Fire-Fall

The year was 2089, twelve decades since man had first set foot on the moon, and six since he had first been to the red planet. Man was setting foot on another moon again today, but this time it was a different moon, of a different planet.

The Zeus had set off from the Artemis Base on Mars on a quest that pushed the limits of human exploration to the outer reaches of the Solar System. After a long and sleepy journey, the Zeus had successfully landed in the Tyre crater on Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter. They had landed a mile from the crater's center, which meant that they were at one of the deepest points on the surface of the moon. The jagged concentric ridges of the crater formed a hauntingly beautiful maze on the otherwise smooth terrain of the frozen world. The moon was a study in grey monochrome, and the sky was almost entirely covered by the giant looming silhouette of Jupiter. The Captain had taken in the sight in one long silent survey of his surroundings.

Their mission was not to linger on the surface, but to drill. It was estimated by the geologists back home that the ice was 19km deep from where they had landed. His own drilling engineer on board had not been very pleased by that estimation.

"19 km of ice?! Do you know how long it had taken the Russians to drill 4 km down to Lake Vostok?..two bloody decades!"

"Those drills were older than your grandma, Bore", Terra drawled. Terra was the geologist of the crew, complete with a cowboy hat. His tall lanky frame looked strangely incomplete without it.

"You'd expect we would have gotten smarter by now, eh?", Bore muttered as he gingerly adjusted the lasers.

That was nearly 20 Earth days ago, and almost 15 since the crew had last seen sunlight. They were close now to hitting the surface of the massive ocean that was surmised to lie underneath the ice.

The Captain looked over to check on the members of his team. Glide and Wire had stayed back on the Zeus. Quanta, the physicist, was taking measurements around him. He was an expert in matters ranging from the radiation on the icy moon's surface, to the strange magnetic effects that they had experienced since they had arrived. He more than made up for Bore's lack of enthusiasm, and the surrounding gloom seemed to have no dampening effect on it. Their planetary communication expert was analyzing a spot to embed the next tranceiver. Since they were so deep, Link the cryobot had been placing tiny tranceivers after every 500 meters to relay their progress back to the Zeus. Europa already has a faster communication network than what Earth had a hundred years ago, Terra had remarked. Apart from a geologist, he was apparently a historian too.

For the crucial mission to Europa, every crew member had trained to be a Specialist. In the last 20 years or so, technology, in the form of brain-computer interfaces and neuronal implants, had enabled individuals to learn and process amazingly massive amounts of information, so that each person could become nearly a complete expert in his or her chosen field. The capacity of the brain was not unlimited though, which meant that most individuals could only be an expert in a few fields of study, but the depth of their expertise was almost completely comprehensive. Glide, the pilot, knew every detail about the Zeus, and everything there was to know about gravitational space navigation. Wire was one of the leading Specialists in long range communication, Terra was the planetary terrain Specialist and had been leading the terraforming on Mars before embarking on this mission. The Captain himself was a multi-Specialist, which was why he was the Captain. He was a Specialist in space exploration, solar energy engineering, crisis management, survival skills and certain other tricks that he did not need to reveal to his crew yet.

The Captain looked ahead of him, where the other two members of his crew stood. Nymph, a young marine biologist, was a prodigy who could recite every species of living organism known to man. Beside her stood Zeno, tall and expressionless, his keen grey eyes taking in everything around him. Zeno was the one who fascinated the Captain the most. He was a Generalist, the only one on the mission, which meant that he knew something about what every other crew-member knew, and more. He was their failsafe, their insurance policy, and their handyman.

"Cap'n, come on over. You'd wanna see this", called out Bore. "Time to break the ice." Even Bore seemed interested, now that they had almost drilled through the ice. Quanta was holding his breath so visibly that you could see him turn slightly purple, although he didn't seem to notice it.

"Everyone ready?" The Captain looked around. Each crew member checked his equipment and nodded in turn. They had trained many months for this -- "Operation Breakthrough".

He gave the command, "Let's do it."

The lasers melted through the last block of ice separating them from the fabled Ocean of Europa. The water flooded into the chamber, and for the first time, mankind swam into a new ocean on an alien world.

"Houston, we are swimming into new waters", the Captain declared almost nonchalantly, as billions of people on Earth, the Moon and Mars listened in.

He could hear cheering from the command center back home. Terra thumped Quanta on the back, who was in a midair whoop of victory. Nymph was gazing in wonder through the glass of their underwater pod.

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time."

The Captain thought of that old verse as he smiled and went around shaking hands with his crew to congratulate them. But Zeno was staring at a fixed point ahead, as he let out a small whistle.

"Now isn't that something" he said quietly. They all turned to where he was looking. No amount of training could have prepared them for what they were seeing.

Ahead of them stretched a massive mountain range, with mountains so tall that Mount Everest would appear as a mere child in the presence of these giants. And neither were these giants some benevolent guardians of Europa, but were burning red in the the rivers of lava that flowed down their sides into the canyons below. 

It was as if the elements on Europa had switched all the roles of elements on Earth. The ice through which they had just drilled through was a canopy above them, the sky to the ocean here below. The lava was to the ocean of Europa, what water was to the lands of Earth. The glaciers of Europa were these mountains of fire, the birthplace of the red rivers. It was a magnificent spectacle, with the deep hot streams flowing like blood through the veins of the moon. Europa, it seemed, was a cold maiden on the exterior, but a fiery beast within.

And ahead on the right, as they rushed down the slopes, the streams of lava swerved and hissed and merged into a massive river that fell over a cliff into the canyon. The river swept at least a couple of miles across as it fell in a majestic and mighty curtain of fire, billowing terrible clouds of steam where it touched the cold ocean. Firefall, the Captain thought.

"Look, down there", said Nymph, her mouth hanging slightly open, a look of undiluted amazement on her face. At the base of the canyon where the falling fire met the land, the lava shimmered and gathered itself in a large lake. The edge of the "lake" was formed by the cooled barriers where the lava had hardened into rock. The barrier itself was several hundred feet tall, and some rivulets pierced through the barrier to flow further in criss-crossing streams across the canyon floor.

But something was bothering the Captain, as he looked at that cauldron of lava. "Take the pod down there",  he instructed. The small rivulets that were breaking through the wall became clearer. And thats when it hit him...

"This barrier around the lava lake isn't...natural.", he whispered. "Its a dam."





The rivulets flowed through the intricate system of purposefully and masterfully carved arches in the wall of the dam, irrigating the surrounding farms, providing the precious fire that was needed for Life to flourish in that cold ocean below the icy sky.