This is the last snippet of PORTAL that I'll be posting, since the eARC is now available for those who HAVE to read the rest NOW; this puts you just under halfway through the book.  I may post a few more chapters just before the release of the hardcover.   -----     Chapter 25.        "My God this is beautiful!"        It wasn’t the first time she'd expressed those sentiments in the last hour, but Helen couldn't restrain herself, and the others didn't seem bothered.        The walls of the huge, [ Continue reading... ]

  There was still some other work to do before they went on their jaunt...   -----          "Careful!" Joe said reflexively as the huge assembly wobbled.        "Sorry," Horst said from the other side. "It is not easy, moving this thing while keeping it steady. Not exactly the best-balanced object we've moved."        He couldn't argue that. Nebula Storm's rocket nozzle, once meant as a replacement for Nobel's in case of damage, was a massive, bell-shaped assembly that looked deceptively simple from the [ Continue reading... ]

  They had repairs to do...     -----          Madeline checked the integrity of the support structure member again. We don't want a repeat of the last time, that is for certain.        The new gantry was being heavily reinforced. While they didn't expect to have this problem again, especially with a new set of modified automated brakes in place that Brett and Joe had designed and tested, no one saw any point in taking chances. Athena's new supports would hold even if the probe fell a good thirty meters instead [ Continue reading... ]

  Well, SOMETHING bad had happened...     -----          "Holy shit!" A.J. did not apologize for the curse.        At nearly the same instant, Joe Buckley said, "God damn it!", followed by "Ow ow OW!"        "I see yellow and red on your telltales, Joe!" Petra said, having obviously switched in her medical monitors. "Talk to me!"        "Goddamn… stupid… universe…" they heard Joe mutter. "Got a hole punched through the suit."        "Through the carbonan?" A.J. said incredulously, jamming [ Continue reading... ]

  Well, it's time to welcome a new guest to Europa...     ------            "Welcome to Europa, General," Madeline said as he stepped out of Munin.        For a moment, he didn't answer. He had seen many spectacular and awesome views already on this journey, enough to make him fear at times that he would lose the capacity for wonder. But the sight of mighty Jove looming above the jagged-spiked horizon, looking down upon the small white-shining collection of shelters and the bronze-colored alien shape of [ Continue reading... ]

  Now, they have to deal with a subtle but definite problem of space travel: low gravity...   -----          "Argh!" A.J. said with articulate precision.        Joe looked over at his friend, who was currently settling back down to Europa's surface, still clinging to one of the wrenches designed for use in space-walk conditions. "Didn't lock yourself down again, eh?"        A.J. muttered something that didn't sound at all friendly. "I keep getting focused on getting the work done and forget where I am. Stop [ Continue reading... ]

  Well, they'd made an interesting discovery and were hard at work...   -----     "You know," Jackie said, triggering a Cancel and clear on her workspace, "we've been wasting just a ludicrous amount of time on this hookup."   Horst scratched his head. "But we need to have the access to Nebula Storm, and it has to spin –"   "Yes," Jackie interrupted, "but we're going about it all wrong, probably because we were trying originally to figure out how to make it work with Nebula Storm and Munin, and then trying to [ Continue reading... ]

Madeline still had things to worry about, though...     -----     Chapter 18.        "… and the rest will be up to Dr. Glendale. You all understand the timing and the necessities of the situation, Maddie." The well-loved face had a few more lines, but the iron was still in Director Hughes' voice – along with the underlying affection. "If you can maintain your timetable, while there will be questions about the official version of events in Jupiter system, the co-operation of Ares, the IRI, and the EU will be able to [ Continue reading... ]

  Helen had made a discovery, but that has consequences...     -----          "Well, I've got good news and bad news," A.J. said to the others, studying the images in front of him.        "What is it? Can't you get Athena restarted?" Madeline, currently taking a break from outside work, was up beside him almost instantly – not surprising, he knew, since Athena was one of their most crucial pieces of equipment.        "Oh, I can, but I can't do it here. Now that I've got her down to her prior level, I [ Continue reading... ]

  So Helen was no longer bored...       -----     "You've got to be kidding me," Jackie said, glancing at the image of Helen in the upper-right corner of her HUD, then back at the crescent-shaped line cutter she was using to cleanly removed the cracked section of piping for part of the Odin's neo-NERVA rocket nozzle assembly. "A Bemmie arm-plate? In the ice?"   At their current distance, the delays were only a couple of seconds, so she simply had to be patient. Helen answered in a moment. "I'm not saying [ Continue reading... ]