Titan Cruel Moon

by Kate Rauner

  Liam called over the suit comms. "Fynn, I tried. This isn't going to work. You and Rica, get into the shuttle."

  It would take a few minutes to pump air from the shuttle's single cargo bay into tanks before they could open the rear hatch. Fynn flexed his fists, thinking as they waited. "Uh oh. Hang on, Liam. I left an airlock hatch open. I should close the door."

  "What difference will that make?" Rica asked.

  "None. But I don't want anyone dying because I left a hatch open." He couldn't hurt anyone inside the colony. They were Kin. The realization sent shocks through his body. It changed everything. He had to save them. "Drew, you still listening?"

  "I'm here."

  "Link my helmet camera to the open colony channel." Maybe Maliah would believe pictures.

  Chapter 29

  D rew watched on the big screen in the Herschel's crew quarters. At Fynn's request, he kicked off, rocketed up through the overhead opening. Even with a crisis underway, he grinned, enjoying the maneuver. He'd gotten good at zero-g.

  Tyra was in the dock with the other two pilots, ready if Liam called for their shuttles. She had her feet tucked under a rail at one console, tapping at the workstation.

  "I'm following Fynn's comms," she said. "I'm already on it."

  Drew smiled encouragement but refrained from giving her a hug or even a pat. He knew better than to pester Tyra while she worked.

  The other pilots hung upside down with respect to Tyra, watching a screen displaying Fynn's feed.

  Tyra slapped a switch. "Fynn, zoom out to start. I've got your audio too, and tagged the feed as urgent. It should pop open on every pad in the colony. Ready? Okay, you're on the open channel."

  Fynn's voice played over a speaker in the console, and Drew joined the others at the screen.

  ***

  Maliah sat on a bedroll with her back to the warmth of the furnace platform. Its console lights were dead, but it couldn't have shut down very long ago. The system still radiated heat. A half dozen of the adjunct's trustees crouched on other rolls of bedding they'd pulled from the crew's sleeping bins, but no one ventured to share her seat.

  Magnus paced nearby. He'd been trying to free the airlock handle until Maliah looked out the porthole and noticed the outer door was open. All the colony's surface suits hung inside the airlock, open to Titan's immensely cold atmosphere, so now they could only wait for Fynn and Rica to return. Maliah stationed Maj at the village dome's dock in case they tried to sneak in that way. Her frustration would be over soon. She had them.

  Storing all the suits in one airlock was clearly a mistake that Maliah would correct when this was over, and it had to be over soon. Fynn's batteries wouldn't last forever. He couldn't possibly plan to die out there. She stretched her legs to relieve an urge to fidget. Maybe Magnus had the right idea. Pacing might calm her churning stomach.

  Maliah jumped when an alert tone sounded in her ear.

  "Hi everyone, this is Fynn Rupar. I'm outside the fission dome, and you're watching the view through my helmet cam."

  Magnus bent beside her to whisper through tight jaws. "Shut his signal down."

  She'd have to be in the tower cybernet room to do that. Instead, she held up a hand to quiet Magnus and watched the image on her sleeve.

  "The fission dome's in trouble. See here how the anchor is pulling loose from the ground." With a bit of a bounce, the view closed in on a bright rod protruding from some dark cracked blocks, and then ran up a cable to a glowing wall. He was transmitting an infrared spectrum.

  "We need to seal off our air supply from the reactor and cut loose the fission dome as soon as possible."

  One of the trustees looked up from her sleeve and turned worried eyes on Maliah. "I don't understand. What am I looking at? What's he mean?" The others shifted on their seats, glancing sidelong at her.

  Few of the Kin would have viewed the dome installation videos, so Maliah doubted many understood the threat. Fynn hadn't explained it well. Typical engineer.

  But Maliah understood. A breach in the dome - a big breach - would flood their habitat with Titan's atmosphere.

  Magnus leaned down again. "That dome's been on Titan for years. Why would it fail now? This is a trick, I tell you. Fynn's trying to make you look weak."

  Maliah's breath caught in her throat as her mind raced. Fynn never wanted to be a team captain or barracks monitor on Earth. Why would he want power on Titan? But their father's death unhinged him, so how could she be sure?

