Chapter No.2

Carl, Margaret and Janet arrived at the Houston NASA headquarters and immediately went to the meeting room where they found George Latimore, NASA's mission chief, and Alice Holmes, a stunning blond with a figure that projected her great physical condition. But Carl could sense that she was all business from her serious facial expression.

"The reason for this meeting is to prepare you four for a mission to Titan." He pointed to Carl. "You will be the pilot. Miss Holmes will oversee the mission."

Carl interpreted that to mean that he would be blamed for any screw ups. He nodded his approval. "Why are we going to Titan?"

Alice entered commands into a computer to cause a large screen to light up with an image of a round dirty orange ball. Next to it was an image of what looked like a planet with lakes, rivers and mountains, all of which had a dark but shiny appearance.

"I recognize the image of Titan," Carl said. "But I don't recognize that second image."

George stood up and pointed at the first image. "This is Titan as it has been for as long as we've been looking at it." He pointed to the second image. "This is Titan as it is now."

Carl's right eyebrow shot up. "I don't understand. How is that possible?"

"That's what you and your crew are going to find out."

Alice stood up and pointed to a small but shiny triangular object in the second image. She entered a command to zoom the image in. "We believe this is responsible for the change."

"Is that a vessel?" Carl asked, squinting at the image.

"We don't know," Alice said. "It's not from Earth."

"Do you think that's what's changing Titan?"

"It's possible, but we're not sure."

"How could Titan's atmosphere be radically changed like that?" Carl asked, realizing that it was the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.

"Titan's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, but it has around seven percent methane. It also has all sorts of hydrocarbons that are responsible for the smog that makes it difficult to see the surface . . . that is until now. One possible method would be to introduce oxygen, which would react with the hydrocarbons to produce carbon dioxide and water, which in turn would rain down on the surface as snow and dry ice. However, we won't know what's really going on until we go there.

Carl paused before he replied. "Looks like I'll be busy studying the manuals on the new spaceship."

"I've given you access," George said. "A lot of the functions are computer controlled. Your main job will be to understand what you must do to get up to the ship and prepare for the burn to get to Saturn's current location, which is conveniently nearly as close to Earth as it ever gets."

"What if this is an alien device," Carl said. "Are we authorized to try and communicate with them?"

"Only if it's necessary to determine what they're doing. An alien species that could travel to our solar system and terraform a moon could be dangerous."

"Is terraforming what we assume they're doing?"

"What other reason would they be trying to change Titan's atmosphere?"

"Why Titan?" Carl said. "Why not some larger planet like Venus or Mars?"

"Venus would be a major project because it's extremely hot and is exhibiting severe volcanic eruptions," Alice said. "Mars has a very small atmosphere. Titan is the only object in our solar system, other than gas giants, that has an appreciable atmosphere. It's larger than Earth's."

Carl decided that further argument was futile. "I understand."

"Good!" George exclaimed. "You're scheduled to depart on Friday. You don't have to take clothing or personal items. Everything you need is on the ship."

Carl nodded. After George and the other officials were gone and he was preparing to leave, Alice stopped him. Her facial expression altered from all business to a softer appearance.

"Janet told me about how she and Margaret are living in your . . . home. Would it be imposing if I could join them?"

Her request startled Carl for just a moment before he offered her a warm smile. "Sure. I have plenty of room."

"I really appreciate this," she reacted. "My present landlord decided to raise the rent to a ridiculous amount."

"I fully understand. You are welcome to move in as soon as you wish."

She smiled. "Thank you. I will be there shortly."

Carl wondered why she would want to live in what would be considered a suspiciously compromising situation. Having three unrelated women living in his house suggested that he was running a brothel. Then again, who really would care unless a constant parade of cars would suddenly be parking in his driveway.

On the way back to his house, Carl decided to discuss the new addition. "Did you invite Alice to move in with us?"

"Yes," Janet said. "Is it okay with you?"

"Of course. I was just wondering why someone of her status in NASA would want to join our little family."

"She's pissed off by the exorbitant rents they're charging," Margaret replied.

"I assume that she's divorced or single."

"She's the victim of a recent divorce, a particularly ugly one. Her Ex is a misogynist."

"I'm not familiar with her. I assume that she'll fit in with our little situation."

"Actually, her moving in with us might be part of the prophecy in this timeline," Janet said.

He looked at them with a quizzical expression. "How so?"

"There's mention of a personage that I would translate as Hari, which is the one who removes darkness and Illusion."

"I don't get it. How is that related to Alice?"

"Her husband might be a reference to Shiva, the destroyer. Her split with him might be a sign that Alice is here to reverse this alteration on Titan."

Carl held his hand to his head. "I'm getting a headache trying to imagine all of this. Hopefully, this Titan mission will not go off the rails. Let's get some rest for now. It's going to be a long day when we go up to the new ship and begin our voyage to Titan."

Janet and Margaret realized that. They were both concerned about going on a long mission in outer space, a place that was filled with bad things, like radiation and meteors that could cause fatal damage. However, they liked living for free in Carl's mansion.

It wasn't long after they arrived home that Alice showed up with a trunk full of her things. They helped her unload and get settled into her own room with bath.

When they gathered for supper of spaghetti with meat balls that Carl had prepared, the talk became less about the mission and more about their present situation.

"How did you afford this . . . this fabulous house?" Alice asked after taking a good swig of Pinot noir.

"My Ex gave it to me when we split up. She moved to Maui and gave it to me because she wanted to avoid a costly divorce."

"How nice of her," Alice said with a mocking smirk.

"That's what we told him," Margaret said. "He got lucky."

The women laughed. Carl elected to avoid any further discussion of his situation. The real test of their dedication to their jobs would come the next day.