[Tuesday 8AM – USSTRATCOM, Nebraska]

William and the other officers stood in the operations room looking at the live feed from the satellite. There were six distortions spaced equally in a circle on the lower right quadrant of the Sun. Their sizes had increased significantly since the photos given to William had been taken many hours before. William had been monitoring them and taking measurements for the last several hours watching the flare activity increase as the distortions moved further into the Sun’s center.

“If you’ll notice,” William was saying while using a laser pointer, “these distortions at clock points 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 are all equally spaced and symmetrically positioned. They also do not rotate with the Sun, this leads me to deduce that they are indications that something is ‘passing through’ the Sun at those points. Going by the earlier photographs, I theorize that the Sun has moved into the path of some sort of energy streams that are causing the distortions. It also seems clear from the fact that these have been Earth facing this whole time that the Earth is either the genesis or destination of the streams.”

“What are you talking about, son?” Hartford said. “The Sun doesn’t move, the planets do. That feller way back when figgered that out. I don’t remember a lot from school, but that I do.”

“That is true in our local frame of reference, but the Galaxy is also rotating around a central point. It may not look like it, but our solar system, as a whole, is moving at an unbelievably fast speed in that orbit.”

“So you’re theorizing that these distortions are extra-solar?” Alice asked.

“Possibly, though I can’t say for sure.”

“What could be causing it?” asked Frank suppressing a yawn.

“To be completely honest, I have no clue. However, it is not the streams or their causes that concern me. At least not now.”

William typed a few keys and the image zoomed in to show only the distortions. Arcing between the points were solar flares. “Note these flares jumping between each and every one of the distortions. They are increasing in strength and will reach M-class soon. At that stage, we’ll start experiencing radio disruption. After that, they could reach X-class which will cause problems. It is my belief that, if this continues, a very large Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME, will occur at the center point of the distortions. And since this is Earth-facing, we could see some devastating effects on satellites and power grids. In 1989, a CME knocked out the power across Quebec, and it will be tiny compared to what I’m thinking these could be. It is my advice that we issue a general notice to put satellites into safe mode until this resolves itself.”

“How long is that likely to be?” asked Alice scratching her head, her hair disheveled from the nap she had taken. “And how are we supposed to issue the advisory without divulging how we came to the conclusion? These ‘distortions’ are not visible to normal observations as far as we can tell.”

“I don’t know how long,” William replied. “Going by the rate that they’ve traveled so far, I’d say a week, maybe two, at the outside.”

“We can’t shut down all of our satellites for two weeks!” Hartford exclaimed, his temper wearing thin from the lack of sleep.

“If there is a CME, how much time will we have to act before damage?” Frank asked.

“A normal CME can take anywhere from a day to five days to get to the Earth. Flare effects will be here in minutes,” William answered.

As if on cue an alarm started blaring. A huge number of flares jumped from distortion to distortion. On the screen, they watched as the distortion on their furthest left wavered and blinked out of existence. Moments later a CME erupted.

“Flare interference expected in fifteen minutes!” A technician announced.

“Safe mode as many of our satellites as possible!” Hartford ordered.

“There’s no time to send out an advisory in time to do any good,” Frank mumbled. “The moment the CME can be detected by normal means, issue a general advisory to safe civilian comm satellites until further notice!” he ordered. “Someone get me a line to NATO command, right now!”

“On it, sir!” Came hurried responses.

“Sir! The screen,” an anonymous voice said.

They watched as the remaining five distortions reoriented themselves into a circular pattern and the flare activity subsided.

“How long until the CME reaches Earth?” Alice asked, now fully awake.

“Too early to tell, ma’am,” came the answer. “We won’t know anything for at least another hour.”

“Ma’am. The ionization in the atmosphere above the weather anomaly over eastern Australia is wavering,” announced a female voice.

“There’s our answer,” William said. “The weather anomalies and the distortions seem to be connected.”

“How?” asked Geoff.

William shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe if I can analyze all of the data toget--”

“Do it,” Frank and General Hartford said in unison.

“I’ll need some assistance. Outside assistance. Academics,” William advised.

“Can they be trusted?” Alice asked.

“Most of them have held security clearances fairly recently,” William answered.

“Do it,” she ordered. “I’ll make the arrangements for them. Get me the names.”

“I will after I get some sleep,” William said. “It’s been a long day.”

He walked through the door, and down the hall until he reached the security desk where a security officer now sat.

