Chapter 12 Chapter 11 Ice and Vacuum

"Who's that?" someone whispered, followed by hisses to silence him.Floyd spread his arms out, trying to appear as ignorant as possible—and, at the same time, hoping to appear innocent. "...Knowing that you are on the Leonov...Maybe there is not much time... Use the antenna on my spacesuit to point in the direction I judge." The signal faded for a few seconds, then became a little clearer again, though not louder. "...to send the news to Earth. The Qian was destroyed three hours ago. I'm the only survivor. Using the radio on my spacesuit - don't know if it's powerful enough, but it's the only opportunity. Listen carefully, there is life on Europa. I repeat: there is life on Europa...”

The signal became weak again.In the stunned silence, no one spoke.Floyd waited, searching desperately for memory.He couldn't remember the voice—perhaps it was a Western-educated Chinese.It could be someone he met at a scientific meeting, but unless the speaker identified himself, he couldn't possibly know who it was. "...shortly after midnight here, we were pumping steadily and the propellant tanks were nearly half full. Dr. Lee and I went out to check the seals on the pipes. The Qian stopped - was at - the Grand Canal Thirty meters away, the pipes lead straight down from there, down into the ice. The ice is thin—it's not safe to walk on. Warm currents upwell..."

Another long silence.Freud wondered if the speaker was moving, and suddenly he was blocked by some obstacle. "... no problem - five kilowatt lights shining on the ship. Like a Christmas tree - beautiful, shining through the ice. Brilliant colours. Li saw first - a huge black object rising from below Get up. At first we thought it was a school of fish—too big for a single creature—and then it started breaking through the ice. "Dr. Floyd, I want you to hear me. I'm Professor Zhang - we met at the International Astronomical Union meeting in Boston in 2002." Freud's thoughts immediately drifted tens of billions of kilometers away.He vaguely remembered the reception after the closing of the International Astronomical Union meeting—it was the last meeting that Chinese people attended before the Second Cultural Revolution.Now he vividly recalls Zhang—a short, humorous astronomy and xenobiologist who loved to tell jokes.He doesn't tell any more jokes now.

"...crawling across the ground like a big wet clump of seaweed. Lee ran back to the ship to get the camera - I stayed and watched, and reported by radio. The thing was moving fairly slowly, and I could pass it easily. Instead of feeling the need to panic, I was excited. I thought I knew what it was—I had seen pictures of California kelp forests—but I was dead wrong. "...I could tell it was in trouble. It couldn't survive temperatures one hundred and fifty degrees below its normal habitat. It was slowly freezing and stiffening as it moved forward—in pieces Something like glass fell off it—but it was still moving toward the ship in a black wave, slower and slower.

"I'm still amazed, can't think, can't imagine what it's going to do..." "Is there any way to talk to him back?" Floyd whispered anxiously. "No - it's too late, Europa is turning behind Jupiter. We'll have to wait for it to resurface." "...climbed the ship, leaving a trail of ice as it advanced. Maybe it was a way of keeping it out of the cold—just as termites keep out the sun with their little mud walls. "... tons of ice piled up on the ship. First the radio antenna broke. Then I could see the landing legs start to bend - all in slow motion, like a nightmare.

"I didn't realize what this thing was trying to do until the ship started falling over - but it was too late. We could have saved ourselves - if only we had turned off those lights. "Perhaps it is a phototaxis organism whose biological cycle is triggered by sunlight penetrating the ice, or perhaps it is attracted to it like a moth to a flame. Our powerful lights must be more powerful than those ever seen on Europa." Any kind of light will be brilliant... "Then the whole ship collapsed. I saw the hull split open and a snowy cloud of condensed moisture drift away. All the lights were out, except for one dangling from a power line a few meters away.

"I couldn't immediately understand what happened after that. The next thing I remember, I was standing under that light, next to the wreckage, surrounded by freshly fallen snow. I could clearly see my Tracks left in the snow. I must have run here; maybe just a minute or two... "The plant—I still think it was a plant—was motionless. I don't know if it was killed in the collision; large pieces—as thick as a man's arm—split open, Like a twig that is broken off. "And its trunk started moving again. It disembarked and started crawling towards me. That confirmed to me that this thing was sensitive to light, and I immediately stood behind that multi-kilowatt lamp, and that lamp It is no longer shaking.

