Solar Storms

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  SOLAR STORMS

  A Prequel Short Story to

  Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Edited by Erin Elizabeth Long

  Artwork by Biblio/Tech

  Nicholassansbury.com

  Thank you for downloading this eBook

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  Copyright © 2013 Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Great Wave Ink Publishing

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

  Also by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  From the Tisaian Chronicles

  Prequel Short Story I: Squad 19

  Prequel Short Story II: A Royal Knight

  Book I: The Biomass Revolution

  From the ORBS Series

  Solar Storms, a prequel short story to ORBS

  ORBS

  ORBS II: Stranded (Jan 1, 2013)

  ORBS III: Redemption (March 1, 2013)

  For my mom and dad, you both continue to amaze me with all you do to make this world a better place.

  “We have a very long record that shows that even the strongest flares can’t blow out the atmosphere…There is really no way that even the largest disruption can end the world.”

  —Antti Pulkkinen, Nov 14, 2011

  Table of Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  About the Author

  -1-

  Houston, Texas

  2055

  DR. SOPHIE WINSTON watched Bush International Airport disappear in the distance. The NASA driver who had picked her and Dr. Emanuel Rodriguez up at the airport raced away from Houston as if he couldn’t wait to escape the smog-filled city. She surveyed the skyline from behind the tinted window of their SUV, wondering why the driver was in such a hurry.

  The view wasn’t impressive. The smog level was so high, she could hardly see the metal tips of the skyscrapers above her. She wasn’t thrilled about moving to the congested and polluted city. Of all the exotic places her career could have taken her, she’d somehow landed in Houston.

  But less than forty minutes into the ride, she saw a massive sign by the side of the road and remembered exactly why she had decided to take the job.

  Johnson Space Center.

  The sight of the iconic buildings sent a chill down her back. Growing up, she had seen the Johnson Space Center on TV and vowed that she’d go there someday. Long before her parents had been ushered into her junior high school principal’s office, where she’d heard them use words like gifted and genius, long before she had graduated from Princeton with a PhD in particle physics—Sophie had known that her future would lead her here.

  As the metal buildings came into focus, she turned to Emanuel and slapped his leg gently. “Look at that,” she whispered.

  He cocked his head to get a better view and smiled. Sophie let her gaze linger on his trademark dimples for a second before turning back to the window. She knew his smile was at least partly forced; he hadn’t wanted the contract with NASA near as much as she did.

  The crimson sun slowly disappeared over the horizon, and the facility glowed to life as if it was beckoning them toward it.

  “ETA five minutes. Dr. Tsui will meet you at building five, where you will unload. He wants you to get started right away,” the driver said flatly without taking his eyes off the road.

  Sophie tried to ignore the man’s formal tone, but it was somewhat unsettling. Just what exactly had she gotten herself into this time? Of course Dr. Tsui would be anxious for her and Emanuel to get started; with the increasingly violent and unexplained solar storms, there was much to be done. So much, apparently, that NASA had chartered a private helicopter to fly them from D.C. to Houston a week early.

  But why?

  If there was one thing she hated, it was being kept out of the loop. And so far she knew nothing more than what Dr. Tsui had told them over a brief teleconference, which he had cut short due to what he called “solar developments.”

  Sophie caught sight of a pair of New Tech Corporation satellite trucks parked outside the north gates. Emanuel saw them at the same moment and shot her a nervous glance.

  “NTC?” he whispered.

  Sophie didn’t respond. The presence of the world’s largest security and science firm could only mean one thing—that NASA wasn’t in charge of this operation.

  “What’s NTC doing here?” Emanuel asked the driver.

  “Not sure, sir, they don’t tell me much,” he replied.

  Emanuel frowned and peered out of the tinted window as the truck approached the front guard gate.

  “Get your identification ready,” the driver said, easing the truck to a complete stop.

  She dug inside her bag for her government contractor ID. When she looked back up, an NTC soldier was approaching the vehicle. To her surprise, he wasn’t some local security guard hired to check badges. He wore the black matte body armor of the elusive NTC Special Forces and a set of glowing red goggles that indicated he was a senior officer. The soldier carried a state-of-the-art pulse rifle. Sophie had read the literature and knew that the weapon was incredibly advanced—so advanced that it shouldn’t even exist yet.

  But as he marched closer, she saw it was very real, and it was pointed directly at the truck.

  “What’s going on here, Emanuel?” Sophie whispered, her hand finding its way to his knee.

  “Good question,” he replied in a hushed voice.

  The soldier approached the driver’s window and leaned over to examine the inside of the truck.

  “Turn off the vehicle, sir, and give me your ID,” he ordered. His voice was rough and robotic, muffled by the breathing apparatus engineered into his helmet.

  The driver quickly obliged, handing his badge through the open window. The soldier held the ID for several seconds, examining it thoroughly before nodding and returning it. Next, he approached Sophie’s window and knocked on the tinted glass.

  She swiped the touchscreen monitor built into the armrest, and the window silently opened.

