightning bolt to the next room to do the same.

"What... the fuck?" Keun asked.

"They are highly intelligent. Each time one kills it seems to learn. Shapes, patterns, forms. On the surface it seems to simply be lightning killing the crew with massive amounts of electricity as you'd expect. Combustion is the most obvious considering the massive cosmetic damage and remaining flames but also there's damage to the medulla that controls breathing, heart paralysis, hyper ventricular fibrillation.... I hypothesize that it's not merely killing but somehow integrating data from those it strikes. If I'm right we are standing at the threshold of discovery and have no idea how intelligent they can become."