Play@YSDC

Day 2
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.

As the chopper flies over, Kiara studies the site with great interest, trying to figure out just what the operation was at Waystation.

“Can you circle around low?” she asks Li. “I’ll try to take some readings and maybe see if I can connect wirelessly to any local control processors.”

The copter circles around the Waystation site and Kiara uses the sensors to take some readings. There seems to be something wrong with the sensors because her measurements of density, magnetism, and a whole host of other parameters are fluctuating wildly and completely uninterpretable. She also tries to access the station wireless network but can't seem to connect.

Looking down into the crater she can see a diffuse blue glow but otherwise struggles to make anything out. There does seem to be a noise, she can't tell exactly where it is coming from but it is loudest over the dark hole in the orange snow. She can almost feel it rather than hear it. A high-pitched throbbing noise.

You can try Computer Use to try and get into the wireless network. Try Spot Hidden to see anything more about the site. Or anything else you want to give a go.

[46] = 46
Computer use 65 d%: [ 46 ] = 46

“This is just weird…,” Kiara mutters as she jabs at her pad in an attempt to forge a connection to Waystation.

“Mind you, I don’t suppose we should expect anything else. I’m gonna try to access the local control network and find out what’s going on down there.”

Oh, and also try to establish contact with the shuttle on the landing strip…

Kiara is able to bypass the protocols to access the Waystation network. She brings up the main interface and enters her own credentials. Through her datapad there is an audio response, 'Hello Science Officer Khan, welcome to Waystation.' It is the a synthesised female voice of a CENTRAL intelligence.

Reluctant to engage with another CENTRAL, Kiara tries hailing the shuttle directly, but there is no response on any channel she tries.

Unable to hack into the shuttle, Kiara curses under her breath. This becomes even more heartfelt upon hearing CENTRAL’s dulcet tones.

“CENTRAL, please explain the function of the Waystation facility,” she asks, whilst signalling Li to keep circling.

“I have full authority CENTRAL. Contact your counterpart at Bernard’s Rest. It will reply if I don’t have the right clearance,” replies Kiara, hoping that she can bamboozle an advanced computer with basic logic.

The smooth artificial voice is unperturbed, 'I am afraid that communications between Waystation and the Barnard's Rest Colony are prohibited due to operational security, Science Officer Khan.'

“Understood,” Kiara sighs, reminding herself of the futility of trying to get sense out of CENTRAL.

“We are running low on fuel and will be landing soon to replenish,” she continues, hoping that they will at least be able to land.

'You have clearance to use the landing strip, Science Officer Khan,' says CENTRAL.

'We can put the copter down just about anywhere,' notes Li. 'We don't have to use the landing strip.'

“Set us down near the shuttle if you can,” Kiara replies after cutting comms with CENTRAL. “But let’s try to contact the others first.”

“This is Kiara: can you hear me? We’ve reached Waystation and will have to land soon. How are you guys?” she says into the radio mic.

Li flies towards the landing strip and inverts the copter engines to gently hover thirty metres above the surface as Kiara tries to radio the others.

All she can get is static on the usual frequencies but she does pick up a transmission, at the very edge of the usual channels. A whining sound, repeating in a cyclical pattern, speeding up and rising in pitch until reaching a crescendo and then starting over again.

Kiara attempts to record the sound, so that she can maybe analyse it.

“I suppose we should land and find somewhere to refuel,” she tells Li.

Kiara is easily able to make a recording of the rhythmic sound, now she listens to it a little more she notes that it is similar to the sound she heard when the copter was flying over the crater, only that was a high pitched throbbing noise that she could almost feel in her body.



Li grunts in response to Kiara's request and gently brings the copter in to land about twenty metres from the huge bulk of the Richter Dynamics shuttle. The shuttle itself is raised high up above the runway on its wheeled undercarriage but there is a set of steps leading down from the cabin. There are no lights on in the shuttle. 'Nobody home' sniffs Li.

“We’d better check the shuttle out first, just in case we need it,” Kiara announces. “Let’s secure the chopper and take a look.”

Now they're safely on the landing strip, Li taps a few buttons on the head-up display and the transparent sides of the cockpit slide open and broad broad metal steps descend from hatches in the fuselage, unfurling to make a ladder on each side.

Li bounds down the steps and jumps the last two to gently land with both feet settling on the black bitumen runway. Kiara climbs down rather more hesitantly, cradling her shotgun and cutting torch, boots clicking onto each step by their magnetised soles.

Waiting patiently for Kiara to reach the ground, Li then taps a small panel on the side of the copter cockpit, a keypad illuminates, and she enters a sequence of digits. The doors slide closed and the ladders retract. 'Activation code's 59276, for what it's worth.'

The two of them then walk slowly towards the shuttle. It's dark bulk silhouetted sinisterly against the low light of the sun. Once they reach the steps they can see the door to the shuttle main cabin is still open to the freezing atmosphere. There is no sign of life, no lights from inside or within the cockpit. Placing a foot on the stairway their boots again stick to the metallic surface. 'Do we go in?' asks Li.

"I think we should," Kiara whispers, although she has no idea why she's whispering.

"This could be our ticket out of here."

Tightening her grip on her weapons, she follows the pilot.

The steps are just about wide enough for two to walk abreast. Li pauses, turns, taps Kiara's shotgun with her gloved hand and says, 'After you.'

Kiara reluctantly clanks up the stairway first, the cluster of lamps on the suit sweep their beams back and forth across the steps as she walks, and eventually they start to illuminate some of the area inside the cabin, as she nears the top of the steps.

From the outside, to all intents and purposes it looks like any other interplanetary shuttle, and as a Richter Dynamics Arcturus-II model it is largely the same as the one they arrived in less than two days ago. At the top of the stairs, through the entry hatch, Kiara can see the sealed door to the cockpit on the right-hand side, to the left she can make out the first few rows of seats. Unlike in the shuttle she arrived in several of the seats seem to have been removed and replaced with equipment storage racks.

There are no lights on inside the cabin and everything is covered in a thin layer of frost.

Kiara fumbles for a torch, whether it be a helmet-mounted light or a flashlight in her kit.