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Author's Note - Written originally for Wattpad Sc-Fi's Europa challenge - Word Limit between 2 and 4 pages. I took it down for awhile as it is now available as part of the"Star Clash" anthology on Amazon. As the book is available for free, I thought I'd repost the story as part of ProjectRefresh's November 2016 outerspace challenge
(Author's Note - The prompt for this story was Europa, one of the larger moons of Jupiter. Europa's surface is mainly water ice. The red lines criss-crossing the surface are deposits of magnesium sulphide. Many Earth scientists believe there may be an ocean of water or slushy ice beneath the surface, and if so, Europa may be the other place most likely to support life in our solar system.)
Vik swam through the dense patch of water, sampling the rich cocktail of phyllosilicates as he sped through. He could feel the heavy slipperiness of it on his skin, as well as the spicy taste of it in his mouth. Delicious.
If he hadn't been chasing his pod brother, he would have lingered to eat his fill. As it was, he filed the location away in his memory. It was halfway through Slow Tide, perhaps he would have time to come back later and find this patch again.
Pol was only just ahead of him, a shining blue in his sonar-ray vision. Vik forgot about the food and darted after Pol, he would catch him this time, he was certain.
He swerved to the left as his sonar detected a rocky outcrop in his path, then back to the right to avoid a car being driven by an idiot with more status than brains. Vik swore silently. Why couldn't the idiot swim like he was meant to? Why did he think he'd been born with fins? Sure cars could move faster, but they also guzzled the magnesium and churned it out the other end as waste. Not to mention encouraging the driver to become fat and lazy.
Another click further and they reached the outskirts of the city. Vik glanced up at the huge circular buildings floating above them, checking for other traffic, before following close on Pol's tail. He skimmed past the thick metal cable which anchored the central sphere of the city to the top of the mountain. The tether allowed the city to move fractionally with the tides, without being swept halfway around the planet every day.
Vik knew there were creatures who spent most of their lives on the plains at the bottom of the sea, but he couldn't imagine living so far down—the pressure would have to be intense. Not to mention hot. Life on the sea bed required significant adaptations to the environment. On the whole, the bottom dwellers he had seen tended to be quite small, with thick skins and numerous appendages. Not to be rude, but honestly, some of them looked pretty creepy.
Personally, he liked living up near the ice. Most of his people did.
Vik looked up, just in time to see Pol flicking his tail in triumph. While he had been distracted, Pol had reached the goal of the Pod Brother's Twelfth House. Vik could just imagine the smirk on his face. Soon, he promised himself, soon he would be fully grown and then he would win their races.
