Solar

Discovery

"Who checked this damn valve?" Daniels screamed as he tossed the third valve he had changed today across the room. An engineer narrowly dodged the flying object.

The man scowled at Daniel, but didn't say anything. It wasn't that things weren't going well, he just wanted to do something besides repair mundane issues. This particular valve was part of the tertiary water filtration system and the primary and secondary systems were functioning perfectly. He just didn't like his systems to be the least bit inefficient.

A beeping from the drilling rig drew his attention. "What now?" He muttered as he walked to the screen. He could have used his tablet, but he had tossed it earlier.

He paused when he reached the screen. The drilling probe was functioning perfectly, but it had stopped due to an anomaly ahead of it. At first he couldn't determine what it was, but something ahead of the probe wasn't as dense as ice. He activated the high energy lights. He usually didn't use the lights because they used a lot of energy.

The lights came on penetrating a good thirty feet into the ice. He adjusted for the glare and eased the drill forward. Ten feet later he stopped.Yes, there was something ahead.

At the moment, he could only see a massive discoloration. He activated the secondary mini-probes that his larger probes carried. These probes only had a range of a few hundred feet, but they were smaller and could drill faster and with more precision.

"Jerry, could you ready drills two through four? Set them on a parallel path," he asked.

The man he had almost hit nodded and walked to the shipping crates. They had only been on the surface of the moon for two days and most of the non-essential equipment wasn't unpacked yet. He had another group of engineers working on Mary's medical lab.

Three drones helped Jerry unpack the probes. Daniel watched as the mini-probes etched toward the discoloration, their own lights painting the patch of ice. His heart started racing as a composite image started forming on his screen. He touched a spot on the screen that showed a phone. "Mary, please report to engineering," he tried unsuccessfully to keep the excitement from his voice.

A few minutes later, Mary climbed down the ladder to engineering. They hadn't even set up the stairs yet. Mary glanced at him expanctantly as he raked her raven locks out of her face. They drifted for a moment before slowly falling slowly. Her hair was just about light enough to float in the gravity of Europa. Here he weighed barely twenty pounds. They would have the artificial gravity set up within a week and each of them would need to spend several hours a day in the room to keep their muscle tone. He motioned her over to him.

"What do you think?" He asked, wonder clear in his normally neutral voice.

Mary gasped. "It's biological! You discovered life."

"I'm pretty sure this one is dead. It hasn't reacted to any stimulus, but it is huge. It is seventy feet long, its two main bodies are ten feet in diameter, and separated by a seven foot fin that connects them. Its sixteen tentacles are each forty feet long." He paused, "We also found this buried under it." he keyed an image. "It appeared to be a crude weapon."

"Noo," Mary drawled, "It can't be"

Mary was practically drooling and dancing where she stood. She wanted to get her hands on it. "How difficult will it be to move?" She asked.

Daniel did some quick mental math. "Even considering the low gravity of this moon, that thing still weighs about a ton. It will take me several days to create an apparatus that will pull it to the surface."

"Do you know how big this is?! We have just found proof of life that isn't from Earth, and it looks like it may be intelligent!"

Daniel was still stunned. The gravity of the situation hadn't fully dawned on him. This discovery would shake humanity to its core.

"I need to call home. I need more equipment." Daniel muttered.

***

Samuel watched the five minute recording Daniel had sent for a third time. It was nearly seven pm and he was ready to go home, but this was exceptional. He dialed Tamia's number.

"Hi, babe." She answered.

"Have you left the office yet?" He asked.

"No, I hate coming into the office; I can never get away." She complained.

"Stop by my office, I'm ordering dinner. We're going to have a long night. Get your press crew." He said.

"Shit..." Mary exclaimed, fearing the worst.

Samuel said nothing to alleviate her anxiety. Moments later, she burst through this door with five other people. Samuel had a three-dimensional image of the creature displayed above his desk.

"What the hell is that?" Mary asked.

"I don't know; Daniel found it."

"But Daniel is on Euro..." She trailed off as her eyes widened to the size of saucers. "It can't be," She turned to her mass media person. "Don't tweet anything yet. We need a unified message."

"That's not all Daniel found. It seems that this creature was buried with a weapon and had an inscribed stone marker under it...towards the sea."

Timia sputtered a moment as what Samuel said sunk in. "They're intelligent?"

Samuel shrugged. "We don't have enough information."

"Weapons, engravings, and burial speak of intelligence." Timia replied.

"I don't disagree, but we need more information."

"Fine, I'll call in some experts." She said.

***

It was early morning before they decided what they were going to say in a conference. Samuel had taken a few hour nap on the couch in his office, but he didn't feel rested, but as CEO he needed to make this announcement himself. An aid had brought him a fresh suit and he had showered in the executive gym. Now he stood behind a podium looking at more than a score of reporters.

"Less than a week after landing on Europa, my brother, Daniel Tawn has discovered conclusive evidence of intelligent life on Jupiter's ice moon."

The questions drowned him out and the flashes of cameras blinded him.