Saturn Arrival

After about an hour, the Planet Express ship was starting to near the ringed planet. From light speed, Leela slowed the ship down by a significant margin to avoid missing the planet altogether. Upon first glancing at the planet, Leela could tell that was winter in the northern hemisphere of the planet due to the positioning of the broad and complicated shadow of the planet's rings. It was truly a beautiful sight and it only became more breathtaking as the ship continued closing in. One by one, each of the major satellites in orbit around the planet started to come into better focus, especially orange-hued Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons, which was situated far to the right of the planet. Leela grabbed the intercom device and pushed the button to alert everyone else of the coming spectacle.

"Everyone report to the observation deck!" she said through the large speaker. "We're about to reach our destination."


Fry was already at the observation deck when everyone else suddenly piled into the room. The only one that did not seem to be too impressed with the view was Bender, who seemed to just casually walk into the room with another cigar in his robotic mouth. Meanwhile, Fry and the other humans were gathered at the large window and watched as Saturn grew larger by the second.

"It's more beautiful in person!" Amy said. "I can't believe my father would ever want to make the rings into a golf course!"

"Your father wants to make a golf course here?" Farnsworth asked.

"Yeah, he's been talking about it for as long as I can remember." Amy replied. "Ever since my father made new renovations to Mars Vegas, it has been his dream to create a golf course that spans the entire Solar System. He has yet to get approval from the Jovians, the Neptunians and the Saturnians. Especially the Saturnians."

"I can see why." Hermes said. "Who in the world would be crazy enough to modify the rings of Saturn? The speed of the ring particles would be enough to tear someone apart, if not completely pulverize someone!"

"Not me. I'm just a doctor." Zoidberg said.

"Yeah, a really horrible doctor!" Hermes replied.

"Why must you be so mean?!" Zoidberg complained as Farnsworth settled down the fiasco between the lobster and the bureaucrat. He then changed the subject back to their previous topic.

"While we're still talking about Saturn, there's something I just realized." Farnsworth said. "This year marks the one-thousandth anniversary of the Cassini spacecraft's arrival at Saturn as well as the deployment of the Huygens probe down to the surface of Titan. It was in the research that I was doing for our vacation destination under the history section."

Fry, who was still looking out the window, suddenly turned his head around and entered the conversation.

"Wait…did I just hear that right?" he asked. "Did you say one-thousandth anniversary?"

"You heard right, Fry." Farnsworth said. "Back in 1997, the brightest minds of your time launched a spacecraft called Cassini to study Saturn and its moons, which carried a small probe called Huygens which made the first-ever landing on Titan. After two flybys of Venus and one flyby of Earth, the spacecraft made a close encounter with Jupiter late in the year 2000 which gave it the extra boost needed to reach Saturn in 2004. That was back in the days when the sling-shot maneuver was still an efficient method of Solar System travel. Nowadays, that method has become completely obsolete thanks to our current technology, which has the capacity to travel between galaxies in mere hours."

"Man, have we come a long way…" Bender said, pulling out a beer from his front compartment.

"So I missed it by four years." Fry said. "Dang…"

"Wow, I never knew that!" Amy said. "Who would've known that people from the Stupid Ages would have invested time and effort to explore space?!"

Fry glared at Amy for her smart remark.

"Oh, right…I'm sorry, Fry."

"Don't worry about it." Fry said in a melancholy tone. "I get that a lot."

"Did they ever manage to recover the probe?" Hermes asked.

"The probe was never found once humans started colonizing these parts." Farnsworth said. "This is probably due to the weathering action of liquid methane on the surface of Titan, similar to what water does back on Earth. Of course this is just a hypothesis."

"Oh, I can't wait to start having fun!" Amy asked. "What should we do first?"

"They have extreme ice sports events going on Enceladus, as well as ice skating." Farnsworth said. "Of course, the ice on Enceladus would be too cold for regular ice skating and winter sports, which is why every piece of equipment carries powerful built-in heaters. With such low gravity, I'm sure it will make for an ever-lasting rush of adrenaline!"

"That's a fun idea!" Amy said.

"I heard that there was spelunking on Mimas." Hermes said. "We could also visit Herschel Crater. It's supposed to offer one of the most spectacular views of Saturn, especially when the sun starts rising above it."

Suddenly, the intercom inside the ship turned on again and Leela was heard through the speaker.

"I just checked the coordinates for the orbiting hotel and it turns out that it's on the far side of the planet at the moment. It will be a couple of minutes before we get there." she said. "In the meantime, we're going to make a close encounter with rings very shortly."


While everyone else continued discussing the upcoming activities for the next few days of the vacation, Fry continued gazing out the window at Saturn and its splendor of icy rings. Although the sunlight was only one percent the intensity found back on Earth, there was still a lot to see. The rings of Saturn are composed of billions of fragments, each in their own individual orbit around the planet and range in size from small crystals to lumps the size of houses. As the ship got close, Fry watched as the individual fragments sparkled in the light of the distant Sun like billions of shimmering diamonds. Looking out to the planet itself, Fry was entranced by the muted yellowish cloud bands as well as the presence of small white-colored weird-shaped storms along the equator. It almost reminded him of his trip to Jupiter with Amy a few years back when they had a short-lived, yet fiery romance. Somehow, this triggered a flashback to his childhood and the long-forgotten dreams he had of going to another planet, as well as his deep interest in astronomy. Then, Fry thought of his brother and all of the times he had put him down growing up and how he later named his own son after him. Even a couple of years after digging through his family history, it was still hard to believe that his long-forgotten nephew became one of the first people to step foot on Mars.

Though he was still depressed, Fry was glued to the window and perpetually amazed at what he could see. It is no wonder why people (except Amy's father) would want to leave Saturn alone. It was a beautiful place. The rings alone were enough to deem this planet more beautiful than Earth by a long shot. Looking out the left window, Fry saw two of Saturn's major moons, Enceladus and Dione, glowing like bright polished pearls against the blackness of space. He could also see the moon Tethys through the middle window straight in the distance across from the ring system. As spectacular as the view was, it was still not enough to take Fry's mind off of Leela, and the more he thought about her, the sadder he became. It would only be a matter of time before Fry's feelings would become too powerful for him to contain. He needed to tell Leela how he felt before something potentially catastrophic would ensue, which seemed more imminent for each passing second...


The fourth chapter is finally up! The crew has finally reached Saturn and are currently nearing the orbiting hotel. Meanwhile, while everyone else is discussing the vacation, Fry focusses his attention to the scenery outside and struggles to keep his mind off of Leela. His depression appears to be worsening, but is it due to rebound soon? What will happen once the crew touches down inside the hotel? Find out in the next chapter, as well as the following chapters. See you then :)

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