"Maybe it's sea sludge," I guessed. "Picked up by the clouds?"

"Not possible. There's no sea sludge this far north."

Duke came forward then, leaning into the space between our two seats. "Sandstorm?"

"Couldn't be. Where's it coming from? The northern part of the state is all forest and meadowland." She looked confused. The clouds were a large fluffy barrier now, only a few kilometers away. They were rolling across the land like a bulldozer. The ground was darkening beneath them. They looked massive. They looked solid. They looked too pink.

"I don't like the color of that," Duke said. "It looks like cotton candy."

Lizard did something to the radar and studied its display. "Whatever it is, it's rolling up awfully high."

"Can you go over that?" I asked.

"It's a little steep-"

"No," said Duke quietly. "Turn the ship around. Now!"

"Huh?"

He pointed past her shoulder. "Look-"

Something was spattering on the windshield. They were little round spots, red and sticky-looking.

"You're right," said Lizard. She angled the ship sideways into a steep turn. My stomach lurched. I grabbed for my seat belt. More splotches appeared on the windshield. We were in the fringes of a cloud.

"What is it?" Lizard said. "Bugs?"

"I don't think so-" I leaned forward for a closer look. I couldn't see any details in the splotches. They were just little red pustules on the surface of the window. It wasn't rain. They didn't run. The window was rapidly filling up with red splatters. It was becoming opaque.

The sound of the engines shifted then, became a shrill whine. A red light went on in front of Lizard and an electronic voice said, "Engines overheating." Something started beeping. Lizard said a bad word and slammed a double-handled lever down. The chopper lurched as its jets cut back.

She pulled back on her controls and we hung in the air for a moment. The rotor chuffed stiffly through the air. "I don't know if we can get out of this without the jets." She checked something on her board. "I'm going to look for a place to set us down-"

Something screeched and went SPANG! on top of the ship. We rocked sideways

"Shit! We lost the rotor!" Lizard pushed the double-handled lever up and pointed the ship skyward. "I'm going to need some height!" The jets roared-a wall of air pressed me into my seat. Behind me, I could hear Duke sliding and skidding toward the tail as we climbed.

Lizard unclipped a safety switch and slapped the first red button underneath it-and then everything happened at once! There was a BANG! from the roof of the chopper as the explosive cover blew off the parafoil. The chopper blades went flying away. Then there was a THUMP from the right as that side's engine exploded in flames.

Suddenly the ship was enveloped in fire! The air was hot and orange! Beside me, I could hear Lizard's startlement. "What the hell?" But she was already hitting the release.

There was a BANG! that punched the ship like a bomb. I thought for a moment that our fuel was exploding-but it was only the explosive bolts going off as the engines were jettisoned. A smaller bang took off the tail rotor.

We were falling-I was too terrified to scream-Lizard released the parafoil, I heard it pulling away-something went FWOMP!-and then it filled with air and a giant hand caught us and we were sailing silently through the air, gliding forward through the reddish murk like a descending eagle.

"Duke! Are you all right?" There was no answer.

"Worry about him later!" snapped Lizard. "Watch for a clearing!" She was speaking to her radio now. "Ducklings! Turn around! Stay away from pink clouds! This is Banshee-6! We're going down! Repeat-turn around! Stay away from pink clouds! It's some kind of dust! It'll seize your engines, and it burns like hell! I'm going in now. Stand by-"

I was pointing. "Sand dunes-I think."

"Good enough," said Lizard. "Hang on!"

She brought the ship around in a tight turn and aimed us at the long axis of the dunes. Too late, I saw the dunes weren't sand at all-they were pink! We hit with a FOOF and a CRUNCH and a BANG!

AND THEN everything was silent.

And pink. The light was pink. The windows were pink.

We were canted forward at a steep angle. We'd hit once on the belly of the ship, smacking against the pink drifts of whatever, then bounced up high as the wind-filled parafoil dragged us on-we came down again hard, skidding forward until the nose caught on something and we plowed our way in. But the tail didn't stopit swung up and forward, tilting the ship even steeper. We were lucky we hadn't flipped all the way over on our back.

Something smelled sweet.

I wondered what we'd landed in.

The stillness was incredible-as if we were smothered in marshmallow. The sound of my breath seemed unnaturally loud. "Colonel?"

"I'm all right. Yourself?"

"Yeah." I started pushing the still half-inflated airbag away from me. I could hear the air swooshing out of it as I pushed. "Duke?" I called.

He didn't answer.

"Can we get some light?"

"Hang on." There was the sound of switches. I could hear Lizard's hands moving across the console. "Let's try this-"

Whatever it was, it worked. The boards in front of us came back to life. The panel lights lit up, the screens began to glow. Several small alarms started beeping.

"Shut up!" Lizard said. She punched buttons. They shut. "Now, let's do a little fire prevention. . . ."

There was a hissing sound. Suddenly the air felt wet and. smelled of menthol.

She thumbed her radio on. "Ducklings, this is Banshee-6. We're down and safe. Possible injuries to one of our party. Do notrepeat, do not-attempt to rescue us. The pink clouds are dangerous. Do you copy?"

There was static for a moment, then a military voice came back, "We copy. "And then, more personal, "Are you all right, Colonel?"

"I'm a little annoyed."

"I got it. Keep your channel open. We're getting a bearing on you. What happened?"

"We hit a hard cloud."

"Yeah, we can see it. It's rolling south like a big pink carpet. Thanks for the warning. We're heading out over the ocean to get clear of it. What the hell is that stuff anyway?"

"I don't know yet-but it blows up engines. We lost the rotor and both turbines. We came down on the parafoil." She hesitated for a second, then added, "Listen, I'm pretty sure this is something Chtorran. You've got to let Denver know. This is what's knocking down our skyballs. It's just like hitting a wall of cotton candy." She sniffed. "It even smells like cotton candy."

"All right, we've got our fix. We'll be sending a rescue ship back as soon as the candy clouds pass."

"Thanks. I'll keep this channel open as long as I've got power. Out."

Lizard went fumbling beneath her seat. "Here-" she handed something across to me, a flashlight. "See what happened to Duke. And be careful. It's steep. I'm going to try to get the emergency power on."

I couldn't swivel my seat backward, not while the chopper was pointed so sharply downward. I guessed we were tilted at a thirty-degree angle. I unbuckled my safety harness and nearly pitched forward onto the controls.

"I told you, be careful."

"Yeah, I will." I angled myself around and swept the flashlight across the rear of the chopper. Duke was sprawled-no, caught-in the right side bubble. I couldn't see his face, his head was below the deck level, he was almost upside down in the seat. I started climbing toward him.

It was hard to find handholds. I had to use my seat and Lizard's to climb. Once I got past them, there were deck rings on either side for securing cargo. I grabbed for the ones on Duke's side of the ship. Halfway up, the chopper lurched-and shifted. The metal groaned. I thought I heard Duke gasp. I froze where I was