Titan Six must be in trouble. A broken antenna? Impossible, they have backup systems to the backup systems. The closest satellites became our magnifying glasses, trained on the tiny spot on Titan, where our human brothers and sisters were supposed to be. Another round of arguments, back and forth, for another hour. By then, my eyes were fighting to stay open. That's when the nightmare really began.

"Uh, sir?" a voice asked at my elbow. "A new message has arrived, from ... uh, from Titan."

Nothing we'd ever experienced prepared us for the gut-freezing chill of those three words blinking to life on our screen: aliens. help. now.