The dense cloud that carpeted Jupiter’s atmosphere convulsed. Henry scrutinized the maelstrom of color that saturated his sight with its primordial vitality. His craving for adventure thawed at the sight of the great planet and, captivated by the orchestrated pandemonium, Henry felt his soul ascend to a new plateau. Electrified, he was enveloped by immaculate bliss.
The mission had begun several months earlier …
“Mission Control, I will be reaching optical Lagrange point in 3…2…1…Gary, I’m here…errr…there.”
Henry was alone, charging through space at 35 kilometers every second in his ship the ‘Golden Eskimo’. His vessel was the most ambitious manned spacecraft built to date. Its recycling system were the most advanced ever constructed and pledged to keep Henry alive and safe for the two year round trip. Its rockets were a hybrid system based on a Chinese design allowing the vessel to achieve its unprecedented velocity. The Golden Eskimo was also a huge source of pride for rocket enthusiasts around the globe, for it was a completely privately funded project with no government intervention whatsoever.
“Copy, and run a diagnostic on the auxiliary radar system later today Mags.” Gary friend and chief engineer referred to Henry by his childhood nickname.
Henry Magnusson had made his wealth in oil. More specifically, he was an engineer who had constructed an extremely cheap and shockingly effective glacial drilling platform which could effortlessly penetrate the copious glacial oil reserves of Alaska and the recently discovered fields in Greenland. His company, ‘Glacial Oil Operations’, netted profits in the billions and when he finally sold the company, Henry had amassed enough wealth that he could turn his efforts to his real passion, space.
“Gary, don’t worry, the Eskimo is running flawlessly, the air smells a little stale but other than that all is good.” Henry contacted mission control daily. His chief engineer, Gary Zimmerman, took several moments to answer due to the speed of light lag.
“Great Henry, listen, the recycling systems are showing one hundred percent effectiveness so the air shouldn’t be stale, but I’ll look into it. We’ll be waiting for your next check-in tomorrow. Until then, enjoy the view!”
“Thanks buddy, listen, take yourself out for a beer tonight and invite that cute blond we hired for press release, what's her name…Molly?”
“Its Peggy, and I’m married…and I don’t drink!” Gary answered humorously
Henry laughed. Signing off from his radio he slowly pushed himself down the central conduit of his ship and floated a few feet to the hatch that led to the observation dome. He had insisted that his designers build a panoramic viewing lounge. He slowly pulled himself into his ‘living room, as he called it, and settled himself to enjoy the invigorating view through the transparent aluminum.
“Magnificent.” Henry whispered to himself.
The Golden Eskimo and her one man crew had just reached the Optical Lagrange point, which was the unique location where the Earth and Jupiter appeared exactly the same size as one other in the sky. Henry was, of course, much closer to Earth than the first of the Jovian planets, but due to Jupiters immense size it looked equal in dimension to the home of man.
“It’s about as small as…a pea held about this far from me.” Henry stretched his arm out in front of himself and used his thumb and forefinger to pinch the hypothetical pea which was, in fact the planet Jupiter.
From the Optical Lagrange point, Henry could easily discern the gaseous band structures of Jupiter and he thought he could even see the great red spot, but in reality he wasn’t really sure if his eyes were playing tricks with him. Rotating one hundred and eighty degrees Henry located the continent of Africa through the cloud wrapped Earth and could just make out the island of Madagascar.
After a good hour of enjoying the view he returned to the cockpit for his daily chat with Tanya, his wife.
“We all miss you so much down here sweetheart. Molly is at ballet class, but tells all her friends about her brave daddy, gone to ‘Juper’; she can’t quite pronounce it yet!” Tanya feigned laughter but wiped a recalcitrant tear from her eye, betraying her stubborn lament.
Henry kept his composure. “Sugar, I’m only a couple of months into this trip but I have to tell you, I miss you so much.” His brow creased as he looked pensively at the communication screen and the time delayed image of his wife.
He continued, “You known, I was thinking today about the first time we met in Egypt on our diving tour. It came back to me so clearly. I remember your sun-lanced red hair shining in the glorious backdrop of the Black sea, your green eyes radiant and the ocean so calm. Let’s go back to Egypt when I get back honey, promise me?”
After a short communication delay Tanya laughed. “Of course I’ll come silly! I had better book our flights now; they quite often sell out two years in advance.” She said sarcastically.
“I’ll speak to you tomorrow. I love you.” Henry cut the communications channel. His onboard energy unit would allow for about fifteen minutes of conversation a day, but he didn’t want to squander this in case he needed it for an emergency.