  "Maliah, are you listening?" Fynn's voice rose with alarm. "You're about to lose power."

  ***

  "Rica," Fynn shouted. "Get into the shuttle. I'm going back inside."

  He was too close to the shielding wall to see if the dome was rising. The rod was still straight, the cable still taut. But cracks expanded around the anchor, and the ice shifted.

  Fynn galloped to the furnace dock. Struggling against the thick atmosphere was like running in a dream or a nightmare, trying to make his kicks propel him along the ground and not upwards.

  At last the dock ramp loomed. He leaped up and caught the airlock door with one hand. The swinging door and thick atmosphere gave him time to tighten his shoulder and put an arm over the door rather than go tumbling away. He scrambled inside, sealed the outer door, hit the air cycle, and bounced impatiently until he couldn't wait any longer. He tossed the boot out of the handle, spun it, and pushed. Pressure rose in the airlock and the door gave way.

  A glance told him Maliah wasn't there. The last of Titan's cold nitrogen flowed in with Fynn, spreading across the dome floor. A dozen people jumped back and leaped onto the furnace platform, and Magnus swung up to the top of the door. He'd have to close it and that gave Fynn a chance to run.

  He leaped halfway up the wall of the tunnel and bounced off the opposite side before shooting out into the greenhouse. Max caught him by one arm and they spun until the big Cohort locked a leg around one of the frames. "What's happening? How do I protect my hydroponics?"

  Fynn twisted off his helmet and answered between gasps. "Fission dome's lifting off... auto-eject power connectors... cables pull loose..." He took a deep breath and offered a more useful answer. "You're gonna lose power. Expect a flow of cold Titan's atmosphere from the village dome. Run if you have to, to the furnace dock. The airlock's your life raft."

  Max dropped to the floor and a half-dozen people hurried to meet him. Good. At least some of the greenhouse crew were still at their workstations. Fynn paused long enough to see them grab sheets of plastic, but Magnus and his trustees careened out of the tunnel, so he kicked off again.

  They intercepted him at the village tunnel.

  Fynn swung his helmet at the nearest trustee and gasped through a heaving chest. "I've got... see Maliah."

  Magnus arrived, also winded. "You bet you're gonna see her." He knocked Fynn off his feet and several sets of hands gripped him, hoisting him overhead.

  Fynn stopped struggling. If they were taking him to his sister, there was no reason to resist.

  ***

  Inside the tower room, Maliah paused before opening the door to the balcony. Magnus might be right. Fynn might be trying to make her look ridiculous, make her seem easily frightened and weak.

  She shook her head to banish the doubts. She'd seen the pictures from his helmet camera, and she knew her brother. Magnus was a fool and she wouldn't let his paranoia control her actions. She rapped her pad, sending the tone her adjuncts knew meant they should meet her in the tower, and then activated the colony channel, banged the door open, and stepped to the railing.

  Kin milled around the playing field below her, clustered in small groups, holding sleeves up to, no doubt, replay Fynn's pictures. Fliers lay scattered on the floor.

  Tears of frustration prickled her eyes. This was supposed to be her day, cementing her leadership in place. A few hours ago, they'd celebrated her great announcement, and thrown the first party on Titan in honor of the first pregnancy. Her pregnancy. It was true. She'd
read about the symptoms and double-checked cybernet files to be sure.

  She sniffled back a frustrated tear and remembered the strength and vitality, the warmth and power, of leadership. "Kin, attention."

  Faces turned up to her. Eager, hopeful faces. She straightened her shoulders and cleared her throat.

  "The dome may suffer a power outage in the next few minutes. Emily - instruct your maintenance crew to distribute hand-held lights immediately. The rest of you, assemble on the playing field."

  At the sound of muffled shouts, Maliah shifted to the balcony's corner. A half dozen trustees emerged from the tunnel shoving a figure in a surface suit ahead of them. He hugged a helmet to his chest, and she saw the tangle of black hair above a dark face. It was Fynn. He hurtled toward the tower, his captors hurrying to keep up.

