The Titan Probe

by Morris, Brandon Q.

  “Hold still,” Martin ordered.

  Slightly annoyed, Francesca briskly replied, “Excuse me. I just wanted...”

  “The wall,” Hayato said from the lander, “it seems to be closing above our heads. If we do not take off soon, we will never get out of here.”

  “The wall? What about it?” She turned around to look.

  “Just a moment, Francesca, let me just...” Martin mumbled through clenched teeth. If I don’t manage to do this soon... but the fabric is so damned tough, Martin thought. The muscles of his right hand hurt, and he had to switch hands. The cuts lengthened by a few centimeters, but he had only reached the halfway mark. He needed two more complete cuts to free Francesca from her cape.

  “Damn, this won’t work.” He took a step back, glancing at the airlock hatch to compare it to Francesca’s size.

  “Why did you stop? I don’t want to rush you, but...”

  “We don’t actually have to remove your wings completely. If I make cuts at half height and then bend the poles, you should fit into the airlock.”

  “You really think so?”

  “It’s worth a try. If it doesn’t work, we can still cut off more.” Martin looked at the cut near her right arm. As the length should be sufficient, he placed the scissors in the middle. He was sweating and his helmet visor fogged up because he was gasping so much. Open hand, close hand. By now both of his hands hurt. He really would have liked to have taken his gloves off. He felt his bare hands would be so hot right now that even a temperature of minus 180 degrees could not hurt them.

  “Hayato, what would happen if I strip off my gloves? I could cut so much faster.” He barely had enough breath to ask the question.

  “Are you insane? We are not in a vacuum here. You would get frostbite faster than you could put the gloves back on. How did you come up with such a dumb idea?”

  “Crap.” He continued to cut.

  “Martin, listen; don’t you dare do that!”

  The Japanese astronaut was right. Martin was shocked about having even come up with such a dangerous idea. He started making the third cut, moving his fingers automatically. He no longer felt his muscles, as the intense pain surrounded his consciousness like soft cotton. Martin noticed he was about to pass out. Oh shit, he silently exclaimed, trying to speed up his thinking for the purpose of self-protection. I know now why I never wanted to become a tailor, he thought. Cut, cut, cut—his progress was slowing down even though he was putting more effort into it.

  “I think that is enough,” Francesca finally said. The last incision ended up being even longer than the other ones. He must have continued working without noticing it.

  “You wanted to bend the poles,” Francesca reminded him.

  Yes, sure, he thought, how did she know? I never mentioned it, did I? Clever girl, Martin thought, and realized he was a bit confused, probably from the exertion. The poles, the poles! He reached for the one on her right arm. He bent it and let go, but the pole simply whipped back into its original position.

  “Shit, they are flexible.”

  “You'll have to cut a notch in the middle with the multitool.”

  Sure, Francesca is right, I should have thought of that. He was annoyed. What was he supposed to do? Cut a notch, he remembered. He took the multitool and cut into the pole at the spot where he wanted to bend it. It is working, he silently cheered, the cutting surface is hard enough. He took hold of the pole again and bent it.

  “Yes!” he called out, “got you now!”

  “Very good, Martin,” Hayato praised him. “Now do the other two.”

  As if he needed to remind me, Martin thought. Sure, the other two. Gradually his breathing slowed down and the fog began to lift. What am I supposed to do? Oh, yes, the poles. He notched the middle one, bent it, and then repeated the process with the left one.

  “Finished!” announced Martin triumphantly.

  Francesca interpreted this as a command and ran to the hatch, followed by Martin. Hayato had already opened the hatch from the inside. While Francesca was squeezing herself through, Martin briefly looked upward. The sky was gone and there was only a small, brown spot left that was a hole. Shit, he thought, is the lander going to fit through this? It’s never going to work. He tried to reassure himself Hayato was somehow going to manage it.

  “Martin, I am stuck!” yelled Francesca. Her voice carried a hint of panic that immediately infected him. He pushed hard from behind, and suddenly Francesca slid headfirst into the opening and fell into the airlock.

  “Okay, I am inside,” she said.

  Martin nodded and hurried to follow her. He quickly closed the hatch.

  “Everything is okay, you can start,” he reported. The engines should have started but nothing was happening, except the airlock was once again filling with a breathable atmosphere.

  “Hayato, what is going on?”

  “We are no longer able to take off. We are locked in.”

  January 1, 2047, ILSE

  “Attention, Amy, I need you urgently in the command module.”

  The commander had just been nursing her son. According to what Jiaying was hearing from the surface, the situation there seemed to be coming to a head. Amy was already floating into the module.

  “What happened?”

  “Francesca is back.”

  “Good.” Amy looked visibly relieved.

  “They are busy getting her inside. It does not seem to be easy,” Jiaying reported.

  “That is not all, though, is it?”

  “No. The wall around the lander is closing in and forming a dome. I have no idea what it means.”

  “What does Hayato say?”

  “He is undecided.”

  “Is it because of the laser?”

  “Yes, he thinks we might be dealing with alien life here, and that we cannot destroy it just because we do not understand it.”

