Flipspace: Jaded Mars, Missions 16-18

Chapter 1

Sister Soldier

Waves without end. That’s what one of the two survivors of a Jade Continuum octuplet saw as they drifted in an alien sea under partly cloudy skies of the super-Earth exoplanet, Gaia 1001R. The duo saw herself as one woman who had died six times already. She clung to her unconscious other self and swung her helmeted head back and forth, with panic driving her heartbeat.

Two other sets of octuplets had been with her in the intra-solar vehicle dispatched from Gaia 1001’s outer reaches to conduct reconnaissance. But alien fighting flight suits had attacked, after sifting through Jade Continuum scrambling of their radar signals. She was forced to use ejection capsules in the hopes of saving valuable intelligence. The other octuplets died all eight times before two of her reached the escape tubes. Six of her other selves had shrieked in horror, as the ISV’s hull explosively peeled open and atmosphere blasted out. The suits were little saving grace against unprotected atmospheric entry, and she couldn’t shake the memory of her other bodies being burnt alive and suffering explosive decompression.

Now the Jade Continuum woman was stranded on a planet with no landmass whatsoever, and already she saw glimpses of indigenous intelligent aliens cruising below the waves in search of her. Something throbbed in her head, and then she realized that her other self was suffering a brain hemorrhage. Brought to fleeting consciousness, her second-self struggled in the water before dying. Seeing her other set of vital signs flatline within her neural-augmented mind, the Jade Continuum woman knew there was nothing to be gained by clinging to her lifeless body. She watched her other body sink to the depths after she let go.

Gaia 1001R’s surface gravity was almost three times that of Earth, so every swim stroke over the surface was taxing, even with suit actuators. She also struggled to keep her head up, and without her pressure suit she felt she would’ve already drowned by now.

In one instance, where her head sank below the waterline, she caught a glimpse of a massive alien coming her way. The lower side of its body was light gray with dark gray scales, like those of sea turtles. The dorsal side was palatinate at the center, iridescent green on the cobra-like frill, with an irregular-edged neon-yellow band separating the colors. Its lower jaw resembled a robust version of a dolphin or sperm whale, but the other reminded the Jade Continuum woman of a raven’s beak, but for the green coloration and single yellow stripe up the middle. Six limbs reached out from under the cobra-hooded thorax and resembled a cross between a sea turtle’s scaled flippers and lobe fins of Sarcopterygii fish. The four longer flippers switched from an alternating paddling motion, to wing beats half a cycle off from each other. The third pair of flippers grew to half the length, but were broader and served more as rudders to help with braking. It was the largest of its kind she had ever seen.

Between vertical undulating swim strokes, the Jade Continuum octuplet saw a flash of two weapons held together in a bank of finger-like limbs on the right side of the abdominal region. Together, they bore coincidental resemblance to a trident. When the alien switched the two-pronged fork to the left-side bank of fingers, the Continuum octuplet knew what the alien was planning with the high tech harpoon. She realized her only chance to complete the mission was an encrypted burst transmission, since survival was out of the question. There wasn’t a human ship built that could conduct a water landing on a super-earth and take off again.

For that, she needed to stay above the water surface. She searched in desperate hope for anything useable as a life raft. She knew the planet had mats of floating plant life, and the octuplet began swimming toward the first cyan color she saw in the water. Another wave surged, reminding her that the planet’s largest moon was in ascension and pulling the tides up with it. Something else rose with the growing incline toward the wave crest. The alien warrior breached near the top of the wave into a slow corkscrew that turned its dorsal side down.

It was a sighting maneuver, to be followed with a flip of the lower body and tail that catapulted the harpoon. A line trailed in rapid spirals back to where the alien held on tightly with leading set of abdominal fingers. The harpoon’s serrated warhead pierced the Jade Continuum woman’s calf, and she let out a scream, as pain threatened to engulf her, and water started leaking into her suit.