He signed out his cell phone, noting the soldier’s standard warning about classified information.

William stepped out onto a smoker’s patio outside one of the building’s doors. The sun was up and shining, and despite his knowing better he tried to look toward the Sun to determine if he could tell a difference.

“Of course, you can’t, idiot,” he said aloud.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Tonya’s number.

A groggy voice answered the phone. “Yeah. Whaddoyawant,” Tonya asked.

“What a way to speak to your husband after a hard night of work,” he responded.

“Whaddever. I’m workin' here, too. Sorta. Lynne took off with Daisuke and they’ve been entertaining each other all night. Leaving me here. Alone. Well, not alone, I’m with the bartender.”

“Are you drunk?” he asked.

“I was about an hour ago. Not anymore. This skin-flint here made last call a few hours ago. I nursed one for as long as I could, but I’ve been drinking soft drinks since.”

“Did Mom take my advice earlier?” he asked cryptically.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Yeah. I called operations long ago. WOAH! That’s big,” Tonya said.

“I assume the press is covering the CME now?” he queried.

“Yeah. They’ve got their so-called experts analyzing the release,” Tonya summarized.

“Whatever they say is likely wrong,” he commented. “Look. I’m going to need help here. Things are much more complex than what we’ve released to the press. They’ve ordered me to set up a team of outside experts to figure out what’s going on. I need Mom to contact Pete and get that wiz-kid that works under him prepared to fly here, pronto. Alice is going to short-circuit the clearance procedures. If I’m right, this is going to get much worse before it gets better, and it’s going to do it soon. Worst case is a global communications disruption, and birds in orbit destroyed. Mom needs to get on it now.”

“Got it,” Tonya said sounding fully awake now.

“I’m going to take a nap. This is going to be a long one. Talk when I can. Love ya.”

He ended the call and headed into the building to get some sleep.

[Planet Terra Eroka – The Village of Pteragrand]

The larger sun was high overhead, and the day was finally starting to warm up after a long morning of chilly temperatures and wind. This time of the year, the smaller sun probably wouldn’t rise.

A young man of average height and sandy-colored hair leaned against the wall of a building. He was bored and lonely. He had alienated his best male friend almost two cycles ago and driven away his best female friend in an unwise attempt at matchmaking and reputation-building. The girl had fled the village, joining an evangelical troupe, and he and his best male friend had never taken the time to make up.

Before his mistake, he and Kai would spend their days running around the village causing all kinds of mischief, at least when they weren’t in school. The two of them had been as tight as friends could be, no idea was too ridiculous and no trouble not worth getting into. Now he was a loner. He occasionally thought about approaching Kai to apologize for what had happened but felt that too much time had passed now to properly clear things up.

“Ray,” he heard his mother call. “Ray, can you come here a moment?”

“Yeah, Mom. Coming.”

Ray’s mom was the leader of the village and had been since a demon attacked and destroyed half of the people and buildings fifteen years ago. She had taken charge then and was credited with saving a huge number of lives that day. However she would always say that the real heroes were the ones who stood their ground against the demon to give the rest time enough to escape. Ray’s father had been one of those, as were Kai’s mother and father.

“What is it, Mom?” he asked.

“Take this notice over to your friend Kai’s house and give it to his father,” she ordered.

“His adoptive father,” Ray corrected her. “And he’s not my friend anymore.”

“The ones who raise you, discipline you, and care for you are your parents, regardless of whose egg you hatched from,” she reminded him. “Yes, Kai’s parents were heroes, but Ducas and Drucilla took in an orphaned dragon not of their own kind and poured their hearts and souls into turning that boy into a fine young man, just like they did for their own. As for whether he’s still your friend or not, I think that is yet to be seen. Don’t be in such a rush to judge and label, you’re still young. Now scoot!”

Ray turned and started walking. The house he was heading to was on the complete opposite side of the village from his own house, or so it felt. In actuality, the house Ray and his mother occupied was in the virtual center of the village as they lived in an annex of the large government building, known as the Village Center. This building used to be able to hold the entire adult populace of the village in the recent past, but in recent years the village population has grown so much that the terms "town" or "city" would be more appropriate.

He found it annoying that his mother spent more time managing the village from their home rather than from the Village Center where she was supposed to be. She insisted that using that large structure for the day-to-day issues was excessive and tended to stifle honest debate, as people were less likely to bring up small details when surrounded by grand surroundings. She constantly explained to Ray that small details are always the heart of any large issue. One cannot correctly solve the larger issue if the small details that caused the problem are not resolved.

