It takes a few minutes for me to compile a flight plan and get clearance to leave the dock. The navigation system ties into traffic control while I get orbital clearance for the Chimera. Sparrow begins preflight, syncing the engines and guidance systems with the navigational buoys set throughout the Jovian. She occasionally sniffles and wipes a few tears away while she works, leaning over the nav console as she plots the descent. I strap myself into my seat as our vectors are approved. I hear the Chimera's engine warming up, a purr growing in pitch and volume that transmits through the seat. Kinda like a massage chair. Guess this is happening.

I ping Brent. "Sergeant, talk to me. How's the prep going?"

"Fairly well, El Tee. Got some choices for explosives," he starts off smugly. "Option one, we could just pack the array with oxygen tanks and toss a burner in on a timer. Let it drift away and burn the infection out."

I frown. I want to reduce every bit of hardware to vapor and dust. Communion cannot get out. "Sounds like it would destroy the structure, but how much balloon effect are we going to get after it breaches into vacuum?"

"Well, not as much as we'd like," he admits. "There's some case-hardened or heat-resistant substrate that could survive the blast."

I shake my head. "I don't want any change Communion survives, even as inert debris floating in vacuum. Other options?"

"We've got a couple. There's a fair amount of lithium in one of the mining companies' cargo bays. We could confiscate some under the doctrine of 'operational necessity'," Brent snickers. "Add water and tie in the fire-suppression system, and you've got yourself a lithium-ion bomb. Instant boom," he adds with an amused tone.

I chuckle. "Better, especially since we can place the lithium strategically, and we can always toss some oxygen tanks in with it."

Brent's laughter dies off. "Final option; we do have the spare reactor for the station. We could load it into the array's module." His tone becomes serious. "I mean, with a CE Key, I could override the safety systems, pack a full load of tritium in it, and wire it to overload. Atomize it," he says, softly. I can understand why. He's talking about making a deuterium-tritium reactor into an ad-hoc fusion bomb.

My throat constricts at the thought of that. I run a hand through my hair and whistle. "Wow. A nuke? You've got balls, Sarge. And as much as I would love to read the Board of Review deposition for that stunt, the lithium bomb will do." It had better.

"Green across the board," He says. I'm pretty sure I hear relief in his voice. "Got the bots cutting the struts and welding some maneuvering rockets onto the side. We'll be good to kick the array off within the hour."

As the engine begins to hum, I feel the Chimera shiver, the thrusters spitting as they engage. "We're about to do some maneuvering of our own, Sergeant. Keep an eye on things on your end and let me know if anything changes. I'll ping you when I have more," I say, before I cut the channel. Well, we each have our task.

I turn and give Sparrow a tight smile. The smile slides off my face when I see her mouth hanging open and eyes bulging.

"You're going to blow up the station?!" She squeaks. She's rigid and tense as a wire in her seat.

It takes me a second to understand. "What? Oh, no, just the Tachi telescope array," I explain, tilting my head. She doesn't look reassured, and it takes me another moment to get the disconnect. "Oh right, a lot has happened in the past few hours, and I haven't filled you in on it," I mutter. I pass a hand over my face. Ooof, this is gonna add some layers.

Sparrow narrows her eyes. "In the past few hours?" she asks skeptically, one eyebrow raised. "As in, since getting suspended, and meeting me in the Chimera, and... we didn't even get that meal yet!"

I laugh bitterly. "Oh, just wait until you hear the rest." I say as I debate on where to start. "Well, to begin, we were both right," I say, voice heavy with irony. "I was right; Rabi is a little sweet on me. And you were right too; I couldn't keep up with her."

***

By the end of the story, the Chimera pulls away from the station and drops into a decaying orbit around Europa. The goal is to get as close to the mining site as possible, and hopefully ping the local network when we're close enough to cut through the interference. I spend a moment linked into Ursa Miner Station logging updates to our flight plan, for all it helps. From there, I've composed a short, simple message to Captain Cartwright. I've got the Chimera ready to send that databurst out on repeat the moment we get confirmation of a signal.

Sparrow spins the ship around. I've just finished prepping as the engine kicks hard. I'm pressed against my chair like someone is standing on my chest. We're bleeding velocity as we decelerate to descend. Once the pressure lessens, and I can actually breathe reliably, I continue where I left off.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Ah, and from what we can tell, Lemming and all the other victims of Communion instinctively gathered or were called together to Commune at the source of infection. Now, they're merging and feasting on a superturing AI's code. Basically, the undead, writhing remains are all merging into some sort of twisted abomination that will finish it's dinner, then eat us all for dessert."

There's a moment of silence from Sparrow.

I straighten up, remembering. "Crap, sorry. I know you knew him..."

She waves her hand. "A little, an old colleague from years ago. I'm sorry for him, but... Rabi? I mean, what the hell? She's the mastermind here?"

I shake my head. "Seems so, but it's hard to tell. She has her own interests and agenda. She wants Communion here, but I think to study it, and maybe find a way to kill it."

There a moment of silence, filled only with the sound of Sparrow tapping the console. "Melody... what she did to you..."

