Titan's Plague: The Trial by Tom Briggs (story reading .txt) 📕

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Pati had to admit, it was grand. She stared up into a scene where Saturn dominated the daytime sky, and the sun could be seen right behind it. The builders of Karakorum built a perfectly transparent ceiling for this regular event. Never in her life had she seen such a sight before she arrived. It was the view of a lifetime she got to see every other week, weather permitting, which wasn’t normally the case.

That was probably why they named this the Grand Center. When tourists came to Titan, it was normally on their to-see lists. Pati liked it for shopping.

She sat at an open-air table, eating her oriental food, and researching return trips with the display that sat on the table. There were maybe a hundred four-seat tables in this area, meant to seat various inhabitants of Karakorum during their lunch hour. It was late breakfast now, and it wasn’t so crowded.

Unlike on Earth, the tables were secured to the floor because of the low gravity and the need to keep the aisles open for serving robots. Like Earth, it had the odor of a multi-restaurant eating area, and she could smell a potpourri of cooked meats and vegetables.

Pati had ordered her meal from the display. A few minutes later, a robot rolled out to deliver it. It gave her time to enjoy the view of Saturn and research her return trip to Earth.

“There you are,” Nancy said, from behind.

Pati had her mouth full of food; she turned around anyway and waved Nancy to sit down across from her.

“I’ll let you eat,” she said, after taking the seat.

“Thanks,” Pati responded, after swallowing what was in her mouth.

“I got the results on your prison clothes,” Nancy said.

“What did you find out?”

“The microscopic scans show abrasions exactly where you’d find them if you’d struggled with Bruno. Exactly as you said in your statement. It’s the first physical evidence we have backing up your story. And, there’s no physical evidence disputing it.”

“Awesome,” Pati said.

“What are you doing, besides eating?” Nancy asked. She pointed to the display in front of Pati.

“I’m researching trips home,” Pati said. She pointed at the display, “I’m hoping to decide soon on how I’ll leave Titan.”

“Yeah, well, that’s looking more certain now. But, we still have lots of work to do to actually make certain.”

“Of course. I imagine we’re still going down to the spaceport.”

“It’s a little early, but there’s no reason we can’t explore some when we get there. You ready?”

“Certainly, let’s go,” Pati said. She stood up from her chair, as did Nancy. Nancy walked past Pati after a robot sped through with a covered dish. Pati followed as she navigated through the tables and out through a bazaar of shops. This section replicated the shops one would see at an old Caribbean seaport. Although, the workers were of whatever ethnic group that needed those jobs at the time of hire.

After walking past more shops that only intensified her desire to escape from Titan, they emerged onto Main Street. As the name implied, it was the main thoroughfare in Karakorum and ran north and south. It was thirty meters to the other side, and in-between were routes for groundcars, static walkways, and the trolleys. Since they didn't have a groundcar, they proceeded to the Grand Center Station for the trolley to take them to the spaceport. The traffic was bad, and they had a time avoiding pedestrians and groundcars heading north.

Nancy and Pati stepped around the northbound station and on the walkway over the trolley rails. The southbound station was on the other side, and they entered through the sliding glass door. Nancy, and then Pati, swiped their palms over a reader in a kiosk and entered the boarding area through separate revolving doors. Once through, they met on the metal loading platform.

Unlike the steel-framed building they’d walked through, the platform had no roof. Pati looked up through the transparent ceiling of Grand Center again, and Saturn was still visible. “Do you ever tire of seeing that?” Pati asked Nancy.

Nancy looked up. “It’s all I ever knew. You lived next to the ocean on Earth, what was that like?”

Pati sighed. “If it’s all you know, you think nothing about it. If you’re into blues and greens my home is the most beautiful place on Earth.” Pati shrugged, “Of course, that’s not something you appreciate as a teenager who never left the place.”

Nancy chuckled. “Being a teenager is never easy.”

Pati nodded as the trolley approached from their right.