"Imagine an oak tree - or more figuratively, a banyan tree with a drooping trunk and thick roots - lying flat on the ground due to gravity, and trying to crawl on the ground. It reaches five meters from the lamp. inside, then began to stretch in a circular motion until it completely surrounded me. Perhaps that was the limit of its endurance - the attraction of the light turned into repulsion at this point. Nothing happened for a few minutes after that. I don't know it Is it dead—finally freezes and freezes. "Then I saw huge buds growing on many of the branches, and it was like watching a flower slowly unfold. In fact, I thought it was the flowers - each one was about the size of a human head.

"The delicate and colorful membrane began to unfurl. Even then, I felt that no one—nothing—had seen the colors; that did not exist before we lit the lights—our deadly lights— —bringing them into this world. "The tendrils, the stamens, are wobbling slightly... I walk towards this living wall that surrounds me so I can see clearly what's going on. Even then, or anytime, I Having never feared it, I'm sure it wasn't malicious—if it had a conscience. "Huge flowers bloom in all shapes and sizes. Now they remind me of butterflies, just emerging from their cocoons - wings wrinkled and weak - and I'm getting closer to its truth.

"But they froze - died as quickly as they bloomed. Then one by one they fell off the bud holders of the mother. Within minutes they were slamming all around like fish lying dry on dry land -- finally I figured out what they were. These membranes weren't petals -- they were fins, or something like that. This was the aquatic larval stage of the creature. Maybe it spent most of its life at the bottom of the ocean, and then Sent its easy-to-migratory descendants to find new territories, like coral polyps living in the earth's oceans. "I got down on my knees and looked at the little life. The beautiful colors were all faded to a dry brown. Some of the petals—the fins were broken off, and it was brittle from freezing. But it still Moving weakly, it tried to avoid me as I approached. I don't know how it sensed my presence.

"Then I noticed that the stamens - that's what I called them just now - were flecked with bright blue at their tips, and they looked like tiny sapphires - or scallop shells. The blue spot - can feel its color, but I can't describe the real picture. As I observe, the vivid blue fades, and the sapphire becomes a dull ordinary stone..." "Dr. Floyd - or whoever is listening - I don't have time; Jupiter will cut off my signal shortly. But I'll be done soon. "Then I knew what I had to do. The wire hanging from the light was almost down to the ground, I tugged a few times, and the light went out after a flash of sparks." "I didn't know if it was too late. Minutes passed and nothing happened, so I went to the wall of tangled branches that surrounded me and kicked it." "Slowly, the creature regained its original shape and retreated towards the Grand Canal. There was enough light here - I could see it clearly. Ganymede and Callisto hung in the sky - Jupiter was a huge The crescent of the moon - there is a huge magnificent light belt in the dark side of the sky, that is the Io flux tube (Iofluxtube Io magnetic current tube, connecting the magnetic field lines and current regions of Io and Jupiter. - Re-scaler's note ) on the Jupiter side. I didn't have to turn on my helmet light at all. "I followed the creature all the way to the water's edge, and when it slowed down I kicked it to make it go faster. I felt the creaking of snow and ice under my feet... as it got closer to the edge of the Grand Canal, it Seems to be gaining strength and vitality again, seems to know it's near home, I don't know if it will survive and sprout again." "It disappeared from the surface, leaving only a few dead offspring on the surface. Then I walked back to the ship to see if anything survived - I don't want to talk about that. "I have only two requests, Doctor. When biologists classify such creatures, I want them to be named after me. "And - when the next ship comes home - ask them to bring our remains back to China. "Jupiter will block us in a few minutes. I wish I knew if anyone heard me. Anyway, I will repeat the above message when we meet again - if my spacesuit life systems can support so long. "This is Professor Zhang on Europa, reporting the destruction of the Qian spaceship, we landed on the side of the Grand Canal and put our pumps next to the ice—" The signal suddenly weakened, then recovered for a short while, and finally disappeared completely amidst the noise.Although the Leonov was still listening to the same frequency, it never heard a single word from Professor Zhang.