Page 163 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

think she’ll be fine; but don’t tell her I said so!” he said. Krysta laughed and nodded. Then turning
the mike back on he continued “You’re approaching the descent point we’ll keep watching up here;
Command out!” he terminated the conversation.

Maria looked at her console instruments. The Camera recording had been operating since
her approach to orbit. She was also making a personal recording for her own use later. “All good
pilots make backups of their Logs and backups of those backups, standard practice” her Father and
older brothers had told her when she enrolled in the Academy. She noted that there was a lot of
dust even this high in the atmosphere. She put up the cockpit ablative shielding as a precaution and
descended into the upper atmospheric layers. The turbulence started almost immediately. The tiny
Scout craft was being blasted by winds that would have put the mighty winds of Neptune to shame.
The sound of the dust particles hitting the ablative shield was getting louder; like the roar of some
wild and wounded beast. The craft was being buffeted in all directions and the auto pilot kept
cutting in to assist her keeping course. She lost track of the time it took; probably because she was
distracted by what was happening all around her outside. Suddenly the noise and the buffeting
stopped. Dropping the ablative shield she looked out of the cockpit. The sky around her was a
golden colour. Wind speeds and her flight speed were still relatively high, but the tiny craft was
handling beautifully.

She was still high enough to skim over the high clouds of the eruptions below. Rolling the
craft gave her a better view of the surface. The range of colours was incredible. T’Shon had a
majestic beauty all of its own “I’ve made it to Hell Daddy; and it’s just like Io – only bigger” she
thought to herself “I hope I get back in one piece to show you” she added as a footnote. She
switched on and ran system checks of the Deep penetration scanner array and set the auto pilot
with an orbital course that would take in the entire massive globe of T’Shon and sat back in her flight
seat. It was going to take many hours. She would have to make course corrections periodically to
avoid Eruption plumes etc., but she let herself relax and turned on the burst antenna that would
relay the data back to the Veklaar. As she looked out of the dome of the cockpit windows; P’rada;
the systems star was just beginning to set over the huge curved horizon. It’s glancing; angled rays
making the upper dust ridden and stormy layer shimmer; a kaleidoscope of hues and shades of gold
yellows and browns. T’Shon was putting on a show; just for her “What strange, insane beauty this
Hell has” she thought to herself…

The survey flight took just over four days; Maria had to make minor adjustments to avoid
eruption plumes, but overall, everything went smoothly. Until; that is, the late evening of the fifth
day. The scout craft’s sensors picked up early signs of a massive increase in tremors in an area
already surveyed.

“Maria, the rest of the scan could wait a little; could you break off and gain altitude and see what is
happening on the surface. I’m sending coordinates now” Krysta said and sent the data

“Will do Captain; I’ve enjoyed several amazing sunsets lately, the Volcanic activity I suppose. I’ll rise
to that slipstream layer and take a look. The digital camera recordings are going to make one heck of
a home movie to watch. I’ll probably be editing the stuff for weeks! The survey is almost complete
anyway; I think the Untharan Geological institute will have a field day when they get the data. Maria
out!” Maria replied. She made the adjustments, increased the shield strengths and changed altitude
before heading off on the bearings given.

As she approached the coordinates a definite change to the
area could be seen. Great annular rifts had opened in T’Shon’s crust
centring on a previously dormant volcano; named by the Veklaar’s
crew Shiva Mons, after some ancient deity. This huge mountain was
twice the size of Olympus Mons. As she got closer; Maria could see