{"id":229,"date":"2012-12-22T17:48:06","date_gmt":"2012-12-23T01:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/?p=229"},"modified":"2012-12-22T17:48:06","modified_gmt":"2012-12-23T01:48:06","slug":"a-present-for-my-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/?p=229","title":{"rendered":"A Present for my Readers"},"content":{"rendered":"

As promised!\u00a0 In the spirit of the Holiday Season, whichever present-giving holiday you prefer.\u00a0 A selection from the beginning of my new book Scent of Metal<\/em> –now undergoing final rewrite. A tale of science, courage, and Pluto…<\/p>\n

*********************************************************<\/p>\n

The emergency survey team moved down the rough-surfaced corridors at a jog-trot, looking for changes.\u00a0 The air was dry and cold, with no scent.\u00a0 Lea Santorin did her best to keep up, holding panic at bay by trying to figure out when things had gone wrong.\u00a0 It couldn’t have been their ship; after all there had been at least three ships from Earth before Kepler<\/span> and nothing happened.\u00a0 Removing the alien…device hadn’t done it.\u00a0 But she had, just briefly, put the thing back in the niche where it had been found.\u00a0 The surface ablation of the ice layer had started shortly after.<\/p>\n

“It’s my fault,” she mumbled, sure of it.<\/p>\n

Ivars continued his careful, quick sweep of the corridor like he hadn’t heard her, weapon always pointed where he looked.\u00a0 “If you know that, then you know how to fix it.”\u00a0 The other soldiers behind her didn’t even pretend to pay attention to the conversation, and Dr. Adi was still slack-jawed with horror and shock.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“I mean, it was something I did that started it.\u00a0 I don’t know how<\/span> it did it.”<\/p>\n

“Better figure it out fast then.”\u00a0 He gestured, and one of the soldiers moved forward, silent and graceful, past an opening in the wall.\u00a0 The man glanced inside, then shook his head.\u00a0 Just another niche.\u00a0 “Our supplies are not infinite.”<\/p>\n

No, they wouldn’t be.\u00a0 Kepler<\/span> had brought a year’s supply for the research station, but didn’t have a year’s supply for their crew on board\u2014just enough for the return trip to Earth.<\/p>\n

“They’ll know something’s wrong, won’t they?\u00a0 Back home?”<\/p>\n

He looked at her finally, face hard and pale eyes registering a trace of impatience.\u00a0 “And what can they do about it?\u00a0 Tell the Voyager<\/span> probe to intercept us?\u00a0 We probably passed it seconds after this thing woke up.\u00a0 The only way we’re getting home again is by doing a U-turn.”<\/p>\n

“Faster than light,” Dr. Adi whispered.\u00a0 It was the first time he’d spoken since it happened.\u00a0 “I always wondered if I’d live to see it.”\u00a0 He laughed, a brief, hysterical burst.\u00a0 “So, maybe I not live.”<\/p>\n

Lea fell back a little to walk beside him.\u00a0 “We should at least wait a bit to go back, don’t you think, Dr. Dee?\u00a0 Give ’em time to calm down?\u00a0 They are probably pretty mad at us now for stealing an entire planet.\u00a0 Planetoid.\u00a0 Whatever.”<\/p>\n

He shook his head, trying to smile and failing.\u00a0 \u201cEvery time we try to tell it what it is it changes.\u00a0 What will it become next?\u201d<\/p>\n

The expedition leaders had waited until Kepler<\/span> was nearly halfway out to tell them what they were really going to investigate.\u00a0 All Lea had been told on Earth, under strict security restrictions, was that they had found alien wreckage on Pluto.\u00a0 Which was not exactly true, but not completely false either.\u00a0 What the probe had found was that Pluto, under a coating of ice and rock, was an alien construction.\u00a0 Nobody was sure if it was wrecked or abandoned or what.\u00a0 No alien skeletons or equivalent had been found. At least that’s what they’d said.<\/p>\n

