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    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,