Chapter Seven: What You Can’t Understand Titan: Contact by D.X. Machina

“The Gods favor the strong.”

–Tacitus

Stanisław Lem, this is Hercules Base. Helm answers all stop, we are wheels down on Titan.”

“This is the Lem, roger that, Hercules Base. Per actual you are go for whatever recon is practicable.”

“Affirm Lem. See you soon, Yelena. Hercules Base out.”

“It’s funny,” Ted Martínez said. “This is not in any way how I imagined first touchdown on Titan would be.”

“No,” Tatenda said. “But congratulations, gentlemen; we are the first.”

“Actually, based on what they’ve said so far,” Viktor said, “I believe that honor belongs to Maj. Nejem.”

“So say we all,” Marechera said. “So say we all. What is the air temperature outside, Ted?”

“A beautiful -177 degrees, sir, perfect weather for freezing things.”

“Including us. We’ll need the thermal gear in the atmosphere – can’t rely on vacuum to avoid heat transfer.”

“Aye, sir. Viktor, would you get the thermal gear around?”

“Are we going on an EVA?”

“Probably,” shrugged Ted. “Hope you brought your snow shoes.”

* * *

Innanae wasn’t sure why she’d been summoned to the boss’s office; all she knew was that Rep. Armac was fuming when she entered.

“Tobin Gernhatt? Are you fucking kidding me?” Loona was shouting into her pad.

“That’s what he said.”

“That gorram sombitch – I thought we’d seen the last of him when Eyrn Bass kicked his butt on Empire Tonight.”

“I knew I recognized the name, and not just from the hearing! Oh, Eyrn made him look silly. Lovely that he found a new job with our military.”

“So do we know what’s going on at Titan Station?”

“Working on it, dear. And I need to get back. But I thought you should know where we stood.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it. Keep me posted.”

“I will. Oh, and Loona? When you see Nonah…tell her that she should be very proud of her daughter.”

Inna saw Rep. Armac’s face light up at that. “Pryvani, we’re all proud of Alesia. Pretty much constantly.”

“Well…be more proud. I’ll call back when I can.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got my own work to do. (You can sit down, Ms. Lektas!) Good bye, Senator.”

Inna settled into a seat, and looked down at Ammer, who was studiously reviewing his shoes.

“So,” Ammer said, grinning sheepishly. “Remember earlier when I dressed you down for freelancing and writing a white paper on human emancipation that we had no need for whatsoever?”

“Yes?” Inna’s heart was racing. Was the boss angrier than Ammer? Was she in trouble?

“And…okay…uh…then I used some pejorative language and said flatly you needed to show more tactical sense, and…you know, basically acted really sure of myself?”

Okay, that was sounding less like trouble. “Hmm. Vaguely.”

“Okay, so…um…here’s the thing: there’s this thing some humans believe in called karma, what goes around comes around, and…uh…there’s this…um…other thing…called irony. And when the karma, and the irony, and…well, and then, you know, it isn’t really irony, it’s more of a coincidence, but….”

“I’m sorry, chief, but…what?”

“All right, let’s try this: I was wrong, Inna.”

Inna laughed in spite of herself, probably for slightly longer than she should have. “Wow! Okay, there are many things I expected you to say, Ammer, but you saying you were wrong was not one of them. Ever. Representative, did you ever think you’d see the day?”

“No, Ms. Lektas, and I’d make a note of it; I don’t think you’ll hear it again for a long time.”

“So…what happened to change your mind? And again – and I only say this because the boss knows about us and keeps teasing us that we’re a cute couple when nobody’s around – this still doesn’t get you out of trouble.”

Loona broke out in a giggling fit at that, and Ammer tried and failed to keep a straight face. “I’ve told you, boss, I’m not here to be anyone’s friend, including yours. No gossiping.”

“Sure Ammer,” Loona said, wiping her eyes. “Sure.”

“So, chief? What’s going on?”

“You know how I’ve always told you that timing is everything in politics,” Ammer said.

“Many times. At the most inopportune times. Like that one time….”

“Gak. We don’t need to get into that.”

“Sorry,” Inna grinned. “So timing is everything?”

“Yup. And Inna, the times, they are a-changin’.”

* * *

“We have lost visual on the target, sir.”

“Tracking?”

“Negative, Centurium. It pulled up after the warning shot, then went low, below sensor range.”

“Was it hit?” Kir Oden leapt from his seat. He did not want to have to explain that one.

