Epic Tales from Beautiful Minds: An Ooorah Anthology

#TeamFirstContact - Part Six: Jupiter Diving - @katerauner

Interstellar Etiquette - Part 6 – The Fifth Element - angerbda 

Many thoughts had plagued the young man since reading about the time travel aliens and their plan to save Earth. He could not stop thinking there was a hidden agenda behind the rationale. It did not go well with every human thinking they were the best of the best, the cream of this cosmic crop they called Universe.

Imagining an extra-terrestrial species initiating and controlling their intervention on Earth, as a farmer planting and harvesting a field of turnip was not something he liked to think about. And then, even with all his nocturnal activities, listening to the silence of the Space, observing the twinkling of the stars, he never really felt in control. There had always been a nagging feeling lingering in his mind, telling him he was but a pawn on Minkowski's checkerboard. Easily manipulated. Easily sacrificed.

Walking to Al's library, the young man was pondering the stability of the Universe and the weight of Mankind in the whole equation. It was when similar thoughts of what ifs were clouding his mind that he felt like taking up on smoking. A burning stick that would made him sick, or perhaps just plain awesome. He often likened the incandescent tip to portable stars. Would he felt like diving in the sky when inhaling the poison from an Ecrivain's special?

Would he find the path to his reality?

"Dear K,

Something strange happened a few days ago. I was reading on of the files I found in the basement and I suddenly felt like a door opened. I am not sure how to describe the sensation except for a door opening and letting the light enter the dark and gloomy space of my foggy mind.

There was this déjà vu feeling, as if I had been the one experiencing the events depicted on the document.

It is on days like these that I would love to get to talk to you directly, so you would help me understand what is happening to me. I know, though, that it will take some times before I will get to see you again...

When did I start sending you my first message? Where was I?

Where are you?

..."

*-*-*-*

// File #5 – Jupiter Diving

by katerauner //

This is the first summary report from diving probe Altum. The lander's relaying my telemetry.

Descent is proceeding. Europa's ice crust is vaporing as expected, creating a half-meter-wide hole exactly the diameter of my nacelle. I blew quite a geyser dropping the first ten meters - the lander has great pictures. Vapor refreezes above me now, closing the hole as I go. But the nano-cable is deploying without a hitch so comms are full-copy. At the current rate of descent, the plutonium-238 power source in my butt should melt through all twenty kilometers of ice in..."

"Pause." Kelly glared at Roger. "Without a hitch? In my butt? You tampered with this report."

Roger smirked.

Kelly knew her long narrow face wasn't pretty, but she'd only been aboard the Manta Ray a few weeks and, since stasis preserved muscle and bone on the long journey to Jupiter, she retained a healthy glow. Roger was white as a dead fish's belly and even Commander Okoro deep African coloring took on a metallic sheen away from sunlight.