Inside Jupiter: Inside Jupiter, #1

Chapter One

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Deep inside Jupiter, giant butterfly warriors had Walt and Mindy cornered behind a pile of broken crystals. They swept in closer with each pass. Eight feet tall, with wingspans of twenty feet, the vicious flapping of their wings merged in a constant roar like an avalanche of thunder.  Walt, older by two years at fourteen, kept himself in front of his sister and faced them. He didn’t cover his ears from the booming noise, but Mindy did. The rock wall at their backs was a solid sheet of dark reddish-black basalt, with no seams, caves, or any place where they might hide. They crouched low behind the waist-high pile of glittering rocks as the bright orange warriors zoomed nearer each time. The air whooshed and crackled as they roared by. Each had an angry face and a sheath on either side of its thorax and from these had drawn long pearly glass swords held in the top two of six limbs.

Walt glanced behind where the sheer rock wall had no handholds at all. High along the side of the cliff hung rows of what looked like hanging lanterns – each was a Chrysalis. They must be what the warriors were guarding when Walt and Mindy’s explorations had taken them this direction. The only way out was the slender path they had followed to come up, and it was cut off by the fierce swooping warriors.

Careful, Mindy yelled.  Walt ducked as a sword slashed. The sweeping blade just missed his sister’s head as she dipped. It clipped the tip end of her ponytail. A small spray of half-inch long bright red hair fluttered down on them. A warm flush of fury swept over Walt. He grabbed a fist-sized quartz rock from the pile of crystals and threw it hard. The rock flew like a missile. He doubted he had ever thrown a ball with as much sizzle in his life. It grazed the antennae of the nearest butterfly and struck it on the forewing, spinning it to its left and tearing a small hole through the wing. The butterfly dropped its glass swords and fluttered off in a hasty retreat while the other warriors gathered closer and thicker. The air filled with a silent shrieking so fierce Walt nearly put his palms to his ears. Hands had clasped tight around his neck and he choked for breath until he could scarcely turn his head to see that it was Mindy who had him by the throat and squeezed hard, with a grip that felt considerable in this atmosphere. His head began to swirl and he saw the freckles on her cheeks blur and her eyes flame in a glitter of green rage the like of which he had never seen on her before, even back when they’d had the usual sibling spats while growing up. Her face twisted with a fierce madness and he was too out of breath to do more than lift his arms and try to push away her hands, though he could feel his strength fading and flickers of black began to appear at the corners of his eyes as he started to lose consciousness.           

He heard a firm click, then felt the tight hands come off his neck and someone catch him as he fell backward toward the ground. He blinked his eyes as his vision cleared. He blinked them again when he saw that a boy with shaggy purple hair stared down at him.

How is he Devon? A voice off to Walt’s left called out.

He’s come to, he has.

Well, get him to his feet. We’ve got to get them out of here.

Walt put the flat of his palms on the ground and pushed. Devon gave him a tug to help him the rest of the way up. As soon as he was standing he noticed he stood eye level with the script Beatles Forever on the sleeve of a worn but treasured red t-shirt. Though he seemed the same age as Walt, Devon stood that much taller. In addition to purple hair that stuck out in many directions, Devon wore a glassy vest that appeared to be of the same material as the butterflies’ swords. He also held a wooden-shaft spear with a broad point of shiny black obsidian.

An even taller boy fended off the butterfly warriors, while two other lads picked up Mindy by her shoulders and legs. Her arms hung loose at her sides.

Put her down, Walt yelled and pushed past Devon, who grabbed at him only to find himself swept along by Walt.

The boy clung to him and called out, Tell him, Marik.

Marik, the leader, had to speak over his shoulder. His concentration was on the spear he waved to fend off the flying swooping warriors. Had to knock her out until she learns to defend herself. She could have killed you. She’ll be fine in a bit, if we can just get her and you out of here.

Right daft thing you did coming this close to a hanging wall, Devon nodded up at the rows of dangling lantern-looking pods, each waiting for an equally large adult to emerge. Imagine, stirring up these lads, some of the tamest out here most times. Mind you, they get riled up plenty you come around here to their hanging cliff like you did.

Let’s go, Marik said. We can chat later.

He backed along the sheer rock wall, the way Mindy and Walt had taken to get in this fix. Before they could go further Walt bent close and looked at Mindy. A small red spot showed near her temple where she was going to have a bruise and perhaps a small lump, but she looked okay. She lay still, as if sleeping, and the two who carried her were careful, treating her like precious cargo and watching their step while Devon and Marik kept the butterfly warriors at bay.

Can we go now? Marik snapped.

