Chapter 7 - Total Dark
The victory was fleeting.
As the rogue signal was abruptly severed, the flight control computers suffered an unexpected cascade failure. The overloaded software, having been flooded with contradictory telemetry for nearly an hour, encountered a catastrophic fatal logic loop.
A loud *BANG* echoed from beneath the cockpit floor.
All primary displays went entirely dark.
The main cockpit lights cut out, replaced by the eerie, dull crimson glow of emergency battery strips. The engines hummed, but the electronic fly-by-wire system abruptly disengaged, dropping the aircraft into Direct Law—the most primitive, unassisted manual flight mode possible.
High above the North Atlantic, a severe storm front loomed ahead. Towering cumulonimbus clouds, churning with lightning, stretched across their path like a mountain range of shadow.
"Electrical bus failure," Maya muttered, feeling the controls go heavy as lead. "Ram Air Turbine deployed."
A high-pitched whine sounded outside the fuselage as the emergency wind-driven generator dropped into the slipstream under the belly of the plane, providing just enough hydraulic pressure to keep the primary control surfaces operational.
"Ma'am?" the fireman asked, his eyes wide in the dark.
May you like
"Sit in the jumpseat and strap in," Maya said coldly. "We're going into the storm."
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