The Sollipsis hung quietly above Europa, Jupiter’s fourth largest moon. Her lack of movement, the stillness of the moon below and the ever-present silence of space all masked the turmoil below the surface. Under twenty-five kilometres of ice was an ocean sixteen times deeper than any depth on earth. In that ocean, in a perpetual freezing darkness, was Europa Research Station 1, adrift, untethered, and in danger of sinking into the infinite nothingness -- or the next best thing: crush depth. Communications had gone down an hour ago, and there was no way of knowing, other than visual confirmation, whether or not anyone on the station was even alive.
High above the moon’s surface, in the Sollipsis, bright minds were trying to find a solution to their problem. The ship was big, but not big enough to ram through sheets of ice taller than the tallest mountains, and not outfitted for combat. Drilling a hole through the ice might take too long, and trying to chase the station near the original drilling point would make navigating to it almost impossible by shuttle.
“I’m going to need some options, Mister Prakoso. Ideally some time soon,” Captain Durand said. She was getting impatient, although not necessarily with her crew. She knew everyone was doing what they could in an emergency. However, they were about to head into the great unknown, and for that to not be a catastrophe, they’d all have to be able to perform to the utmost of their ability in the most unexpected of circumstances. What bothered her more, however, was this ship’s complete lack of combat capabilities. The Sollipsis’ status as a peaceful, exploratory vessel was something she admired, of course, and it’s not that the ship was entirely defenseless. It had powerful evasive capabilities, and incredibly powerful shields and a hull made from the newest, sturdiest materials.
“I’ve been running the different simulations, Captain,” Hasan said, his terminals by the far left wall showing proof of his work. There was even, in the background, a digital recreation of just how badly their ‘smash-the-Sollipsis-into-the-ice’ plan would go. It was comically disastrous, the massive ship crumpling like paper. “We need a consistent burst of heat to burn through a sheet that thick.” Captain Durand looked at him. She didn’t want to assume he was the type to give her reasons why things weren’t working without an offer for a workaround. He had seemed like the resourceful type. And, it turned out, he was. “So,” Hasan said, “I’ve been talking to the research teams belowdecks, as well as the engineering department.” Cathérine raised an eyebrow. He’d been so busy setting up the different calculations, she couldn’t help but wonder when he’d had the time to do that, but his hands had been flying across the terminal with impressive speed.
“Anything useful, Prakoso?” she said. “They don’t have a lot of time down there.”
“I think…” he said, looking at a small text box in the corner of the screen that, Cathérine assumed, was the communication window with one of the other departments, “I think we might have something.”
“In your own time, Commander,” Durand said, her tone inversely whimsical to her mood. She didn’t want to sour her relationship with the crew, but lives were at stake. Hasan Prakoso strode across the bridge to First Officer Blake’s terminal and, as Clinton stepped aside, he brought up a map of the ice-sheets below on the display.
“The ice is thinnest here, right in the path of the station,” he said, and a red marker appeared. “One of our engineers thinks we can drop a fuel cell out of our engines directly onto the ice. Its output should be hot -- and consistent -- enough to burn a hole right through. It’s going to freeze up immediately above it, but--” he added a little graphic that showed a little falling blip, “we can follow up a shuttle directly behind it. There’s going to be a bubble of hot air and boiling water that should be below our shuttle’s… well… melting point.” The word ‘should’ got him several raised eyebrows. At least three. “After the fall, the shuttle will be able to latch onto the station, and we can guide it back to its mooring point by pinging it with the ship.” He stepped back and let his simulation sink in, literally and figuratively.
Cathérine stood up from her chair and walked over to the hologram, studying it for a moment. “Will we still be able to fly without the cell?” Hasan nodded. “If this works, I’ll want to talk to the engineer that came up with this. This is either brilliant or mad. Make it happen, Mister Prakoso.” She nodded at him, and he immediately started sending messages at his terminal. She turned to her head of Security, the imposing Evangeline Mayes. “Commander Mayes, get a team together and report to the nearest hangar bay. You have five minutes.” Hasan was typing furiously while Captain Durand studied the projected simulation and altering their course slightly to optimize drop distance and reduce the amount of time the shuttle would be, essentially, swimming in boiling water. After a few minutes, a voice came in on communications.
