Europa

April 9, 2054

I woke up to the ice shaking once again. We experienced a second ice quake, only this time it was more intense then the first one. The headcount would reveal that Adams was missing. Miller noted that he'd gone out in the morning to do a routine check on the drill before the ground began to shake.

With no way to contact Commander Hunt, Miller has taken temporary charge. After quick deliberation we have agreed to conduct a search for Adams. Lee has raised a drone to see if Adams has wandered off, searching for the orange of the space suit while me and Miller have suited up in our space suits to search around the drill location.

Lee warned before we stepped into the airlock that it seems that the terrain around the drill has been fractured due to the ice quake. Fractured would be an understatement. Yesterday this surface was completely smooth with hardly any rocks. Today there were huge fractures in the ice with bits of rubble crumbling in all directions. It was as if the drilling site had been shaken by a bomb.

The communications were still down, but the close-range radios were still active. I switched from the coms to the radios so I could communicate with Miller.

"This is bad," were the only words that I could think of as I stood near one of the fractures in the ice and looked to the seemingly endless chasm below, quickly stumbling back. "Don't look down," I added.

Miller began to walk forward looking for a way over the chasm. As I looked at her cautiously stepping forward it became clear how dangerous this situation was. Every few moments a few more chunks of ice would fall into the chasm. At any moment the entire thing could collapse. Even if we returned into the camp, it could still sink into the ice at any moment.

We were about to turn back inside when we heard a faint gasp on the other line of the local radio line. After a couple more moments we could hear the voice of Adams asking for help.

Struggling to breathe he managed to inform us that he'd fallen into a crack in the ice nearby the drill. Speaking of the drill it had almost entirely collapsed, hanging from the ice at a steep angle. Dr. Horvat would know more than I would, but I have a feeling this drill will not be salvageable.

It took us a while to finally get to the location by the drill. There had clearly been some significant damage as the drill itself was sparking. After surveying the area, we eventually found Second Lieutenant Adams wedged between a tight trench in the ice with his feet facing up, about fifteen feet below. Now that we were closer his audio on the radio was clearer and we could hear him panting.

"Morning ladies," he managed to say once we found him. Even in a life-threatening situation he was trying to stay lighthearted. We stood with him for a bit and made sure he was comfortable, before heading back to the camp, keeping radio contact at all times to plan what to do next.

So far, we have not come up with a plan to remove him safely. On earth the position he is lodged in would pose a significant risk of brain swelling, but considering the lower gravity of Europa that was less of a threat. The other very major threat was oxygen.

So far, we've been able to lower him into a second tank using a little pulley system so he can survive down there for the next 24 hours. However, that simply buys us more time.

Lee has been working nonstop to get the communicator operating so that we can communicate with Commander Hunt. Hopefully he will have an idea of what to do, but it does not seem like there is a brilliant solution.

I'm not comfortable letting him sleep on the chasm overnight but I don't know what to do. We need to find a way to get him out. That is a father in that hole. I can only imagine how he must feel sitting there waiting helplessly, in that tight spacesuit.