The darkness was the bleak, utter black of deep space. Further, Steve realized, the steady humming of the fission engines had ceased.
Minutes later, impossible pain gripped him and flung him, sobbing to the floor. He'd never felt anything like it, a gripping, grinding, twisting torment which tried to turn him inside out. He heard the others dimly, reeling about the lounge and falling to the floor, and in the darkness someone fell near him.
"Steve? Steve, is that you?" Teejay....
"Yeah." The pain seemed to come in waves, and Steve gritted his teeth when the second turned out to be worse than the first. He reached out with his hand, found Teejay's and squeezed it. "Hold on, kid. It can't last forever."
"It better—not."
When her hand tensed in his, then relaxed, Steve knew she'd fainted. And soon after that, his own senses reeled and deserted him.
Teejay's hand was still tightly clenched in his when he regained consciousness. A dozen feet from them, Kevin sat up, shaking his head slowly back and forth. Schuyler Barling lay stretched out on his stomach.
"Whatever happened," Kevin growled, "I didn't like it."
Teejay extricated her hand, looked at Steve, smiled. "It's still awful quiet outside."