We have three stories based on the exploration of Europa for you.

You lucky people!

Anyone who's still writing one, or is thinking of doing so, should feel free to contribute at any time.

After This Word

By David Steele

It had taken them quite a while to get the lighting right. And even longer to agree on exactly which camera angle gave them the best shot. It was important to get the flags seen, that was the part everyone agreed on. But what about the logo board? Could they manage to get Jin Quoi into just the right spot to get the shot of Dirk Chester with the sponsor logos and the Europan dignitary?

The world’s media was watching. At least those who could afford it were. Several of the smaller networks had their own scheduled programmes to rely on at such a time. Re-runs of Pirate Lizards, or back-to-back episodes of Dandy Freakshow. But it made very little difference. This was First Contact with an alien species, and nobody cared much about anything else. Even the sports news.

The guest list had nearly started a war. That’s how much this meeting mattered. The protocol of who should be there. Who should speak. It was a minefield. Obviously the Chinese were adamant that they should have a presence. After all, it was their assembly plants that had put the Eaglestar on the launchpad, and their treasury which had stumped up the cash in the first place.

But the Americans were having none of it. It was their research which had made the whole thing possible, and their pioneering vision which had led to the discovery of the Europan civilisation in the first place. More importantly, it was only through the generous sponsorship of American companies that the drastic overspend on the budget had been absorbed.

Of course, the Russians had been cross. They used to be big players on the space circuit. And it was more than a little irritating to them to be left out in this way. Ultimately though the secretary general of the United Nations had told them (very politely) to wind their necks in, and that was the end of it.

The biggest drama happened when the final team was announced, and Jin Quoi Dam was chosen as part of the Big Two. The American community was outraged that the Chinese had fixed it that one of the representatives from the People of Earth would be a Communist! Things got nasty for a little while, until a massive charm offensive from Jin Quoi’s press team had her doing everything but building chapels in the mid west with her bare hands.

If the Europans had been more like us, it would have been easier. If they had lived on the outside of their world rather than spending all their time in a glorified global cave they might have noticed us. If they had developed radio rather than sonar technology they might have picked up our transmissions. But that wasn’t how it happened. With no access to heavy metals, and no means of smelting, they hadn’t ever developed technology suitable for digging out through the planet’s crust. And why would they? When everything they needed was right there in the ocean?

So, we had made contact with a species that knew absolutely nothing about us until we dug our way into their watery universe. And worse still – we knew nothing about them. After breaking the surface of that icy moon, our robotic probes had sent back just one message – “All is well. News Blackout. Send language tapes and wait.”

Which we promptly did. We sent libraries full of data, complete with waterproof reading systems. Details of Earth’s history, (carefully sanitised, of course) information about the various flora and fauna which we shared our world with, plus other data, such as art, music, classical texts. It was quite an achievement. Everyone said so. The automated landing craft docked with the original mole station and deposited its cargo. And then we waited.

Six weeks later, we received another message from the probe. “Language learned. Send two astronauts. Bring your own air.”

Almost two years later, the two intrepid representatives of Earth floated in an ornate chamber, which was bedecked with jewels and glowing minerals in a way that would have made Walt Disney feel right at home.

Hundreds of Europan dignitaries were assembled around the steep tiers of resting places, all apparently trying to outdo each other with their displays of colourful sparkling fronds. The people of earth got their first good look at the citizens of this alien world and were amazed.

Think of an all-butter croissant made from pink pastry, with an array of little black eyes on the inner curve. That’s pretty much what your average Europan looks like. It was quite unsettling for many viewers.

Dirk Chester, the archetypal American Hero spoke into his microphone, addressing not just the assembled collection of aliens, but also the expectantly viewing public back home. “We come in peace, representing all the free men and women of Earth. We come in the name of Liberty, Democracy and Justice, sponsored by Coca Cola, and Nike Max.. On behalf of the United States of America, and all those who stand with us on this historic day, we greet you as allies and brothers.

It was stiring stuff. Across the world, thousands stood with their hands on their hearts.

One of the Europans was pulsating. It squished its way through the water from its resting place and hovered before the human visitors. With a voice which resonated through amplification pipes all across the caverns and chambers of Europa, it spoke.

”Salam Alaykum. We bear witness that there is but one God, Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. God is great.” And with these words, all the other pink, croissant-like creatures joined in with a collective chant, which shook the very walls of the world. “Allah Akhbar. Allah Akhbar. Allah, Akhbar…”

They were still chanting several hours later, when the batteries on Jin Quoi’s camera finally packed up.

