From Europa with love

From Europa With Love: Part VII (Final)

SEVEN

He was confused, not sure of what she just said.

"I'm serious, hit me!" she repeated, "And if you don't knock me out, I'll have to fake it. Then you need to carry me into the shuttle."

"I'm not going to do that Belle! I could never hit you." He saw the tears welling up.

"I don't want to lose you," she confessed. "Do it quickly, there are cameras everywhere. I'll have an alibi; that you took me aboard to make sure I would not alert security. You said it yourself, you're already out of the District, so what's another infraction?"

He was not looking at her while she spoke, his hands were resting on his hips, a tense quietness in his stance.

"Come on, Kulcin, you can—"

Before she could say another word, a numbness swept through her jaw as her eyes filled with silver streaks and she twirled on the tips of her magBoots in the zero-g.

Fifty minutes later, Kulcin was in the pilot seat with Belle out cold beside him; they had just exited the gateway where he could see Jupiter before him and feel the pull of the entity getting stronger.

"Otto, can you disable the gateway without damaging it?"

"Yes Kulcin. By inserting a thunk subroutine, which returns a null pointer and jumps to my overlay, I can mimic low current irregularities in the toroidal magnetic field. As a result, Haven Ops will not attempt to send anything through the Tokamak gateway while they perceive the ELMs as unstable. This false-positive will require Haven Ops to complete a full diagnostic test on the structure and code. That series of procedures will take approximately sixteen hours before the detection of my insert."

"You had a troubled childhood, Otto."

"I do not understand your reference, Kulcin. I have not had a childhood. The only inference which correlates is that I was born an adult."

"It means... never mind, I'll take your word for it." With a newer model shuttle and better approach, he was more at ease with reentry and landing on Europa this time.

"Otto, If you find any glitches in the hardware or software, we abort the re-entry. I am not going to attempt a touchdown, like last time, with Belle on board."

"Affirmative,"

There was a slight groan beside him, Belle was awakening. Glancing over, he saw movement beneath her eyelids. With another groan she pushed up in her seat, her eyes were like slits and her jaw was still tender from his left snap-hook.

"Where are we?" she asked, keeping the right side of her jaw immobile.

"Through the gateway," he replied. "Belle, I am so sorry."

"It's okay," she said coming around. "Remember, it was my idea," and she let out another groan as if regretting it. "It must have looked pretty realistic," she added, with her jaw between the yolk of her thumb and forefinger, moving it back and forth making sure everything was in its proper place. "Wow, Kulcin. I saw stars, but if it makes you feel any better, I don't remember feeling a thing, until now."

That did not make him feel any better. "Sorry to ask, but are you okay to pilot from here on?" Kulcin asked. "I'm having a hard time concentrating with all the static in my head."

"Sure," she replied, now realizing why he decided to go along with her plan; he needed her. "I'll fly, but we'll need to wipe the recorders, afterwards."