“Engineering to Bridge?” The voice was a little uncertain, and had a distinct accent, which Cathérine was having some trouble placing in that moment.
“Bridge to Engineering,” Cathérine responded. “Go ahead.”
“We’re standing by for ejection of the fuel cell, Captain,” the response came.
“Shuttle one to Bridge,” Evangeline’s voice came on the intercom, “standing by.”
“Very well,” Cathérine said. Launch on my order.” She gave both parties a moment to get absolutely ready, stood up and set the large holographic display to show a real-time simulation of both objects. “Launch.” Immediately, the shuttle shot out of the hangar, its trajectory perfectly synchronous with that of the ejected fuel cell. The shuttle’s pilot, Mayes herself, would have to fly perfectly behind the cell, which wasn’t much bigger than the shuttle. If she slowed down too much, the shuttle would be frozen in the eye. If she sped up too much, the heat of the fuel cell would burn a hole through the hull of the small craft. Not to mention the fact that the shuttle would not do too well on a hard impact with the walls of a rapidly closing tunnel. Everyone on the ship collectively held their breath as the two red blips descended to the moon’s surface, and made contact.
---
Evangeline’s hands gripped the steering column a little tighter as the shuttle descended behind the glowing fuel cell. She’d never actually seen one of them up close before, but even with a whole shuttle wall in between her and it, she thought she could feel the heat coming off it. Or maybe that was just her. It collided with the moon’s icy surface and immediately the air was full of chunks of ice and steam. She pushed past the hesitation she felt, knowing she couldn’t afford to hesitate. She had to keep a mathematically exact course, follow the fuel cell all the way down, no matter what. The shuttle plunged downwards, into the rising steam and boiling water. She switched her view to purely instrumental data -- the screens and cameras were completely fogged up now.
The cell was directly below them. If the shuttle hadn’t been so well insulated, they would have been cooked inside this metal can within seconds. But so far, the exterior shielding was holding perfectly well. The shuttles were capable of re-entry on their own, so they could withstand heat, pressure and even extreme sub-zero temperatures. This one was about to be put through its paces, because, after the heat during the drop, they’d be kilometres below the surface, in waters below 140 Kelvin. In theory, the instruments and engines would hold under that kind of pressure and cold. In practice… well, they were about to find out, weren’t they.
The roar of boiling steam was deafening, even with all the insulation, and the cabin shook violently. She couldn’t turn her head enough to look at the other passengers strapped in behind her, but she hoped they’d be fine. If someone hadn’t clasped their buckles properly, they’d be bouncing around the cabin like a ragdoll, not an image she liked to entertain for more than a second. Gritting her teeth, all she could do was tense up every muscle and try to keep from dislocating anything vital.
The descent took forever. At least, it felt like it. There were several indicators on her screen, graciously put there by Science Officer Prakoso, that were displaying both estimated remaining fall time, as well as distance. Because of the unreliable density of the ice, neither could be entirely relied upon, and the ice was too thick to give an accurate constant update on how far they still had to go. The estimate had been a little over four minutes, accounting for the moon’s gravity and potential slowdown of the fuel cell. That was four minutes of freefall in boiling water-ice. And it was going on forever until suddenly… it wasn’t. The roar of steam stopped. The fogged over windows washed clean with black nothing. Because of the fuel cell’s constant negative acceleration and the cushion of superheated air it had built up, they hadn’t hit the water at full force. If they had, the little ship would not have survived an impact of almost a thousand kilometers per hour. Still, she had to make sure not to collide with the cell, which was still descending happily into the inky depths.
