The Short Ascension of Europa

Chapter 5 Nomads

War of the Moons
 

If nothing else, the Titans at least did things fast. And they were constant, to the point of displaying psychotic behaviour. Previous undertakings only meant that such activity was limited to a particular region on Titan or a particular mission. But now, threatened with by alien force, they took to this threat with even more vigour than ever before in their history.

All of this activity of the Titans, however, could be hardly missed. Although the Europans were robbed of their probes orbiting Saturn’s moon, the fact that other probes, old ones still studying  Saturn’s Rings, were able to be reprogrammed in order to spy, albeit at a long distance, whatever was happening on Titan. Furthermore, & just as useful, the Europans conscripted their space based telescope into their espionage activities. As a result, instead of using it for scientific discovery, it was now used as another tool to spy on Titan.

In this regards, the Titans where thoroughly ignorant on what was happening around them. Nonetheless, the unknown simply feed their paranoia. If anything, however, such paranoia acted as the motivator for their endeavours & soon, within a year after Friendship One tried to make contact, the Titans had launched their own successful satellite/probe. Even though it was a simple piece of technology, not too dissimilar to the first Europan one, it was soon joined by several other satellites all designed to see what was happening nearby.

Much to the Europans concerns, their surveillance satellites orbiting Saturn, were soon discovered by those from Titan. In response, several hunter/killer missiles were seen launching from Titan in an effort to destroy the unwanted eavesdroppers. Almost all of these early missions failed, but within a year the Titans had advanced their technology well enough to have a success rate of one in four hit rates. In other words, all of the Europan probes, within Saturn space, were destroyed within a few months of each other. All the Europans were left with was their space telescope. Alas that could not see what came next.

If the Europans thought that, once the last of their satellites had been destroyed in Saturn space, they were safe in Jupiter space, then they were wrong. As the Titan missile technology, not to mention their detection equipment, got better & better, the Titans soon realised that the perceived threat to their moon did not come from a great distance, that being from out side of the solar system, but from the region of the neighbouring planet. Considered, thus, to be an even greater threat than previously, the Titans believed that a good defence was a good offence. They thus planned accordingly.

Five years would go by since the last Europan satellite had died in Saturn’s space before anything drastic occurred. In that time, the Europans did almost nothing in preparation for war. In fact they truly believed that such a concept as a space war very far from reality. Thus they were greatly surprised when three space vessels, obviously from Titan, began orbiting the planet. The Europans took little time in realising that these satellites were surveillance types & not weapon platforms. Thus, debate in high circles soon began as to what to do, but before a policy could be agreed upon, war began in earnest.

Out from the sky came a huge bombardment. Not in the form of missiles or bombs, but in the form of meteorites & asteroids. It was an awesome sight, never before seen on Europa, although the occasional meteorite shower did take place. Having said that, these previous showers were not deliberately designed to destroy Europan civilisation. These meteorites, planned as a deliberate surface bombardment by the Titans, where designed to fulfil exactly that purpose - total destruction.

A call to arms was immediately sent out to the Europan population. But any immediate response against the Titans was hardly on the cards. Having no weaponry capable of dealing with the meteorite bombardment, all that the Europans could do was sit & wait. This was harder than it seems as all of the surface installations across the watery surface were soon destroyed. It seemed like the Titans may actually succeed in their attack.

Fortunately for the Europans, the Titans had little geological understanding about Europa. Yes their surveillance satellites could look down & see all of the infrastructure floating on the surface, but having not sent down probes into the water, they never dreamt that the real Europan civilisation was many kilometres below that which they thought was the enemy. As a result, yes the Europans lost all of their surface infrastructure, but that was merely the tip of the iceberg.

