House of Reeds

Above the Sobipurй-Parus Railway North of the Spaceport

The howling roar of shuttle engines suddenly faltered, pitch dropping precipitously, and Heicho Felix felt her gut flip over as the aircraft shuddered from nose to tail. She clutched tight on the support rails beside her jump seat, eyes squeezed shut.

And then realized her earbug had fallen silent, that her z-suit environmental controls had stopped humming, that aside from the shriek of air rushing past the hull, the inside of the shuttle was utterly quiet. Her eyes flew open – and there was nothing but darkness all around her – not so much as the gleam of a readout or a comm screen.

"What the hell!" Her shout tumbled over the exclamations of the rest of her squad and Sho-sa Kosho as well. "We've lost power!"

"We're not hit," Susan growled in the darkness. Felix could hear the lieutenant commander's fingers jamming fruitlessly against a control pad. "Comps are dead – everything's off-line."

"Everyone brace," Felix shouted, trying to grapple with the kind of weapon which could knock out all their comps inside of a shielded Fleet shuttle. "Hang on, we're going down!"

"Like a brick," Kosho muttered, forcing herself back into the seat.