10

"It's hard not to," Petavius says, looking out of the elevator into the void beyond. "I've lived my whole life on one moon. Earth's gravity would kill me. Crush me alive. The only way I'm leaving Luna is if I go to Europa."

A bell rings out across the trolley.

"Here's our stop," says Kosmo.

Next

Soon you float with the others in a viewing bubble at the dock command center, looking out at the rockets. All three of them are docked in a row.

Compared to the Asterion, the three supply rockets are tiny. The rockets—Laelaps, Talos, and Javelin—are all named after gifts from Zeus to the Phoenician princess Europa. Laelaps, a dog that always catches his prey. Talos, a giant automaton that protected Crete. And Javelin, named after the most prosaic gift, a javelin.

Each is packed with useful but nonessential provisions to be sent ahead of you. While humans have a maximum g-force they can stand and are averse to high-impact crash landings, with proper preparation, machine supplies needn't suffer the same drawbacks. The rockets will go ahead and lay the way for you.

Laelaps will land with a number of manned and unmanned exploration vehicles for traversing the surface. Talos is fitted with communication and surveillance satellites; the rocket will break up and seed the satellites on entry to Europa. Finally, Javelin will land with larger drilling and construction equipment.

"They're all loaded up already," says Kosmo about the rockets. "Nice to have some things going to plan."

On one long wall of the dock command center, a slowly rotating 3D map shows the positions of all the vessels docked. You can see the gray, spider-like sprawl of the dock itself, the Asterion and the three rockets in a row, as well as various Earth-to-Luna shuttles.

One of the staff is on hand to point out what each model is. She points out the glowing thread of the elevator down to Moltke City, which of the shuttles is from the Group of 81 and which are from mining corporations.

"What do those lines mean?" asks Petavius. She points at green curved lines leading out of some of the shuttles.

"Line of trajectory," says the guide. "Shows they're on their way out without risk of collision."

As you look at the map, a new shuttle appears on the very edge, a few hundred miles away. The trajectory line from the shuttle goes straight through the Asterion and on through the dock. In your years as an aerospace engineer, you've seen enough of these shuttle maps in your time to know that its expected slowdown should already be giving it a green line for safe docking.

"I don't think it should look like that," says Petavius.

"The label says it's a drone shuttle," says Kosmo, unconcerned. "It'll slow down."

It doesn't slow down.

A loud alarm starts ringing and the lights start flashing red.

"EMERGENCY EVACUATION. PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE ELEVATOR PORT," an automated voice repeats over and over.

"What's going on?" you ask the guide.

"That unmanned mining vessel coming in isn't responding to hails and isn't decelerating," says the Operational Head. "It's still a ways off, but at this rate, it's due to hit…uh…it's on course to take out the Asterion. If it explodes it could take the whole base out, all the ships docked too. You have to leave now."

"Can't you just shoot it down?"

"Kosmo, any ideas?"

"Rheita, what are you thinking?"

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