Jupiter II, or Europa in astronomy.
The moon of Jupiter had nothing to do with the land known as Europa, but rather, it was named after a beautiful Phoenician princess in ancient Greek mythology. Although the spelling was the same, the meanings were very different.
And the facts also proved that the moon floating in the deep and vast universe, suspected of nurturing life, was indeed as beautiful as an exotic princess.
Ice flakes danced in the air on the vast glacier. Icicles popped up from the cracks on the surface from time to time, then scattered down like frozen flowers. The thin atmosphere contained a trace of oxygen, although relative to the oxygen content of the Earth’s atmosphere, this amount was not worth mentioning.
On top of the endless whiteness, a small half of the sky was occupied by the enormous Jupiter, which extended from the horizon all the way up. It gave people the illusion that if you walked towards Jupiter, you would eventually get there.
Due to tidal locking, the huge planet always hovered in the same place. Most of the light came from the sunlight reflected by Jupiter. As for the Sun itself, it was just a soft bright spot. Therefore, the side that faced Jupiter was always bright, with the glacier illuminated into whiteness, while on the other side, away from Jupiter, was eternal darkness.
The temperature at the equator was below minus 160 degrees Celsius, and the temperature at the poles was below minus 200 degrees Celsius. The ice layer on Europa’s surface was several kilometers thick, and under the thick ice layer was a vast ocean much deeper than Earth’s ocean.
But in general, the climate here was still much better than that in Himalia.
Located between two glaciers was a black-colored colony.
As for why the color of the colony was incompatible with the background, it was to absorb as much heat and light from Jupiter’s limited light as possible.
At this moment, the colony’s hatch slowly opened, and a space vehicle pulled out of the garage and headed for the well not far away.
“This is number Z1214. I have arrived at the destination. The drilling platform is operating in stable condition, the battery is being replaced.”
“Received… please continue to report the current situation.”
“Roger.”
An engineer in a heavy spacesuit jumped out from a vehicle, opened the trunk, and took out a battery about the size of a laptop computer. He then walked towards the drilling platform.
His name was Tan Ming, from Hua, and one of the first group of immigrants in the Earth Defense Alliance Colonization Plan. Before he stepped onto this land, he only received one month of adaptive training on the Moon. As for the battery in his hand, it was a nuclear battery that contained helium and tritium protected by a thick lead barrier.
The gravitational environment on Europa was slightly better than Himalia, about one-seventh of Earth’s gravity, slightly lower than that of the Moon. Anyone who has received spacewalk training in Lunar City could easily adapt to this degree of gravity.
Tan Ming jumped onto the platform, took out a wrench from behind his back, then twisted open the bolts that fixed the battery. He then pulled out a data cable, connected it to the wrist-mounted computer on his arm, and typed in the unlock password.
With a soft click sound, followed by the sound of air leaking, the movable door that fixed the battery popped open.
He skillfully removed the battery from the drilling platform, then put the battery in his left hand into the groove. Finally, he closed the battery compartment door again and tightened the bolts.
“This is number Z1214. The battery has been replaced and the drilling power supply is normal.”
“Check the drill.”
“Checking…” Tan Ming typed a few buttons on the wrist-mounted computer, watched the progress bar go to full, then heaved a sigh of relief, and continued to report, “The drill is in good condition. Do you want me to open it?”
“Open it.”
He jumped off the drilling platform and floated steadily back to the ground.
The drilling platform behind him began to operate again with a muffled rumble coming from underneath his feet.
In the outpost not far away, all scientists, no matter which country they were from, were now gathered in the command room of the outpost. They quietly watched the red line on the screen that continued to go down. They had waited for this moment from when the drill was built first built. Now, a month had passed in a blink of an eye.
Based on the analysis of the Institute of Extraterrestrial Biology from Coro University, the suitable seabed temperature combined with the abundant oxygen resources, as well as the light from the seabed volcanoes, meant that there was likely to be life activities under Europa’s ice cover. All drill bits and detectors were sterilized to avoid contamination of Europa’s oceans by the Earth’s bacteria or viruses.
The red dot that marked the drill bit continued downward, and the returned shock wave began to change from weak to strong as it got closer and closer to the interface between ice and water.
If everything went smoothly, today was the day it’d penetrate through the ice!
At this moment, on another holographic screen, the shock wave suddenly jittered violently, followed by the raging alarm. The entire command room soon turned into boiling water, and all the staff immediately started to move.
“The ice layer has cracked, and a large amount of gas moving upwards has been detected!”
“Stop drilling and detonate the perforating device!”
“Roger that!”
After the staff in front of the command platform received the commander’s order, he immediately grasped the red handle and pushed it to the bottom with force.
On Europa, heat was more important than water. The water resources here were extremely rich, with more water than Earth. The water on Earth was mostly on the surface, but Europa’s water was all in its stomach.
NASA made a horizontal comparison a long time ago. They made a model of Earth’s water resources and Europa’s water resources into a sphere, and the conclusion was the same.
Tidal force caused Europa to be in a state of repeated stretching and contraction. The energy generated by this movement heated the seawater under the ice layer, and together with submarine volcanic activity, it provided heat for life activities on the seafloor.
However, it was precisely because of the stretching and contraction movement caused by this tidal force that made Europa’s ice sheet prone to compression, similar to the movement of Earth’s tectonic plates, which resulted in cracked and uplifted glaciers and fractured ice valleys. For this reason, it was very common to observe the spectacular scene where water streams erupted kilometers up into the air, then instantly solidified into ice crystals at ultra-low temperatures.
Almost as soon as the handle was pushed down, the drill bit, which was several kilometers deep into the ice sheet, suddenly flashed for a brief moment. The electromagnetic force ejected the anchor hook, slammed into the ice cap squeezing the drill pipe, and firmly tightened the drill bit into the ice sheet.
At the same time, the location under the drill bit began to shake violently as cracks began to spread upward on the ice sheet. The ice cap began to break in large chunks, until the moment when the cracks touched the drill bit, the entire ice cap was like a pierced balloon that shattered instantly. The seawater mixed with high-pressure air bubbles instantly collided with the drill bit—
“Damn it! The drill pipe is broken!”
“Z1214, evacuate the area immediately, I REPEAT, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!”
As Tan Ming felt the tremor under his feet, he took a few steps back with a horrified look on his face. When he heard the command, he immediately climbed into the vehicle. While he started the engine, he roared with all his force.
“FU*K! WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!”
“We didn’t do anything… The situation underneath may be more complicated than we thought… Anyway, get out of there quickly…”
The command center said something else after, but he couldn’t pay more attention to it. As soon as he sat into the seat, he started the space vehicle at the fastest speed, pressed down the accelerator to the limit. However, after he desperately drove six hundred meters further, he heard a muffled bang from under his chair that almost lifted him up from his seat.
“FU*K!”
His head jerked forward violently, he subconsciously turned his head and saw the drilling platform tens of meters high was blasted into the sky by icicles like a volcanic eruption. The spiraling water column scattered down circles of ice flakes, just like a tornado, they danced freely in the air.
He subconsciously released the force on the accelerator as the vehicle had escaped from the danger zone. Bean-sized hails hit the glass window gently, but his sight was firmly frozen on the scene.
Tan Ming could swear.
It was definitely the most spectacular scene he has ever seen in his life…
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