There is something chilling about staring at the dead eyes of someone you cared about. Early this morning I spotted an orange blob on the ground when flying the drone and I instantly knew it was Jenifer Miller. I do not know why I raced to get my space suit on to rescue her, deep down I knew she was fucking dead.
By the time I reached her she'd likely been dead for a while. For all I knew she had already died when I first started to look for her. Still, I dragged her body closer to camp so we could bury her when the rest of the crew returned.
Her suit had depressurized, and the helmet had opened, exposing her to the elements of Europa. The temperatures are so cold here, she likely froze the instant it opened. Now her face was practically blue and spoken to the point she was hardly recognizable. Still, I recognized those once caring eyes.
I've alerted the rest of the team and notified NASA. They are speculating that she may have had an episode and gone mad, like when hikers in the cold lose sense of reality and take off their jackets. I don't believe that though. The way she'd been taking the other day, she'd wanted this. Now she finally had the peace of mind she'd been after.
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Europa
Science FictionIn order to embark on a mission to discover alien life on the icy moon of Jupiter Maria must leave her life on Earth behind, including her father and her seven-year-old son Diego. She thought the hardest part of the mission would be saying goodbye...
