The Whorls of Jupiter

Chapter 12 Railed

August 1st Waning 3 2521

Outside the Prominent Rage, Yari Station's riot had quickly dissipated in preparation for its main function. Inside everything was strapped repeatedly in order to prevent flying debris that frequently killed residents and crew throughout the years. Food was stowed, and everyone of every class and age were briefly united by one inevitable fact: We all fall.

The Prominent Rage was carried across the station on rails and loaded into the lone firing chamber, stopping briefly to empty its core of highly flammable gasses to prevent them from escaping in zero G. The Prominent Rage would run on its aging batteries and simple maneuvering jets to limp its way to Europa. Yari Station's sole repurposed railgun was the only way offworld. Manned flights had to thread the safety needle for G forces and escape velocity, forcing them to be fired at 25% maximum output.

Inside the firing chamber, lights thrummed in sequence and the Prominent Rage was disconnected from the rails, free floating within the electromagnetic field. Even at 25% capacity, Yari Station still had to execute a rather dangerous but routine maneuver. As the Rage was prepped to exit Jupiter, Yari Station flew to its highest safe altitude. Any higher and the thinning atmosphere could cause the station to tip and potentially freefall into crush altitude before it could recover.

At maximum altitude, Yari Station fired in a low reverberating thrum. The Prominent Rage was accelerated skyward like an arrow through morning mists and passed the Bridgemoor Line dividing Jovian skies from Jovian orbit and exited the exosphere; soaring past networks of interlaced satellites and continuing on an intercept path with Europa's orbit.

***

In the brig of the Prominent Rage Bravo Twenty Nine finally calmed himself. He was bleeding and not in the best condition. His augmented body was thrown about his room by his implants causing his body to suffer tremendous physical trauma. He stood up and wiped the blood from his mouth.

"Bastards, I felt some of my implants pop." He reached into his mouth and pressed down hard on a line of implanted teeth snapping them back into position.

Nastaya hurriedly stowed her stolen ordinance once more. For a moment both were terrified it'd go off in Yari Station's magnetic field. "Where the hell are we going?"

The kirin roared again. Bravo Twenty Nine looked at the ceiling disappointed, "Someone's not very happy about being launched into space it seems. Well I guess we can say EM fields don't seem to kill them."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Europa I presume. That was their plan. Take the kirin to Europa, get a nice payday."

"I don't understand. Why are they keeping us alive?"

"I'm probably a bargaining chip. A show of good faith. And mud in management's eyes that they were able to stop me..."

"You still won't tell me how they got you."

"I'm not sure myself. Whatever happened they must've decided to keep me alive as a bargaining chip."

"So why am I alive?"

"You seem intelligent. It wouldn't surprise me if they made you a crewmember eventually. After all..." Bravo Twenty Nine smiled coyly, "Thanks to me they have a lot of openings to fill."

"They won't be needing me for their crew once they get paid."

"Then you're naive. Bridgemoor doesn't just pay its employees and let them retire. Out here you work until you die. That's just the way life goes. Even agents like me, we get paid and healthcare sure, but there's nothing to do out here. If we don't work we're just confined to our quarters until we're ready for another assignment. Agent, colonist, prisoner. They're all synonyms for the same thing. And if you're useful you end up like me, you'll have piece by piece cut out in favor of something more efficient. And when you cost more than you're worth they'll cut you loose."