My Europa: Part 7

These are first drafts, and are subject to considerable revision.  Not all parts will be put on the blog, so if you are interested, be sure to buy the complete story when it's available.

7

The calls in her head could be maddening. Thank goodness she had opted to receive most calls via a cell device on her desk, rather than through her cell implant.  That was reserved for communication with the Congresspersons, and staff, and not all the calls from the public.  A few had opted receive all calls through their implant, mostly younger staffers who seemed more receptive to the new technology.

Teresa wasn’t ancient, only in her mid-forties, but she had been there long enough to work with the Congress before it expanded, and staff became attached to Congressional districts, rather than individual congresspersons.  She originally came in as an aide to Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, and the sole representative of the Albuquerque district.  Now, the district was represented by three representatives, two Progressives and one Republican.  And it was her job to serve all three, and the needs of all the constituents of their district.

That took a little getting used to, and frankly, something she was still adjusting to.  You couldn’t help but gravitate to one Congressperson more than the others.  Congressperson Alfredo Barista was just friendlier, kinder, and more responsive than the other two.  Party was not as important as personality, as she was a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat.  Barista had even her wavering though.  After his first two terms, she began voting Progressive at the House level, and swore she would make it right by switching back to Democrat once Barista’s term limits were up.  She still voted Democratic at all other levels, including for Senator and President.

Did she have a crush on him?  Yes, but one she was determined to keep unrequited.  She respected the need to keep professional. Besides, she doubted she was his type.  Short, slender, but with a posterior that gave her a pronounced apple shape, she had a plain face, with a nose too big, and narrow eyes too close set.

She wondered what he did do, what with his wife tragically gone now, for over a year. So much improvement in medicine over the last few years, but not enough to save her.  She knew how special his wife, Darlena, was to him, but a year plus was a long time to spend in mourning.

She hoped he was finding someone, even if it couldn’t be her.  Someone for companionship, someone to get work and the past out of his head, if just for a little while. She didn’t care who it was, if it was someone that could help him.  Especially now, what with all this Europa mess.  He was taking on far too much of the burden for it on himself.

As she was readying to call it a day, she got a message on her cell implant.  “Teresa, the committee meeting is over for now.  I’m going to be coming by in a minute. Could you get something ready for me, even though it’s close to check out time?”

“Of course, sir!  Just let me know what I can get for you,” she answered.  For him, yes.  No problem.  To be honest, if it had been Republican Congressperson Bill Black, she would have done her best to blow him off, or refer him to another staff person.  Yes, the combined staff was a great theory, but sometimes less than perfect in real world execution.

“Get me what you can on Gregor Robotics, and on their CEO, Andrew Gregor.  Especially related to their most recent advances in A.I.  I know I could google some of this stuff myself, but I was hoping you could get me a head start, especially in any Congressional records.  You know my first level security clearance, be sure to use that.”

Teresa’s hands were already flying across the keyboard (again, she preferred this than the newfangled way of just talking to the computer).  “I’m already on it, Sir.”

“Thanks, Teresa!  I knew I could count on you!”

“No problem, sir!  Just in general, sir, how are the hearings going in there?  Making any progress?” Normally, she didn’t ask, but this whole Europa thing was consuming the whole country, and everyone was waiting for the response to be formed.

“All in all, to repeat an old cliché, it’d be easier herding cats.  Be there in twenty. Daisy.  Disconnect.”

“Daisy. Disconnect,” she repeated, ending the call.

She quickly gathered the information he requested, entering summary requests, to print out and consolidate the highlights.  It was a little bit difficult because he wasn’t sure what Barista was after, and was unclear how this tied into the Europa mission.  She recalled hearing about Gregor Robots recently.  But didn’t that have something to do with Sexbots?

Oh, well.  She diligently gathered what she could, and trusted the Congressperson Barista would have a good use for it.

My Europa Part 5

5

“Who leaked it?” bellowed Reynolds, pacing his office furiously.  “What damn mouthy pipsqueak slipped the mickey and tumbled his flaccid brain out to the press?  I’ll string the little melba beast up by his balls, I swear to Christ!”  The only others present in the Congressperson’s office was Thaddeus Wright, the sub-committee’s legal counsel, standing by a bookshelf filled with seldom read tomes, and Congressperson Barista, who sat sprawled on a sofa.

“Now, Dabney, you really didn’t think something like this could be kept quiet, did you?” said Barista, as if trying to explain the basic facts of life to a toddler.  “There’s some form of life outside Earth.  That’s big news.  How long did you think it would be before that came out?”