Forgetting Botany

David Steele

“Do you want me to bring her body home, Ecuador? Over.” I asked. It would be at least forty eight minutes before I got a reply back to that question and there wasn’t anything else to say until then. I could have just talked to fill the silence, of course. The way they did occasionally, when they thought Tilly needed to hear a friendly voice. But I figured they wouldn’t really feel the need to listen. They would be making their arrangements; talking to the world’s press, trying to work out what to do next. Meetings about meetings, with endless sheets of minutes taken, as the bright and the good experienced the collective paralysis of corporate panic.

We made planet fall two weeks ago, and I think it was right back then when the first of the cracks began to appear, although at the time I never noticed. I don’t pick up on the little things very well. I’m programmed to worry about the big stuff, not look for little psychological changes in the Mission’s Commander.

We’d finished the last of the analysis and found no great surprises. The results from the deep sniffer announced that atmosphere wasn’t exactly what you’d call worth the trip, but it was hardly setting out to eat us alive. As long as she was adequately insulated and had the right B.A, there was no reason why Tilly couldn’t get her feet on Europa’s surface.

Tilly was getting bored, of course. Recently she’d taken to setting a countdown timer after each radio transmission, so she could watch the numbers ticking down between the exchanges as if she was waiting for a pan to boil. “I should just go ahead and do it.” She said. “They’ll cope.”

“There’s nothing stopping you.” I said. “It’s not as if they’d dare to penalize you with the eyes of the world watching. But I don’t think you’d earn yourself many brownie points.”

“I was never in the Brownies.” She sighed and took her coffee cup over to the vendor for the third time that hour. “I was a –“ She frowned. “Ah, you know? I’ve forgotten. If you’d asked me a moment ago I could have told you.”

“You were a Civic Pioneer.” I told her. “It’s in your file. You made Team Leader by the time you were nine. Something of a record.”

It was enough to lift her face. “Yeah, I remember how much fuss they made about that!”

That little exchange didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. The facts had just slipped her mind. But that “big fuss” she’d mentioned? On her tenth Birthday, Tilly had been taken to meet Claire Baldwin; the first Brit to walk on the surface of the moon. And from that single defining moment, her whole Astronautical aspiration had (quite literally) taken off. Looking back, I suppose it should have seemed a little odd that Tilly had forgotten she’d been a Cee-Pie. But we were parked on Jupiter’s seventh moon, a few million kilometres from home. And with every pair of eyes in the world watching, she was about to step out onto its icy surface whilst reciting lines from Star Trek. It hardly seemed relevant that she had misplaced a small fragment of her own past in the face of that much history.

Four days later, we were ready for our first sea-dive. I’d overseen the cutting of the shaft. Almost seventeen thousand metres; straight down, with staging posts every kay or so. She peered over the edge, tentative, despite the safety harness. “Now I know how a worm feels.” She muttered. “I know I’ve asked before, Buzz, but are you certain that this hole is stable?

“There has been less than six mil of play since we set the ripper into action.” I assured her. “I’ve got the edges constantly laser-monitored and it’s safe. Totally.”

“Cross your heart?”

“If I had one.” It made her smile.

“Okay, Tin Man.” She stood herself up. Let’s get me suited up and then you can blow the hatch. She walked over to the console and flicked a switch. “Ecuador, this is Enterprise, I’m ready to get my feet wet. Still no sign of any geo problems so I’m happy to get down there if you’re happy to let me. Just say the word and I’m gone, over.”

She sighed and set the timer running again. In forty seven minutes and twelve seconds she might get her reply. The dial tracked down the slow seconds. Nine… Eight…

Despite Tilly’s colourful turn of phrase, there was no chance that she would be getting her feet wet. As well as the ammonia and sulphuric acid in the sea, there was simply no telling what biological nasties might be down there until the proper tests had been carried out. And even if there was nothing which might be harmful to her, there was always the possibility that an uninvited germ or two from Earth might do a catastrophic amount of damage to any eco system that Europa had in place. It was for this reason that even the expired air from her tanks would need to be trapped and stored, rather than released as bubbles.

The submersible Tilly was using was probably not as cumbersome as one might expect. Subject to less gravitational force than back on earth, the water would not exert the same pressures we would find at the bottom of deep terrestrial seas. And since weight was a premium on interplanetary flights, lighter, more agile designs had won out over their more rigid and clumsy rivals.

Tilly was staring at the little yellow submarine and frowning.

“Something the matter?” I asked.

