Chapter 9

The last of the smoke that trailed in a lazy arc into the sky dissipated on the desert breeze as staff at the launch site and at Mission Control simultaneously held their breath. The usual celebration of a flight well done fizzled into nothing as speakers broadcast the on-going disaster in a disjointed, patchwork fashion, rushing wind distorting every shouted word into an unrecognisable mush. Aleks had dialled the gain down a tad on his board without even thinking about it, and now the shouti...