Saturn Rukh by Robert L. Forward Page A

in the range where methane and ethane are liquids.” She switched to another view. This infrared image had a bright patch in it. “This is the leading pole image,” she said. “That bright spot is a high-elevation continent of frozen water and ammonia ice sticking up out of the hydrocarbon-covered plains.”
     
    “Do you think there may exist lifeforms there?” asked Seichi.
     
    “The landers haven’t seen anything on Titan,” replied Sandra. “Although there are a lot of hydrocarbons there, and even an ocean to get life started, the temperatures are probably too low for the chemical reactions to proceed at the necessary speeds. It’s different on Saturn, where the temperatures get up to room temperature and higher. We know there are lifeforms there —and soon we’ll have some on board to look at!”
     
    ~ * ~
     
    They approached Titan from an unconventional angle. Sexdent’s orbit was in the plane of the ecliptic, while Titan’s orbit was tilted at almost twenty-six degrees because of Saturn’s tilted axis. The burn at Titan was minor, only one minute at three gees. That burn put them into a long elliptical orbit about Titan that took them almost out to Titan’s leading Trojan point. Another minor correction there, and they were stopped among the small collection of ice chunks that had collected at the weak gravity minimum region over the eons.
     
    “There’s a nice egg-shaped hundred-meter iceberg over there,” said Chastity from her pilot’s console. The acceleration couches had been removed from the control deck floor and stored in the airlock and the swivel-arm chairs had been installed in front of the control consoles. “It’s tidally locked to Saturn in all three axes, so its orientation is perfectly predictable.”
     
    “Looks good to me,” said Rod. He had rearranged the icons on the third console so that it was back to being the commander’s console instead of a science console. “Are we ready for separation, Seichi?”
     
    “Rendezvous stage safetied and vernier control tanks full,” reported Seichi from the engineering console.
     
    Rod tapped a red icon on his screen and the clattering sound of clamps releasing rattled through the hull.
     
    “It’s all yours, Chass,” said Rod. “Take the rendezvous stage away a few hundred meters and hold it there ‘til I back Sexdent out of the return stage.”
     
    Chastity activated her screen, flew the large empty rendezvous tank out from behind them, and brought it to a halt in the distance. Rod, using the vernier jets on Sexdent, brought the nose of the spacecraft up close to the side of the iceberg. Sexdent still wore the return stage fuel tank around its “waist,” somewhat like the spare tire Pete wore around his waist.
     
    “Return stage ready, Seichi?” Rod asked.
     
    “Ready.”
     
    Rod pushed another red icon, and another set of clatters indicated that Sexdent was now separated from the donut-shaped fuel tank it had been carrying. Carefully, Rod backed Sexdent out of the hole in the fuel tank, leaving it floating in front of them, about ten meters away from the hundred-meter block of ice.
     
    “Set the return tank module on autopilot, Jeeves,” Rod commanded. “Maintain present orientation at ten meters’ separation distance.”
     
    “Very good, sir,” said Jeeves, sending commands to a similar semi-intelligent program in the computer that resided on the return stage. Two of the vernier jets on the donut-shaped object fired to stop a small amount of residual rotation that had been left from Rod’s exit maneuver and the tank full of meta became still.
     
    “Now, stay there until we get back,” ordered Rod.
     
    “And don’t get any holes,” added Chastity.
     
    “Okay, Chass,” said Rod. “Fly the rendezvous stage in.”
     
    Chastity activated her control board and brought the nearly empty rendezvous stage up until it was ten meters away on the other side of the donut-shaped tank that contained the