By the waning years of the 22nd century, humanity has expanded beyond Earth, establishing colonies on Mars, Ceres, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn; the latter of these being largely penal or mining colonies, taking advantage of the isolation and mineral wealth of these moons. One such colony, known as Benedict’s Rest, was established on the shores of the north polar sea of Ligeia Mare on the moon Titan, in the year 2169. Originally a penal colony that used convict labor to harvest liquid methane, Benedict’s Rest was bought out by a German energy conglomerate, Richter Dynamics, and expanded; now, in 2189, contract, or “free” miners outnumber convicts 5 to 1—158 free miners to 31 convicts.
The colony’s productivity, formerly the highest of any Richter colony site, has dropped 19% in the last month with no reasonable explanation provided. In the same period, the colony medic, Dr. Henry Holzer, has died; the administration has been vague regarding cause, though it has been intimated that he committed suicide. Over the objections of colony administrator James Kingsley, Richter Dynamics has sent a team of corporate troubleshooters to investigate these two issues and make recommendations to revive productivity.
Day 1
11th March 2189
11:20 Earth Central European Time
Titan Upper Atmosphere
The 'fasten seat belt' sign lights up and Ling Li's stern voice comes over the intercom, 'We're entering Titan's atmosphere it's going to get a bit rocky'. The passengers begin to feel the first tremors of turbulence. Anyone looking out of the windows sees only dense, orange clouds.
After a few minutes of the shuttle bucking and shaking in a most unsettling manner, Li's voice comes back on, 'We’ve dipped into the troposphere, you might be able to see a bit of the surface out the windows now.'
Outside the clouds thin out somewhat, although the sky maintains its orange hue. The ground below begins to become more visible - miles and miles of windswept dunes of methane snow, broken by knife-like volcanic ridges of icy stone, open cryovolcanic craters belching 'lava flows' of liquid water, ammonia, and methane that freeze into fantastic shapes as they pour down the slopes towards Ligeia Mare, Titan’s largest sea of liquid methane.
OOC,Everyone roll a hard (half) Spot Hidden to make out the colony - all Spot Hidden rolls in Titan's atmosphere (outside the base) are hard due to the thick hazy atmosphere
Virgil grimaces as he looks out at the hideous landscape; he’s never seen anywhere so inhospitable. He can just make out the man made shapes of the buildings below; darker ochre shadows in the swirling mass of sulphur.
Through the orange haze some of the passengers get a glimpse of Benedict’s Rest as it comes over the horizon, Isabella describes it to the others and brings up a map on the shuttle viewscreen. It is a squat collection of dark gray prefabricated buildings clustered on the icy shores of the lake. Huge storage silos tower over the colony and miles of pipeline spread out like the tentacles of some vast octopus, extending over the sluggish, yellow-tinted waves, linking subsidiary pumping stations to the central complex.
The shuttle glides in to land on a brightly-lit pad, connecting with a heavy thump as the magnetic landing gear engages. With an almost deafening squeal of hydraulics, the entire landing pad begins to sink into the ground, two halves of a protective dome rising up to shield the pad and shuttle from the elements. With the meeting of the two halves of the dome, the 'fasten seat belt' sign goes dark. There is a loud gush of air as the atmospheric processors kick in. After a minute or so the shuttle door opens with a soft hiss.
Although the landing pad airlock has expelled the freezing atmospheric gases and replaced them with oxygenated nitrogen, there is a distinct smell, like a mixture of engine oil and alcohol from the residual hydrocarbons.
A mobile staircase has already been wheeled into place for the passengers. A young man, sandy-haired, fresh-faced, and dressed in the shortsleeved uniform coveralls of the colonial security division, is standing at the bottom of the staircase to meet them, a small, bus-like vehicle parked behind him.
OOC,Spot Hidden(60%)
Hard Roll (30%): [dice]0[/dice]
Nicole catches a glimpse of the facility during the approach, she tenses up as the shuttle touches down on the pad - she enjoys flights apart from the landings.
Nonetheless the Colonial Marshal is glad to be on the ground and with a roof over their heads. She unfastens her seatbelt and gets ready to leave the shuttle, waiting to follow some of the corporate team - Virgil in particular. There seems no point in antagonising anyone unnecessarily. Hopefully this trip will prove to be a waste of time.
The weight of her holstered handgun is always reassuring though, even in 0.14g.
Sam easily hoists her heavy toolkit, though she's muscular enough that she could have done it even in Earth normal gravity, and steps off the shuttle, heading for the vehicle. The gravity here is slightly lower than on Luna, where she worked for a year once, so it's not too difficult to adjust.
