Europa

by Robert Mills

  Despite my initial misgivings, I was really looking forward to embarking on my new life by the time that we set off for Europa on a bright winter morning in 2159. Meena had to stay behind because space travel was not considered to be safe for pregnant women in those days. Despite the prospect of several months of separation from her and missing the birth of my first child, I was in a buoyant mood.

  Meena and I travelled to the London Spaceport together and met Marvin and Liv in the departure area. Meena’s parents were already there when we arrived and, slightly to my surprise, my parents turned up as well. We were all amazed by the size of the spaceport, with its gleaming towers and vast launch pads. On many of them we could see shuttlecraft ready for departure, their narrow noses pointing skywards. Around them men and robots could be seen going about their allotted tasks.

  Our flight departed from the newly opened Jovian Terminal and we checked in at the desks marked United Spaceways. The departure lounge was huge and was already half full of fellow travellers. At one end of the vast hall was a huge smartscreen on which a mixture of passenger announcements, news items and advertisements were displayed. A platform had been erected below it and a number of dignitaries had already assembled. We were part of the first group of British settlers to depart for Europa, and the First Minister of the English Regional Assembly turned up and gave a speech in which she described the settlers as ‘courageous pioneers’ and ‘heroes’. Meena told me later that there was extensive media coverage of the event, and there were also pictures of the luxurious accommodation that awaited us on Europa and the wonderful opportunities that the colony offered. The truth was that all of us had been given generous financial incentives to leave Earth.

  Meena was tearful but tried to put a brave face on things. When our flight was called I enfolded her in my arms. “Oh Symon,” she said, “I’ll miss you terribly. Do take care.”

  “I’ll be fine,” I said. “I’m worried about you with the baby coming and everything.”

  “It’ll be alright, Mum will be with me.”

  “Of course I will,” said Mrs Naylor. “We’ll be fine.”

  My parents wished me well and my mother said that she’d be happy to help Meena with the baby when it arrived. Mrs Naylor’s face fell when she heard this, but Meena kissed my mother and thanked her profusely.

  “I’m afraid we’ll have to go,” I said.

  I kissed Meena and we set off to the gate for our shuttlecraft. When we were safely strapped in ready for take-off a robot offered us relaxation cocktails, which we gladly accepted. The captain announced that we would be departing shortly and thanked us for choosing United Spaceways. He indicated a flight time of thirty minutes to the transit station.

  The acceleration on take-off forced me back in my seat as the ship fought to escape the Earth’s gravitational pull and we were glad when a slowing of the craft indicated that we were in orbit. Soon the transit station came into view on our personal smartscreens. It was dwarfed by the huge silver-coloured interplanetary cruiser that was attached to the station by several tubular spacebridges. We knew from the information provided in the terminal building on Earth that the vessel had been assembled in zero gravity and would spend its working life aloft, never landing on any planet’s surface. Finally it would be dismantled in orbit and the pieces would be returned to Earth to be recycled.

  As we drew nearer we could see another shuttle vessel attached to the transit station. Well before we were ready to dock, the other ship had detached, drifted clear and then commenced its descent to Earth.

  In due course we disembarked and walked along a spacebridge to the transit lounge. Its huge windows allowed us to view the black vastness of space directly. Of course, we’d seen views like this on our smartscreens back home on Earth, but looking directly at the moon and stars was somehow different and more exciting. I could see that Marvin and Liv were also fascinated by the spectacle and for some time we sat together in silence. After a while I strolled over to another window, through which I could see the shuttle vessels arriving and departing. They had set off from the various regional capitals of Europe and all the people aboard them were to travel with us to the European Zone of the Europa colony.

  When I rejoined my friends Marvin said, “I think we’re really fortunate to have this opportunity. It’s the sort of chance that comes up once in a lifetime.”

  Of course he was right, but it was at that moment that I realised that I might never see Earth again. It was true that it was a much more overcrowded planet than it had been when I was younger, but it was still home. I told myself that in the past people had left their homelands never to return and had made new lives for themselves in other parts of the globe. Some had been sent there against their will, but others had chosen to make the journey. Perhaps, like me, they’d had regrets about leaving but they’d had the courage to press ahead and many had triumphed against far greater odds than we would face. On the other hand, they hadn’t had to adjust to living in microgravity as we would. I reminded myself we’d all received training to help us cope when we arrived.

  And we did cope. In fact we enjoyed a lot of success on Europa. It’s just a shame that it didn’t last and I have to take a considerable share of the blame for what went wrong. If you asked me whether I regret all that happened, I would have to say no. Even now I view the good times I enjoyed on Europa as some of the high points of my life.

  As I sat with Marvin and Liv in the transit station all those years ago I had the reassuring feeling that we were a team and that whatever difficulties we would face in our new home, we would face them together. An announcement on the public address system informed us that it was time to board.

  “No turning back now,” I said brightly.