The trolley looked like a subway train with two cars, red paint, and a clanging bell as it slowed and approached. She admitted the designers at least tried to replicate the feel of nineteenth-century public transportation.

A set of doors slid open at the front and back of each car, and the pair entered the back of the leading car. The doors slid closed behind them, and the cars slowly accelerated. The trolley’s top speed was forty kilometers per hour, and the driverless vehicle seemed to be at that velocity when Pati looked out to the right. After seeing several administrative buildings, she saw the cross-streets and living complexes speed by. After another stop, they went by her old street. It went too fast for her to see her house, and maybe that was for the best. Better to just keep thinking forward.

The private factories followed, and most of the people on the train got off at the station there. There was still a significant number of passengers as the trolley slowed and approached the south terminus station.

“We’re here,” Nancy said. Pati didn’t respond but followed Nancy out the sliding glass doors. They walked off the platform, following the crowd, and traversed the walkway to the terminal. Another set of sliding doors opened on their approach, and they entered a passenger terminal that became busy as the crowd entered. Nancy led her over the gray carpet toward blue colored stations. As an older man on the left rose to help them, she turned left and walked to a door on that side. She opened the door and walked through to an open-space office area. To the right was a desk with Nancy’s husband sitting behind it. He waved her over when Pati entered the door.

“Hey, Nancy,” he said to her.

“What’s up,” she responded and hugged him.

“I’ll tell Lani that you’re here,” he said.

“Thanks, we’ll wait.”

He nodded and walked behind her to an office door, next to windows showing that office.

“Why do we need to come here?” Pati asked. “Can’t we just walk out to the ship?”

“Jack Reagan wants to have us escorted. It’s a condition of letting you come to the spaceport.”

Pati sighed and looked back at Nancy’s husband. He left open the door he entered, and he talked to a darker-skin lady at a desk. She put a tablet down, stood up, and towered over him. She let him lead her back to his desk. They were both wearing brown pants and light blue shirts. Lani held her hand out to Nancy as she walked up.

“Counselor, it’s good to see you again,” she said.

“Come on, Lani. You know to call me, Nancy.”

“Okay, sorry about the formality, but I know you’re on business. I didn’t want to be unprofessional.”

“Don’t worry about that. We have a lot to see, and we need your help. I’m on a first-name basis with everyone I work with. Even some of those I work against, so you needn’t worry.”

Lani smiled. Her dark skin surrounded Asian characteristics, although Pati couldn’t tell which country.

“Lani, this is Pati Lynch.”

“Very pleased to meet you, Pati,” she said, holding out her hand.

“And you, too,” Pati replied.

After they shook hands, Nancy looked at Joe. “Honey, we’ll be okay with Lani.”

“Oh, no problem. Lani’s the most knowledgeable stevedore we have here. If she can’t answer your question, nobody can.” He turned to Lani. “And I’m not saying that to get a better rating from my boss.”

Lani and Nancy laughed. Pati wasn’t certain of the relationship, so she held back. Joe smiled until he looked at Pati. Then he turned back to Nancy.

“Well, I’ve been here thirty years, so I should have some knowledge,” Lani said.

Pati still hadn’t gotten used to people on Titan looking so young. If Lani had worked here for thirty years, she looked as if she started in kindergarten. No wrinkles in her face, or streaks of gray hair, and her eyes were as bright as a teenager’s. When Pati got back to Earth, there would be a time in her future where she regretted leaving Titan and its low gravity.

“Let’s get started then,” Nancy said.

Lani led the way to the back of the room. They walked through a door into the massive steel hangar Pati was accustomed to, except they had to walk by all the landers and shuttles instead of going straight to the big ships. There was no shortage of these, with crowds of workers waiting to board.

“It’s the second wave of the morning rush,” Lani said to Nancy and Pati, who followed. “Everyone on their way up to Picus.”

Pati noticed some of the crowd stared at her, then a few pointed. She tried to walk faster and was next to Lani as she moved through the people.

“Don’t worry