The Short Ascension of Europa

Chapter 3 Transformation

Shield Europa
 
 
 

Of all the reasons why the evolution of a new specie may take place, for Hippocampus Europa Sapiens, it came down to a cookie: and a water resistant one at that! As the work personnel did their duties on the floor of Europa’s oceans, Apparitio & Pan Spiritous workers became concerned as to what Hippocampus Erectus were up to. As they carefully drilled their way through the thin crush of Europa & into the molten core, the locals started to take an interest in what these strangers were doing.

Some officials had worried about such a reaction from Europa Erectus, but most of the experts were convinced that this specie were only semi-sentient at best. It was argued that "… yes, they are curious as most semi-sentient species are, but there will be no lasting impact upon them. They will soon forget that the work teams were there & they will return to their usual preoccupations". Such was the advise given by Sasha Thinta the leader of the Environmental Impact Authority (EIA).

Although Thinta’s assurances were impressed upon the work teams, they, nevertheless, had different thoughts. The work teams, however, quickly noted that the Europa Erectus were not getting bored, but rather agitated by these strangers making a mess of their world, hundreds upon hundreds were gathering around the two drilling sites at the north & south pole. Soon these groups resembled two small armies & it soon became obvious that the Europa Erectus were clearly organising something.

Having said that, by the very nature of the work teams being made up of non-corporeal personnel, meant that there was nothing that the Europa Erectus could do to injury or kill the workers. Still, that was not necessary are great comfort to the work teams. More importantly, though, the machinery that was being out in place, in order to produce Shield Europa, could be damaged as the result of any attack.

Then there was the hereafter. Europa Erectus did & could dig holes themselves. They had done this to further develop caves for their dwellings. It had also been noted that when there were no caves to use as dwellings, Europa Erectus had dug their own where & when required. Thus it was fear that, after the work on Shield Europa had been completed, & the work teams had left, as improbably as it may seem, the Europans may come along & dig up themselves the work sites damaging or destroying the vital machinery.

It was, hence, in such a situation that the workers decided to take matters into their own hands. Without consulting the higher-ups, the workers begun to take food with them, but it was not for themselves. It was for the Europans. Inevitably gifts between alien species, such as an exchange between advanced & primitive ones, had often taken place. This was different to First Contact between two "advanced" civilisations, though, and more often than not was highly successful. Once the primitive civilisation gained trust in the advanced one, the primitive one would usually then lose interest in what the strangers were up to. Any contamination of the primitive society, especially conflict between the two, was thus hoped to be limited  to as little as possible.

Through trail & error, it was eventually learnt that the exchange of food was highly grateful by the primitive society. It seemed that food was thus the highest gift & honour that would quickly gained their trust. So it was elsewhere; so it thought it would be likewise on Europa. Of course the food this time around had to be water resistant. After trying various items, such as vegetables, the Europans appeared more scared than anything & kept their distance from the workers. It appeared that trying to gain their trust was near impossible.

Eventually, however, one or two Europans tried the food on offer, although only from food left seemingly abandoned. The Europans, though, did not think too much of this food, but nonetheless realised that possibly these stranger meant no harm. In fact a few of the smarter ones realised that the strangers had deliberately left the food for them & were not scared off as before. Not long afterwards, these smarter ones actually accepted food from the hands of the workers, but demonstrated their lack of enthusiasm of the gift.

Frustrated that it appeared that, although they had finally succeeded in peaceful communication with the Europans, the workers were not satisfied that their efforts appeared to disappoint their new friends. Thus they tried new food stuffs that were more "processed". It became an obsession with the workers who would end up spending more time trying to cook something that their new friends would actually like. All the while the higher-ups in the Union of Planetary Explorations (UPX) & EIA had no idea what was truly going below on Europa’s icy surface.

