Minutes passed, and Vaughn sat quietly, allowing the two ensigns to do their jobs. The deep, solid hum of the engines pervaded the hull of the small vessel, enclosing the cabin in a cushion of steady vibration and sound. The stars swam sideways past the windows as Chaffeecircled above the potential breach in the clouds. Monitors to either side of the two main consoles displayed the images of the constantly stirring atmosphere directly beneath the shuttle.

Vaughn gazed at the monitors, but he could see nothing but the agitated expanse of gray. Still, a quarter of an hour later, Ensign ch’Thane announced that a route completely through the cover had opened. “It’s the same point we’ve been focused on,” he said.

“Acknowledged,” Prynn said. “Bringing us in.” She worked her controls, and the nose of the shuttle dipped toward the planet. Ahead, the horizon rose in the windows until it was lost from sight, the planet filling the view.

“Twenty seconds until we reach the top of the cover,” ch’Thane said. Vaughn peered through the windows and still could not discern the passage through the clouds. As they descended, though, details of the atmosphere became visible, evanescent structures of air, billows and wisps and swirls. “Ten seconds.” A helical formation curled away to port. With nothing to provide perspective, Vaughn found it impossible to gauge scale. What seemed like a small coalescence of vapor could easily have been kilometers long.

And then the grayness swallowed the shuttle. Chaffeebucked and began to shake as the colorless walls of air shot upward past the windows. Vaughn recalled the mythical tale of Jonah, as well as his own past experiences when he had felt, either figuratively or literally, as though he had been in the belly of the beast.

“I’m getting intermittent energy readings,” ch’Thane said. “No discernible source.” The shuttle began to rattle more strongly, as though the vibrations had reached a point of resonance. Vaughn clasped the arms of his chair, trying to steady himself. The cockpit became a shuddering blur, and the hum of the engines fluctuated, rising and falling as the shuttle made its way downward.

Vaughn looked at the monitor to Prynn’s left, but had difficulty focusing on the image. “Energy readings are climbing around us,” ch’Thane said, raising his voice to be heard above the increasing sound in the cabin. “The clouds are moving…the break is shifting below us.”

“I see it,” Prynn said calmly. Her gaze had left her panel, Vaughn saw, and had shifted to the monitor displaying the path below Chaffee.She held her arms tensely over the conn, her fingers moving sporadically as she adjusted the shuttle’s course. Chaffeeveered to port, and Vaughn felt his momentum shift as the gravity of the planet asserted itself over the inertial dampers.

The shuttle trembled as though something had struck it, and a loud boom filled the cabin. Vaughn imagined the fragments of the Vahni moon as they had battered Sagan,incapacitating Dax and robbing Ensign Roness of her life. “That was an energy surge,” ch’Thane called over the rising noise. “I can’t tell where it came from.”

Vaughn looked to his right, to the system status monitor set into the bulkhead there. “Power’s down three percent,” he read, struggling to keep his eyes steady. “The shields are holding.”

“As long as the shields stay intact,” Prynn said, “we can get through anything.” Vaughn looked over at her and saw tremendous concentration reflected in her features. He would not have been surprised if he learned that she had no idea that she had even spoken. “Hold on,” she said a moment later, and Vaughn did so, clutching tightly at the arms of his chair. The shuttle rolled to port, the clouds spinning in the opposite direction in front of the windows. Prynn righted Chaffeefor a moment, then maneuvered back the other way.

Then something slammed broadside into the shuttle and sent it plowing through the air. It could have been a current of air shearing into Chaffee,Vaughn supposed, but he suspected that they had been rammed again by a surge of the mysterious energy. He tried to read the status monitor, but found it impossible with the shuttle shaking so violently now. Vaughn saw the clouds now up against the windows; Chaffeehad been pushed from the break in the atmospheric cover and into the cover itself.

Prynn rolled the shuttle to starboard, and then did it a second and third time in rapid succession, the circular acceleration keeping everybody in their seats. Vaughn felt a momentary sense of vertigo, and then the shuttle straightened. At the windows, the gray air had moved away again; Prynn had pulled the shuttle back into the breach. The shaking lessened, and Vaughn read from the status monitor. “Power is surging in the port engine,” he said.

Vaughn saw Prynn glance down at her console, then back up at the monitor. “Cut power to it for ten seconds,” Prynn said. Ensign Ch’Thane looked in her direction and did nothing. “Do it,” Prynn said again, yelling now, “or the engine will shut down automatically.” Ch’Thane moved then, calling out his actions as he followed Prynn’s directions. Vaughn watched the power level of the port engine drop to zero on the status monitor. After ten seconds, ch’Thane reengaged power, and the readouts returned to normal.

“One more time,” Prynn called. “Hold on.” She pulled the shuttle over to port, and then plunged the nose down. Vaughn lost all sense of orientation, but felt an increasing acceleration, as though he were falling from a great height. He looked through the windows again and saw tendrils of gray air buffeting them. Chaffeebegan to quiver again—

And then stopped. The flight of the shuttle stabilized and quieted, and the view before the windows cleared. Prynn pulled Chaffeeup, leveling it out, and only then did Vaughn realize that they had been shooting nose-first toward the ground. He consulted the status panel. “Engine power is down nine percent,” he read.

“That’s not bad for the pounding we took,” Prynn said. Verifying that, ch’Thane calculated the enormous amount of energy that had struck the shuttle. “I don’t think all of those were surges,” Prynn said. “I think anytime the clouds came into contact with the shuttle, there was a discharge of energy.” Ch’Thane concurred with that conclusion.

Vaughn stood up and stepped between Prynn and ch’Thane. He raised his hands up and rested them on the backs of their chairs. “Well done,” he told them.

Vaughn leaned forward and peered out the windows. Above, an unbroken sea of clouds stretched to the horizon in every direction, diffuse sunlight penetrating them from above. Below, a nearly lifeless terrain spread out before them, dark patches dotting the rugged topography, the colors washed out in the gloom.

“Look there,” Ensign ch’Thane said, bringing his hand up and pointing just to the right of their flight path. Vaughn gazed in that direction and saw a series of shapes rising up in the distance from the otherwise barren landscape. As the shuttle drew closer, the shapes resolved into buildings.

“It’s a city,” Vaughn said.

“Captain,” Prynn said, “I’ve calculated our course, based on the coordinates collected by the probe.” She looked up at him. “We’re traveling in the wrong direction.”

Vaughn took a last look at the city, then said, “Bring us around.”

“Aye, sir.” She operated her console, and the shuttle tilted to port. Within a few seconds, the city had slipped from view.

“How are sensors functioning?” Vaughn asked.

“There’s some interference from the energy in the clouds,” ch’Thane said, “but we’re getting solid readings.”

“Good,” Vaughn said. “Scan astern for the city, and get what you can. I want to learn as much as possible while we’re down here.”

“Yes, sir,” ch’Thane said, and he worked his controls.