  “Names,” he said.

  “Dr. Sophie Winston and Dr. Emanuel Rodriguez.”

  “State your business,” the soldier replied, holding out his hand for their badges.

  Emanuel leaned across Sophie, handing his badge to the man. “We are here to join Dr. Tsui’s team.” Emanuel said. “Is this really necessary? We need to get started right away.”

  The soldier scanned the badges with his wrist monitor and waited until it blinked orange. With a mechanical motion, he took a step back, his red goggles emitting an eerie glow in the dim light. Instead of responding to Emanuel’s question, he yanked the car door open.

  “Out,” he said.

  “What?” Sophie asked.

  “Out of the car, now,” he ordered, his voice raised so that the metallic rasp of the breathing apparatus was even more pronounced.

  Sophie fumbled for her bag, but the soldier held up his hand and said, “Leave it, ma’am.”

  She shot him an angry glance before slowly dropping the bag onto the seat. Hesitantly, she climbed out onto the concrete and stood next to the car. Emanuel joined her a few seconds later, standing shoulder to shoulder with her.

  “Want to tell us what this is about?” Emanuel said.

  The soldier didn’t respond. Instead he backed toward the metal guard shack.
He stopped just outside the door, keeping his rifle leveled at the ground in front of them. Without taking his eyes off Sophie and Emanuel, he brought his wrist mic up to his helmet.

  “Base, this is Captain Mitchell. I have a Dr. Sophie Winston and—” he paused briefly to look at the other ID. “A Dr. Emanuel Rodriguez who claim to be part of Dr. Tsui’s team, but neither of them show up on the systems’ registry, please advise, over.”

  The com crackled with static. Sophie strained to catch the response, feeling the knot in her stomach grow as the seconds ticked by. Finally the radio blared to life.

  “Roger, Captain, verifying records.”

  More static broke over the channel. What was taking them so long? And why hadn’t they shown up in the system? Every instinct told her that something wasn’t right. Sophie froze as the channel came back on.

  “Captain Mitchell, this is base. Both Dr. Rodriguez and Dr. Winston are cleared to advance. Must have been a glitch in the registry. They are approved for entry, over.”

  The soldier quickly brought his wrist mic back to his helmet. “Copy that.” He paced over to them and handed them their badges. “Can’t be too careful,” he said before returning to the guard shack to open the massive metal gate.

  Emanuel shrugged and climbed back into the vehicle, but Sophie paused, waiting until the soldier was safely inside the guard shack. As soon as she sat down, the driver punched the gas and the truck lurched forward.

  She looked over at Emanuel, who was digging in his backpack. “What?” he asked, glancing up at her. It took him only an instant to recognize the concern streaked across her face. They had worked together for years, and he knew her better than anyone.

  “Something’s wrong. The security, NASA pushing our schedule up—something is off,” she whispered.

  Emanuel nodded a fraction of an inch, not wanting to attract any attention from the driver.

  “Patience, Sophie,” he said. He reached over and stroked her hand softly with his index finger. His touch immediately relaxed her, and she turned to survey the buildings racing by.

  In the distance, the sun lost its battle with the oncoming night, but not before emitting one last brilliant blaze that turned the clouds of smog above South Houston a radiant orange. The sunset was beautiful, but Sophie couldn’t help but wonder what was brewing out there, millions of miles away.

  -2-

  “WELCOME, welcome!” Dr. Tsui said, flailing his tiny arms around. “This,” he said, spinning on the white tile floor of the atrium, “this is building 30-S, former home to the Space Shuttle Control Room as well as the data facilities and flight consoles. It has been completely renovated and upgraded to serve NASA’s Space Weather Program.”

  Sophie set her bag on the ground and took a moment to admire the open atrium. Glass walls surrounded her on all sides, providing a panoramic view of the other buildings. In the middle of the room rested an ancient space shuttle, the outer casing peeled away to reveal the mechanical guts. Hundreds of wires snaked through the metal bones. She could picture school children marveling at the ship on a tour, much as she had done when she saw dinosaurs at the museum as a child. The NASA shuttle was, after all, a fossil, having gone extinct years ago when NTC took over space exploration.

  “You will be spending all of your time here, and your tablets will only access this building,” Tsui said, handing them both tablet computers. He shifted his dark-rimmed glasses higher onto his wrinkled nose. “Ah, that reminds me about earlier. I understand there was a security mix up?”

  Sophie nodded, her lips parting to speak, but Tsui beat her to it.

  “We have been so busy that someone dropped the ball on getting you entered into the system. My apologies.” The old scientist offered his small hand, which stuck out the end of an oversized white lab coat.

  “It was a bit of a surprise, but understandable considering the situation. Security seems…unusually tight,” Sophie said, seizing the opportunity to get information out of the man. Tsui just smiled. She reached out and shook his hand, trying not to wince. For an 80-year-old man, he had a very strong grip.

