"Yeah, Sally Ride Charter School back home in Philly. I think I've got it all ready. Want to hear it?"
Alvin nodded. They had each been assigned a school from their hometowns to interact with on their trek through the solar system. Alvin was working with the AP Bio class at Longmont High back in Colorado. Sandra had gotten a fifth grade science class at a charter school a few blocks from her mother's apartment. The kids had even designed science experiments for the crew to perform while they were in space and on Titan. They were silly compared to the level of research Alvin was used to, but he knew they were important for getting the next generation interested in the sciences. Besides, they hadn't had much else to do on the flight out.
As Sandra pulled out her tablet and thumbed through the files to find her speech, Alvin leaned back against the bulkhead that separated their cabin from the O'Brien's. Thin metal was all that separated the two cabins. When they had first boarded the Atlas in Florida, the bunks in both cabins had been against the same wall. The two couples had quickly realized that they needed to rearrange the rooms to maintain the illusion of privacy in the cramped quarters. It had taken all day for the four of them to figure it out, but with some reluctant help from ground control, they had finally managed to fashion brackets to allow them to secure the bunks to the opposite wall. Of course, ground control had only agreed to the reconfiguration after the crew had made it clear it was going to happen whether NASA approved of it or not.
The Atlas had originally been designed for shorter trips to the Moon and Mars. The furthest it had gone out prior to this mission was Ceres. They were now more than five times further from Earth than the ship had ever traveled and the cramped quarters were beginning to wear on the crew. They were all glad that their supplies included an inflatable habitat to extend their living space.
Sandra cleared her throat to signal she was ready to read her report. "To Ms. Griffin's fifth grade science class at Sally Ride Charter School, Greetings from Titan! Captain O'Brien, Dr. O'Brien, Dr. Smith, and I landed on the surface of Saturn's largest moon last night at seven thirty-four pm EST. In other words, just after the start of the Simpsons! Too bad we missed it, I'm sure it was a great episode.
"It's been a long seven months and we are glad to be on the ground. Today, we will start to inflate the habitat that will be our home for the next two years. The habitat is kind of like a giant tent, but insulated and with life support. It's a chilly negative two hundred ninety degrees outside so we will need the habitat to keep us warm whenever we aren't in our ground-suits.
"In Twenty Twenty-Three, the European Space Agency sent the first ever rover to the outer solar system. What it discovered was amazing. The first ever signs of life outside of the Earth! But it wasn't just any signs of life that the probe found. No, instead of boring microbes, it found actual plants. Small moss-like ground cover was found on rocks near one of the methane seas. Not only did live evolve on other planets, but it evolved into complex multicellular organisms. Some believe there may even be simple animals scurrying around somewhere.
"So NASA put together a crew that included some of the best experts in the world on the field of exobiology, or the study of life outside of Earth. Once we are settled into the habitat, Drs. Smith and O'Brien will collect samples and analyze them in a laboratory here on the ship. Meanwhile, I will be using my knowledge of geology to learn more about the interior of the second-largest moon in the solar system.
"After spending two years exploring as much of the moon as we can, we will pack all of our samples up and Captain O'Brien will fly us back home. When I get back, we'll have to make sure we all have lunch together! Well, that's it for now, class. This is Dr. Sandra Torrance, signing off.
"So what did you think, dear?"
"That was great, hun!" Alvin gave her a hug. "You are a natural at this."
"Thanks." Sandra yawned. "We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. Why don't we turn in for the night?"
The next day Alvin woke early. He couldn't help it. How often was it that you stepped onto a new world? Sure, he wasn't going to be the first. But Buzz Aldrin didn't get to be the first man on the moon either. And Alvin always thought that Buzz was a much cooler astronaut that Neil Armstrong. After all, it didn't get much cooler than a guy who punched someone who claimed the moon landing had been staged.
The second person to step foot on a new world was still a pretty good accomplishment. And the research. Wow. He may have only been the second person to step foot outside, but he got to be the first person in all of history to study botany on another world. Alvin carefully climbed over the soundly sleeping Sandra and pulled on his jumpsuit and slippers. The others wouldn't be up for another hour at least. Alvin wasn't willing to wait that long for some coffee.
