behind us, and piped the view of Saturn to Jason’s front monitor.
He studied the image and sighed contentedly. “God, it really looks like the Rings completely disappear when behind Saturn, what with Saturn’s shadow blacking it out. Nothing like a direct view of the real thing.” He leaned back and closed his eyes.
I felt obliged to correct him. “Technically this is not a direct view. After all, I have no windows. All you see is an image I am projecting using a camera. You could just as easily—”
He opened his eyes and interrupted me. “Zec, pipe down. Is the next half-hour going to be routine?”
“Yes. A few minor bursts of acceleration as we descend. After all, we don’t want to descend too quickly.”
“Good. I’m going to get some shut-eye. Wake me before we land.” He closed his eyes again and tilted his head to one side. I could monitor his EEG, his heartbeat, his respiration, and other bodily functions to confirm that he was, in fact, going to sleep. But it would not be necessary, as my microphones were quite enough to tell when Jason finally nodded off.
He snored.
*
An alarm clanged, and Jason jerked upright, looking wildly about in surprise. “Zec! What the hell’s going on?”
“The automatic guidance system is indicating a need for a course correction.”
“Course correction? What bloody course correction? Give me as panoramic a view as you can.”
I scanned the space around us with the external cameras. When Jason saw it on the display screen, he whistled. “A meteoroid. Kind of large.”
“Yes, and directly in our path.”
“Where did that come from?”
“Unknown. I would assume it fell out of the Rings somehow. Its trajectory would seem to indicate that it is in orbit around Titan.”
“Um. Well, Zec, get us out of its path, will you? We’ve got a delivery to make.”
I started to calculate trajectories and velocities. “Jason, we may have a problem. The meteoroid—”
“Zec, this is no time for discussion. You can see it getting closer. Get us out of the way, first!”
“But—”
Jason did not let me finish my sentence. He lunged at the thruster controls and punched a button, hard. The rockets fired, the ship lurched, and if he had not been buckled in Jason would have flown across the ship. I cut the rockets and restabilized our velocity vector as quickly as I could.
“Jason, why did you do that?”
“I was trying to save my life! And the mission! Which is what you should have been doing!” He rubbed his shoulders and thighs. “How much acceleration did I bring us to, anyway?”
“Two point five gees.” I paused. “Jason, about that meteoroid. As I had been saying, it was detected a bit closer to the ship than we would have preferred. It would have been better to allow me to apply more delicate course corrections.”
“But we are still on schedule, right?”
I was about to reply when the red fuel indicator light began blinking. Jason noticed it immediately, and squirmed in his seat. “Ummm...Zec? How much fuel did we burn?”
I did an internal check and a quick calculation as Jason examined the gauge. “Too much,” I replied.
“What do you mean, too much?” Jason’s voice was steady, but I detected his heart rate increasing to eighty-one beats per minute.
“I mean that we no longer have enough fuel to slow our descent properly. We will probably make it halfway into Titan’s atmosphere, down to the photochemical haze, and then our fuel tanks will be empty.”
Jason’s heart rate increased again and he began to perspire. “But that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, right? I mean, Titan’s gravity is much lower than Earth’s.”
“Zero point one four gee,” I said. “You are correct. But I calculate that even with the lower gravity, from three hundred kilometers up we would still hit the ground at approximately six hundred and forty meters per second.”
“But—but—wait! What about the atmosphere? It’s much thicker than Earth’s, right? Wouldn’t that decrease the terminal velocity?”
Another calculation. “Jason, you are forgetting that the friction of a thicker atmosphere also creates more heat. Even if the Zecca reached a lower terminal velocity, it still would heat up far too much for the ship to remain intact. Do you understand?”
“Yeah. You’re telling me that we’re going to burn up in Titan’s atmosphere and anything left over will make a crater the size of Stickney.”
“Not that large, but you do have the general idea. The problem is that we now have too much mass for the amount of fuel left. If we could reduce the mass on the ship, we may still be able to land safely.”
“Reduce the mass? By how much?”
I did one more calculation, and came up with a conclusion that I knew Jason would not like. “Sixty five point one kilograms.”
“But I weigh—” Jason stopped short.
“Sixty eight point three kilograms,” I said. “That would be enough.”
“Forget it,” he said quickly. “Impossible. I’m needed to land—” He went quiet again. Jason knew as well as I did that I could just as easily land the ship. He was superfluous, unnecessary. And at this point, he was a liability.
“There must be something else we can do,” he said. “Can’t we jettison anything else to reduce the mass of the ship?”
“Negative. I remind you the the Zecca is an Emergency Cargo Vehicle, designed to be lightweight and fast. Other than the cargo, the only extraneous materials on this ship are your clothes.”
I paused for a moment, knowing that Jason needed a little more time for the situation to sink in. Then, as gently as I could, I said, “The only way Titan Base will get their generator is if you abandon ship.”
Jason frowned. “My life is far more important than the generator. Let’s throw it off the ship instead.”
“Normally I would agree, but you must remember that the lives of the fifteen scientists on Titan are in the balance. There isn’t enough time for another generator to arrive before the old one fails. Even if you jettison the generator, you would only live long enough to see the fifteen scientists die along with you. If you leave now,” I concluded, “they will still survive.”
“Damn you, Zec! Must you be so cold and clinical about this? We’re talking about my life here!”
“I apologize, Jason, if I do not sound concerned. I am very concerned, both for you and for the humans on Titan Base. But I see no other options, and we are running out of time.”
He
