The Sky Road
Europa
The Sky Road
A shell of ice thirty blocks thick over a sea sixty deep. Under the ice only the living glows: algae on the underside of the shell, mats around the black smokers, and the whales. The seabed is serpentinite — the crusher wrings hydrogen cells out of it; the chimneys of the smokers give copper and gold. Geysers at the edges of the cracks erupt every half a minute and throw whoever stands on them. Jupiter hangs in the north and never sets; at noon the Sun goes behind it — the world dims under a ring of fire — and at midnight it is full. The whale is curious: wait by open water and it will pass beneath you; from the ice you can see its light through the shell.
gravity0.13 gairnone — wear a suitorbit5.204 AU
- Moon of Jupiter
- Day: 85 h
- An ocean under the ice
Views
Creatures
Structures
Clipper Deep Station
A hut with a beacon on the ice, a shaft through the whole shell, and a glass sphere hanging under it in the dark sea. Those who lived here went down to listen: the recorder by the hydrophone still holds a song that nobody in the crew could have sung.
The Sleeping Ark
A dark hull eighty blocks long on the floor of the ocean, ribbed with rings taller than any ship of yours. Lights breathe along its ribs, from stern to bow, slowly, as something breathes in its sleep. The way in is a ring nine by nine — you have walked through such rings before.
Ores
Events
- Tidal Ridge. The tide of Jupiter splits the ice and pumps water up the crack. Keep off the rims at high water: the ridge grows with every tide
- Lenticulae. Warm ice heaves the shell into domes. Steam bursts from their cracks; the tops sink into warm brine with copper and gold