THUNDERBIRDS - The Bells Of Jove . By Matthew Pavletich "Just as Jupiter was King of all the Roman Gods, so too is his namesake the King of the planets in our varied and wondrous solar system. Jupiter is nearly twelve times the diameter of the Earth a nd more than three hundred times its mass. Unlike its smaller, rocky sibling, Jupiter consists largely of hydrogen and helium with traces of methane and other gases. The upper regions of Jupiter's atmosphere are a violent mass of turbulent, phosphorous - la ced cloud bands. Far below this churning maelstrom the lower regions are so compressed that the hydrogen has become a liquid metallic mass. As a result, Jupiter is generator of the solar systems second most powerful magnetic field. The honour of first plac e goes to the Sun, of which some people say Jupiter is a failed binary companion. Aside from a swarm of captured asteroids and icy cometary matter, Jupiter has four main moons large enough to be worlds in their own right. The famous Italian astronomer and Renaissance man Galileo Galilei discovered them in 1610 and they were later named after the lovers of the God Jupiter; Callisto, Ganymede, Europa and Io. All were bathed in the strong magnetic radiations from their parent planet. Especially the innermost little world, the violently volcanic Io..." Excerpt from the Science Channel documentary; `WORLDS OF WONDER.' In a synchronous orbit that continuously placed the bulk of Io between itself and most of Jupiter's radiation, the giant spaceship Zero X (Ma rk IV) awaited the return of a probe from the tortured orange - yellow surface of Io. The crew of Zero X were nearing the end of a successful seven week survey of the four Galilean moons. Manned landings on the two outermost satellites had been conducted by the detachable Jovian Excursion Vehicle (JEV), but the inner moons Europa and Io were considered too hazardous to explore first hand. Therefore the detailed surveys had been carried out by sophisticated robotic probes. "What's the ETA on that thing, Ray ?" Colonel Paul Travers asked his scientist crewmate and fellow Zero X veteran. Planetary Geologist Ray Pierce smiled wearily and stroked his grey - flecked beard. "It's due to liftoff from the caldera in seventeen minutes. What's the matter, Paul? Don't t ell me you're bored with the cutting edge of exploration already! Next thing you'll be doing is telling me that the funding for this jaunt isn't worth it." Travers gave a little chuckle. Pierce was referring to a televised debate that had been beamed from Earth several days before. The debate panels had been crewed by overwrought and hysterical types on both sides. The panel against space funding had featured a failed Presidential candidate, two disgruntled scientists with budget - cancelled projects, a Fire and Brimstone preacher, and a best - selling anti - technology atheist/humanist writer. On the side of defending space funding was a motley collection of dry scientists and engineers with questionable social and debating skills. Their only saving grace was t he animated defence put up by Professor Tony Grant, Pierce and Travers' old shipmate from the Zero X Mars expeditions. "Good old Tony!" Pierce laughed again. "He did most of the talking for his team." "Yeah," Travers said. "Honestly, I've never seen suc h a bunch of stiffs in all of my life. Where did he dig them up?" "Oh, they're not a bad bunch. It’s just that when you've chalked up three or four PhDs , it gets a bit much to have to play politics, too. Especially in front of millions of television viewe rs." Travers sighed. "Poor Tony. He would have sold his soul to come on this expedition. Boy, was he pissed off when he failed the medical." "No shit!" Pierce exclaimed. "I was the one whose shoulder he cried on, remember? But luckily, he seems to have go tten over it now. Especially judging by that performance on TV. He's becoming a latter - day Carl Sagan." Travers frowned. "Carl who ?" Pierce rolled his eyes. "Look him up." He grasped a roof handrail and propelled his weightless body toward the rear of t he JEV main cabin, muttering something about philistine fighter jocks. Ray Pierce and Paul Travers shared the relatively spacious control and living quarters of the Zero X JEV and main body with their three shipmates, Major Naseem Patel, Space Captain Bra d Newman, and Doctor Bruce Kerrod. There had been virtually no incidents of friction or hostility among the crew during the epic space mission. Even the addition of the attractive Naseem Patel had created no appreciable sexual tension on board the ship. A nd