No light. No heat. Mark had no idea which way to swim. He closed his eyes and waited for the water to float him in one direction or another.
"Mark?" The radio crackled in his ear. "What's your situation?"
"I'm alright, Liam... just give me a minute." Mark returned to the silence, searching for the tells. He had over 70 dives logged; he knew how to read a sea, to recognize its currents and sense the trails left behind by aquatic migrations. But the subsurface oceans of Europa felt like no ocean on Earth. It went beyond lifelessness; it felt like he was swimming in a grave.
Mark opened his eyes and switched on his spectrographic goggles. "Are you seeing anything, base camp? I can't make any sense of this. I'd swear I was in a block of concrete."
"You're reading the extra mineral content." Alice, the team geologist, was speaking. "Try switching to sonar."
Another voice piped in. "Mark, you need to breathe slower. Your air adaptors won't be able to keep up."
Mark smiled. "You worry too much, Cam. I'm reading ten minutes; guess I'm done in 9." He resumed radio silence and stretched out his arms, waiting for something to push back. Nothing before his eyes made sense, and nothing in his ears was as loud as his fearful blood rushing through his body. He returned to his only reference point: the rock he had entered the ocean through. Swimming quickly, he reached the rock abruptly, and his entire body collapsed against it.
"Mark!"
"I'm alright, " he grunted. Disoriented, he picked himself up and stood on the surface. The change in perspective revealed the ocean's first secret. "Guys? I think I woke up something..."
inspired by Discover Magazine article, "Life in Europa's Salty Ocean"
No comments:
Post a Comment