Walt stayed close to the two carrying Mindy. The towering one of them, with skin the color of chocolate and a round smiling face, handed over his spear, which Walt waved the same way Marik and Devon did as they scurried down the sloping hill and away from the cliff. The butterfly warriors stayed behind, their goal accomplished, to keep everyone and anything away from the next generation.

Once they entered the thick green clutter of a woods the like of which Walt had never seen before, they paused by a wooden moss-lined bowl of water at the base of a giant tree. The two carrying Mindy eased her to the ground while Marik tore off a sponge of moss and dipped it in the water to dab on Mindy’s brow. Walt watched as she stirred slowly and the pink flush of color returned to her freckled cheeks. He glanced longingly at the water for only a second before Devon said, Wouldn’t think of having a go at that water if I was you. Put you in a right state, it will. Mind you, it’s fine for washing in, but it’s not fit to drink. Not a bit of it.

This is Kip, by the way. Morris Jordan, really, but we find it easier to call him Kip. Marik nodded toward the bigger of the two who had carried Mindy. "And this is Moe. His whole name is Mohammed Chung, but try saying that in a hurry. Don’t eat that, Moe. Who knows what it’ll do."

Moe had pulled out the tender-most center of what looked like a blade of grass except it was big as his wrist. He nibbled at it as if it was celery. He frowned, and tossed the snack aside. Not much flavor at that.

As he was introduced around, Walt nodded his thanks to each of them. Moe had the eyes and hair of an Asian but all his other features were Hispanic, or Arabic. This sure looked to be a curious mix so far. They all wore the glass chest shields and carried the black-tipped spears.

That was a good throw you made, by the way, Moe said.

I wanted to play baseball, but I don’t guess I’ll ever get the chance now. I don’t think I ever threw like that before, though. Must be the gravity here makes you stronger.

Mindy sat up, lifted a hand to her head. What happened?

Walt moved close, and reached out a hand to clasp one of hers. Her fingers trembled at first, but steadied as she looked around with her piercing green eyes, realized they were still inside Jupiter.

These. . . friends helped get you out of there okay, Walt said. He was not prepared to tell her yet that the others had to hit her to accomplish that. Her red hair might lead the others to think she had a bit of temper, but they both came from a heritage of a head-strong people. Their father traced his line all the way back to that determined scout, Kit Carson, and their mother, who had earned a full scholarship at Cal Tech, had in her past a gun-toting firebrand preacher who had headed out to tame the wild west town of Tombstone, until, as his own tombstone read, he had been, Called to his maker by a higher caliber. Mindy could react with strong emotion at times and Walt thought he would give her time to appreciate being alive before bringing up how she passed out, if he ever shared that at all. He also wasn’t sure how he would broach the subject of her strangling him.

How’d you come to be so right close to the butterfly wall in the first place? Were you lost? Devon asked. He leaned nearer, expectant. Kip and Moe hung back, but Walt could sense all of them watching and listening.

No. But I was turned around some for the better part of the morning, Walt admitted.

I was out and out lost, Mindy admitted. She reached up to touch the pink spot near her temple.

Coo. You’re just plum lucky you weren’t there come the dark. Devon shook his shaggy purple head.

We’ve got to go, Marik insisted. "It’ll be night soon. The days are short, you may have noticed, and you definitely don’t want to be out here when it gets dark.

Walt helped Mindy to her feet and whispered, You all right?  Really? She nodded, but looked uncertain.

The column moved in single file, along a trail where a path had been cleared. Marik led the way and the other two trailed behind Mindy and Walt. Around them the green had grown so thick and intense it seemed hard to get any impression at all, except for the dank rich feel of a jungle. The curling hairs of the bark on that tree, the feathery end of a fern, a wide broad green leaf as long as an arm, all else blended into a swirl of senses and impressions that seemed far away. Occasionally they heard a rustle and a slither, but whatever made the sound stayed unseen. As they left the thicker growth they saw farther away and caught more patches of the pink-blue sky. Clouds were thick in some places and wispy in others easing around the sun in what appeared to be a wide circular pattern.

Devon quietly hummed to himself, a tune Walt thought sounded familiar, until Marik frowned in his direction and Devon stopped, though not without a sheepish grin.

The sounds and smells around them were nothing like Walt expected. The rhythmic throbbing of a hundred drums beating could not top the racket he heard from the distance, though this sounded more like thick sticks thrumming on wooden washboards. He sniffed the air.  Moe caught him and asked, What?

I guess I expected the musty smell of jaguars and monkeys, Walt said. I don’t know what to make of this odor.

You ever pick up a cricket or grasshopper before and smell it good? Kip said.

Can’t say I have, Walt admitted. And that background racket?

They stridulate, Moe said. You know, rub one part of the body against another. With grasshoppers it’s a file-like row of pegs on their hind femurs against the edge of a forewing. Crickets and katydids rub one forewing against the other, using a rasping row on one wing against a scraper on the other. They’re just communicating.

