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Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
Unixbigot@aus.social ("Kit Bashir") wrote:
The controversy over the Great Red Spot had lasted for centuries. Was it a single endless storm, or merely (if anything sixteen thousand klicks across can be “mere”!) a series of storms that came and went.
The question was more than academic for the inhabitants of Olympus City, floating above the Jovian cloud deck, supplying helium and honeymoons to the rest of the Solar system. The notion that a storm of that size might form on radically brief timescale was a potential existential threat.
The /Creti/ expedition took over five weeks to reach the Spot from Olympus’s equatorial location, three dirigibles powered by ammonia-breathing ramjets. Two of the craft—/Bellona/ and /Lucina/— held back to observe and relay data while the third—/Minerva/—flew over the spot, preparing to descend into the Eye.
Back at Olympus, the scientists of /Creti/ were held rapt by the telemetry feed and radio transmissions from /Minerva/.
“We’re beginning descent from nominal zero level. One kilometre…two…ten”. It would be a long night but nobody thought of sleep. Eventually: “One hundred and twenty kilometers; we have reached the vertical midpoint of the storm. Conditions here at the eye are stable, we are launching probes now.”
Olympus hung on every word and datum.
“Oh. Oh no. Olympus we have a problem”
Through the confused babble in the control room a few phrases stood out:
“It’s breaking up”
“It’s not a storm, it’s a swarm”
“They’re heading your way”