this was despite predictions to the contrary by some deskbound psychologists. As Travers went aft to join his crewmates, he caught sight of Patel's floating, waist - length braid of raven hair before he saw the rest of her lithe form. Naseem was bent ove r an instrument panel with Bruce Kerrod hovering over her shoulder. Paul Travers sighed and reminded himself again that he was a married man. Naseem Patel's femininity was tempered somewhat by her cool and businesslike manner. Nevertheless, the World Airf orce Pilot - Astronaut was a beautiful woman. Travers smiled to himself. Kerrod was the one male member of the crew immune to Patel's charms. Ray Pierce and Brad Newman were doubtless grateful for Bruce Kerrod's sexual orientation, despite the fact that both Pierce and Newman were also married. But it was no secret that Ray Pierce's marriage was finished even before the Jupiter expedition had lifted off. That fact had caused his crewmates to close ranks against the psychologists, who had wanted to ground Pie rce because of his problems. Damned desk - jockeys! What they didn't realise was that if they had grounded the scientist, the loss of both his marriage and the mission would have destroyed Ray Pierce. And here they were, over eight hundred million kilometer s away from all their earthly problems. With new ones to occupy the here and now. "Ray? I'm sorry, but we seem to be losing part of the uplink from the probe." Naseem Patel's tone was sharp with disappointment. Pierce moved quickly to her side, his face d isplaying equal sentiment. He reached over her shoulder and prodded a control. A radar signature of the probe's rendezvous course to Zero X appeared on the control screen. "What happened?" Travers asked. Pierce made an adjustment and grunted. "Well, the probe appears to have an automatic control system malfunction. Its engine shut down early and it doesn't look like it has enough delta - vee to make it." He pushed away from the panel. "That's it, I guess," he said disgustedly. Patel put a hand on his shoul der. "I'm sorry, Ray. I know how much this meant to you. The first Io probe fried by an eruption, and now this." "Not to mention the malfunction of that second Europa bird," Brad Newman added. "But, Naseem. You said only part of the uplink was lost. What about manual control?" Kerrod and Patel were shaking their heads as Kerrod answered. "We tried that, but there was no response. The probe is on a decaying orbit." Travers cleared his throat. "How long till it impacts on the surface?" "About sixteen, m aybe seventeen hours at the most," Kerrod shrugged. Travers scowled. It was bad. Ganymede and Callisto had needed no dedicated sample return probes because of the landings the crew had made on those two moons. But two sophisticated sample return landers h ad been carried for each of the moons they did not land on, one for each hemisphere. The second Europa probe had gone mysteriously silent, the first Io lander had been struck by volcanic materiel, and now this latest malfunction. Patel snapped her fingers . "I think I've got an idea! Paul, what if we drop the ship to a lower orbit, detach the JEV and go capture the probe with one of the grab arms? We ought to have enough fuel to do it." Travers held up his hand. "Now wait a second - ." "Yes!" Pierce jumped in excitedly. "We have to try, Paul. Otherwise we'll go back to Earth with more than a quarter of our data missing. This could be our only chance this century to obtain hard geological data and samples on the most volcanically active body in the solar syst em." Travers held in check his irritation at having a command decision interrupted. He managed a bemused look. "I understand the scientific importance of those samples, Ray. I also understand your enthusiasm for wanting to rescue them, Naseem. But I think it would be ill - advised to try. This is an extremely hostile environment we are in." "True, Paul," Patel agreed. "But Doctor Pierce is right. The way program funding is going back on Earth, there may not be a second Jupiter expedition. They might decide to press on with the next generation Zero X series and head out to Saturn. If they go anywhere at all!" Patel was right. The World Space Exploration Council was under pressure to streamline and rationalise their operations. The next two Jupiter expedition s could very well be sacrificed to fund a mission to Saturn with a Zero X Mark V. Or more likely, attention would be reverted back to the still largely unexplored Mars, which was a far more likely candidate for colonisation than anywhere else in the solar system.