Sam leads them up the steps and through the opening in the smooth black stone outer shell, with its concentric patterns of hexagonal shapes and figures in bas relief. That nagging high-pitched noise starts again.
Jojo and
Isabella follow a little distance behind
Sam, while
Nicole and
Booth bring up the rear. Despite the marine constantly turning to point his weapon into the darkness behind them, there is no sign of any pursuit.
Booth shudders as he glances at the cephalopodic-shapes carved into the stone.
Clearing the translucent plastic pressure dome they emerge once more onto the basalt-like surface jutting out of the methane ice, emitting a faint but disconcerting blue glow. The huddle of equipment brightly illuminated by the industrial worklights that bathe the area around the dome in a sharp white light. Clambering up the slope of compressed methane-ice alongside the tangle of thick cables they come to the flatter floor of the crater and approach the nearest metal ladder hammered into the crust of compressed methane ice. At the bottom lies the body of
Moses, twisted and crumpled, seemingly in the same position it fell when they hauled it off the overhang above.
The climbing takes a few minutes,
Sam leading then followed by the others,
Booth coming up last. Even in the weak gravity of Titan everyone feels a weariness in their limbs, a nagging pull back down towards the buried structure. Perhaps it is just the knowledge that somewhere down there
Kiara might still be alive. Standing at the edge of the precipice and looking back down, the floor is again obscured, there is just an eerie blue glow that blurs and shifts like some kind of mist.
They trudge in silence past the still prefabricated structures of Waystation. The drilling derrick and half buried bulldozer and power-loader.
The main building with its radio antenna, and the four barrack-blocks. Thankfully that high-pitched cyclical throbbing fades as they leave the vicinity of the pit. Passing the four huge storage tanks they walk expectantly towards the landing strip and watchtower. No one willing to put into words their silent apprehensions about what they'll find.
The massive shuttle dwarfs the small copter and surface rover. Everything seems as they left it, including the frozen corpse of the pilot, lying in the snow without a surface suit.
As soon as he sees the body
Booth freezes and drops into a crouch, raising his weapon and sweeping the area. Once he's happy there's no one in the vicinity he cautiously moves towards the corpse.
'Looks like they got Robin.' He carries out a cursory examination,
'Weird, I can't see any injuries. You guys any idea what killed him?' He points to the man's frozen face -
'I doubt he just took a walk in the fresh air.'
