Europa

by Robert Mills

  Low gravity was not the only challenge the settlers faced. They had to accustom themselves to living indoors most of the time. The concourse areas of leisure and retail complexes were constructed with high glass roofs to give a sense of space which most colonists perceived as a pleasant change from their apartments and places of work.

  Despite the gross overcrowding on Earth, it was necessary to provide incentives for would-be settlers to persuade them to uproot themselves from their home planet and make the 890 million kilometre journey to the Jovian system. These included cheap accommodation, well-paid jobs, grants to help start new businesses and the promise of free, high quality education at both school and university level.

  By the time that Callisto City had been constructed and occupied by settlers, plans were well under way for expansion to Europa, but Callisto was designated as the main site in the Jovian system for future expansion. Its flat terrain made construction relatively easy and its large size, about the same as the planet Mercury, meant that there was scope for extension of the colony for many years to come. Plans were made for additional cities in other locations on the Jovian side of the moon and at a later stage the anti-Jovian side, once a means to generate sufficient energy to power them had been identified. This proved to be problematic and so a mission was dispatched to Europa in 2141 to investigate its potential for human colonisation.

  Marvin, who was always keen to show how knowledgeable he was, explained that the crew had a pretty good idea what to expect, thanks to the unmanned mission which had preceded this one. More than a hundred years earlier the first robotic probe had landed on the icy surface of Europa and launched a thermal melt probe to pierce the moon’s crust of ice. Attempts had previously been made to determine how thick the layer of ice was, and the estimates varied between three and thirty kilometres. In fact its depth is variable, being only a few metres in places.

  Once it had penetrated the ice, the tip of the melt probe was ejected and a robotic submarine was launched. Despite the planet’s average surface temperature of minus 200 degrees Celsius, there had been speculation that there might be life in the chilly waters below the ice. The team at mission control waited with bated breath to see what the submarine’s cameras would reveal. Some scientists had suggested that there might be fish-like marine animals swimming in the ocean’s icy depths but the robot submarine failed to find any before its power supply failed. Funding cuts prevented a second similar mission.

  When the first manned mission entered orbit around Europa, a landing module was deployed and successfully landed on the ice. The crew donned their thermal, radiation-proof space suits and set foot on Europa’s surface for the first time. Four of them boarded the ski-rovers and set off to explore other areas of the moon. Study of the samples that they collected confirmed the theory that the red discoloration of the moon’s surface was indeed due to living bacteria within the ice.

  The others supervised the unloading of the melt probe and set to work. Its tip made short work of piercing the ice, providing access to the ocean below. Next they enlarged the hole, using a larger thermal drilling rig, and launched a sophisticated robotic submarine to explore Europa’s ocean. Analysis of the water indicated that it would need minimal processing to make it suitable for human consumption.

  “Of course they didn’t find any fish,” said Marvin loftily. “It was ridiculous to suggest that such complex life forms could develop in an environment like that.”

  “What I don’t understand is why they don’t go to Jupiter itself,” I said when the news bulletin had finished.

  “Don’t be stupid,” said Marvin, “Jupiter is a ball of gas. No one could live there.” Not for the first time I was put in my place by Marvin’s superior knowledge.

  I tried to redeem myself. “Jupiter has four moons so why have they chosen Callisto and Europa?”

  “Because they offer the most favourable conditions for human beings,” said Marvin. “Ganymede may be developed in the future but it’s less attractive. Io is a hot, volcanic hell, like Mercury, so it’s a total non-starter.”

  Later we learned that further exploration of the seabed revealed a series of thermal vents around which lived a variety of aquatic plants, similar in many respects to those found in comparable locations on Earth. It seemed that there was a substantial ecosystem on Europa, acquiring its energy by chemosynthesis. More detailed study revealed that there were also primitive marine animals living off the plants.

  The ocean proved to have a variable depth, due to undulations in its floor, and in places it was as little as a few hundred metres. A second robotic craft, designed to drill through the ocean floor into the rocky crust of the planet, was deployed. Its task was to drill a shaft deep into the moon’s crust and to drive a metal cylinder into it. This in turn was connected to a series of other cylinders, each slightly smaller in diameter than the one before, which ultimately passed through the ice to the surface. Once the water had been pumped out of its lumen, it became the first route into the interior of the planet. At this point they had a stroke of amazing good fortune. By chance the shaft opened into an extensive system of caves. It was within this subterranean labyrinth that the permanent inhabitants of the Europa colony were destined to live, protected from the cold and the high radiation levels on the moon’s surface.

  Chapter Three

  Having been brought up in a single-sex family, with the obvious exception of my mother, I had little experience of girls during my early childhood. At my junior school boys and girls had been taught separately, as mixed classes were considered to inhibit learning, and even at playtime boys and girls were kept apart. In 2144 I moved to Oakwood High School, where Marvin was already a pupil.

