[ IP ] Terraformed Europa

Despite having been an Alaskan native, the chill of the frozen moon still got to him sometimes. He had woken early enough to watch'jupiterrise', as the settlers had come to call it. He has been chosen for this. Him and a few others from his town, as well as a few hundred others that were from the far northern reaches of Earth. Scientists on Earth had said that it would be easier to adapt to the cold, and despite conversation starters guised as complaints about the weather, it was true. What he could n't get used to, however, was the fact that there was no true solid ground to stand on. Sure, there was ice a mile thick, but below that was miles and miles of dark ocean. He'd have nightmares sometimes, of there being a crack in the ice, a shift, and he'd fall through. 
 
 Another thing he could never really adapt to was the wind. The young Europa had few features on its surface. A few craters from impacts, but that was about all. This allowed the wind to whip across the surface, driving the settlers into partially underground, sturdy buildings. There were tunnels under the ice that connected many of the buildings. Walking on the surface was reserved for the strong and healthy, like him. 
 
 Workers on the surface would repair buildings, repair equipment, and send probes into the ocean looking for information. For life. That's what they had been sent there for. That was the bottom line of this mission. But, throughout the years of the cold, the ice cracks that lead to deaths, and food shortages, he'd come to the conclusion that there was no life on Europa. Not anymore.
