Fan Fiction ❯ Titan ❯ The end of Huygens ( Chapter 5 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The setting sun threw its final rays of light onto the tiny moon. The probe rattled across the beach of ground ice. The refracted light glittered across the frozen 'sand', lighting the shore with a multicoloured aura. The sea of methane lapped gently against the shimmering ice shards as the machine whirred through the photon storm. It stopped a few feet short of the ocean and looked silently out over the twilight liquid. The moment of calm serenity on this strange world seemed to last for an eternity, the silence broken only by the soft purr of the sea and the occasional click from the depths of the abstract computer that had come to witness it. On this world, Earth was replicated. Clouds and oceans and land and a sky were all there, but gave the impression of being twisted through 90 degrees. The ground was blue and the sky was green and the clouds covered everything and the sea was flammable. The place projected a sense of home whilst being alien in the same instant. Maybe one day humans would walk this surface as their own and bring home here, making the rainbow landscape a familiar and comforting place for the species to continue. Maybe one day humans that live here would see their origins as strange and alien with their green ground and blue sky and sparse clouds and wet sea that doesn't burn. On this world time didn't pass. Nothing changed, nothing moved and nothing grew. A moment of beauty could be captured for hours, watched again and again by the robotic eyes of the probe. The sun glimmered on the distant horizon, the dying light illuminating the greenish sea as it dropped slowly from the edge of the world. The mechanical sensors stared out at the lifeless world, taking in beauty that had never been witnessed before. Something inside the probe whirred in an odd way, and as the sun disappeared and the world was plunged into night time, the final sparks of life inside it went out and Huygens died. It stood silently on the surface of that world, staring out at the endless oceans that softly stroked the ice. Never more would it gaze upon the face of Titan.
Elizabeth grabbed Arthur's hand out of anticipation at what the council would announce to them. They were the original Ceres team, there was no way that this could not be the job they had been waiting for. His hand was cold and clammy and she realised that he must be just as excited at what was about to be said as she was. She looked across to Dan who didn't seem bothered. Typical, she thought sourly. If you can't program it Daniel didn't care. The most important event in human history could be happening right now and he was staring at the ceiling and muttering under his breath. It made her blood boil. Liz didn't know why Dan bothered her so much, maybe it was just his attitude. She liked a joke as much as anyone else, but Daniel just seemed incapable of taking anything seriously. She held the opinion that it was only funny if it wasn't the norm and you had something boring to compare the jokes to. And he had this annoying way of always saving the most frustrating pranks until the most inconvenient time, like the discovery of alien life. They were sitting infront of the Martian council waiting to be told that they were finally going to achieve their goal and Dan had decided to douse them with the emergency sprinklers. She would have put her hands round his throat and wrung his neck if she had thought about doing so through the haze of adrenaline fueled anticipation of what was to come. An elderly woman stood up and the other councilors were quickly silenced.
"Can you please confirm that you are Daniel Port, Elizabeth Kane and Arthur Croft." she said in a loud and steady voice.
The three scientists stood and spoke in turn.
"I am Daniel Port."
"I am Elizabeth Kane."
"I am Arthur Croft."
Elizabeth tried to steady her nerves and gripped Arthur's hand tighter. She was almost shivering with excitement and she hoped desperately that she could pass it off as the chill from her still damp clothing.
"Good. As you already know, we councilors hold Geneta in the highest respect and gratefully accept there assistance in providing Mars with power and wealth for it's inhabitants. They have agreed to undergo a project for us and have nominated you three, aswell as Councilor Bradford, to the task of leading it. Should you agree to it, you would be bringing our humble planet a great fortune."
Elizabeth's heart was almost in her mouth whilst she mentally begged the councilor to say the words. The desperation was getting to her, she couldn't take the suspense much longer. In her mind she was screaming at the woman to speak.
"The project in question..." the woman proceeded "... is to take place on a natural satellite belonging to the gas giant, Saturn. The satellite in question, Titan."
