Flight on Titan
Encyclopedia
Flight on Titan is a science fiction
short story
by Stanley G. Weinbaum
that first appeared in the January 1935 issue of Astounding Stories. It was the third story published by Weinbaum, the first to appear in Astounding, and the only story by him set on Saturn
's largest moon, Titan
.
In Weinbaum's Solar System
, in accordance with the then-accepted near-collision hypothesis of planetary formation, the gas giants
radiate enough heat to bring their inner satellites up to Earthlike temperatures. Being over 600,000 miles from Saturn, Titan receives only a third of its heat from its primary. Titan's temperature is comparable to Earth's Arctic regions, ranging from just above freezing during the day to eighty below zero Fahrenheit during the nine-hour-long nights. Due to Saturn's tidal pull, Titan is also subject to 100 mph winds, which blow from east to west during half of the moon's sixteen-day revolution around its primary, and west to east during the other half, only dying down for half an hour in between each shift in direction. Despite all this, Titan has a flourishing Arctic ecosystem
, at the top of which is a seal-like native race of modest intelligence. The natives have developed a barter system with settlers from Earth, trading Titanian gems for knives, beads, mirrors, and other trinkets. Other Titanian life-forms include whiplash trees, ice-ants, threadworms, and an airborne predator the size of a pterodactyl called a knife-kite.
Every fifteen years, Saturn eclipses the sun, and Titan spends seventy-two hours in darkness. Nine months into the Vicks' stay, four Titanian days before the eclipse is due, an ice mountain near the Vicks' shack collapses. The Vicks escape the destruction of their shack, but find themselves stranded a hundred miles from the main settlement at Nivia, on the far side of the Mountains of the Damned. Tim Vick decides that they should try to reach Nivia, since the wind recently shifted and will be at their backs for the next eight days.
Three days into their trek, Diane collapses. In desperation, Tim drags her into an ice-ant nest. The air in the nest is above freezing, and the ice-ants ignore them since they find the Vicks' foam-rubber clothing inedible. Tim wakes the next morning to find that the ice-ants have eaten away the leather bag holding their flame-orchids, and all but one of them have been washed away into the depths of the subterranean ice-ant hive. The eclipse slowly begins, and when the sun sets that night, Tim knows he won't see it again for four days. The temperature drops past a hundred below that night, and only rises to seventy below the next day.
The Vicks manage to find two small ice-ant nests to spend the next night in, and remain there through the next day and night. The next day's journey brings them into the Mountains of the Damned. When the temperature drops to 140 below zero, they take shelter in a mountain cave. There they find themselves facing a Titanian threadworm. Tim is almost lulled to sleep by its hypnotic buzzing, but Diane wakes him, and he shoots it. They block the entrance to a threadworm nest and Diane falls asleep. Tim takes out their last flame-orchid and finds it shattered. Angrily he pounds it into dust with a rock.
When morning comes, they prepare to leave, when Diane notices the fragments of the flame-orchid. During the night, each one had grown, until they now have fifty the size of the original. They gather them up, and Tim wraps up some of the rock dust from the cave floor for later analyis. The two resume climbing, but they are still a mile below the summit when the wind dies, and a thousand feet below when the wind starts blowing in their faces. They find themselves being pushed back down the face of the mountain, and pass out. Tim awakens to find the two of them in a hollow a quarter mile below the summit. He resumes climbing, dragging the unconscious Diane with him, until he passes the summit and starts down the far side, with the lights of Nivia visible in the foothills below. Tim reaches the settlement in time to save Diane.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by Stanley G. Weinbaum
Stanley G. Weinbaum
Stanley Grauman Weinbaum was an American science fiction author. His career in science fiction was short but influential...
that first appeared in the January 1935 issue of Astounding Stories. It was the third story published by Weinbaum, the first to appear in Astounding, and the only story by him set on Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
's largest moon, Titan
Titan (moon)
Titan , or Saturn VI, is the largest moon of Saturn, the only natural satellite known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
.