  The period in which I grew up came to be called the ‘New Age of Innocence’. It was a reaction to the excesses of the past and was enforced through so-called ‘Advanced Parenting Strategies’ and the withdrawal of some of the freedoms that previous generations of youth had enjoyed. Teenagers of that period were indoctrinated with the ‘no sex before twenty’ message put out by the government and many of them, including me, signed a pledge to that effect. There was a strong desire not to return to the high rates of teenage pregnancy that had persisted for much of the twentieth century and continued well into the twenty-first. The message continued to be promulgated, despite the fact that both boys and girls had slow-release contraceptive implants inserted beneath the skin at puberty.

  However, compulsory teenage contraception was only one example of advanced parenting. I only discovered much later that we were also given food supplements containing a cocktail of psychotropic drugs and a libido suppressant. When, as an adult, I challenged my parents about this, they said that all the other parents they knew were giving their children the supplements and they had been assured that the drugs were harmless. When I pointed out that they had done this without my consent, my mother said, “Well, it did you no harm, I can’t see what all the fuss is about.” I didn’t find this a satisfactory answer, but let the matter drop.

  Despite the pharmacological arsenal that had been deployed to control my behaviour, I felt an overwhelming desire to meet girls of my own age and began to have urges, which at the time seemed unnatural to me. Oakwood High School was, like almost all the secondary schools of that period, a single-sex establishment and provided no such opportunities. Our house was in a commercial area of the city so there were few neighbours and none with daughters of the right age. I began slipping away from home after school and walking to the nearest shopping mall where I went on patrol in the hopes of meeting a girl and engaging her in conversation. When a suitable individual came into view I was faced with the problem of how to begin a conversation. At moments like this my head seemed to empty of ideas and I appeared to lose the power of speech. As a result my quarry would glide by, frequently giving me a strange look, presumably because of the weird facial expressions that resulted from my inner torment.

&n
bsp; One summer afternoon when I was on one of these missions I spotted a slim girl with long fair hair and blue eyes emerge from a shop and walk in my direction. I decided to put into action a plan that had come to me as I lay awake in bed the previous night. As she came within range I asked her what time it was, with as much naturalness as I could muster. The idea was that she would tell me the time, after which I would thank her and ask what her name was, but to my horror she replied, “Why don’t you look at your wrist tablet?” She dissolved into giggles and walked on past me. I looked down to see that the tablet, which I’d intended to leave at home, was in fact on my wrist and well able to provide the information I had requested. I slunk away in embarrassment.

  Feeling unable to discuss my problem with my parents, I decided to ask Marvin for advice. The opportunity for me to do this presented itself when he and his parents came to our house for Sunday lunch. After the meal was over, the adults retired to the sitting room for coffee and Tom went out to visit a friend. Marvin and I wandered aimlessly into the garden and settled ourselves in a couple of chairs. At first we talked about recent developments in space travel and I was unable to find a suitable opening for what I wanted to say, but at length a lull in the conversation allowed me to broach the subject.

  “Marvin, I was wondering how you go about meeting girls,” I said.

  “There’s lots of ways,” he replied, barely suppressing a smirk. “For example, I met Samina while I was on my way home from school. She goes to the girls’ school not far from ours and I’d seen her around near where we live. I thought she was rather cute, so I waited outside her school and followed her home. It turned out that she lives not too far from me and her route home wasn’t much out of my way and so I started taking the same transit vehicle that she used. It wasn’t long before I managed to get into the carriage she was in and find an empty seat opposite hers. She was a bit stand-offish at first, but she soon succumbed to my natural charm.”

  “But what did you say to her when you sat down opposite her?”

  “I don’t know, ‘hello’ I suppose.” He thought for a moment. “I think I asked her if she went to St Bernard’s School. It was pretty obvious she did because she was wearing her uniform, but sometimes I think it’s OK to act a bit daft. Anyway, I’m sure she knew it was just a way of starting a conversation.”

  “Are you still going out with her?”

  He shook his head. “No, she’s too moody for my liking,” he said. “I’m seeing a girl called Elise at the moment.”

  “How did you meet her?”

  “That was easy; I met her at Grieg’s party. It was his birthday and his younger sister had been allowed to invite one or two friends. One of them was Elise. I just sort of wandered over and chatted her up.”

  It was clear that Marvin possessed loads of natural charm and confidence and he seemed to find engaging strangers in conversation easy. I, on the other hand, was crippled by nerves and inhibitions. Although my brother was not as yet showing any interest in girls, I was very conscious that when he did his gregarious nature would be a considerable asset. This raised the unpalatable prospect of his having a girlfriend before me.

  The following summer Marvin went away on a family holiday for two weeks. During this period I spent quite a lot of time on my own and took to going for solitary walks in the park near my home. It was an area of countryside that had been preserved when our section of the city was being built so that residents could enjoy its peaceful natural environment. It included a small area of ancient woodland and a lake.