When Alvin reached the galley, he was surprised to find that he wasn't the first one to rise. Lana was already sitting at the small table with her mug.
Alvin grunted out a "g' mornin'," as he squeezed past Lana. Getting the "giant tent" set up couldn't come fast enough. As much as he enjoyed the O'Brien's company, they were all tired of tripping over each other in the cramped quarters. He dumped his customary four spoons of sugar into his coffee and joined Lana at the table.
He took a swallow of the hot liquid and his eyes bugged open. If he had been more awake, he would have remembered that after years of living in Houston with Tom, she made her coffee strong. Fully awake now, he turned to her, "Couldn't sleep either, Lana?"
"This mission is just as much the culmination of my life's work as it is yours. This is our chance at a Nobel." She pushed a stray blonde lock from her face, hooking it back over her ear. Lana had been a looker in her day. If Alvin was honest with himself, she was still a looker at fifty-four. She was the opposite of Sandra in almost every way, tall and pale with eyes so blue they seemed to glow. One time while drunk, he had admitted to her that she reminded him of an elf from Lord of the Rings.
While Sandra would have blushed at the comment, his thesis advisor had simply laughed and winked at him that she was part elf on her mother's side. Alvin was glad she had met Tom well before he had started grad school or else he probably would have made a complete fool of himself at some point.
"A Nobel would be pretty awesome," Alvin replied. "I'm just glad that our field is finally getting recognition. I'm still upset that Nature called that one paper 'science-fiction.' Well, I've shown them! None of their editors are sitting on a new world to study the proof that my theories were correct!" Alvin banged his fist on the table. His voice had gotten loud in the rant. Lana gave him a look and he shrank back in his seat. "I hope I didn't wake Tom or Sandra. You would think I'd be used to it by now, but it still bothers me."
Lana's look softened. "Dear, I've been dealing with the criticism and lack of respect for as long as you've been alive. I get it. And don't worry about Tom; he should be getting up soon anyway."
As if on cue, the captain stuck his shaved head in the galley. "I hope y'all left me some coffee." Tom O'Brien may have been approaching fifty, but he still had the enthusiasm and energy of a man half his age. His dimples and being only a couple inches taller than Sandra completed the boyish image.
Alvin laughed. "Yes, and don't worry. Lana made it just the way you like it. Strong enough to melt the spoon!"
Tom squeezed in between Lana and the wall to get to the counter. As he poured the hot liquid into his mug, he smiled at his wife's former student. He opened his mouth, but Alvin beat him to his favorite line.
"I know, it'll put hair on your chest! Why do you think Sandy won't drink it? I don't think a hairy chest would be a very good look on her."
Tom guffawed and went back to drinking his coffee. After a few minutes, Sandra padded into the room. Unlike the others who had only dressed enough to be decent for their quest for caffeine, she had taken her time to look her best and ready to take on the day. She sat next to Alvin who turned and kissed her as they murmured their good mornings to each other.
Tom sat up in hi
s chair. "So now that everyone is up, I wanted to go over the plan for today. Sandra, you have camera time in forty minutes to give your school telecast. Houston has us doing the flags and footprints at ten hundred hours. I'll be first, followed by Alvin, Sandra, and Lana will be last. We start setting up the Hab at ten thirty and it should be livable by lunch."
"At fourteen hundred hours, Alvin and Lana will have the first sortie to search for, and collect, samples. Mission protocol requires that you stay within sight of camp. Remember, that's only about three hundred fifty feet out here. You are to return by sixteen hundred and then I will accompany Sandra while she collects geologic samples. Same rules apply and we have to be back at eighteen hundred. We'll have dinner and then we are to remain inside for the duration of the night. Any questions?"
When everybody shook their head, he continued, "Okay, with that settled, I believe it's Lana's turn to cook breakfast."
