CHAPTER 1
Space kills.
That was the first lesson Lucas Wright remembered learning from his father: Space kills.
Despite this, Lucas loved being in space. He stared out the observation port of the Jupiter Station and held his breath at the glories he could see.
Jupiter itself, all oranges, browns, reds, and golds, hung there, filling most of the window. He could see only about a tenth of it, but the whorls of color that bled together on the "surface" of the planet were almost hypnotic. What looked like a solid surface was of course nothing of the kind. It was simply the top of Jupiter's cloud layer. While the lower clouds of Jupiter's thick atmosphere were composed of water (like those on Earth, a planet Lucas had never actually seen), the closer clouds were ammonia and ammonium hydrosulfide. The real surface of Jupiter lay thousands of miles beneath these clouds, covered in a planetary sea of liquid hydrogen that nobody had yet managed to see. The pressure was so great on the surface that nothing any human had ever built could survive there.
Lucas didn't care. Why would anyone want to stand on a planet anyway? He knew that millions of people lived on Earth, and thousands of people on the Moon and Mars. The idea seemed crazy to him. If you lived on a planet, all you could see was a few miles to the horizon and a couple of miles vertically in daylight. At night the view was a lot better--if you could see the stars. But most people on Earth lived in cities where the light was so bright they never saw stars. And on the Moon and Mars, they had to live in pressurized domes and tunnels to stay alive, since there wasn't any atmosphere to breathe. And that meant that all most Lunies or Martians ever saw was rock or metal over their heads.
Not like living here! Lucas could stare out at millions of miles at the very least--and almost to the edges of creation if he looked out at the stars. Live on a plant, stuck in the mud? Never!
Jupiter spun above him. Though it was a huge planet-- 88,650 miles across, over ten times the width of Earth--it rotated in just under ten hours. As a result, all of those gases in its atmosphere swept along at incredible hurricanelike speeds. If you could somehow stand on the surface of Jupiter, the winds alone would whip you to shreds in less than a second.
Space kills.
Despite that, watching the eternal storms of Jupiter was endlessly fascinating to Lucas. The Great Red Spot was one of the most famous features on Jupiter, and it was nothing more than the eye of a hurricane--bigger than Earth itself--that had been raging for centuries and showed no signs of abating. This giant of a world had storms that matched its own size. Lucas thought it was kind of funny that in Earth mythology, Jupiter had been the king of the gods and the lord of storms. But nobody could have imagined the size and ferocity of the storms on the planet named for this weather god!
Jupiter Station orbited this world at about twelve million miles, inside the orbits of the outer four moons, but outside the orbits of the inner eight. (There were lots of tiny moonlets, all too small to be counted or named, so they didn't matter to Lucas.) Right now he could see Callisto in transit across Jupiter, throwing a deep black shadow down on the swirling orange-red storms. Nobody on Earth ever got to see anything like this.
"This is so boring!"
Lucas winced. Of course nobody on Earth ever had to suffer the pain of his kid sister Ashley, either. Ashley was seven (Earth years, naturally), half of Lucas's age, and a regular pain in the butt. Lucas hated having to baby-sit her while their parents worked, but some things just had to be endured, no matter how hard they were. Space kills, but kid sisters tortured.
"This is the greatest sight in the universe," Lucas replied without looking around. "How can you be bored?"
"How do you know it's the greatest sight in the universe?" Ashley asked. "You've not seen them all. In fact, you've not seen any others. You've lived here all your life."
"Who'd want to live anywhere else?" Lucas asked, genuinely astonished.
"Me," Ashley answered. "I want to live on Earth. I want to go swimming. Or skiing. Or lie on a beach. I want to feel the wind, and get a tan, and--oh, a million things you can't do here! This place is so boring!"
Lucas stared at his kid sister. He'd always known she was a brat, but he'd never before realized that she was crazy. "It's only boring if you won't do anything, Ash-face," he told her. "Your trouble is that you want what you read about. You should be happy with what you've got." On the other hand, he had to admit that having so much free water around that you could go swimming in it might be fun…and maybe sitting on a beach wasn't too bad either. But the fact was that such things were impossible out here in orbit around Jupiter. Wishing for what you could never have was unproductive. You had to accept limits and enjoy what you had.
"Like you?" Ashley snorted and tossed her head.
"Forget it, weasel. You may like it here, but I don't. I want to go to Earth."
