Johnny Winger and the Europa Quandary

by Philip Bosshardt

  ***It is so nice to be with you again, Johnny. And this gentleman must be your son Liam. From Cambridge, if my memory is accurate***

  Winger turned the imager so Doc III, his name for this configuration, could ‘see’ the screen.

  “I need your analysis, Doc.” He explained how the images came to be. “That’s not real blood we’re looking at here. It’s not even real blood enhanced with bots. If it was real, I’d expect to see oxygens and hemoglobins and leukocytes and thrombocytes and so forth. Tell me I’m not imagining things.”

  The Doc III swarm faded out and its config morphed to capture the view better, funneling photons inside to run the analysis. The swarm sparkled and flashed, as it strove to maintain structure.