On Europa, the moon of Jupiter that is covered by an ocean concealed by an thick crust of ice sits a huge tank. The Leviathan is named after a great sea monster described extensively in the book of Job in the Bible and is the only man made structure of the frozen world.
The tank is so large so that it can house a small settlement for the scientists who live aboard the tank studying the most complex indigenous life on any body in the Solar System after the Earth.
To the get The Leviathan you must first go the Atlantis, the space station that orbit Europa. From there you can catch a small craft, which will take you down the land in the space port which is on at the back of the tank.
A small space port had been made possible for scientists coming to and going from The Leviathan. It is only large enough to take small ships that can contain only six people and only has two in the dock with doors that can only fit one at a time.
When a hotel was proposed to be added to The Leviathan, the idea was opposed by every scientist, on the grounds that the only purpose of The Leviathan on Europa was science and it wasn't a holiday camp. However they later changed their minds when they found out about the benefits.
X-treme Holidays wanted to include Scuba Diving on Europa, looking for alien life. The price of the accommodation could provide extra funding to the scientific projects since it would be one of their most popular holidays. Also if people searching for alien life had cameras fitted to their protective suits, it would greatly assist in finding new life forms.
Europa had for a long time in science fiction been suggested as a place to contain alien life. It was the central theme for Arthur C. Clark’s second and third Space Odysseys. When the space probe Galileo went to Jupiter it reported life on Europa and was made sure that it would not crash there at the end of its mission.
After Lake Vostok had been discovered, and a probe had gone in and found life there that had been undisturbed for over a billion years, it was decided it was worth looking for life on Europa and since men had already been the Jupiter, no time was lost in looking into ways of exploring Europa’s ocean with minimum impact on its life.
Eaten by The Leviathan has been the phrase used the describe anyone on board The Leviathan. The tank moves over Europa to different location where the ice is thin enough to drill into, or where fissures has opened up. The scientists have small apartments and there is a bar, a recreation centre and a small garden for use.
The hotel for people taking an X-treme holiday has only two star accommodation and very little in the way of facilities but with the excitement that the holiday holds no one ever seems to notice. With work continually being done on studying the indigenous life of an alien world we are learning also about ourselves and our place in the Universe.
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