Europa

July 5, 2054

I guess I officially have a space boyfriend. Now that I read that I don't know why I put space before my boyfriend. It looks pretty dumb now that I think about it.

I was finally able to pry into Commander Hunt about how he felt about that night on the submarine. It took me a while, but it was worth the wait. James Hunt explained that he had developed feelings for me a while back, on Earth during training camp. It's funny to think he had feelings for me back then when I couldn't stand him. To be fair I probably would have noticed how attractive he was sooner if he did not constantly scream at me. He claims that all the screaming and pushing so hard was because he did not want to see me get hurt out here. I don't know if I quite believe him about that yet, although the way he explained it sounded kind of romantic.

For now, we will be keeping our little relationship a secret. It is only a matter of time before Lee finds out, but it seems like it's for the best. I won't be writing home about it at all either. It feels right just sharing it between the two of us right now. Besides, if NASA finds out it could be a problem, even though I'm not exactly sure how they could punish us from space.

In terms of the actual mission, it seems that Lee may have found a way for us to do some more research. If I'm being honest the submarine looks like absolute crap now that Lee has welded it back together. Lee claims it is perfectly safe but there is no shot of me or James getting back in that thing. We almost died the first time, and the damn thing was structurally intact then.

Lee has come up with a way to operate the submarine from the base however and by adding fuel cells in the positions we would have sat he's drastically increased the battery life. The goal is to get some more data on the creatures that live in the oceans of Europa and maybe even travel deeper. It's a brilliant idea.

The only thing we need to do is release it from the third drill site, since there has been extensive damage to the hole at the second drill site. That is the only part I am uncomfortable about. Drill site three is the only site where we have not experienced any sort of ice quakes. It is also the only location where we have not drilled down to the bottom. I have a sick feeling that these ice quakes are connected to our drilling activity. We have lost members of the team during both the major ice quakes we've experienced so far. I can't bear to lose another member of this team and I certainly don't want to fail to deliver on my promise to return home.

Still, more data on what lives below could answer countless more questions, and the ice quakes could just be a coincidence.