The Short Ascension of Europa

Chapter 2 Life Under An Ice Sky
 

The Glorious Passing
 
 
 

It was the most spectacular & yet most sad event in history. The passing of Earth would not, however, resemble the end of mankind. No more human species, though, or any other species for that matter, would be Earth born. That blue jewel of a planet, a nexus of the Milky Way Galaxy, would be no more. Its Glorious Passing, as the event would become known, would usher in an uncertain era. Importantly, though, many of Earth’s offspring would continue elsewhere. But everyone knew things would never be the same.

So hence they gathered on the calculated date. All the human species were there. The most ancient of which where the Homo Sapiens or know called the Jehovah. Having outlived everyone else in the Real Time & Space Universe, they had retreated  into isolation on the planet Fin. Old & somewhat decrepit, only the Spiritous Sanctus Sapiens, Lyonies & Vargary were older, but more refreshed. Yet even the Jehovah could not be kept from this event in their mission to say good bye to the planet that gave them all life.

All the others were present as well. Some Homo Spiritous & Fontusme returned from their adventures in the universe. Apparitio were present in abundance, along with Pan Intelligibilis & Terra Omega. If these two new human species were not enough of a surprise for Spiritous & Fontusme, then the new non-corporeal Homo Pan Spiritous most certainly were. Having only recently evolved from Pan Intelligibilis, this new human specie was under the tutorage of the Apparitio. Apparitio hoped that they could soon pass over to Pan Spiritous their strenuous duties that had lasted for 5 billion years.

Finally came the SSS.  These all powerful entities had overseen it all. But they too were humbled by the event that would soon take place. Although some of their kind had gained the power to survive in the post-1945 Real Time & Space universe for short periods of time, only Guardians had this ability. Others required technology. Thus several large ships, employing the Shield Barrier, arrived via several Vale Gateways along with a few other old friends - some Vargary & Lyonies.

Soon it happened. It was the end of several hundred years of dramatic changes. Already the planet Mercury had been swallowed up by the Sun as it began to rapidly expand. A few decades afterwards, Venus was also consumed in the Sun’s flames. Next it was Earth’s turn. But the Earth had already died long before. The increase in the Sun’s temperature thousands of years previously had killed all life on Earth. Although various attempts had been made to prolong the inhabitants of Earth, in the end it did not matter. Furthermore, after all life had died, the planet’s entire water supply vaporised causing a run away greenhouse effect, one similar to that on Venus. If anything actually survived the Sun’s rays, then the changes to Earth’s atmosphere would finish it off.

If all these changes to Earth were not enough, then came the grand finale. The Sun continued to expand as it continued onwards to its red giant stage. The flames were getting ever closer to Earth. Soon Earth all but disappeared as the surface of the Sun got even closer. All were reminded as to how small & fragile the Earth always was. It was simply amazing, considering the things that its offspring had often done to it, that the Earth actually had achieved so much during her life. But her ending seemed to be nothing more than an anticlimax. One second the Earth appeared as a black dot against the enormity of the Sun. The next second she simply disappeared. It was an unfitting end to a planet that had given so much.

The reaction of those watching was mixed. Some applauded in joyful celebration. Others cried as they had never before. Most, however, just watch as in a silent vigil as one might over the death of a long lost friend. But all humanity was present. Only Homo Luminous & Homo Intelligens could not make it, but their evolutionary descendants were most definitely present. It was the first time that all the human species were together in one place: all eight of them in fact. Whether it would be the final time no-one knew. Having said that, it still did not stop the old antagonisms of the past to return not long afterwards.
 
 
 

The Wake
 
 

 
The festivities, if they could be called that, immediately following the consumption of the Earth by the Sun, took place upon the large SSS ship Dreamtime. Representatives from all eight human species were present as well as the Vargary & the Lyonies. Although the Apparitio were nothing like their ancestors the Intelligens, they nonetheless shared some instincts with them. This the Jehovah took little time in noticing & just like one big family, the squabbles soon recommenced.