The vast oceans of Europa looked after the rest. No significant damage was ever received to the real Europan civilisation. This was in part thanks to material made up of many of the meteorites which the Titans used. Because the Titans mined their meteorites from the small rings surrounding Jupiter, many were mostly frozen blocks of ice. Those blocks which, thus, survived the dive through Europa’s atmosphere, simply melted when impacting the warm oceans of Europa. The meteorites made of rock, although surviving impact, would harmlessly float to the rocky core of Europa. Any of these rock meteorites which threaten buildings or lives, were easily dealt with on the way down by the various rescue & military agencies available in the particular region.

None of this the Titans ever understood &, as a result, they assumed victory was at hand. The Europans, on the other hand, consulted their super computer & soon learnt ways to build powerful weapons. Although controversial, as many Europans believed all they had to do was wait it out, even more of the citizens were not at all happy with the current war situation, not to mention the relentless bombardment, which had gone on constantly now for six months.

Hence it was the Titans to face surprise when, after much planning & production, Europan hunter/killer missiles leaped up from beneath the ocean & towards them. Without warning, hundreds of missiles seemed to come out of nowhere &, what is more, were completely undetected until the tell tale signs of rocket trails could be clearly detected. The Titans, though, believing that these missiles were targeting the incoming meteors, continued with the mission of the various spacecraft collecting & releasing the meteorites. It was a dreadful mistake.

Beneath the watery surface of Europa, the locals had constructed a whole new infrastructure totally hidden from the prying eyes of the Titan satellites. When the time was right, the Europans began to conduct their own surveillance of  the skies above using extremely sophisticated sonar equipment. After plotting the activities of the 150 Titan ships, in other words the fleet which the Titans had constructed to bombard the water moon of Jupiter, sophisticated missiles had been stockpiled for the Europan counterattack. Once it was decided that all was ready, by the now United Europan Government, the were missiles fired. There was no need for a second salvo as the first of 300 missiles was more than enough in destroying the entire Titan fleet.

Even though the Titan attack ships may have been totally destroyed, the Titan bases, having been established in order to support the attack ships, being so far away from their home, where thoroughly unknown to the Europans. These bases, however, without their squadrons were harmless to Europa. That is not to say, though, that these bases did not know what had taken place. In fact they were well aware that the attack fleet had been destroyed. Although a lot of communication thus took place between these bases & Titan, they were ordered to stay & wait for replacements. Having said that, it would take a few years before the Titans had built up their numbers in order to renew the attack.

Europa would, thus, be at peace for a while. And just to ensure it would remain that way, the Europan "manned" space program finally got into action. Before the Titans could return, as it was reasoned within the Europan military, even without the knowledge of the Titan support bases not far away, Europa would have to establish a permanent presence in space, not just with probes & satellites, but with a space fleet of their own. The next time a Titan fleet would return to attack Europa, it would be challenged unlike before. Some even argued that the battle should be taken to Titan, as a response to the meteorite bombardment, but events, not to mention technology limitations, were soon to overtake such wartime adventures.
 

The Discovery of Truth
 

Although the war absorbed a lot of resources & time for the Europans,  it was not as if other aspects of Europan civilisation, & above all scientific endeavours, ceased. In fact, due to the war, many areas were accelerated ten fold in advancement & achievements. Just as importantly, although exploration of the outer solar system had more or less stoped, save for a few probes around Neptune & Uranus, those still exploring the inner solar system likewise continued with their adventures.

Yet all of the remaining Europan probes were shortly coming to the end of their life spans. Either they would have to be replaced or no further exploration would continue. In a time of peace, this would have been done with little effort, but with a space war on their hands, with no evidence of it finishing any time soon, the demands of space exploration were more or less ignored.

Nonetheless, even the Europan military thought that the cessation of space exploration was a sad loss, although it was not for any pious reasons. Instead it was for military purposes. Knowing that the Titans would surely return one day, the Europan military believed that it would require bigger & nastier weapons. Furthermore, their space ships, currently under construction, were really inadequate. Due to the limitation of the engines, that being ones based upon chemical fuel & not nuclear, the Europan space fleet would could only fight in local Europan space. Any thought of taking the battle to Titan, as some had suggested, was impossible as the only designs for such engines, taken from the super computer, required nuclear fuel. And Uranium 235 was unavailable on Europa.

