Ganymede
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“And now, my dear colleagues, we look back. Back at the distant past and see what once was.” Fred said. The rest of the team groaned.
“Do you really have to make that joke every time we get data?” Sue asked.
Fred looked far too proud of himself. “Yes. Yes I do.”
“It wasn’t funny the first time. Why would the fifth be any different?”
“Oh you guys just don’t understand fine humor.” Several members of the team muttered about the quality of his humor. Fred looked at the lackluster reaction he was getting and his shoulders slumped. “Okay, fine. No more. Let’s just look at what we got.”
Sally rolled her eyes. Everyone there knew he would keep making the same bad joke. He could not help himself. They also said nothing about it. Sally just called up the latest video data from the probe.
“Okay, now that we’re actually doing our job,” She said. “We’ve got the Ganymede feed up now. Let’s see if there’s anything new this time.”
The video started playing. For most of it, it showed the same thing the pervious videos showed. A rocky tundra with patches of ice scattered around. But, the team did their duty and noted any major rock formations. Suddenly, Fred stopped the video.
“What is it?” Sally asked heavily. She was expecting another joke or wisecrack.
“What’s that?” He asked, pointing at a section of the screen. It showed an area that was darker than most. And, although it was hard to see, it was also oddly regular.
“I don’t know.” Sally said. “Focus on that area.”
The now still image rotated and zoomed in on the dark spot. The team mulled over the curiosity.
“I hate not being able to control the probe.” Sally said. “Makes things like this so much harder.”
“It looks like a hole.” Fred said, ignoring Sally’s comment. “It’s hard to tell from this angle, but I swear it looks like a hole. And an artificial one.”
“No way. There’s no way anything could be living on Ganymede.” Sally said.
“I know that. I’m just saying that that’s what it looks like.”
“Well, we’re not going to get anywhere just staring at it. Maybe the probe will give us a better look.”
The video restarted. The probe ignored the dark area, much to the team’s disappointment. It went back to the featureless landscape they were all familiar with. Suddenly, another team member stopped the video. Nobody needed to ask why.
“Was…was that movement?” Sally asked. The other members gave their agreement. The video was rewound and replayed. Sure enough, in the corner of the screen, something moved. It was not a rock tumbling in an unfelt breeze. It was something moving with purpose.
The team members looked at each other nervously and replayed the video. A few minutes later, and the room descended into shouts and screams. Wild chatter filled the room as they all looked at the video feed. There, as clear as anything ever was, was an alien. It loped along the rocky surface, moving on four long, thin legs. It had an odd gait, as each limb had three joints, and ended with a triple digited “hand.” Its head was long, thin and ovaloid, with two large eyes and a small, vertically aligned mouth. Its body was a thick tube, and its breathing was long and slow, but heavy. Its skin was a similar color to the landscape, giving it natural camouflage.
The creature moved slowly, its limbs giving it an eerie gait. It looked around with long, sweeping movements until it found the probe. It looked at the machine, tilting its head from side to side before approaching. It poked the camera, causing the feed to jump and wobble. Then it sat and used all four of its limbs to pick up the probe. The feed became wild and erratic as the machine was turned in different ways as the creature examined it. After a few minutes, it seemed to lose interest and put the probe down before loping away.
When it disappeared, the room slowly settled into silence. The video continued to play for a few minutes before it ended on its own, having hit the data limit. Even when it did, nobody said anything. Sally was the first to find her voice.
“So…we just discovered alien life.”
“Yup.” Fred replied.
“We should probably tell someone, shouldn’t we?”
“Probably.”
Nobody made any move to do so. Nobody knew who to call or what to say. None of them were expecting to find life. And not one of them was prepared for what was about to happen because of it.
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Welp, looks like a first contact adventure story to the moos of Jupiter! Or not. Depends on whether I decide to continue the story or not. Probably not though. Sorry.
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