“Besides, it’d be immoral,” said Pancho.
Wanamaker gave them a knowing look. “Morals and regulations won’t count for much if the people in this habitat know they can get rich.”
“The IAA’d send an enforcement team here,” Pancho said.
“And the people here would fight them off,” Wanamaker countered. “Wouldn’t take much.”
“You want to run for secretary of defense?” Pancho teased.
“I could,” Wanamaker said, entirely serious.
“Now wait a sec,” Holly interjected. “This is all guesswork. We don’t know for certain that the rings really have living critters in them.”
“That’s what Dr. Wunderly’s trying to find out, isn’t it?” Wanamaker asked.
“Maybe we oughtta help her,” Tavalera said. “Get the point nailed down, one way or the other.”
“Before the election.”
“That gives you a little less’n six months,” Pancho said.
Holly turned to Tavalera. “Raoul, would you fly the mission to the rings?”
He looked startled. “Me? I’m not an astronaut.”
“But you flew spacecraft when you were at the Jupiter station. I read that in your personnel file.”
“Yeah, a couple,” he replied warily. “But I’m not gonna fly Wunderly to the rings and pick her up again. That’s too risky for me.”
“But we need a pilot.”
“Get somebody else,” Tavalera said firmly.
Pancho said, “There must be lotsa qualified rocket jocks in this habitat.”
“Not as many as you’d think,” Holly replied. “I’ve scoured the personnel records.”
“Hell’s bells, I could fly it myself,” said Pancho. “If you can’t get anybody else.”
“Get somebody else,” Wanamaker said. “You’re too old to risk your neck out there.”
“Too old?” Pancho’s nostrils flared.
“Too out of practice,” Wanamaker quickly amended.
Pancho grumbled, “That’s better.”
“There’s something else,” Holly said, suddenly looking gloomy.
“What?”
“Zero pop,” she said.
“What’s that got to do with the ring creatures?” Pancho asked.
Holly explained, “If we want to allow the habitat’s population to expand, we’re going to need a source of funding to build new habitats to house the growing population.”
“Not for lotsa years,” Pancho said.
“Sooner or later,” Holly insisted. “And prob’ly sooner. Besides, it takes a lotta years to build one of these flying stovepipes. And a lot of funding.”
“Mining the rings could provide the money,” Wanamaker said.
Tavalera nodded knowingly. “Then we’d better help Dr. Wunderly bring in some samples from the rings.”
“And hope like hell she doesn’t find anything alive in them,” Pancho said.
Titan Alpha
The ethane rainstorm slowly moved across the land, raining fat drops of liquid that spattered onto the slushy ground and drummed against the armored hull of Titan Alpha. The sensors showed that despite the frigid temperature of the ground, the falling rain did not freeze but flowed across the ice, even eroding it slightly as it ran downslope along gullies and rills.
Alpha’s master program decided to follow the slightly sloping ground, gathering data as it moved slowly onward. Collectors in the roof took in samples of the drumming rain for analysis. The liquid was largely ethane, although a complex mix of other hydrocarbons were present, as well as 14 percent liquid water.
Liquid water was an important biomarker; the biology program was immediately activated to participate in the analysis. The master program, meanwhile, pondered a conundrum: How can water remain liquid at temperatures of nearly two hundred degrees below zero? It took all of fifty-three billion nanoseconds before the master program arrived at a tentative conclusion. The water can remain liquid because it is mixed with the ethane and other hydrocarbons, which, together with the high atmospheric pressure, raises the freezing point of the fluid far enough to allow the mixture to remain liquid.
The biology program was instructed to search for organic molecules and/or viable organisms in the water-laced ethane samples. Organics were there in plentiful, easily identifiable amounts. Actual organisms, unicellular or even protocellular molecular organisms, were not found.
While this sampling and analysis was being performed, Alpha continued heading down the slight slope of the ground, following the rivulets of the ethane-water mixture across the muddy landscape. The rain was actually clearing much of the methane slush from the underlying ice, sluicing it downhill in gurgling streams. At last the rainstorm passed, and Alpha’s infrared sensors scanned the higher clouds that perpetually covered the sky. A faint glow low on the horizon showed where the Sun was. There was an even fainter patch of light higher above, several degrees wider. The navigation program concluded that it was the planet Saturn, Titan’s primary, the planet around which it revolved. Even under the best magnification, though, nothing of the planet’s main body or its rings could be resolved through the murky clouds.
The forward sensors reported a sizable stream ahead, a meandering brook of ethane-laced water flowing across the vehicle’s projected path. Width eleven meters. Depth unknown.
After four billion nanoseconds, the master program decided to follow this stream to see where it led. Consulting both the geology and biology programs, the master program concluded that the stream most likely fed into one of the seas. It found an imperative in the geology program: If there are ethane streams, determine how they mix with the known seas. A similar requirement existed in the biology program: If organic molecules are located on the surface, determine if they have developed into viable organisms.
Titan Alpha followed the flowing stream toward one of the ice-encrusted seas that dotted the moon’s frozen ground.
9 January 2096: Morning
Manuel Gaeta usually wore a sassy, almost insolent smile on his rugged face. After all, he had braved some of the most dangerous environments in the solar system and lived through them. He had made a living out of performing such feats.
But now, surrounded by Holly, Wunderly, Pancho and Tavalera, he looked wary, on guard. Kris Cardenas, sitting beside him, also seemed highly dubious.
They were out in the lakeside park on the outskirts of Athens, in the warm, never-failing sunshine of midmorning, sitting bunched together on a pair of benches that they’d dragged to face each other. Holly had chosen this spot in imitation of Eberly: no one could eavesdrop on them out here, she thought, and they could see anyone else approaching from hundreds of meters away.
“Let me get this straight,” Gaeta said slowly, trying to sort out what they were telling him. “You want me to let Nadia use the suit for a zip through the rings.”
“Not a ‘zip,’” Wunderly replied instantly. “I’m going to the rings to collect samples.”
Gaeta nodded cautiously. “Uh-huh. And you want me to train you.”
“And run the mission,” Holly said, “the way Fritz what’s-his-name did for you.”
“Von Helmholtz,” Gaeta murmured absently.
Cardenas interjected, “You want to fly the mission yourself, Nadia? Not ask Manny to do it?”
“No, I’ll go myself,” said Wunderly, with the complete seriousness of a woman who had made up her mind. “It’s my problem and I’ll do the job myself. But I need your help.”
“You’ll need more than me,” Gaeta pointed out. “More than one man controlling the mission. Fritz had six guys with him, remember.”