  Marvin smiled. We gathered our belongings and queued with our fellow travellers.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I found the journey tedious and was glad that we’d opted for a stopover on Mars. We arrived there late on the sixth day of the journey and disembarked. As we descended in the shuttlecraft we were treated to panoramic views of the red planet. At first it was a featureless dull red ball but, as we came closer, we were able to make out surface features. Fortunately our approach took us over Olympus Mons and the Valles Marineris, giving us a spectacular view of both. Finally we saw the lights of the spaceport in the distance as we commenced our final approach. Our vessel slowed until it was hovering over a vast man-made opening in the planet’s surface. It descended slowly and touched down with an almost imperceptible jolt. An articulated tunnel was attached to the side of our ship, completely isolating the doorway from the environment outside. Once the tunnel had been pressurised, we were able to disembark. As we walked towards the terminal building, I could see huge doors sliding across the opening through which our ship had descended to close it off.

  Like that on Europa, the Martian colony is located underground in a series of caves. The first explorers of the red planet had confirmed that the holes observed on the surface, notably on the side of the extinct volcano Arsia Mons, were skylights in lava tunnels below the surface. Soon after they stepped inside for the first time it became clear that they led into a huge system of caverns large enough to contain several cities. They built airlocks in the cave entrances and skylights and filled them with the air-like gas they had generated. In these hermetically sealed refuges the new inhabitants of Mars lived their lives with little thought of the cold, dusty wasteland above their heads.

  It was late when we arrived, so we went straight to our hotel and checked in. The caves of Mars do not have high roofs like those on Europa and so a lot of buildings, including some hotels, have their upper floors above the surface of the planet. We had treated ourselves to rooms in one of these and were rewarded by views across the barren wastes of Mars, though we couldn’t see very far until the following morning. In the black sky above, the stars seemed less bright than from Earth, according to Marvin becau
se of the dust suspended in the Martian atmosphere. I couldn’t help wishing that Meena was with me to enjoy this first experience of an alien world. It was also our first taste of low gravity and at first we felt rather peculiar. I was mindful that the gravity on Mars is twice that on Europa and that this stopover was a good opportunity to acclimatise to low-gravity living. In any case, it was good to exchange our cramped quarters on the interplanetary cruiser for the relative luxury of the hotel.

  The following morning we took a tour of part of the Martian colony. It had been established more than fifty years before that on Europa, and the Martian experience had been invaluable when the Europa colony was being planned. Like Europa, Mars has a thin atmosphere containing a little oxygen, and living things on the surface are subjected to the harmful levels of radiation. However, it has no subterranean ocean and water is in short supply. This has limited the size of the Martian population and was one of the factors that led to the development of the Jovian colonies.

  This was also our first opportunity to sample life as a ‘trog’, as subterranean colony dwellers are usually known. We were pleasantly surprised by the levels of temperature and illumination within the system of caves and by the facilities available. The transit tubes were suspended from the roof of the caverns and criss-crossed the space beneath. The buildings were impressive too, many of them, like our hotel, disappearing through the roof of the caves. The food was better than expected as well. We sampled a number of locally grown or synthesised foodstuffs and I was pleasantly surprised by their authentic taste. The relatively short journey time to Earth meant that the diet of the locals was supplemented by imported foods, but this was not the case on Europa, as we soon discovered when we arrived there.

  As we sat at ease in a restaurant in the centre of the city of New London, Marvin spoke enthusiastically. “I’m really impressed by what I’ve seen so far,” he said. “OK this low gravity makes you feel a bit queasy, but the buildings and the transport system are amazing. I know one thing: I’m certain that I won’t miss the weather on Earth. An environment in which the temperature is kept at a steady twenty-five degrees with relatively low humidity is ideal for me.”

  “This is Mars, not Europa,” I reminded him. “There’s a big difference between living a few days’ travel from Earth and being halfway across the solar system. We won’t see all the luxuries they have here on Europa.”

  “Granted,” he said waving his hand dismissively, “but I’ve never been one for fancy food and wine. Good simple food and decent beer are enough for me.”

  “What do you think, Liv?” I asked.

  “I’d much rather be living here than going on to Europa,” she said, “but I know that there are no openings for you two on Mars. I’m sure we’ll soon get used to it.”

  “I know it won’t be exactly like this there,” said Marvin, “but there are more similarities than differences. I think we need to approach this venture with a positive attitude.” He was always an optimist and I think that much of his success was due to his irrepressible enthusiasm. I, on the other hand, have always been more of a realist.

  Marvin and I spent the second day on Mars visiting a robot maintenance company that was run by a former colleague of his, while Liv went shopping and enjoyed the hotel spa. The next morning we resumed our journey.

  During the onward voyage we had the chance to relax and talk over our plans for the future. Marvin was full of ideas for his new company, which he was eager to share with me, and was clearly convinced that it would be a great success. I gained the impression that Liv was less certain about the merits of the move to Europa, despite what Marvin had said when he invited me to go with him. I knew that they were keen to have children and I wasn’t sure whether our new environment would make this more or less difficult for them. By that time infertility treatment had been illegal for many years on Earth and this was also the case in the Jovian system. In addition, many experts were arguing that the two-child policy needed to be abandoned in favour of one child per family legislation. In due course this change did occur and so although Meena and I had two children I have only one grandchild from each of my offspring. I didn’t realise it at the time, but these two pieces of legislation were a bitter blow to Liv.