Elizabeth almost shouted out in rage. Titan! They were sending her to Titan! There was no life on that lump of rock, she had seen the recording from some old probe Earth had launched back in the last century and it had become fairly obvious that nothing was alive on that frozen piece of dirt. Why could they possibly wish to send a genetic botanist to that ball of frigid water? Nothing would grow there, there was no way it could break through the solid surface of ice. Honestly, what were they thinking?
"We have studied this world before on the Cassini/Huygens mission that took place in the 20th century and despite the tremendous cold and desolate landscape, one rather valuable material can be found there in extreme abundance. As you may well know, the moon is mainly covered with oceans of liquified methane, a highly priced fuel. Mars, with the aid of Geneta of course, plans to send out a temporary colony to harvest this wonderful substance and transport it back to the planet for sale to Earth. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, Earth's population has resorted to its favourite pastime of becoming a lot larger and we calculate that in a few decades the population will hit an energy crisis. Even Mercury won't be able to provide them with enough solar energy to power their homes and, frankly, we want to settle their problems for a hefty price."
Liz felt Arthur sag with sadness at the misguided notion of their work bearing fruit. Her anger had burned away now and gave way to curiosity as to why the three of them were being sent to Titan.
"Your jobs will be to run an efficient colony. Doctor Croft, I believe you own a farm now don't you? Yes, we want you to take charge of organising animal farming and acting as head of medical services. Doctor Kane we require you for fruit and vegetable farming and assisting your fellow biologist with medical matters. And Mister Port, we would like you to be chief engineer and, with your previous military background, we have decided to grant you the position of police chief and head of security aswell. Councilor Bradford will not be traveling to the planet itself but will remain here and take the job of acting magistrate. His age does not allow for hibernation so he will be unable to accompany Should you choose to accept this proposal the company will brief you on your duties and other job agreements. The colonial ship leaves on the 9th of April. We hope you will be on it. Good day."
She sat down and the councilors began talking again. A security robot padded towards the trio and motioned with its gun towards the door. Elizabeth stormed angrily from the room, leaving the others in their varying moods. Arthur had really thought that they were being sent on the Ceres mission for a while. If it went on like this they would never be able to discover life on another world. He really thought that this had been his chance, for a moment his work had paid off. He glanced over at his colleague who had produced a palm-pilot and was busy causing something, somewhere to malfunction. He just didn't care as long as something programable was nearby. He strolled glumly through the door, tailed by the destructive hacker who was giggling quietly and making a robot by the door dance.
"Dan?" he said gloomily.
"Uhuh?" Dan replied in that preoccupied mumble of his.
"Are you going to Titan?"
"Uhuh."
Arthur snapped.
"DAN!" he shouted.
Daniel looked up from the hand held computer with a worried expression.
"Yes?"
"Why don't you ever take an interest in anything serious?" Arthur demanded.
Dan stopped walking and looked thoughtful for a while. Arthur watched him impatiently. Finally he spoke.
"Well....... I reckon....... I reckon it's cuz I don't care about being in the history books and if I got meself all worked up about it then I would be angry and tense like you are." he said in an innocent voice.
Arthur glared at him angrily for a while and then subsided.
"You're right. I'm sorry I got so angry at you."
The hacker slapped him on the back and treated him to a smile.
"Don't you worry mate." he told him "It'll happen someday. You never know, maybe the company will be so impressed with your work they'll hibernate you until it happens."
Arthur looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"But....... they can't hibernate people that long, only for a decade or so."
"Yeah, but you're only 25. The life expectancy at the moment is about 100 years old and who knows what it will be when you reach that age. It's more than likely that they have a whole century before you even need long term hibernation storage. And even then they have another ten years whilst you're in the hibernation stage that they have now. Technology is growing faster and faster. You'll find alien bugs someday. Chin up."
Arthur smiled at him. That was logic for you. Dan could produce something sensible when he really needed to.
"Hey." said Dan cheerfully "Lets go an' have a drink."
