A DEPARTMENT OF ASTRO-GEOGRAPHY

JUPITER

UPITER, mighty monarch-world of the Solar Sys-

tem, was first colonized by Earthmen in the year

2005. But men had visited it some years previous-

ly, and had brought back reports of the giant planet's

wonders.

As every school child knows, the first space flight

was that of Gorham Johnson to the moon, in 1971.

Johnson was a veteran of the Second World War who

spent years trying to perfect a rocket that would make

use of the newly discovered atomic power. Soon, after

his first great flight to the moon, he made a second voy-

age in which he reached Venus and Mercury, and a

third in which he touched Mars and Jupiter.

Johnson was accompanied on this great third voyage

of 1988 by Mark Carew, inventor of the gravitation

equalizer. When they sailed on that voyage, their crew

did not know that they meant to go beyond the orbit of

Mars. Had they known, the men would never have

signed up for the trip.

After leaving Mars, Johnson and Carew headed on

outward through the asteroidal belt. Carew, in his book

(Spaceward to Glory, 1994), says that the men became

mutinous when they realized that the voyage was to

continue to Jupiter. They believed, like most other

Earthmen at that time, that the outer planets were all

too cold and poisonous of atmosphere for human exis-

tence, and that they would surely perish there.

LANDED AT CALLISTO

To quiet them, Johnson told them he would not land

on Jupiter, but on one of its larger moons. Their rocket,

the Pioneer II, made a landing on Callisto. There they

were attacked by the crystals of that moon, which

Carew calls "a creeping diamond horror." And it was

there on Callisto that Gorham Johnson was stricken by

a swift fatal sickness, his frame enfeebled by the in-

credible hardships of his three stupendous voyages.

Carew in his book (Page 434) tells how Gorham

Johnson, dying, asked that they carry him out of the

rocket and let him look up at Jupiter, whose vast,

cloudy white bulk filled the sky over them.

"I will never live to reach it, but you must land

there," Johnson murmured to his loyal lieutenant. "It

will be safe. The day will come when Earthmen will

have cities on that great world yes, and on the worlds

beyond, even out to Pluto."

IN THE VOID

A little later, Johnson died. His last speech, Carew

tells us, was his famous dying request that they release

his body in space, to roam the void in death as in life.

Johnson's prophecy that Jupiter would be habitable

was fulfilled when Carew landed there. Beneath the up-

per poisonous levels of the atmosphere they found a

clear, breathable atmosphere, and a world warmed by

inner radioactive heat. They were amazed by the vast

continents and endless seas. They marveled at the limit-

less fern-jungles, dotted with ruins of a vanished civi-

lization, and the colossal and terrible Fire Sea. And

they met the Jovians and made a friendly contact with

them.

Carew went back to Earth from Jupiter, to lead his

famous expedition to Saturn and the farther planets the

following year. For some time, in the excitement of the

exploration of those outer worlds, Earthmen heard little

of Jupiter.

SITE FOR EARTH COLONY

But explorers had visited Jupiter in 1990, 1994 and

1997. They had fixed a site for a possible Earth colony

in the continent which Carew named South Equatoria,

for it was here that deposits of valuable uranium, radi-

um, iridium, platinum and other ores had been located.

A concession for a huge area was obtained from the

Jovians by a fair treaty. In 2005 the First Jovian Expe-

dition sailed from Earth, under command of Robert

Caswell whose name is immortalized by the Caswell

Strait between North and South Equatoria.

The expedition stopped at Mars for replenishing of

supplies, and then sailed for Jupiter. Three ships were

meteor-struck during passage through the asteroidal

zone, but there were no other casualties during the long

trip.

Landing was made on the southwest coast of South

Equatoria, on June 12, 2005 (Earth calendar). A monu-

ment of simple design, bearing that historic date and no

other legend, now rises from the shore near Jovopolis

to celebrate the event.

The first step in establishment of the Earth colony

was erection of smelters which rapidly poured out a

stream of metalloy from the rich Jovian ores nearby.

Metalloy sheets were rapidly built into the structures of

a city, and that city, called Jovopolis by Robert

Caswell, grew quickly from a straggling village, to a

considerable community.

PROGRESS IN TRADE

Contact with the Jovians was maintained on a

friendly basis. Authorities were careful not to offend

the planetary natives by granting any mining or other

concessions near the mysterious ruins which the Jo-

vians held sacred. Within five Earth years, ships were

traveling from Jupiter back to Earth and Mars, heavily

laden with grain, new hybridized Jovian fruits, super-

valuable radium, uranium and other rare metals, and a

variety of miscellaneous Jovian products.

Robert Caswell, the first governor of Jupiter, was an

ambitious explorer and mapped large portions, not only

of South Equatoria, but of the neighboring continents of

North Equatoria and Torridia. Of course, he was able to

chart only the main continental outlines, and the great

part of Jupiter's actual surface remains unexplored to

this day. Caswell was killed in a crash-landing in the

jungle outside Jovopolis, in 2012.

A MINIATURE JUPITER

The colony prospered, however. Expeditions were

sent to Europa, Io and Ganymede, the other three of the

four great moons, to explore. Europa was found to be a

miniature Jupiter, jungle-covered and quite habitable,

though lacking valuable minerals as far as could be as-

certained. Io, on the other hand, was as harsh and for-

bidding as Callisto, though uninhabited by the crystal-

creatures that tenant Callisto's wastes. Ganymede, the

fourth moon, is still a mystery. Three expeditions sent

there have failed to return, and further attempts at ex-

ploration there are temporarily prohibited.

In 2015, the Jupiter-Earth ship-lines were terrorized

by radium bandits who held up the craft carrying back

the precious metals to Earth. Development of the

colony was set back for a time. But as the Planet Police

got the radium bandits under control, colonial develop-

ment prospered again, and was destined to meet no fur-

ther danger until there suddenly developed the dark, un-

believable menace of the atavism horror a menace

that seemed fated to sweep Earthmen from Jupiter for-

ever.

THE WORLDS OF TOMORROW

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