Blasted noise is what I say, Devon chimed in. Don’t know why such noisy ones were used. If it was up to me I’d teach them Reggae music and at least make them fit to listen to.  Now, mon, Kip lowered his voice into a deep Jamaican purr, you picture a big hopper wit dreadlocks and playing da Rasta music, mon, can you now?

You mean you would want Devon teaching them the retro music of the ancients instead? Moe said.

I like other groups besides the Beatles, Devon said. What’s wrong with. . .

Shhh, Marik hissed at them.

Moe, Kip and Devon suppressed chuckles and soon they were all quiet again except for the rustle of their passing through thick growth and the perpetual rattle of what passed for jungle drums in this place.

Walt expected life to be different. It was another planet, after all. Take these plants, for instance. They were similar to all he had ever heard of, but this was the first time he had ever walked on or inside a planet, so he could not be sure. He couldn’t tell if the vegetation was more like that of a tropical rain forest or the deciduous oak and beech woods and coniferous pine forests that once covered parts of North America. There was certainly plenty of green growth – a thick mass of it for some stretches as they walked, so there must be rain, lots of it. But the others seemed careful about water. He would have to wait, and see what he could learn.

Walt didn’t miss that the other boys were wary, looking from side to side and even above where an occasional dragonfly the size of a small plane swooped by from time to time. He noticed they had never asked how he and Mindy came to be here. In fact, they went out of their way to avoid speaking of that.

The sun had not moved in the sky, but an outer rim of red began to form on it. Swirls of clouds gathered into thicker clumps in the pinkish-blue sky. Marik led the way along a ridge of hills along the thick growth and vast dark brown trunks of trees until the land opened into a bright open savannah of tall grass. Large black rounded oval dots plowed through the green field below.

What are those? Mindy asked.

Beetleodons. Coo. You really don’t know all too much at all, do you? Devon shook his head.

Even this far up the slope Walt saw that the round black beetles were big as elephants. Their thick humped backs rose high above the grass. Farther away were some slightly smaller black shapes. Each of these had the curved horn of a rhinoceros. The bugs in the ship’s videos and books were not the size of small houses.

Don’t worry, Kip leaned closer to explain. The rhino ones are herbivores, we think. If we don’t stir them up or get near their young we’ll be fine.

That’s quite right. It’s the meat eaters you’ve to keep an eye out about, Devon said.

They kept a close single file procession as they moved down into the open plain, where Walt could see how very large the beetleodons were. Everything was super-size. The grass came to their waists, each blade thick as a broom handle at its base. I had the impression, Walt kept his voice low, that grass was shorter than this.

Marik gave a look back that discouraged further talk and they marched on. Kip, Devon, and Moe each had backpacks, but they did not seem to mind the weight.

Walt reached out and grasped a blade of grass as they passed and without effort crushed it to pulp with one squeeze. He felt more vibrant and alive, and stronger, than he had ever been on the ship even when he had been at top form practicing and exercising in the sports room.

On the far side of the plain, where the trees grew more thickly together again, the group paused. All of the boys stayed alert as they eased off their packs, and held onto their spears while they passed around a single canteen of water for a short sip.

Mindy moved closer to Walt, in part because of the uneasy silence of the others as well as being in someplace new and strange with people they didn’t know, or if they could be trusted. Walt had the feeling that every action of theirs was being watched, and Mindy seemed to have the same notion.

Moe and Devon glanced restlessly around. Kip came closer to accept the canteen from Mindy and he was wary too. Walt’s expression asked a question of Marik, to which he replied in a lowered voice, You have to be on your toes all the time and never miss a thing.

As Marik spoke, the branches of two intertwined palm trees bent apart, pushed by a pair of huge saw-toothed arms. High as a giraffe, above the bent palm tops, an upside down pyramid of a head peered down at them with penetrating massive oval eyes, each with a black center dot, long antennas and wide-stretched mandible jaws. A praying mantis. Every scrap of information told Walt what he saw, but he still couldn’t believe it. The thing didn’t look the least bit prayerful either. It looked mad, and hungry.

Mindy watched Walt’s eyes widen and she spun, saw the creature, and screamed.  She took off at a run, but it was faster and grabbed for her. Kip moved even quicker, darting between her and the mantis so it snatched him up instead. His spear fell to the ground as he was hoisted toward eager jaws.

Walt never hesitated. He bent and scooped up a rock and hurled it hard as he could at the black-beaded center of one eye. The rock pinged off the eye and the giant head rocked back. It still held Kip in the grip of those huge claws but no longer moved him toward its mouth. A spider web of cracked surface on that eye centered where the rock had hit. The creature stared intently at Kip like he was a candy bar with its good eye. Walt scooped up the spear Kip had dropped, turned it, and sent it flying. Its tip punched through the neck of the mantis, which let go of Kip and grabbed at its throat. 