The two men walked away, talking and laughing to the nearest bar, and fishing in their wallets for something with which to buy a celebratory drink. Even if it wasn't the Ceres mission, it was a job in which they would have important positions and a big paycheck.
Elizabeth marched back to her car, got in and slammed the door. She pulled away from the curb and blasted off along the roads of the First City. There was no way she was going to Titan, she didn't want to sit on a giant icicle freezing her butt off. It wasn't like she needed the cash or the hassle. And besides, she still had family on Mars, her father would want her here to look after him when he got older. The man was only 45 now but by the time she returned from Titan he would be 65. All she wanted to do was get home and go to bed. She drove along the streets of Mars, stewing her anger into a boiling froth which bubbled and raged inside her. They had let her think it was Ceres right up until that meeting in the council chamber, there was no reason why Benjamin couldn't have told her it was nothing to get her hopes up about. That old coot always had to have his fun. It was all just some big game to him. She turned away from the city and smashed her hand down onto the horn as a small, dome-like car narrowly missed her. No-one could even drive properly anymore on this entire damn planet. After a while, Elizabeth was roaring along the country lanes. Her rage began to simmer into a warm, persistent itch of annoyance as she slowed her car to a lawful speed and sat silently focused for several, long minutes. As she steered gently through the bright afternoon light a thought came to her. Why? Why get worked up over nothing? In the end it wouldn't affect her much except that Daniel would have migrated out of her life and way out to some frozen moon on the other side of the solar system. A smile edged her lips as she thought about it. No more bad jokes, no getting shut in doors and no more getting soaked on a brilliantly sunny day. Maybe that was reason enough to celebrate. She turned down a side lane toward the Canyon Reservoir and pulled a long thin box from under the passenger seat of her smartcar. Maybe today wasn't so bad after all.
Specimen 409 stirred gently in the darkness of it's former prison. The corpses of it's ex-captors had been an interesting meal, the warm blood had heated it's shivering body, it's teeth had sliced joyfully through the bones of it's prey as it had eaten it's first ever meal. Now it was finished and the three creatures it had been hunting had disappeared. It had been looking forward to live food, the fluids being pumped through the dying corpse as it bit deep into the writhing flesh. But now they were gone and 409 was not happy. Not happy at all. The tiny animals had snuck away whilst it was dealing with a particularly chewy piece of armour plating which was now lying in a mangled heap on the distant floor. The animals couldn't have got out of the door because it had laid a toxic web on the ground around it after the third one had entered. But they had gone nonetheless. It had finally broken down that wretched plasteel table and when it was about to pounce there was nobody there. It reached out a tendril to impale a previously overlooked leg and raised it towards it's razor edged mouth.
The service elevator opened with a metallic grinding sound, revealing the remains of the generator room floor, now a mere broken ledge surrounded by torn cables, rubble and the sound of crunching. The lance corporal peered into the scope of his sniper rifle and flipped on the image enhancer. He watched the monster as it hungrily stuffed a human leg into it's gaping jaws. The thing was about ten foot long. It's body resembled that of a dog but without fur or a tail and ugly beyond belief. Spines jutted out along it's upper back and four long tentacles projected erratically from unusual orifices along the creature's shoulders, probing gently at the room, searching for food. The head was grotesque, armour plated with no visible ears and several rows of malicious teeth. The lower jaw split into four as it tried desperately with long, hooked mandibles to stuff the limb further into that dripping hole into hell. Numerous green tongues latched onto the meal, pulling it steadily down. It was perched upside down on the spherical bulk of the generator itself, shifting uneasily from side to side on it's four, many-jointed legs. As he stared, it turned a multifaceted, unblinking eye on him and a complicated muscle moved eerily across it's surface. The horrible organ swung away from him and swirled frantically around as it hunted them. He lowered the rifle in disgust. This creature should not have been created. Well they were going to put an end to it, right here, right now. He moved back into the elevator and pushed a button at random. As the door tried to close he stuck his foot in it's path and raised the sniper rifle. Then he reached his hand out to a button marked 'LOCKDOWN' and rested his thumb gently against it. The creature before him was scuttling around now in irritation. It wanted to find him. The lance corporal smiled to himself. Wish granted. He pulled the trigger.
