Solar Storms

SOLAR STORMS

A Prequel Short Story to

Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Edited by
Erin Elizabeth Long

Artwork by Biblio/Tech

Nicholassansbury.com

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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.