Sharing Sol

By Rebecca S. W. Bates

Three Short Stories
Titan Towers—Humans don’t always get there first.
Helium Harvest—The price for starship fuel may be too great.
Before They Invade—Such a small sacrifice to save humanity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D. M. Kreg Publishing
• Release date: Nov 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781540119919

Book preview

Sharing Sol

Three Short Stories

by

Rebecca S. W. Bates

Electronic edition published by D. M. Kreg Publishing.

Copyright © 2015 by D. M. Kreg Publishing and Rebecca S. W. Bates.

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All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction, in whole or in part in any form. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover Art:  © Philcold, Tish Marti and Dreamstime

Table of Contents

Titan Towers—Humans don’t always get there first.

Helium Harvest—The price for starship fuel may be too great.

Before They Invade—Such a small sacrifice to save humanity.

Titan Towers

by

Rebecca S.W. Bates

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Landon Walker sat dimly aware, shaking against the straps of his bucket seat, inhaling the scent of...burning ozone?  Antiseptics?  He blinked furiously against the white haze obscuring his vision and detected instrument panels lining the circular space that surrounded him. 

He was inside the lander. 

Two shadowy shapes moved about him, whispering, rocking the lander side to side.  Crewmates.  He had to assist whatever they were doing.  Tried to move.  Couldn’t flex so much as a finger.  The after-effects of cryogenics left him in a state of paralyzing detachment.  They’d warned him about this possible side effect.  Impaired vision, too.  For a man who liked to control his environment and everyone within range, he might as well have died already. 

No! 

Understanding seeped through him, cell by cell, warming him drip by drip, like a narcotic in reverse.  They hadn’t planned to awaken him until orbit was achieved. 

Now he was awake. 

Which meant they must be there...here.  Titan.

He hadn’t wanted to separate from his bride for as long as this first manned mission to the surface of Saturn’s famous moon would require, but the boss had insisted.  No one refused H.F. Washington. 

In spite of his reluctance to play astronaut, Landon couldn’t hold back the tidal forces of elation that swept through him now, trying to thaw the paralysis of his mind.

A billion plus kilometers, and Landon had slept through the entire journey.

Dr. Walker? said a honeyed voice, as sweet as Summer’s.  Couldn’t be his wife’s.  Summer opted to live with her parents in Colorado during his absence. 

Dr. Walker? said the woman’s voice again, not Summer’s.  How do you feel? 

A face bent over his face, flooding his hazed vision.  Her smell of antiseptics washed over him.  He couldn’t remember her name. 

Just nod if you hear me, she said.  How do you feel?

Never better, he meant to say with intended sarcasm, but the words didn’t emerge, either. 

It’s okay, don’t try to speak, she said.  I should let you know that we have a slight problem. 

Pro’lem?  He managed to spit out the dreaded word, the word no one wanted to hear in unforgiving space. 

Shhhh, she said, patting his hand.  Her touch felt hot on his flesh.  Giselle.  That was her name.  We’re going to have to speed things up, that’s all, transferring into the float-rover.  The lander put us down slightly off course.  Instead of landing on one of the islands, as we expected, we landed in the middle of an ethane sea.  We’re sinking.  Captain Norris is preparing for ejection.  We just hoped we’d get to use the lander a bit longer than this. 

Landon’s lips twitched, trying to form words to the protest that clutched his mind.  H.F. had planned for such a possibility, considering the extent of Titan’s ethane seas.  They’d run through the drills.  He tried to unbuckle.  A muscle spasmed. 

Relax, Giselle said, massaging his arm beneath the seat straps.  Nothing you can do about it.  I’m going to add a stimulant to your feeder to help with post-awakening.  Might give you a headache for a bit.  Don’t worry about it.  We’ll help you transfer at the last possible moment.  Your equipment is already on board the float-rover, so your project is not in danger. 

Her words spun around in his head like a swarm of Summer’s precious rescued bees.  Giselle whisked away.  The meaning of her words stewed inside him. 

He channeled all of his mental strength into his body, sending brain commands to each of his extremities, but nothing responded.