Outward Borne Read Online Free PDF Page A

as RaLak's fantasy of some
massive perpetually aflame object flying around the planet at some
tremendous speed. That, by the way, was a whole lot likelier than
possibility number two: that has the planet was itself spinning
madly around while circling at super fantastic speeds some
permanently burning globe that sent light and heat over immense
distances, which was why he didn't mention it.
    Somehow, the idea that all this
weighty speculation was based on some ripples in the water that
could not be seen if the wind was blowing did not compute. It was
not to be thought of. Surely old RaLak was making a bit too much of
his data that he spent too much time collecting anyway, and was it
not about time he retired because who is paying his salary, come to
think of it. Thus, the discovery that ObLa was not alone in the
Universe was ignored. Kind of a let down, but then –

 
     
     
    Chapter 4 Breaking
Through
     
    Some years after RaLak retired
and, sadly, a year after his death, MaxNi MaxRo came to head a
small team that set out to study the high velocity winds in the
upper atmosphere. It was a small project, one of his first, but one
he relished. The COW had conducted several previous studies in
which they launched instrument-laden balloons into the high
altitude wind streams. The light, bulky probes were carried away in
the turbulent currents and were never as successful as hoped. There
were two streams raging around ObLa that they knew of, one at a
higher elevation than the other. The air between the streams was
exceptionally unstable as the two currents twisted and turned in
their own way, sometimes mixing to form great high-energy cyclones.
It was well known that these winds were highly variable and had
never been mapped with any certainty.
    MaxNi learned from his time with
RaLak to look for that extra level of detail. He knew that none of
the previous studies of upper atmospheric winds had attained very
high altitudes. They had tried, but had failed, though one cause or
another, much below their balloon’s limit. That was his goal, to
gain that full elevation. Balloons that entered the high-speed wind
streams, if not immediately torn apart, were blown horizontally
until they lost buoyancy and fell back to ObLa. Previous studies
had been launched from the easily accessible central latitudes, but
there was a theory that there may be irregularities in the northern
wind streams that might be exploited. So that was where he would
go, or as far north as he dared to go. This was considered both
risky, some said stupid, and dangerous; for balloons could be
launched only when surface winds were dead calm and calm days were
rare in the northern reaches, while sudden damaging storms were an
ever-present possibility.
    The famous expedition began with
MaxNi and two big young techs, JaDom RaDac and HuMat JonSi, packed
into an all terrain van that was pulling a trailer filled with the
balloons, liquid helium cylinders, and all their rapid-launch
equipment. They set out from their temporary monitoring station for
a two-day drive northeast into a remote region at twenty-five
degrees of latitude. They had two well-equipped balloons; each of a
new two-stage design that MaxNi hoped would have sufficient lift to
break through the wind currents to the heights beyond. The
prediction was for still air during the next six days, which they
would need to fill the wispy things, but on the second night of
their trip, clouds lowered, the fog thickened and the winds picked
up, a dense mist was blown out of the bogs and covered the land,
slowing their speed considerably.
    A warning was received from the
COW weather station - conditions were worsening. The expedition
should seek a safe location and wait out the storm. The land over
which they were moving was a series of low mounds that had been
swept clear of any vegetation and bogs of wet mud and scummy
floating plants that were piled in rotting mats along the shore.
There was no place to hide. As the