The Titan

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1

As nuclear fallout

over the Pacific

continues to fuel sandstorms

over southern California,

the last remaining pockets of residents

were evacuated by the National Guard.

The federal government,

already struggling to keep up

with flash floods

in Long Beach and Venice,

has declared Los Angeles uninhabitable.

The base is four square miles,

with a working population of 3,000 people.

Got 20,000 acres of training fields.

We even have a supermarket,

a cinema, and a mall.

All under NATO command?

Joint initiative

with the Defense Science Office,

and the British Department

of Science and Technology, of course.

To be sure, Lieutenant,

we're highly classified.

Communication with the outside world

will be limited.

No different at Edwards or Dryden, sir.

This whole street

is part of the new expansion.

A total new-build.

I'm excited to show you.

Welcome.

There's two bedrooms upstairs.

The lights are motion-activated.

There's three bathrooms, a media room,

and an automated kitchen.

Hey, don't listen to Jim.

I mean, Colonel Peterson.

If you want to call friends and family,

feel free. We trust you.

Look, if you need anything, call me.

Day or night.

Thank you, Freya.

Mom, come look!

-Come on.

-Check this, hon.

Which one are you going to?

You can't see it. You need a telescope.

But it's out there.

And you'll be there too someday.

Down, down, down.

Are you ready? Only got the one.

-Yeah.

-Careful.

Okay.

-Professor Collingwood.

It is so good to see you.

You don't know how happy I was

to throw your Dryden test results

into NASA's face.

Absolutely incredible.

It's just an honor

to have been selected, sir.

I've been teaching the past years,

didn't think I still had it.

Don't call me "sir." I don't have a rank.

I'm just not gonna let you down.

I know how much this means to you, Rick.

But... pioneering isn't without its risks.

Yeah, well, first one through the wall

always gets a little bloody.

He's gonna get sick, isn't he?

Temporarily.

He'll need committed aftercare.

He won't seem himself at times.

Rick crossed the Syrian desert

injured and alone

without food or water for three days.

Well, this will make that look

like a walk in the park.

But we'll get through it.

Dr. Janssen, I admire your courage.

Rick wouldn't be here

if it wasn't for you.

I want to tell you that I'm--

I'm grateful.

You don't have to charm me, Professor.

I've studied your work.

I know what we're doing.

It's bigger than all of us.

Yes, yes, yes. I know that, but it's...

It's the concessions you made.

The medical career.

The nights of worry.

It's a small price to pay

for my son's future.

No one attempts the impossible

without belief in something greater

than themselves.

Even if that something is a someone.

Rick didn't cross the desert alone.

Our population

has grown out of control.

Our environment is in decay.

Our resources have been depleted.

Wars have ravaged our planet.

We are fighting over the scraps

of what remains.

In ten years, half the planet

will be uninhabitable.

In 15 years, half the world's population

will have starved to death.

Time is running out.

We've outgrown our home.

Our children will witness the end of days.

But there is one place that gives us hope.

Titan.

The largest moon of Saturn.

The only other place in our solar system

with an atmosphere.

A primordial ecosystem, just like Earth,

seconds before life was born.

Liquid methane raining

into huge oceans and lakes

that we can't swim in,

and an atmosphere rich in nitrogen

that we can't breathe.

Too cold to exist in.

Fiercely hostile to life as we know it.

Beyond the reach of space science,

but not modern genetics.

No longer trying

to reshape planets in our image...

but evolving humanity into the stars.

Imagine, with a few minor enhancements,

you could breathe the air,

swim in the waters,

and survive the cold.

What if Titan...

could become our home?

Dr. Hernandez,

I was waiting for you to object.

I still don't understand how our bodies

won't reject the treatment.

Clinical trials were successful,

signed off by NATO's

Science and Technology Office.

-I'm talking survival of the species.

HPA-axis reprogramming.

Methane lipid bilayer injections.

G:

There are no guarantees,Dr. Hernandez.

Some people won't take to the drugs.

Some people will break

during the training.

Most of you will fail and be sent home.

How many of us will die?

Twenty bucks says Iker goes first.

Can you read?

What?

I said can you read, idiot?

Because if you could,

you'd see that this book

is just a bunch of health warnings.

-I'm just pointing out...

You're pointing out nothing.

He's talking about the end of the Earth.

You got kids?

No.

Shut the f*** up or get the f*** out.

Please. Go on, Professor.

I was sent 5,000 personnel files

from 16 NATO countries. I chose you, because in your past,

each of you has shown an ability

to survive the harshest of conditions.

Each of you is here,

because you understand the dire necessity

of finding a new home for the human race.

Maybe you're mad,

ambitious, adventurous.

But each of you has a rare willingness

to put yourselves on the line

for the sake of others.

My hope is, when we're finished,

all of you will be able to stand on Titan,

take a deep breath,

and swim in its waters.

Maybe soar through its skies.

You will become enhanced humans.

Super men.

Able to live on another world.

You'll become you...

but better.

The slingshot around Jupiter

is 50-50 at best.

Not if you use a Hohmann Transfer.

All right, give me two minutes, guys.

You'd need propulsionof more

than 15 kilometers a second for that.

It's never beendone.

Let's just worry about down here

before up there.

Have you ever flown

on an Orion

-No, I haven't.

-I bet you're the first one to crash one.

-Better make sure you're strapped in.

-I'm riding with the astronauts!

You're mad!

It tracks your heart rate, blood pressure,

sodium levels, other vitals.

A lot of monitoring from now on.

I hope you're not squeamish.

I'll be giving you over 300 shots

in the next few weeks.

With what?

Amino acid solutions, enzyme inhibitors,

nucleic acid polymers.

The long, steady road of training

yourselves to burn nitrogen for energy.

Open. And use less oxygen.

Well, you'll never black out

at high altitudes ever again.

What we call "air"

is more than 75% nitrogen.

Oxygen only constitutes 20%.

But where you're going,

the nitrogen ratio of air is 90%,

oxygen less than five.

So we don't need to reinvent the wheel.

Just go the extra 15.

-Good morning.

-Hi there.

Are we gonna see you on Saturday?

Oh, well, I have to see

how Zane's feeling, darling,

but I'm sure we'll make it.

Mom!

Look at this! What is that?

A fighting car.

All right.

["You Need A Little Something Extra"

by William Bell plays]

You can be a beauty queen

And make believe, my baby

Hey. What...

You can be a poor man's dream

And make believe, my baby

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