Steffi Roderick looked over the tangle of equipment they had worked so hard to relocate so quickly. “So it’s ended up going far enough to the side that we just got a didn’t get any worse electromagnetic effects than a typical lunar sunrise.”
Dr. Doorne’s lips tweaked into a wan little smile. “More or less. Of course we’re talking in layman’s terms, using analogies of terrestrial weather and geography, for the complexities of orbital mechanics.”
“Of course.” Steffi knew her own smile was a little forced, that the astronomer was trying very hard not to sound condescending, and now doing nearly as well as she thought for the simple reason that it was so obviously effortful. “It’s the language we’d use in an announcement for general consumption. Just like the average user doesn’t need to know the ins and outs of the quantum behavior of electrons to understand that they’ve got a glitchy system that throws unpredictable errors in certain circumstances.”
She paused, looking back at all their hard work. “But it still leaves me feeling like we did all this for nothing.”
“It’s not wasted, Steffi. All the current data is indicating an extended period of unsettled solar magnetic activity. Solar astronomy is most definitely not my specialty, but I’ve been in touch with all the big names, and while they disagree profoundly on the particulars, they’re pretty much agreeing that something serious is going on in the solar magnetic field.” This smile was a wry one. “As an astronomer, I’m feeling like a kid waiting for Christmas, going oh goodie, we’re going to be learning a whole bunch of fascinating things about how the Sun works, and by extension, how stars work. But as an electrical engineer, I’m going oh crap, this could be really, really bad.
“In other words, fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a wild ride.”
“That’s about the size of it. If we’re lucky, the bigger flares and CME’s will pass far enough away that we’ll just have great seats for the show, and I’ll have so much data it’ll have to be sent on physical media so it doesn’t choke our downlinks to Earth. If we’re not, everyone up her had better use this interval to harden all their vital electrical and electronic equipment, or we’re going to be in a world of hurt. Especially since we’re pretty much on our own for the duration.”