Choi watched as a nearby Europhid expanded, opened at the top and then spat out a single golf ball sized orb of light. Within seconds, the darkened domain became lit by thousands, perhaps millions of the tiny luminous globes, all floating towards orbit. She recognized them immediately—the charged particles that had almost destroyed the Surveyor after they arrived in orbit. They were headed for the Surveyor once again, and if Peterson had done something to Harris, there would be no one to stop them this time.

Before Choi could verbally react to the sight, Peterson's foot smashed into the side of her head. Choi fell over sideways as consciousness slipped away again.

They were all going to die on Europa.

CHAPTER 24 -- THE DEN

"You can't be serious," Willard said with a vigorous shake of the head. "I'll admit that this moon is covered in life, but subterranean Europian cows…c'mon." He looked at Connelly, thinking she would immediately support his objection, but she had quickly become rigid. It was as though Robert's cow comment had set off a silent alarm inside her skull. "What's the deal with you two?"

"Kath," Robert said, as he watched the cave entrance, "Would you mind explaining the significance of a methane rich atmosphere to the boy?" Robert looked at her. "I'll watch the door."

Willard slouched. They were serious. He wondered if the stress of their near death experience had further clouded their scientific objectivity. They were setting a record for the number of times a person could jump headlong into the unknown. First detaching from TES, and then chasing a pod of Europian whales, leading them into an encounter with an alien predator and ending in this sub-oceanic cave system—which they now intended on exploring. From a safety standpoint, they were about to cross another line and Willard was beginning to consider reporting their odd behavior to Harris.

Of course, he knew the truth about Connelly's and Robert's actions. They were excited. They were scientists, analytical thinkers at heart, but what they had discovered in the past few days was nearly beyond human comprehension. What made matters worse was that every foolhardy action taken on this mission had only led to greater discoveries that served to increase the level of excitement and, in turn, increase the number of unsafe calls. At the end of the day, if they survived, their discoveries would be hailed by science as brilliant and brave, but until then, every new wonder brought along a host of unknown dangers that Willard was beginning to resent.

No…more hate.

Ever since his own life-threatening experience in the belly of a massive predator, Willard had felt an unrelenting emotional insistence that they head back to the surface as soon as possible. More than that, he thought they should return to the Surveyor, leave orbit and make haste to Earth without looking back. But that would never happen. Not with this crew.