  Tsui shook Emanuel’s hand as well before turning to head down the hall. He got a few feet away and stopped, craning his old neck to look at them. “What are you waiting for?” he said, motioning them forward with his miniature hands.

  Sophie could hardly hold in her laughter. With his lab coat, pocket protector, and large, black-rimmed glasses, he looked more like a pediatrician who refused to retire than the head of one of NASA’s most well-funded programs. The man not only had a strong grip—he also had more energy than a teenager. She grabbed her bags and took one last look at the ancient shuttle before following him down the hallway.

  To Sophie’s disappointment, the tour of the facility lasted only 15 minutes. While anxious to get started, she’d been looking forward to exploring the place that had monitored some of the most historic space shuttle launches of the United States.

  Reminding herself that everything wasn’t about her, she followed Dr. Tsui down the last hallway. He was still talking and flailing his arms about, discussing a grant Sophie had already forgotten the name of.

  When they finally rounded the last corner, her discontent quickly faded. A pair of thick glass doors etched with the NASA insignia was all that separated them from the former shuttle mission control center. Sophie watched Tsui swipe his keycard, smiling as the door unlocked with a mechanical click. The glass silently slid open, and Tsui stepped into the massive room.

  “Welcome to your new home!” he said, spinning around to gauge their reactions. “That’s Ed in the front row, he drew the short stick for nightshift,” Tsui said, pointing to a hefty man inhaling a taco. Ed looked up from his dinner and waved with his free hand.

  Sophie returned the gesture. She was beaming with excitement. The room had been completely renovated with state-of-the-art technology, a significant upgrade from the conditions they were used to working in during their last project in D.C.

  Every wall was covered with monitors. Even the ceiling had one. And even more impressive was the holographic image of the earth hovering over a console in the center of the room. Its warm yet cool blue glow beckoned them forward.

  “Go ahead,” Tsui said, nodding at Sophie like a parent allowing a child to open her first Christmas present.

  She took one step into the room, and another voice emerged.

  “Greetings, Dr. Winston and Dr. Rodriguez, and welcome to the Space Weather Control Center.” It was a female voice. Calm, confident. Robotic.

  Sophie didn’t need to turn to see the holographic image of an AI hovering over the console behind her. With the heavy NTC presence, she should have known they would have equipped the facility with one of the rare and extremely expensive machines.

  Machine intelligence.

  If there was one part of the technological revolution Sophie hadn’t accepted yet, it was the introduction of AI. After a moment, she turned to make a proper introduction.

  “Thank you. We are glad to be here.”

  “My service number is A5, but you can call me Amy. I monitor this facility and am here to serve you.”

  “Got it, thank you,” Sophie said and hurried down the stairs toward the hologram of the earth.

  “Fantastic isn’t it?” Tsui said from the top of the stairs. “The technology is the best we could have hoped for. And if it weren’t for NTC, we wouldn’t have any of it. President Bolton still refuses to acknowledge space weather is something her administration should take seriously.”

  “You don’t say?” Emanuel quipped.

  “The day President Bolton takes anything science related seriously would be a win in my book,” Sophie replied.

  Tsui smiled widely, revealing a perfect set of white teeth. Sophie decided they had to be dentures.

  “We sent her chief science advisor a memo concerning the sun activity over a month ago, but we still haven’t had any formal response. I will not be holding my breath, either—I’
m too old for that,” he said with a laugh.

  Sophie grinned. Tsui was elderly, but he was still sharp. This, she finally decided, was the reason he was in charge of one of the last NASA programs Congress still funded.

  “I suppose you want to know why I asked for you, Dr. Winston,” Tsui said, studying her.

  “Indeed,” she said, pulling her blonde hair back into a ponytail instinctively. It was a nervous habit she had developed long before she had decided she wanted to be a particle physicist.

  “What I am about to tell you is classified. This information is considered level 10, and technically neither of you is authorized to hear it, but unfortunately we don’t have time to get you through the proper channels. If our intel is correct, it won’t much matter in a few days anyway.”

  Sophie glanced at Emanuel, whose dimples were fading into a frown.

  “Two months ago, my team picked up some very odd sunspots. Which, as you know, is not typical for the sun’s current cycle.”

  She cocked an eyebrow at him, her curiosity growing by the second.

  “The last eleven-year cycle peaked and ended two years ago. So theoretically the sun should not be very active right now.” He paused to take a look at the ceiling. “Amy, please show the new team members our discovery.”

  Above them the monitor glowed to life, the blue screensaver fading into the red image of the sun. A waveform rippled across the screen, like a patient’s heartbeat during an EKG. Only the wave wasn’t normal; it was fluctuating rapidly. It took Sophie a few seconds to realize what she was looking at.

  “The graphic isn’t real time, it’s been sped up to illustrate the sun’s activity over the past month. As you can see, the ebb and flow is not normal.”

  “Do you have any idea as to why?” Sophie asked.

  Tsui locked eyes with her. Even behind the thick lenses, Sophie could see the strain in them. He knew something—something he hadn’t told them yet.