Virgil Steinmann carries a small grip and a briefcase. He steps towards the stairs in a massive leap, bumping his head on the door head. “First time in low gravity.” He mutters, collects himself and proceeds more cautiously.
Ling Li emerges from the cockpit and silently joins the others. Stepping out of the shuttle the investigators feel the weak pull of Titan's 0.14 g gravity on their bodies, very different from Earth but pretty similar to that on Ganymede and enough at least to give a sense of up and down compared to the weightlessness of their flight. Their weighted clothing provides some resistance to their movements and the heavy boots keep their feet on the ground.
'Welcome to Titan' says the security officer, who introduces himself as Officer Robert Tyson. 'Fortunately we don't have to worry about all that xenoprotection rigmarole you get on Mars, nothing terrestrial could survive in this atmosphere.' He explains that he has been asked to show the investigators to the quarters that they’ll use for their stay at Benedict’s Rest, and that it’s been anticipated that they’ll want to refresh themselves after their long flight and that they are encouraged to shower and take a nap if they feel so inclined.
He notes that one 'day' on Titan (one revolution of Saturn since it is tidally locked) is the equivalent of almost sixteen Earth days and that light levels actually increase at twilight. Since the Titan day length is so incompatible with human biology the colony bases its day-night cycle on Berlin time; by his watch, it’s currently 11.30 in the morning.
Gesturing to the bus, he asks the passengers to board so he can take them to their quarters in the administrative building.
"Thanks," says Sam, boarding the vehicle. "Glad to hear it. I remember Martian quarantine - not fondly. At least it gave me time to get some reading done."
Unused to the gravity, Kiara almost stumbles as she collects her kit (various items of scientific equipment in carry cases and hold-alls).
Staggering towards the bus like some two-legged packhorse (more out of awkwardness than weight due to the gravity), she sighs in annoyance, realising that she hasn’t set her watch to local time. Carefully setting down some carry cases she proceeds to remedy this before picking them up again.
Eventually however she boards the bus, waving off any offers of help although blushing with embarrassment.
"So when does it get dark?" Jojo asks with a confused look. He boards the bus and sets his duffel down and waits to be shown to his quarters. There's work to be done after all.
Life is a tragedy to those who feel
Life is a comedy to those who think
Life is a fantasy to those who game
Virgil checks his watch; it is, of course, correct to the second. He moves swiftly to the bus, pretending not to notice the antics of the struggling scientist, and takes a seat at the back.
Tyson looks embarrassed at Jojo's question, 'Sorry, I probably wasn't very clear, although we get illumination from the Sun and from Saturn, it's basically always pretty dark due to the thick atmosphere, it ranges from an orangey smoggy day to darkness but you'll always need lights outside of the colony building. We don't simulate a day night cycle within the colony because we work twenty four seven.'
Officer Tyson drives the investigators down a long hallway connecting the landing bay to the rest of the colony. Branching tunnels are labeled with their destinations: the penal sector, contract miner housing, maintenance sector, atmospheric scrubbing plant, administrative centre, security centre, maglev launch, and others.
Shooting up and down the corridors are self-propelled robotic manipulators, essentially arms on wheels, 'CENTRAL's ARMs' says Tyson.
As they drive down the tunnel the investigators feel a slight tremor and the lights flicker for a few seconds before going out for a moment, a generator kicks in and soft green emergency lighting bathes the corridor for a few minutes until the power comes back on. 'Cryovulcanism' says Tyson, 'nothing to worry about'.
OOC,Kiara, Samantha, and JoJo will know cryovolcanism is when water, ammonia, or methane is melted somehow, such as tectonic activity, and erupts from under the crust like a volcano, then refreezing. Anyone else can roll a Know roll or ask one of the others
Turning down the tunnel to the administrative centre, they soon arrive at a suite of apartments for visiting officials. Upon arrival, Tyson distributes old fashioned magnetic 'visitor pass' ID cards to the investigators, which will be needed to enter various areas; these passes are currently registered as 'all-access,' and he tells them they can go anywhere in the colony with them.
Upon arriving at the suite of apartments reserved for visiting officials, the investigators are divided between two identical foursleeper apartments; each consists of four bedrooms containing a single twin bed, nightstand, desk and chair, connected to a common area with a couch, wall-mounted television, table, and four folding chairs. A bathroom consists of a sink, towel rack, toilet, and shower stall. Most surfaces are unadorned light gray plastic, with the bedding, towels and couch cushions being cheap cotton and darker gray. The metallic bulkheads and drab grey plastic fittings make the white synthetic furnishings of the shuttle look positively cheery.
Every room has a red fish-eye lens camera and an intercom to allow communication with the colony CENTRAL computer system.
OOC,Any questions for Tyson before you retire to your rooms?
