Europa Escape

Europa Escape Part 2

Red lights flicker on the screen; a warning about the mask's outer shell, an external temperature caution, a notice on her reduced heart rate, and an unknown proximity alert. Alex slowly opens her eyes, groaning as she starts to sit up.

"What the..."

"Alex, my dear, welcome back to the land of the living. I thought I lost you out here. I am afraid I have lost connection with the Facility 3281's primary systems."

"Facility what?" Alex groans, blinking absently before seeing the crack down the outside of her mask.

"3281, little Miss, you know, the Europa Research Facility Sphere?"

"My mask! Oh no! The crack is so big! Ahh! I don't wanna die. I'm too young to die! Where am I? What happened? How did—"

"Alex, Alex, Alex my dear, please do relax or you will make that low heart rate reading flip."

"It's too late!" The reading has risen drastically in the last few seconds.

"Please listen, you are very much alive, and no, your mask is not completely compromised, but I do ask that you be more careful before letting a rock slam into your face."

It takes Alex a moment before she remembers the expanding fault. "Oh, yeah..." she mumbles, starting to feel the water around to find that there is no resistance.

"You were knocked out on the second impact I'm afraid; nothing is broken, but your suit is mildly weakened in your lower spinal region. You have only been out for 3 hours." Alex gags when she hears that. "The current then pulled you down about 1451.82 feet before I lost connection, and then we tumbled approximately 1536.43 feet after that into this chamber."

"Wait, what?! Are you telling me we are half of a mile down?!"

"No, I am telling you that we are 2990.25 feet below the solid crust, which is in fact 350.25 feet more than a half a mile."

"Gee, thanks." Alex slowly sits up, moving her limbs one by one to see if anything is broken. To her relief, nothing is bad beyond a mild head ache. With a sigh of relief, she gets onto her feet to look around. Straight ahead, she sees the other side of the chamber which is easily 50 feet away. She pauses and holds her breath as she glances down. Squeaking, she jumps back, staring down a giant orange pit pluming with boiling water bubbles. She looks left and right to see that the ledge continues in either direction around the perimeter of the cavern. Carefully, she starts moving left, to see if she can find a way out. "Do you know how much this suit can take?" Alex asks cautiously.

"Approximately one million, two hundred nineteen thousand, five hundred and twenty pounds per square inch."

Her eyes widen in amusement as she continues to walk around the circle. "That's a lot more than what the manual said."

"This suit is extreme grade, made for these exact circumstances. It is also capable of withstanding up to 2/3rds of Jupiter's atmosophere if need be." Alex blinks incomprehendingly. "There are microwires within the suit made of..."

"I get it," she scoffs, "It's strong."

"You're welcome," Sampson interrupts.

"But..." she pauses for effect—whatever that does for an AI, "I mean more like how many more hits can this take?"

"I wouldn't recommend any more impacts, especially with the state of the suit's facial and rear integrity. I would advise finding the route in which you came down to get back up," Sampson says with his normal, 'this is the fact, and I'm a British guy' attitude.

"You do realize I would have to climb all of that altitude, and that I have no food in this suit." Alex mutters, thinking about the water and waste system the suit includes. A few more seconds into the thought, she shudders.