When he'd first sat down, he discovered the primary systems were no longer functioning. He'd had to manually switch to a backup system. After pushing himself across the command center several times in an effort to reach the backup system switches, he finally reached it. He had yanked open the door and fought with the ten tight switches that looked like circuit breakers. Once all ten were switched, he flung himself back across the room. He'd struck the ceiling as the ship pitched forward, but the impact flung him towards his chair, which he was able to grab. He'd succeeded in switching to the backup system, but the effort had exhausted him.

He had managed to strap himself into the command console seat, but he was having trouble focusing.

One step at a time, Harris thought.

The alarm had been shut off. That was his first step. Number two…

The pounding of thousands of charged particles blasting the outer hull was like a Fourth of July celebration, amplified through a loud speaker. The gash on his head throbbed with every concussion.

Restart the system! The thought snuck through the chaos. Harris reacted instantly. His shaking fingers sped over the controls. A series of colorful control screens flashed past as Harris accessed and reset the ship's system. With a final strike of a button, the command center went black.

After several seconds of waiting in weightlessness, the screen in front of Harris blinked back on. Text scrolled down the screen. He recognized it from their previous encounter with the charged particle bombs. He held his breath, hoping that everything would check out.

System reboot...

Life support systems engaged...

Main electric engaged...

Gravity engaged...

Harris felt the weight of his body pulled down into the seat. Blood rushed from his skull towards his feet, relieving some of the pressure from his head wound and clearing his thoughts slightly. The text continued to roll across the screen.

Status check in 3...2...1...

Optimal atmosphere...

Optimal pressure...

Optimal gravity...

All systems functional...

Harris glanced up through the clear hull above…when he realized that above was actually below. To him, he was right side up, but Surveyor was actually upside down over Europa. As the descending ship cleared the lower rim of the charged particle cloud, Europa came into view.

The frozen moon was uncomfortably close. The Surveyor had been created for space exploration and high speed travel. Harris knew that the evasive maneuvers it would take to avoid crashing into the moon were not in the cards. The speed and bulk of Surveyor was too much. Crashing was inevitable. But surviving the crash—that might be possible.

Surveyor was the most expensive vessel ever created by mankind with a price tag in the high billions. The grand total was classified, but Harris thought it most likely surpassed the combined total income of the globe's second and third world countries combined. It was no wonder Surveyor had been equipped with the very finest crash survival protocols.