2122
Titan was dark. Ten times farther from the Sun than Earth, with an atmosphere fifty percent thicker, it received only one percent of the light that Earth did. Titan was darker than even the inside of the Caeculus spacecraft. But Titan had fuel, and lots of it; Earth had a water cycle, but Titan had an ethane cycle, and ethane can be combusted. After Neil Taylor plotted their spacecraft’s position in deep space, the crew of the Caeculus redirected their course to Titan and arrived in just under a year. The first humans on Titan were running on full power now by putting liquid ethane through a generator which was able to power their spacecraft’s life support systems.
Fifteen of the sixteen crewmembers sat in their booths across from each other as they ate. This was their first meal grown from the plants in their greenhouse since they landed. They were bursting with excitement and chatting almost amicably over dinner.
“Do you think we’ll ever be able to go outside without a suit?” asked Kristen Bennett playfully.
“Of course, if by ‘we’ you don’t mean ‘we.’ Titan’s atmosphere is so thick that it’s actually reflecting a lot of the sunlight. If we can change the atmospheric chemistry to particles that allow more sunlight in and then trap it, not only can we decrease the pressure to more comfortable levels, but we can increase the temperature, too. But that would take centuries, so, no. We won’t be able to go outside without a suit,” replied Nicole Thom.
Kristen rolled her eyes at Nicole. Kristen was tired of Nicole’s smartass routine, but for the sake of maintaining relationships and morale, she kept her tone even. “How much?”
“Titan right now is minus 180 degrees Celsius,” began Nicole.
“And we can ramp it up to what?” asked Kristen sharply. She wished Nicole would just spit it out.
Nicole shrugged, perhaps for the first time in her life—it was a rare moment when the assertive engineer couldn’t quote you an exact number on command. “I’m thinking comparable to Antarctic temperatures back on Earth.
“So you’re saying we should keep burning ethane?” asked Kristen. They had been in this damn spacecraft together for far too long.
“Exactly, and far more than just what we’re burning now. I give it three hundred years and your great-great-great-grandchildren will be frolicking on the warmer and slightly brighter surface of Titan with just an oxygen breather. Heat-suits can be synthesized from the hydrocarbon lakes and we can pump oxygen into the atmosphere by electrolyzing melted ice,” said Nicole cheerfully, ever the optimist. She realized Kristen must have made quite an effort to not lash out. Nicole had been under Kristen’s skin for months. It looked like this was the first conversation that might turn out to be civil after all.
Mindona piped up after a long silence, “You’re forgetting that when temperatures rise, more ice will sublimate. When the water vapor goes into the atmosphere, the wator vapor’s interaction with cosmic rays will dissociate the hydrogen atoms from the oxygen atom, so we’ll be getting naturally forming oxygen gas, too.”
“Okay, okay, but back up. How bright are we talking here?” asked Kristen.
“I imagine it would be like a moonlit night on Earth,” speculated Mindona with a shrug.
Nicole looked out the thick plastic window, “Better than pitch black.”
At that moment, Castle burst into the cabin short of breath and sporting an old pair of sunglasses, his unkempt curly hair racing to keep up. The crew looked up expectantly at his dramatic entrance.
Castle took a moment to regain his breath. “I did it. We can see outside,” he spat out quickly.
“Slow down, Curly, what are you talking about?” asked Nicole.
Castle wasted no time explaining, “The difference between human blood and plant blood, cellulose, is actually quite small. The carbon compounds that make up human blood are nearly identical to those of cellulose, except that cellulose compounds bond to magnesium, while human blood bonds to iron. The plants in our greenhouse are genetically engineered to require less sunlight so that they can be grown through the spacecraft’s lighting, which is feeble in comparison with the sun. To counteract that, the chlorophyll in these plants is designed to absorb more of the incident light rays. The genetically engineered chlorophyll is passed on to other plants through an airborne plant virus stored in the cellulose. I’ve engineered the same trait into an airborne virus that will attack human hemoglobin. The virus itself is harmless, but it will rapidly reproduce in your bloodstream. The short story is, inject this,” Castle held up a syringe, “and you can see in low light conditions, i. e. the conditions on Titan’s surface.”
Standing in the back of the room with arms crossed, Commander Neil Taylor pursed his lips.