“Negative, we just fired one burst, and all rounds went well in front of it. They definitely reacted, though.”

Kir pondered as he looked at the data. There were hills to the west; the rest of the terrain was relatively flat, save for a methane lake near Hangar Two. “We would have seen if they went back into orbit. They’re doing recon.”

“Recon, sir?”

“Reconnaissance, Crewmate Feist, you’ve heard of it?”

“Yes, sir, but…I mean, humans doing….”

“Folks,” Kir said, “I want to stop hearing how humans can’t do things. They flew a spaceship here. They may not be Titans, but they’re not complete imbeciles. Obviously, they’re going to do recon. Crewmate Feist would do recon in the same situation, and he’s not that bright – if Crewmate Feist could think of it, a human is probably able to as well. Forran, I want you to take a team, sweep westward. See what you can find. If they’re doing recon, they’ll try to hide in the hills, they’re not going to land on the plains.”

“Yes, sir,” said a young woman, bouncing up. “Ansol, Vait, meet me at West Airlock 47,” she said into her comlink.

* * *

“So you’re on a shuttle to Myxar to look at one of my holdings there, and it gets disabled. What would allow you to land safely at Titan Station and require a couple days’ worth of repairs, and not look staged?”

“Disable the quantum foam regulator,” Niall and Naskia said in near-unison.

“Have you tried this?” Rixie asked.

“No, but causes a predictable and straightforward reaction,” Niall said. “It affects the scalar field governing the warp shell and causes degradation in the gravitic injectors.”

“And that degradation can be caused by dozens of things – it’s not just the QFR,” Naskia added.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Alex said.

“The point is, it’s simple to fake, and shouldn’t arouse suspicion. Sorcha, how far would we have to fly with a disabled QFR to cause an asynchronous 8 milicochrane variability in the field?”

“Hm? Oh, um…4.3 light years – Titan light years. Plus or minus a Petaunit.”

“Spot on. Disable it outside that range and we’ll need to put down for repairs – and yet we’ll still be able to fly with it if we absolutely have to.”

“Excellent,” said Pryvani. “Now, one last time, I want to make sure everyone’s clear on the objective here – we’re not trying to be heroes. We just want to figure out what has happened and is happening. This is an intelligence mission, not a search-and-destroy mission, Rixie Tam.”

“Why mention my name?” Rixie said.

“No reason,” Pryvani said. “Good luck everyone. I wish I could go with you.”

“We do too,” Brinn said. She and Nick had come in halfway through the planning session.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t?” Nick asked, pacing. “I mean, we could always….”

“The health of Avalonians is not a minor issue, Dr. Archer, Dr. Pria,” Lessy said.

“Dang right,” Darren added. “I don’t wanna have to explain to the President why her annual health conference lost her two most senior doctors for the week. But…thanks,” he added.

Lessy nodded. “And Sen. Tarsuss, your place is in the capital,” she said. “Even in the best-case scenario, change is going to have to happen there. Besides, we have Lysis and Zhan coming with; add in Rixie and Darren and I think we’re safer than anywhere else in the universe.”

“I know Alesia, but I just want to protect you. And I’m not just talking about the humans in this room. All of you,” Pryvani said, eyes watering just a bit. “I don’t know as I say it that often, but I’m gorram proud of all of you. It’s an honor to know you, and an honor to call you friends. Come home safe. I don’t think I could stand if I lost any of you.”

“The honor is ours,” said Alex.

“That it is,” said Niall. “And damn right we’ll come home safe; I’m not letting some first-year professor teach my students next semester.”

“All right, get packed,” Pryvani said with a laugh. “You all leave in three hours.”

The group broke up, and began to head to their rooms. Naskia had picked up Niall so they could go repack the clothes they had just unpacked, when she noticed that Sorcha had stormed off in haste, leaving Alesia stranded on the table.

“That little brat,” she spat. “Niall, your daughter, sometimes….”

“Oh, she’s my daughter now? Alesia, I’m sorry, can we help you to your flat?”

Alesia was staring after Sorcha disconsolately. “Would’ve been nice of Sorch to grab me, as we share one, but…yeah. No, Doctors Freeman, if you can give me a lift down, I’d appreciate it, but I can walk. It might give her time to cool off.”

“And why does she need to cool off?” Naskia said, offering a hand to her daughter’s friend.

“Because she’s your daughter, petal,” Niall said, with a smile.

