We Wanted Adventure

The snow was falling, again. Seems that all it ever did on this planet was snow. I don’t know how I got talked into this human experiment. I guess I wanted adventure. I wanted to see unknown places and visit distant planets. When they opened up the Space Force in the early 21st Century I was delighted. I was still in high school. I began to take all kinds of courses in science and mathematics. I went to college and majored in mechanical engineering.

At the same time I was in a special program, kind of like an ROTC for the space program. It seemed weird, but I loved it. I even loved the physical aspect–marching, working out, staying physically fit, learning how to use weapons, all of those things were really fun for me. I began to excel in them mostly because I loved what I was doing. And then came the call. I was called into the general's office and told about a new program. I was about to graduate. I only had about 6 months left, but he told me about this accelerated program, and how I could possibly end up in space upon graduation.

It all sounded so intriguing that I signed up for it by the end of the week and then, to my surprise--my great surprise, I discovered that the Space Force hadn’t started in the 21st Century, it had started all the way back in the 1930s and even before that. I discovered that we had been in contact with extraterrestrials for centuries, but only certain people knew. This knowledge was not confined to nationalities, or defense departments, it was confined to the miniscule percentage of human beings who really ruled the world.

Upon hearing this I laughed a little. I had heard rumors about things like that most of my life and had scoffed at them. It was surprising to find that what seemed so nutty all that time was partially true enough to leave the other soldiers sitting there with me speechless. The Colonel, a young woman who looked as young as I, glared at me from behind dark brown eyes focusing on me like laser beams. Her skin was dark. She had short hair, all plats, woven onto the top of her head.

“Do you find something funny, Billings?” She simply asked.

“I wouldn’t call it funny,” I responded, “just crazy.” The other two laughed. “I mean, really. You’re telling us that we’re in contact with aliens and the world is run by one group of people. Really? I thought we would be protecting satellites and equipment from the Chinese, or the Russians.” She waved me off.

“That’s neither here, nor there. Who cares about the Chinese or Russians? We’re dealing with bigger fish than them. I won’t argue the point with you. I will tell you though, that this information is highly classified. If you tell anyone about this you will fall under the full extent of the law. Am I clear?” I arched my brows. She was really serious.

“Yes, Colonel, I thought you were just…”

She lifted the corner of her mouth. “Just crazy?” she asked, arching her brows. I began to laugh. She smiled brightly. “You should have heard what I said when I first heard this.”

Simpson, a small woman with Asian features, just sat there. She was quiet. I had never known her to be quiet. The corners of her mouth slowly began to turn upward. She laughed and then turned to me. She punched me in the arm.

“I told you there were aliens, didn’t I?” She asked. “I told you that this was about aliens, and a cabal.”

“Well you’re totally right,” the Colonel said.

Winston, the man to my left, scratched himself behind the ear and looked at both of us. “I don’t know what to say,” he said. “I have to admit Simpson, you were right. I feel like a fool for laughing at you and talking about you behind your back without you knowing it for years." I didn’t believe any of it." She made a face at him and he grinned. He got more serious and turned to the Colonel. “You know, Colonel, a lot of the cadets already think that–the more crazy ones anyway. Why are we hiding it? What does it matter if we tell people there are aliens since so many people believe it anyway? A lot of this stuff is on The History Channel.”

“We don’t want the general public to go mad, now do we? Some of them are crazy enough without adding any fuel to the fire. They’ll start seeing ETs behind every tree, or thinking that they are walking among us and anyone who isn’t like them is an ET wanting to take over the world. Truth is that we live in a very controlled world and there are people who want to keep it that way. It's time for us to free ourselves. The first step is to get away from it. You three, and a few more, have been chosen as a team to prepare a new planet for colonization. You’ll finish your training–your last six months of college, on a base on the south pole where you'll learn about the environment of the new planet we have found, and then you'll be off to the planet, not really a planet, to the moon I should say. Europa."

“Europa,” I said back. “Are you serious? How long will it take to get there?”

“That distance is no problem. We’ve had interstellar travel available to us since the early 60s. Even earlier so within the solar system is nothing. We’ve been traveling in space since the 30s and interstellar since I would say the late 50s or 60s. We’ve been out there for decades, Billings. Even before we had the capability ourselves our allied team of ETs were transporting us. Now we can do it ourselves. My guess is they got tired of carrying us around.” She grinned and swiveled back into her office chair. She got up and came from around the back of the desk and leaned with her back against the front.

