The Triton Disaster: Hard Science Fiction

by Brandon Q Morris

“Wait, let me check. Ah, now I understand. The fact that the auxiliary engine started up again after a while is only a secondary effect of the rover. The fuel line was frozen, which is normal. If necessary, a heating system turns on and warms it back up.”

  “But if the system is dead, the heating system has no power.”

  “Right. Somebody made a mistake in the design. The electricity from the rover got the heater to do its work, and then the auxiliary engine worked again.”

  “Did I save you?”

  “Thank you, you did. Not only me but Valya, too.”

  “Valya?”

  “A pet name for Valentina. That’s the Station AI.”

  “Valentina? Like the owner of RB?”

  “AIs were her father’s hobby. He must have named this AI after his daughter.”

  “That’s unusual.”

  “He was an unusual person.”

  “So you’ve convinced the AI to help us?”

  “Almost. I’ve convinced her that we can help her. If we can do that, then we’ll be able to go back to Earth.”

  “What is it that we have to do?”

  “All we have to do is fulfill her request that Triton disappear from the solar system, and ideally go back to where it came from.”

  “We don’t even know where Triton came from!”

  “That’s our problem. But I said that we had a hunch and could help.”

  “That was a lie,” Nick said. “So you lied to another AI?”

  “Unfortunately, I had no choice.”

  5/23/2082, Triton

  It smelled like coffee. But that was entirely impossible. The closest coffee machine was a few billion kilometers away, and the food preparation device at least 50 kilometers, depending on the spaceship’s current position in orbit. With his eyes closed, Nick was contemplating getting up. He’d already decided against it, because it would likely be a while before he found such a comfortable bed again. But this smell of coffee, even if he was just imagining it, was a compelling counterargument.

  “I made you coffee,” Oscar said.

  Nick opened his eyes. The robot was beside the bed. He held a tray that had a cup balanced on it. Nick couldn’t see what was inside, but it exuded a pleasant aroma that wafted to his nostrils.

  “It’s a miracle,” Nick said. “Or am I dreaming? Please pinch me.”

  “I can’t pinch you until you’ve taken the coffee from me.”

  He sat up, scooched himself until he could lean against the wall, and reached out a hand for the coffee. Oscar moved the tray in his direction. Nick took the cup by the handle. He’d been expecting plastic, but the material felt like porcelain. And it was hot. He held the cup so he could look inside. It contained a dark brown liquid, and a few bubbles of golden-brown foam had formed along the edge. It smells like coffee and looks like coffee. Will it taste like coffee? he wondered.

  Nick lifted the cup to his mouth and took a sip. The liquid was bitter, but not overly so. The temperature was perfect. It had to be coffee, and if it wasn’t, he really didn’t care. He was in paradise! Nick closed his eyes and savored it, sip by sip.

  “Are you available to speak now?” Oscar asked. After a final gulp of coffee that he’d swirled from the bottom of the cup, Nick returned to reality. The robot was standing in front of him with an empty tray in his hand.

  “Yes,” said Nick.

  “If you take the tray from me, I can pinch you.”

  “Why do you want to pinch me?”

  “You asked me to.”

  “That was just an expression. How did you manage the coffee? You’re a genius.”

  “Using a coffee machine, along with coffee powder and water. This is one of the few services that I can provide. If you had selected the HDS robot, the menu would have been more extensive.”

  “Stop with the HDS. Where did you get the ingredients from?”

  “They’re a part of the station’s basic equipment. We’re lucky to be the first visitors to stay here for an extended period of time.”

  “We can prolong our stay a bit.”

  “There are a few problems. We need to get the AI to accelerate the Starshot spaceships using the laser. But she’ll only agree to do this if we help get Triton out of the solar system.”

  “What if we just borrow the landing module left by the three dead men, fly to the Eve, and start heading back?”

  “Then the AI will use the laser to turn the Eve into scrap. It insists on this sequence—send Triton on its way, use the lasers for Starshot, we fly home.”

  “And if we fail with point 1?”

  “Then it doesn’t get to the next point—she won’t make any concessions.”

  “All right. The AI’s got the upper hand here. Couldn’t you checkmate her somehow? You’re such a sophisticated AI.”

  “Not a chance. Though I managed to get in the door of the system, she’s been here for some time and knows better. We’re in a stalemate situation.”

  Nick sighed. “What if I stay here and guard the station while you go out and solve our problems? All of my joints are still sore, and if I have to get into the spacesuit, the fresh scabs will break open.”

  Oscar waved his hand back and forth and the tray wobbled perilously between his fingers. “I’m sorry, but we won’t be able to do without your physical strength.”

  “I’m not that strong. Wouldn’t it be better to go with brains instead of brawn?”

  “We’ll need both because we have to get into the Pandora’s box somehow. It’s the only starting point that we’ve got.”

  He pressed the rest of the cream from the tube into the diaper and distributed it evenly, then put on the diaper and drew it tight. After this came fresh underwear from the station supplies, followed by the LCVG, which provided him with heating and cooling as needed. Slipping his limbs through the sleeves and legs, he groaned with each and every movement. Hopefully this would be the last time he’d have to endure this torture. Yet he remained pessimistic, if only because of the long road ahead to the alien object.