“Sweetie…that’s true, unfortunately. Here you go, Alesia.”

“Thanks, but…I had a feeling this was coming.”

“Yes, it was, but don’t let her guilt you. You had every right to stand up for yourself, I’m glad you did,” Naskia said, picking her up with the same hand she grabbed her husband.

“It’s….”

“I understand. And you were right, but I know she won’t see it that way. Do you want me to talk to her?” Niall asked. “She can’t get too angry with me, her mother wouldn’t stand for it.”

“No, Doctor Freeman. Thanks, though. I need to talk to her.”

“Well, if she’s gonna be sulky, you send her to us, we’ll straighten her out,” Naskia said.

“Actually, we’ll let her sulk at us, but we’re used to it,” Niall said.

“It’s part of the job,” Naskia said.

“Alesia,” Niall added, as Naskia bent to place her on the floor. “In all seriousness…if you want someone with you…Sorcha can be a little….”

“Sorcha can be a lot,” Alesia said with a grin, “but don’t worry. The fight we had over Arno Balaka makes this look like nothing.”

As Naskia and Niall took their leave, Niall asked, “Arno Balaka?”

“Veeball player. Sorcha was 14. Both of them had a crush on him. Both of them thought the other sabotaged the other’s chances. Then it turned out he liked neither humans nor girls with a picounit of brains, which disqualified them both twice over, and they were both were quite relieved that Glemma Goln ended up with him.”

“Ah. Girl stuff.”

“Yes sweetie, girl stuff.”

* * *

“How far to the wall?” Tatenda asked.

“About two clicks,” Ted replied. “At current pace we can get there in 20 minutes, back to the ship in an hour. Oh my God, it’s cold.”

“You’ve never been to Norway,” Viktor said, smiling. “My mother is from Tromsø. She took us up one January to look at the Northern Lights. Beautiful. I just regained feeling in my legs last year.”

“Norway’s balmy compared to here.”

“Ah, but we’ve got heated suits. We’ll make it.”

“It’s not that bad,” Tatenda said. “We’re still rated for three more hours at this temperature.”

“You guys didn’t grow up in Santa Fe,” Ted groused. “This is inhuman.”

“Basically, yes,” said Viktor. “I can’t quite get used to swimming through air.”

“I’m just glad these masks are airtight. I don’t even want to know what the suits are gonna smell like when we get back.”

“All right, enough complaining,” Tatenda said, soldiering forward. “We can’t get Hala out by griping about the weather.”

* * *

“So will you need anything else?”

“I don’t think so,” Zhan said, making some notes on his pad. “It’s recon and intel-gathering. We don’t need weapons – at least, not in any scenario that isn’t a complete disaster already, and if we get there, having weapons probably makes things worse. I’d say more people, but any bigger group and we’re sure to draw attention.”

Pryvani sat cross-legged on the floor, watching Zhan intently; she could see his mind whirling as he worked through the plan. He wasn’t concerned or panicked, nor was he pumped up on the prospect of battle. He was simply going through his checklist, calmly and methodically, getting everything in order.

She loved that about him. She would never get tired of that. Not so long as they both may live.

“I’m surprised you’re willing to send me,” he said with a chuckle. “There are younger officers around.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be my first choice. But…Alesia made some very good points earlier,” Pryvani said. “They need you. They need your experience. And you…you need to go. I can’t keep you from this. Much as I’d like to.”

Zhan turned to her, and smiled. “Goddess, you absolutely could keep me from this. You’d just have to ask. Thank you, my love, for not asking.”

Pryvani shifted; the mountainous woman now lay on her stomach, closer to Zhan. She softly kissed his forehead, and clucked sadly. “Just come back safe. If I let you go do this and you don’t come back alive I will hunt you down and kill you.”

Zhan leaned up and returned her kiss, and said, finally, “Pryvani, I’ll come back safe. I have too much to come back to.”

There was a soft clearing of a throat, and Pryvani chuckled. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Way too long.”

“Are you sure you’ll be….”

“Oh, for Emperor’s sake, Pryvani, I’m 26! Do you honestly think I can’t keep a handle on things? Especially with Odie on break, so he can help wrangle the rest?”

Pryvani smiled, and got up off the floor, leaving Zhan to his work. “No, Thyllia, I’m sure everyone will be fine. It’s just….”

