59

Morning arrives late and you wake in your cabin. You feel the effects of the night before and quickly gulp down a bamboo cup of water. Now that the initial euphoria has passed, the real work begins. The Asterion has enough room and supplies to live for years, but the conditions are cramped and there's little room to work.

Outside the doors of the spaceship, the heat-drill has been deployed to cut out the first room of the colony. It's a small antechamber between the ice-tunnels-to-be and the Asterion. The ice is melted away and the water pumped back into the ship. The procedure was tested at the North Pole years before launch and everyone is relieved it works on the ice of Europa.

"The readings say it's breathable and air-tight. Do you want to do the honors, President? First to step out onto the ice?" Rheita Petavius asks as the crew gathers around the airlock within the Asterion.

Sungura Kikwete, the Habitus representative, is less convinced. "Let us be professional about this. There is no need to be showy."