  Oscar rolled up to him. “Are you ready?”

  “Give me another five minutes.”

  “Can I help you?”

  “Not really. That damn Pandora. What did Valya say about the dangers concealed in the box? Will we let them out automatically when we finish our task? Is it a weapon or something? That would explain why the two Russians were so determined.”

  “The AI is certain that it’s a huge terraforming machine. It’s supposed to make the ground habitable where there’s just barren rock.”

  “But that’s great. It might enable us to turn Mars into a second Earth.”

  “This could be a possibility if we had control over the machine. But we don’t. It’s most likely programmed for the planet that’s in the middle of our system’s habitable zone.”

  “The Earth could also do with a little refresher.”

  “I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but the biochemistry that it would re-establish is incompatible with yours. You’re sensitive to hydrocyanic acid. Earth would become completely uninhabitable for humans.”

  “So why didn’t the machine do its job before?”

  “Valya suspects that it had determined that the germ of life had been established on Earth already.”

  “And why wouldn’t it just keep going onwards?”

  “Maybe it’s still waiting for its chance. There are civilizations that destroy themselves.”

  “But just think of what our researchers could learn from this machine.”

  “It could also end up like Goethe’s sorcerer’s apprentice. If someone were to unintentionally turn the machine on, it would be impossible to turn it back off. But fortunately we don’t have to worry about this, because the station’s AI decided long ago to have Triton returned to sender, whoever that might be.”

  “Couldn’t your Valya have asked the three Russians for help? Then our presence here would have been entirely unnecessary.”

  “She’s not my V
alya. She claims that she tried but the Russians didn’t listen to her and instead started destroying her equipment.”

  The ice wall’s tongue was still sticking out. The opening of the cave looked like a black smudge against the dark gray background. Nick got out of the driver’s seat.

  “You can stay in the seat,” Oscar said.

  “But that steep glacial-ice tongue—”

  “I found a rope in the station. I’m anchoring it here and setting a pulley at the mouth of the cave, and then you can move the rover up the pulley.”

  “Oscar, you’re a genius.”

  He wouldn’t have to go through the hall. This would spare them at least one night in the tent, and there would be no need to drag the tools around.

  “I know, Nick.”

  Oscar’s idea worked. The rover stopped about ten meters inside the cave entrance. Nick got out and then slid down the tongue to remove the rope from the anchoring. Perhaps it would come in handy later. Oscar had some trouble on the ice with his little wheels. He had to keep hacking into it with his grip hand and then pulling forwards.

  “Next we should be able to drive up to the door of the aliens in the rover,” Nick said.

  “That was the plan.”

  Nick took the robot by the neck and placed him in the antenna dish.

  “Not here,” Oscar protested. “My radar can’t get a clear view.”

  Nick reached for him and put him in the small cargo area. “Is this better? But you’ll have to hold on.”

  “Much better. If you like, I can steer the rover, too.”

  “Thanks, but then I’d be bored out of my mind.”

  “There’s something on the ground up ahead,” Oscar announced.

  That had to be the tarp with the two corpses.

  “That’s Oleg and Vitali,” Nick said. “I’ve already looked in on them. There’s no helping them anymore.”

  “There’s nobody there,” said Oscar.

  “Under the tarp.”

  “No, there’s just some garbage. Are you certain they were dead? Maybe they were brought back to life by the alien machine?”

  “Ha-ha. I almost fell for your weird sense of humor this time, Oscar. Promise me you won’t make any more jokes until we’re done here.”

  “The bit about the machine was taking it too far?”

  “Yes, that was too much. If you’re gonna pull my leg, you can’t overdo it.”

  “Want to stay here?” Oscar asked.

  In the white light of the rover headlights, Nick looked at the corpses covered partially by the tarp. Two people had suffocated—actually, been murdered—in the tent. Last time, this had just been his guess. He shook his head. If he pulled himself together, he could make it another day on no sleep.

  “But it would be a good idea to spend the night here,” he heard the robot say over the helm radio. “You need your sleep.”

  “Two people died in the tent.”

  “You don’t have to be scared. I’ll take care of you. I don’t need to sleep.”

  “How reassuring, Oscar.”

  “Come on. I need you well-rested and in top form when we open Pandora’s box.”

  “If that’s the way it’s got to be,” Nick sighed.

  The air pressure was right and he removed his helmet. The odor of his own sweat was accompanied by a sweetish scent. Is this what corpses smell like? But that was impossible. The murderer had taken the bodies out of the tent, and besides, the hall had been empty for many months afterward. What he smelled was purely a product of his imagination. He took the rest of the spacesuit off and attended to his diaper. That was the end of the sweet smell.

  His skin didn’t look good. A large area had become inflamed in his left groin. He would need to go a few days without the spacesuit, but that wouldn’t be happening for a while. Ahead of him was a forest of question marks. They’d have to understand an alien technology. Did they even stand a chance? Would a Roman legionnaire be able to control a spaceship? Probably not. But figuring out how an elevator or toaster works was something a legionnaire could manage. He wouldn’t need to know what lifted the elevator or why the toaster browned the bread. Whether he and Oscar would be able to grasp the technology would depend on what kind it was. Would they be dealing with a toaster or a spaceship?

