Titan Read Online Free

woman, a retired multimillionaire. I got a terrific guy living with me, and we can go anywhere in the solar system we want. I decided to come out here and see how you’re doin’.”
    “I’m fine.”
    “Don’t be a shit-kicker, kid. I’m not here to pry into your life or try to tell you what to do. You’re a big girl now, Sooze, and I wouldn’t—”
    “My name isn’t Susan anymore,” Holly snapped. “Hasn’t been for years.”
    Pancho grimaced. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. Just slipped out.”
    “And if you’re still worried about me and Malcolm Eberly, you can stop worrying. That’s over. Never got started, really.”
    “I should think so, after what he did to you.”
    “Not him, really. His friends. They tried to take over the habitat. It got a little rough for a while.”
    “But it’s all over now?”
    “His friends were shipped back Earthside. Malcolm’s the chief of the habitat’s government.”
    Pancho’s brows rose. “I thought Professor Wilmot was in charge.”
    “Not anymore. We set up our own constitution and government and all that soon’s we reached Saturn orbit.”
    “And Eberly was elected to head it?”
    “That’s right.”
    “I wonder if he’ll take any action against me for sockin’ him.”

    Holly thought a moment, then shook her head. “If he’d wanted to, he’d’ve got the security guards to take you into custody right there and then.”
    “You think?”
    “Yep.” Holly’s grin broke out again. “He knows he deserved what you gave him.”
    Pancho grinned back at her. “You know the old saying about Hungarians?”
    “Hungarians?”
    “If you meet a Hungarian on the street, kick him. He’ll know why.”
    The sisters laughed together, long and loud and unforced. But then Holly asked, “How long’re you going to stay?”
    “Jeeps, kid, I just got here! Give me enough time to unpack my bags, huh?”
    Frowning, Holly said, “I didn’t mean it that way, Panch. It’s just … well, I don’t need a mother hen anymore. I’ve been on my own for more’n three years now.”
    Pancho grinned at her. “And you don’t want your pain-in-the-butt big sister lookin’ over your shoulder. Can’t say I blame you.”
    Shifting her tactics a bit, Holly asked, “So who’s this guy you came with?”
    “Jake Wanamaker?” Pancho’s grin turned mischievous. “Former admiral in the U.S. Navy. Headed military operations for Astro during the fighting out in the Belt.”
    “You’re living with a sailor?”
    “He’s my bodyguard.”
    Holly looked at her sister for a long moment, then they both burst into laughter again.
    “Wanna have dinner with us tonight?” Pancho asked.
    “Cosmic! And I’ll bring a friend, too.”
    “Great!” said Pancho with real enthusiasm. Maybe the ice is breaking a little, she thought. Maybe things will be okay between Sooze and me. Then she admonished herself: Don’t call her that. Her name’s not Susan anymore. She’s Holly. Holly. But looking into her sister’s deep brown eyes, Pancho remembered the helpless baby that she had raised after their parents
died. And she remembered shooting home the lethal injection that killed Susan when the medics refused to do it.
    I had to kill you, Susie, Pancho said silently. So you could be reborn. And here you are, alive and healthy, all grown up, and suspicious as hell about your big sister.

DATA BANK: TITAN

    T his much is known about Titan, by far the largest of Saturn’s several dozen moons and the second largest moon in the entire solar system.
    With a diameter of 5,150 kilometers, Titan is bigger than the planet Mercury and only a shade smaller than Jupiter’s largest satellite, Ganymede. Titan is the only moon in the solar system to possess a substantial atmosphere. Indeed, Titan’s atmosphere is 50 percent denser than Earth’s at ground level.
    That atmosphere is composed mainly of nitrogen, laced with hydrocarbons such as methane, ethane and propane, plus nitrogen-carbon compounds