“It had to be that little weasel, Staninski.  That son of a bitch can’t keep quiet about anything!”  Arnold Staninski was a Communist Party representative from California, and the only one on the sub-committee.  Staninski was a solid, stocky man, with a crewcut, and looked more like a dock worker than a Leninesque radical.  He had a habit of blowing up hearings, revealing stuff he shouldn’t and then apologizing later that he didn’t understand that it was supposed to be kept confidential.

“That doesn’t explain the leaked footage that came shortly after the initial news broke,” piped in Thaddeus.  “That couldn’t have come from us.  That had to have been leaked by someone at NASA or the military.”

“So?” roared Reynolds. “That just means one of their little crappers leaked it, either on their own, or more likely, at Staninski’s urging.”  Reynolds pointed a crooked finger at Barista.  “I told you Progressives not to back letting the Communists form a party.  Y’all just did it to make yourselves look good by contrast, and now we is all paying the price!”

“Calm down, Dabney,” soothed Barista.  “It’s not going to do you or us any good to have a stroke about it.  They met the criteria to form a party.  It’s not us.  It’s the rules we all agreed upon.  And look, they’re the smallest party in Congress.  Seriously, nine members out of almost sixteen hundred?”

“Yeah, and it only takes one of them Trotsky pinkos to frack up the works!” Dabney challenged.

“So the Europian monster is out of the bag,” replied Barista, coming out of his slump and sitting up straight.  “Big deal.  Maybe the public has a right to know.  These are momentous issues and they have a right to participate in the decision.”

“No doubt they do,” replied Thaddeus Wright, going over to Congressperson Reynolds and putting in his hand on his shoulder. Dabney visibly relaxed and took a seat in a wingback chair opposite the sofa.  “From the polling I’ve seen, about a third of the people want us to fly up there right now with a manned scientific mission and make contact.”

“Yeah, well, this ain’t likely to be E.T.  or Mork, ya know.  It’s likely to try to eat everybody, ship and all,” complained Reynolds.

“We don’t know that,” said Barista.  “All that we know for sure is that it collided with the ship in such a way that knocked out communications.  We don’t know anything beyond that.”

“Bullcrap!  I think it ate it!” scoffed Reynolds.

Thaddeus reasserted himself, trying to take back control of the conversation.  “Please let me finish, gentleman. Then we can descend back to caterwauling.”  Barista and Reynold nodded their agreement to quiet down, and Thaddeus continued.  “Another third wants us to send another unmanned probe, but with scientific equipment specifically designed for better analysis. The rest are split between doing nothing, or going there with a full military force and exterminate what’s ever up there, and there’s even about five percent that want us to just go there and blow the whole moon up.  And yes, there’s even about 3 percent who think the whole thing is a hoax.”

“New Conservative Party extremists, no doubt,” smirked Barista.

“I’m leaning towards a mixed mission.  Some scientists, but mostly military people.  We have to be prepared to kick this thing’s ass if we have to,” said Reynolds.

Barista raised his hand, as if he were in a classroom, and then began to answer. “You know, I agree that we need a manned mission, but I don’t understand why it has to be so heavily militarized.  I mean, if aliens come to Earth, descending into our oceans, would they feel obligated to blast away a whale if it came near?  This most likely isn’t a sentient creature.  It’s probably some animal of some kind.  We invaded its territory. We just have to come in with more common sense and restraint.  I think over spending on the military aspect is a waste.”

Reynolds was infuriated. “Forget the beasty that ate the Nautilus IV!  What the hell was that green stick bug alien?  The damn thing had some kind of ghastly face!  Now that coulda been, what did you say?  Sentient?  Yeah, it could have been sentient!  It coulda been directing the monster to consume the ship!”

“That’s ridiculous!’ Barista responded, getting up off the sofa.

“Maybe,” replied Reynolds.  “But it’s a ridiculousness believed by the Sub-committee chairman and Democratic Party House Minority Whip.  So I got the toys, and I usually get my way.”

“Not without the Progressive Party, you don’t.  It’s almost impossible to get things through Congress without our support!” asserted Barista.

“Damn, boy!  Haven’t you polled your own members?  They’re all over the map on this!  How y’all gonna get together to force me to do anything?”