Thus it was in this light that six new probes were built & launched in order to explore the inner solar system. Each would be paired & given different missions. Mission one was to search the Asteroid Belt. Mission two was to explore Mars & the two orbiting moons of that planet. The final two were to explore the Sun. This final mission was to see how alternate ways could be followed if no uranium could be found elsewhere. Although trying to replicate the Sun was extremely dangerous, the use of only hydrogen, instead of uranium, to produce power was well within the means of the Europans. Having said that, all of the Europan scientists bar none preferred the uranium method over the hydrogen one.

The probes went out, & within six months, began their individual missions. Equipped with the latest scanners & other electronic devises, most of them enjoying such advancement in this equipment thanks to the war, it was not long before traces of Uranium was discovered, not only within the Asteroid Belt, but also on Mars. This was all true & good, but the discovery of this radioactive element was the easy part. Getting the uranium was another matter altogether. But this was not the great surprise in stall for the Europans. It was what the Sun mission discovered, or more accurately, what the scientists realised for the first time from the probes studying the Sun.

Not all of the Europans working on the military probes were from the military. Actually only about half were, as the rest came from the civilian space program who were familiar with space exploration. It made a lot of sense, considering the expertise of the civilians. It also allowed continued peaceful exploration when the military permitted. And this was particularly the case after uranium had been discovered at several locations. Ironically, however, the great discovery came from the two probes whose job it was to actually study the workings of something, rather than merely hunt for uranium. More importantly, the discovery would rock the foundations of Europan society to its very core.

Strangely, it had been overlooked by previous studies of the Sun, but the data coming back was soon seen for what it was. Basically, the Sun was dying. There was barely a century left before the Sun would start its death cycle. This would mean that huge waves of radioactive energy would start pulsating off the surface of the Sun at levels unthinkable. More to the point, everything on Europa, & Titan for that matter, would die, even though Europans had a natural high tolerance towards radiation. Yet even with this ability, it would mean little when the Sun started to die.

Needless to say, the scientists just did not announce the truth without much thought. They went back & rechecked the data. They even had the probes go through their jobs of collecting the data again just to ensure that there was no error in the information. After all was said & done, though, the end result was very clear. Europa had just 100 years left to live. And then everyone would die.

Naturally it was paramount to survive. After being informed of the situation, the Europan government, to their credit, began to entertain all sorts of ideas, regardless how crazy. Most of these ideas included the use of nuclear power. Considering it was a common theme, & it suited the military just fine, the first scheme ordered was the mining of uranium on selected locations throughout the Asteroid Belt. Robotic ships were soon constructed, twenty in all, which then headed towards predetermined asteroids chosen thanks to the data collected from the probes. Any mission to Mars, however, was ruled out due to, not only the distance, but also the environmental factors which made any mining on Mars impossible.

In a similar fashion, actual mining in the Asteroid Belt was also considered impossible. At first it was hoped that, indeed, mining would take place there, but speed was of the essence. Not only were the Europans running a time race against the Titians, but a more important race had also begun against the Sun. 100 years may seem a long time, but in reality, as cosmic maters go, its merely a blink of an eye. Whatever solution the Europans came up with had to be done now: not in fifty years time.

So in order to speed up the mission to acquire uranium, the targeted asteroids were brought back to Europa itself. Two of the mining probes would give an on site assessment of the targeted asteroid, though, before attaching themselves. If the assessment was poor, they would go on to another target. But soon, after a six month period, asteroids, highly rich in uranium ore, began to arrive at Europa. There the "manned" space teams, waiting at an orbital mining facility, would commence their job of harvesting the uranium.

