TEFL: CHAPTER 2 APPROACHING SATURN

"What's the matter, Eddy?"
"Nothing too important really. She's been sleeping too deeply for too long."
In long voyages across the universe, people and robots had to travel whilst sleeping to save energy. This sleep was very heavy. People were laid down inside a glass case in a low temperature environment to reduce their living signs to a minimum. Dame had been sleeping for ten months.
"What can I do, Eddy?"
"Go with Dame and talk to her." Answered Eddy.
"O.K. I'll be there in a minute."
Dame was another NRG robot. There were six more robots sleeping in the spaceship. Their names were: Rag, Moll, Jazzy, Stiff, Posh and Silt.
"May I come in?" Asked Tow.
"Yes, Tow. Come in." She whispered.
Dame's room was a square. It had a bed inside a glass case in the centre. Its walls and furniture were white. The only different coloured thing in the room was Eddy's screen. Dame was sat on the bed.
"How are you, Dame?'
"Not as well as I would like." She moaned. "I'm feeling a little sick."
Dame was also three years old but she looked like a woman of 22. She was tall. She had blond hair and blue eyes. She was also wearing brightly coloured tight clothes.
"You've been sleeping for too long and your body needs exercise. That's all. Let's walk for a while." Tow said smiling.
"Please, help me to stand up."
"Hold my hand!"
"Thank you! Where are we going?"
"To the control dome."
"O.K. I'm going with you. By the way, what's the date? Where are we?"
"It's 14:50 G.M.T. on December 2nd, 2020 and we are approaching Saturn. We've got 24 hours to start the landing sequence on Titan."
"So our journey is about to finish?"
"I don't think so. There's a lot of work to be done and if we are successful in our mission, we'll have lots of boring days in Titan."
"That's right. But we are the last hope for humanity and if we fail, there will be no hope for all living creatures on planet Earth."

"The Earth was almost dead..."
The Earth was almost dead. Women and men had wasted all the natural resources. The atmosphere was polluted and so were rivers and seas. There were no more forests because trees had been cut down or burned. The use of products that destroyed the ozone layer, had reduced this important shield to a minimum and acid rain was poisoning plants and animals. There wasn't enough food to heal the world.
The solution was in the hands of powerful people who didn't care for anything but themselves and they didn't want to do anything to change this situation.
There were, however, a group of countries that wanted to save the human race: The N.E.A.
The N.E.A. had entrusted a project called STARTING POINT to the N.E.S.A and this enterprise had made the Scud able to achieve this job.
The STARTING POINT project was simple: Find or create a place for humans to live. It was divided into four steps:
Firstly, the construction and launch of a spaceship.
The second was the search of a planet similar to the Earth in gravity and atmosphere. Scientists knew that Titan, one of Saturn's satellites, had atmosphere and they had also discovered that its gravity was similar to that of the Earth's.
The third step was to prepare Titan to receive people from the Earth by transforming its atmosphere, ground and weather. This step might be finished in six months.
And, finally, the fourth was to send people, animals and plants to live on Titan.
Tow and Dame went into the control dome.It was near the nose of the Scud and It was a round room with six armchairs and six big screens. The floor was made of glass and through it you could see the stars.
"Eddy, how are things?" Asked Dame.
"Quite well." Answered Eddy. "We are near Saturn's orbit and we must be prepared for landing procedure. It will start in twenty-three hours time."
"Eddy, may we help you?"
"No, thanks. I can manage myself quite well."
"Excellent." Replied Dame.
"You'd better take a look through the telescope." Eddy said. "The scene is fabulous."
"Look at that! Saturn! Oh, it's fantastic!"
"Great, isn't it?" Tow said.
Saturn was the seventh planet of the Earth's solar system. It was a very large yellow and green planet encircled by rings. It was 95 times bigger than the Earth. Surprisingly its gravity was near the same that the Earth's. Saturn needed 29 years to go round the sun once and a day on its surface lasted only 10 hours.
"Come on!" Said Tow. "Let's start working."