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You are President Voshinu ., the leader of the Europa expedition. You stretch out from your chair, enjoying the freedom of movement. All these people have trusted you with their livelihood. Your mind reels as you consider how you got to this point….

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Chapter One: The Launch

Six months before launch day, you can see the Asterion in orbit through the clear dome over Moltke City on Luna. Construction gantries spill out from a docking satellite along with three supply rockets that are set to be sent in advance of your arrival. The main ship and all the unmanned supply rockets are being built in space to save on fuel. Luna is the staging ground for the Europa colony: from one moon to another.

Like all great plans, it started as an implausible dream. And then, through countless meetings, emails, flights, discussions and projections, the possibility of a permanent base on Europa was wrought into something solid. It had all started when NASA's Europa Clipper, an orbital probe that reached the moon in 2030, discovered the remains of microbial life in a water plume spraying out from one of the many cracks in the ice. The discovery that we weren't alone in the solar system was too enticing not to follow up. But further probes failed to catch plumes, the microbes from the Clipper trip were too degraded to make any final conclusions from, and the intense hostility and distance of the moon made robotic investigation an expensive non-starter. Having a science base under the ice itself became increasingly enticing. But the political appetite for space colonies was set back by the debacle of the Martian catastrophe and the collapse of the U.N. in the 2060s.

But now, on the cusp of 2080, sights are set on Europa. The idea of one country or international grouping or corporation owning the moon was intolerable to most, especially after what happened to Luna. So it had to be an international effort. And they needed a figurehead, someone with the right kind of experience. Someone that each group thought (rightly or not) could be trusted to expand their interests. Someone like you.

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.There were many good candidates for leadership. Asteroid miners in their prime with real experience working in low-gravity and artificial habitat systems. Sharp-eyed pilots with experience in controlling the space, ice, and underwater vessels that would be used in the colony. Marine biologists, experts in the kinds of ecosystems everyone hoped to find in Europa's moon-wide icebound ocean.

There were arcologists, designers and administrators of self-enclosed habitats who would know the signs of system failure. Many favored having an aerospace engineer take the lead, like with most prior space missions. Someone who could think on their feet and keep the colony ship running during the eighteen-month journey. Others pushed for a diplomat in charge, someone who could hold together the many factions vying for control of the project.

I was hollowing out the asteroid Ceres when my country joined the Group of 81.

I was a fighter pilot on the G81 side of the Bering War.

I led the team that saved the dugong from extinction.

I was responsible for putting a dome over central Beijing.

I was deeply involved in the G81 seed-ship project for speculatively exploring the stars.

My diplomacy saved millions of lives among the hot zone diaspora.

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