  It was on one of these walks that I first set eyes on the girl who was to haunt my dreams and occupy my thoughts during my waking hours for some time thereafter. On that first occasion she was walking ahead of me with one of her friends and they seemed to be deep in conversation. She was slim with long legs and moved with a languid grace. I followed them and, when they stopped to sit on the trunk of a tree that had been felled by a recent storm, I strode on boldly until I was level with them. At this point my courage failed me and I continued on my way without speaking to her. I did, however, get a good look at them. The girl who had caught my eye had a mass of dark, curly hair and large brown eyes. Her skin was a delicious, dark coffee colour. As I passed she smiled at her friend, who was speaking at the time, displaying a set of regular white teeth. Back at home I cursed myself for letting such an opportunity pass me by and resolved to find a way of meeting her.

  While he was away, I missed Marvin’s company and at the first opportunity I went to see him after his return. Predictably, Tom declined to accompany me as he was going out with one of his many friends. I took a transit vehicle and alighted at the station closest to where Martin lived. It was hot and the climb up the steep, curving road to his house was unusually tiring.

  When I arrived I swung open the wrought iron gate and approached the front door with its ornate stained glass window. It was opened by Marvin’s mother who ushered me through to the garden where Marvin was sitting in a chair wearing a pair of virtual reality goggles. When he became aware of my presence, he took them off and greeted me warmly.

  “Would you like some Supa-soda?” asked his mother brightly. This was a very welcome offer which I gladly accepted.

  “How was your holiday?” I asked.

  “OK I suppose,” said Marvin. “We went to Bournemouth. There’s not a lot to do there, but it was pleasant enough. It was quite nice to go back there. We used to go there every year when I was small, before we lived in North America. It’s much more crowded now, of course, and the amusement park technology is more advanced. I just hope Mum and Dad don’t suggest it again for next year’s holiday.” After a brief pause he continued, “So, have you met any girls yet?”

  “Not exactly,” I said sheepishly.

  “What do you mean, ‘not exactly’?”

  I could feel myself blushing. “Well, there is a girl I really like,” I said.

  “Have you spoken to her?”

  “No.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You haven’t made much progress, have you?”

  Marvin sat back with a smug expression on his face that made me want to hit him, but I didn’t. I’ve always liked and admired my cousin, despite all the ups and downs of our relationship over the years, but his delight in teasing people was his least endearing characteristic. He seemed to enjoy it most when the subject was a close friend. I always tried to take it in good part, but underneath I felt annoyed and humiliated. Perhaps I was too sensitive.

  I decided to counterattack. “How’s Elise?” I asked.

  “Oh, I’m not seeing her anymore.”

  “Why?”

  “It just didn’t work out, that’s all,” he said dismissively. Later I discovered that Elise had dumped Marvin for one of his classmates.

  “Have you got a new girlfriend?” I asked.

  “Not yet, but it’s just a matter of time.”

  This reply gave me some satisfaction. I was pleased to know that Marvin was no better off than I.

  Chapter Four

  Religious observance had been in decline for more than 200 years and there were very few places of worship left in England. The great abbeys and cathedrals had mostly become museums and the Christian denominations had come together to form the United Church of Christ. For a period of time during the latter half of the twenty-first century there were more Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs in Britain than Christians but, as the descendants of the immigrants who had brought these religions to our shores became assimilated into British secular society, the mosques and temples were demolished or put to other uses like the churches before them.

  As religion declined some post-religious cults appeared, such as the Moral Hedonists who encouraged rational morality and self-knowledge, and the Lennonists, who followed the teachings of the twentieth-century philosopher, John Lennon.
These groups were, however, inclusive rather than exclusive and therefore in tune with the spirit of the age. Gradually the nation states of the past had joined to form larger entities based on the belief that mankind should reject the tribalism of the past in favour of cooperation and tolerance. This was very much in line with the Lennonist concept of ‘the brotherhood of man’. The formation of the European Federation in 2065 set the trend and in due course the USA and Canada formed the United States of North America and the nations of the southern hemisphere formed free trade areas with varying degrees of political integration.

  The suburb where we lived was unusual in having a small church where worship continued on a weekly basis. Congregations were small and so the young minister had a partition built to divide the interior of the building into an area for worship and another for less spiritual uses. The floor of the back part of the church was replaced with one made of material suitable for indoor sports. Some rather old-fashioned video games machines and a contraption that dispensed a variety of drinks were installed so that it could be used as a youth club. The congregation of the church was mostly elderly and there was an urgent need to attract younger members to keep the church alive. However, the official line was that the new facilities were designed to provide somewhere for local young people to meet and enjoy themselves. The establishment of the club was welcomed by local parents who were concerned that their offspring were becoming increasingly isolated in cyberspace and, as a result, were in danger of becoming socially disabled.

  Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near a church youth club, but when I discovered that the girl I had seen on my walk a few weeks before was a member, I lost no time in joining. By then I had learned that her name was Gardenia Freeman and that she went to St Bernard’s School.

  I went along to the club for the first time full of anticipation. The ceiling of the building was high and there were tall windows along the sidewalls. Chairs had been set out in rows facing away from the entrance and in the space between them and the door a group of youngsters of around my own age were standing in groups engaged in what seemed to be animated conversation. I spotted Gardenia talking to a group of girls. She looked, I thought, even more beautiful than she had when I first saw her.