Spyke was a typical space rebel. Every day was another adventure. But little did he know that this adventure was to be his greatest one yet. Of all the people in the universe, who would expect a rebel to discover alien life?

“Rise and shine, Captain! That was yet another successful mining operation you commanded on Ganymede yesterday! We just launched off the moon’s surface 12 minutes ago. You’re a heavy sleeper!”

Spyke pushed him aside.

Ganymede is the largest of Jupiter’s moons and is covered in rock and ice. Spyke and the gang mine for rare minerals that cannot be found on Earth. They were leaving for the refinery on Mars to drop the load.

“So, what’s the deal today, ROM?” he asked his circular, floating robot friend.

“The usual. Just updating files.”

Spyke turned away and looked at his photo of Mom and Dad back at Mars colony 1008. He would go back there someday…

“CAPTAIN! Are you even listening to me?”

“No.”

“Captain, your brainwaves are showing strange patterns! Captain?”

His voice drifted off.


Spyke was hovering above a moon, a beautiful moon, covered with ice floes, geysers, and beautiful white and black bands wrapping themselves around it like highways; Europa. All of a sudden, a white mist swirled around him. He found himself inside an underground ocean, filled with fish and strange creatures swimming in and out of the ice chunks that floated there. It was dark, but he could still see because of the white mist that was ever-so-lightly swirling around them. It was a paradise. And in the very center, there was an elder watching over them, with large jet black eyes shaped like footballs resting on large, lobster-like stalks on the top of his head.

And, as quickly as it came, the vision was gone.

Spyke woke up wearing a hospital gown to see a small man with curly white hair, a lab coat, and a huge monocle; Doc.

“So, I see you are awake my friend! You were sent into a trance, so ROM and I brought you here in the ship’s infirmary.”

“Spyke, mon! You’ve come-to!”

It was Bobba, a Jamaican with a cybernetic “utility arm.” Bobba was his best digger for the mining operations on Ganymede, and was a good friend.

“Bobba! What’s up?”

“Nothing much.” Spyke replied.

Spyke, sensing something, jumped off the lab table and ran to the window.

“The red spot, mon! It’s ama-“

BLAM!

“The lights went out! But what was that bang?”

“It must be a meteor storm! Head with me to the bridge! ROM, give us a status report!”

“The asteroid hit our left engine. I’ll go fix it.”

“That’s next to the air docks! Be careful!”

And so, ROM left, and Bobba and Spyke ran to the bridge.

“Captain! Good to see you! Take the left controls!”

It was Aura, his navigator. They went to high school together. He always made fun of her name. He always admired her, however, for her great singing voice. And there was also that one dress…

SMACK!

“Aura! What was that for?”

“It was easy to tell what you were thinking! Your face turned bright red!”

“Sorry.”

BANG!

“Oh no! more asteroids!”

“Captain! We’re going down! Safety positions!”

Spyke he hated crouching. Especially in paper hospital gowns.

“Impact in 5…4…3…2…1…0!”

Suddenly, the ship was flung around like a bouncy-ball in a drying machine.

“Look out, captain! The lamp is headed straight toward your head!”

“What?”
Spyke felt something hit his head and blacked out.

Spyke came-to (again) in a small room, floating in a space-station somewhere around the unnamed moon, W1302.

“Greetings. I am Robert, NASA astronaut 135. I rescued you. I saw you when I was working on Galileo 3, our newest satellite.”

“How’s Aura?”
“Who?”

“The girl.”

“Oh, she’s doing fine. She’s been here every day for the past week while you were blacked out. She kissed you once, trying to wake you up. That girl really cares for you. The cyborg thought it was funny. Aura got mad and threw her soda at him, and his arm has been glitchy ever since. Poor guy.”

“Ugh… how is ROM?”

“The robot? Sigh…”

“What happened?”

“He’s gone. Floating somewhere in the liquid gas on Jupiter.”

“Liquid? I thought it was gas!”