“I wish I was going with you three. My God. You don’t know how exciting it will be to be on a whole new planet, especially to be one of the first. We chose you three on purpose. Others will follow. But you three, a few more Earthers, and a team of ETs will break ground.”

“A group of ET’s?” Simpson asked. “You serious?”

“Sure am. We’ve sent out a call already. They’ll be meeting you at the end of your training preparing you to live in the universe. You’ll learn about remote viewing for the next six months, astral projection, and telepathy so you can communicate with just about any species out there and with each other if you get good enough without opening your mouths. They’ll complete your training in the field.”

They’ll be the ones who resemble Earth humans the most of course, as to not weird you out or anything, or the Grays. They are the sort of big headed, bug eyed creatures you see on things like Close Encounters.” We all just looked at each other. She ignored the surprised looks on our faces and steepled her fingers.

“Any more questions for me?” She asked. We all shook our heads dumbly, knowing that we would have plenty of time to think of more questions and to get the answers. “Good,” She said. “Get packed and get ready. Your last semester will be at the South Pole.” We stood and readied ourselves to leave. “By the way,” she said, “this is hush hush, and you won’t be able to communicate with anyone during the training, so make sure you take care of everything and tie up all loose ends, OK?”

“Sure Colonel,” I said.

“Thank you. Dismissed.” she responded. We each saluted and headed for the door hardly able to wait until we got somewhere alone where we could talk. Talk, we did. And we did the training. Everything went smoothly until we found ourselves on a ship traveling almost the speed of light heading for Europa. The ship would not be returning to Earth. The ship itself was built as the settlement.

With its many rooms and fold out extensions, its water pumps, and its environmental systems it could serve as a residence as large as a small apartment building. As we came to the planet and approached we rotated the bottom of the ship, which was designed with several spikes protruding from it, toward the planet.

The ship came down fast, but we could barely feel it as the damping device inside made it seem motionless. The spikes were driven through the thick icy surface of the planet into the ice as close as possible to the deep ocean underneath. This would supply us with water and with ways to create energy through the use of title energy when we drilled many miles deeper through the ice and into the ocean.

The spikes also could serve as laboratories and hatchways to explore the water world that lay below the surface of ice on the planet. The upper portion was just like a regular building with it’s many external doorways offering openings to the harsh environment. The ship had a supply of oxygen and an atmosphere mimicking that of Earth while several plants consisting of chemicals, filters, and electronic equipment hummed along taking in the atmosphere from Europa mixing it, bathing it, running it through ionic filters, until it made something that would be breathable for the colony. By the time more people arrived we would have plenty of oxygen. If our circulation pumps and heating units ever went down, however, which was doubtful, we would all be frozen solid.

The temperature where we were, in one of the warmer areas, was about -210 Fahrenheit. We would be digging through the ice and circulating the water from the frozen ocean, or an ocean near freezing, up into our heating pumps to create heat and circulate it throughout the ship. Since we have a small nuclear power plant on the ship, energy would be no problem for at least a few hundred years, as long as we had the water to keep the reactors cool. From the water we could create more oxygen and hydrogen as fuel. We also could rely on alien technology for the rest, especially for defense. According to the high ups there were many ET species who had developed heating systems that could function at even those low temperatures.

According to them, deep down in the ocean it was even much warmer than earlier thought because volcanic activity spewed hot air out of underwater vents. The deeper our lines went down, the more warm water we could extract, and the better off we would be. Eventually, after centuries of circulating the cold ocean, the moon’s environment would shift and it might become warmer, but that would be a long way off. In the meantime it was cold even with our advanced smart spacesuits.

The suits were almost like walking spaceships themselves. They were whole life support systems that filtered the air, created oxygen out of the poisonous gasses on Europa, and provided heat. Even with the heat, however, it still felt cold, but bearable. I was always cold. We didn’t have the more expensive suits they used on the front lines.

The temperature of this planet was much lower than the tolerance of the space suits, but only by a little, so we packed on clothing underneath before going out. That could cause problems…a lot of sweating, which could actually fog up the visors and the camera screens built into the electronic helmets. Many people chose to not wear that much in the suits because of that, and just remained cold. I was one of them.

So now I find myself standing out here in freezing winds whipping up at almost 70 miles per hour on good days behind a dura steel barrier erected around the edge of the ship, just wondering what we are doing here and what the hell I was thinking. The whole trip seems ridiculous. How can we possibly live on a planet like this? Despite all of the filming, the creation of a documentary, the sending pictures and message back to Earth, which surprised me, since I thought this was supposed to be top secret, I still think that it would be impossible to live here for anyone for any length of time because of psychological reasons, if for no other ones.

