Willard leaned over and in the most serious voice Connelly had ever heard him use, he said, "From now on you do exactly what I say when I say it. You debate, you get left behind. Am. I. Clear?"

Connelly nodded, but she was sure there was nothing Willard could do to save them. Not if the horde of alien creatures, each a clone of the one she had found dead on the floor, became violent.

Connelly pushed the image from her mind. She'd found years ago that imagining her own gruesome death was a sure fire way to trigger an anxiety attack, and the one building pressure in her chest was already about to explode.

*   *   *   *   *

If a crowd of circus fans had been flown into orbit along with the Surveyor they would have been cheering madly when Choi rocketed out of the Europhid filled tunnel like a futuristic human cannon ball. Only there was no net to catch her when she inevitably fell back towards the hard ice surface. If she returned at all.

Choi fought waves of dizziness as she looked down at the fading landscape. She'd never been afraid of flying, but this was different. Floating free above the moon's surface was as close as anyone ever got to flying, really flying. Europa's faint gravity was barely holding her from the cold grip of space. She had no wings to alter her trajectory and no air resistance to slow her down. She was a helpless projectile.

The surface of Europa seemed to glare brilliantly at her, as though she had just stepped out of a dark movie theater and into the light of day. She noticed a radiant spot on the horizon, like a double bright but half-sized Earth moon.

Ganymede, Choi thought. It must have cleared the dark side of Jupiter, reflecting the sun's light.

The largest of Jupiter's moons, Ganymede's surface was a thick sheet of ice. It was the perfect surface for reflecting sunlight, which it did now, brightly enough to illuminate the surface of Europa.

Looking down, Choi wished Ganymede had waited to cast its light on Europa. Passing below, the field of red Europhids spilled out in every direction—for miles. She'd be lucky to ever find TES or her crew again.

Before she could delve deeper into worrisome thoughts, Choi noticed a violent chain reaction reshaping the Europhid field. A growing darkness expanded below her, spreading out from the epicenter where she had been launched. Her infection had been fully adapted, with disastrous effects and was spreading like wildfire. The Europhids, all of the Europhids below her, were dying.