Midshipman Henry Gallant in Space

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  Gallant’s flotilla sped after the Titan cruiser force heading toward Jupiter. As they proceeded, they listened to reports about Ceres.

  Lieutenant McCall sent out a fleet-wide update. It stated that the Titans were fighting to the death. They would vent their methane breathing apparatus and commit suicide rather than be captured. In addition, they were setting explosives where possible. However, SAI had managed to gather some data files and information about the history of the Titans. SAI was able to interpret some of it. They learned that the Titans first came to the solar system about two centuries earlier. They initially settled on Saturn’s moon Titan and began exploring the system for methane-friendly locations. They eventually visited Earth and all the planets of the system but didn’t communicate with humankind. SAI confirmed that the aliens originally came on a generation ship from the M3-type red dwarf Gliese 581. They began Gliese-forming the most methane-compatible moons of the outer planets. They built homes, industries, and facilities to provide for their civilization. Their science was a century in advance of Earth when they came, but it took them a century to develop enough population and infrastructure to be competitive with the United Planets. They built most of the Ceres base decades ago but only sent their armada there recently by stealthy means.

  The Titans were confirmed to telepathically communicate with each other, but they could not communicate with human minds. Having no vocal cords or speech box, they never developed a verbal means of communication. They tried and failed to understand human speech, though they had developed an understanding of human writing.

  Gallant considered this new information as he formulated a plan of attack for his arrival on the Jupiter frontier.