Winston is trying to create more barriers even as we speak. There is a small metallurgy plant on the ship. We are using high tech equipment we acquired from the Traxels, a friendly race of ETs who are far advanced when it comes to technology. Somehow they have learned how to create matter, or at least change the density of matter into something better and stronger.

I’m standing guard outside, taking my turn even if I am an engineer. It’s cold as usual. Wind is blowing. Every so often something that looks like snow is falling. The ground is white with this substance, but it’s too cold to be snow. It’s cold enough so that many of the substances that would be gasses on our planet are liquid, or solid, and raining down. I stand there wondering how I got myself into this madness as I flip through my visor and look at the latest news broadcast messages from Earth. I read about an explosion on Europa. I read that the conditions are too harsh and the Space Force has lost touch with Earth after an SOS, and a message that said the hull was breached and we all froze to death.

I wondered what that was about. We were fine. I turned as Simpson came walking toward me in her deep, red suit. We all had different colored ones so we could recognize each other easily. She tapped the side of her helmet near her ear signaling that she wanted to speak with me. I stopped monitoring Earth news and switched on the intercom.

“They're saying we're dead, Billings. What the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know. I was just reading the newsflashes. I thought all of this was supposed to be top secret.”

“What do you think they’re going to do with us?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“They have us up here with millions of dollars worth of equipment and we have been training for something like this most of our lives. They’re pretending like we’re dead so they can send us somewhere else! Don’t you know anything?”

“Yes. I know something.”

“I’m sorry,” She said. “I was afraid something like this would happen. They’re going to send us to the front lines.”

“Are you serious? How do you know that?”

“I’ve heard things. You can’t recruit people and tell them they're going to be fighting wars in space.”

“That would be pretty unethical.”

“And.”

“And–I don’t think they would do that. I really don’t. You always have been a little paranoid.” My com link beeped. So did Simpson’s. It was on a special alert channel denoting a ship wide message. We were all being called back to the ship. We walked across the frozen tundra as quickly as possible. I was only happy to be getting back into the warm ship. We walked into what looked like a tunnel. The door that usually remained opened closed as we made our way into the inner door.

I could hear the ship warming up. I could feel bumps underneath the ship as if the hoses and pylons planted deeply into the ocean were being cut, or withdrawn. The Captain called us to the ready room. There were more than 30 people on the ship, a mixture of humans and ETs. Only the 7 humans were called. I removed my suit as quickly as I could and hustled through the long corridors. When all of us were in the center the corridors were sealed shut and the extra hallways disconnected from the ship. The engines began to whirl. I rushed to the Captain’s ready room.

Captain Yates, a tall individual who resembled a person from Latin America stood to address us. According to the Earth Government, Yates was a descendant of Mayans who at one time lived on Earth. As their society became more advanced and conditions worsened on Earth they began to explore space to find a new home. Disasters swept the Earth one after the other for thousands of years, but they were saved and their history erased over time. He had returned to Earth to work with the Earth Government to usher them into the Foundation of Planets. In truth, the ETs were living among us and they had been for decades, even centuries. He looked completely human and even had a New York accent.

“Good news and bad news,” he said. “The good news is that we’re getting off of this planet. The bad news is that there is an emergency. We’re going to war with Arachnoids. We have to go to mars right away. We’ll be stationed there until more recruits arrive. We have to hold our Martian settlements and make sure they don’t get overrun by the spiders. They’ve planted some eggs in one of the settlements and are fighting like hell to take the settlement over to protect them.”

“I never signed up for fighting spiders,” I said. “We’re supposed to be a research mission.” Everyone else joined in as we started to complain.

“You are in the Space Force now. You signed up for this and a lot more. Suck it up!” He said loudly. He put his hands on his hips. “According to every news program and government source you are dead as of now meaning we can do just about anything that we would like with you. Question is do you want to remain dead, or earn your lives back?”

You’re part of The Foundation. Didn’t you know that you could be called to fight if there was an emergency?”

“No we didn’t. We were expressly told we would not have to go and fight in some god forsaken place,” Simpson said.

Yates shook his head. “I’m sorry they were that dishonest with you,” he said. “We’re going to mars and you can jump off any time you’d like. Dismissed.” He turned away and walked over to the duraglass wall and looked out into space. We all stood speechless for several moments and then began to peel off one by one and return to our quarters wondering what we could do about this. What would we do? We were trapped, and couldn’t do anything about it except fight until our terms were up which was six years for officers. But how did we know when that would be for real? They had already pronounced us dead!

The End

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