  Nick crawled on all fours through the cave, the robot perched on his back and using a leash to guide him as if he were a sled dog. The stalagmites looked like question marks, while the stalactites had transformed into exclamation points, with their dots dripping down to touch the tops of the question marks. Whenever Nick accidentally grazed one of the structures, it would wobble and spray him with black dots made of a viscous liquid that slid down him slowly, and gradually formed a kind of tortoiseshell. It seemed to him that the robot was getting heavier and heavier. The power in his arms diminished and finally disappeared. The weight of Oscar on his back pushed him down and squeezed his lungs together. He was no longer getting enough air, and he started breathing faster.

  Nick opened his eyes. It was so dark that he had lost contact with reality. He pressed his hands against the ground until it hurt.

  Everything was okay. He was in the tent, and his breathing slowly calmed down. He needed to get out of this place.

  “Oscar?”

  “I’m here.”

  “Did I sleep for very long?”

  “Three hours. That’s less than you normally need. Feel free to—”

  “No, I feel rested. If I have to spend any more time in here, I’ll go insane.”

  5/24/2082, Triton

  “Watch out for the methane pools,” Nick said.

  They had just entered the dripstone area, but the front wheel had gotten into the two of the treacherous holes already. Now the rover stopped.

  “I’m sorry, but the radar isn’t helping me here,” Oscar said. “Your visual system is better at perceiving the subtle differences in contrast.”

  “Should I steer the rover?”

  “If you could get out and lead the way—”

  “Yeah, that’s even better,” said Nick without waiting for Oscar to complete the thought, climbing down from the rover. As he stretched, he didn’t feel his wounds. The pain medication was surprisingly effective.

  “Do you remember where the steel wall is?” asked Oscar.

  Nick surveyed his surroundings. The stalagmites looked the same in every direction. To the right, the terrain went downhill. “I always headed downwards.”

  He set out and the rover followed him.

  “Knock, knock,” Nick said, hitting the wall with the back of his fist. There was no answer from the wall. He tried again, then turned to the rover.

  “Oscar?”

  No answer. What was wrong with Oscar? Ever since they’d reached the steel barrier ten minutes ago, it was as if the robot’s voice had frozen. He wasn’t answering Nick, though the LEDs on his housing were lit up as usual. Maybe he just wanted to think without distractions.

  Nick walked towards the barrier until he reached the ice wall. He saw some scratches in the metal that must have been made by Vitali and Oleg. Where had they drilled? And why had they been so intent on making it past the barrier? But it was better not to judge them. After all, he and Oscar had the same goal, though for different reasons.

  Shouldn’t Pandora’s box remain closed? he wondered. It’s just mythology, Nick, he reassured himself.

  Oscar bent his arm and the hand deftly opened a door on the side of the rover.

  “What are you doing?” Nick asked.

  “I’m analyzing the barrier.” Oscar was talking again.

  Nick exhaled deeply. “The Russian already determined that it’s made of steel.”

  “That’s not precise enough. I need more data for my simulation. Otherwise I’ll never get any results.”

  “Is that why you were silent for so long?”

  “I was using all my computing power for the simulation.”

  So he’d guessed right. Oscar had want
ed to think in peace.

  The robot’s arm rose again. He was holding a black, oblong box that was about the size of a tall man’s shoe. It had a red eye at one end. Oscar directed it towards the barrier. At first, it didn’t detect anything. Then, in front of the wall, a small, bright cloud formed, and in it a red laser beam became visible. The cloud expanded, then grew thinner and disappeared. Oscar kept holding the box steadily. The laser beam was probably digging deeper into the wall, creating a hairpin-sized hole that Nick couldn’t see.

  “Everything going all right over there, Oscar?”

  “Yes. It’s awe-inspiring.”

  “I won’t bug you anymore.”

  “You won’t be any disruption unless you reach into the beam.”

  “Then tell me what’s so exciting.”

  “It’s the structure of the wall. The Russians who came before us only identified the elements that make up the wall: iron, carbon, tungsten, oxygen, and hydrogen. They didn’t mention the latter two because they probably thought that there were ice deposits responsible. Iron-tungsten alloys are popular in industry on Earth because they’re so hard, along with tungsten carbide, which is a combination of tungsten and carbon. That’s why they thought it was steel.”

  “But it’s something else?”

  “This is what the structural analysis indicates. The material is not as dense as steel, and it seems to consist of many layers. Most importantly, I’ve found many different compounds based on hydrocarbons. Iron and tungsten are only embedded.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I’m not sure yet. I’d like to confirm with an experiment.”

  “What kind of experiment?”

  “We need liquid methane. And lots of it.”

  “The pools out there. Is that enough?”

  “Yes, but how will we get the methane here? Do we have something we could use to transport it?”

  “The tent is made of a material that remains flexible even at these low temperatures. I could make some kind of sack out of it.”