Then the job of processing the uranium ore into fissionable material would commence. And then finally a nuclear reactor was fed. Although the reactor was not overly necessary for the purposes of weaponry, it would, nevertheless, act as a test bed for the future uses of nuclear energy. That was besides the fact that the test reactor also provided power for the adjoining mining & enrichment plants. But it would be the former, the acting as a test bed for other power reactors, & above all, vessel engines where it would really provide a use.

By this time too, the "manned" Europan space fleet had gathered in large numbers. Although only about two thirds of its intended size, it was nevertheless impressive, if somewhat antiquated. That would change, now that nuclear power was becoming available at last, but the space fleet in its present form would have to do for now. So as the uranium mining operation got into full swing, the Europan space fleet began to patrol the space around their home world. Their orders were plain & simple, although many did not overly like them. The mining & nuclear facilities were given top priority in defence followed by their support bases. The watery surface below, their actual world, was last on the list of defence items.

Having said all that, the government knew well what was really important for the long term welfare of Europa. It was not necessarily to defend every individual citizen or their property. It was the mining & nuclear facility above in orbit which needed constant vigilance. As it had, over an eighteen month period, become the cornerstone of the scheme to save Europa, it had thus been turned into the most important asset for Europa to date. Yet its high level of defence requirement was about to be dropped into second place as an answer was found to ensure the water moon’s fate. Finally, project "Life Ship Europa" had been agreed upon. The construction of which would commence immediately.
 

Return of the Titans
 

If the Europans thought that they could complete Life Ship Europa & be ridden of the Titans, then they were in for a rude shock. That is not as if most citizens of the water moon, especially the military, believed that such a return would not happen. Having become aware, some time ago, that communication signals were going back & forth between Titan & locations nearby in Jupiter’s moon system, the military estimated, somewhat correctly, that the Titans had established a number of bases within long range striking distance of Europa. They had even managed to locate where these bases were, but due to the limitations of the Europan space vessels, thanks to their engines & the complicated liquid environments within them, these bases were well beyond the range of current Europan ship designs.

Having said that, much thought was given to conducting a missile attack on these bases, but these missiles would have to be autonomous. Now this was not necessarily new for Europan technological abilities, but nothing had ever been done so at a military level before. Even the missiles that took out the Titan space fleet a few years ago, were somewhat guided directly by Europan military controllers & their computers. Furthermore, considering Life Ship Europa was now fully under way, it meant that considerable resources would have to be taken away from this fundamental project. Furthermore, the second generation of Europan military space vessels were also being constructed & these, powered by a nuclear engine, would permit the Europans to travel the distances required to reach these Titan bases. After all of the discussion, the Europan military decided to wait & remain in a defensive posture. It was just as well.

With little warning, the first signs of the Titans was seen at last. Like last time, the Titans sent three probes towards Europa in an reconnaissance mission. Considering that the Titans were a rather compulsive, paranoid & warlike people, they actually did a lot of the basics correctly, even if they did draw the wrong conclusions. Nonetheless, the Titans, especially after last time, were cautious. They clearly wanted to know what was the worth of their enemy. They soon discovered something shocking. Not only were their probes soon destroyed, but the enemy, not only had attack ships of their own in large numbers, not to mention missiles & so forth, but a number of orbiting space facilities had been built were none existed before.

Although much of this was startling, it did not overly surprise anyone at Titan high command. In fact, discovering facts like these only reinsured the commanders that they were indeed correct in believing that they faced a hostile enemy. After reviewing all the data collected by their spy probes, the Titans, for the first time in this conflict, even became scared. Pictures taken from the three probes, as they got closer to Europa, clearly contained large towers protruding from the atmosphere. Being many kilometres in length, no one on Titan knew what they were. Clearly the data suggested nothing, other than the fact that powerful energy waves were identified at several locations suggesting nuclear power. Although based upon little else, the Titans suggested that the towers may be some huge planetary weapon. As a result, the aliens could, when the weapon was completed, fire away at Titan & there was nothing which the Titans could do about it except die. This was not going to be allowed to happen.

