"Shit," Willard's curse was quiet but still audible. He looked out over the cavern and saw Connelly kneeling down, inspecting something on the floor.

"You might change your mind after you see this," Connelly said.

Willard made a quick adjustment to his com. "Arms and legs. Don't let her change your mind."

Robert nodded and headed into the cave. The more time he spent in the cave, the more he felt the desperate need to leave it. A presence, like thousands of watching eyes, began crawling up the skin of his back, poking his flesh. Robert quickened his pace while searching for any hidden dangers among the harmless Europhids. He knew that such instincts were most likely the result of his over-active imagination, but the further they voyaged into the cave, the stronger it got.

Minutes later, Robert would learn to trust in instincts.

CHAPTER 25 -- THE CREEPS

The soft undulations that eased Choi from unconsciousness did little to calm her nerves this time. Memories of her last moment of lucidity returned like a torrent; the Europhids carrying her over the ice, Peterson's attack, the charged particles bounding towards orbit. Her eyes flicked open. With shaky vision, Choi did her best to understand her surroundings. The world was a blur of red, encompassing her on all sides.

She was being transported by Europhids—that much she knew. She could feel the gentle bodies shuffling her along. But as she gazed up, there was no dark sky, just red. She knew her headlamp was still functioning, or the scene would be pitch black. Thinking she might be disoriented and lying on her stomach, Choi rolled herself over. The effort from moving her body sent lighting bolts of pain through her body and into her eye sockets. She could sense that none of her bones were broken, but the soreness gripping her muscles meant her injuries were far from inconsequential.

As the pain subsided, Choi opened her scrunched eyes and took in the view. Things became suddenly clear. Below her eyes, just inches from her nose, Choi could see Europhids pressing their pliable flesh against her clear facemask, pushing her along to the next in line.

Straining her neck muscles, Choi looked up. A long tunnel of Europhids shot up above her, ascending at a thirty degree angle. The Europhids coated every surface of the four foot wide ice tunnel burrowed into the ice, like a cilia-coated bronchial tube.

I'm being swallowed by Europa, she thought.