Finally an Apparitio by the name of Mungo Ngwane cooked up a water resistant cookie. Baked so it would not become soggy in water & fall apart, it resembled, what many aliens had often described,  as one of the human’s staple food items. When given to reluctant Europans to try, they instantly loved it. Soon Ngwane had run out, but soon many of the workers were producing the Ngwane Cookie. Other variations were tried, some worked while other failed, but more importantly the workers had gained the breakthrough that they were looking for.

No one, however, had foreseen the effects that the Ngwane Cookie would have. After a month, the drilling & installation of machinery had been completed. Soon, the work teams, after cleaning up the sites so that no-one would every knew that they were here, left, leaving behind one last gift of cookies. The Europa Erectus were sad to see their new friends leave, as were many of the work personnel who had grown very attached to their Europan neighbours.

It was only after the work teams had left, while being debriefed by UPX & EIA personnel, that the Ngwane Cookie adventure came out. The higher-ups of EIA were horrified by the unsanctioned interaction with the indigenous population. They believed that the unauthorised contact conducted by the workers, none of whom were trained in such matters, would contaminate Europa Erectus society with dangerous & unpredictable consequences. UPX, on the other hand, were very interested in what had happened, believing that all previous theories on Europa Erectus were wrong. As far as UPX was concerned, Europa Erectus was fully sentient & a lot more intelligent than at first believed.
 
 
 

Metamorphosis 101
 
 
 

The predictions made by Nquthu were not far off from actually took place. Having said that, Shield Europa was fully functional some twenty years before it was actually needed. In means of time, however, it was a mere second in the galactic scheme of things. Yet the Shield would function in the manner to which it was designed.

In the end, the icecap melted away rather quickly as these things go. Although at first, it took centuries for the first few centimetres to melt away every year, in the end metres were becoming water every day. Finally entire holes appeared around the equator of Europa, which grew in size daily. These soon resembled vast oceans which inturn began to join together transforming the surface of the entire moon to one of liquid water. Only at the two poles of the moon did the icecap remain.

These changes, however, to the surface of the moon was merely the beginning. Again, as predicted by Nquthu & the other scientists, once the icecap had begun to melt, water began to slowly drift off the moon due to lack of gravity. It was in a manner similar to how water used to evaporate from the rivers, lakes, seas & oceans of Earth, except that the radiant energy of the Sun was less involved with the process on Europa than on Earth. On Europa, it was mostly due to low gravity.

Obviously  Shield Europa, however, ensured that the escaping water would not go too far. In fact the way it was designed, it would operate in a manner similar to Earth’s atmosphere. The various belts, almost identical to those that surrounded the Earth, had another one added to them that ensured that Europa’s water would never drift away too far. Not before long, Europa developed, as a result of the Shield, an atmosphere of its own.

The most important aspect of Europa’s new atmosphere was the way in which oxygen & nitrogen, among other gases such as carbon dioxide, began to fill it along with water vapour. Within a century, Europa’s atmosphere was approaching the one that Earth once enjoyed. This inturn achieved several things, two of which would radically change the living conditions below the surface.

The first was an increase in the overall temperature of the moon. Although it was far from universal, it in fact began to resembled more closely Earth’s atmospheric variations around the globe. In doing so the evaporation of water increased which inturn made the atmosphere even more dense. Even though this included a retreat of the polar regions, an icecap would remain at both poles albeit much smaller. The atmospheric pressure, however, thanks to these changes now approached that of Earth’s. To put simply, a native of Earth could easily live & breath upon Europa’s water surface with no effort at all other than the low gravimetrical environment (apart from the high levels of radiation).

The second fundamental change was the light level. Now having such an atmosphere, Europa’s days were now marvellously well lit on levels approaching those on Earth. Although the light of the Sun would be reddish, instead of that which Earth once enjoyed, nonetheless it was a radical departure to that which Europa had been used to for billions of years. More to the point, the oceans of Europa were now lit far more than ever before.

