Peterson's eyes lingered on the last word. He reached out and grazed his fingers across the letters, feeling the subtle indentations of the printed word.

"Death," Peterson said, his voice low and distorted.

His eyes moved up, scanning the previous words. He stopped on, "DECONTAMINATION ROOM." Again, he eased his hand across the text. He turned his attention to the sign above the decon room door, which read: DECONTAMINATION ROOM — DOCKING BAY AHEAD.

"Decontamination is death."

As though an electric shock had just jolted through his fingers, Peterson yanked his hand away from the sign. He took one step toward the decon room and stopped. He looked down with wide, red eyes and saw the helmet still in his hands. A gasp escaped his lips and he quickly flung the helmet onto his head and locked it down. His breaths came rapid and deep.

The doors slid open as he stepped inside. He looked down at his hands as the decon room doors closed behind him. They were shaking. The doors slammed shut.

When the exit to the decon room opened up into the docking bay, Peterson burst out, gasping for air. Like frozen fish being flung at a Japanese market, he slammed onto the smooth floor of the docking bay and slid, stopping in a rigid fetal position.

Muscles twitching, Peterson slowly uncurled. Wrinkles of anxiety crisscrossed his forehead. Sounding like a small child coming down from a crying fit, Peterson's voice mixed with each vibrato breath, until slowly, he regained control of his breathing of his body. He stood, inspected the PMS and then struck out in a bold stride across the docking bay.

He stopped in front of Lander Two, which was identical to Lander One. In under a minute he had entered the lander, strapped himself in and started the engines. As the docking bay doors spread open, Peterson caught sight of the flashing lights on Jupiter's cloudy surface. The electrical storms were still raging. The occasional flash illuminated a slice of red on the moon's surface—a vast field of Europhids.

With every show of crimson on the surface of Europa, Peterson's body became more relaxed. He gripped the controls and gently lifted off the docking bay floor. As he guided the craft out into space, he caught a glimpse of a red glow, rippling from a portion of the moon's surface. It was a display never seen from this point of view and a genuine smile creased his lips.