atmosphere, which at the estimated temperature of minus 179 degrees Celsius and
with Titan’s surface gravity of 0.14 suggested about ten times as much gas per
unit area as on Earth. As had been suspected by many theorists, the dense,
reddish clouds blanketing the surface turned out to be an aerosol suspension at
an altitude of two hundred kilometers, consisting of molecular fragments formed
by ultraviolet dissociation of the gases in the upper atmosphere. According to
most models, the aerosol particles would gradually recombine into heavier
polymers and precipitate out of the atmosphere to form surface deposits of
considerable depth, but this hadn’t been verified since the clouds were
everywhere opaque. Because of the cloud blanket and Titan’s remoteness from the
Sun, daylight on the surface would be about as bright, it was estimated, as a
moonlit night on Earth.
The returned data were consistent with surface conditions close to the
triple-point of the solid, liquid, and gaseous phases of methane, which raised
the intriguing possibility that methane could well exist as a gas in the lower
atmosphere and a liquid on the surface, thus playing a role similar to that of
water on Earth. Conceivably, therefore, the surface of Titan could consist of
methane oceans and water-ice continents covered by nitrogenous-hydrocarbon soil,
above which methane rain precipitated from methane clouds formed below the
aerosol blanket. It was even possible that the release of radioactive heat in
the interior might maintain reservoirs of water that could escape to the surface
as “ice lava,” and perhaps provide a fluid substrate for mountain-building and
other tectonic processes. But with the diversion of funding from planetary
exploration programs to feed the ongoing insanity of the arms race, little more
was learned until the arrival of the European probe at Saturn, less than three
years before the Orion.
Radar mapping by the Dauphin orbiter had indeed revealed the existence of vast
oceans, islands, continents, and mountains below Titan’s all-obscuring clouds,
and details of the natural geography had been published widely. However, as the
Orion’s occupants had learned only after leaving Earth, the orbiter had also
sent back radar images of highly reflective objects suggestive of artificial
metallic constructions, which in many places covered huge areas too densely to
be resolved individually. All mention of that had been censored from the
published information, along with any reference to the machines glimpsed by the
Dauphin’s short-lived surface landers and the advanced culture that had
originated them. At least, the inferred sizes of the constructions and the areas
which they covered on some parts of the surface had seemed indicative of an
advanced culture. But in almost three years the orbiter’s instruments had failed
to observe any activity in space around Titan, or even to detect any sign of
aircraft in the lower atmosphere; and except for intermittent transmissions
emanating from a few sources pinpointed on the surface, the radio spectrum had
been strangely silent.
No more was learned until the Orion went into orbit above Titan and began
sending reconnaissance drones down through the aerosol layer and the
lower-altitude methane clouds to scan the surface. The views sent back had been
at first perplexing, then bewildering, and finally staggering as the mission’s
scientists gradually unraveled what they implied. The views had shown what
appeared to be alien towns consisting of unusual buildings that resembled
enormous, intricately shaped hollow plants more than anything fabricated
according to recognizable methods, which was difficult to explain since there
were also plenty of examples of immense and elaborate engineering constructions.
If the aliens had the technology to build factories, why didn’t they build
cities to live in? Perhaps because of their notions of values and aesthetics,
somebody had suggested.
Then had come the first indications that maybe the aliens weren’t so
professional at managing their technology after all. View after view showed
chaotic situations where entire industrial complexes seemed to have overflowed
their boundaries, spilling plant and machinery out across the surrounding
country with outgrowths from different centers invading each other’s territories
and mixing themselves up in hopeless confusion. In some areas the mess of
working and broken-down machinery, all buried amid piles of scrap and assorted
parts, stretched for miles, yet much of it managed, somehow, to continue