"You know the greatest Luminous that ever lived was Sirus. No doubt about it" announced Helen Durchester a Fontusme. "In fact I’d go as far to say she was the finest human ever to have existed".

"Well she might have been the greatest Luminous, but surely Msinga rates very high on the best of humans list", protested Kon Tishgo an Apparitio.

A frustrated Jehovah, Paul Mullins, who was now sorry that he started this conversation, replied "None of you would be around if it wasn’t for the original humans, us Sapiens. Not only did we give birth to Spiritous here, but we’re also ultimately responsible for the SSS."

"Oh so it’s you I can complain to for all the things that the SSS have gotten up to then eh?" laughed Tishgo

Turning to Racheal Mitsuo, a Spiritous, Mullins pronounced, "You know it’s times like these that I’m glad that I’m, no we are, from genetically manipulated stock!"

"You know that will only start them off…" was all Mitsuo could say before Tishgo said rather loudly "Laugh it up ya test tube freak!"

"Oh I intend to monkey face!" Clearly the intellectual part of the conversation had finished.

This comment, however, grabbed the attention of the other junior human species that were present. One of the Terra Omega, Jan Bossom, replied in mock protest, "I’m actually from gibbons. He’s the monkey" as she pointed to John Thoothey a Pan Intelligibilis.

As arguments broke out amongst the humans as to who was what, why & how good, even members of the SSS got dragged reluctantly into the fracas. The noise grew rapidly as about 100 people carried on the arguments. It was an amusing sight to watch as heads were shaking, fingers were pointed followed by wild hand jesters. Even Fontusme individuals, although somewhat more reserved than the others, were in on the act. Furthermore, the Fontusme ears, which still resembled those of the Luminous, were flicking around even though there was no need for them to do so.

The Vargary that were present just laughed, shook their heads in amazement, & watched the comedy show being staged before them.  They often wondered how such a simple &, above all, irrelevant subject could get all the humans so passionately involved, whilst far more fundamental issues gained no or little attention. Like here they were, witnessing the passing of their home planet, & all of them were arguing over who was the greatest human ever to exist. To the Vargary & Lyonies, it was a pointless & fruitless exercise, but apparently not for the humans. Nonetheless, the Vargary always thought, regardless of the individual human specie, that, if nothing else, the humans were fun to be around. They were always up to something unexpected.

Finally it was the Lyonies Isol Lysindor who commandeered the public address system & literally screamed "Will you humans PLEASE!" as a school teacher might do to a room of rowdy human children.

Therein followed a simple reply, in unison, of "WHAT?" back at him from all the humans present, regardless of specie, whereupon silence immediately filled the room.

"I am getting a headache!" replied Lysindor. What he did not add was that he had never understood, why it was that the galaxy had bestowed upon the humans the abilities to create marvellous civilisation after civilisation, bring peace, prosperity & above all liberty to the galaxy around them, yet they carried on so. What even more so confused him was the fact that the humans were, more or less, prepared to share their vision & achievements with everyone else, regardless who they were - within limits of course.  Lysindor was certain it was one of the ten great mysteries of the universe.
 
 
 

Earth’s Loss Was Europa’s Gain
 
 
 

Even though many, in their own way, mourned the loss of Earth, it was a different story for the rest of the solar system. Change was everywhere, although this was not immediately evident. But the growth of the Sun into a red giant meant more than just a mere increase in size. It meant that, although not actually hotter, its heat, nevertheless, managed to radiate out towards the farther reaches of the solar system.

Naturally Mars was the first to experience these changes. Alas, for Mars, this meant that it would become the new Mercury. The heat was so immense, that even if life had started independently due to the increase in heat, it would soon be killed off as the Sun grew in size. Like Earth, its surface was baked & its thin atmosphere was akin to a furnace. In fact it became so hot that the long abandoned structures of ancient colonies melted in the heat.

For the Asteroid Belt, little changed. Having bodies of rock of various sizes, but nothing too large especially approaching the size of a small planet, meant little in the overall scheme of things. The Belt remained where it was, regardless of the increase in size of the Sun. If anything the Belt acted as a slight barrier for the outer regions of the solar system, especially from protection from solar flares, but ironically this acted in a positive fashion & would indeed help the moons of Europa & Titan.

