Chronological Comet is part of a chronological, episodic series. If you have not read any previous stories from the currents of Infinite Wild, I suggest you start from the beginning.
The bright, turbulent main flow of the unmapped route was behaving strange. Viamorrs were used to floating into unknown areas, into hazards they could not see, but the flows in the Riri current followed a set of rules, even if nobody understood them completely. Flows did not shift on their own accord without some force acting upon them. Floods moved roids and caused hazards, planetary bodies and contact with solar systems bent and twisted the flow to contort around gravitational centers and asteroid belts made turbulence. But Noah looked at something new through his viewshield. The current swept upward and out to the sharp gradient edge of a split. The end of the flow banked and twisted back and forth along the blackness of the split like a frayed end of rope fluttering in the breeze.
“Ever seen somethin’ like this?” asked Noah.
“I was hoping you had.” said Maryna.
“Can you pick a route?” asked Noah.
“Every time it shifts, it will mean a new entry into the split.” said Maryna. “But that’s not even the weird part.”
“Is there something weirder?” asked Warui.
“Well it depends on whether you think an entire wall of dissipating current around a planet is weird.” said Maryna.
“On Gaziira, when the current passes over the planet the particles merge with the atmosphere.” said Gabriel.
“Gaziira isn’t surrounded by a split.” said Maryna. “Especially a split that appears to be moving through the currents. Like it has a troller on it.”
“Can’t go back now. That flow has to go somewhere.” said Noah. “Gonna need your best worst option.”
“Each of us need the same timing so that we don’t enter on a different line.” said Maryna. “Under no circumstance should you deviate on the time of entry into the split. We’re taking this side by side so we end up together.”
“Take her lines seriously.” said Noah. “I’m talking to you, Scout.”
“Just get Warui to float remotely close to us and he might not crush us on the exit.” said Gabriel.
“I float slow to save you.” said Warui. “I can leave ya to spin your brains out on the next surge if that’ll please your royal tendencies for individual acclaim.”
“My acclaim rests only in the Beautiful Path.” said Gabriel.
“Just follow whatever Ryna sends us. Even if it’s ugly.” said Noah.
Maryna swept the route and timing to the viewscreen of the viamorrs and added a timer for leaving the current eddy behind the roid where the bonnies waited. Gabriel moved his bonnie to the point of current furthest from the roid, and Warui took up the space closest. With a smaller radius to travel as they peeled out of the eddy, Warui could match Gabriel’s line, float slower, and enter the split at the same time. Noah and Maryna lined up between the other viamorrs. They banked in their bonnies and reentered the shining flow. After a moment of movement, they lined up parallel to one another and locked in their trajectory to continue straight toward the spherical split. In front of them, the currents shifted and reached out to the edge of the dark cocooned planet like lightning crackling down to ground.
“We sure this isn’t a dead end?” asked Warui.
“Hold the line.” said Noah.
At the last moment before the viamorrs hit the split, the current lined up and the bonnies launched into cosmic blackness. Prepared for a range of psychedelic experiences, the viamorrs gripped their crossbars and eyed their exit line. But the often violent re-entry to the currents never came. A soft deceleration accompanied a light bright enough to cut through the shaded helmet visors on the viamorrs’ personal safety kits. The light subsided as the bonnies slowed to a crawl, riding only their momentum into the deadened vacuum of slow space.
“Anyone else see…” asked Noah, “the light?”
“Calling that a light is like calling a star a troller engine.” said Maryna.
“If that was the sun, then what in the Riri Current is that?” asked Gabriel.
“That’s supposed to be our planet.” said Warui.
“That.” said Maryna. “In my professional navigatorial opinion, is no planet.”
“We really know how to pick em’.” said Noah. “Whatever it is, let’s get down there and make contact. We’re floating for the leaderboard, now. Won’t matter if we’re stuck here.”
Maryna ran the routes and numbers in her mind and came to a recognition. “It’s a comet. A massive comet. It’s why the flow was so erratic on entry. It’s a comet covered in a split, flying through the currents.”
“Where did we get that first float opportunity?” asked Gabriel.
“Same as all of em’.” said Noah. “’cept I never did see who added it. And if it gets us in the top ten, who cares? Don’t get all judgmental.”
“Sponsor unknown.” said Maryna. “Contact upon completion.”
“If we’re gonna get back and climb the leaderboard we’re gonna have to follow the brief. That means we have to land and provide a basic reconnaissance. Otherwise, they ain’t paying, and we don’t get the credit.”
Bonnies could handle most atmospheres on the way down, they just needed to be sure their troller engines were strong enough to exit the gravity well. It wasn’t a hard calculation for the viamorrs to make, but on a first float, you could never be sure. Data had to be estimated, and that meant bad data could leave them stranded on the surface of a planet. It was another risk to being a viamorr, especially a team climbing the leaderboard. But with risk, came reward.
“How do we know we’re not still in the split? It covered the whole comet.” said Gabriel.
“Maybe we’re all hallucinating each other.” said Warui.
“Hallucinating being a bunch of bitches.” said Noah. “Ya’ll want a first float or not?”
“Lead on, then, mzungu.” said Warui.
“One day I’m going to take offense to that.” said Noah.
“Oh you’re always so polite.” said Maryna.
“I’ve seen you take offense.” said Warui. “I’m not worried.”
“Tough to fight when I’m seeing double.” said Noah.
“Warui has double the lungs.” said Gabriel.
“And he’s tall.” said Maryna.
“Easier target.” said Noah.
“Sorry Lead, I have to take my boy Warui From the Vines.” said Gabriel.
“That’s only because you’ve only ever seen me in my more mature moments.” said Noah. “Back when I was runnin’ with Billy and the boys at the Inn… whoooo. Tell em ‘Ryna.”
“Who wins, Navi?” asked Gabriel.
“I can only hope for an unconscious tie.” said Maryna.
“That’s a safe route, even for you.” said Noah. He gripped the crossbar and flexed the fins on his bonnie. “Getting out of here won’t be.”
The viamorrs formed up behind their lead and took an angle to buffer the stress of atmospheric entry to the comet. Most routes required a simple visual between the currents and the planet that could be navigated by troller engines in slow space. Other times, rare times, planets had been flooded or separated from the Riri for centuries. If there was no contact for a certain amount of time, a planet needed literal boots on the ground. Viamorrs didn’t love getting out of their bonnies, especially on planets with little to no information about them. It meant people, politics, and in some cases, a coffin. But rising in the Leaderboard wasn’t for the faint of heart. Viamorr teams rose because they took the biggest risks. Unfloated sections of current were unexplored for a reason. Costa Feed was rising. It was only a matter of time before they fell.
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