At first Lea was oblivious to everything except the Gadget, what she’d named the device, and studying it.\u00a0 Then she’d noticed, in addition to the scientists and other technical people, the significant military presence on Kepler<\/span>\u2014and that they all had an air of quiet, watchful competence that didn’t match the cheerful bravado of her Army cousins. They didn’t seem like rent-a-cops either, which was all she could think the expedition would possibly need.\u00a0 If the alien base\/ship really was empty.<\/p>\n

Lea quickened her pace to stay closer to Ivers.\u00a0 \u201cAnything?\u201d he asked abruptly.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she whispered, feeling her face heat.\u00a0 She hadn’t even been paying attention to the handheld displaying the mapped part of the alien ship.\u00a0 She quickly reviewed, and heaved a quiet sigh of relief.\u00a0 The map and her memory matched, so far.\u00a0 She hadn’t screwed up.\u00a0 Yet.\u00a0 The pounding headache she’d developed wasn’t helping her focus.<\/p>\n

The corridor\u2014walls, floor, and ceiling\u2014was made of the same not-quite metal, not-quite ceramic the rest of the ship was made of.\u00a0 It had a slightly rough surface, like unglazed brick.\u00a0 That<\/span> material, they now knew, didn’t change.\u00a0 The kind that did\u2014well, now that the ship was underway, it had reconfigured itself.\u00a0 Which was why everybody not manning the scanners on Kepler<\/span> was running around in teams, trying to map out what the ship looked like now.<\/span>\u00a0 And, hopefully, find the bridge or control section or whatever the aliens had used for steering.<\/p>\n

Lea slowed, frowning.\u00a0 The wall on her left showed as a wall on the handheld, but it wasn’t made of the static material.\u00a0 \u201cThis is morph,\u201d she said, using the term they’d come up with.\u00a0 \u201cBut it hasn’t changed.\u00a0 The map shows it right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ivars dropped one hand from his weapon, letting it dangle from the harness, and examined the wall more closely.\u00a0 \u201cAnd we don’t know if it was morph before, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

She shook her head, and stepped away as if to look at a different section of wall but really to get away from Ivars.\u00a0 There was nothing she could point to that made her uncomfortable; he’d always been curtly polite to her and the other technical people.\u00a0 She’d never even heard him swear.\u00a0 It was just that close up, the part of her brain that had warned her ancestors about saber-toothed tigers woke up and started yammering.<\/p>\n

He’s just a soldier.\u00a0 You idiot.<\/span>\u00a0 Lea took off her glove and touched part of the morph that looked different, even more blocky than the rest.\u00a0 It felt tingly, like it had a slight electric charge.\u00a0 More interestingly, it wasn’t cold like the rest of the ship.\u00a0 \u201cHey, Dr. Dee.\u00a0 Does this feel different to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adi took off his own glove reluctantly, and only rested the tips of his fingers on the surface for a brief moment.\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot warmer?\u201d<\/p>\n

He touched the static wall, then the morph again.\u00a0 \u201cIt feels the same to me.\u00a0 For you, otherwise?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u00a0 Otherwise,\u201d\u00a0 Lea said slowly.\u00a0 Her headache twinged, and she winced.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark it and move.\u201d\u00a0 Ivars gestured, and the soldiers took up their positions around Lea and Dr. Adi.<\/p>\n

They continued on for nearly an hour with nothing else differing from the map.\u00a0 Ivars called a halt and let them rest for far too short a time, mostly because Dr. Adi was having a hard time keeping up.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t long after they started walking again that Lea noticed a wall coming up on the handheld, a wall that wasn’t visible ahead in the corridor.\u00a0 The side corridor was, but not the wall.\u00a0 \u201cThat section is new,\u201d she said, pointing.<\/p>\n

Ivars came up and glanced at the handheld for a moment, then stared down the unexplored section.\u00a0 He gave a small shrug.\u00a0 \u201cLet’s check it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an unexplored section of an alien ship went, it was disappointing.\u00a0 The section of corridor stretched ahead as far as Lea could see, with the occasional empty niche, and looked exactly like all the rest.\u00a0 Not even dust or an alien candy wrapper to alleviate the boredom.<\/p>\n

Somehow I thought this would be a little more interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

