Chapter Four: Lead Me Home Titan: Contact by D.X. Machina

“Oh, nothing’s impossible. It’s just a question of when it gets too hard to imagine doing.” –Jeff Fecke, The Valkyrie’s Tale “ETA, Colonel?” “One hour, forty minutes. Twenty minutes since I told you we were two hours out, sir.” Tatenda Marechera paced, which took some doing in the cramped cockpit of the Sally Ride. “Can …

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Chapter Three: The Dark and Desolate Valley Titan: Contact by D.X. Machina

“Ill news is wing’d with fate, and flies apace.” –John Dryden, “Threnodia Augustalis” Aertimus Bass simply stared at the viewscreen. There was nothing else he could do. The report from Titan Station was not itself a disaster. Disasters were far less destructive. No, the report Centurium Oden gave was a gorram black hole of awful, …

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Chapter Two: Lost But Now Titan: Contact by D.X. Machina

“It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy….Let’s go exploring!” –Bill Watterson, “Calvin and Hobbes” “Ten unis that we find microbial life there, sir?” “I’m not betting with you, Ted,” Cmdr. Tatenda Marechera chuckled. “Even if I win, what will I spend it on?” “Hala? Viktor?” “No chance, Ted,” Maj. Hala Nejem said. “One, my dad …

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Chapter One: This Little Light Titan: Contact by D.X. Machina

“In the starry realms above/God will mete as we may measure.” –Friedrich Schiller, “An die Freude” Shang Xiao Xú Mùlán sat up, icy gel sliding off her body with a sickening thwuck, which was soon replaced by the even more sickening retching of Xú. “Easy, Ma’am,” the quiet Australian doctor said. “Just lie back. You’re …

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