“It would be, but the gases are pretty thick thanks to the gravity. Poor robot…”

“WE HAVE TO SAVE HIM! HE’S THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN OPEN THE MINES!”

“I’m sorry. He’s gone.”

“You should sleep. All this stress is bad for your head.”

Aura, just entering the door, exclaimed: “Captain! You’re awake! I was so worried!”

Unfortunately, Aura tripped and fell, knocking a plant on to the bruise on his head.

And slowly their voices faded away.

He was in the ocean again. Only this time there was only the elder.
COME. I KNOW HOW TO SAVE YOU’RE FRIEND.
AWAKE, AND COME TO ME.

Obeying his command, he woke up.

“WAAH! NOW I HAVE YO WAIT ANOTHER WEEK BEFORE HE… Oh Captain! That was only two minutes!”

“We have to go to Europa, NOW!”

“Why?”

“It was another vision!”

“Like back on the ship?”

“YES, NOW LET’S GO!”

And with that, the crew went to Europa.

*
*
*

It was a beautiful sight on Europa, despite the negative moods of the crew. There was a soft carpet of white-and-brownish tinted snow underfoot, and a beautiful view of Jupiter from above. Jupiter looked like a giant swirling mass of color, with a giant red dot in the middle. In the far distance one could see the beautiful rings of Saturn. All around them on Europa were dark cracks on the surface. Every now and then, there were pieces of ice that split because of the warm core. Although the surface was plain, who knew that the greatest mystery of all swam just beneath the surface?

“It’s been a long day. Let’s go, mon.”

The crew had been searching for an entrance to the ocean for a whole day, and was getting discouraged. Until…

“Hey guys! Come over here!”

“I’m getting tired, Captain, but okay. Whoa!”

Standing right in front of them was a giant hole.

“We found it!”

“It’s just a hole. It was probably a geyser or something. We’re leaving.”

And with that, they stormed off. So now he was alone.

“Europa doesn’t have geysers. I’d better check. I’ll hang this rope here, just in case.”

Spyke twisted a knob on his spacesuit.

“Here we go!”

Spyke jumped down, down, down into the dark, dark, hole. Until…

SPLASH!

“Hey, It’s actually kinda’ warm down here! What’s that?”

Below him was a mass of darkness, all except for a glowing light.
He started swimming. Swimming as fast as he could. Swimming because of a strange thing inside him compelled him to. And, he saw it. The Elder.

WELCOME, MY CHILD. COME.

And he did.

I HAVE BEEN WATCHING YOU.

“Yeah, I kinda noticed that.”

THERE’S NO TIME FOR TALK. I’LL TELEPORT YOU THERE, AND BACK WHEN YOU GET YOUR FRIEND. YOU’LL ONLY HAVE A FEW MINUTES TO SURVIVE. I’D GO, BUT I CAN’T LEAVE THE WATER. I’LL BE WATCHING.

“Something tells me I’m not going to like this…”

All of a sudden, the white mist, real this time, swirled around him. The next thing he knew he was on Jupiter’s core. He knew this because of the pressure. And partially because he felt like a rock.

Then he saw ROM.

“ROM! I’M COMING!”

Pressed under thousands of pounds, he crawled against the stone-hard substance that made up Jupiter’s core. He had little time. If he didn’t get to him soon, he would die. He started crawling feverishly. Faster, he thought, FASTER! He reached out his hand. His rib cracked because of the pressure, but he still went on. He reached farther. Still… not… enough. He stretched farther, and -

“Gotcha!”

“Hey Elder, I’ve got him! Huh?”

He was back in the infirmary.

“I’m getting really tired of blacking out.”

“You okay, mon? I found you lying around this hole, and called for help.”

“Thanks, where’s ROM?”

“I don’t know how you did it, but he’s right here! What happened your suit? And your rib?”

“Captain! I was so worried! Listen, I just wanted to say…”

Aura moved her head toward his…

AHEM!

And let’s just leave it at that!

So, they were finally back on course, Spyke got a girlfriend, and ROM was rescued. But Spyke still had another BIG problem: How would he explain this to his friends?