***
Back aboard Drone, time had dragged agonizingly by. The boat faced the Vortex—only a few meters in diameter, barely visible from here as a fuzzy spot of indistinct nothingness—and the women took turns keeping Queen under telescopic observation. Occasionally they saw it change course minutely, but those few moments were the only spots of activity in an otherwise dreary duty.
“I wish there was some way to contact them while they’re in there,” Luuj said as she watched.
“It’s impossible,” Nezla told her. “We could send a radio beam in there, but there’s too much interference for their suits to receive it. And there’s too much background noise from the hole for us to hear anythin’ from them.” She eyed the chronometer built into her suit. “They’ll have to come out soon, though. They’ll st