As the days stretched on Henry found numerous ways to amuse himself. He had an extensive electronic library containing most of the classical works of literature. He had set himself reading projects and within his first three weeks aboard the Golden Monkey he had read much of the outstanding works of Nietzsche, Heiddeger, Hegel and Kant. Feeling satisfied with his philosophy, Henry moved on to world history. He developed a fascination for dictators and great military leaders. He rebelled in reading the exploits of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Kahn and Napoleon. He was fascinated by their historical conquests, but took more pleasure in finding accounts of their personalities. Who were these men who so effected the lives of millions? Was the modern world no more than a simulacrum of the visions of these great masters who shaped history in their image?
Seven months into his trip Henry reached Jupiter’s Gravitational Lagrange point, the location where the gravity of Jupiter precisely cancelled the gravitational pull of the sun. This should have been cause for celebration with Jupiter only two months away.
“Mission control, Gary, this is Henry, I know that you won’t receive this for about half an hour, but I wanted to check in with you. The air has been getting staler and there is a strange smell aboard the vessel. It smells of…burned leaves, I am worried Gary. Life control systems are showing maximum operational efficiency but I need you to run a full diagnostic. Speak to you soon friend…oh, and don’t tell anyone about this. I don’t want the press to hear.”
As the days lingering Henry found it harder to keep himself amused than he had originally anticipated. Sometimes he would sit in the cockpit and aimlessly stare for hours, letting his mind wander aimlessly around its myriad memories of his youth. Other times he would just fall asleep in the middle of performing menial ship duties. The lack of gravity made it very easy to relax and lethargy was becoming a problem for him. He was growing increasingly irate at the strange smell that cohabited the ship with him.
“Tanya, this is Henry. I…” He paused as he gathered his words carefully. “I want you to know that everything is okay here, as always, but…I need to tell you that I love you. You have been my source of inspiration, you know me better than anyone else, my faults, yet you still love me. I’ll…I’ll speak to you soon.” Henrys voice sounded uncertain. He knew how ridiculous he must have sounded and deeply admonished himself for shamelessly putting his wife under unforgivable stress and worry. If he were to die, he would face it with courage and accept the destiny the cosmos had prescribed him.
Henrys moods shifted between apprehension and pure exhilaration as the weeks passed and Jupiter began filling more and more of his observation decks field of view. He was now only hours away from entering the final stages of his flyby maneuver. As the hours passed, a sentiment of concentrated euphoria furnished Henrys body.
“Mission Control, entering flyby maneuver.” Henry gasped as Jupiter’s detail revealed itself with ferocious clarity.
The savage atmosphere, buoyant with the dense and indulgent hues of the great planet mesmerized its first human visitor. Gaseous bands of auburn and crimson swirled amongst the nacreous gases and mixed with the peachy nectar channels.
“I have come to you.” Henry whispered with regal dignity.
Jupiter continued to exist, unabated by Henrys bombastic announcement. There was nothing but silence.
Henry began to smile. This then ripened into a chuckle and then finally evolved into roaring laughter.
“I said HELLOOOOO!” He shouted.
More of Henrys laughter filled the observation deck.
For two hours Henry indulged in the awesome spectacle, and for two hours he told Jupiter his inner-most feelings, his love, his ambitions, his delusions and his fantasies, invariably stopping to chuckle at his own vacillate identity. Gradually the light dimmed as the Golden Eskimo began to swing around behind Jupiter and the sun began to set. The planet itself seemed to be tamed. The colors became less vivid, and the brutal detail grew docile in the perishing illumination. Finally, there was nothing but the cosmos, an obsidian canvas of desolation perforated by the cleavage of the heavens.
For the remaining two hours, Henry was shrouded in the darkness. He did not descend back into the depths of his craft, to retreat back into technological harmony, but instead he meditated.
In silence he felt awe at the power of the individual human and admiration at human civilization. He did so without ego, for Henry saw himself not as a great individual, but as a privileged apologue of history. Like the many great men he had read about, his endeavor would be talked about and remembered for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. But no-one would know of his dialogue with the great planet and nobody would touch on his unfathomable catharsis. That was his, and only his. But in the context of human history he was nothing more than an inanimate ‘gadget’ to be molded into the books. An artifact of mans over-eager obsession to record detail, but always missing the crux.
As soon as he came out from the dark side of Jupiter he radioed Earth.
“Gary, the air is fresh…problem solved.” He said with contempt at his own ludicrous paranoia realizing that smell was nothing more than his own trepidation manifesting itself as the imaginary aroma.
Henry switched communications channel. In a parody of the words of Julius Caesar, after his victory at the battle of Zela he spoke to his wife.
“Tanya, I came, I saw, I flew-by!”
Henry moved back to the observation chamber to enjoy his first sight of Jupiter receding back into the vastness of space, and to cultivate his juvenile enlightenment.