  ***

  Fynn leaped for the next landing and caught his life support pack on the staircase frame. Ow. That slowed him enough to maneuver safely the rest of the way to the top floor. He tripped over fliers piled on the balcony and shoved open the door.

  Maliah waited in the middle of the room, braced in a wide stance with arms crossed over her chest, her amber eyes blazing. "When's this power outage coming? If this is a trick..."

  Magnus arrived next and grabbed Fynn's shoulder as if he deserved credit for delivering him.

  Fynn shifted his helmet to his other arm and waved his sleeve pad. "You saw what's happening."

  Magnus sneered. "So what? Even if what you say is true, all it means is the colony will have a balloon tethered to one end."

  Fynn kept his eyes on Maliah. "The reactor won't be hanging below it like ballast. It's set on a platform, just like the furnaces."

  Maj pushed through the trustees who'd followed Magnus up the stairs. She had a helmet dangling from one hand, and her arms wrapped around a surface suit. "Maliah, put this on."

  In a moment of silence, everyone stared at her.

  Maj dropped the helmet and it rolled gently off to the side. "We can't afford to lose you. Please put the suit on. For me."

  A boot fell from Maj's grip as she sprang across the room to grab a chair and slide it against Maliah's legs. The momentum seemed to carry Maliah along and she sat to slip her legs into the suit Maj shook open.

  Magnus bit off his anger and spoke through clenched teeth. "What will the Kin think when they see you dressed for the surface?"

  Maj smiled as she held out the boots. "They'll think she looks splendid."

  "Let my crew loose," Fynn said. "They'll restart the furnaces for power, and deploy our patch kits. Who're your best fliers? We need to start welding panels over the air tunnels before..."

  Everything went black.

  ***

  The shuttle crawled under the air tunnels, too close to the shielding wall to see anything when the ground shook. Liam slammed a hand on the controls, widening his cameras' views.

  Overhead, a white geyser erupted. Globs of orange fireworks shot in all directions and rained down, filling the side screens with churning color. Safe on the shuttle's bridge, Liam couldn't help but cover his head and duck. When he looked up, the shuttle was surround by a blizzard of darkening snow.

  He widened and narrowed the cameras' spectra to find a clear view. In infrared, he spotted the air tunnel overhead, now drooping and deflated. He raised the shuttle's manipulators, spotting the dark arms as they moved against a bright background. "Maybe now..."

  With hands in the control gloves, Liam reached, spread the fingers wide, and grappled at the plastic above him, gathering it into the shuttle's grip. The material was stiff and outer folds cushioned the inner layers. He cautiously clamped the fingers until creases formed, indicating he might be cutting into the outer plastic.

  "Fynn?" The Herschel relayed his message on a suit channel, hoping Fynn could hear him. "Something blew up out here. I've pinched down on the air tunnel as much as I can. Are you receiving?"

  He tapped another channel. "Tyra? Are you watching the feed from dome cameras? What's going on in there?"

  ***

  Fynn slammed his helmet into place and sealed it with a twist. The infrared display showed the adjuncts fumbling in pockets for hand lights, and Maliah donning her helmet.

  On the balcony, disoriented trustees clung to the railing and each other, shying back toward the stairs.

  It was hard to understand what he was looking at. Through the middle of the dome, a flare like white-hot fireworks shot out from the air tunnel, but a cold black plume cascaded down to the floor. Several bodies lay on the floor, and a confusion of forms followed a few bobbing hand lights.

  The flare died quickly and the dark flow subsided but continued to trickle down. Without power, the fans weren't running and the cold atmosphere flowed like water. A fog of condensed humidity spread across the floor, thinning before it curled against the barracks.

  The colony comm link filled with overlapping shouts. Fynn didn't know if anyone would hear him. "Get into the airlocks, on top of the barracks, anywhere out of that fog."

  Lights coming toward the tower caught his eye. A figure in a surface suit, helmet lights on, dragged a thick roll of plastic into the dome.

  Fynn switched to the suit-to-suit channel he'd used outside. "Rica, is that you?"