After the dishes had been cleared and Sandra had broadcast her speech, it was finally time to step outside. Alvin felt like a kid on Christmas morning. He missed a rung on the ladder outside the hatch. Only the low gravity saved him from falling as he was broadcast on live television to viewers around the Earth.
He glanced at Tom, and then at Sandra, up at the hatch. Neither of them did anything to indicate that they had seen it. Thank god. I'd never hear the end of that.
He surveyed the landscape. They had landed on a plain near the terminus between the side facing Saturn and the side facing the vast abyss of space. Tom was right; the horizon was so close it felt as if he was about to fall off. He silently reminded himself to be careful not to wander too far while exploring.
The air was filled with a thick, brownish haze. Even the sun was barely visible as a lighter patch in the sky. Looking down, large, flat-faced rocks were strewn about in the sand. Plants would have had trouble growing in a similar environment on Earth. It was amazing that they ever developed here.
Alvin shook himself from his reverie. It wouldn't do much to have the camera film him standing there catching flies. He opened his mouth to talk about the experience.
"Alvin!" Sandra's voice screeched inside his helmet, loud enough to make the speaker crackle. He looked up at her standing near the lander, pointing at him.
"Relax, Sandra. I wasn't going to say that speech. I—"
"No." Her voice quivered. "Behind you. There is somebody behind you." With each word, her already high voice rose in pitch and volume.
"What? There is no one here but us." Alvin turned to look behind him. There was nobody there. Wait. Something moved near the horizon.
"I see him," Lana shouted from the lander hatch.
"Lana, grab the med kit. Alvin, you are with me." Tom barked while taking off in a sprint.
Alvin followed him. There was no denying it now. There was a person struggling on the ground. They appeared to be covered head to toe in pale white clothing with a shock of cobalt blue hair sticking out. No. That wasn't clothing; he was naked. As they got closer, there was no doubting that this was a male. Alvin had no idea how the man was alive without any protective clothing. But he obviously wasn't human. Maybe he could breathe methane?
Wherever this man was from, breathing methane wasn't a skill he processed. In the short time it took Alvin and Tom to bounce their way across the football-field length, he had fallen and gasped for air in short breaths.
"He's going into shock, Tom. We need to do something." He tried to check the man's pulse but couldn't find it. Did this guy even have a circulatory system?
"We have to do something," Tom agreed. "But what do we do? He's not human. Our first aid could kill him instead of saving his life."
"He's going to die if we don't do anything." Alvin shook his head. "I say we do our best with what we know. I doubt we can do worse than what is happening to him now."
Lana reached them with the medical kit and opened it up on the ground. "I agree. Let's get him some oxygen and try to warm him up. If his metabolism is remotely like ours, those will help. Even if he doesn't breathe it, respiration systems where oxygen is toxic can't support multicellular life." She handed the space blanket to Alvin while she pulled out an oxygen bottle and mask.
Alvin unfolded the blanket and laid it on the ground. He grabbed the stranger's legs as Tom grabbed his arms and lifted him onto the blanket and folded it back over him. Lana placed the mask over the man's head and opened the valve on the cylinder. The gasping stopped within seconds and color seemed to be returning to his skin.
Tom stood over them. "It appears to be working. Let's give him a few minutes to see if he regains consciousness and he can show us where he came from. If not, we will carry him back to the ship and set him up in the infirmary."
Alvin
Lana stayed with the unconscious alien while the rest of the crew proceeded to set up the habitat. They all felt a sense of urgency; the ship was too small for five people. Despite their need for haste, the habitat went up slowly. A four-man habitat took four people to set up. Alvin had some choice words for whoever designed this setup and failed to account for contingencies. That kind of thinking got people killed.
Every so often, Alvin heard Tom mutter over the suit intercom. Somebody was getting an earful back in Houston tonight.
Alvin swore as the corner support fell out again. As he ran over to fix it, he hoped that the side he left behind wouldn't collapse as well. The three of them had been playing that back and forth game for over an hour.
The sun had barely moved when they had finished but they were all exhausted. They decided to eat in the cramped ship's galley one last time. Nobody wanted to move the kitchen stores that night.