Not long afterwards, the Titan fleet got its orders. They were to attack, in small raiding parties of half a dozen ships or so, the towers that had been built rising from the surface. To aid in these attacks, the bulk of the Titan fleet would conducted demonstrative manoeuvres in order to lurer the main Europan fleet away from the towers. It was indeed a cunning plan, except they were not aware of one thing: the orders of their enemy. The Europans were to defend the towers at all costs, regardless of the threats made to the moon below.

Thus, when battle eventually commenced, it was a rather low key affair. It also meant that, although the Titans may have had better ships, they were nevertheless thoroughly outnumbered. The small Titan raiding parties, as a result, were hammered. None got through the Europan defensive parameter, & even if they did, anti-ship missile batteries were waiting around the towers to attack any would be attacker. Meanwhile, the Titan main fleet did all it could before the Europans gave them any attention. This would only take place when the Europan orbiting facilities appeared to be under threat. At first, this was not the Titans actual intention, but the reaction of the Europans was soon noticed.

As a consequence of the defensive strategy of the Europans, the Titans changed theirs accordingly. Sensing that the orbiting facilities were just as important to the Europans as the towers, which was somewhat true, the Titans decided to use any move against the towers as a ruse to draw the Europans away from the mining & nuclear facilities. On the first occasion, when the Titans tried this new tactic, the Europans were almost caught out. But, thanks to prudent planning by the Europans, the Titan fleet was intercepted & a great space battle commenced forthwith.

The Europans, even if they did enjoy the numbers, did not have everything their own way. The superior Titan ships were well worth two of the enemy’s & the Titans knew this. Although they were hoping to avoid a major battle, as this was actually against their orders, they nonetheless found themselves in one. Whilst this battle was taking place, however, several Titan ships managed to get through the space parameter &, even though their mission was only meant to be a diversion, these ships continued onto the towers. It seemed that the Titans had succeeded in their mission.

Alas for these Titans attacking the towers, they were not as successful as they had hoped. Some damage was done, but the towers were built to a high degree of engineering & were able to absorb much punishment. Furthermore, before any further damage could be done, the anti-ship missile batteries defending the towers launched their own attack upon the Titans. None of the attackers survived this onslaught as only eight Titan ships were actually involved in this action. In the aftermath, the towers remained standing, albeit slightly bruised.

The same could be said for the orbiting facilities, but not for either fleet. Both sides suffered tremendous loss, especially the Europans, but enough damage had been done to the Titans numbers that the survivors were forced to retreat. Whether it could have continued with the push & succeed in its mission was never to be known. But if they had, then the same fate probably awaited them as those Titan ships which managed to open fire on the towers. Those Titan ships which survived, some twenty overall, eventually arrived to the safety of their respective support base. In a similar manner, a handful of Europan ships solemnly arrived at their orbiting support bases. The Europan crews had done their job, but at great cost. Hopefully, project Life Ship Europa would be completed before more lives would be lost at the hands of the Titans.
 

Escaping the Future
 

Once the truth, about Europa’s sun become known, debate had began over what could be done. The obvious choice soon became evacuation, but evacuate to where & how, was a common response. There was no chance that a massive fleet of space ships could be built, even though there was the time, as such a fleet was beyond the possibilities of any civilisation, let alone the Europan one. Then there was always the Titans to consider. But to withstand successfully the attacks on Europa to date was one thing, but to fend off the Titans, in venerable ships in space, courted only disaster. Such things, indeed,  were to pass, but the destruction of the Europan space fleet also ensured that the Titan fleet was also destroyed for the time being. Needless to say, though, the second generation of Europan military vessels were soon being commissioned. And these were a considerable advancement over their predecessors.

