In less than half a human lifetime, Europa had been transformed. The crust of ice on the hemisphere always facing Lucifer had melted, to form the Solar System’s second ocean. For a decade it had foamed and bubbled into the vacuum above it, until equilibrium had been reached. Now Europa possessed a thin but serviceable – though not to human beings – atmosphere of water vapour, hydrogen sulphide, carbon and sulphur dioxides, nitrogen, and miscellaneous rare gases. Though the somewhat misnamed ‘nightside’ of the satellite was still permanently frozen, an area as large as Africa now had a temperate climate, liquid water, and a few scattered islands.
All this, and not much more, had been observed through telescopes in Earth orbit. By the time that the first full-scale expedition had been launched to the Galilean moons, in 2028, Europa had already become veiled by a permanent mantle of clouds. Cautious radar probing revealed little but smooth ocean on one face, and almost equally smooth ice on the other; Europa still maintained its reputation as the flattest piece of real estate in the Solar System. Ten years later, that was no longer true: something drastic had happened to Europa. It now possessed a solitary mountain, almost as high as Everest, jutting up through the ice of the twilight zone. Presumably some volcanic activity – like that occurring ceaselessly on neighbouring Io – had thrust this mass of material skywards. The vastly increased heat-flow from Lucifer could have triggered such an event.
But there were problems with this obvious explanation. Mount Zeus was an irregular pyramid, not the usual volcanic cone, and radar scans showed none of the characteristic lava flows. Some poor-quality photographs obtained through telescopes on Ganymede, during a momentary break in the clouds, suggested that it was made of ice, like the frozen landscape around it. Whatever the answer, the creation of Mount Zeus had been a traumatic experience for the world it dominated, for the entire crazy-paving pattern of fractured ice floes over the nightside had changed completely.
One maverick scientist had put forward the theory that Mount Zeus was a ‘cosmic iceberg’ – a cometary fragment that had dropped upon Europa from space; battered Callisto gave ample proof that such bombardments had occurred in the remote past. The theory was very unpopular on Ganymede, whose would-be colonists already had sufficient problems.
They had been much relieved when van der Berg had refuted the theory convincingly; any mass of ice this size would have shattered on impact – and even if it hadn’t, Europa’s gravity, modest though it was, would have quickly brought about its collapse. Radar measurements showed that though Mount Zeus was indeed steadily sinking, its overall shape remained completely unaltered. Ice was not the answer.
The problem could, of course, have been settled by sending a single probe through the clouds of Europa. Unfortunately, whatever was beneath that almost permanent overcast did not encourage curiosity.
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS – EXCEPT EUROPA.
ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
That last message relayed from the spaceship Discovery just before its destruction had not been forgotten, but there had been endless arguments about its interpretation. Did ‘landings’ refer to robot probes, or only to manned vehicles? And what about close flybys – manned or unmanned? Or balloons floating in the upper atmosphere?
The scientists were anxious to find out, but the general public was distinctly nervous. Any power that could detonate the mightiest planet in the Solar System was not to be trifled with. And it would take centuries to explore and exploit Io, Ganymede, Callisto and the dozens of minor satellites; Europa could wait.
More than once, therefore, van der Berg had been told not to waste his valuable time on research of no practical importance, when there was so much to be done on Ganymede. (‘Where can we find carbon – phosphorus – nitrates for the hydroponic farms? How stable is the Barnard Escarpment? Is there any danger of more mudslides in Phrygia?’ And so on and so forth…) But he had inherited his Boer ancestors’ well-deserved reputation for stubbornness: even when he was working on his numerous other projects, he kept looking over his shoulder at Europa.
And one day, just a few hours, a gale from the nightside cleared the skies about Mount Zeus.
7
Transit
‘I too take leave of all 1 ever had…’
From what depths of memory had that line come swimming up to the surface? Heywood Floyd closed his eyes, and tried to focus on the past. It was certainly from a poem – and he had hardly read a line of poetry since leaving college. And little enough then, except during a short English Appreciation Seminar.
With no further clues, it might take the station computer quite a while – perhaps as much as ten minutes – to locate the line in the whole body of English literature. But that would be cheating (not to mention expensive) and Floyd preferred to accept the intellectual challenge.
A war poem, of course – but which war? There had been so many in the twentieth century.
He was still searching through the mental mists when his guests arrived, moving with the effortless, slow-motion grace of longtime one-sixth gravity residents. The society of Pasteur was strongly influenced by what had been christened ‘centrifugal stratification’; some people never left the zero gee of the hub, while those who hoped one day to return to Earth preferred the almost normal-weight regime out on the rim of the huge, slowly revolving disc.
George and Jerry were now Floyd’s oldest and closest friends – which was surprising, because they had so few obvious points in common. Looking back on his own somewhat chequered emotional career – two marriages, three formal contracts, two informal ones, three children – he often envied the long-term stability of their relationship, apparently quite unaffected by the ‘nephews’ from Earth or Moon who visited them from time to time.
‘Haven’t you ever thought of divorce?’ he had once asked them teasingly.
As usual, George – whose acrobatic yet profoundly serious conducting had been largely responsible for the comeback of the classical orchestra – was at no loss for words.
‘Divorce – never,’ was his swift reply. ‘Murder – often.’
‘Of course, he’d never get away with it,’ Jerry had retorted. ‘Sebastian would spill the beans.’
Sebastian was a beautiful and talkative parrot which the couple had imported after a long battle with the hospital authorities. He could not only talk, but could reproduce the opening bars of the Sibelius Violin Concerto, with which Jerry – considerably helped by Antonio Stradivari – had made his reputation half a century ago.
Now the time had come to say goodbye to George, Jerry and Sebastian – perhaps only for a few weeks, perhaps for ever. Floyd had already made all his other farewells, in a round of parties that had gravely depleted the station’s wine cellar, and could think of nothing he had left undone.
Archie, his early-model but still perfectly serviceable comsec, had been programmed to handle all incoming messages, either by sending out appropriate replies or by routing anything urgent and personal to him aboard Universe. It would be strange, after all these years, not to be able to talk to anyone he wished – though in compensation he could also avoid unwanted callers. After a few days into the voyage, the ship would be far enough from Earth to make realtime conversation impossible, and all communication would have to be by recorded voice or teletext.
‘We thought you were our friend,’ complained George. ‘It was a dirty trick to make us your executors – especially as you’re not going to leave us anything.’
‘You may have a few surprises,’ grinned Floyd. ‘Anyway, Archie will take care of all the details. I’d just like you to monitor my mail, in case there’s anything he doesn’t understand.’
‘If he won’t, nor will we. What do we know about all your scientific societies and that sort of nonsense?’
‘They can look after themselves. Please see that the cleaning staff doesn’t mess things up too badly while I’m away – and, if I don’t come back – here are a few personal items I’d like delivered – mostly family.’
Family! There were pains, as well as pleasures, in living as long as he had done.
It had been sixty-three – sixty-three! – years since Marion had died in that air crash. Now he felt a twinge of guilt, because he could not even recall the grief he must have known. Or at best, it was a synthetic reconstruction, not a genuine memory.
What would they have meant to each other, had she still been alive? She would have been just a hundred years old by now.
And now the two little girls he had once loved so much were friendly, grey-haired strangers in their late sixties, with children – and grandchildren! – of their own. At last count there had been nine on that side of the family; without Archie’s help, he would never be able to keep track of their names. But at least they all remembered him at Christmas, through duty if not affection.