White Space

7

 Retrieving the sub from the small lander proved to be easier said than done. The ship was a touch smaller than most of the landers Search and Rescue usually used, but they were a two-person team now, so it was supposed to be enough. Even though it was enough for the two of them, everything in the cargo hold was on top of one another. They ended up having to retrieve their rover first, parking it outside the door and getting to the submarine that way.

 Jaleel loaded the thing onto a simplistic-looking, and reliably ancient mini forklift that was overkill even for the complete submarine in the tiny gravity of Europa. The thing would have probably fallen apart under the weight of it in 1G, however, in this environment, it was smooth sailing.

 After playing around a bit, he navigated the clunky forklift in front of the elevator. He pressed the ignition button, basically a glorified on/off switch, and proceeded to leave the machine to call the lift. As he unfastened the belts securing him to the seat, he saw that the panel by the door was flashing green, which meant it was already in operation. It slowly turned red and then to blue and the doors slid open, revealing a single person inside.

 "Let me give you a hand with that, Private," a smooth voice with a very subtle Indian accent told him over the suit comms.

 "Corporal, is it OK if I leave—" he asked.

 "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, but this is a direct channel. I'm sure it will be fine. The Corporal seems to be very busy."

Jaleel looked over his shoulder and saw Yemon working away on the main console of Big Mama. Whatever he was doing seemed very important. Maybe he got new orders or something. That happens a lot, Jaleel thought. Search and rescue was indeed a very volatile profession. Things tended to change more than a few times before a mission was over.

 "Alright, fine." He shrugged and started the forklift up again. "How are we going to get this to the submarine bay through those tiny corridors?" he asked, while turning around to make it easier to get out of the elevator eight kilometers below in a few minutes.

 "You need to stop at the storage level. I'll show you." Narayanan pressed a button on the screen by the door.

 The elevator started its descent, but Jaleel could only tell by the readout on the display next to his companion, the low gravity of the Jovian moon made it completely impossible to feel if they were moving or not. On Earth, this contraptionwould probably throw itself apart after a fifth of the journey at the speeds it was achieving here, killing itself along with the passengers on the way every time. This would have been a little counterproductive. But on Europa, it was the smoothest sailing Jaleel has ever experienced.

 "This place is pretty impressive for its age, though." He said, trying to make conversation. Even the few minute long ride seemed to take an eternity with a rich guy, "I don't recall many super fast elevators on any ground stations."

 "That's because most stations aren't housed under kilometers of ice." Narayanan said. He looked over at the display next to the door. It showed that they were about a quarter way there, which was not much, definitely enough for Jaleel to feel the usual elevator ride awkwardness.

 "Will you be possibly checking the development site at some point during the mission as well?"

 "Well, that depends on the situation. At this time, we have no such orders. Why do you ask?"

 "Say, if you happen to visit the station, would you mind looking into something for me? There are some things I had to leave behind. Very valuable things. Not monetary value, but still."

 "Look, I'm sorry, but you have to talk to the Corporal about this. Hell, you probably need to speak to the Sergeant. As soon as we regroup with Alpha, we'll be under his direct command again, so—"

 "I understand, of course. I am not asking you to go against your orders or anything. I was just curious if it was possible at all." Narayanan said, trying a somewhat lighter approach.

 "Sure, it's not impossible, as such. It's just not very likely. Anyway, what is it that you're looking for?"

 "It's a metal crate in the executive living quarters. There's a luxury suite at the bottom level. I had a few important things stashed away there. Corporate stuff, reports and confidential info about finances and the like. It's not a huge deal, but I'd like to have those numbers with me when I leave so that I don't have to spend months on getting all that together again. It would save a considerable amount of time and money." Narayanan looked at Jaleel and took a deep breath. "I would be happy to compensate you for this service, of course. You or the Corporal or even the whole team if it's necessary."

 "Wow, look, I'll see what I can do." Jaleel said, squirming in the chair. He'd never been in this type of conversation and he didn't feel especially comfortable taking part in it.

 "Alright, whenever you have the chance, just let me know. Please. I'll give you the rest of the details then." Narayanan said just in time with their arrival. He turned to the display that just went red while the elevator came to an unnoticeable stop and then stepped aside from the opening doors to make way for the forklift carrying the sub.

 "Down this corridor. You can't miss it. Literally. It's just this corridor and then the storage area. Put it on one of the pedestals and Anisim will be able to retrieve it into his garage or whatever."

 Jaleel nodded and navigated through the airlock and into the service corridor. It only took a few minutes to get the submarine into the storage bay and to send the official forms through to Anisim via his wrist device, acknowledging that it was taken into temporary inventory. This was all part of the military red tape. They tend to blow things up left and right, but God forbid having to put their stuff in someone else's storage for a day or two.

 After taking the elevator down into Enki station proper, he doffed his suit in the locker room with a swiftness and agility that betrayed his enormous size and headed straight into the rec room to scavenge for some food. He couldn't believe that the Corporal would starve him until after lunchtime. He wasn't one of them scrawny scientists. He should have known that much. It was bad enough having to go without exercising and now they wanted to take his food away? This was beginning to look like a horror story with every passing minute.

 He just finished taking out a pre-packaged sandwich, a nice and fancy one by the look of it, probably part of Narayanan's stash, when he heard the familiar footsteps of a distressed Corporal behind him. He took a bite as quickly as he could so that he had his claim on the food and then turned to face Yemon.

 "What's the story, boss? Did they also see phantom fish up there?"

 The Corporal had a grimmer than usual expression on his face. "We have lost contact with them. Let's go."

 "Where to?" Accacia looked nervous once they'd found her in the control room to let her know. She was hugging her left arm while she was searching for meaning in the men's faces.

 "We'll head directly to Alpha team's location." Yemon said. "Last known location, that is. It's still being pinged to us so we know they are at the development site."

 "What about Yin?"

 "I'm very sorry, but this has to take precedence."

 "I understand. Besides, without your team, the search effort would be..." she sighed, shaking her head. "Impeded, I guess."

 "Definitely ma'am." Jaleel nodded.

 "Once this is cleared up, we can get back to the search. We can even make up for the lost time by going hands-on."

 "Really?"

 "Yeah, sure. I'll ask the Corporal myself when we meet with him. He'll approve. We should be back in a few hours, anyway."