Choi let her lungs fill with air as she opened her eyes. She couldn't see her blood sprayed across the surface of Europhids, but she knew it was there, coating them in a thin mist. Not wanting to spur the Europhids into action, Choi waited without moving. The tunnel had become still. The undulating creatures had stopped moving.

The change came so slowly that Choi wasn't sure if she were seeing things or not, but as the effect spread, she knew it was a reaction of some kind. The Europhids were expanding. Swelling. The confines of the tunnel began to expand around her, exerting a painful strangle on her lower body. Her upper body became ensnared as well, and she feared being crushed to death.

Then the reaction grew. The swollen Europhids began pushing and pulling at Choi's body once again, but this time action seemed more like an uncontrolled frenzy—a panic. More importantly, the direction had changed. She was moving up. The Europhids were working as a group, perfectly synchronized, even in their hyperactive state. The result was that Choi's acceleration up the tunnel increased rapidly. Within seconds she'd been vaulted forward to the speed of an Olympic sprinter.

She rocketed towards freedom. As her body continued to accelerate, her mind came to a screeching halt. She was about to be launched out of a thirty degree tunnel at nearly forty miles an hour and would be entering the low gravity atmosphere of Europa. Her eyes widened as she neared the exit.

She was about to be launched into space.

*   *   *   *   *

An indistinct shadow emerged around Connelly's kneeling form, revealing that something large had loomed over head, blocking out the red light cast down by the Europhid-coated ceiling. Looking up, she saw Robert and Willard looking down at her, arms crossed.

"What's it going to be, boss?" Willard asked. "You can go on your feet or over my shoulder. Either way, we're leaving now."

Connelly knew he was serious, and that ultimately, she should listen to him. What she'd discovered on the cave floor only reinforced the idea that they were in a dangerous environment. But she couldn't leave without taking the body. It was a perfect specimen, and it was already dead. She was sure they'd agree once they saw it.

As though revealing the latest car model, Connelly shuffled to the side and swept her hand over the dead creature. Upon seeing the small beast, Robert and Willard's eyebrows sprang up. Connelly returned her eyes to the creature and made mental notes as she examined it.