“I know, I know, you worry,” the young woman teased, grinning at her older sister. “They’ll be fine. Look, you have enough on your plate. Both of you do. I’ve been babysitting since Rixie and Alex let me watch Ryan, and he was three times the trouble my nieces and nephews are.”

Pryvani looked over her sister. It was funny – she favored Syon far more than Pryvani did, at least in appearance. But the similarity ended any time she said a word. Thyllia had all the love and compassion their mother lacked, with a mind to rival anyone’s. There were people Pryvani trusted as much as Thyllia; there was nobody she trusted more.

“If you need anything, you call me. I’d say to call Zhan….”

“It would make it tough to conduct an undercover operation,” Zhan called. “Tee has it under control, Goddess Mine. Always does.”

Pryvani pulled Thyllia into a hug. “Well, that may be. But she’s still my baby sister.”

“And thank goodness for that,” Thyllia said, returning the embrace. “Now, you guys go say goodbye to the kids, and I’ll get dinner around for them. And both of you come back safe – because I do not intend to keep watching them forever.”

* * *

“All right,” Decanus 1st Class Graza Foran said, as the small detachment fixed their helmets. “Princeps Ansol, Miles Vait, you understand the mission?”

“Yes ma’am!” the two junior officers said, in unison.

“Vait, your bearing is?”

“One kilounit out, one kilounit back, along a negative-45 angle from egress, ma’am.”

“Good. Ansol?”

“Mirror, ma’am. 45 degree angle, 1 kilo out and back.”

“Correct. I’ll be heading straight down the middle. If you see anything, the code is ‘Comet Comet Comet.’ Remember, lean heavily on the therms; anything that hasn’t been dead for a week is going to show up bright yellow. Keep eyes sharp, and remember, they’re human, so for the Emperor’s sake, watch your step. Princeps, suit seal check?”

“Check, Decanus.”

“Miles, suit seal check?”

“Check, Decanus.”

“I have suit seal check. Princeps, seal the airlock.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

If you’ve been to space, you’re probably familiar with airlocks; if you just opened the door in space, you’d rapidly depressurize the entire cabin, killing anyone inside within minutes. As this can put a serious damper on one’s trip, ship designers since time immemorial have included airlocks, small rooms where astronauts wait between entry and exit.

In space, the airlocks empty most air before you exit, so decompression doesn’t suck you out; they then fill up with air on the way in, to make entering the room less destructive.

On Titan, however, there is a problem. You see, the air pressure on Titan is actually higher than any planet you’re likely to come from — half again Earth’s, almost twice that on Archavia.

The problem on Titan is not that air from the base might get sucked out – it’s that Titan’s air might get sucked in. Especially as Titan’s air, aside from being incredibly toxic, is 1.4 percent methane, which is, to use a scientific term, really smelly.

This is only mentioned because it forced Titans to take strong measures to prevent incursion of Titan’s atmosphere, and that is only mentioned because as the airlock sealed from the inside, an exploratory team had reached the wall, just fifty meters from its outside exit.

“The wall goes up – my God, two hundred meters? Three hundred?”

“Range gives us half a click,” said Martínez. “At least near as it can measure through the haze.”

“What’s that?” Viktor said, as a slow rumbling started.

“Titan could be geologically active,” Tatenda said. “Quake?”

“No,” Ted said, looking behind him. “Door. Up against the wall, flat, don’t move.”

The three reacted quickly, plastering themselves against the frigid façade of the base.

“Must be bringing out a vehicle. Looking for us?” Ted muttered.

“Maybe. Stay sharp, this may be a way in.”

The doors parted, and the wind began to blow toward them.

And then they saw something they were not expecting.

Titan Station 7All three men had been trained; all three men had thought about what they would do if they came across extraterrestrial life on Enceladus or Titan. All three men observed the creatures, and part of all three men’s minds noted the obvious for the records they half-expected to fill out.

Appear to be vertebrates. Quadrupeds. No tails. Bipedal locomotion, fully upright posture. Appear humanoid at first glance, wearing survival gear so difficult to note more detailed features. Appear to have hands…looks like five fingers? Clearly intelligent and technologically advanced. Gait appears well-suited for Titan gravity, move in a manner not dissimilar to humans. Appear to have a hierarchical command structure; there appear to be insignia denoting rank.

Creatures are approximately 35 to 40 meters tall.

That last one proved to be a bit of a sticking point on their mental checklists, and if they had been in a less driven frame of mind, it could have been a fatal one. But as the creatures cleared the airlock, Tatenda Marechera began moving as quickly as he could without drawing attention to himself. Ted and Viktor followed him because…well, they were frankly too deep in shock not to.