“Well, if she expects me to hurry, she’s sadly mistaken,” he said aloud.

“Hi, Ray!” he heard a girl’s voice say.

He turned to see where the voice came from but saw nothing. Shrugging his shoulders he started walking again.

“Hey, Ray. Over here!” he heard again. He looked around and saw a slender arm poking from around a corner beckoning towards him.

He walked to the corner to find three girls waiting. He recognized two of them as Second Cyclers, students in their second cycle of four at the school. The third girl he didn’t know.

“Hi, Becky. Hi, Miley.” He said leaning against the wall and trying to act cool. These two were the cutest of the seconds in school and they had asked him, a fourth, over. “What can I do you for? I mean, to you? Uh, for you?” he stammered.

“It’s our new friend here. Her name is Petunia, and she’s a first cycler,” said Becky.

“Really? A first cycler? I thought she was a second like you two. Hi Petunia,” he said.

The girl blushed and looked at the ground, wringing her fingers together nervously.

“She’s our age, but her family just allowed her to apply,” explained Becky.

“She’s not a river dragon like you two,” he stated.

“Chyaa. She’s a flora dragon,” answered Miley disdainfully.

“Prairie dragon,” Petunia corrected meekly.

“Flora dragon,” repeated Miley. “Anyways, she’s entering the school this next term, and for some unknown reason she seems to think that you’re cool despite all of our attempts to tell her otherwise.”

“Thanks a lot,” Ray said sarcastically.

“No charge,” said Becky. “So, we figured that if we introduced her to you she’d see for herself how much of a loser you are and it’d cure her of her insane infatuation.”

“I see,” said Ray.

“I mean, look at him,” Becky instructed Petunia. “He’s a fourth. A fourth! And still not joined. Not even a dragon he can call a girlfriend. How lame is that these days?”

“Yeah,” added Miley, “I heard that he’s such a loser that he ran off the only girl that could stand to be around him. He’s so bad that she left the village because of him.” They laughed.

“You two know that it is forbidden for minor dragons to enter into relationships,” Ray instructed.

“Only losers and zealots think that way these days. Ya have to get with the times, Lame-o Ray-o,” said Miley.

“Yeah! All of us cool kids ignore those old-fashioned rules. As if any of us could ever be Chosen,” Becky followed.

“There hasn’t been a new Chosen in for-eh-ver!” razzed Miley. “I don’t believe that they even exist! Just some tale to keep us under their control.”

“I believe,” Petunia said meekly.

Ray flushed in anger. “Look, I’m on an official errand for the village --”

“You mean your Mama sent you out for her. Little Mama’s boy,” Miley sneered.

“I have to deliver this important note to Ducas,” Ray said brandishing the note.

“Ray, the little pansy loser Mama’s boy. Go do what Mama told you to, little Ray,” Mocked Becky as she snatched the note from Ray.

“Hey! Give that back!” Ray ordered.

“Some important note!” Becky sneered. “It says: The troupe is in the area. Under pressure. Requests safe haven.”

“Oh. Those religious fanatics are coming back again? All they ever do is preach about the Chosen and the Renewal,” Miley said contemptuously.

Ray attempted to grab the note from Becky’s hand but ended up knocking it to the ground. When neither of the girls attempted to pick up the fallen note, Ray became suspicious.

“Lemme guess... You’re setting me up for a trap? When I bend over to get the note, you’re going to hit me in the head, right?” he asked.

The girls slowly shook their heads, and Petunia pointed behind Ray.

Ray took a chance and peered over his shoulder, only to see a blue vortex of energy growing behind him.

“Hah!” he gloated. “And you said that the Renewal wasn’t real. That the Chosen weren’t real. Huh, Miley? Becky, where’s the smart comment now? Well see here, LOSERS, not only are the Chosen real, but I am one. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I’d say.

Petunia, do yourself a favor and find better friends than these. And if you would, please take that note to an adult and ask them to deliver it to Ducas.”

Petunia stepped forward, shoving the other two aside. “Ray, I still think you’re the coolest dragon ever!” She said in a strong voice.

“Thanks, Petunia. I think you’re pretty cool too. Keep standing up for the prairie dragons! See ya,” Ray said as he stepped into the vortex.

Petunia stooped and picked up the note. “You both are despicable,” she said heading in search of an adult.