We began breaking maneuvers when we were over three hundred thousand miles from Earth. However, COMA had more bad news.
“The insertion point into Earth orbit has shifted, Ryan. If this is not corrected, this vessel will be unable to achieve orbit.”
“What do you suggest, COMA?”
“An additional burn of 10.2 minutes would be required to correct this error, but there is insufficient fuel to accomplish this.”
“Now what are we going to do?” Marie asked with anxiety showing in her beautiful eyes.
“I’m not sure. I wonder if we could swing around the moon instead. That would allow NASA to transport fuel to this ship so that we could go into Earth orbit. COMA, do a calculation on a burn that would insert us into a moon orbit.”
After several minutes, COMA had an answer. “That would require a 8.7 minute burn, Ryan.”
“Do we have enough fuel for that?”
“Yes, Ryan.”
“Schedule it, COMA.”
“Yes, Ryan.”
“How much longer is this going to add to our return, COMA?” Marie asked.
“Thirty two days, Marie.”
She smiled. “Well, I suppose it means that we’ll stuck with each other for another month, Mr. Taylor.”
“Yes it does, Mrs. Taylor.” I ran a hand through my hair. “We had better inform Earth Control about this.” I smiled at Marie. “However, I would advise that you put a top on.”
She smiled back. “Good idea.”
She ran off to get a tee while I activated a COM session with Earth.
“We’re a little less than three hundred thousand miles out from Earth, but we don’t have enough fuel to insert into Earth orbit, so I’m going to insert in an orbit around the moon. The moon will be in the right configuration to allow this and avoid burning as much fuel, which we don’t have. It will add an additional month to our trip. Over.”
Marie returned and plopped down on her chair.
“I already made the transmission.”
“Why didn’t we have enough fuel?”
“I’m not sure. It could be that they made a calculation error or that the small object that severed the gimbal connection also made a tiny hole in a fuel tank. I suppose it doesn’t matter now as long as the burn goes without a problem.”
“I will pray for that,” Marie said.
After twenty five minutes, a reply came in. It was the bubble headed bleach blond manning the COM. “We understand your problem and concur with your fix. We will see you in two months. Good luck.”
The transmission ended.
“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Marie said.
I smiled. “I agree. We did it all.”
We made it back to Earth without further incident and were honored for our bravery and tenacity in completing the mission. As you might have guessed, our discovery caused a lot of controversy among religious leaders and it generated plenty of speculation from philosophers and scientists. No one really knew what to expect next because the alien spacecraft crash on Enceladus was recent and meant that aliens were out there and knew that Earth was inhabited by an intelligent species. Somehow, Marie and I were of the opinion that there was more to this than we and the public were being told. For one, we never did hear anything about those nasty Eceledus creatures that we had encountered. Were they considered a weapon? If those things were loosed upon the Earth it would be the apocalypse. They could literally eat through anything.
Another problem is the fact that there was little divulged about the aliens that we had discovered in the saucer craft. Had they visited Earth before or was this their first foray to our solar system. The paleontologists had assembled the bones we brought back and determined that these creatures were a lot like dinosaurs. Were they intelligent dinosaurs? Where did they come from?
At the tender ages of nineteen and twenty, we ended up lecturing other budding Junior Astronauts about the fun of exploring space. The doctors removed Marie’s IUD so that we could have children. I assumed that this signaled our retirement from space exploration. We had become celebrities and had to go into hiding to escape media attention.
One thing that we noticed was the inexorable introduction of computer control in all aspects of human experience. The success of COMA had kick started an explosion of robotic science. Machines had begun to take over mundane human tasks and it would only be a short time until machines would be more important than we are.
That’s the subject for another story.
YOU ARE READING
Europa Mon Amour
Bilim KurguRyan Taylor is a seventeen year old on a mission to Europa, a moon of Jupiter that supposedly has an ocean under its ice crust. He is teamed with a girl his age that has a mysterious past. Their mission is boring at the start but when they penetrate...