“Curly, you’re telling me you’ve engineered a virus to attack our blood cells and it’s highly contagious?” asked Kristen.
“Well, yes. Can you not call me Curly?” replied Castle.
“And it will let us see in the dark, Mad Hatter?” asked Mindona Krzykowski.
Even being called Mad Hatter was a small victory for Castle. He let it slide. “You got it. The virus artificially dilates the pupils, allowing more photons to reach the retina. Not only that, but it allows the retina to detect light in additional wavelengths, too. Currently we are able to detect light only in the visible part of the spectrum, that is, wavelengths of four hundred to seven hundred nanometers. Your eyes currently only detect reflected light, but all materials emit radiation too. The virus will enable you to see that emitted radiation; the thermal infrared has a much larger wavelength, and the virus allows emitted radiation with wavelengths ranging from three to fifteen micrometers to be visible. Detecting visible light only, our vision would be limited by Titan’s low light and thick atmosphere. With thermal infrared emissions now detectable, our vision will be dramatically improved,” replied Castle confidently.
“Breathe, Curly,” said Louis, who, at sixty years old and almost seven feet tall, was not only the oldest, but the largest of their crew.
“He doesn’t like to be called that,” said Nicole, prompting a laugh out of Louis. “So how do you know it will work?” asked Nicole.
“Look at my pupils—I’ve already used it on myself,” answered Castle smugly as he removed the sunglasses.
Instantly, half the crew jumped from their chairs and backed up to the far wall. Mindona stepped closer and peered into Castle’s eyes. Castle’s irises weren’t even visible because his pupils were so large. Neil’s eyes narrowed; unauthorized genetic experimentation was a direct breach of his authority, not to mention dangerous.
“Why does it do that to your pupils?” demanded Nicole.
“Ah, I actually don’t know. I didn’t intend for that part to happen,” stuttered Castle, losing confidence.
“Well hot damn. Count me in. It’s time we started doing surface exploration,” said the awed Mindona.
“Are you out of your mind? You’ve unleashed a potentially harmful, essentially untested, and highly contagious organism on the entire crew without getting any kind of clearance or even giving a warning of what the hell you’re up to? You are out of here,” yelled Neil from across the room. He immediately left the cabin.
“Out—out of here?” stuttered Castle nervously.
“Neil has a point,” began Mindona, “but I’m with you, Castle—”
“Thank you for using my name,” Castle piped up.
“Interrupting me will give me more chances to change my mind, Castle,” observed Mindona coolly as she stared at Castle, who visibly blanched under her gaze. Mindona continued, “We can’t stay inside the craft forever. We have to live off the land, and if we can’t see outside, we’re as good as dead.”
Several members of the crew nodded in agreement behind Mindona. Neil came back and threw Castle’s personal belongings on the ground. “Take suits, take the hopper, but leave us the rovers. Get out.”
All eyes shifted between Neil and Castle, who shifted nervously from foot to foot, unsure how serious Neil was. Could Castle neg
otiate? Mindona took a deep breath, stealing herself for her next announcement.
“You’re serious?” asked Castle angrily. Neil stood, unmoving, his answer written on his face.
Mindona stood up in front of Castle, “I’m going with Castle.” Loud nervous whispers permeated the cabin as the crew deliberated taking sides; crew members debated with eachother, torn between loyalty to their Commander and their desire to explore Titan. Several of the crew stood up and made their way behind Mindona and Castle.
Nicole Thom spoke up, “I never thought I’d say this, but our chances for survival might be better if we split up. There’s too many of us in too close a space. Just do everyone a favor and please get out fast. No hard feelings. Seriously, just go. The rest of us don’t trust your virus and would prefer to not be infected,” she continued hurriedly.
“Mindy…” stammered Neil.
“I have a good feeling about this Neil,” replied Mindona sadly.
“I can’t come with you, Mindy,” Neil replied gravely.
Mindona nodded gloomily, “I know.”
The crew who decided to stay headed for the airlock while Mindona, Castle, and the rest packed their belongings and the necessities for survival into the hopper. The presence of the virus made the goodbyes swift, and the six departing crew strapped into the hopper.
“Best luck with the cold,” stated Neil. He meant it, too.
With a final nod, Mindona closed the hatch to the hopper and waited for the flight chamber ceiling to separate. The hopper’s engine ignited and the aerial craft took off into the thick Titan night.