4 One giant leap

Chapter Four ONE GIANT LEAP... Europa grew larger and larger as the Beagle drew closer. It looked like a frosty round ball against the endless blackness of space. Roshni fired the retro-rockets to slow them down, and the Beagle began to orbit around the huge moon. Ollie looked down at Europa's craggy surface. "I wouldn't go there for my vacation.

It looks like it's covered in ice." "It is," Roshni said. "But it's only frozen on the surface. There are saltwater oceans under the ice." Ollie raised his eyebrows. "Like we have on Earth?" he asked. Roshni nodded. "Yes! And better still, scientists think there might even be some simple life-forms swimming around down there." Ollie's mouth gaped open. "You mean… aliens?" he said.

"They would be tiny little microbes," Roshni explained. "You wouldn't be able to see them without a microscope. But, yes— we might be flying over alien life!" She got goose bumps just thinking about it. "Cool!" Ollie spotted something and peered closer. "What's that thing? Did the aliens build it?" Roshni saw it, too. It looked like a metal umbrella. She sat bolt upright. "That's the antenna from the Odin probe! Come on, we need to get it back!"

Working fast, the two of them flew the Beagle as close to the antenna as they could. They were getting more used to the controls now. The antenna tumbled through space, high above the surface of Europa. Roshni wished she could just open a window and grab it, but that wasn't possible in a spaceship. All the air would rush out. This was going to be tricky. "How are we going to get it?" Ollie wondered.

The Beagle made urgent beeps and wobbled around, jostling Roshni and Ollie in their seats. "It's trying to tell us something!" Roshni said. "What is it, Beagle? Should we use a robot arm?" FNAAARP! said the Beagle irritably. "Can we pull it in with a tractor beam, or something?" Ollie guessed. The Beagle flashed red lights in a big "X" on the dashboard and buzzed like computer- game sound effects. No matter what Roshni and Ollie guessed, the Beagle just got more frustrated. It didn't want them to get the antenna with a harpoon gun, a big magnet, or a wad of chewing gum on the end of a string. Roshni was rapidly running out of ideas— and the antenna was slowly dropping down

toward Europa. If they didn't grab it in time, it would smash to pieces. She looked around the Beagle's cockpit to see if they'd missed anything. Over to the right, she found a door she hadn't noticed before. She pressed a button and it slid open. Inside was a compartment that was as tall as she was, containing two white space suits with round helmets. "Wow!" she said.