She took a slow breath and shook her head. “Sorry.” She said. “I just…”

At times like this I’m not very good at saying or doing the right thing. If someone stops talking half way through a sentence it usually means that they want to be prompted. But as usual I was unsure of what to prompt. Instead, I opted for silence and waited to see if she would finish, which she did.

“I know I’ve been in one of these things before, Buzz. I just can’t remember when.”

“You were trained at Kennedy.” I told her. “But you already have S.A.V experience from your doctorate; and your extensive work on the Great Barrier Reef. The Lennon was designed to your own specification. Do you remember?”

She didn’t answer straight away. “I could talk you through every inch of the schematic.” She said, thoughtfully. “And you can bet your eggs that I could pilot her through a typhoon if I had to. But until you mentioned it, I couldn’t have told you what we’d decided to call her.”

“That’s very irregular, Tilly.” I told her. “I think the best thing to do would be to contact Ecuador and let them know you’re having problems with your memory.”

“I’m not having problems with my memory.” She countered defensively. “I just forgot something is all.” She paused. I could see that she was mentally unpicking what she had just said and working out that it didn’t hold much water. “Okay. I know that’s pretty much the same thing. But I’m confident that it’s not a big deal. People forget stuff all the time.”

“I expect you’re right.” I said. “But if it is no big deal, then at least Ecuador can keep an eye on it for you.”

She shook her head. “No deal, buzz. I’m putting my foot down on this one. Apart from that one little detail I’ve not had any other indication that I might be operationally impaired. If we have to start messing about with diagnostic tests then it could take days before we actually get into the water.”

“And if you forget how to pilot the Lennon?”

She sighed, showing genuine irritation. “Then you can bring me out on remote.” Come on, Buzz. I know you’re programmed to look after me but you’re starting to sound like my…”

A very long silence passed between us. After which, Tilly poured herself a coffee. “Really, Buzz. It’s al fine. As soon as we get the green from Ecuador I want to get down there. Okay?”

The go-ahead message came several minutes later, and Tilly busied herself with pre start checks, making sure the sterilizing system was in good order, load-testing the platform, checking the air mix. It all went just the way we’d rehearsed it several dozen times before, and I saw no reason to suspect that it might go wrong. She changed into her aquatic gear and strapped herself into the snug compartment, hauling the hatch over her shoulders and securing the little catches inside the rim. Then it was my turn to act. I lifted the little vessel up over the load platform and waited for the clunk which would mean the magnets had a good grip.

Obviously it wouldn’t be practical to bring ten miles worth of cable with us all the way from Earth. So we’d packed a couple of handy machines to dig out the vertical shaft and clear out the debris. They moved on rollers which physically gripped into the sheer ice walls on spiked wheels. This meant that as soon as the Lennon had cleared the opening of the pit, she was no longer in contact with the ground station. Tilly was quite literally on her own.

“I can’t see the hole any more.” She said after a few minutes of sinking. “God it’s a long way down.”

I heard her taking slow breaths. Vertigo can really mess with the human mind, so they say. The trick is not to think about it. In dimensional terms, the shaft was a roughly on a par with the average human hair, being several thousand times longer than it was wide. The platform rolled down at a rate of just under ten kilometres per hour, so it would take her an hour and a half to reach the bottom.

When Tilly was almost half way there, we received a message from Earth that they were all thrilled and waiting for news with baited breath. There was also a message from Jean, Tilly’s brother, and I patched it through it for her to enjoy.

She listened quietly, adding her thanks when it was all over. One or two other people added their good wishes to the transmission, which ended with Commander Richardson’s characteristic Australian accent. “Well, we make it that you’re just about ready to get in the water now, Tilly. It’s a big step you’re about to take, and all your friends at Botany Bay are going to be real proud of you for making it for us. What ever you find down there; we’re honoured and thrilled that it’s you doing the looking.”

Tilly acknowledged them all. “Thanks for that, everyone. By the time you get this I will have been in the water for a while. I’ve got a prepared statement to say when I launch, but I just want you to know that you’ve been the driving force behind me. All of you. It would never have happened if you hadn’t been there to guide me. I've got some last checks to run and then we'll see what's out there. This is Tilly Fontaine, Signing off. For now.”

“That was nice.” I told her. “I'm sure they'll appreciate it.”

Her reply came back without any trace of emotion, which surprised me a little. “Ready for finals?”

“On your timing.”

“Okay, Buzz.” various switches were being knocked into place and I acknowledged the signals they gave off in turn. Pressures were right. Mixtures were flowing properly. Tilly's vital signs were looking good enough. “All systems are good for go here.”

“And here. Launch when ready.”