Furthermore, the sacrifice of the Europan space fleet ensured that project Life Ship Europa survived. Hence, regardless of all the loss to date, the survival of this project was paramount to the future fate of Europa. By the time of the great space battle, two years of construction had been completed. Four towers had arisen from the sea. These had begun in two directions, though, as two different construction methods were required. Thus based upon huge floating platforms, ones which the Europans were experts in building, part of each tower was then built under the water towards the rocky solid core of the moon, whilst the other part reached for the heavens. It was a massive undertaking  as indeed the towers were themselves huge.

Yet the Europans could not do it all on their own. Consulting the old super computer left by their Hippocampus Earth cousins, the Europans learnt all they could about super strong construction materials & methods. Previously, such items were beyond the capabilities of the Europans, but now that they had a large nuclear industry, such materials were now a thing of the present. So not only were the towers thus constructed, but, thanks to the construction material, they were stronger than anything known to exist. By the time of the Titan attack, the four towers were almost completed. And even when two of them suffered battle damage, this was easily repairable within a few days. The hopes of the Titans were dashed long before they even attacked.

But the completion of the towers was merely the next step in the overall project. Now it really got complicated as a large "rail" was supposed to connect all four towers. At first, the Europan engineers had no idea how to construct this part & several alternatives were suggested. At first the project leaders rejected these changes, but even the leaders had to give way to basic practicality. So, instead of the original design, where the rail would be used as the base for a massive engine complex, the towers themselves would be utilised. Not only would this alteration save a further five years of planned construction, which was argued would actually take more like fifteen years, it also solved the engineering problems with such a construction.

Thus, instead of having one enormous engine plant & room, running back & forth along the rail to produce speed & direction, four smaller engine rooms were constructed on top of the towers. Although this required some modification to the towers themselves, this only meant a mere two months delay in overall construction, instead of the proposed five years. This seemed even more prudent when the Titans began patrols in nearby Europan space. Although these patrols were kept at a safe distance, it was disconcerting nonetheless.

For the moment, though, even with such patrols, the Europan military believed that their new generation of attack ships were far superior to their Titan counterparts. This was indeed the truth, even though the Titans had begun construction of their own new generation ships to replace those lost in the previous engagements. They would also be armed with superior weapons, especially nuclear missiles, which were being deployed on the new attack ships for the very first time. In similar actions, although ignorant of the latest moves by the Titans, the Europans began to deploy nuclear armed missiles as well. Previously, such armament had been impossible for use due to the limited power & size of the attack ships of both sides. The next generation of attack ships on both sides, however, had changed all that.

So in this regard, whether the Europans knew it or not, they were running against time. If the looming death of the Sun was not enough, the next adventure by the Titans was most certainly working against them. The Europan military correctly surmised, in a top secret report to the government, that the next attack by the Titans could include the use of atomic weapons. This was argued based upon the fact that the Europans themselves were now deploying such weapons & there was every equal chance that the Titans were doing the same. In response, the government demanded that every effort be made to get Life Ship Europa fully operational as soon as possible.

It took super-Europan efforts, but six months after the government gave the hurry-up order, the four large engine plants had been completed. All that was now required was to start up the reactors & to ensure that the tilting equipment, which allowed every engine to point at a certain direction for both steering & speed, were operating as they should be. There was also the engine to consider as well, but it was assumed that if the reactor was working, there was no reason why the thrust engines were not working either as both systems were, more or less, one & the same. And when everything was checked out, to the satisfaction of the scientists involved, the order to make project Life Ship Europa operational was put into effect.
 
A year after Life Ship Europa commenced its 500 year mission, the Titans returned once again in great numbers. Having built up its space fleet for the third time, the Titans believed, due to the great advancements made in technology, that this time, thanks to the deployment of nuclear weapons coupled with vastly improved ships, the Europans were doomed. As before, the Titans sent in probes to spy upon the Europans. But amazingly these probes could not identify anything. Even the water world seemed to have disappeared. Thinking that something was wrong with his spy probes, the commander of the Titan fleet ordered a "manned" reconnaissance. A whole squadron was given this task. It reported the same findings as the spy probes. Europa had completely disappeared.