Of course it would be these two moons, Europa & Titan, that would benefit the most of the red giant Sun. Titan would defrost totally &, helped with the radiation emitted from Saturn, would become inhabitable for the indigenous life forms that Titan would one day produce. Although these life forms of Titan would have a much shorter history when compared to Europa’s ones, evolution would take several shortcuts. In doing so, the moon would produce numerous methane breathing species who would be rather unique throughout the galaxy.

Europa, however, would become effected by the changes in the Sun long before Titan. In fact, from the early stages in the Sun existence, these effects became noticeable on Europa. Although its surface changed little, the icecap did. As the sun got closer to Europa, so too did the heat. At first this meant little. In fact for many years nothing of importance took place, even though some activity was noticed. This, though, was discounted & considered a natural occurrence to the icecap surface. As the surface ice began to melt, it was quickly refrozen within minutes. No or little water was lost in the process.

In later periods, even though this melting & refreezing of the ice continued its cycle, the actual icecap began to thin. The human minders of Europa at the time, Terra Omega, although concerned realised that it was only logical that such effects would take place as the outer solar system warmed up. Several Pan Intelligibilis scientists likewise concurred with their Terra Omega counterparts. Having said that, both would keep an eye on the situation.

For the scientists, however, far more interesting things were happening on Titan. It had been known for millions of years that Europa had life & everything seemed fine. Thousands of Europan life forms had been documented & there appeared that no new life forms had evolved or were likely to anytime soon. That was despite the changes take place to the ice moon’s environment. Titan, though, was another matter.

As Titan now warmed, mostly thanks to the radiant energy coming from the Sun, the moon experienced numerous changes. Some of these changes would remain an exclusively Titan phenomena, but others would mistakenly be seen as events that would be shared with Europa. As such, the scientists studying Europa would be lead into a false sense of  security for Europa’s future. Fortunately disaster was only just avoided.

The most important change on Titan was, without doubt, a slow but major increase in gravity. As it was, this turn out to be an essential component for Titan’s future as a life harbouring moon. Even though Titan was by far the largest moon in the solar system, being somewhere between the size of Mercury & Mars, its gravity was nothing like either . Instead, it was about 0.15g, which incidentally was about the same as Europa’s gravity ("g" being the gravity of Earth, i.e. 1.0g). Such a low level had always concerned scientists as it would probably mean, once warmed, that there was a high probability that Titan would lose its atmosphere.

Nevertheless, as Titan warmed so its gravity increased. By the time the moon’s atmosphere had reached a constantly gaseous level, the atmospheric type feared by the scientists for dispersion into space, Titan’s gravity had reached 0.5g. At this gravity level, considering the gases that made up the atmosphere was 82% Nitrogen,  15% Argon & 3% Methane (not to mention small amounts of other gases  such as Oxygen & Hydrogen), the gravity level was more than enough to keep intact the moon’s atmosphere.

The scientists studying this data from Titan then looked towards Europa. Two things were thus considered likely for Europa’s immediate future. The first was that Europa would also warm up much more than its current levels, even though the ice had slowed this development &, in doing so, permitted Titan to warm much faster.  But it was firmly believed that the very same icecap that hampered Europa’s temperature increase would not, in itself, totally melt. Yes it would thin significantly down, yet it would remain & continue to enclose the watery moon. Although such a thinning of Europa’s icecap would make it more brittle, & fissures were bound to become more common, nothing seemed to indicate that the current cycle of liquid water freezing, once it came in contact with the freezing coldness of space, would not continue.

Then there was the back-up plan. If Europa’s icecap, it was argued, did eventually melt away, regardless if a north & south pole region was all that was left, surly the moon’s gravity would increase as the moon warmed up to such higher levels. This was considered, although not by everyone, as highly probable considering this had precisely happened to Titan, even though this phenomena had not been explained.