Although the creatures living on the bottom of the oceans noticed little in these differences, as they were used to lighting anyway thanks to the thermal vents that covered the ocean beds, for those creatures that dwelled in the upper regions of the seas much closer to Europa’s surface, life had dramatically changed.  For these creatures had never evolved great eyesight. Instead, various other sensory methods, such as smell or sonar, had achieved highly advanced levels: some of which were unparalleled in the galaxy. But now vision, thanks to the great increase in light, had become the important sensory item: one which none of them had well developed. In fact some had no eye sight at all.

So it was, with these radical changes in Europa’s environment, that the predators, who had been at the top of the food chain for millions of years, soon discovered that they had serious competition. For all of their existence, no Hippocampus ever dared to venture far from the safety of the ocean bottom. The main reason being that they had no sonar ability & their other non-sight sensors were average at best. Only their eye sight was supreme over any other creature. This was a great advantage where there was light, but useless elsewhere. But thanks to the melting of the icecap & the great increase of light, Europa Erectus could now venture anywhere during day time.

Now the tables were turned on the great predators who had ruled Europa for so long. As Europa Erectus had made the bottom of Europa somewhat safe for their existence,  so now phalanx after phalanx of "spearmen" went out to the upper regions to become the new masters of all of Europa. Battle thus commenced across the seas of Europa, where the enemies of Europa Erectus soon discovered that they had little chance. Having perfected the phalanx tactics for centuries on the sea bed, & now having the upper hand sensory wise, Erectus achieved victory after victory against the other predators.

Only at night, could the previous masters of Europa, enjoy safety if they stayed in what used to be their domain. But any predator which thought of any foolish notion of venturing down to the sea bed, & many did after a while in search of food, soon discovered that death at the end of hundreds of spears awaited it.

Within a generation, Europa Erectus had all but conquered the watery moon. It was they that were now top of the food chain. As such, the phalanx would now become hunters as well as defenders. Food harvesting now became the main job of the phalanx, one which they became very good at, & an abundance of food was now available to an ever increasing population. Yet within two centuries evolution would step in again & the achievements made by Erectus would be enjoyed by another Hippocampus.
 
 
 

Metamorphosis 102
 
 
 

No one really knows what impact the Ngwane Cookie episode had on the Europa Erectus, but it did tell UPX that the Europans were much more intelligent than at first thought. This was later confirmed when the environment of the water moon changed radically. More to the point was the fact that Europa Erectus adapted quickly to the new environment & exploited the chance given them to become the most feared creature on the moon.

Then, at their greatest achievement, nature stepped in to take their hard fought for position away from them. Within thirty years Europa Erectus stopped producing Europa Erectus. Instead a new Hippocampus was being reproduced. Although this was slow at first, within two hundred years, regardless of the parent, only Hippocampus Europa Sapiens were being reproduced. The days of Europa Erectus were numbered. Within fifty more years none were left.

Hippocampus Europa Sapiens were not overly different from their immediate predecessor.  Having basically the same body, they were more streamlined than Europa Erectus. Furthermore they were bigger, standing erect at 1.6 metres. The only other visible major difference was their hands. These were much more efficient than Europa Erectus & these alone would witness Europa Sapiens go from their humble origins to a space faring civilisation, albeit a primitive one.

Coupled with this were changes to the brain. Although Europa Erectus were reasonably intelligent & sentient, they were nevertheless hampered by a brain & body that would not let them build complicated tools let alone machinery. This was somewhat of a shame because it was clear that Europa Erectus could envisage such things, but every attempt to put their ideas into action always met with failure.

That now changed. Not only could Europa Sapiens envisage, through abstract thought, all sorts of things, but they could build them too. First came the tools. As Europa Sapiens gained in experience & knowledge, so too did their tools. This, inturn, ensured that not only weapons developed to rather advanced types, but everything advanced as well. And this involved machines, albeit very primitive at first.