  When the change in fertility law was being considered some argued that there was a risk of negative population growth and that there wouldn’t be enough younger people to care for the elderly, but this was very much a minority view. In any case there was increasing availability of robots designed to provide care and support for the elderly.

  The journey continued and for days all we could see was the endless blackness of space punctuated by the distant stars. At last we got our first view of Jupiter and as we came closer to it we could see its alternating bands of light and dark and its angry red eye. One of the crew pointed out a small black dot on its surface and explained that this was the shadow cast by Europa.

  We made a brief stop at Callisto’s orbiting space terminal to allow a few passengers to disembark and had a good view of this moon during the approach. The surface appears brownish in colour and is covered in bright dots so that to me it looked like a ball of chocolate frosted with sugar. We didn’t get close enough to be able to make out its heavily cratered surface.

  As we approached Europa itself we got our first view of our new home. The surface of the moon is very smooth, in contrast to the cratered surfaces of Callisto and Ganymede, and is crisscrossed by a large number of black lines. It’s covered in a thick layer of water ice and these lines are cracks caused by the tidal forces exerted by Jupiter. It looked to me like a round iced cake on which someone had scribbled large unintelligible letters.

  Liv was wide-eyed with wonder. “It looks so beautiful,” she said. “I think I’m going to enjoy living here after all.”

  “It does look stunning,” I said, “but don’t forget that we’re going to be living under the surface. That exquisite exterior is being constantly bombarded with harmful radiation.”

  “Earth looked beautiful from space when we were on our way to Mars,” said Marvin. “You don’t have the same view of it when you’re on the surface, but it’s just as impressive there.” I got the message: we had to think positively if we were to make a go of our new life.

  We arrived in the main spaceport in Europa City on schedule and disembarked. We were immediately aware of the lower gravity, only twelve percent of that on Earth, compared to thirty-seven percent on Mars. We were given weighted boots when we arrived to help us walk while we became used to our new environment.

  We boarded an ATV and headed for the city of New Rome, where we were to live and work. The transit system was very new back then and the vehicles ran in transparent tubes so that we were able to get our first view of Europa’s cave system. Unlike on Mars, the transit tubes were mounted on a series of pillars or attached to taller buildings, as they are on Earth, because the roof of the cavern is so far above its floor. The initial phase of our journey took us through the huge cave in which Europa City was situated. Once on the other side, we continued down the man-made tunnel that connects Europa City and New Rome.

  New Rome is located in a series of interconnecting natural caves. None of them is as large as that which houses Europa City, but the view was still very impressive. At that time building was still in progress, but a few years after our arrival all the available space had been either built on or put to other uses.

  At the main transit terminal we transferred to a local ATV that would take us to our new accommodation, which was in one of the many apartment blocks in the residential sections of the city. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we were to live in a larger apartment with more accommodation than that which we had rented on Earth. In line with the family policy current at that time, there was a main bedroom for Meena and I and two smaller ones for children. The extensive living room included an area that could be converted into guest accommodation, with a
ccess to a bathroom, but there was no provision for an extended family to live together permanently. This mattered little, as that style of family life had largely died out by then. A few years later the specification was changed and all new apartments had only two bedrooms, in line with the new one-child policy.

  We had a few days to settle in and become familiar with our new environment. Artificial light is provided during the ‘day’ by banks of huge lamps in the roof of the cave and street level lighting during the ‘night’ to facilitate healthy biorhythms and, since these are synchronised with Greenwich Mean Time, we easily adjusted to the Jovian clock. When we arrived in the colony, retailing was almost exclusively online, goods being ordered via the apartment’s smartscreen and delivered by robotic vehicles to your door. This was a prototype of the system that would later become the norm on Earth. However, it soon became clear that, as on Callisto, there was demand for physical retail outlets, as visiting the few shopping malls that did exist became a popular leisure activity and so more were built. Entertainment facilities and restaurants were available in the same areas of the city and, a few years after our arrival, in observation towers overlooking the planet’s surface.

  When the colony was first established the only structures protruding through the ice were the wide-mouthed oxygen collection ducts and radiation collection dishes, but it was soon realised that the community would need eyes and ears on the surface and so the first observation towers were constructed. Initially there were only a few of these but, once the construction method for these structures had been perfected, they started to appear all over the inhabited areas of the moon. This was no mean feat, as they had to pass through the roof of the cave system, the ocean and the ice crust so that the lift shafts which served the structures above the ice had to be as much as a kilometre in height and the lifts had to travel up them at speeds of up to one hundred kilometres per hour. In addition, the section of the tower that emerged from the ocean had to be specially designed to withstand the movement and cracking of the surrounding ice that resulted from the gravitational pull of Jupiter.