Dammit it all, Congressperson Alfredo Barista thought.  He’s right.  He’d had all kinds of opinions coming from Progressive members, everything except for blowing it up.  In a just a day of leaked news, everyone had scattered, worried more about their constituents than they were about the incredible scientific impact.  All the progress that had been made politically in the last decade, and still polls held sway for so many.

“Well, gentlemen,” Thaddeus Wright said, “it looks like we have a real important decision to make.  Let’s find out if this new, unwieldy Congress can actually function in a way that brings results.”

Barista realized that this was going to be a real challenge.  It wasn’t like minimum wage or the military budget, where each party knew where they stood, and how to make compromises to make something happen.  This was something completely new, and the public was all over the map.

Why, we might have to actually lead on this one!

My Europa: Part 4

4

There was music, but it wasn’t so loud you couldn’t hear.  There was a cover band, The DC Insiders, doing a stripped down version of Miley’s Wrecking Crew’s big hit from 2023, Bad Waters Rising.  Hard to believe the bad girl from the ‘teens became such a folk ballad sensation in the twenties.  And the music was further muted by the fact that their little gathering was taking place in a side room, one especially designed for Congressional representatives and staffers to have more private conversations.

The waitress, a young Latino woman with a bright smile and just as bright red hair, dipped in to their room.  “More drinks, anyone?”  Gerald Jefferson ordered a fresh The Citizen, and everyone else held steady.  “I’ll getcha some fresh Kale Chippers, and ya just lemme know when you’re ready for some food.  Gotta a fresh shipment of Chesapeake Bay Oysters, if any of ya want to take advantage of that.”

That was rare.  They were coming back but had almost become extinct.  “Oh, my stars!” gushed Louise Pinkyard.  “It’s been a coon’s age since I could slide those down my throat!  How much are they?”  Gerald winced a little when she said that, but he knew in her head she was thinking of a raccoon, and was probably completely ignorant of the phrases more archaic meaning.

The waitress gleefully answered, “Just $50 for six, only $90 for a dozen!”

Louise blanched.  “I’ll pass.”  That was steep, even on a Congressional salary.  The pay had gone up little in the last decade, since the Congressional Pay Act of 2025 had reset wages to no more than five times the minimum wage. They did have a housing allowance, that varied slightly depending how far away your district was, but it didn’t leave you swimming in it.  Top that off with strict limits on post-career lobbying opportunities, and a pension that was only 5% of base pay per term (with term limits of 5 terms, that left a maximum pension of 25% of your last congressional salary).  The days of getting rich by being a Congressman were definitely over, at least fir it coming from the public till, or by influence peddling.  Maybe when her Congressional terms were over she could go back to being a college basketball coach – now there was a job that still paid!

The Congressional Pay Act was needed in part to control the costs of the increased size of Congress.  The ratio of representatives to population had skyrocketed to 900,000, and was well on its way to a million or more.  The 29^th Amendment, first proposed in 2023, was finally fully ratified in 2025.  It restored a fixed ratio of Congressional representatives, as was the intent of many of the founding fathers.  The ratio of 50,000 was not acceptable by many, as the idea of a House of representatives with almost eight thousand members was a bit too much for even the most democratically inclined to accept.  A compromise was made at a ratio of 250,000, which created a Congress that was currently 1,592 members. 

When the waitress left, the five Congresspersons felt confident enough to quietly talk in the security of their private booth.  “Look,” began Congressperson Louise Pinkyard, the New Conservative from Alabama.  “I just gotta state, y’all convinced this is on the up and up?  We ain’t being played or punked, you think?  This ain’t some ginned up nonsense just to get us to increase the NASA budget, is it?”

Congressperson Gerald Jefferson, Progressive representative from Pennsylvania, laughed heartily.  “Oh, my lawd, Louise!  You is indeed my special friend!”  Louise frowned, but mostly in fun.  The two political opposites talked to each other this way all the time. Alfredo Barista wondered if sometimes they just didn’t find their own private booth.  “You been hanging out with Buddy Dixon far too much!”  Buddy was on the far edge of even the New Conservative Party, and was hard for even Louise to take.

Congressperson Barbara Winstead, one of Barista’s closest Progressive colleagues, guffawed.  “If any of you think this is going to be a slam dunk, you’re mistaken.  Buddy Dixon’s attitude is only part of the problem we’re going to have to work through.  This is going to be expensive as all get out, especially if we make it a manned mission.  That means the Republicans, the Libertarians and the New Conservatives will all have cost objections. Even the Democrats will want to make sure the right wheels are greased to make it work.”