As she heard the gunshot and the screech of rage, Jane fired a blast of burning oil towards the enraged experiment as it pivoted around to see what had dropped a bullet into it's eye. As a tendril lashed toward the distant elevator the fireball grazed it's rear leg and the monster abandoned it's attack and twisted to focus on it's next attacker. Jane ducked back behind power conduit and hear the roar as the second flamethrower singed a tentacle. The creature sent two tendrils spinning toward the pair of injured soldiers and Jane discharged her weapon again as it approached. She and the injured man had left the elevator as the lance corporal had been picking his target and worked their way along the broken ledge to the other side of the room. They were near enough to each other so that the creature could focus on both of them at the same time. It was trying madly to spear them on it's galvanised tentacles but each time was being met with a burst of fire. It couldn't get through. Jane heard a crack as a sniper bullet ricocheted off it's skull plate and now the trap was set. It turned again toward the man with the sniper rifle and extended a writhing appendage towards him. Jane spotted the flamer and gave him the signal.
The injured flamer saw his distant comrade and turned to send a searing flame across the hindquarters of his foe. The monster gave them a final piercing glance and ran at the lance corporal. The fires were hurting it, it couldn't attack the flamers but it could kill the sniper. The tentacles retracted into it's body and it charged towards it's prey in a burning rage. The man launched a few more bursts into the air before limping away to meet the corporal. He was sure this would work. He found the woman and they put an arm around each other's shoulders for support. After a second or two he leaned down and raised the duel barrel rocket launcher. Then they both made their way toward the service elevator.
"I wasn't sure you were qualified to use a flamethrower." he said as they ran along the broken edge of the room.
"I'm not." she replied "That doesn't mean I can't use one to cook that ugly bastard. How 'bout you and that big ol' cannon of yours?" indicating the rocket launcher "You qualified to use that?"
The man smiled "Nope."
"Then lets nuke 'im."
The two soldiers left it at that and began to load the missile launcher. Then they headed to the elevator, the warring soldier and the insane monster.
409 turned away from the fiery attackers behind it as it tried to attack the sniper again. The hot pain scorched it from behind and it turned a mad eye on it's foes. It would kill them later. But for now best to take the easy option. It sucked the tentacles back and made up it's mind. It scuttled frantically to the sniper and opened it's mouth as wide as it could. Soon he would be 409's fodder. As it lurched another bullet thudded into it's chest. Black blood ran in a thin trickle from the wound. Even this........ bug could harm it. Well it wasn't having any of that. Saliva dribbled from the end of it's tongues, hungrily. It was almost there. The creature didn't even slow when it reached the elevator door. It struck with a mighty blow and forced an clawed hand inside. The animal inside touched the wall, there was a loud crack and an unbelievable pain shot along it's arm. The anger boiled in it's head as it tried again and again to tear the bug to pieces. But it's hand wouldn't move properly. It flailed uncontrollably in the horrible pressure of the doors as they tried to seal on the broken limb. It screamed at the insolent pest as it ducked the monster's sweeping arm, pulled a panel away from the elevator wall and crawled inside. It was escaping. No. The monster crammed it's other hand into the closing door and heaved.
