F3 Charybdis

            “We’re caught in a class 4 Dark Matter Eddy,” Ann yelled back at Flynn.

            “It wasn’t on the charts?” Flynn lurched into his station and pulled his harness on.

            “Time. To. Deal. With. That. Later,” she bit off each word, fighting with the helm.

            Flynn checked the readouts; the sails registered increased pressure as the swirling dark matter also caused the dark energy in the region to swirl around, much like a whirlpool on old Earth.

            Flynn hit the command to start furling the sails, but the mechanisms didn’t engage. They seemed to be jammed due to the increased pressure.

            If we can’t furl the sails, they’ll be torn off in a matter of minutes, then we’ll be stranded here.

            “Hank,” Flynn got on the comm channel, “Dump everything you can into the engines. Push them way past the red line.”

            “They’ll blow after three minutes, Captain.”

            “Fine.”

            The ship lurched forward, enough for the sails to register normal pressure. Flynn hit the command to furl the sails again, and they began to retract. The momentary acceleration from the standard engines had been enough.

            “Okay, Hank, put us back in the green. We’ll live.”