Titan's Plague: The Trial by Tom Briggs (story reading .txt) 📕
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- Author: Tom Briggs
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Pati turned to look at the young guy with his hand up. “So, we can walk outside with only an air recycler?” he asked.
Dr. Smith raised her right index finger. “You’re close, but remember we’re here orbiting Saturn. The temperature is about a hundred Kelvin on a warm day. If you’re not wearing the insulated suits, the water in your body will freeze quite quickly. You’ll be dead before it actually freezes, but I’m sure you get my point.”
The thought gave Pati another reason to want to go back to Earth. When she left the mining ship in Saturn orbit, it was usually no longer than an hour. This job would be eight hours outside, with two breaks and a lunch. When it came time to suit up for work, she would definitely not worry about style points.
“Okay, now I want to focus on the breathing apparatus of choice here on Titan.” Dr. Smith stood up the apparatus she was working with on the desk. “You’ll be assigned one of these each day before your shift, and we’ve qualified experts who maintain and test these to make sure you don’t run into problems outside the walls. It’s an air recycler which pumps the air you breathe out through a carbon dioxide scrubber. This scrubber not only removes the gas before recycling to your breathing zone but will crack enough of the carbon dioxide back into oxygen so you can work a full eight-hours without a recharge. Most times, the only limit you have is the twelve-hour battery.” She pulled a metal piece off the pack and held it up. Then she smiled, “Oh, and the time limit the Worker’s Guild negotiated for a day’s work.”
* * *
The meeting with Nancy the day before did not go well. The bad news was the state would not negotiate an immediate release. Nancy said she offered everything except Pati’s firstborn, and Jack Reagan wouldn’t go for it. He seemed determined to try the case no matter how shaky the ground the case was on.
That meant she could not leave for Earth as scheduled. She’d have to find another trip months in the future, and the arrival time would be more months after that. Earth would not happen for a while.
Other than that significant drawback, there was no bad news. Nancy assured her the records on the mining ship had not been reconstructed, which again meant her account was the only record to judge with. The engineers tasked to rebuild the records had not sounded positive, said that they were working on it, and expected to have a final decision soon.
Pati tried to bring up the alien encounter again, and Nancy wouldn’t hear of it. Nancy maintained the defense needed to be simple to be effective, and the introduction of such information would only allow the prosecutors an angle to dispute her testimony. Pati countered the aliens would explain why the records were missing and provide a good explanation why the life support systems failed. Nancy, being the professional debater, pointed out the twins could have arranged the whole thing trying to get rid of her, or the lack of power to life support could have affected other systems, or, one could pick any reason because it didn’t matter. It wasn’t Nancy’s job to determine exactly what happened, only to demonstrate Pati Lynch could not have acted in any other way to defend herself. To go over and beyond in her case could call into question that defense and result in a conviction on a lesser charge. That would mean a longer time before leaving Titan.
When Nancy raised the flag of staying longer, Pati dropped the point on the aliens. Nancy did say that if someone else independently established the existence of these aliens before the trial ended, she would consider entry of the evidence. Otherwise, without facts to support, it could only hurt her case.
Pati left Nancy’s office late in the evening. She returned to her apartment, eating a quick meal and going straight to sleep. The alarm woke her the next morning, and again, she felt as if she’d just gone to bed. Pati even checked twice to make sure the clock was on morning time. She’d dreamed of being back in Ireland, and it felt wonderful if also kind of strange. A strangeness that didn’t matter, because she had to get to work.
* * *
Pati arrived for work early, picked up her suit at the tool shop, and hopped into the changing room. After working on the ice-mining ship, she had no issue stripping down to workout clothes in front of her coworkers to put on the black, insulated bodysuit over her torso and extremities. The gloves and boots she’d don right before walking to her transport, and she’d put the helmet on during the transport.
The job today was a simple one: follow the NDT robot out to its testing zone and watch it do its job. The robot climbed the outside walls of Karakorum and used ultrasound to determine the thickness of those walls. The NDT stood for non-destructive testing, which was good because lots of people living in Karakorum needed those walls to remain in good shape.
During the morning brief, Pati made the mistake of asking her boss, Larry, why the robots couldn’t just test from the inside. There were eleven other workers in there, and none of the others were newbies like herself. Larry wasn’t mean about his response, he just let her know that the insides of those walls had construction attached and that they must rip down buildings to get to those walls from the inside. Her coworkers weren’t so cordial, and she didn’t think she’d have a problem refusing to go out for a drink with them after work.
Once the suit was on, she walked out and picked up her helmet, breathing apparatus, gloves, and boots. Everything was tailored, and when she tried on the gloves, they fit very well. The boots slipped on, and she walked over to the bus. She followed her similarly dressed coworkers into the vehicle and walked to the back past the other eleven.
As the newbie, she got the assignment farthest away. The bus would drive out of the airlock, and then down along the outside wall of Karakorum dropping off workers as it went. After it dropped off Pati, the bus would return and wait for four hours, when it would go back out and pick everyone up for a one-hour lunch. The whole scheme was repeated in the afternoon.
The bus rose to get clearance after Pati boarded. It drove into the airlock, and the first door shut behind it. The airlock pressurized to fifty percent excess with mostly nitrogen and a little oxygen. Pati didn’t notice other than a breeze from the additional air. The second door then opened, letting it drive out.
It was nighttime and would be for the next few days. Lights attached to poles allowed hazy visibility along the road built around Karakorum’s walls. The bus stopped. A mechanical arm extended on the right side and picked up a package. The arm attached the package to the outside of the vehicle, and the trip was resumed. The bus crawled along, seemingly in no hurry to get them to their stations, and Pati had been instructed to use the time to check her breathing equipment. She noticed her coworkers were busy at it, so she better do it, too.
Outside, the bus had retrieved a package of liquid oxygen cartridges that she and her coworkers would attach to their rebreathers for a supplemental source of oxygen. Most of the rebreather apparatus she’d strap on her back, with a tube hanging down to connect a deciliter-size cartridge of liquid oxygen. The package outside was full of these containers, and Pati would pick one up when she stepped out.
The bus stopped, which she barely noticed as it traveled so slowly, and the doors opened for the first of her coworkers to get out. There was no airlock because other than the temperature, the atmospheres were similar, and a door open for a few seconds would not deplete the oxygen in the inside atmosphere.
The bus plodded forward once again, and Pati rode standing till all her other coworkers had gotten off. Her job site was a little farther, and she finally connected the tubes from her rebreather to her helmet. She activated the rebreather to make sure she heard the motor humming, and all arrows were in the right direction. She checked the connections again and then placed the helmet on her head. She took a breath and all seemed well.
Pati shuffled toward the door. When the bus stopped, she waited for the doors to open and then exited. She immediately opened the package fastened to the bus and pulled out an oxygen cartridge. Pati hooked the cartridge to the line hanging next to her right arm. Outside on
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