“Now hold on a fine minute, Barbara,” oozed Congressperson Kenny Roberts, the chubby Democratic representative from Illinois, and a close ally of Subcommittee Chairman, Dabney Reynold. “You think the Democrats are gonna be a problem?  You might want to take a look at your own party as well.  You got a lot of members who think space exploration is a major distraction from what’s really important, like welfare spending and handing out goodies to those who don’t earn it.”

Barbara just shook her head.  “Good Lord!  What happened to the Democratic Party I grew up with?  You have moved so far away from FDR.  I mean, let’s get real.  You’ve even moved away from Obama and Clinton.”  The Democrats and Republican were mostly aligned with different configurations of wealthy elites and large corporations.  They didn’t dominate Congress anymore, but it was hard to get something done without one or both of them.

“Oh chill out, Barbara!” huffed Kenny.  “I’m not the problem, and you know it.  I saw the video.  I’m on board.  Just get the right contracts to the right people, and I can help line up Democrats.  And, Louise, I know General Davidson.  He’s a good buddy of mine.  He’s a straight shooter.  If he brought that to us, he is one hundred percent convinced that it is real and urgent.”

Alfredo Barista had remained silent, nursing his rum ‘n’ cola, taking in the conversation swirling around him. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but what I saw changed my life.  We are not alone, people, and now that we know that, we can’t go back to the way things were. We have an obligation to science and humanity to find out what is on Europa.  And the five of us, we represent three of the six major parties that are in Congress.  My question to all of you is - can we get this done?  Can we set aside our differences and create a fully funded, first class mission to Europa?”

Barbara started.  “Well, I can’t say what the Progressive Party will do as a whole, but I’m on board.  If they could see what we saw,” tears forming in her eyes, “I don’t see how anyone could stand in its way.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised, darling, cooed Kenny.  “But don’t worry.  I’ll do everything I can to bring the Democrats along.  Get the contracts in line for the tech companies, and I’ll see what I can do to persuade the Republicans with some military hardware suppliers, and we could be cooking with atomic gas!”

“I don’t know,” mused Louise.  “It’s gonna be a hard sell to my party.  They’re gonna be members who resist the money aspect.  They’re gonna be those who call it a hoax and affront to God. And we may even have some who’ll think we should just vaporize the planet.”  Even though the New Conservative Party was only the third largest party, with 296 representatives, they were an odd conglomeration of interests.  They included many of the remnants of the Christian Right, sitting sometimes uncomfortably with what is often described as the “Trump Rump” – those Tea Party diehards who stuck with him even after his crushing defeat in 2016.  The charters that allowed for competing parties expressly forbid parties coalescing around racism or pure regionalism.  There was no New South Party, or neo-Nazis style parties.  So most of the Trump Rump gravitated to the New Conservative Party, although there was a smattering of them in all of the other parties as well.  Racism was a hard impulse to keep out of American politics, but great progress had been made.

“But what do you think, Louise?  What do you think we should do?” asked Barista.

Louise thought for a second.  “Well, what I saw chilled me to the bone.  As much as I’d like to think not, I guess down deep I believe what I saw was real.  I just don’t know about the expense and risk of a manned mission.  Maybe we could send another probe.”

“I hate to say it, Alfredo, but I kind of agree with Louise,” echoed Gerald. “I am committed to further exploration.  It just terrifies me the chance we’re taking with our astronauts’ lives.”

“I know it’s a risk,” pleaded Barista.  “But this is huge and cannot be ignored.  We need intelligent men and women up there, able to make on the ground, or, er, in the ocean evaluations.  Decisions that even our most advanced computers cannot make.  So I don’t want any of you to have any doubts.  That’s what I’ll be pushing for.” 

“Well,” said Kenny, then pausing to guzzle a pint of The Public.  “We may not all be on the same page, but at least all agree on one thing.”

“What’s that?” asked Barbara.

Kenny slammed his empty pint glass down.  “At least none of us want to blow the damn thing up.”  

My Europa Part 3

Close observers of my blog will realize I have not posted Part 2 of My Europa.  Part 2 is a bit more R-rated than the other parts, and mature readers will need to buy the full story when it is ready.  I will tell you that Part 2 introduces one of the central characters, Congressperson Geraldo Barista, who finds his "activities" interrupted when he is called to a committee meeting of the Congressional Science and Space Committee.  He serves as Vice Chair.

