Harbinger Pt 2
“Enceladus. Powerful geysers shoot water into space, turning quickly into clouds of snow. You wouldn’t think to find water so far from earth, but underneath the thick ice sheets of this moon, lie oceans created by geothermal vents. These alien seas were confirmed by the Lucian Industries Palatus Expedition. This unmanned mission paved the way for the historic Harbinger voyage. Aboard the Palatus craft were nuclear powered submersible probes, fitted with drills designed to core deep into the ice. Unfortunately, technical errors prevented capture of photographs of the oceans, but telemetric data confirmed the liquid underneath. The Palatus craft, carried additional probes designed to navigate the surface of Titan, Saturn’s most fascinating satellite, but unfortunately they too had failed deployment. What secrets lay wait for the Explorers as the first humans to visit the outer solar system? Stay tuned for the second installment of, “Into the Unknown”, where we will explore the possibilities with the engineers who designed the Harbinger craft and its multitude probes. Exclusively on The Ring Network.”
Seven years earlier, an island deep in the pacific, mission control for the Harbinger spacecraft. Launch Day.
Three… Two… One… Lift off! We have lift off!
The roar of the massive heavy lift Harbinger platform rattled underneath me, like the bellowing of some ancient dragon. The eight of us trained for this moment for the last 2 years, and the crew was the best of the best.
Sergei Vasilevsky, Russian co-commander of the mission, with more logged flight hours in space than any human alive. He also holds the record for longest stint in orbit at nearly 2 years.
James Alden, American co-commander of the mission, and the best stick jockey alive. He’s flown more experimental flying objects than any other human being. He is quite literally fearless.
French Microbiologist Louise Marten, known within top secret military circles for her work with deadly ancient pathogens. She is the brains behind Lucian Industries medical breakthroughs.
Persian Physicist and engineer Mahmoud Farahmand, who developed the propulsion and power systems for the Harbinger Platform.
Yukio Sugiyama Geologist and expert of glacial ice and plate tectonics. She developed the drilling techniques used by the Palatus Expedition to discover the oceans of Enceladus.
Dr. Rebecca Lind, Chief medical officer, and designer of the stasis pods we will use to sleep most of our way to Saturn.
Then there is me, Victor Rheins expert rock climber, scuba diver, and survivalist. No one has helped more scientists get to hard to reach places than I have.
Finally, there is the mysterious German Aloys Rothstein. A wealthy billionaire who is along for the ride. He’s older than most of us, and has no technical expertise as far as I can tell, but he is close with The Steel Dame, and seems to know Simeon Ornstein very well. Additionally he is covered in strange tattoos. His life no doubt is interesting indeed, but unlike the rest of the crew he did not train with us. His presence is a random element in a highly tuned machine. What could go wrong?
Our seats shuddered as separation from the main rocket booster and our shuttle occurred. We were now set to rendezvous with the second piece of the Harbinger platform. Built in space, at the Lucian Industries Cloud Nine Space Station, The “Yoke”, was a series of habitats which housed research, storage, and personal living compartments.
Once docked with the Yoke, and on our way, a message from Simeon Ornstein came through. As we all gathered around waiting for the uplink, none of us expected what would come next.
