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Lunar Portrait


Lunar Portrait
If someone had asked Maya why she chose to live on Europa, one of Jupiter's frigid moons, she would probably have replied: "For the adventure!". However, the dozens of days spent under the glass dome of the research station made even the biggest enthusiast start to miss Earth. That morning, Maja was waiting in the airlock together with Natan, her best friend and partner for all the crazy experiments. Through a small window they could see endless expanses of ice, illuminated by the pale light of Jupiter hanging in the sky like a giant orange balloon. Their mission was simple: to take samples from a deep borehole and see if life lurked in the underground ocean. However, when they descended through the long tunnel and reached the laboratory below the surface, they found that the motion detectors had recorded something unusual. - 'It's probably some kind of misreading,' muttered Natan, pressing his finger against the screen. - 'But see, these signals are... rhythmic? - 'Maybe it's an ice breakup,' replied Maja, although she felt a strange uneasiness. Her pulse quickened as they entered the extraction zone and saw a new crack appear in the ice. But this was no ordinary split. A soft, greenish light shone through from within the ice crack. - The scanner shows... a structure. Something made of metal? - Natan hesitated, but finally knelt by the fissure and slid his hand in with the camera. The image appeared on their tablets: under the ice, among the shiny crystals, a shape resembling a face was visible. A face that looked surprisingly...human? They both froze when suddenly the light in the station began to pulsate rapidly, and their communicators rang out simultaneously in an unfamiliar, mechanical voice: - Attention. Scanning completed. Please do not leave your posts. Maja looked at Natan. Both fear and... excitement were reflected in their eyes. What is the ice moon of Jupiter hiding? And who - or what - is the mysterious portrait beneath their feet?


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Age category: 18+ years
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Times read: 47
Endings: 2
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