The soldier in front raised a hand.\u00a0 The others froze, and Lea and Dr. Adi had to stop with them.\u00a0 \u201cI’m seeing darkness up ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that was definitely different.\u00a0 Lea remembered the initial this-is-what-we-know lecture, and one thing that had intrigued her was the ambient light.\u00a0 It had not been on when the first robot explorer was sent in, and if only a mechanical device was present it would not stay on.\u00a0 If a human was present, the lights were on.\u00a0 Depending on how fast the human was traveling\u2014and they’d brought carts and even bicycles\u2014the lights turned on ahead in anticipation so darkness was never seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong train,\u201d said Ivers.\u00a0 \u201cYou two, stay in the back,\u201d pointing to Lea and Dr. Adi.\u00a0 They proceeded cautiously, staggered down the corridor.\u00a0 The soldier in front flipped down his adaptive optics.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmpty.\u00a0 Corridor like the rest, but it looks damaged.\u00a0 Wait, it’s blocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Ivars finally let them approach, Lea could see for herself.\u00a0 The corridor came to an abrupt and jarringly asymmetrical halt.\u00a0 The lighting was dead here, and the edges of the wall that blocked their path met corridor surfaces that had cracks and buckling.<\/p>\n

\u201cAtmosphere?\u201d Ivars barked.<\/p>\n

Dr. Adi started, then fumbled at one of the pockets of his vest for the sensor.\u00a0 \u201cAll is normal,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cPressure and atmospheric mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lea drifted forward, her curiosity overcoming her fear of getting snapped at by Ivars.\u00a0 The material of the ship was hard to damage, yet here it was cracked and worn.\u00a0 Something had blown up or smashed into the wall\u2014but the wall had been patched up afterwards.\u00a0 By whom?\u00a0 When?<\/p>\n

Two deep cracks darted jaggedly near the edge of the repair boundary, and met.\u00a0 A small chunk of the regular wall surface stood out just enough for her fingers to get a grip, and she pulled.\u00a0 The chunk came loose in her hand, maybe two inches long.\u00a0 She could hear Ivars draw in breath to yell at her, but it never happened.\u00a0 She was feeling rather speechless herself.<\/p>\n

The repair material had flowed into the hole as if it had always been there.<\/p>\n

#<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ivars wove his way through the supplies and sleeping bodies, hoping no further emergencies would erupt requiring clear passageways.\u00a0 After the change it had been agreed by the mission command that letting personnel sleep in the alien structure itself was not a good idea until they had a better understanding of what was happening and why.\u00a0 Plus, nobody wanted to.\u00a0 However, adding the 300 or so people already in place to the full ship’s complement made Kepler<\/span> more cramped than before and it had never been precisely roomy.<\/p>\n

Colonel Gonafrio was in the briefing room as expected.\u00a0 So was the civilian head of the project, Merrilee Macrae.\u00a0 Given how busy both of them were, Ivars started wondering if his exploration had been more meaningful than he realized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wall sample,\u201d he said, taking the sealed plastic bag from a vest pocket.\u00a0 Yeah, that was probably unusual enough for both of them to be interested.\u00a0 The little chunk of alien building material didn’t look that remarkable, but it was the first sample anyone had gotten.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, Sergeant,\u201d said Macrae, picking up the sample.\u00a0 It made sense, she was in charge of the scientists as well as the project as a whole.\u00a0 \u201cAny speculation on how that wall got that way?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like a pretty big hit of some kind.\u00a0 It would have to be to crack that stuff.\u201d\u00a0 He hesitated, wondering if it was even worth mentioning.\u00a0 \u201cSantorin didn’t think that bit would be very useful.\u00a0 Too damaged to tell us much about the rest of it in the ship.\u00a0 She seems to think it might all be connected and able to fix itself, and the fact that this couldn’t means it’s broken.\u201d\u00a0 He shrugged.\u00a0 The scientists would be sending in their own reports, so it would get covered\u2014but if Santorin had gone to the effort of talking about it it might be important.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat goop moving in to seal the gap would support that theory, don’t you think?\u201d Gonafrio asked dryly.\u00a0 \u201cYour group managed to uncover a lot of interesting clues, and support for theories that up till now we’ve been making up out of whole cloth and guesswork.\u00a0 If the self repair on this tub is still working after thousands of years\u2014and the drive\u2014we can’t make any assumptions about systems not working.\u00a0 I find it hard to believe the original owners didn’t have any kind of alarm for intruders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid your scientists say anything that would indicate they suspect the age of this ship?\u201d interrupted Macrae.<\/p>\n