Even more terrified than before, her below-surface side-strokes sped up, although there was nothing to be done. After the alien plunged into the water, a hard yank of the harpoon line pulled the woman under, as burning agony shot up her leg. The aquatic being had already circled around and was heading up with a bladed fork in its right-side grasp.

The Continuum woman tried to paddle aside, but the creature adjusted all too easily. The octuplet felt the piercing stab of the twin prongs enter under her ribcage and exit the nape of her neck at both sides of her spinal column. Blood spurted out of her mouth and all over her visor, as she weakly grabbed at the forked shaft entering her. Vision faded, as she was thrust several meters out of the water by the breaching alien attacker. Death came as she crashed through the ocean surface.

* * * *

Sitting alone in the backseat of a base-issued car, Colonel Sumitra Ramachandra used her ocular augments to read over the file of her newly assigned crewmember, one Master Sergeant Kinessa Lane. Lane’s appearance in the file contrasted with Rama’s considerably. Kinessa’s hair was sandy blonde and long, but kept in a ponytail. In the alternate image, in dress black uniform, Kinessa’s hair was up in a bun. Being of Indian descent, Rama’s skin tone was dark. Master Sergeant Lane carried the freckled pale skin of her distant Irish ancestors who moved to Australia in the nineteenth century. Hard hazel eyes stared at the XD cam that captured both animated profile images for her military records.

Below, Rama discovered that Lane had originally enlisted in the Australian Army and worked up to the Special Air Service Regiment prior to transferring to Aerospace Defense Response. There were several remarks by Extra-Vehicular Rescue instructors showing how much she had impressed them. Lane was about ten centimeters shorter than Rama, but the former SASR operator carried more muscle mass. Her build was fairly close to the ideal frame needed for ADR Ghostwalkers.

Finishing her third read-through of Kinessa Lane’s file, Rama cleared her view in time to see the driverless car reach the Atlantis Base airfield. The suborbital-liner carrying new transfers had already landed, and personnel were dispersing to deliver their orders to the units to which each were assigned. Rama picked out Sergeant Lane in her Air Battle Uniform, a large duffle slung over her left shoulder, and a smaller bag in the steely grip of her right hand.

Rama had the car pull up aside the airfield. She got out to accept the NCO’s salute and return the courtesy. At ease. Master Sergeant Lane, I’m Colonel Ramachandra, your mission commander. Welcome to ISS Four-Five-Four. The trunk’s unlocked for your baggage.

Click-bang, Lane sounded off, to Rama’s mild surprise, then added, Thank you, Ma’am.

Once auto-drive became the norm in military cars the informal tradition had been that junior ranks sat forward of their seniors and faced back, which Lane did when the two got in. The idea was that incase of—now quite rare—accidents, the lower ranks would be at greater risk.

When the vehicle started up, Rama began her in-person interview. So, you know our cadence at the ship registry numbers. What about her song?

"Flight of the Mockingbird, Ma’am," Lane answered in her prominent Australian accent.

Have you read the mission history of our bird? Rama was curious at just how much document reconnaissance the combat operative had done.

"Everyone in the world knows about the Mockingbird, Lane replied, Your first time out was the Astraeus rescue, and after that Kepler 22B. Then there was the Fortuna Incident opposite that Risky Business vessel, The Boundless. If I might say Ma’am, that was a ballsy move."

At that point, Rama could tell Lane hadn’t stopped at the more famous missions, which made M-Cast news. Journalists reported the story of Fortuna, but International Services, the Russian Cosmonautics Force, and RSCI all kept the names of people and ships out of their press statements.

Go on, Rama prompted in a more serious tone.

Lane caught on to the unspoken point. And I know about your losses at Kuiper Belt Object 2039 WX2. It would be like losing family, what with the time your crew put in together.

I’m going to be frank with you, Sergeant, Rama said as she leaned forward in her seat, you’ve never lost people from any unit you served in. That’s the only hang-up I had over whether to accept you on my crew. You’re an experienced combat operator, but this is war we’re dealing with up there. I need to know that you can deal with seeing people die in horrific ways that you never encountered on Earth. It’s not just people you have to fight in space. Our atmosphere fends off enemies you can’t even see. A grain of sand or ice can be more powerful than a 120 millimeter railgun.

