Last Train to Mordor: Nix at First Sight
A prelude novella to Fear and Loathing in the Kuiper Belt
My debut science fiction novel, Fear and Loathing in the Kuiper Belt, is now available for purchase in Kindle and paperback editions. Last Train to Mordor is a prequel to the novel. Its protagonist, Anja Petrovic, is one of the point of view characters in the novel. Tremble before her impenetrable plot armor.
Anja Petrovic didn’t know if Clément’s ship really had a transparent hull or if the bulkheads and decks were coated with light emitting elements that turned the whole passenger compartment into a VR suite, but the hull had seemed transparent from the moment she set foot inside his ship on Galtz. Losada, the other soldier Clément furloughed from the Galtz militia for this job, insisted that it was some kind of advanced Nixian tech creating the illusion of a transparent hull.
"Otherwise, we'd see Mr. Clément up in the cockpit," he'd reasoned. That made sense to Petrovic, but she didn't care enough to interrogate Losada's reasoning. She was into people, not tech.
Now, she could see the linked spheres of the Nix system growing larger. She’d trained on Nixian military tech since childhood, and the Nixians designed her genome, but she had never been to the Nix system before.
“So that’s Nix,” Petrovic said.
“No,” Losada said. “That’s Pluto and Charon. Nix is much smaller. It orbits the other two.” He held up his slate and swept it around, using it to locate the smaller moon. “There,” he said, and pointed.
Red and white Pluto was connected to Charon, its cratered gray companion, by what looked like a fat cable. Compared to that visual extravaganza, small, irregular Nix didn’t impress Petrovic.
“It’s just a rock,” she said.
“It’s got spin habs inside it,” Losada said.
“Huh,” I think I’d rather live on one of those ring habs,” Petrovic said, looking at the four ring-shaped habitats that rotated around the 19,000 kilometer-long bridge connecting Pluto to Charon. “Better view.”
“There used to be more moons, but the Nixians dismantled them to build the Link,” Losada said.
“Shit,” Petrovic said. She couldn’t doubt that the Link and its ring habitats existed. They were right there, but the idea that humans built all that didn’t fit her worldview. “The Nixians did that? Not the Powers?”
“That’s what my history instructor said,” Losada said. “Britannica says the same thing.”
Petrovic had gotten herself into enough trouble with her sexual indiscretions. She didn’t need to risk further damage to her career by accessing unsanctioned sources of information. She was surprised to hear that Losada had consulted Britannica. He seemed like such a straight arrow.
They entered into a polar orbit around Charon.
“See that dark brown patch?” Losada said, pointing out a dark region near Charon’s north pole. “That’s Mordor Macula. The main spaceport is there.”
“Isn’t there supposed to be a train?” Petrovic said.
“Subsurface,” Losada said. “People take the Link from Pluto to Charon, and then travel from the Link station in Minas Tirith…”
“You mean Minth?” Petrovic said. Their scant mission briefing mentioned guarding the train station in Minth.
“Yes,” Losada said. “Minth is short for Minas Tirith. That’s where passengers transfer from the Link to take the train to the spaceport in Mordor. There’s another spaceport on the equator, but that’s for cargo. Water, ammonia, and nitrogen, mostly.”
“Damn, Losada…”
“Everyone calls me Mikey,” Losada said.
“Damn, Losada,” she repeated. “You should be a tour guide. Maybe you missed your calling. Any idea why they put the spaceports on…”
“Charon,” Losada supplied.
“Why are the spaceports on Charon when most of the people live on Pluto? Why not just land and take off from Pluto?”
“Pluto has an atmosphere,” Losada said. “Charon doesn’t. Ships that can’t land on Pluto can land on Charon. Plus, Charon has slightly less mass. It takes less specific impulse to reach escape velocity.”
“Specific impulse,” Petrovic said. “Listen to you.”