Kip fell hard into a thick clump of ferns while the others all held out their spears and rushed to where he had fallen. Mindy stopped running and turned to watch. The mantis tumbled back, then crashed away through the growth, away from them.

Moe, Devon and Marik lifted Kip from the ferns with care as Mindy came back to where Walt stood watching.

Will he be okay? she asked.

He didn’t look okay to Walt. He had dropped like a rag doll after being pinched in those enormous claws. His face looked pale beneath his darker skin and he clutched his chest.

If we can get him back in time. Marik gave the sky a nervous glance. Do you mind watching him for a moment? He nodded toward Kip.

Not at all, Walt said.

Marik and Moe hurried off on a thin path that threaded into the wall of green plant life.

Devon turned back to give Walt an admiring wink. Ruddy brilliant spear work, mate. He scurried off to join Moe and Marik.

Kip gestured that he had trouble breathing. Walt bent forward and Kip reached up with a big brown hand and drew Walt closer. They’ll want to know where your ship is, the one you came in. Don’t tell them.

That took all the energy he had. His head dropped back and his hand let go. He still breathed, but his eyes stayed closed.

He saved my life, Mindy whispered, and you saved his.

Maybe. Walt looked down at Kip, making sure his breathing stayed steady. The others hurried back with a litter they had made. 

We’ll have to carry him, Marik said.  He took off Kip’s backpack and handed it to Walt. It took all of them to ease Kip onto the litter.

How far? Walt couldn’t see anything through the thick growth into which they headed.

Just a ways. Marik kept it vague.

Anyone who can hurl a spear like that shouldn’t mind a bit of toting, eh? Come on, mate, Devon said.

The four boys held the litter as they started off. Mindy stayed close, mindful of the steady rustling in the darkened leaf shadows around them – hard to tell what other creepy crawly things were about. There were definitely smaller creatures, many of them unseen for the moment, that might be just as dangerous, perhaps more.

Keep an eye about, Devon cautioned needlessly as they pressed ahead. Walt didn’t get much time to look around as they hurried forward to an urgency Marik implied and the rest understood. 

The sky grew darker. When he glanced at the sun it hadn’t moved, but its outer rim had grown almost all red now, and it grew dimmer. They moved too fast to talk much, so Walt left any questions unasked. The expressions on the faces of Moe and Devon discouraged talk.

They burst out of the woods onto a distinct wider path, one that led out and around a field that bubbled and belched the smell of sulphur and brimstone. Glassy spheres of molten rock grew and popped in reddish-purple lumps across the active lava bed. The heat scorched the side of Walt’s face as they hurried by. A pile of tools off to one side told him that this must be where they made their glass body shields and perhaps their spear points. The others puffed and moved faster, as if in a race where more than a checkered flag was at stake. Mindy, who didn’t carry anything, easily kept up with the pace.

Around a bend that led outside the curve of another basalt cliff – this one without a single Chrysalis – the path opened into a wider one. Ahead, in the rapidly dimming light of the failing sun, Walt could see the glitter of three large glass domes – colony biospheres, each big enough to house a small city. Made of Kevsil  – part Kevlar and part silicon – the domes were clear but bulletproof and quite strong. They all broke into a run. The sky had faded to gray and was getting black before they crossed the wide clearing and neared the center glass dome.

Marik yelled to hurry, and they all held their spears tight as they crossed the last open space. Kip’s head tossed in pain and he gripped the sides of the litter as it swayed to their jerky strides, but his eyes stayed closed. Shadows of dark huge shapes roamed in the edge of their vision, and the wings of creatures flapped as the inside of the center dome glowed brighter.

Walt couldn’t imagine how they were to get through the rounded sides of the dome until they pulled up at a glass door that lay flat in the ground. Looking down inside, Walt saw a short set of stairs and two boys inside who must be guards.

Marik banged hard on the door with the butt of his spear. The two large boys inside looked up slowly.

You’ve gone and missed lockdown, you have, the larger of them said.

Open up, Lawrence, Marik yelled.

Walt heard distinct crisp scurrying steps scuttling from behind in the dark. The two inside didn’t stir from their chairs.

We’ve two outsiders with us, Marik yelled. "The Queen Mother will be in a right snit if she hears you denied them entry."

That stirred the two sullen guards. The bigger one of them hit the button that opened the thick glass door.       

Hello, Lawrence.  Always nice, Moe gasped as they rushed inside. Jeffrey, he said to the other.

Jeffrey swung a fist at Moe’s lower ribs as