Titan

17 February 2096: Fitness center

“I’m going to kill myself out there,” Wunderly puffed as she jogged on the treadmill.

Striding on the machine beside her, Pancho hiked her eyebrows and answered, “If you screw up the way you did in the simulator this morning, yeah, you prob’ly will.”

“I was really terrible.”

“It was your first time in a full-up sim,” Pancho said, trying to sound sympathetic. “You need more practice.” A lot more, she added silently. The recapture sequence had been a total mess.

Pancho had shooed Wanamaker and Tavalera away after Wunderly’s miserable performance in the simulator. She had wanted to take the scientist to the cafeteria for an undisturbed lunch together but Wunderly had insisted on a session in the fitness center instead. So Pancho had foregone lunch and changed into a rented running suit so that she and Wunderly could try to figure out their next move. Now they trotted on the treadmills, side by side, amid dozens of other puffing men and women in sweat-stained gym clothes.

“I did everything wrong,” Wunderly moaned, wiping perspiration from her forehead.

“Were you scared?” Pancho asked, striding along easily on the treadmill. “I mean, the sim’s pretty damned realistic and you’ve only been outside once before.”

Tears were welling in Wunderly’s eyes. “I wasn’t frightened, Pancho. Really, I wasn’t. It was just so … so … confusing. It was like being lost in a blizzard. I couldn’t tell up from down! I couldn’t do anything right!”

“Well, it was your first time in the rings. Gotta expect some disorientation. It’s all new to you.” But to herself, Pancho was wondering if Nadia would ever be able to handle a ride through the rings in the excursion suit. She could kill herself real easy out there.

“I’ll do better the next time,” Wunderly said, as her treadmill’s timer bell chimed. “I really will. I’ll know what to expect, at least. I’m a fast learner.”

Pancho turned off her machine, too. “Yeah, maybe so. But you’re gonna need a lot more time in the simulator,” she said. “And some practice runs outside, as well.”

“How long do you think it’ll take?”

“Six months, maybe more.”

“Six months!”

“Three, four months, at least,” said Pancho, “depending on how fast you catch on.”

“I can’t wait that long.” Wunderly stepped off her treadmill and started for the locker room.

“Why not?” Pancho demanded, following her. “You in a hurry to kill yourself?”

Lowering her voice, Wunderly said, “Pancho, we’re sneaking this whole operation, remember? If Urbain finds out about it he’ll scratch the whole deal. He’ll report me to the ICU, say I’m a loose cannon, going out on my own without authorization.”

“Better’n getting killed,” Pancho pointed out.

“No it’s not!” Wunderly retorted, with such quiet vehemence that Pancho was taken aback. Heatedly, Wunderly added, “I’d rather die out there than sit here and be considered a failure, an idiot who claimed she found life-forms in the rings but couldn’t prove it.”

Pancho shook her head, thinking that Saturn’s rings would still be there for a potful of millions of years.

They changed into their regular clothes and went to the cafeteria at last. Pancho was hungry enough to eat half the menu, but she restrained herself and followed Wunderly’s lead: fruit salad and a flavored soy drink.

Just as they sat down at an unoccupied table, Holly came stomping up to them and banged her lunch tray down so hard the tea sloshed out of her cup.

“The sumbitch fired me!” Holly snapped, slamming into the vacant seat between Pancho and Wunderly.

“What?”

“Eberly. The slimeball fired me. Kicked me out of the human resources department. Don’t you people watch the morning news?”

“We’ve been in the simulator since oh-seven-thirty,” Pancho said. “And then the gym.”

Fuming, Holly grabbed at the sandwich on her tray and tore off a big bite.

Wunderly asked, “He fired you because you’re opposing him in the election?”

“Why else?” Holly mumbled, her mouth full of sandwich.

“But he didn’t say it that way, I bet,” Pancho said.

“Hell no.” Holly swallowed hard. “His news release was all about ‘the interests of efficient government and fair play.’ The creep.”

Wunderly dimpled into a smile. “I’ve never seen you so angry.”

“And he’s making a major speech tonight,” Holly grumbled. “Prob’ly going to bring up that idea of mining the rings again.”

Wunderly’s smile crumpled. “He can’t do that!”

“Wanna bet?” Holly and Pancho said in unison.

Jumping to her feet, Wunderly shouted, “He can’t! I won’t let him!”

People at nearby tables turned to stare at her.

“How’re you gonna stop him?” Pancho asked softly, reaching for the sleeve of Wunderly’s tunic.

Sitting again, Wunderly stared at Pancho for a long, wordless moment. At last she said, “Pancho, we’ve got to get me into the rings before the election.”

“That’s three months off, isn’t it?”

Holly nodded. “June first.”

“I’ve got to prove that there are living organisms in the rings,” Wunderly said, her eyes welling with tears. “Then the IAA will declare the rings off-limits for commercial exploitation.”

Pancho shook her head sadly. “Nadia, it’s gonna take more than three months to get you ready. Otherwise you’ll just be killing yourself.”

“I don’t care! I’ve got to do it, Pancho. I’ve got to!”

Timoshenko wished he knew more about computer programming.

He sat in his office, scrolling through the reports his staff had prepared on the equipment they’d brought in for testing from the solar mirrors.

There’s nothing wrong, Timoshenko saw. Everything works well within design limits. But when these very same motors and actuators were outside they performed erratically.

He knew the problem wasn’t major. The deviations from normal parameters were so minor that hardly anyone even noticed them. But they were deviations, Timoshenko told himself, and they shouldn’t exist. And to make matters worse, the replacement parts that his crew had put into the mirrors were starting to show similar deviations. Just small fluctuations from normal performance. The mirrors moved a few seconds before the computer program was to activate them; they made minor adjustments that reduced the amount of sunlight focused into the habitat by a trifle.

Only a trifle now, Timoshenko thought. But what happens if these fluctuations grow bigger? We could all die in here if the solar mirrors fail in a major way.

He shook his head. There’s nothing wrong with the motors or the actuators, he told himself. We’ve tested them sixteen times now and they perform within design specs each time. But they don’t work within the specs when they’re outside, attached to the mirrors!

Is the computer program at fault? he wondered. He ran a hand through his bristly mop of hair. I’ll have to get somebody from the computer group to go over the mirror program. Line by line, byte by byte. They won’t be happy about it. Nothing but dogwork, thankless drudgery. But it’s got to be done.

Or else we could all end up in the dark. And the temperature outside is near absolute zero. A super Siberia.