They reached the airlock just as it began to seal.

Lem, this is Hercules Away Team, do you read? Lem, do you copy? Signal’s weak. Gool, send message, text, ‘Have ingress, comms degrade, Tatenda,’ to Lem.” Tatenda said, as the doors neared fully closed.

“It get out?”

“Text did, but not the voice message. Not surprising. No idea what’s in the doors. And probably a lot of signal interference.”

“Maybe we can reestablish when we get inside,” Ted said. Then, taking a deep breath, he added, “Jesus Christ, Tatenda. Holy fuck.”

“I know. I wonder what they look like outside their suits.”

“Can’t be too different from us,” Viktor said. “Not sure whether that’s more reassuring or terrifying. Keep your seals on, atmosphere’s mostly Titan. Don’t unseal until we get inside.”

“Keep your seals on period. We’ve got three hours of O2, don’t unseal until 90 minutes,” Tatenda added.

“Yes, sir,” Ted said.

“Well, we know where the anomalous O2 readings came from,” Viktor added, laughing nervously.

“What are the odds we’d get here just as they left?” Ted asked.

“Not good,” Tatenda said. “We must have the luck of the Irish.”

“I’m American-Mexican, Viktor’s German-Norwegian, and you’re from Zimbabwe.”

“Well, the luck of Zimbabweans then. Fate must be smiling on us,” Tatenda said.

Then the fans kicked in.

The fans venting the Titanian atmosphere back outside were not so bad. It was a standard depressurization, the men had been through it dozens of times. Frankly, they were expecting it.

But once the room was a vacuum, the Titans repressurized it back up to Titan atmospheric pressure – this time with a pretty standard Nitrogen-Oxygen mix. They then vented this back down to Archavian pressure, sucking the excess air out of the airlock, and opening the door for the next group departing. The excess air was too precious to waste; it was distributed to different parts of the station via vacuum air vents in the floor, which opened at the last depressurization. The landing party dropped right into them, and soon, they were being blown rapidly through the station — Ted Martínez in one direction, and Viktor and Tatenda equally rapidly in another.

62 comments

  1. zebra says:

    Too much switching between first and last names when we’re with the group of chapters in the politics area I never have any idea who’s talking and I don’t know who the boss character is I’m assuming pryvani and the biographies page helps none because half the characters are missing

  2. Angel Agent says:

    some of the science shows I watched, say when we do step foot on titan all we will need is clothes that we wear when at the polls and a air mask. For humans anyway titan has good presser so they need no suit and there is little wind and with the presser it would feel the same if at the polls. Also because of the low gravity some also say we can use winged suits to get off the ground and glide through the air not fly but glide due to us being stronger in low gravity, something that titans can’t do.

  3. Nitestarr says:

    Btw why the fudge is Bass is listening to this tool? (Genhatt).. I would imagine a 5 min conversation is all it would take for him to take a swipe at him. His wife schooled him in a debate on empire tv…Unless hmnm

    Those astronauts are in bigger danger than they think. Not just from giant bugs but from the Titans. They might be held as hostile combatants for violating the the sphere…

    Overall its a very good story, however does logic takes a holiday (Its probably in Florida now watching spring training)…

    • Locutus of Boar says:

      The away team members are almost certainly going to be found by Titan civies or low level officers not by an organized search because they haven’t even found the Sally Rode yet and will still be searching outside for the humans after they find it empty.

      Aerti isn’t the one listening to Gernhatt. It’s his boss Solis, the equivalent of the Titan CNO. Given his statements thus far Solis doesn’t buy Gernhatt’s human paranoia but is likely using the perceived threat to counter the possibility of the politicos deciding on a pull out from Titan station that would leave a hole in the Titan’s defensive perimeter against the Insectoids. Or as often happens the military high ups might just be looking to use any threat opportunity to keep the funding flowing.

    • Ponczek says:

      Bass does not really have to know, who is advisor of his boss, however, i’m pretty sure, that if Aerti and Eyrn don’t know yet, they will soon find out.

    • faeriehunter says:

      The Sally Ride‘s crew should already know that they are in great danger from the unknowns. The one message the unknowns sent them clearly stated that they may not recover their crewmate, that they are to return immediately to inside Jupiter’s orbit, and that if they attempt to approach Titan Station their vessels may be boarded, confiscated or destroyed.

