Tag: Jupiter

Distant Love (Part 54)

Derek spends hours more going from moon to moon after that. A siren goes off for a few seconds. It’s a warning that the fair is coming to a close.

Damn, I haven’t even seen Jupiter itself yet!

He powers over to the huge planet. There are no human settlements in its atmosphere to admire. Not yet, anyway, plans have been drawn up. He concentrates on its great red spot, a giant perpetual storm, and the differing colors of its clouds.

Feeling a pang of sadness, he turns around to look at the crowd around. Everyone else is either with their partner or with friends.

He shakes his head. Thinking like that will get him nowhere. Yes, it would be nice to have a girlfriend to share days such as these, but he needs to be realistic. The closest thing he had to one was Maeve, and he’d probably never actually meet her.

It had been a good day. That is what he needed to concentrate on.

Now, for the final part of his plan. A nice pint of ale in Rosemary’s. He had never been there before, but it looked like an interesting place to go, and most importantly, it was close by.

Distant Love (Part 53)

Derek marvels at the display of the base. The miniature buildings on the moon have all been made to the exact specifications. It even shows little people going back and forth between them, carrying out routine maintenance and other functions. He is most interested in the spaceport. This is where human exploration and colonization would expand to Saturn and beyond. Then there is the Le Poitre telescope that scans for habitable new worlds in the galaxy. He could have spent the whole day absorbed in that base, but there was so much more to see at the exhibition.

He looks up to see which moon he will look at next. The woman with the tattoo that had been on the train is standing there looking at him, but disappears into a crowd passing by.

Derek thinks little of it. Due to medical advances, there are very few people in wheelchairs. Even less on the moon. The odd time, Derek would find himself followed by someone enamored by his chair. Life is too short for him to worry about it.

He powers his chair over to the volcanic moon lo and watches intently as lava oozes over the surface. The realism is beyond his expectations.

Distant Love (Part 52)

Now, there is little standing space left, and Derek’s concern has grown about someone falling on him by accident. He tries to put concerns such as those to the back of his mind. There is only one stop left. He has nearly made it and can already feel a slight deceleration.

The doors open, and the packed crowd jostles its way out with him following closely behind. He has reached Zone A. The largest settlement on the moon. All the passageways are filled with a mass of people. The settlement is composed of fifteen layers, with him currently at the lowest level.

He sees a sign for the Jupiter Fair. It leads him off the main thoroughfare and down a tunnel. After going about a hundred metres, he hears cries of excitement ahead. His own heart begins to beat a bit faster.

The tunnel opens up into a vast chamber. A massive holographic display of Jupiter and its moons is centre stage with throngs of people everywhere. It’s even better than he could have dreamed of.

He knows where he wants to see first – Europa and its human settlement. He powers past the small outer moons for now and heads straight towards it.