Another area of important development were settlements. Up until now, these were dictated to Europa Erectus by nature: where caves were hence Europa Erectus settled. Yes Europa Erectus built some of their own, but this was never a major reason why a settlement was established in a certain location. Previously settlements grew around caves that had already been made by nature. Now that would change. It was no coincidence then that the first complicated machines involved ones that improved the digging capabilities of Europa Sapiens.

As a direct consequence of digging came mining. The seabed of Europa was a treasure trove of minerals & resources. Virtually every natural occurring element on the periodic table could be found in Europa’s crust. Although turning many of these elements into useful items were beyond the capabilities of the early Europa Sapiens, some of the elements that were the basic building blocks of civilisations, were tamed after years of trail & error. Iron was one such mineral as was gold, but iron was valued  far more than gold of its practical properties. Plus it was often discovered in abundance already melted, thanks to the numerous volcanic vents. Thus Europa provided a natural furnace, one which Europa Sapiens learnt very quickly to use to their advantage.

Although fire is a fundamental component for all humanoid civilisations to advance, this was not necessarily the case on Europa. By the very nature of the water moon, fire was in fact impossible. Yet, as stated above, nature provided its own fire via the volcanic vents. Not only did these, as it had since Europa’s creation, provide light & heat, but now it would serve the civilised  needs of Europa Sapiens. As mentioned, Europa Sapiens used the volcanic vents to mine & refine iron & other metals.

Furthermore, metals which were mined were melted in the volcanic vents as if in a furnace. Combining metals later also took place in the vent furnaces & alloys such as bronze was soon available. Similar experiments took place with other metals which inturn improved machinery & weapons on every level. The one thing, however, that Europa Sapiens were never to produce would be gun powder. But that, nevertheless, did not stop them from becoming the masters of Europa.

Before the Golden Age of Europa had even begun, Europa Sapiens was rather advanced as primitive societies go. It would be, however, this forthcoming age that would witness the Europa Sapiens become a truly grand society, albeit wit a little help from the "Strangers" as aliens became known as. Yet before alien help or the Golden Age, Europa Sapiens had already begun to leave their caves & began construction of what were basically houses.

The main reason for this was light. It was well known that, once in a cave, seeing things was extremely difficult. As a result, most things had to be done out in the open, which was, even as masters of Europa, still dangerous. So Europa Sapiens solved the problem by building their "caves" above ground. Although these were primitive structures at first, they soon built rather impressive homes, which by the time of the Golden  Age would even rival the palaces of ancient Earth.
 
 
 

The Europan Golden Age
 
 
 

The item that would change Europa Sapiens society forever was found whilst digging. Millions of years ago, actually billions of years ago, Hippocampus Erectus Superus hid, in the crust of Europa, several "time capsules". It was hoped that one day these would be discovered by the Europans. And when one of these were discovered, Europa Sapiens were highly surprised to find that a specie like them existed. In fact the similarities between Hippocampus Europa Sapiens & Hippocampus Erectus Superus was uncanny. Although there were slight variations between the two species, it was plain to see that both were closely related.

Erectus Superus, alas, had long ceased to exist. Having died out due to gene contamination, they nevertheless placed all their knowledge into data crystals, which inturn were linked to a portable albeit powerful computer. Specially designed to withstand the test of time, these computers were buried at several locations on Europa. What Erectus Superus did not count on, though, was the fact that Europa Sapiens was just as capable as they. It would come down to when the computers  where discovered. It was hoped that it would be well into the development of whatever specie found them. Unfortunately, or so it was thought,  this was done far too early in Europa Sapiens development.

Having said that, Europa Sapiens were intelligent enough to see the computers for what they were: a messenger of help. Having an intellect of almost that of Homo Luminous, it was not long before Europa Sapiens managed to, not only get the computer found operational, but they gained access to the millions of files that were stored in the computer’s memory. But next came the hard part. The Europa Sapiens "scientists" had to learn an entire new language.

