PARALLAX chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Parallax was almost at its destination.

That should have made the storm easier to deal with.

Instead, Engineering had one problem after another.

The reserve power banks were low.

The catnip stores were low.

And the next harvest wouldn't happen until they reached the next sun.

The grow dome was still waiting for its next cycle.

They had enough fuel to reach their destination under normal conditions, but the storm ahead changed the calculation.

Nobody knew what the cosmic field would do to the ship.

It could interfere with navigation.

It could disrupt communications.

It could drain the reserve banks.

It could do nothing at all.

Engineering wasn't willing to find out with thirty-one percent reserve power.

"How much catnip do we have?"

The technician checked the storage readout.

"Not much."

"How much is not much?"

"Enough to run the reactor and charge the banks."

A pause.

"And enough for one emergency restart."

The engineering chief nodded.

"Keep the restart reserve separate."

The technician confirmed the command.

Most of the remaining catnip was transferred into the reactor.

The reactor began its normal startup sequence.

Nothing unusual happened.

The core warmed.

The fuel cycle stabilized.

Power began flowing into the reserve banks.

Thirty-one percent.

Thirty-two.

Thirty-three.

Slowly, steadily, the reserve climbed.

Exactly as expected.

Then the reactor output jumped.

Only slightly.

The technician looked at the display.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"Output spike."

The numbers settled again.

The engineer watched the reactor.

"Probably the storm."

"Radiation?"

"Could be."

The storm was still twelve hours away, but its outer radiation field was already beginning to reach them.

The reactor's shielding was designed to isolate the core from outside interference.

At least, that was what it was supposed to do.

Another small spike appeared.

Then the output settled again.

The technician frowned.

"That's the second one."

"Is the reactor stable?"

"Yes."

"Then keep charging."

The reserve banks continued climbing.

Thirty-four percent.

Thirty-five.

The reactor was working normally.

Mostly.

The occasional spike was strange, but nothing that required shutting the system down.

They couldn't afford to shut it down.

They needed the reserve power.

The Parallax was twelve hours from the storm and almost at its destination.

The crew had no idea what was waiting for them inside that field.

They only knew they needed enough power to get through it.

So they kept the reactor running.

And they left just enough catnip in storage to restart it if everything went dark.

That small reserve was still ordinary catnip.

For now.

None of them knew that before long, it would be the only thing aboard the Parallax that had been changed by the storm.

And when they eventually put it into the reactor, they would discover that it wasn't ordinary catnip anymore.