A Chill Wind From Heaven
Copyright© 2026 by Sonarflash2026
Prologue
The delicious rush of adrenalin was a familiar, welcome high. Captain Alexis Anne Willcox revelled in the excitement, and the rising pressure of G-forces. She was nearing apogee, her experimental fighter tearing through the ionosphere on Scram jets. There was another kick when solid rocket boosters cut in, then she was sub-orbital, leaving behind the planet. The experimental grav-drive propulsion system engaged. A new elation set in as the experimental fighter was transformed, becoming a spacecraft.
More spectator than test pilot, Captain Willcox kept monitoring instruments. Without warning, a violent shudder passed through the airframe. Unexpected, a sideways jolt of acceleration from the gravity-field slammed her chest. Ribs cracked, pain excruciating. Eyesight and Velocity readings blurred. A confusion of swirling patterns washed through the Captain’s mind.
As though from a great distance, Alexis heard AI alarms. Too much was happening all at once. The bottom seemed to drop out of reality. For an instant, the advanced technology fighter was climbing through ninety kilometres, slewing, thruster controls unresponsive. Inertial forces started tearing at Alexis, each violent lurch hammering her insides. Vision misted and contracted.
Cool, competent skills and discipline evaporated. Terrified, the test pilot was once again, suddenly aware of mortality. Alexis felt certain she was about to die.
With a shudder, the aircraft seemed to stabilize. Vision returned. Plasma flames were sheeting over cockpit windows. A computer voice stated warnings. Alarms beeped and red lights flashed. Where there should be no friction, air was shrieking over wing tiles and layers of composite airframe skin. Displays flared and flickered. A few instrument readings seemed impossible.
The LIDAR was out. Alexis saw the radar altimeter and balked. Instead of her altitude being more than one hundred kilometres, she was only a few dozen kilometres above the ground and dropping rapidly. Tunnel vision expanded. She focused on a viewscreen. As from a great distance, Alexis glimpsed a view that was impossible.
Instead of the threshold of space, her fighter was screaming through lower atmosphere. Off to her right, jagged, snow-capped mountains were showing in the forward viewscreen. She was no longer above the flat wilderness of Northeastern Alberta. Instead, she was diving towards a high ridge.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.