V Ensemble

Jane and Eleutherius could not reach the state of close and rapid communication instantly. It was a long and laborious process, but there was some kind of luck or serendipity in their situation.

They appeared to city-dwelling ’pods to be in the summits of tall mountains, invisible and undetectable except by such as Eleutherius, solitary religious-minded octopods, who had come to see the fabled light cascades.

Peter the geologist immediately found his metier. "Fascinating. A region of chaos where the ice crust has recrystallised abnormally thin, and in a fluke structure to let a little light through."

"Which must always be sunlight," said Commander Stacey, "because we are on the ‘dark side’ of Europa relative to Jupiter."

Jane was glad, that to describe where they had come from, she just had to point to the cascade.

It was an entrancing sight, with beams of white light scintillating in rainbow colours refracted in jagged columns, and reflecting off the craggy peaks.

Slowly their minds melded, exchanging more and more information.

Peter was getting antsy. He didn’t have much to geologise up here, and he was being haunted by the sight of metal tools. His instincts were leading him to the bowels of the planet.

"How about this?" he asked Stacey. "While Jane is working up here, I can be leading a little mission down below -- " But Stacey cut him off.

"Nope. Sorry Peter. I think the ’pod should guide us. Otherwise it might be dangerous."

"But the time!" Peter exploded in anger. "You know what rations we have left. We will be going soon, having missed what Europa has to offer!"

"Hold your horses!" said Stacey. "Part of the mission is making it self-sustaining. And communication with the natives is our best bet for that."

Peter grunted in desperation and frustration. "OK, OK. Whatever Stacey says." He pushed his way forcefully to the aft of the bathysphere, brushing hard past Marcus, coming the other way from outside, having missed the show.

"What’s his beef?" asked Marcus.

"Oh, he wants to go exploring," said Stacey. "Perhaps I should have let him," she added thoughtfully. "Well, how is progress?"

"Fantastic!" said Marcus. "Have a look at this." It was a box containing white flesh and small brown spheres. "Yep – lobster steak and mushrooms from our friend’s lunch box. Irradiate the bugs in it, and we have food. With clean ice to make the tea, the colony is self-sufficient."

"Well, that just seals it," said Stacey. "What with the thin ice, we shall move our base of operations here. So what are your mission plans now?"

"Get some more food," said Marcus. "By the way, we have taken to calling our friend ‘Eleutherius’. His personal signs seem to indicate a fanciful kind of airy liberation, while he reminds us of some patrician old Socrates. Oh, the kids of today – never appreciate a classical education." Stacey smiled primly.

"Fine. So what about the food?"

"Let’s make this sample fit for consumption first. Our biologist Roger must look at it. It should involve nanoprescence destruction of the attendant microbes. Otherwise we are working on bringing up more supplies."

Peter then reappeared, in diving gear. "Well folks, I think I’ll be checking out some of these here rocks."

"Go for it," said Stacey. Neither she nor Marcus noticed anything untoward, except that Peter had thrown off his sulk and seemed quite cheerful.

"OK, see you in a bit," said Marcus, and Peter disappeared out of the hatch.

Jane and Eleutherius were discussing whether he should go alone, or they should go together. They agreed that the humans must approach the city somehow, but rely on advance parties. Eleutherius took out a piece of cut rectangular shell. "As we near the city," he said, "we’ll be able to get messenger squids, and explain the situation to people that matter." He incised some lines on the shell with a stylus, which to Jane looked more like quartz than steel.

Iconic sign language in iconic signs, wondered Jane, which must be like terrestrial Chinese. Except that this message had a further refinement, the incised marks invisible until dirtied with the recipient’s ink, to prevent its perusal by casual or unauthorised eyes.

"Great," she said confidently. "Then that’s settled." Eleutherius made the luminescent change which she correctly interpreted as a smile. But quite suddenly he made the loud zebra-stripe pattern which indicated alarm.

"What?" said Jane, and she turned her head to see Peter shinnying down the mountain.

"Where is he going?" asked Eleutherius. "He must not go!"

"I don’t know," she replied. She beckoned him to the side of the bathysphere, turning on her radio.

"Stacey, do you read me? It’s Jane"

Inside was commotion at the surprise of Jane’s voice. Stacey tapped out the words on Jane’s visio. "I read you. What is it?"

"Where is Peter going? We saw him go down the mountain."

"The deuce he is!" wrote Stacey. "You had better go after him!"