Yes ma’am, I recall. Lane sounded respectful but certainly not meek. When you run your lap around Jupiter with the Gilligan’s Anomaly as your only mate you become quite conscious of your suit’s fragility and more so of your own. That’s why I completed it with the second fastest record time.

Yes, I read that in your file, Rama said. Every detail is in there, Sergeant.

Every detail, Ma’am? Lane inquired.

Rama knew Lane’s EVR Jupiter Evolution had been harrowing, but she started to wonder if there were more. The shift in Sergeant Lane’s expression hinted at a backstory, for which there could be plenty of room in the Comms Dead Zone around Jupiter.

* * * *

For Kinessa, the memory of that day’s evolution remained vivid.

Line up, people, the senior EVA Rescue instructor shouted at the score of trainees in pressure suits. This is the Mino Evolution. Each of you will be issued one magnetic field detector, one EVA hand thruster, one emergency suit patch kit, and not a goddamn thing else! Pressure suit instruments will be dead. Comms capability has been clipped to just two klicks. There will be no network access in my evolution. It’s just you and a cold heartless universe with two cm’s of ablation between.

Kinessa maneuvered into line with the others, most of them being in the Extravehicular Rescue Training Flight. One assistant instructor shoved the detector into her left hand. A second slapped the thruster pistol grip into her right and clasped the tether to her suit arm. The senior instructor stuffed the patch kit into her right leg pocket. Once all trainees had their gear, the two instructors went over by the airlock where the helmets were stacked.

The senior instructor resumed, "Final preflight brief. The Gilligan’s Anomaly is the result of magnetic interaction between Jupiter and Io. Io is a temperamental little lady, who likes to spew sulfur dioxide at her daddy. That creates a plasma sheet, which back sixty years ago some fuckin’ navy genius figured out creates a hole in the magnetic field along Io’s orbital plane. The fact that it distorts readings as you get closer is useful. You’ll know you’re in it when your detector has a conniption and shows you jack shit.

"For those of you who are 177 Romeos, here are the rules. You will use your hand thrusters to make the run within the orbital tract that is only five klicks wide. Use your readings to gauge your radial position and stay in the groove. You may assist each other in groups of no more than four. You have exactly nine hours to complete the run and come right back to Magellan Station.

Now, 820 Sierras, here are your rules. Your O-Two air mix has been cut in half. You will not run out sooner, but you cannot adjust your mix back to normal. You will be penalized if you receive assistance from other trainees, but you will be penalized even more if we have to go out there and rescue your sorry asses. Copy? Do not lose my beloved detectors or thrusters. Alright Fledglings, seal in.

To emphasize his point, Kinessa heard the airflow sound wrong after instructors put her helmet on. Like all other suit access, her air supply controls were locked out. She could see the supply and content, but couldn’t do anything about it. Then it was time for the recruits to be cycled out.

The instructors put on and sealed their suits and then moved everyone else into a supply cargo airlock. Expecting to see that each trainee would be permitted to step off the edge and drift away from the station, Kinessa instead discovered that the burly senior instructor and one of his assistants anchored their own feet down before ruthlessly latching onto a suit and hurling the first trainee out.

Get out of my airlock, the senior instructor shouted across comms, and tossed another. You too! Outta my lock! Get out of here! You can go too! Scram! Fuckin’ move!

You think you impress me with that thousand meter stare? the female instructor yelled through her comms. You think I haven’t tossed hard asses out the door before? Think again!

With that yank of four suit gloves, Kinessa saw the Intra-System Vessel disappear and the whole universe spinning out of control. At first, Kinessa thought she’d lost the hand thruster, and then squeezed her right hand tighter. Assured of its company, Kinessa Lane took on her three-axial spin.

The human body was thinner than it was wide or tall, so she spun fastest along her superior-inferior axis. Once Kinessa established between clockwise or counterclockwise, she pressed the meat of her left hand to her chest to read the magnetic sensor and her right hand in front of that to aim the thruster without exposing her suit to its exhaust.

