One day later…
Stowik followed Imbria out of the hopper and looked around. They landed on the rim of a crater, nowhere near as large as the one that surrounded Alpha India. A light rain peppered them with tiny methane droplets as a cool breeze raised the hair on the little exposed skin Stowik had. Imbria began descending down the canyon on a steep trail, and Stowik followed. After almost an hour of navigating the treacherous path, they reached the bottom of the crater wall. Imbria made her way along the floor of the crater, following the adjacent crater wall. She stopped at a large door, barely visible to Stowik’s untrained eyes, and banged on it twice, loudly.
A minute passed before the screech of the lock could be heard, and the door opened. In the doorway stood a large bearded man dressed in the same way as Imbria. Imbria spoke several soft words to him, leaving Stowik, the outsider, to wonder what she said. After rescuing her from the Arksent soldiers, it better be a request to get me a nice place to rest and a cup of warm water. After several moments the man nodded, and Imbria motioned for Stowik to follow her through the passage into the ice wall. The door closed behind him and the three Titanians fell into a shroud of darkness for a moment. Stowik found it unpleasant and difficult to breathe in the thick, stifling air.
The large bearded man spoke, his deep voice raspy from a lifetime of yelling orders, “Stowik, I am called Tharsis. Thank you for bringing Imbria back to us.”
Stowik nodded. Tharsis turned around and led them through a short but winding passage through the ice, and they reached a large room with a low ceiling. Stowik looked around and he noticed that he could still see his breath, despite being inside. This whole structure is carved from ice, just like Apha India. He reached out and brushed the side of the wall. But they don’t have the plastic sheeting. Stowik let out an involuntary shiver as his body registered the lower temperature for the first time.
Tharsis stepped away from Stowik and Imbria, and they immediately found themselves surrounded by two dozen of the Opposition soldiers. Stowik scanned their features. They all wore the same grey one-piece thermal suits as Imbria, and were of medium build. Some looked younger than Stowik, but there were more than a few hardened looking soldiers sporting lines of grey in their hair. They stood in silence, waiting.
Imbria was the first to speak, addressing the group as a whole, “The raid was a failure. The others are captured or dead,” she paused and gauged their reaction, and found only blank faces. Satisfied with their discipline, she continued, “I, too, was nearly caught by the Arksent soldiers when I found him,” she pointed to Stowik, “but he has a flying vehicle, and we were able to escape. He is called Stowik, and he is our guest here. Stowik comes from a colony whose fuel source is being terrorized by the Arksent.”
Is Imbria their leader? These guys are waiting on her every word. One of the soldiers with salt and pepper hair spoke up while scrutinizing Stowik’s features, “Incredible. Another human colony. How many outposts do you have?”
Another Opposition, a girl of Sartis’ age with short brown hair down to her ears raised her voice, “Look at his eyes!”
The tall, bulky soldier next to Imbria yelled out and backed away from the pair swiftly, “Imbria! Imbria’s eyes are the same! You went raiding with normal eyes, and now…”
“And now they look like his,” added the Opposition girl.
The Opposition soldiers jostled the shocked soldier out of the way and huddled even closer to Stowik and Imbria to see their eyes, and a gentle murmur arose from the group in amazement.
Imbria’s brow furrowed, “Keep your facemasks on, everyone. These…eyes…could be contagious.” She shot an accusatory look at Stowik, who returned her gaze with a shrug of confoundment.
With a small movement of her wrist, Imbria sent the soldiers back to their tasks. As if nothing had happened, the soldiers were back to planning the next raid, discussing politics and strategies in low voices, and inventorying supplies, while others rested slumped against the wall, arms crossed to conserve heat. Imbria and Stowik stood alone.
“You never told me why you are at war with the Arksent,” stated Stowik.
Imbria sighed before she replied, “Once, we were one people, all a part of the Arksent, the only human settlement on Titan. Keep in mind, the fact that your colony exists is some kind of strange occurrence, though it is too early to say whether a curse or a miracle. Anyway, a new technology was developed, one that was supposed to supply our energy needs forever: The Turbine. They said we would never have to burn ethane again. It was clean, required little maintenance, and we would never run out of fuel. So they said.”
“Why would you go to war over that? Stowik asked incredulously.