          • Soatari says:

            HOS will likely stay as silent as possible during this whole affair. Humans making first contact with Titan Station, with fairly advanced ships (far more advanced than any Titan would likely believe), and the military and political disaster this is turning into, makes it a very bad idea to publicly draw attention to themselves.

            TETH on the other hand will pick this up and run with it, shouting as loud as they can to be heard like the attention seeking organization they are.

    • Soatari says:

      It happened in the twenty years between Exile and this story. I kind of hope it shows up as one of those vignettes at some point. It’d be nice to see Eyrn laying the verbal smack down on that prick.

  4. Nitestarr says:

    Sound the trumpets!! Ring the bells! Its the Avalonian (teenage, mutant?) Space Trooper Action Team to the rescue! (ASTAT) And its an all-star cast too whooo baby! Def would make a great movie, wait…uh….

    The appearance of Rixie would cause some heads to turn at arrival. She is sort of known. Thats unless shes manage to maintain her secret identity.

    Uhh if Sorcha is coming along that might pose a problem. She is not the most diplomatic of people. Just one derogatory remark about human and she might pop em’ (be fun to watch) but really bad for the action team..

    Btw how come Los Titans look like they are in pain when walking? Just noticing…

    • Soatari says:

      She’s known to the commander of the base. Other than that most of them probably have no idea who she is since it has been 20 years since she retired.

  5. Soatari says:

    I get the feeling that Zhan is going to encounter one or more lost astronauts during his recon of Titan Station.

  6. Kusanagi says:

    Now that’s a cliffhanger, as if the mission wasn’t difficult enough already. The thing I love about this story so far is though it is a positively massive cast everyone has there part to play.

  7. faeriehunter says:

    Two more things I thought of:

    If I had been one of the humans at the airlock I think I might initially have thought that it was humongous mecha exiting the airlock. And after that I’d have had trouble deciding which was more (un)likely, ridiculously humanoid mecha or 40 meter giants.

    And now that the humans are in the ventilation system, they’d be in real danger if they encountered any scilith or the like. Not only are they unarmed, they’d have no way to tell if they’re dealing with vermin or with a spooked janitor.

      • faeriehunter says:

        With our level of technology, sure. But that need not be the case for advanced alien tech. Especially if it was controlled by one of the extraterrestrials through a neural interface.

        • Locutus of Boar says:

          Advanced mechs would be much more graceful than suited bipeds in a hostile environment. Anyway, the air hose at the back of the helmet is a dead giveaway.

          • faeriehunter says:

            That could have also been a fuel or power cable. Actually I doubt that it is an air hose at all, even though I don’t know what else it could be. That’s because environment suits in real life don’t have air hoses like that. There is too much chance of them snagging on something, potentially getting ripped off/open. They’d also be an obvious weak point for any potential enemy.

        • Soatari says:

          Even not taking that picture into account, I doubt every titan on that recon team was the same height, proportions, or gender.

          Why give giant robots different heights, proportions, and boobs?

          • faeriehunter says:

            Environment suits can make height and proportion differences difficult to notice. I’d have a hard time noticing any difference between the titan on the left and the one on the right if they were wearing the same suit design. Still, you’re right. They look too different to make mecha likely.

          • Soatari says:

            The Continuing Adventures showed that EV and combat suits (the military ones at least) are custom made for each Titan, so I think height and proportion would be easy to tell. Or at least proportion. Height might be difficult from ground level like that.

          • faeriehunter says:

            They may be custom made, but they’re still environment suits. The narration specifically mentions “wearing survival gear, so difficult to note more detailed features”.

          • Soatari says:

            “More detailed features” meaning skin color, facial features, etc. Height and proportion are general features.

    • Locutus of Boar says:

      Given that Luke survived for months on the station with no prep and knowing all the illicit human trafficking through Titan the away team may encounter a few feral humans too.

      • faeriehunter says:

        Possibly, but I really doubt it. All indications are that smugglers only very rarely make it through the Restriction Zone (and back) undetected. And those that do probably know better than to go hang around at a station with a significant military presence afterwards, instead of getting out of dodge and trading the humans somewhere safer. Sticking around at Titan Station is how the insectoids responsible for the 2013 abductions got caught.

  8. sketch says:

    Congrats Crewman Fiest, you are the new minimum universal standard for intelligent life.

    I guess Sorcha took the exception of her human credentials in Alesia’s speech too personally?