Trying to keep his temper, Lucas shook his head. "You know very well that that's not possible," he said. "For one thing, Mom and Dad would never let you go. It's far too dangerous there. People die swimming, and they get cancer from the sun. They break limbs skiing, and die in storms. Geez, you're so dumb! It's far better and safer here."
"Safe!" Ashley glared at him. "And what about Jack Woo?"
Lucas had known she'd bring that up. "That was Jack's own fault," he said patiently. "Even you know the rule that you always get someone to check your space suit for you before you go outside. Jack didn't bother, and that's why he died. His suit rings weren't locked properly. If he'd followed the rules that even a baby like you knows, he'd be fine now. You can't blame stupidity on Jupiter."
"I am not a baby!" Ashley snapped. "And I do know the rules. I'd never do anything like that. But it proves that you can get hurt or killed here just as easily as on Earth."
"That's beside the point," Lucas insisted, switching the subject. "Anyway, even if our folks did let you go--and, boy, do I wish they would! The peace would be terrific--there's only one ship every six months to and from Earth. And it just brings supplies and takes back samples and scientific experiments. Nobody who lives here wants to go back to Earth."
"I do!"
Lucas regarded his sister with exasperation. "Then you're crazy," he informed her. "Maybe you should go back to Earth on the next flight." He grinned. "I'll be happy to argue that point for you with Mom and Dad if you like."
"Wouldn't you just love to get rid of me?" Ashley asked. "Some big brother you are! I hope Mom and Dad know that you hate me."
"I don't hate you," Lucas answered. "You're just a monumental pain in the butt, that's all. If you weren't around, I could have a lot more fun."
That was the wrong thing to say. Ashley smirked. "With Lauren Bradley, eh?" She made kissy faces. "I know what you two do!"
"You do not!" Lucas's face went bright red, and he stammered.
"Well, it's only because she's far too smart to hang about with a dork like you!"
That really hurt, partly because it was actually true. Lauren hardly knew that he existed. Well, why should she, when she could have her choice of any teenage boy on the station? She was six months older than Lucas, and the only thing other than Jupiter that he thought was absolute perfection. The problem was that so did every other guy in the place. She had a swarm of boys around her all the time. Lauren was always polite to Lucas, but slightly distant, even when they worked together, as they often had to at school.
"Leave Lauren out of this!" Lucas snapped.
"I don't have to," Ashley answered, her grin showing that she knew she had scored. "She leaves herself out of your life, and that's good enough for me. Anyway, I'm bored. There's nothing here to do. Let's go play games or something."
"Nothing to do?" Lucas gestured at the observation port. "Just look out there! There's one of the greatest wonders in the universe to look at."
"Seen it," Ashley said with a yawn. "Let's do something interesting."
Lucas gave up. It was quite clear that he had a dumb sister. Since his parents were so bright, and he was almost a certified genius, Ashley had to be some kind of a throwback. Ugh! And why did he have to get stuck with her?
At that moment the door to the observation deck opened and Lucas almost died. Lauren Bradley walked in, which was bad enough. Ashley was bound to use this moment to embarrass him. But Lauren walked in with David Tolbeck, which was even worse. David was seventeen, and a nice guy. Too nice. If Lauren was with him, that could mean only one thing--Lucas's chances of getting her to notice him had dropped to absolute zero.
"Hi, Lauren," said Ashley in that sickly sweet I'm-going-to-really-embarrass-my-brother tone of hers.
"Uh, hi," Lauren said. She'd obviously forgotten Ashley's name, which was possibly a good sign. "Hi, Lucas. Are we disturbing you?"
Yes! "Uh, no," he said, trying not to stammer or to give Ashley any excuse to say something. "We were just leaving. Ashley was bored stiff. You know how kid sisters can be."
"Actually, no," David said cheerfully. "I'm an only child. How can they be?" He gave Ashley an encouraging grin. Lucas wanted to die.
"Absolutely wonderful," Ashley answered. "Say, are you two dating?"
Lauren looked down quickly but she didn't deny it. Lucas felt his insides being strangled and wished he could do the same to Ashley's neck.
"Not yet," David answered, "though I haven't stopped trying. We just wanted to look out." He glanced at the observation port and then frowned. "Say, there's no ship due yet, is there?"
"The Icarus was here only a month ago," Lucas answered, glad of the distraction. "Nothing's due for five more months. Why?"
David gestured. "There, out beyond Sinope." Luc...
