Europa Mon Amour

Chapter 10

We settled back into a familiar routine on the return trip. This is the way it usually goes. It’s almost like combat. You have long periods of boredom interrupted by moments of sheer terror. The exploration of Europa’s ocean was the exciting part, now this is the tedious part.

My main problem is that Marie was beginning to look like a very sexy girl. It wasn’t just in how she looked. She had these moves that excited me. The erotic way she swung her caboose; the cool way she flicked her hair around; the cute way she puckered her lips when she kissed me; the nice bounce in her breasts when she walked; all of it made me hunger for her.

But sometimes mundane issues got in the way of fun.

“Shit!”

“What’s wrong?” she asked, wide eyed.

“The main antenna is stuck. I pointed at the screen that read: MAIN ANTENNA IS FROZEN IN PLACE. MOLECULAR LUBRICATION IS REQUIRED.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“It means that I’ll have to do an EVA to free it.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“I could be, but we need the antenna to function if we ever hope to contact Mission Control.”

“Are we going out to fix it?”

“No, I’m going out to fix it. You’re going to stay in here and monitor my work. We don’t need both of us risking our lives.”

I could see the anxiety in her eyes, but I didn’t want her to lose her life. It wasn’t going to happen on my watch.’

I suited up in an EVA suit. This kind of suit has provisions for using tools and is designed for long extra vehicular activity. I entered an air lock in the shuttle hanger and floated out onto the ship’s outer surface.

“I’m out,” I said into my helmet mike.

“Copy that,” I heard in my earplug.

I attached a safety hook on a ring attached to the ship and began my slow floating glide to the location of the main antenna just in front of the crew compartment wheel. I made sure not to fix my gaze on the rotating wheel for fear of loosing my bearings.

The dish antenna was mounted on a pole that stuck down into a rotation device. Evidently, ice had formed in the mechanism and at nearly absolute zero it froze to a consistency stronger than steel. I used a heating probe to melt it and then injected a molecular lubricant into the mechanism to free it up.

Like a dummy, I unhooked my tether in order to turn around.

That’s when it happened.

The antenna freed up and spun, knocking me away from the ship. Suddenly, I found myself drifting away.

“Shit!”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m drifting away from the ship. I unhooked my tether to turn around and the antenna knocked me off the ship when it turned.

“Oh my God! I’m coming out there.”

“No, don’t,” I cried. “You can’t save me. I’m moving too fast. I’ll be out of range in no time.”

“I’m not going to let you die, buster,” she cried.

I felt like an idiot. I had managed to get Marie and me through the ship launching, the exploration in Europa’s ocean and the return launch and here I was about to be a victim of stupidity, and even worse is that Marie was going to make a futile attempt to rescue me and probably die in the process. Damn it!

I wanted to kill myself and stop her from trying a rescue, but I couldn’t do anything to commit suicide. I was powerless. Yes, I would eventually die from loss of oxygen and then drift forever in space. I just didn’t want her to suffer the same fate because of my stupidity.

I saw her come out on the ship near the antenna. “No, don’t do it. I’m not worth it.”

“Don’t you say that,” she cried. “I’m not letting you get away from me.”

I didn’t like what she was doing, but I couldn’t stop her. She was going to use a MMU, a manned maneuvering unit, to come out and snatch me and then return, but it didn’t have enough fuel to do that because I had drifted too far.

“That won’t work,” I told her. “There’s not enough fuel.”

“I’ll make it work,” she said, sounding angry. “Damn it to hell, I’ll make it work.”

Suddenly, I felt as if someone had punched me. “What the hell?”

“What’s wrong?” she yelled.

“I think I got hit by a micro meteor. My suit’s losing pressure. I won’t last long now. Don’t come after me. I’m as good as dead now.”

“Hang on,” she said in what I felt was a much calmer voice.

I watched her leave the ship and begin heading toward me. She seemed a long way off, a tiny speck in the vastness of the universe. I felt so tiny, so helpless, and my life force was quickly slipping away.

I felt dizzy at first and then my vision slowly narrowed. These were signs of oxygen depravation. I remember seeing her heading my way. As a matter of fact, it was the last thing I remember.