It was a big moment. Even I could sense it. At such times I wished I could feel the excitement that people get, but such reactions are physical, chemically distorted reactions. I was curious about what we would find. Even enthusiastic about getting underway, but I didn't have the thrill of heightened senses, or an increased respiratory rate.

“Flooding outer chamber.” She reported. I could see it on the cameras. The first of Europa's icy waters flooding up through the grilles on the floor of her platform. Rising gradually over the body of the bright yellow vessel until they met over the big transparent dome covering her head.

“Congratulations.” I announced. “You're completely submerged in the sea of Europa.”

“Finally.”

“Well, The controls for the outer hatch are with you. As soon as you're ready, Commander Fontaine; Go and make history.”

* * *

It was some time later. Two hours nine minutes and eleven seconds later, to be precise, that Tilly turned her radio's controls to “ship only”.

“Buzz, can you go secure?” She asked, in a small voice.

“Of course.” I replied. “What would you like to say?”

She didn't answer very quickly. When she did, her words were hesitant. “Buzz, I'm... ah, Buzz? I'm kinda having trouble with stuff.”

I checked the diagnostics to see if there were any problems with the Lennon, but nothing showed up. “I see. What kind of stuff?”

She sighed. “I didn't want to say before. But those people. The ones I've been speaking to?”

“Yes?”

The camera sent back more images of the outer skin of the planet's ocean. A wall of ice so thick that it appeared solidly black, interspersed with silvery beads of gas which could have rested between the frozen crags for millions of years. The Lennon covered ten metres or so before she spoke.

“Who the hell were they, Buzz?”

“Do you mean you don't remember who they were?”

“That's... Yeah, that's about it, I guess.”

Her heart rate was increasing. I heard her sniff, and the catch in her voice told me she was crying.

“I mean, I could remember what I was supposed to say, and what they all did, but who was Jean? Who was Michael?”

“Jean is your brother. Michael Richardson is you C.O.” This was a clear cut case of mental incapacity, and I had instructions. I set the protocols in motion, as well as feeding new directions into the Lennon's navcom. “Tilly, I don't want you to worry. I think that maybe today's been a bit much for you. I'm bringing you in on autopilot and we can see how you feel after a rest, okay?”

“Okay.” she said. “I figured that's what you'd say.”

“Just sit back and enjoy the ride.” I told her. “You've done enough today.”

“Thanks.” She said. “Do you think it will be this dark when we get to Europa for real?”

If I had a face I would have frowned. “Tilly, you're in the Europan sea right now. You've had a case of amnesia and I'm bringing you in. Just relax.”

The monitoring equipment showed me that her vitals were rising. Panic expressed as a neatly drawn graph.

“End simulation!” Tilly ordered. “Computer – End simulation!”

“Tilly, can you hear me?” In a short time frame, events had gone very far beyond expected parameters. I tried again. “Tilly, please remain calm.”

She wasn't listening. “Something's wrong!” She shouted. “It's too dark. I can't see the reef. Botany Bay, are you there? What's happened to the sky?”

I ran through my list of options. I told Ecuador about what was happening to Tilly and asked them how I should proceed.

Before I had a response back from them I had to let them know that she'd hit the manual override and blown the Lennon's hatch wide open.

She didn't suffer.

I let them have the facts, and then I notified them when the remote had recovered her body. Still held tightly by the robotic arms of the unmanned vessel, Tilly's mortal remains began their slow ascent on the platform and would be back at the surface in a little over two hours.

I waited for the time to pass, calm in the knowledge that in just over forty six and a half minutes, somebody would be able to tell me what to do next.

Message

By Val Ghose

It was a bright morning, and the sun shone on the tower of the Academy building. Calypso blinked and narrowed her eyes against the glare from the tall elegant spire, deliberately reminiscent of the old space age rocket nacelles.

She walked towards the entrance and caught sight of her reflection in the large glass doors, She supposed it would take her a while to get used to the new clipped haircut and automatically tossed her hair in teenage irritation, but the long hair was no longer there. Some of the rules of Central Space Academy were outdated, but continued out of respect for a tradition going back hundreds of years. The rules about short hair for both sexes were not open to negotiation - even for one of the most valuable and youngest members of the CSA.

Things were a bit more relaxed in the smaller outlying academies, and she thought back to the comparative cosiness of the weekends of her years of initial training at Oceania’s academy.

She had asked to go the cadet weekends almost as soon as she could speak, continually begging her parents to take her, and shone with delight when she was old enough to be accepted. From then on she lived for the approach of Saturday morning.

