this is. . .
Ix 14
[the music blares]
The arrival of the space probe Galileo was a shocking event to the majority of citizens on Ix 14, which is known on Earth as Europa, a large ice-covered moon of Jupiter. Of course, the event was embraced by a group on the far fringes of underwater-under-the-ice society known as Those Who Are Quite Certain, Although Definite Proof Would Certainly Be Welcomed, That Life Exists Elsewhere (this was originally shortened in newsletters to TWAQCADPWCBWT LEE, but following the institutionalization of the only typesetter who could consistently spell the acronym correctly, this thorough abbreviation was further shortened to simply LEE, as this contained the main point of the original title [Life Exists Elsewhere]) and was seen as the final, clinching evidence that they were right. Most of the group went out shortly after the news was released to celebrate by consuming large amounts of intoxicating seaweed known as uhuhduh and speeding around recklessly on their motosubs. (A fairly accurate picture of a motosub can be imagined by taking a waterski that can go extraordinarily fast, putting it underwater, and adding three handlebars to accommodate all of an Ix 14ian’s arms [by the way, this feature allows for great steering capabilities]) Unfortunately, three-fourths of LEE died in crashes during the course of the revelries, so the group’s new-found respect was somewhat bittersweet the next day. The large majority of people were stunned, though. Not because alien life-forms were sending intricate chunks of metal into their bit of space, but just that anything at all existed beyond the neighborhood of the large yellow sphere with the red eye. They had believed for generations that space ended a bit past the outermost of the sixteen moons, with tons of twinkling dots of various sizes thrown up on the edges for purely aesthetical purposes. The flying metal thing from beyond did come as a bit of a shock. The surprise wasn’t long-lived (except for the young Flakk shepard who originally spotted the probe while venturing to the surface to retrieve a wayward animal from his herd (which was comprised of about forty creatures resembling three-feet tall, docile centipedes [they really were nice, though- Flakk only eat crystalized minerals and in fact, this particular shepard even had a favorite, which he had named Biff]) and later became rich after writing a best-seller about the incident) and everybody resumed life as normal after a few days of watching the metal thing fly around and apparently do nothing else, despite the remnants of LEE, who claimed the probe was a sign. When pressed, though, they remained vague as to what the sign actually meant.