If Europa’s  gravity did, however, greatly increase, there were two likely outcomes. The first was the development of a thick & inhabitable atmosphere for humans. It would resemble, in many ways, the type of atmosphere which was on Earth during its inhabitable past. Although the moon’s ocean levels would drop, it should be well within the tolerable levels for the indigenous life forms. Importantly, like on Earth, it would be a closed system. No or very little water would be lost to space. Instead perception would ensure that the oceans of Europa would have the water returned to them due to evaporation.

There was, however, a major down side to such an increase in gravity. All the life forms on Europa, except for possibly the vegetation, would more than likely die unless they were able to adapt quickly to sudden increase in gravity. Having been used to 0.14g gravity for all of their lives, including those of all of their ancestors, the sudden increase of over three times of what they are used to, could be too much for some. It was hoped, though, that most would survive. The scientists, all the same, would keep studying the situation.
 
 
 

Nearby in the Galaxy
 
 
 

Although the attitudes & behaviour of the human species had not changed much, if the "wake" was anything to go by, the galaxy that they were born into had changed very much. This was not overly evident to the three newer human species, Pan Intelligibilis, Pan Spiritous & Terra Omega, but it had for the older ones. After the Glorious Passing of Earth, all but the Jehovah noticed that the map of the Milky Way Galaxy had drastically altered. Not only had Earth gone, but so had so many other familiar names.

The worlds that were best known to the Vargary had also gone. All had suffered the same fate as Earth. As a matter of fact, Vargary Prime had undergone Earth’s fate well over a billion years previously. The remnants of the Vargary solar system were now combining with the left overs of others & had began to condense, from the planetary nebular at first created, into a new solar system. In a similar manner, the same was true of Lyonies & its region of space. Even the planet Inloy, which had surpassed Lyonies in later eons, had also been destroyed when its sun became a red giant.

The same story could be told of countless of other planets & their suns, but not all. In an unusual occurrence, Blurgiss Prime’s sun went supernova. Not only was Blurgiss Prime thus destroyed in the huge explosion, but its entire solar system, unlike the others, went with it. At least with the Earth’s solar system, life was given a chance in the outer regions. This was not the case for the Blurgiss Prime system.

The Zargah, as usual, had to go out fighting. Even though either evolutionary Catharsis counterparts were more enlightened than their corporeal ancestors, even they were sometimes rash to say the least. Often referred to as the alien equivalent of the Intelligens & later Apparitio, they were nevertheless  highly intelligent. After the UFP had broken up, & the distance of space more or less isolated them from the Community of Planets (COP), they had determined that nothing would stand in their way.

Although wars were avoided with their neighbours, a lasting legacy of the defunct UFP, they would still fall & be the first to do so. Noting that the sun of Zargah Prime was nearing its end, prior to the red giant stage, the Zargah went about trying to prolong its life. All sorts of schemes were tried, until they deliberately injected, for one of a better word, billions of tons of hydrogen in a desperate attempt to refuel their G2 type sun. Alas all this did, as predicted by many COP scientists at the time, was to create the largest thermonuclear bomb on record. Instead of preventing a red giant, it produced a supernova. Thus, as with the case of Blurgiss Prime, Zargah Prime was turned into cosmic dust thanks to the massive explosion that ripped apart its solar system.

There was, however, some familiar old names that still existed, albeit different in appearance. Already mentioned was the planet Fin. Now 7 billion years old, its G2 type sun still had 3 billion years left in it. More to the point, the planet itself, which now housed the remainder of Homo Sapiens (Jehovah) population, was nothing like its original barren self. Now a true Garden of Eden, Fin would see out the end of this Ancient & once proud race.

Other planets too were still around, all of which had, however, changed. Saturn Prime, now capital of the Union of Planets, was by far the most remarkable. Having also gained in vegetation & other life forms,  it neither was any longer barren. It also, unlike its gas giant namesake, still had its beautiful rings. Its sun would ensure that Saturn Prime would continue to remain that way for at least another two billion years.