  The figure spun around. "Yes. Fynn, where are you? Casper's here too." A second figure emerged from the tunnel, also dragging a roll.

  "Keep him out of the fog."

  A stevedore followed Casper. A stack of tubs tumbled from its arms as it wrapped hands around his waist and hoisted him to the top of its central column.

  Rica's helmet lights swept back and forth in front of her. "We've got patch kits and the panels we cut when we opened the tunnels. Where are you?"

  Maliah bumped into Fynn's side with a pair of fliers. She'd found the channel they were using. "I heard that. We can reach the air tunnels with these."

  They flew down to Rica just as more lights entered the playing field from the clinic. Greta bounded to Fynn's side. She wore an oxygen treatment mask with the cylinder hanging from a strap around her neck. She tossed another cylinder to Casper, then spun away to join the other medics working over prone bodies.

  Casper secured his mask and dropped a pad into Fynn's hands. It looped a video for using the patch kits. He and Maliah watched it twice while Rica unpacked the stevedore's tubs. She handed a tool like an oversized glue gun to each of them and a bundle of opaque rods.

  Fynn straddled his flier the way Maliah always rode and buried one hand in the edge of a plastic roll. Maliah did the same and it unfurled as they rose, expanding to its full thickness. The panel became an unwieldy cube of plastic. They had to stuff most of it into the air tunnel to be able to weld the inner layer and stop Titan's atmosphere from slowly filling the dome.

  A hand gripped Fynn's foot. Magnus hovered below him.

  Fynn recoiled and almost dropped his welder, but Magnus was aligning himself with the panel, pushing it into place with bumps from his flier. Nothing mattered except welding the panel in place, and Fynn resumed work.

  Fog shifted and curled around them. Magnus' grip on Fynn loosened. He slouched off his flier and slid down the panel, into the fog below.

  Maliah flipped upside down to push the edge near Fynn's hand. "Keep working. Leave him to the medics."

  Fynn panted with effort. "It's no good. We can't hold the fliers steady enough."

  "I can't keep a grip," Maliah said. "My hands are wearing out."

  "Let's drop it for a minute. Rica, can the stevedores reach this high?"

  "Maybe to the bottom of the hole."

  Fynn backed away from the wall that glowed blue in the helmet display and tried to gauge the amount of black atmosphere dribbling in. They had to get the patch welded into place.

  The women's barracks came into his view. "Maliah, I've got an idea. Those barracks were all slotted and snapped together. Maybe we can unsnap them. Rebuild them into scaffolds."

  "Okay. Hang on." Her chann
el clicked closed.

  Fog swirled below. Casper extended the column of his stevedore and rolled toward the men's barracks.

  Toward the prison bin.

  Fynn's chest wrenched tight. The fog was lapping at the bin where his crew lay trapped. He flew across the playing field, darker than the methane lake once he turned his back on little pools of visible light at the air tunnel. Casper was ahead of him. The bot cut the straps and lifted each person, sore and stiff, from the half-full trash bin onto the top of the men's barracks. They huddled together, shivering.

  Fynn aimed his helmet lights down. The fog was deepening. Across the dome, Rica's helmet sent long pale fingers of light over the fog.

  From the blackness, a mob burst into sight, careering toward the kitchen, helmet lights bobbing wildly across the dome. They wore surface suits. Every suit in the colony must be in use.

  Maliah's channel clicked open. "Here comes the Advance Team that assembled the barracks. We'll have your scaffold up in no time."

  They tore the women's barracks apart in a heartbeat and rebuilt them into a stepped platform. A dozen hands hauled the patch panel up, shoved into into place, and piled more panels against it, holding it steady. Fynn squeezed out blobs of gummy plastic from his welder. He worked across the top curve and down one side while Maliah sealed the opposite edge. Many hands dropped the top barracks layer and panels fell into the fog. He met his sister in the middle of the bottom edge.

  Chapter 30

  F ynn stood among tangled layers of plastic inside a shield wall barely touched by the steam explosion. That's what Fynn thought had happened. He could stand on the spot because radiation monitors showed zero, and he was alone because Rica had stayed with Casper to fret over his frostbitten toes.