3

"Hear ye!  Hear ye!  This all hearing is now in order!" said Congressperson Dabney Reynolds, pounding his gavel with the force and spirit of Thor.  "Well, look at the stragglers!  Congresspersons Jefferson and Pinkyard, nice of y'all to show up!  Outside conferring with th' flowers, I suppose?"

Congressperson Gerald Jefferson of Pennsylvania, a Progressive and a member of the Black Caucus, took his seat at the left end of the dais, while Congressperson Louise Pinkyard, the freshman from Alabama, replacing her deceased husband in the most recent election took her seat on the right, one of only three committee representatives from the New Conservative Party.  Even though about as far apart politically as you could get, the two had struck up a close friendship, bonding over the congressional basketball league.  Both had played in college, Louise being part of a national championship team from Auburn.

Reynolds turned to the committee legal Counsel, Thaddeus Wright, and complained, "We need to get this underway!  Where the hell is that little Vice Chairman of mine?  Am I gonna have to start this without him?"  As Thaddeus shrugged, Congressperson Barista flew in and plopped into his seat next to the chairman.

"I'm not too late, am I?  I beat the buzzer, didn't I?"  he said to Reynolds with a sly smirk.  "Let's get the party started, Chairman Reynolds!  I can't wait to find out what's going on!"  Barista noticed that there was a huge TV screen that had been brought in against the right wall, but he didn't have time to ask anyone what that meant.

"What's going on is we are in order," and Reynolds gaveled again to emphasize his point.  "We're still three short, but we're not waiting for anyone else.  Gentle people, let me introduce you to our esteemed guests, sitting in the front row.  They are going to tell us about some important events in connection with the Nautilus IV.  If the representatives from NASA and the Pentagon could please stand up, and briefly state who you are, that would be most helpful."

About a dozen people stood up and introduced themselves.  They included General Davidson from the Joint Chief of Staffs, Roy Teller the lanky head of NASA, Dr. Arjun Chopra., and Dr. Foster Nobles, one of the foremost biologists in the world.

"I cannot stress enough the confidentiality of what you are about to hear.  We are a big, messy committee, with representatives from six different political parties, but we all share a common commitment to the best interests of our great nation.  That is why, other than our legal counsel, there will be no aides present.  Until we understand what we're dealing with, and have established a general course of action, these hearings will be secret.  That means you can't talk about this to anyone outside this committee room. Not your aides, not your fellow congresspeople or party officials, not even your family or spouse.  That goes double for you, George!"  The dais tittered with laughter.  Republican Congressperson George Bush of Florida was married to Fox Newscaster Ellen Reeves Bush.

Then the speakers began, and the story they laid out for the committee was fantastic.  Apparently, the Nautilus IV had cracked the ice, and had descended into the ocean underneath.  The first wave of excitement started when it was quickly confirmed that the ocean was teeming with micro biotic life.

But it didn't stop there.  Dr. Arjun Chopra stood up and turned to the video footage that had come in from the Nautilus IV.

"As you can see, the Nautilus is easily traveling in the dark blue waters of the Europaian Ocean.  You see the light emanating from the front of the vehicle.  The dandelion-like seeds that the light is capturing are some of the suspected spores that the analysis from the Nautilus quickly discovered.  At first we though they were just free floating, but you can see that some of them are definitely moving."  Barista noted one spore, stark white with multiple spokes coming from its center darting to and fro, as if it was trying to get the best view it could of the Nautilus IV.

The import of this stuck everyone immediately.  The existence of life outside of Planet Earth was a reality now.  It would be even difficult for the theocratic New Conservative Party to deny, although Barista thought they still might try.  Heck, some of them were still denying global warming.  Even the great Miami flood of '29 meant nothing to them.  Much had been done since the early 20s to check the effects of climate change, but some of the damage was too late to reverse.

Different committee members broke decorum to discuss amongst themselves.  Congressperson Barbara Winstead, a Progressive from Oregon who sat to the right of Barista, muttered to him, “Well, that’s gonna throw a monkey wrench into the New Conservative’s exclusivity theory, isn’t it?”  Barbara was short, thin and fragile looking, but that belied the powerhouse she could be when she got her dander up, and that happened quite often.

Barista shrugged.  “Who knows?  You’d be surprised what those theocrats can pull out of their ass to explain things away.”

As if to answer him, from the other end of the dais came the booming voice of Congressperson Buddy J. Dixon of Georgia, a New Conservative member who looked as if he were a redneck sheriff ordered from central casting.  “This is re-donk-u-less!  Those little squigglies could be anything!  Probably jes’ dust brought in by the Nautilus itself!”

