12th March 2189
19:00 Earth Central European Time
Waystation, Titan
Leaving the incongruous islands behind them it's another hour or so before Kiara is able to make out the smooth shoreline of the far side of Ligeia Mare. The journey is quiet except for one time when Li starts to ask something, 'What...?', then lapses back into silence. There is no further sign of any waves or anything breaking the inky black surface of the liquid methane. There's one moment where Kiara thinks she sees something in her peripheral vision, almost like something flying, like a bird, but when she turns her head to look there is nothing there.
Waystation is clearly not a pumping station, there's no sign of any construction along the shoreline, no railing or walkways, no silver pumps, no tubing snaking into the sea. As they fly beyond Ligeia Mare, over the smooth beach-like shore with its inlets and bays, something starts to become visible in the distance.
Flying closer the silhouette of a mobile derrick looms above several metallic prefabricated buildings. There's a central cleared area just to the south, a jagged crater cut out of the crust of Titan, at least thirty metres across. Piled around the derrick are several hundred metres worth of pipes, along with a now-iced over bulldozer. To the east stand four gigantic storage silos, each more than twenty metres tall. To the south is what looks like a storage shed and a prefab building that could be a small administrative office. On the western edge of the pit are four barracks-style buildings.
A little further off there is a watch tower beside a landing strip. And on the landing strip is a shuttle in Richter Dynamics markings.
