Chapter 35, Adrift Summary

The crew and passengers of Galaxy observe alien life forms in the Europan ocean as the ship drifts along. The large shark-like creatures appear every so often, with schools of smaller fish being more common. One of the crewmembers catches a small fish, but its chemistry is so alien that the captain disallows any further angling. The ship drifts through mysterious organisms that form ten-meter ovals on the surface. All of the life forms move slowly, since oxygen has not yet developed in the Europan atmosphere, thus making metabolism a slow chemical process.

The spaceship turned lifeboat encounters threatening vortexes, but the ship does not drift close enough to be in danger. Tsunamis are a concern, due to the constant earthquakes. At one time a huge bubble of gas breaks the surface.

Captain Laplace discovers that Chris Floyd sends short encrypted...