19 The Tempest by Susan Wright

Author:Susan Wright [Wright, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Fiction, Science Fiction, Space Opera
ISBN: 9780671002275
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 1997-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

"WHY DON'T YOU go rest for a while?" Dax suggested. "That bench is more comfortable than it looks."

Keiko shook her head. She already felt like dead weight on this mission, she certainly wasn't going to start napping on top of it. "I think we should consider going through a few more of those magnetic loops."

"The radiation levels went off the scale," Dax reminded her. "Who knows how many random particles penetrated the electrostatic field? There could be all kinds of dangerous free radicals being produced in here and in the components of the runabout. Not to mention in us."

Keiko didn't need to be told about the affects of irradiation on biological tissue. She had been keeping track of the interior particle count since they left the station. She had always intended to have another baby-she knew Miles would love to have a son-but the time had never seemed right. Now Molly was six years old and it was looking as if they might never have another child. But Keiko wanted that to be her choice rather than an accidental by-product of this mission.

Yet they weren't getting anywhere sitting here. "I've gotten only one good reading," she told Dax. "And that was during the flash. If we can get a few more samples, I can at least run the data against the biometric analysis."

Dax was obviously growing impatient, having exhausted their other options to communicate and/or navigate through the storm. But Keiko had been reluctant to insist on getting more data by going through the unstable loops. She kept fighting an unreasonable feeling that she was here by mistake. In fact, the whole mission felt like a terrible mistake-the kind you paid for with your life. If only the station wasn't going to pay for it as well, along with her husband and her baby...

"We have to get back to warn them," Keiko insisted.

"Going through the loops may take us further away. We could even end up in the heart of the storm, where the plasma density would probably disintegrate the molecular structure of the runabout."

"I'm willing to take that risk," Keiko retorted. "And so are you. You've been recalibrating the shields, haven't you?"

"Yes. We should be able to go through another loop without losing our internal systems."

Keiko waited, very much aware of who was in command. If Dax was hesitating, she must have good reasons. But Keiko didn't see what other choice they had.

Dax must have agreed. She adjusted their course, bringing them closer to a magnetic current. "I'll hold us in a constant vector in the direction of the strongest particle flow."

"Releasing dye marker," Keiko confirmed. Now they had two blips on their sensors, this one and the marker she had dropped soon after they had been deposited here. Sensors were still unable to detect the first marker left where they had entered the storm. Either it was too far away or else it had already degraded to charged particles.

"We're entering a current," Dax announced, frowning briefly. "Frequencies oscillating-"

Keiko dimmed the resolution on the viewscreen to keep the flash from blinding them.

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