It was a green light that came back. That was important. Dozens of sorties had come back without a light. Finding what his brother had found eight days ago could mean saving Alpha India. The clock was ticking, after all—no lights means no food. Would I be able to recognize it if I saw it? Whatever it is. I don’t know the land like Rockhead did. Doubts clawed at Stowik, bur there wasn’t time to teach anyone else how to use the hopper. Besides, it was too late to change his mind.
Stowik was currently thirty meters off the ground, slowly rising out of the Concrete. His hopper engine screamed as it pumped hundreds of gallons of methane and oxygen into the combustion chamber, which channeled the exploding gases through the five output nozzles.
Stowik’s hopper broke the out of the Concrete and cleared the surface. He pushed the throttle forward and carefully pitched the craft’s nose downward to gain lateral thrust. The hopper sped forward, and Stowik kept the craft aligned to the direction of Rockhead’s last failed sortie. Briefly, Stowik imagined what the Elders would say to him when he returned. Defying an Elder’s directive came with dire consequences. He could almost see Aitken’s stone face turn to ice at the Tribunal surrounding Rockhead’s death, announcing, “All hopper sorties are now terminated.” But there was a green light. Rockhead wouldn’t signal green if it weren’t something big. The Elders are too stubborn in their effort trying to protect the fifty we have left. Well so am I.
Stowik steeled his nerves as Castle Mountain reared up into his view. Crossing the edge of the crater seemed a lot more foreboding when flying on top of several tons of explosive rocket fuel. Going to have to dial that one back. He nudged the craft upwards cautiously to avoid using any more fuel than necessary. The peak became closer and closer. He looked down at his fuel gauge. Thirty seconds.
Cutting it close. He was over the peak and onto the other side, out of the crater. He gave himself the leisure of looking around as he barreled through Titan’s thick atmosphere at over one hundred kilometers an hour. Twenty seconds of fuel left.
Looks the same on the other side. Great, I have no clue what I’m looking for. Stowik began cutting thrust to the engines, which dropped his altitude along the side of the mountain. He hastily scanned the ground that lay twenty meters below him for a landing site.
Boulders, a dune field, a steep incline…there! Stowik lowered his craft to the flat area he spotted. His engine cut out before he could lower his craft all the way to the ground. He could hear the sputtering whine of the engine. With a sudden lurch the hopper careened through the air and quickly fell the last three meters. Stowik’s stomach reeled inside his abdomen as his hopper crashed down on its arachnoid legs, which acted as suspension and absorbed much of the shock. Just like that, it was over. Stowik began using his lungs again after the short hiatus and looked out the cockpit window, barely suppressing a relieved grin.
As good a landing as any.
Stowik unstrapped himself from the seat and grabbed his facemask from under his seat. He placed the strap around his head and fitted the mouthpiece over his mouth and nose. He breathed in deeply to test that it had made a proper seal. Satisfied, Stowik cracked open the hatch and descended from the cockpit, making his way under the hopper to start the refueling process. Stowik turned several valves to allow the hopper to absorb methane from the atmosphere for the next flight. He looked around. Six hours to kill. Stowik hiked up the leeward side of the mountain and found a small alcove under an ice overhang. Resting with his back against a large ice boulder, he sat mulling over his next move, or lack thereof. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but he was sure it was out here. What did Rockhead find? A way to replenish the aquifer? A stream or lake to divert to the aquifer? Maybe he found some kind of fault that intersects it. Is the depleting aquifer related to the quakes? I wonder if he knew how big the aquifer is. Stowik resigned himself to not knowing and began to drift off to sleep as he gazed at the methane clouds passing in front of him. His eyes twitched rapidly as his mind again, as always, told him the story of an oppressively hot alien world with no horizon and sandstone blocks waiting to be hollowed out.