Ivars shook his head.\u00a0 They had more data than they had revealed to the new scientific team, in particular images of a glaciated Earth, over 100,000 years ago.\u00a0 No more recent images had been stored, another mystery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe location of the damaged wall matches\u2014or matched\u2014a dark ice feature on the original surface.\u00a0 A fairly large, symmetrical feature but not a crater, not in the ice.\u00a0 It happened before the ice showed up.\u00a0 We suspect something damaged the alien ship right around the time the last image was stored, and it has been dormant ever since.\u201d\u00a0 Gonafrio\u00a0 opened up his comp, held it up to retina-verify, then plugged in a holo-pad.\u00a0 He tapped in some commands, and a model of the alien ship shimmered into view.\u00a0 Ivars had seen it before, with the few decks they could access highlighted in green.\u00a0 The core was apparently completely inaccessible.\u00a0 Now however, there was a large red valley scooped out of one side.\u00a0 \u201cThat’s our best guess, based on your location and the size of the crater.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that why it was empty?\u00a0 Too damaged, and the aliens abandoned it?\u201d Ivars asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn’t too damaged to take off,\u201d Macrae pointed out.\u00a0 \u201cBut who knows?\u00a0 Maybe the aliens didn’t have dent-and-ding insurance.\u201d\u00a0 She grinned at Gonafrio’s sigh.\u00a0 \u201cWe’re thinking we might be able to get at the core that way.\u00a0 See how deep that hole is?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, but how are we going to get to it?\u201d asked Ivars, doubtfully considering a long march in a spacesuit on the exterior of an alien ship that, as Gonafrio had hinted, might just have working defenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might be able to put an airlock in that repair wall.\u00a0 If the goop moves in where the wall has a gap, maybe it will move away<\/span> if that material or something like it moves in<\/span>,\u201d Macrae said, waving the plastic bag.\u00a0 \u201cUntil we stop messing around in hyperdrive or the 12th<\/sup> dimension or whatever this thing is doing we can’t go on the hull anyway, so that’s something else to try.\u201d\u00a0 She glanced at Gonafrio.\u00a0 \u201cWe want you to keep looking for more information.\u00a0 I wish I could tell you what to look for, but that’s why Lea Santorin is on your team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ivars frowned.\u00a0 \u201cWhat about Dr. Adi?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be more useful analyzing the data coming in from the sensors we got rigged up at the tunnel mouth.\u00a0 Maybe we can understand the drive that way.\u00a0 His specialty is high energy physics, and reading atmosphere sensors wasn’t giving him nearly enough to do.\u00a0 The trouble with intelligent people is they can’t turn their brains off.\u00a0 If you don’t keep them fully occupied in a situation like this they will start thinking about how much trouble we’re in and panic.\u00a0 That’s another reason to keep him on the ship.\u00a0 His stress levels were making him almost catatonic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, but why Santorin?\u00a0 She seems a bit…flaky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macrae grinned.\u00a0 \u201cWelcome to my world, corporal.\u00a0 I try to think of the science types as ‘highly focused’ myself.\u00a0 We sent her out for a reason.\u00a0 When we were recruiting for this mission we had a few computer science specialists play with some of the widgets we’d already found and tested.\u00a0 Santorin was on the list because she’d worked on non-binary nanotube computation.\u00a0 She figured out more in three days than the original researchers had in the previous month.\u00a0 She doesn’t always think in a straight line, but she gets there, and she doesn’t let preconceived notions restrict her approach.\u00a0 Good attitude to have on an alien ship, wouldn’t you say?\u00a0 Besides, you have another mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ivars glanced at Gonafrio.\u00a0 He was looking serious, almost grim.\u00a0 \u201cYou are not to communicate this to anyone outside your team, or to Santorin\u2014in addition to your continued search, you will protect Lea Santorin.\u00a0 This has equal priority with discovering anything that can help us get back home.\u00a0 Is that clear?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes sir.\u00a0 Can I ask why?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJudging from the way she figured out the alien tech we brought back to Earth, and by finding this,\u201d Macrae nudged the chunk of wall, \u201cshe’s probably our best hope of making the ship work for us.\u00a0 But if she knows that, there’s a good chance she’ll freeze up.\u00a0 Just when we need her the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