The lance corporal climbed on top of the jerking elevator and began to strap himself to the wall of the shaft that stretched away above him. Then he produced a small circular saw from his belt and flipped it on. He stared at it for a moment in satisfaction at what he was about to do. Then he jammed it into the elevator support rope and closed his eyes to shield against the sparks. After a few minutes the first rope snapped and he moved on to the second one. The elevator swayed and slid down gently before shunting to a halt. He hacked and slashed at the second rope desperately as a claw pierced the elevator roof. It had gotten through the door. An arm pushed through the hole and swiped at him as the second rope snapped. The elevator groaned and screeched slowly down the final rope. The lance corporal sawed maniacally at the last support, the monster had gotten it's head through now and was snarling and roaring at him. The creatures talons swung inches away from his feet and he pulled his legs further up the shaft. The rope was getting thinner and thinner now as the hideous thing ripped and tore it's way through the elevator. It broke through with a terrible squeal of mangled metal and lunged for the man just as the rope snapped. A single galvanised tip pierced the flesh of his leg and tore a gash in his flesh before plummeting into the dark depths of the elevator shaft. The soldier clutched his leg and shouted a curse after the disappearing terror. A low boom signaled the end of the creature's decent. But there was no time to wait. He pulled the sniper rifle from it's holster and stared into the image enhancer. The thing was down there, trying to free itself from the remains of the elevator. He fiddled with the weapon's cartridge and slotted a red bullet into the weapon.
"You shredded the crap out o' my leg you ugly bastard."
He took aim and fired the crimson round into the rear leg of the struggling monster. It screeched in agony as the bullet exploded, spraying black ooze up the shaft. A gaping hole had been blasted through the creature's thigh. The man laughed to himself.
"Just feel lucky I only had the one bullet, asshole."
He put the gun away and began to bandage his leg, wincing with pain as he sprayed an antibiotic over the wound.
"Hey....." a voice called from below. He looked down to see his comrades looking up at him through the broken metal. He gave them a pained smile.
"Do you have the missile launcher?" he called back.
They nodded. Jane raised the weapon and called back.
"We can't see down there though. It'll hit the walls."
"How many shots do you have?" he asked.
"Four." she said "Why?"
He pulled the sniper rifle out again and sighted on the distant enemy.
"I'll guide you."
409 writhed in pain as blood poured from a dozen different wounds on it's body. It's tentacles flung the rubble aside, hurling jagged metal into the oblivion above. Now it wasn't about food, it was about vengeance. That bug.... that pathetic, worthless monkey was going to be killed in a slow and painful manner. It worked it's good arm free and clawed at the walls of the shaft, trying to pull itself out. Suddenly the floor rumbled and an explosion rocked the air, intense light streaming down from above. A small shower of rubble dropped onto it's head as it gazed in shock at the sky. It heard a noise, some odd syllable it didn't recognise.
"Down."
A moment later the opposite wall from the one that had just exploded lit up in a brilliant white flame. More rubble collapsed onto the creature as the boom echoed along the shaft. Something deep in the monster's hind-brain told it that now was not a good time to be where it was and that it had better get the hell out of that hole. An urgency entered it's struggles to get free. Tangled metal pounded up the vertical tunnel as the creature madly fought to escape.
"Up just a bit."
A small point of light came flying down the shaft towards it. Then the projectile smashed into the floor nearby, spraying rubble high into the air and blasting more dark juices up the walls. The creature howled in pain. It had survived but it knew what was coming. The last of it's strength was ebbing away as the life flowed steadily from it's leg. It made one last valiant attempt to move before it heard a tiny 'whoosh' from far above. The tiny spark fell from the heavens to vanquish the evil below. The light illuminated the shiny surface of it's blood splattered body. It's terrified eye lit up with the harsh glow of impending doom before the it struck.
Jane heard the screech as the weapon hit home and the eruption flung damp bio-matter high up the tube. A cheer went up from her comrades as the fire burned far below, destroying any remains of that terrible, ungodly beast. Jane and the injured man helped their fellow soldier down from the wall of the shaft.
"Nicely done." he told them as he fell back to the floor holding his blood-soaked leg.
"We all did well." said the man with the empty rocket launcher.
"Now that we've killed it..." said Jane ".... what are your names?"
"Lance corporal Harry Walker." said the man with the spent gun.
The soldier on the floor looked up and smiled.
"Lance corporal Mark Evans." he told her. Jane smiled back before sagging gently to her knees and then resting back against the wall.
But all that was a long time ago......