  Amy nodded, though Jiaying could see she was not happy about it.

  “I understand him and maybe I would act the same way...” said Amy.

  But you don’t want to lose the father of your child, Jiaying thought. She herself felt few qualms. If an alien creature threatened human lives, people should be allowed to defend themselves. Back on Earth, if a polar bear attacked her she would defend herself with a weapon if necessary, despite the fact these animals were close to extinction. She certainly did not want to lose Martin on Titan that way. “Let’s leave the decision to the ground crew, since they can judge this better,” she suggested.

  Amy nodded again.

  Jiaying was sure Amy recognized the motivation behind her suggestion. Hayato might be a kind-hearted guy, for sure. Francesca, on the other hand, as a fighter pilot with combat experience, would have no problem with killing, and she did not consider Martin to be extremely selfless either. The Italian would only pose a problem if the loss of Marchenko had completely sapped her will to live. Jiaying was a bit ashamed to be so calculating. It seemed dishonorable to evade responsibility this way, but the opportunity was too convenient. Am I an opportunist? she wondered. And is this a flaw in my character? Jiaying sighed.

  ILSE had reached a synchronous orbit ten minutes ago. This kept the ship exactly above the landing site, and allowed them to experiment with radar, but it would also provide the opportunity to later use the laser. Their trajectory should have been too high for a laser scan, but due to Hayato’s information about the consistency of the wall, Jiaying found a way to capture images of the strange wall. The accuracy was not very high, but in a time-lapse video they could clearly see how it moved toward the landing site.

  Amy looked at the current images. She furrowed her brow, which made her suddenly look older.

  “Look here,” she said, “the ring is getting tighter and tighter.” They stood next to each other to look at the screen. Jiaying took Amy’s hand. They both had a lot to lose.

  “And now,” Jiaying said, “the dome is closing.”

  “Commander to lander module, acknowledge.�
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  No answer. Amy repeated the request, but the lander remained silent.

  “Shit,” Jiaying said. She had never before let a word like this one slip out. She frantically glanced around. “We have to do something. The laser!”

  Amy looked at the monitor and blinked. “I don’t know,” she said.

  “But I do. We have to get them out of there, and as soon as possible. Who knows what is happening beneath the dome right now?”

  “I can’t do this.”

  “But I can, I can do it,” Jiaying replied, agitated.

  “I am the commander. Nothing is going to happen without me.” The tone in which Amy uttered this did not match her message. Jiaying recognized Amy was struggling with herself.

  “Look into my eyes, Amy!” The commander did not react.

  “Look into my eyes and tell me you are going to let all three of them die down there.”

  Amy raised her head and looked at her. The commander's glance wavered—never before had Jiaying seen the commander appear so unsure. She pitied Amy, but she knew she herself was on the right path.

  “Amy, down there are three of our colleagues, friends, lovers. Are you going to tell their relatives back on Earth they had to die for the sake of some strange wall, the nature of which we do not even know?”

  Amy shook her head almost imperceptibly.

  “Are you going to explain to Dmitri Sol someday how his father died, and most of all, why you did not save Hayato, even though you had the means to do so?”

  “But we don’t know... maybe... if... the wall retreats on its own?”

  Jiaying saw Amy’s eyes getting moist.

  “It is not going to retreat. If you do nothing, the father of your son will die. That is a fact,” Jiaying said as coldly as possible. At the same time, she felt a tiny bit insecure. Why shouldn’t the wall retreat? What attracts it anyways? Curiosity? Or even hunger? On the surface of Titan, energy must be consistently scarce. Researchers on Earth have always assumed life could not be possible there. Might it be sufficient if we were to feed the life form? The laser could easily provide 10 megawatts—with modifications, as many as 50.

  “Amy, give me control over the laser. Please!” she implored tensely.

  The commander gave her a surprised look and shook her head. “I can’t do that.”

  “I do not want to shoot at the wall, but behind it. We are going to give the life form in the wall a new target. We will feed it with energy.”

  Amy gave her a skeptical look. “And what’s to say it won’t just consume both targets?”

  “I do not know. We have to try it in order to find out. This is a genuine chance to do so.”

  Amy exhaled. “Oh, well. Watson, authorize laser control for Jiaying. Let’s try it.”

  She had succeeded in convincing the commander! For a moment Jiaying felt triumphant, but then she started thinking about Martin again. Now she could determine where the laser was aimed and fire at the wall. It would happen before Amy could interfere. Is this what Amy secretly wanted all along? wondered Jiaying. To have the decision taken away from her so she can embrace Hayato again with a good conscience? After all, she could have performed this laser experiment herself.

  No matter. Jiaying now could pulverize the dome within a few seconds. She had always wondered what power felt like. It was fascinating, and she immediately noticed its addictive factor. She had to force herself not to give in to impulse. First I have to perform the experiment! If it fails, I can still aim the laser directly at the wall.