Finally, she took a deep breath. Evangeline didn’t think she’d been holding her breath that entire time, but it had sure felt like it. She wasn’t keen on pulling a stunt like that again. She pinged the Sollipsis, which pinged her back quickly. The signal was weak -- uncomfortably so -- but it was there. And now that they were under the ice, she got a very clear ping on the location of the research station, directly below them. She gingerly steered the shuttle downward, using digital imaging to get their relative distances and velocities right, before attaching the shuttle to the station.
As soon as the loud ‘clunk’ of the connection reverberated through the vessel, Security Officer Mayes activated the engines to pull the station upright from its slowly-tumbling trajectory, then set a course for the station’s original mooring location. Sure, the station was quite a bit larger, but the shuttle’s engines had been designed to allow them to tug much larger objects in-atmosphere. Lifting and towing would be no problem for the smaller vessel. As the airlock behind them went through all preliminary checks -- like making sure the station wasn’t actually flooded with water -- she finished programming the route. With a final synchronized beep, the airlock confirmed that opening the doors was safe and that the final calculations had finished, accounting for the drift of ice above them and currents. Evangeline stood up from her seat and stretched, before joining the rest of the team by the airlock.
“Open it,” she said, nodding at her second by the door. Several of the team were carrying first-aid kits. The station had been falling through the water for quite some time and if anyone hadn’t managed to hold on or strap themselves down, the station would have tumble-dried them that entire time. With a hiss, the airlock opened. The station was a mess. Of course, most furniture would have been bolted down to prevent anything major from being damaged in case of particularly bad currents. But something like this should never have happened. The tether cable was supposed to be almost impossible to snap. As a result, there had still been many loose objects bouncing and falling around the station, and it was, frankly, a mess. The halls were littered with, well, litter, and several lights were out or flickering from impact with various pieces of debris.
Mayes was about to give the command to look for the survivors, if there were any, when the scientists, five of them carrying two who were clearly wounded, rounded the corner. They carried expressions that were a mixture of relief and agony, both of which were more than understandable. Immediately, she set them all down in the shuttle, and her crew began to help the wounded. Every one of the scientists was banged up, but two of them had suffered head wounds. They’d be spending some time recovering from possible concussions, at the very least.
“What happened?” she asked one of them, a tall but lanky man who was visibly upset but otherwise unharmed. He looked around shiftily, as if he couldn’t believe he was no longer falling into an icy abyss. He seemed too dazed to immediately give her a straight answer. From the patch on his arm, she quickly figured out who this was. “Director Eman, yes?” He nodded. “My name is Evangeline. You can call me Eva. We heard your distress signal and we came as quickly as possible. Can you tell me what happened?”
“We should go,” he said, quietly.
“We’re already towing the station,” she said in a soothing tone. “We’re not--”
“Ditch the station,” Eman said, tightening his jaw. “The research is saved on the surface.” Evangeline blinked.
“The station is worth --” she began
“We have to leave,” he said again, and something about the tone in his voice made her shiver. Clearly, she wasn’t alone in that. The rest of the crew tensed up and looked to her for guidance. Clearly, the man was in shock. On the other hand, he seemed to know something they didn’t. The decision was much more easily made when the station -- and the shuttle with it -- suddenly lurched downwards for a second. She looked up at the man by the door and nodded. His eyes were wide as he slammed the button. Evangeline jumped up and released the docking clamps as quickly as she could, then began to navigate the shuttle back to the mooring location. Without the station weighing them down, it would only take a minute or two. Nonetheless, she couldn’t help but feel like it wasn’t fast enough. Suddenly, the infinite ocean under the ice felt a lot less safe, and a lot less hospitable.
Apparently they didn't get the "except Europa" memo.
whoops dropped this link https://youtu.be/aT9_-P7N950?t=109
Fun fact: Among Brighter Stars is written to the When We Left Earth soundtrack
Ooh, that is a fun fact! That is great music and fits this story perfectly, thanks!
Oh. So it's that kinda emergency
It would seem something lives beneath the ice then?...
New Lifeform Detected: Reaper Leviathan
As long as it isn't the Mass Effect sort of Reapers, I think they should be able to handle it
Scary...