As they sat down to a dinner of reconstituted stew, Alvin brought up the elephant in the room. "What are we going to do about Sam?"
"Sam?" The other three replied in unison.
"Well, I figured we had to call him something other than ‘the naked alien we found freezing to death.'"
Sandra shook her head. "But Sam? How did you come up with that?"
"We're near Saturn, aren't we?" Alvin smirked as he picked a potato out of his bowl using a pair of bread sticks like chopsticks. "I figured some alliteration would be nice. Sam, the Saturnite. Would you have preferred Tito the Titan?"
Tom choked as he held back a laugh with his mouth full. Carefully, he swallowed. "Only you would come up with somethin' like that. We are definitely not namin' our visitor Tito. And you can't keep him. You'll lose interest in a few days and then Lana and I will have to care for him."
"Oh please, dad? I swear I'll walk him every day." Alvin replied with a mock pout.
Sandra put down her spoon. "I'm not really comfortable talking about a person like they are a pet."
Alvin turned in his seat to face Sandra, taking her hands in his. "Sandy, I'm sorry. That was insensitive. But we don't really know that he is a person. Maybe Titan had an evolution where cats look like people. Intelligent life may never have developed here. Or, who knows, maybe there is a sentient kangaroo-like species here?"
Lana groaned. "That's an interesting theory, Dr. Smith. Would you care to write a paper describing the evolutionary process to bring about human-shaped cats and sentient kangaroos?"
"That's a capitol idea, Dr. O'Brien. I think I will," Alvin's eyes sparkled at the challenge.
"Oh, dear God. I should have known better than to suggest that. Please tell me you won't publish that." Alvin said nothing, so Lana continued. "Getting back to Alvin's original question, our options are limited. There isn't enough room in here or in the Hab for all five of us. Until he wakes up, ‘Sam' shouldn't be left alone. One couple can stay on the ship and keep an eye on our guest and the other couple will live in the Hab. How does that sound?"
"That's a good idea, dear. Alvin and Sandra, you can take the Hab and Lana and I will stay here. Lana's the one with medical training so she should be the one keeping an eye on Sam. I guess we are in agreement regarding the name?" Tom looked at each of the others in tur
n. Nobody disagreed. "Okay then. I guess I get to move my bags back to the ship."
Sam woke the next day. He seemed healthy enough aside from the fact that his eyes were clouded over with cataracts despite appearing young. If Sam aged at the same rates as humans, Alvin guessed his age to be about his own. Long, skinny limbs protruded from a barrel chest but otherwise he appeared human enough.
Nobody had any clothing that would fit him. Lana was closest in height, but clothing for her slim build wouldn't reach around his wide torso. Finally, they settled on fashioning a toga from one of the bed sheets.
He quickly left the crew with no doubt that he was in fact intelligent. He spoke, although the language was unlike anything they'd ever heard, full of hard consonants and long vowels.
Food was a problem at first. They didn't know if Sam would be able to eat their food. After several hours of discussion and Sam becoming more and more distressed with hunger, they finally prepared a small buffet of raw and prepared foods and trusted in his instincts and sense of smell to determine if it was edible. For the second time in as many days, the crew found themselves fretting that their aid could wind up lethal.
Alvin led Sam to the galley and up to the counter where the food was laid out. Alvin had no way of explaining to him what was happening, but Sam's nose picked up the scents. After a few minutes of fumbling around and sniffing at the foods, Sam grabbed several raw vegetables with both hands and started forcing food into his mouth with wild movements. Either he had a faster metabolism than the humans, or his last meal had been much earlier than when they found him the previous morning.
While the crew attended to Sam's immediate needs, NASA assembled a team of linguists and programmers to attempt to decode the language. Real-time communication was impossible with an hour-long delay for transmissions to cross the vast distance between the two worlds. Lana was the only bilingual member of the crew. As such, she was pushed into the role of helping to decipher Sam's words. Apparently, Alvin's dozen or so words of Gaelic, most of which were swears, didn't qualify him for that particular job.
Once Upon a Saturn Moon Page 3