Barrens, Locus, Sierra, Utopia, Duel & Omega were also part of the Union of Planets &, like Saturn Prime, had all changed in some way. Only Sierra had missed the development into a much better place, but even here more vegetation had transformed the planet into a green-brown planet from a brown one. On the other hand, the beautiful Utopia had gone the other way. Not far from having its sun turn into a red giant, Utopia now resembled what Sierra used to look like. Other than that, Duel had been recently colonised & was now home to 3 billion sentient life forms.

From these surviving planets, though, the Union carried on the work which the original Federation had started. But there were differences. Now longer was it truly a multi-specie commonwealth. Either the others were long gone or remained in isolation. Only the inhabitants of the planets Argie, Akin & Crafts (not the original sentient species, but later ones) had become members. As the transition of the galaxy continued, space was getting rather lonely. Nonetheless new sentient life forms were on the way, as it was argued with Europa & Titan. Alas for Europa, trouble was brewing.
 
 
 

The Conference
 
 
 

There was no doubt about it, the science could not be wronged. After countless calculations & simulations, even the most optimistic Homo Pan Spiritous had to acknowledge that massive intervention on their behalf would have to take place. A solemn feeling could clearly be felt at the conference on the planet Barrens.

"We will have to intervene or Europa will slowly evaporate, for one of a better word, within the next 10 000 years", explained Natasha Nquthu (Apparitio) to a stunned audience. She went on "The magnetic fields of Jupiter, albeit extremely strong, will have little influence. To put it simply, Europa will not have enough mass to prevent the water from dispersing into space. Needless to say, all life will be exterminated within 200 years."

"Two hundred years?" was echoed throughout the hallway by hundreds of horrified delegates.

After waiting until the audience had settled, Nquthu continued "Yes, it will be that short. The environment on Europa is extremely volatile. Sudden loss of water will significantly reduce the oxygen content. Although primitive organisms may survive much longer, the higher & more complicated life forms, especially the semi-sentient specie currently there, will die out."

President Donga (Apparitio) was as stunned as everyone else. In a very Presidential manner he stated "It very clear what will soon take place, so I thus think it’s very clear what we must do. Europa & above all every single life form on it must be saved. This has always been our mission ever since we evolved & took it upon ourselves to be the guardian of those that need help. This is situation truly, more than ever before, one such case if not the case for our never ending mission."

Turning to Professor Nquthu the President asked "What do you propose to do?"

"We will have to introduce powerful magnetic fields that will surround Europa. Just like Earth had the Van Allen Belt, among other magnetic fields, so too a similar array of magnetic fields & belts are needed to surround Europa. But there will need to be more. For the moment the moon’s icecap, which covers the entire surface, currently ensures that it’s water cannot escape. Thus a further magnetic belt will have to ensure that, when the icecap finally melts in a few years time, the water won’t evaporate into space".

A sceptical Mark Fulton (Homo Pan Intelligibilis) debated more than asked, "And how do you reckon that will be achieved?"

"Either one of two ways. The simplest method will require a network of satellites to surround Europa. Each will be interconnected although individual satellites will be responsible for their respective grid. This will ensure localised control over each particular area" replied Nquthu.

"Impossible", protested Fulton, "these satellites will have to be in place for almost 100 million years. The cost will be astronomical to say the least. Then there’s the problem of who will maintain them if we’re not around. Why can’t we move another moon of Jupiter to cover Europa. This was done successfully with Earth & it’s Moon until the passing."

"It won’t work. We don’t need a shield from the Sun in this case. Instead we need  extra gravity. Unfortunately, such a major increase in gravity is dangerous for the life forms on Europa. Essentially we need a dome to keep things in: one along the lines which Nquthu has just explained" argued Sasha  Thinta (Homo Terra Omega)

Before anyone could say another word, Nquthu continued, "As I said, there’s a second method. By placing such equipment into the molten core of Europa we gain two things. First is a constant power supply that will be more than enough for our needs. The next is the  production of machinery that will be maintenance free. Fundamentally, however, it’ll put out the necessary  fields in what I would call ‘a natural way’. Thus as long as the core of the moon remains active, in other words alive, so too will the thousands of life forms on Europa. It’s then up to mother nature & evolution to do the rest."
 
 

This creative work is the property of David Mark Atwell.
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