  Jiaying marked the target area on the display. It was located about 1,500 meters to the lander module’s west. This was close enough to attract the attention of the being, she hoped, while far enough away so as not to injure it. She gave the command, and in an instant an invisible beam of energy raced toward Titan at the speed of light. It first hit the atmosphere, where its power stripped molecules of their electrons. Along the way, new organic compounds formed that might never have been possible on Titan due to there not being enough energy available to generate them. The bombardment might even trigger the development of new life forms. One could never know. A blink of an eye later, the orange glow of the laser beam hit the icy surface. The sand melted into water, the water vaporized and disintegrated into hydrogen and oxygen, while molecules containing carbon burned. The beam drilled a hole in the surface, a hole that soon grew and filled with water. Above it, a cloud of steam spread.

  There was a faint wind blowing on Titan's surface. The air moving eastward carried some of the heated particles along. They cooled off quickly but were still somewhat warmer than their surroundings. After several hundred meters they hit the alien wall looming several meters above the ground. They fell onto it and transferred the small bit of heat that they were carrying. Not just one particle, but initially about fifteen of them, then hundreds, and finally millions.

  By means of an invisible process the warmer particles showed the way to an enormous source of energy reminiscent of the times at the beginning of the cosmos, when the light bringers had not yet forgotten this world. The collective alien entity had only vague memories of this era. It spent its infinite time waiting, in a state between life and death lasting centuries, until a light bringer once again fell from the sky. Then it arose and would honor the messenger by feasting on the provided gifts.

  The dome opened.

  January 1, 2047, Titan

  “Lander to ILSE, the dome appears to be opening. Did you do this? If so, great work!” said Hayato enthusiastically. He had taken over the communication with the spaceship.

  “Yes, a diversionary tactic using the laser,” Jiaying reported.

  “We cannot thank you enough. We will contact you again as soon as we are ready for launch.”

  Martin watched on the screen as the wall retreated. The process was much faster than before. He suspected gravity helped, as well as greed for the enormous amount of energy ILSE beamed to the surface. However, the wall did not just move faster, it also did something else—it split into various sections. Martin used the front camera to zoom in. Several columns had separated from the wall, and as they were moving toward the laser beam they were changing their form. They lost some of their height and gained in circumference. What had looked like a column a moment ago now resembled a barrel.

  “The area is free—we can start,” said Francesca, who was already in the pilot’s seat, watching the brownish-gray sky on the monitor.

  “Please wait another moment!” cried Martin. “This is unique. Don’t look up for once, watch what is happening ahead!”

  The moving barrels shrank with every meter they distanced themselves from the landing site. Martin set the camera image to maximum zoom. What he saw now most nearly resembled thick potato pancakes, slowly aiming for a common target.

  “This looks familiar,” Francesca said. “Huygens was sitting on such a thing. Maybe it was trying to reach the heat of the plutonium pellets, and somehow it activated the radio transmission? Switch to infrared!”

  Martin changed the frequency range. The 'pancakes' were still visibly distinct from the ground. Most of all, he seemed to perceive something like legs or tentacles attached to them. He had no idea what the purpose of these structures would be, but they appeared to reach deeper into the ground than the camera could show.

  “ILSE, please scan the landing site with radar. What do you see?”

  “Just a moment, Martin,” Jiaying replied. Two minutes later she reported back. “A number of spots appear to be gathering around the targeting point of the laser. There is no other way I can describe it. There are also new, smaller walls visible. Maybe... Are they trying to block each other from reaching the energy source—a kind of struggle for food, maybe?”

  “We can discuss that later.” Francesca sounded impatient. “The sky is open, so we should definitely get on the way.”

  “Francesca is right,” Hayato said. “No matter how fascinating this is, one thing worries me—what happens once they have c
onsumed the energy of the laser bombardment?”

  “Then we’ll just repeat it,” Martin said. Then he thought, They can’t be thinking of just fleeing in such a situation? We are observing a completely new form of life!

  “Martin, sit down, we are starting soon.”

  He gave Francesca an annoyed look, though she did not even bat an eyelash. She started the countdown. He hurried, and had barely made it into his seat before the force of inertia started to press him against the upholstery.

  The lander rose a meter into the air, but then something held it back. Francesca landed it again. “Damn, what is this all about?”

  “I’ve got a suspicion,” Martin said, “Perhaps not the entire wall fell for our diversionary tactic. One moment. I am going to take care of it.” He thought about the successful experiment using the flamethrower. What happens, though, if it won’t provide enough energy to satisfy the pancake creatures? He could not allow himself to be bogged down by this question. He put his space suit on as quickly as possible and grabbed a spare oxygen tank and the lighter. Five minutes later he was outside and standing in front of the lander. The problem became apparent at first sight—two pancakes, as he was now calling the creatures, had slid over the lander from the side. They were probably anchored in the ground. He walked about ten meters, placed the oxygen tank in a stable position, and hoped the lighter had not frozen solid yet. He managed to ignite the improvised flame thrower. That was lucky! Then he turned it to full power, and now everything depended on the combustible material not being expended too quickly. Martin raced back to the airlock of the lander. Before entering he saw both pancakes moving toward the flamethrower.

  “Francesca, start as soon as I am in the airlock!” he radioed to her.