Up until now, the Europa Sapiens had developed an extremely complex spoken language, but their written one was rather basic. They had, though, established the basics & were well on the way to establishing a universal written language linking the various communities covering the ocean floor of Europa. But now, here they were presented with a Hippocampus language that was clearly much more advanced than theirs, from a likewise extremely advanced civilisation. Nevertheless, they copied it, even though it took a century to understand it.

Debate too began from the initial discovery. Most Europa Sapiens believed that this was the work of a long lost kingdom. Few could even imagine that the computer had come from another planet. Yet slowly & surely, as more & more was understood, Europa Sapiens came to grasp that this indeed had come from another planet. Furthermore, there was likely that these "cousins" could still be around. Yet there was no way of discovering whether any of this was true other than the information offered by the computer. And this information was way in advance that anything the Europa Sapiens had themselves.

This problem, however, would not last forever. Through meticulous study, decade after decade, of the information available from the computer, slowly Europa Sapiens began to introduce this technology into their society. The first, as stated, was the written language. This started a communication revolution &, although they were far from developing computers themselves, nonetheless the written word progressed Europa Sapiens society in a rapid fashion. Ideas, news, thoughts & above all knowledge, spread around Europa like wildfire. It thus did not take long before the basic Erectus Superus machines & technology were common place.

But it was the ability to produce electricity that would truly revolutionised Europa Sapiens civilisation. Obviously water is not the best place to be when there is an electrical discharge, yet Erectus Superus had overcome this thanks to numerous studies into electric eels on Earth. In doing so they had developed a safe means of using electricity underwater. And, thanks to these studies, electrical generation was organic based rather than chemical or nuclear. These other technologies would come later, as Europa Sapiens advanced rapidly in their technological ability, but organic electricity permitted a whole range of possibilities. Furthermore it was cheap, readily available to all &, just as importantly, the environmental effects were negligible.

As Europa Sapiens civilisation continued to develop at an astonishing rate, so too did their dominance of Europa. Great cities, lit by electric light, now began to dominate the ocean floor. Appearing very different from the first structures, grand domes covered the buildings ensuring safety. Made of mesh, the predators that still roamed the oceans of Europa were kept at bay. Gone were the days where hundreds of Europans had to patrol the settlements in the familiar old phalanx formation. Even at the height of the pre-Golden Age society, when they had finally become masters of Europa, life could be very short for the unwary, even in one’s home.

Whilst all this technological advancement was taking place, Europan society was likewise changing. As the Europans enjoyed the benefits of these changes in their lifestyles, political reforms were finally demanded. Up until now, a tribal structure had endured for eons. A chief would lead the community &, although there were tribal councils that assisted the chief, all final decisions were his. But as education spread knowledge, thanks to the that gained from Erectus Superus,  to all quarters of Europan society, individuals demanded a say in all things. And this would include political matters as well.

Added to these reforms at the local level, Europa Sapiens began to view things on a global level as well. An understanding of the "Europan Nation" was formulated, & coupled with the political reforms at the local level, debates began at all levels about a "national government". This "national government" came into being just at the right time as these things go. Many communities had begun to dangerously exploit their regions, much to the annoyance of their neighbours. Eventually, threats of war, unheard of in Europan society, would be the trigger in forming the "national government". Although this government was rather crude at first, once again Erectus Superus provided the required knowledge.

Eventually, after much squabbling among themselves, the national government emerged that satisfied all. Being very democratic in nature, it would oversee such matters as environmental laws, industrial policies, education, & finally technological development. Other aspects of government, as time went by, would also be added to the government’s responsibilities. Importantly, there was no need for policing or a military, other than self defence united for protection against the predators of Europa’s oceans. Even before the first aircraft, let alone rocket, ever flew, the Europans were well on the way to establishing one of the great civilisations in the galaxy.
 

This creative work is the property of David Mark Atwell.
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