“The Turbine isn’t the answer, and it has and will do more harm than good,” replied Imbria.
“Then why aren’t the Arksent citizens against it? I presume there are still Arksent citizens.”
“Because they recognize that burning ethane has its own problems, so many of them believe that we should give The Turbine a chance. It is true that we can’t keep up our ethane consumption as is. We’re drastically changing the chemistry of the atmosphere, which will affect the climate,” replied Imbria.
“In what way?” asked Stowik.
“Our records show that when Titan’s first colonizers arrived, Titan’s atmosphere was quite thick. Thick enough to prevent the sun’s heat from entering, so much so that Titan was one hundred and thirty degrees colder than it is now. Basically, you couldn’t step outside without a special suit. It would have been much more cumbersome than the thermal suits you and I wear. Not to mention, humans had yet to introduce oxygen into to the atmosphere and the pressure was greater. The air was even more toxic than it is now. Back then, a facemask wouldn’t cut it, and the lifespan was much shorter,” explained Imbria,
“The Elders told me the same thing,” said Stowik.
“My father was a scientist,” said Imbria sadly, “he was the leading researcher on Titan’s climate. He proved that Titan’s atmosphere is currently in a balancing act, and that if we continue to burn ethane as our fuel source, the atmospheric heat storage capacity will become so low that a lot of the heat will escape, and we’d plunge into a cold era. Think of it like this: if the atmosphere is too thick, it reflects the sun’s heat and makes Titan cold—these are the conditions the original colonists encountered. If the atmosphere is too thin, Titan’s atmosphere can’t effectively trap the sun’s heat and again, it’s cold—this is where we’re headed. We need to be somewhere in the middle.
“So, when the Autochthons burnt ethane, it raised the temperature, but if we continue to burn ethane, it will decrease the temperature?” asked Stowik nervously.
“Exactly. The compounds that result from burning ethane are carbon dioxide and water, and they are far less efficient at trapping heat than ethane. If Titan’s temperature drops below the point at which water ice sublimates into water vapor, Titan’s atmospheric oxygen cycle will stop.”
“How?” asked Stowik as he realized that this was probably the longest conversation he had ever had with a girl.
“Titan’s oxygen is replenished by the dissociation of hydrogen and oxygen when water vapor interacts with cosmic rays. Reduce the water vapor, and you can say goodbye to the oxygen.”
“And how close is Titan’s temperature from that point?” Stowik quivered as the truth hit home—the Arksent had to be stopped.
“Three degrees.” The words hit Stowik right in the solar plexus. What could he do? Would Alpha India be able to adapt? It wasn’t fair, that the Arksent’s activities could effect Alpha; the two colonies didn’t even know eachother existed. He had to tell the Elders.
They sat in silence for a moment.
“And the alternative, this Turbine thing, is worse?” asked Stowik, already knowing the answer. After all, why where the Opposition and the Arksent at war?
Imbria nodded, “The original colonists left records behind showing that Titan’s crust is overlying a global ocean layer j
ust one hundred kilometers below the surface. People asked: what if we could tap into that energy? People asked, and Dalrin Taylor answered. We drilled down to the ocean and built the Turbine to harness the energy. The weight of the crust pushes down on the ocean and causes the ocean water to shoot out of the hole, which is channeled into the Turbine. The Turbine spins and produces electricity. That all sounds good, except for one thing.”
“Which is?” prompted Stowik impatiently.
“Pumping out that much water is causing regional crustal tectonic collapse. The more we pump out, the more tectonic collapse, and the more seismic activity. The decrease in overburden stress that comes with pumping out millions of gallons of ocean water is leading to lithospheric decompression, which is increasing cryovolcanic activity. Explosive cryovolcanic activity.”
“So why is the Turbine still in use?” asked Stowik.
“We don’t know how to shut it down. We can’t just plug the hole—the water is coming out with too much force. Which is why it’s such a powerful source of energy,” said Imbria.
“So you’re waging a war over that?” asked Stowik.