The Titan commander, though, still did not believe these reports from either the probes or the reconnaissance squadron, so he sent in the whole fleet, albeit cautiously. Sure enough, the space where Europa should have been was empty. Nothing was left. After debating several scenarios, it was finally reasoned that the aliens had destroyed themselves whilst trying to use their massive planetary weapon, even though there was no debris to prove this theory. Nevertheless, the Titans truly believed that they had achieved a great victory albeit by default. This suited them just fine.
 

Nomads
 

The task at hand for the Europans was unthinkable, if not unimaginable. The whole moon was transformed into a huge space vessel, the likes of which have never been seen before or since. Even at the height of previous fantastic civilisations or peoples, whether it be the ancient United Federation of Planets, the Homo Luminous, or the Homo Apparitio, the Hippocampus Europa Sapiens out did them all. By the time the Titans returned with their new fleet, Europa had already left its orbit around Jupiter & was headed for a new home.

And this new home was to be within the Vega solar system. Little was know about this solar system other than the fact that its sun had just begun its red giant phase. But nothing else was known: not even if it had any planets, let alone one like Jupiter. But the lack of such knowledge was not the problem: this would be the voyage itself. It take about 500 years to reach Vega, which would ensure that all of the current generation would be long dead before Europa ever got there.

If that was not enough, there would be other problems along the way. Many of these had been foreseen & planned for accordingly. Others could only be guessed at. Whilst there always remained everything else not yet imagined. Nonetheless, the unknown was left aside for now as far more tangible problems were soon at hand. The most fundamental of these was the massive changes to the moon’s environment. Europa’s surface would slowly begin to freeze again resembling what it looked like for billions of years. This, of course, meant that the water temperature would likewise drop for much of the oceans of the moon. Only the area around the rocky core, which incidentally still housed most of the population, would remain at a temperature level required to sustain life as the Europans knew it.

For 500 years, thus, Europans had to stay below their icy dark sky. Some went crazy, especially those of the early generations of Life Ship Europa, but later generations knew no other existence & had gotten used to the radically changed environment. That was not to say, though, that visits to the surface did not take place. Indeed they did, as the surface could always be accessed by the four great engine towers. But the surface, once warm & beautiful, was now a wasteland of ice & darkness. Only the stars of the universe lit the icy surface, although the occasional burn from the nuclear engines gave any onlooker a fantastic view. Life, far more importantly, for Europa would live on, however, & Europa would make it to Vega. Once the warmth of Vega’s sun began to hit the ice, the surface melted making way for a new golden age on Europa.

Not long afterwards, after 500 years of waiting, new technologies could be tested, including faster-than-light-speed travel. New explorations were conducted &, above all,  friends were made from aliens far & wide. The last outpost of Earth’s solar system, based upon the last true Earth based life form, would continue to live on in the universe & joined so many other who had gone before them. Alas, there would be nothing else following them, as Earth had long ago been consumed in flames as had the rest of her old solar system. Yet the Europans survived, unlike the Titans. For as predicted, 80 years after the Titans thought they had achieved a great victory, in their war against the aliens, the Sun began to pulsate. As a result, massive doses of radiation began to spread rapidly outwards from the dying red giant. Within a year of the commencement of this Sun activity, everything on Titan had died. All of their futile attempts at survival failed long before the Sun took its last breath & collapsed into a white dwarf.

The story of Earth’s solar system may have truly ended, but the story of the universe would continue forever.
 
 

This creative work is the property of David Mark Atwell.
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You must gain the author's permission prior to any reproduction by any technology currently available now or any new technology at any future date. That also includes those damned thieves the Buckhoo. (Why they remain in the UFP I'll never know).
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© 2004 d_matwell01@optusnet.com.au