Weinbaum's Titan
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
, in accordance with the then-accepted near-collision hypothesis of planetary formation, the gas giants
Gas Giants
Gas Giants were a pop rock band from Tempe, Arizona, formed as a successor project to the Gin Blossoms. The group was known as The Pharaohs when they formed in 1997, but changed their name after their label, A&M Records, merged with Universal Records and the band changed hands, re-signing with...
radiate enough heat to bring their inner satellites up to Earthlike temperatures. Being over 600,000 miles from Saturn, Titan receives only a third of its heat from its primary. Titan's temperature is comparable to Earth's Arctic regions, ranging from just above freezing during the day to eighty below zero Fahrenheit during the nine-hour-long nights. Due to Saturn's tidal pull, Titan is also subject to 100 mph winds, which blow from east to west during half of the moon's sixteen-day revolution around its primary, and west to east during the other half, only dying down for half an hour in between each shift in direction. Despite all this, Titan has a flourishing Arctic ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
, at the top of which is a seal-like native race of modest intelligence. The natives have developed a barter system with settlers from Earth, trading Titanian gems for knives, beads, mirrors, and other trinkets. Other Titanian life-forms include whiplash trees, ice-ants, threadworms, and an airborne predator the size of a pterodactyl called a knife-kite.
Plot summary
Tim and Diane Vick are two New Yorkers left impoverished by the 2142 collapse of the Planetary Trading Corporation. Rather than sit and wait for their money to run out, they decide to travel to Titan for a year to prospect for gems. Six months into their stay on Titan, they have succeeded in acquiring eighteen flame-orchids, which will make them wealthy on Earth, assuming they survive to reach Earth.Every fifteen years, Saturn eclipses the sun, and Titan spends seventy-two hours in darkness. Nine months into the Vicks' stay, four Titanian days before the eclipse is due, an ice mountain near the Vicks' shack collapses. The Vicks escape the destruction of their shack, but find themselves stranded a hundred miles from the main settlement at Nivia, on the far side of the Mountains of the Damned. Tim Vick decides that they should try to reach Nivia, since the wind recently shifted and will be at their backs for the next eight days.
Three days into their trek, Diane collapses. In desperation, Tim drags her into an ice-ant nest. The air in the nest is above freezing, and the ice-ants ignore them since they find the Vicks' foam-rubber clothing inedible. Tim wakes the next morning to find that the ice-ants have eaten away the leather bag holding their flame-orchids, and all but one of them have been washed away into the depths of the subterranean ice-ant hive. The eclipse slowly begins, and when the sun sets that night, Tim knows he won't see it again for four days. The temperature drops past a hundred below that night, and only rises to seventy below the next day.
The Vicks manage to find two small ice-ant nests to spend the next night in, and remain there through the next day and night. The next day's journey brings them into the Mountains of the Damned. When the temperature drops to 140 below zero, they take shelter in a mountain cave. There they find themselves facing a Titanian threadworm. Tim is almost lulled to sleep by its hypnotic buzzing, but Diane wakes him, and he shoots it. They block the entrance to a threadworm nest and Diane falls asleep. Tim takes out their last flame-orchid and finds it shattered. Angrily he pounds it into dust with a rock.
When morning comes, they prepare to leave, when Diane notices the fragments of the flame-orchid. During the night, each one had grown, until they now have fifty the size of the original. They gather them up, and Tim wraps up some of the rock dust from the cave floor for later analyis. The two resume climbing, but they are still a mile below the summit when the wind dies, and a thousand feet below when the wind starts blowing in their faces. They find themselves being pushed back down the face of the mountain, and pass out. Tim awakens to find the two of them in a hollow a quarter mile below the summit. He resumes climbing, dragging the unconscious Diane with him, until he passes the summit and starts down the far side, with the lights of Nivia visible in the foothills below. Tim reaches the settlement in time to save Diane.
Collections
"Flight on Titan" appears in the following Stanley G. Weinbaum collections:- The Red PeriThe Red Peri (collection)The Red Peri is a collection of science fiction short stories by author Stanley G. Weinbaum. It was first published in 1952 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 1,732 copies...
(1952) - A Martian Odyssey and Other Science Fiction Tales (1974)
- Interplanetary Odysseys (2006)