#<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lea jerked awake with a gasp, disoriented and thrashing to get away from whatever had grabbed her ankle.\u00a0 Then she saw it was Ramirez, there to wake her up.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen minutes.\u00a0 Same gear as last time,\u201d he said, and trotted off without waiting for her reply.\u00a0 Just like last time.<\/p>\n

She wasn’t sure how many days this had gone on.\u00a0 There may have been a shower at one point, but that could have been a dream.\u00a0 Food was eaten on the run, dry and compressed and nasty.\u00a0 There was never enough time to sleep, even if she’d had a real bed to sleep on.\u00a0 There weren’t enough bunks now and there had never been much privacy, so she had found a raised metal housing that wasn’t near anything crucial and used that, with a pad and a blanket.\u00a0 The housing was right next to some kind of control cabinet.\u00a0 What it controlled wasn’t clear but it generated enough heat to require a fan, so it was warm and had its own built-in white noise generator.<\/p>\n

Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.\u00a0 Her headache had gotten worse, feeling like her brain was in a pressure cooker.\u00a0 The progressively higher-octane analgesics the medic had given her hadn’t made a dent.\u00a0 The only thing that helped was sleep, and even then she would have strange dreams.\u00a0 This time she had relived replacing the alien device in its niche, and she had felt again the strange, sub-aural click, knowing something was not right.\u00a0 Ivars had brushed her confession aside, but even then she had known a change had occurred.\u00a0 It felt like the entire universe was listening…<\/span><\/p>\n

Lea rolled up the pad and blanket, grabbed her pack, and made a quick visit to the facilities.\u00a0 Someday she would have time to brush her teeth, which were feeling a bit furry.\u00a0 Then the corridor outside the general mess for some more insta-meals, stacked in boxes for the ‘outside’ teams.\u00a0 She hadn’t eaten in the mess since the incident.<\/p>\n

Scrambling to put what she privately called \u201csoldier-chow\u201d in her pack on the run, she still was late.\u00a0 She could tell by the way they were all standing and looking at her.\u00a0 Nobody said anything as they moved out, or as they passed through the main airlock, or the sealed tunnel that went from Kepler<\/span> to the alien ship door through the vacuum of the docking cave.<\/p>\n

The soldiers weren’t just names to her now, not after all this time, but she still didn’t feel like she knew them.\u00a0 Ramirez, who usually came to wake her, was dark, stocky and the most obviously muscular of the group.\u00a0 Lea liked him best because he seemed to disapprove of her the least.\u00a0 Olsen had white-blonde hair and eyebrows so pale they were almost invisible.\u00a0 Even though he was rangy and thin and didn’t look that strong, he carried the largest weapon of the group.\u00a0 North was darker than Ramirez, had an artificial foot, and despite\u2014or because\u2014of that, moved with complete and graceful silence.\u00a0 If there were black ninjas, North was one.<\/p>\n

Then there was Ivars.\u00a0 He was in command but didn’t seem to need to say much; the soldiers all understood what to do instinctively no matter what happened.\u00a0 Tall, lean, and wiry, Ivars had sandy hair that might have been red if he let it grow out more than buzz-cut length, and pale eyes that seemed to look through and beyond her.\u00a0 There were scars on one side of his face, near his temple, and one eyelid didn’t seem to want to close completely.\u00a0 A polite description of his looks would be \u201crugged,\u201d a more truthful one would be \u201cbeat-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Adi hadn’t come out with them after the first time.\u00a0 When she asked, Ivars just shrugged and said something about him being reassigned with even less interest than usual.\u00a0 Now she had no one to talk to.\u00a0 They only went back to Kepler to sleep, so she hadn’t talked to anyone there except to report what they’d found.\u00a0 Lea had never felt so alone.<\/p>\n