    And they’re in! And… they’re separated. That luck of Zimbabweans, it don’t mess around.

    • Soatari says:

      Ah, I was wondering what she was upset about. That makes perfect sense. In her previous story appearances, she tended to identify herself more as Human than Titan. Proudly, too.

      • faeriehunter says:

        I suppose that Sorcha could be upset about Alesia not acknowledging that Sorcha is as much human as she is titan, but if so then Sorcha misunderstood Alesia. What Alesia was getting at is that even though Sorcha is in truth both human and titan, most of the Empire sees her as titan. Because of that she is not being personally oppressed.

          • Locutus of Boar says:

            Sorcha is justly upset because it was a defacto statement she had no “people” to whom she belongs. That’s a burden that all the hybrids will have to bear for a long, long time.

        • NightEye says:

          Well, she is titan sized so she is not oppressed, there’s no way around that. In the eyes of Titans, she’s a Titan, period.

          And… she kind of is. More titan than human I mean. All Hybrids are. They got half their DNA from their Titan parent and the other half from the human parent, but that human had to go through genetic therapy, replacing parts of their DNA with titan DNA. So if the human parent is 90% human – 10% Titan, the hybrid child will be 55% Titan, 45% human.

          All hybrids are “more” titan than they are human, genetically at least.

          • faeriehunter says:

            It’s not so simple. We cannot just assume that every gene from the father has a counterpart from the mother, and vice versa. For example, it’s very likely that titans have much the same X chromosome – Y chromosome DNA that humans do. If so then a first generation hybrid with a human mother can have more human genes than titan ones.

            And there is also the fact that some genes from one parent will be overruled by the counterpart from the other. So having 55% titan DNA and 45% human DNA is not the same as being 55% titan and 45% human.

            Finally, titan DNA and human DNA is more than 97 percent identical. Saying someone is 55% titan and 45% human is like saying that they’re 55% yellow and 45% cubes when almost 99% of them is yellow cubes; it’s technically true but very misleading.

          • Locutus of Boar says:

            The rule is the Titan Empire universe seems to be that Titan/Human overall group size is matroclinous inheritance via the mother but individuals do inherit the trait to be tall or short within the group based on either parent. This is why Sorcha is essentially a tall (via Niall) Titan (via Naskia). The longevity factors must be inherited via nuclear DNA and more subject to averaging which is why Sorcha’s aging is a blend of Naskia’s Titan longevity with Niall’s life-extended human longevity.

    • faeriehunter says:

      More likely Sorcha is upset that Alesia insists upon putting herself in danger.

      I’m not sure if Feist is actually dumb or if Kir is just insulting him because he’s in a bad mood. Reconnaissance is an action associated with sapient life; it’s not the simple exploring that animals do. Since the general opinion in the Empire is that humans are animals, although somewhat smarter than normal, it’s not unreasonable for Feist to be disbelieving when his boss asserts that the humans are capable of reconnaissance.

      • Soatari says:

        Animals also don’t build spaceships. Spaceships equipped with artificial gravity and gravitic inversion technology.

        Seems Titans aren’t just slow when it comes to making decisions.

        • faeriehunter says:

          Of course titans are slow to adjust to information contrary to their expectations. If they weren’t then they might have realized on their own how intelligent humans are somewhere in the millennia that passed between when humans were first discovered and the present day.

          Kir is actually not much better than Feist in this regard. At no point is he questioning the humans’ sentience classification even though he’s aware that they have almost-warp levels of technology. And his remark about Ulala giving Hala away as a present shows that the fact that wild animals behave very differently from domesticated ones didn’t occur to him.

  9. faeriehunter says:

    Luck of the Irish eh? Looks more like a leprechaun playing tricks, on both the humans and the titans.

    I’m half surprised that there was no mention of any of the three Sally Ride men noticing that one of the extraterrestrials looked like it had a bosom. Then again, the only reason I’m saying that is because “nice boobs!” was one of my first thoughts upon seeing this chapter’s picture.

    Hm, so they left the Sally Ride empty. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I suppose that if the titans find the Sally Ride a.k.a Hercules Base and bring it in, it could potentially spare the crew the return walk.