The room was brought to attention by the only voice with more authoritative boom than Congresspersons Reynolds and Dixon combined – General Davidson.  “Gentlemen, please!  What you have seen is only the beginning!  If you would just refocus and see what’s next, you will realize the true magnitude of what we’re facing.  Dr. Chopra, if you could please resume the video?”

The entire room snapped to attention and turned to Dr. Chopra and the video screen.  “I’m going to resume the footage now and let it speak for itself.  After it is shown, I and Dr. Nobles will do our best to explain what it may be we’re seeing, and try to answer your questions.”

At first, all they saw were the dancing spores, although they were increasing in number.  Suddenly, the cloud of spores split apart, as if making way for something else.  The Nautilus cameras picked up in the distance a green, glowing shape.  As it got closer it became more defined.  It was long, at least as long as the three-foot-tall window of the Nautilus.  It was thin, not quite as thin as a snake, and it had appendages, two near the top of its body.  The appendages reached out to the window, and a strange three fingered hand attached itself to the window, little suctions at the ends of its fingers. It came closer to the window and the room gasped as it clearly had a face! An alien face, yes, but a face nonetheless.  Strange compound eyes, with a slightly red cast, two slits for a nose, something that could have been a mouth, even a small protruding of what could have been a chin.  Below that, there were multiple slitted openings that could have been gills.  It looked more curious than angry, but that may have been just trying to humanize it, and imply emotions to something completely alien.  Barista thought it looked like somebody anthropomorphized  a green salamander.

The creature turned its head away, as if it heard something coming.  Suddenly, it was knocked away by something big and black and huge.  Then whatever it was knocked heavily into the Nautilus.  The footage was shaky, as if the craft was experiencing an earthquake.  It was engulfed in darkness, as if whatever it was had completely enveloped it, or maybe even swallowed it.  The video hissed, turned white, and then stopped.  The screen went black.

“Oh, my god!’ whispered Barbara, terror in her voice.  “What the hell was that?”

Congressperson Geraldo Barista just nodded, his eyes wide open, the color drained from his face.

What the hell was that, indeed?

---

My Europa: Part 1

My Europa

by T. M. Strait

1

What an icebreaker!  Nautilus IV had achieved its major goal, beginning to penetrate the layer of ice that covered much of Europa's surface.  Dr.  Arjun Chopra looked anxiously at the time delayed pictures coming across the huge video screen at NASA headquarters in Houston.  He and about a dozen other scientists who had been vital in planning this mission were standing, willing the Nautilus IV to break through.

It seemed ridiculous to try to telepathically control something that was 390 million miles away, and what you were seeing had actually happened roughly 43 minutes ago.  Nevertheless, it was hard to keep in check the human desire to control and influence.  They couldn't do much about what they were seeing.  They had long ago ceded control to the sophisticated robotics that were at the heart of the Nautilus IV.

"C'mon, Nautilus!  You can do it!", urged Dr. Rose Piper, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, as if to focus more intently on the screen, moving aside the curly blonde hair that had fallen in front of her face.  She was short and heavy set, with a beautiful face and porcelain features.  Arjun admired her greatly, even though he was afraid to express that admiration.  He was tall, skinny and awkward, and far too shy to have much success with the opposite gender.

"You do realize by now that it's either happened or not.  There's nothing we can do about it," chimed in Dr. Dwayne Morgan, the team computer expert, who looked more like a linebacker than a scientist.

"We carefully selected this location, Dr. Piper," said Arjun.  "Landing in a chaos region, specifically Conamara Chaos, offered the most promise for a breakthrough.  The last probe around the Europa, the '29 Galileo Expedition, showed that this is where the layer of ice is the thinnest.  Add in the observed recent eruptions of water vapor plumes, and we have a perfect place for Nautilus to determine what kind of ocean lies beneath the surface."

"Look!" cried out Rose.  "It's breaking through!"

Oh, my God!  It was happening!  The ice had cracked and the water was spewing up around Nautilus' powerful drill.  They all broke out into applause!  Rose hugged Arjun, and he couldn't help but place one hand on the back of her head, touching her wonderful blonde hair.  He drank in the odors of her strawberry peach shampoo, and it was almost more intoxicating than the Nautilus preparing to descend into Europa's ocean.

It was only an hour later that they stood in open-jawed wonder at the sights they had seen.  Somebody had to be told.  And eventually, when the whole world knew, nothing would ever be the same.