I feel my heart pounding. "It was a void-spawned violation. And I'm not just wiping the hard drive on that. But people are dying, and Communion is a threat to all of us. We'll take care of Rusteater, then Communion, then Rabi."

"Melody..." Sparrow pauses. "If Rabi knows I'm with the Gaian League..."

I squeeze a fist. "She hasn't done anything about it yet. I doubt that's even on her radar right now." My heart pounds. "One step at a time."

A few heartbeats pass. "I'm... sorry," she says softly. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner. I was trying not to betray the league. But I swear, I didn't meet with you to set you up or use you," she pleads.

I take a breath. "I believe you. We'll handle it as it happens."

There's a little more silence as Sparrow plugs in some specs for maneuvers in the console. I'll give her this, she makes it look fluid and instinctive. I couldn't pilot half this well. She turns to look at me. "So, Communion... It’s gonna merge us all together?"

I scoff. "Not just that. It’s going to merge us, itself, and ALL of the ecosphere of our virts."

"What? Like, you’ll be welded to a maintenance VI?" She tilts her head quizzically.

I roll my hand. "Sparrow, what is by far the most abundant and hard to stamp out form of D-life? By an order of magnitude?"

"Oh, spambots, malware, adver- oh starless sky..." she trails off.

"Yeah. Lowest common denominator. It's exactly what happened to Alex. Communion doesn't distinguish between AIs, EIs, or VIs. It doesn't matter; subsentient or supersapient, malware or bloatware or living minds." I shake my head. "It's not a picky eater. If you have any augments, it's gonna be inside them. And if you have so little wetware that you can't live without your implants, then you're gonna be part of the gestalt."

Sparrow blows out a long breathe. "Starless skies... I've never been so glad to have a temp augment."

I shrug at that. "Well, I guess going without a public profile, wearing a disposable augment? I should have guessed you were..."

There's a moment of silence. "A terrorist?" Sparrow blanches. "I was a cargo-running. I believe in a cause. I've never killed anyone. I've never even used a weapon against someone," she says with a sulking tone.

I roll my eyes. "Yeah? Kinda hard to do if you don't carry a weapon. But it doesn't make you less complicit if you smuggle weapons for someone else to use-"

"Hey!" Sparrow slaps a hand on the console. "I never carried weapons or bombs or malware or anything like that!" She protests angrily. "Well, I mean, I never smuggled weapons."

I notice the distinction. "You actually have any weapons on board?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact. A two-shot plasma pistol in the engine room."

I snort at that. "Yeah? You find a lot of need for a lethal weapon, running cargo?"

"As it happens, from time to time." Sparrow turns her head and gives me a cool look. "This is the Dark District, Lieutenant Cruz. And not Luna either; you're out past Mars. Not everyone plays nice out here, and a lotta times the cops are a long way away and not very interested in finding out what's going on. Sometimes just showing someone that you have the means to protect yourself does a lot to deter trouble," she says evenly.

There's a stretch of silence. I cough. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."

The ship shudders. Sparrow huffs. "You apologize too much."

The thrusters and main engines kick hard, and all the breath is driven from my lungs. Again. My vision darkens for a long moment, until the deceleration stops. "Ugh, how much closer to the surface do we have to get?" I mutter.

"One more deceleration should do it. On top of Jupiter's radiation, Europa has an induced magnetic field. Without a tightbeam link, the Chimera's comms just won't get a signal through the EM soup." Sparrow reaches up and flips a few switches. "We just have to get close enough to cut through."

I bite my lip. "Do we have a lock on the surface station?"

She nods, pointing to the console. "There's a transponder. But it's not really a manned station. I mean, the surface is an ice sheet, even if it's hard as rock. It's minus 200 Celsius, with enough radiation to fry you after a day or two. Nobody organic lives here; even the suits aren't rated for more than a few hours out there."

I pull up the diagrams in my relay, seeing the mining station etched in silver. She's right. There's a few pre-fabbed buildings that look like industrial structures. There's a mech maintenance bay, a control and generator room, and a closed landing platform with walls and a shutters roof. "Just lots of autonomous mechs and AIs." I say, shaking my head. Twenty mechs, looking like six-legged metal spiders with drilling and grappling arms on their backs. "So what is the Gaian League trying to protect down here? Trying to save some algae living under the ice? Or deep ocean plankton sipping at some hydrothermal vents?"

I chuckle, but I stop when she doesn't join me. Her eyes look pained. "Brace for the last decel," she warns.

I open my mouth, but only give a muffled "grk!" as I'm slammed back against my seat. Perhaps a harder deceleration than needed. It lasts longer too.

As the pressure lessens, and I see the guidance flags, I breathe a sigh of relief.

"Squids..." Sparrow mutters.

I blink. "What?"

Sparrow sighs. "The Gaian League sent a few bots down through the cryo-geysers at the surface. They found some cephalopod-analogue down there, and the league is terrified what humanity will do if they find out there's an ocean of protein swimming around down there."

I roll that over in my head. "Huh, ok, makes sense." I think for a moment, brow scrunching. "But what do they taste like?"

***