Now they were in the round foyer, with three corridors radiating out.\u00a0 Ivars glanced at her.\u00a0 \u201cWhich way?\u201d<\/p>\n

As if she knew.\u00a0 The survey of changes was complete, so now they were looking for anything strange.\u00a0 A stabbing pain in her head made her stagger, and she put a hand against the wall for balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to check the Tank first,\u201d she mumbled.\u00a0 If she didn’t talk to an ordinary human being soon, she would die.\u00a0 Besides, they might have new information.<\/p>\n

As she’d expected, Ivars and the rest of the team said nothing but headed out in the direction of the Tank, straight ahead.\u00a0 The corridor opened into another round space, this one three \u201clevels\u201d high.\u00a0 The corridor was on the middle level.\u00a0 Below was the only piece of alien technology they had gotten to work, a huge cylindrical display.\u00a0 Tables and equipment racks with overhead cable trays surrounded it, along with a dedicated team of researchers.\u00a0 From what she understood, they’d been working on the Tank since the first Earth ship arrived two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen bucks says it’s just the mall directory,\u201d joked Ramirez.\u00a0 North allowed himself a small grin, Olson just sighed.\u00a0 Ivars had no reaction, but kept scanning the area.\u00a0 The alien mall was a running gag among the soldiers.<\/p>\n

The aliens must have had some way to get to the lower level, but the humans hadn’t found it.\u00a0 They made do by constructing metal stairs that went over the railing and then down.<\/p>\n

Lea spotted one of the researchers she knew and felt her mood lighten.\u00a0 \u201cJenny!\u201d\u00a0 Jen Chai turned and smiled.\u00a0 \u201cAnything new?\u201d\u00a0 Jenny was a friend she’d made on the trip out, where they had whiled away the boredom with Jenny teaching her some Chinese and Lea trying to explain American slang.\u00a0 Lea hadn’t seen her since the Incident.<\/p>\n

Ni hao,<\/span> Li-anh! \u00a0Some indicators are changing, yes.\u00a0 New since the ship leaving.\u201d\u00a0 She shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cStill we have no understanding what they are.\u00a0 Also the display is changing by itself.\u00a0 What we set it to, it shows and then a few minutes later it goes back to this.\u201d\u00a0 She waved her hand.\u00a0 \u201cIt changes faster now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tank display didn’t look like much.\u00a0 Clouds of glowing dust, threads of denser areas running through them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One cloud looked more symmetrical than the others, and it was near the center of the tank.<\/p>\n

Interesting, but nothing she could use to dig up a control system.\u00a0 Lea checked in with a few other researchers, who had similar odd but unconnected findings to report.\u00a0 She sighed.\u00a0 There was no help for it, she was going to have to go back out to Corridor-Land and keep looking.<\/p>\n

She trudged toward the stairs.\u00a0 The soldiers looked relieved to be moving again, or maybe they didn’t like the wide open spaces of the Tank area.<\/p>\n

Halfway up the stairs, one of the researchers below shouted in surprise.\u00a0 Lea glanced over her shoulder and felt her eyes widen.\u00a0 The Tank display was pulsing,<\/span> brightly.\u00a0 Oh, I hope we didn’t push the self-destruct button by mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet’s go,\u201d snapped Ivars.<\/p>\n

Lea started running up the stairs, when a sudden crashing wave of pain made her cry out and stumble.\u00a0 Before she could fall two strong hands grabbed either arm and swung her upright, carrying her the rest of the way up and over the railing.\u00a0 Lea clutched her head, trying to understand what was going on.\u00a0 Her headache had vanished.\u00a0 She wasn’t in pain any more.\u00a0 And down below, the Tank was tranquilly displaying what looked like a long, white spiny spindle with dark hollows.\u00a0 It was getting larger.\u00a0 Or we’re getting closer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we aren’t in drive any more,\u201d Lea whispered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As promised!\u00a0 In the spirit of the Holiday Season, whichever present-giving holiday you prefer.\u00a0 A selection from the beginning of my new book Scent of Metal –now undergoing final rewrite. A tale of science, courage, and Pluto… ********************************************************* The emergency … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231,"href":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions\/231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chaseadventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}