We will return

На русском здесь:
http://www.proza.ru/2003/03/21-112



This was captivating. The crew, holding their breath as if bewitched, admired the unprecedented spectacle. Jupiter, with the size of four hundred moons, like a gigantic round screen against the black background of the sky, gave off some surprisingly warm tones: from soft cream to bright orange. Smoothly blending one into another, they created a wonderful picture: wide, stretching out in opposite directions, but strictly along the equator, the belts, at their washed-out boundaries generated a huge intricate turbulence, which gave grandeur, completeness, and dynamics to this splendour.
 Somewhat to the left of the majestic planet, exceeding its mistress in brightness, an enormous pink pearl, shone Io. But below, stretched the deathly-pale surface of Europa, cut by the scars of gigantic cracks intersecting at different angles. This icy kingdom was the purpose of expedition.

The first landing on the mysterious satellite, undertaken about five years ago, ended frighteningly strangely. In that expedition were experienced astronauts: Commander John Rose, flight engineer Paul Murray, and planetologist Nick Buls. The ship landed successfully in the region of one of the shallow cracks. The next day, the all-terrain vehicle with Paul and Nick, after traveling several kilometers of the frozen icy sludge, reached the edge of this gigantic crack. They found themselves before the high icy wall and reported to their commander that they were approaching the ice-sampling spot. After several minutes of constantly chatter, Paul and Nick suddenly fell silent. Through all this the radio connection with the commander was uninterrupted, John distinctly heard their breathing. This strange circumstance immediately alerted the commander; he passed on his concerns to the control center.
After a lapse of approximately one hour, the craft commander John Rose made contact with Earth for the last time. Extremely agitated, he informed them of his decision to leave the ship and go to the all-terrain vehicle. Understanding that this decision was counter to instructions, he gave rather strange reasons: allegedly Paul Murray and Nick Buls were deprived of reason, and without help could not reach the ship.
None of them returned.

This was practically all the information the participants in the new expedition to Europa had available. They also knew that this satellite of Jupiter under the thick icy armor had a layer of water many kilometers thick, enriched by ammonium and other mixtures, which was in its upper layers mixed with an icy sludge.

After several orbits, they precisely selected their landing place. "Space Warrior 2" touched down onto the icy surface several hundred meters from its fellow ship. A day on Europa is more than three terrestrial days long. And although Jupiter in the night sky shone like fifty full terrestrial moons, the people decided to wait for morning. The leadership of the new Space Warrior consisted of, Commander Dick Douney, flight mechanic Stanley Miles, biologist and doctor Mike Redley, and also planetologist Arthur Bradley.
At dawn Stanley and Mike visited their predecessors’ ship. As expected, it was empty. After listening to the recording of the crew’s discussions, they quickly returned. Listening to the recording explained little, but left an oppressive impression: Paul and Nick, after a ten-minute silence there at the wall, suddenly made some kind of incomprehensible sounds, at times similar to laughter or weeping. They did not answer John’s call.
About a half an hour after the contact with Earth, he found them from the tracks of the all-terrain vehicle. Later something similar apparently occurred with John.
Running the recording six hours ahead, the wheezes, moans and weeping of those doomed could be heard. It was clear: the state, in which they were, did not allow them to use the all-terrain vehicle or even the reserve supplies of oxygen in it.

... With a heavy heart Arthur and Stanley moved along the well-marked tracks toward the all-terrain vehicle. There was that very same icy wall. But the all-terrain vehicle and the perished people were not to be seen. They decided to stay clear of the spot where the caterpillar tracks ended. Nearby it became clearly visible that the tracks ended at a large square of darker ice. Measurements of its thickness confirmed their guess – the ice of the square was twice as thin as the ten-meter thick ice surrounding it.
Suddenly Arthur focused his attention on some kind of object at the wall. When they approached, they discovered a person lying prone in a spacesuit. Turning him over, Arthur and Stanley looked intently at the frosty person. This was John.
At this point Stanley, with his peripheral vision, noticed the barely perceptible dark-blue glow, which moved chaotically in the icy wall...

The commander and the doctor were in constant communication with their comrades, who had left in the all-terrain vehicle. Agitatedly they heard the communication about finding the commander of the first expedition. But Stanley's phrase: "I see ligh...," broken half-way through a word, really shook them up. It was clear—the cursed situation was repeating itself. Mike Redley was the first to come to himself.
“I will try to save them. We can prepare the second all-terrain vehicle,” in the voice of the biologist there was resoluteness.
“You have a theory?” - wearily asked Dick.
“I will tell you about it when I return with our guys. Okay?” gloomily grinned Mike.
“Agreed. Only be extremely careful.”
“I promise.”

... The all-terrain vehicle slowly went along the already doubled track. When he got one hundred meters from the wall, Mike stopped the vehicle and went toward Arthur and Stanley. They were aimlessly wandering about not far from the all-terrain vehicle. Suddenly he felt a certain sleepiness and, without giving this state a chance to overcome him, he quickly returned to his all-terrain vehicle. Having driven a little way away from the icy wall, he felt the uncommon state gradually pass. After leaving the vehicle, he began to wildly gesticulate, desperately trying to draw the attention of his comrades. Doing this, knowing that they could hear him, all the while he repeated their names. His efforts ended in success: first Stanley, and then Arthur, slowly at first, then more rapidly went toward him. Mike heard their glad babble...

After their return to the ship it became clear that both the flight mechanic and the planetologist, along with their speech, lacked even the simplest habits... It was necessary to teach them everything all over again. Through all this, their unconditional reflexes were preserved.

“Apparently ‘Europeans’, somehow reading their memory, accidentally or not, broke the connections of specific brain structures,” assumed Mike.
“It is good that the guys with constant training will most likely succeed in returning to normal,” noted Dick.

... At the large porthole side-by-side sat Stanley and Arthur.
“Ga-ny-mede”, poking his finger on the glass, slowly, with difficulty, pronounced Arthur.
“Ju-pi-ter”, looking at the slowly diminishing striped disk, said Stanley. They already knew many words.

перевод Karen Young (США)