“The balance of power must shift, Stowik,” Imbria replied, “The man who led the project, who designed the Turbine, Dalrin Taylor, had sunk too much money and political juices into the project to give up. He gambled his entire career on the Turbine. Taylor is a household name now and everyone at the Arksent fully expects him to become the new Imperator. If that happens, not only will he lead the Army, as he does now, but he’ll lead the Conclave too. As you can imagine, it was a logical step for him to keep the Arksent public in the dark. The Turbine was Dalrin’s ticket to power, and he spread as much misinformation as possible to keep the Turbine’s flaws under wraps. Because of him, the general public simply doesn’t know that the Turbine is causing cryovolcanism. He just can’t admit he was wrong. Dalrin also leads the war effort against the Opposition. All assassination attempts have failed thus far,” Imbria concluded.
Stowik realized he had been leaning closer and closer to Imbria throughout their conversation, eager to catch every piece of new information. He scooted back in his chair now, suddenly uncomfortable with their closeness, and tried to absorb all that Imbria had said. Stowik raised his hand to rub his chin thoughtfully but stopped when his fingers met the cold plastic of his facemask. So the Arksent’s microorganisms are depleting our ethane aquifer, but that’s not the worst of it—once the temperature drops and ice on the surface ceases to sublimate into water vapor, oxygen in the atmosphere will cease production. Would we freeze to death, or suffocate first, I wonder? And I shouldn’t forget the increased seismic activity. This reminds me of something Val the Elder always used to say: problems are triplets. I’ve got to warn Alpha. We’ve got to stop the Arksent. But what would stopping the Arksent even accomplish if we can’t stop the Turbine? Did Rockhead die for nothing?
“How do you know all of this?” asked Stowik.
“I used to live in Arksent,” Imbria replied, “as did all of us. When the Opposition split from Arksent, we retained quite a few historical records.
Stowik was more alert than ever. He almost burst, “History of Earth?”
Imbria eyed him quizzically, “History of Arksent. Our history of the Earth is limited to the few things the original colonists felt necessary to write—usually just vague references to Earth in their personal journals.”
Stowik’s eyes bulged, “You have the personal journals of the Autochthons?”
“The first people on Titan? Yes,” replied Imbria.
“Why did they leave Earth?” asked Stowik.
Imbria paused for a moment. She seemed to be in deep thought. “I don’t know. From what I remember hearing, the journals were quite lacking. For instance, in one entry the only mention of Earth was of a desire for something called a bourbonginger in a lawless country called Lost Vegas. The most promising entry referenced specific people, places, and objects, but with no context, it was impossible to decipher any meaning from it. No one could understand who the people are, what the other organisms are, or what their technology is founded on. The only valuable information gleaned from the journals was information on the process by which the original colonists survived on Titan. The journals do have one thing in common though: they all note that some type of pathogen caused the disappearance of almost half the crew in the first droe.”
An Opposition Soldier jogged over to the pair and whispered in Imbria’s ear.
“There’s a problem. One of our scouts reported spotting your hopper earlier. Soon after, an Arksent rover passed his location,” said Imbria.
The implications of the statement hit Stowik like a sledgehammer. I was spotted. The Arksent are going to find Alpha India.
As if reading his mind, Imbria cut in, “We have to get there first to notify Alpha India. If you go via hopper, and Tharsis,” she pointed to the Opposition soldier three meters away, “and I travel on a rover, we can catch up quickly. But we need to go now.”
“Right,” said Stowik. He quickly carved a map on the floor and relayed directions to Alpha India. Imbria turned to leave before Stowik called out.
Imbria turned around, a question painted on her face.
“Best the cold,” said Stowik. Imbria looked at him quizzically for a moment before giving him a nod. She turned and left, Tharsis on her tail, leaving Stowik standing alone in the caves watching as some of the Opposition were bustling about their activities, while others slumped against the wall, sleeping.
An alliance. With Imbria, or the Opposition? But what does Imbria get out of it? Will the two of us be enough to stop the Arksent? And is the Arksent truly a threat? How will Alpha India react to meeting them? Stowik cursed. I should have warned Imbria and Tharsis: the Elders are as likely to imprison them as to listen to them.
His ears registered a large crack, and the cave shook violently. The Opposition soldiers bolted for the passage that led to the exit and Stowik followed. Massive blocks of ice rained down from the ceiling. Stowik sidestepped a falling chunk of ice the size of his torso and ran through the passage after the Opposition soldiers. Another piece of ice broke off, but he never saw it coming. He was out like a light.