Due to her tumble along other axes, Kinessa reminded herself to ignore her peripheral vision, keep her legs straight, and focus only on the detector. She knew that instructors had her file, where it read she was right-hand dominant. They made sure to spin her clockwise so that she couldn’t use the thruster in front as she’d planned. Kinessa put her arm around her back far enough to the left that she could barely make out the muzzle from behind the small of her back. From there, she applied short bursts of the thruster and read the B vector. The thrusters only had so much fuel, and so she didn’t want to waste any with an overcorrection against her current spin.

Adjusting the other axial rotations became successively easier. However, Jupiter appeared to loom uncomfortably close to her left, as if waiting to swallow her up. Rumors swirled that the Olympian god of Sol’s outer orbits had done so before. Five hours into the evolution, Kinessa watched the B vector display spin widely, and not long after, the magnetic field strength dropped off to near zero. She entered the lost island that was the Gilligan’s Anomaly.

Kinessa got through it well enough. She had the good sense not to make any burns without having an idea of their angle. However, it was after that where she encountered a problem unique from the other trainees, whom she could barely make out with her as yet pre-augmented vision.

For a time longer than Kinessa thought it should take, the field strength grew again, though with the B vector dancing its crazy jig. Before it stabilized, the detector face cracked and the recoil jolted her left hand. Before anything else, she checked to see if her suit had been breached. Yet, whatever the micrometeorite had been, it lacked enough relative velocity to exit the detector its impact had just ruined.

Fortunately, Kinessa had studied the positions of Jupiter’s larger moons during the time the evolution would take place. Coupled with the coaxial scalers embedded in the visor and some trigonometric calculations the previous night, she was able to gauge the distances of the moons by their apparent sizes as she neared them. Her astrogation was ugly, but Kinessa waved off the two nearest trainees who had rejoined each other and recognized something was wrong with Kinessa’s orbit.

At the end, Kinessa was able to latch onto one of the five-kilometer-long retrieval lines flashing vibrant candy cane colors. The instructors had extended the lines out of a cargo airlock on Magellan Station on their return ahead of the trainees. She handed over the useless detector when prompted and got a double-take from the female instructor and a compliment of sorts from the senior instructor. Shoulda specified not to break the fuckin’ thing, hmm Fledgling. Way to improvise!

Chapter 2

Pale Blue Dots

Colonel Rama stood at the hanger bay opening supervising crews loading gear and cargo into the Mockingbird. After three grueling missions, she felt that Earth-Side leave wasn’t quite enough recovery but was glad, all the same, for the new dispatch orders from Force Command. It was obvious that tensions over the last mission lingered, even if those on both sides of the Jade Continuum prisoner argument said nothing more about it to each other.

Gaia 1001 Romeo, Major Fitch spoke up from behind her, Really?

NATO needs more presence on the Hooded Ryujin consulate, is what I’m told, Rama relayed the formal position that was the basis for the Mockingbird’s exo-solar flight.

The Russian Federation SETI case officer, who was part of the first contact, proved magnanimous in selecting a name from Japanese mythology. It demonstrated that the case officer and his superiors understood that they represented all humanity, not just the Federation. After further study of Gaia 1001R’s global oceanic ecology, the scientific name, Ryujinsis nagacucullatus or Snake-Hooded Dragon King of the Sea was formalized with a dash of Hindu theology as a nod to the Federation’s close ties to the Republic of Greater India.

After the Mockingbird’s run-in with the likes of the Toroid and Dodecapod aliens, let alone the sight of five species out of twenty-seven in the Confluence civilization, the Ryujin weren’t so far out there. However, an aquatic species from a super-Earth completely covered by water left plenty of room for differences. In some ways, they were stunningly close to humans in technological advancement and receptive to peaceful contact with all alliance blocs of Sol.

What do you know about them? Fitch asked, now standing at her left as he watched the crew.

"Just what I