    Two questions:
    – Apparently it was a one hour and twenty minute walk from the ship to the wall. Between that and the need to suit up, isn’t that a bit of a long time between the Sally Ride vanishing from Titan Station’s instruments and the station’s search party leaving the airlock?
    – After the titans exited the airlock and it closed and vacuumed, what was the purpose of filling the airlock with Titan (the moon) pressure amounts of Archavia-like air and then suddenly bringing it down to Archavian pressure? Wouldn’t it have been sufficient to only pump it up to Archavian pressure in the first place?

      • Locutus of Boar says:

        Nicely done with the airlocks on Titan. It does raise the question of how detectable levels of O2 were picked up by the Lem given the high ambient ought to prevent station atmosphere leaching to the environment. Also, any pressure leaks in any part of Titan Station might mean a significant risk of fire or explosion.

    • Soatari says:

      You know Titans, slow and methodical about everything. The event happened, then they logged it, then they were debriefed by the station commander, then they assembled the team, briefed them, suited up, and headed out. One hour and twenty minutes doesn’t seem too long when you break it down like that.

    • Nitestarr says:

      “I suppose that if the titans find the Sally Ride a.k.a Hercules Base and bring it in, it could potentially spare the crew the return walk.”

      Well uhhh thats assuming they will let them go..more likely they would become a zoological exhibit “Oh look at these cute humans in their cute space outfits…and see over here their cute toy spaceship and they flew all the way from earth..Isn’t that precious!”

    • synp says:

      Re: the search party. An hour and a half is very fast. For a military, there are two ways: either a contingency is covered by standing orders (in which case some officer of the watch can handle it) or else it’s not covered, and then the commanding officer (*not* the officer of the watch) has to wing it. The latter involves the officer of the watch going to the CO, briefing him, discussing it and coming up with a plan. That would take 15-30 minutes even when phones didn’t exist. But they have interstellar communications. so the CO might prefer to share the blame by consulting his superior. That would easily take another half hour at least. But I guess that didn’t happen, because that would be Aerti, and we haven’t heard of it.

      Then there’s the issue of who to send. Does the station have an emergency response team? That’s a team of soldiers ready for action, meaning that they’re awake, dressed, and can be called upon within a few minutes. A US base in Afghanistan would have one. A station in a relatively peaceful part of the galaxy that is not expecting any terrestrial attack? Not necessarily. If they don’t, they have to get some people. That can take many minutes.

      So, an hour and a half sounds very realistic to me.

      • faeriehunter says:

        Thanks for your explanation. What you say makes sense. Do you have experience with this sort of thing? Your explanation was very detailed.

        • synp says:

          I’ve been in the military. Nothing exciting, just IT, but as I made it to captain (air force captain, not navy), I did get to be officer of the watch once a month or so.

          And if anything unexpected happened, I would call the base commander at home. Biggest emergencies I handled myself were when one of the guards came up with a doctor’s note saying he couldn’t do guard duty and this corporal who wanted me to allow her boyfriend to visit her on base at night against regulations.

          Pretty lame, I know.

      • Nitestarr says:

        Actually it is not a peaceful part of the galaxy. It is contested space. Los buggies want a piece of the (human) pie. There also has been skirmishes between the empire and the bugs in Sol system ….

        Just wait until they encounter intelligent space fungus…..Thats when the you-know-what will hit the fan…

        • Ponczek says:

          As far as i remember, last major war actions near Earth, were about 700 Titan years earlier, its how Sperikos got destroyed… So except “casual” smuggling there wasn’t much happening, it shouldn’t be surprise that there aren’t any bigger military forces, except Titan Station.

          • NightEye says:

            Actually, in one of the stories, (Background ?) Gernhatt was in a debate with a Dunnermac politician and he said Earth had been the scene of multiple skirmishes along the centuries and many ships and Titan lives had been lost.

          • Locutus of Boar says:

            The Tol-Bot final in Exile sets out how the Titans intended top operate in Sol system. Titan Station was meant to be a forward operating base, equipped only to hold out with minimal support until the fleet could rally and arrive to help. The Titans probably would not want to have a major show of force only 8 TLY from Hive Prime to avoid provoking a pre-emptive strike.

  10. riczar says:

    Lots of Star Trek terms in your Titan stories. I caught the use of “millicochrane”. Good story so far. I look forward to more!

    • Soatari says:

      The Titan Empire seems to be Star Trek level of technology in a more industrialized society (money and power based instead of a socialist utopia).

      The borrowing of terminology from Star Trek doesn’t really bother me, either, because it gives me a basis of understanding. Better to use words I already understand than making new ones up, and then forgetting about them when they show up again later.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *