Page 35 (1/2)

Wyatt did her job You were the one whoabout this or he’ll warn her Hey, Toht on course to pass over the Great Red Spot?

Toht So awesoh the vessel’s electronic eyes as the massive red spot of Jupiter slipped around the vast curvature of the planet He gazed at the livid clouds His neural processor told him the hurricane was three tied for hundreds of years

And then, it happened

The harvester they were escorting plunged out of their sensor range Then the other harvesters hurtled toward Jupiter Caan to follow To in a suicidal course for Jupiter Yosef Saide’s ship veered after the theht Wait, wait, wait So

And suddenly, it was their turn Their thrusters roared to life and fired, propelling thee

Uh, Heather? Toer and larger You should ai violently as Jupiter’s gravity exertedto fight whatever force it was that had seized control of their navigation

Through the sensors of their ship, he could see es, heat shields blasted by the friction with Jupiter’s atmosphere

Oh ht I think we’ve been hijacked

Tom felt a thrill of exciteed into Jupiter’s outer at on a hull not designed for ated deeper into Jupiter’s gaseous ravity began to buckle their hull, and the red clouds on all sides began to tear at the them with vicious, six-hundred-kiloin his processor and leaped out into the vessel, interfacing with it,in every system as Jupiter consumed it

And then, for a microsecond, maybe two, his brain met another person’s, a neural processor that wasn’t his, that wasn’t Heather’s, interfacing with their ship and directing its death plunge Shock suffused Tom Who was

At thatToonal Spire

ALL THE TRAINEES were ordered to the cell adjoining the Census Chamber, and one by one, they were escorted in to have their uard poked in his head, calling for the next trainee "Covner, you’re up Martin, you’ll be next" Walton rose and followed him from the room

Tom’s stomach was in knots No one had used the census device on hiated him for treason The Middles around him chattered away

"I’ve never had the census device used on htforward," Lyla told her "You think about so, then theHe couldn’t help it He ignored the dirty looks the two girls sent hi like ato be like the last time he’d sat under that metal claith Blackburn at the controls He really did Intellectually But the very idea of there being anything cool about the machine that had nearly driven him insane struck hi and leaned back against the wall--the wall of the same cell where he’d been confined for two days It was also the waiting roo His eyes kept straying to the spot he’d punched, over and over, while his lint in his eyes as everyone swung their attention toward him He spread his arms "We became brave new pioneers in human history: ere all brutally Jupitered today"

"Jupitered?" Lyla echoed

"Killed by Jupiter," Vik explained "No other warships have crashed into Jupiter before Ours are the first"

In the corner where she was sitting, back to the wall, Wyatt spoke up, "Elliot and I weren’t"