They played star warriors in kindergarten class, but Calypso always won and captured her planet easily, then got bored waiting for the others to catch up. Later it become obvious that she was way ahead of the other children in the remote viewing class, and quickly got promoted beyond her peer group to classes of progressively higher and higher achievers.

In the history class the young students learned about the early attempts at space colonization, using crude metal spaceships. They also discussed the shortlived Stargate remote viewing project in the late twentieth century that could have proved so useful, had it not been terminated.

As she walked through the glass doors from the bright day into the cool atrium, those days seemed long ago and the memories receded. She went over and stood in front of the recognition panel waiting for clearance and the message of welcome.

The process complete, a door silently appeared in the apparently smooth wall and let her into the long carpeted corridor that always seemed strangely dead – one of the effects of being so well shielded. Her footsteps slowed as she automatically calmed all her mental and bodily processes as she approached the far end.

Carefully Calypso stepped through the portal and found her place in the circle of cushions on the floor. Nearly all of the others, mostly adults, were already seated in place. But today, despite their training, they had let an unaccustomed tingle of anticipation escape into the tranquil atmosphere. As the last person arrived she closed her eyes, and along with everyone else in the team, settled her mind by following her breathing (the method hadn’t changed since she was in kindergarten, doing basic meditation).Her awareness reached out to touch and link with the team, and they went on to the next step of merging their energies and allowing the process to build.

Calypso, despite her youth, was crucial to the Europa Project, for her training had refined her natural abilities beyond her tutors’ expectations. She was the only one in all the Academies who was ideally suited to be the Focus for the team’s energy on this mission.

And that talent had led her to that moment on her cushion.

Years ago, even before she was even born, the scientists realized that the concerns about taking micro-organisms into alien environments were well founded. A disastrous mission forced a total rethink (it made the wiping out of 80% of the ethnic American nation by invaders carrying infectious disease seem trivial). It was at that point that the remote viewing projects of the late twentieth century were revived as the only ethical alternative if exploration were to continue. Records of Tibetan monks pursing remote viewing in hidden mountain monasteries were also investigated, and their methods also incorporated to form the basis of the CSA’s training programme.

Some time back, Earth had eventually solved the resource problems (resulting from earlier centuries of over use and damage) and now had no urgent need to colonise other planets. But the lure of contact continued and Europa had always beckoned. The high possibility of the existence of life within the cold waters under the ice shield had intrigued human minds for centuries. But even if one of the old space probes could have punctured the many kilometre thick ice, the dangers of microbiological contamination violating the environment prohibited its use.

In the CSA building the team continued to sit, apparently unmoving, and their intense concentration grew until it was time for Calypso to lower her mental shielding and go through the procedures that they had so often practised. But this time she would put the focus at the correct depth beneath Europa’s surface and carry out the entire run before withdrawing and downloading the data she had collected.

The silence deepened. But she was suddenly startled out of her equilibrium, and it took all her concentration to re-centre and not to lose the team’s energy.

In all the dry runs, she always followed the detailed instructions – going from the general to the specific data, deeper and more refined. She had never had any immediate knowledge of her task, her conscious mind was not involved. She was just a focus for collecting information with her unconscious mind. That way, her teachers explained, a student would be unable to distort the accuracy of the information retrieved. And with a team behind her, it was all the more important to stay focused and neutral.

But she was jolted out of mental balance.

She had head heard a human voice. Distinctly.

And felt the touch of a human mind. Undeniably.

Her conscious mind fluttered with the remembrance that, although remote viewing usually took place across distance, that space and time were interwoven. Even the Tibetan monks could receive data across time as easily as space.

Calypso got her mind back under control and the process continued until the mission was ended.

The circle took longer than usual to come back. The adults spent some time gently massaging their legs and restoring normality to mind and body. Usually Calypso went and downloaded the data she had received immediately after a session. But today she was did not feel ready to move. It felt strange to have knowledge of her exploration. She kept hearing the gentle voice. What could it mean? If she had focused on the Europa of today, how could she have recorded human presence?

And what about the words themselves – “Do not think you have solved the problems of Earth. We had to leave and preserve our precious genetic and psychic human heritage on Europa, until the time comes for us to return to Earth, however long it takes”

She didn’t want to recall the rest of the message. That was enough for her conscious mind to cope with right now.

But she couldn’t drop the conundrum. It started to go round and round in her mind.

Were the words from the present …or the future…..or the past? Was the catastrophe yet to come? And would the remnants of the human race be safe?

Calypso tossed her head and gave up worrying, and walked through the portal to go and download – and let someone else puzzle out the message from the icy waters of Europa.