The walls of the ship rattle as the winds pick up and beat against it. The sand storm outside rages. The crew had scrambled to make sure all the doors and windows were shut tight when it first started. That was two hours ago. Every once in a while the winds seem to die down a little. But then it would come back just as strong. 

"How long will this last?" 

Apollo looks at Meg when she asks the question. "Uh. I don't really know." A particularly loud shudder of the ship's walls draws their attention. Apollo thinks about the storm. They are surrounded by sand. Even a slightly strong wind would stir up the sand and blow it around. The ship rattles with every strong wind that beats against the hull. 

"How can we even hear it? Isn't the hull designed to block out outside noise? Isn't it strong enough not to shake just from wind?" Artemis asks. 

Meg glances around the room. "Well, technically speaking the hull was designed to protect against the time vortex." 

Apollo furrows his brows. "So it's not built to withstand storms?" 

"Well," Meg starts, "I mean. The time vortex is supposedly the harshest environment and filled with temporal storms. But considering there aren't a lot of places left to test it against other weather in our time, no it has not been tested against storms." 

"So it can't hold up against storms?" 

"I didn't say that. I said it hasn't been tested against storms." 

Apollo narrows his eyes at her. "So you don't know if it can hold up against storms." 

Meg nods, finally relenting. "yeah. I don't know how it will hold up in storms. Especially storms of this time. Since most of our information of this time is based on theory instead of fact." 

Apollo looks at her a little lost. "So what are we going to do if there is damage?' 

Meg shrugs, trying to act unbothered. "We'll fix it." 

"How are you not concerned? Even a little bit?" 

Meg rolls her eyes. "I can't let little things like that get to me. Not when I have other things to focus on." 

"Speaking of which," their attention is drawn to Artemis, "shouldn't you be working on finishing the engine?" 

Meg rolls her eyes and leaves the room. Apollo watches her leave. Artemis watches Apollo with a knowing look. "Aren't you going to help her? It'll get done faster with more people working on it. Besides, didn't you help you her build it the first time?" Apollo doesn't answer but follows Meg down to the engine room. 

"I thought we agreed not to meddle." 

Artemis rolls her eyes. "I'm not meddling. He did help her build it." 

Alex gives her a confused look. "That's not exactly how I remember it happening. But let's just leave them alone I guess. It's not like there's much else for them to do right now until the storm passes." 

"What are the kids doing?" 

Alex shrugs. "Val is working I assume. Will is probably in his room." 

"He still doesn't know that we know that he's been hiding in these, does he?" Artemis asks. Alex shakes his head. She nods. "And what are we going to do?" 

Alex shrugs. "I don't know. I was planning on training Centurion some more. Want to join me?" Artemis laughs and follows him. 

The entire crew does what they can to tune out the noise of the storm outside while they try to be productive during the day. Apollo helps Meg make the last few adjustments the the time engine. Will finds ways to entertain himself in his room. Val spends the day reading in her room and playing with Mars. And Artemis and Alex work on training Centurion come more. 

It takes a while for any of them to notice that the winds have died down. The storm having passed a good hour ago. Val is the first to notice. She gets up to stretch and the stillness in the air catches her attention. She takes a moment to listen carefully. Once she is sure she can no longer hear the storm outside she leaves her room in search of the others. 

She finds her parents in the storage room that has been converted into Centurion's room. They are sitting against one of the walls. Centurion is laying on his side with his back resting against Alex's outstretched leg. Val almost doesn't want to interrupt them, they seem so comfortable just sitting there and talking. 

"Comfortable?" 

Her parents look at her when her voice cuts through their conversation. 

"The storm stopped. If you were wondering. I'm going to tell the others." Val doesn't wait for a response. She immediately turns to leave the room. She debates about telling her cousin. But when he waves at her when she pauses outside his room she decides not to bother. Instead she makes her way to the engine room. She can hear Meg's and her uncle's voices before she can even see the door to the engine room. 

"Are you sure that's right?!" 

"Of course I'm not sure! I'm a medic not a quantum physicist!" 

"You're a nerd!" 

"Not all nerds know everything about everything!" 

"I thought you did!" 

"Well I 'm sorry I'm such a disappointment!" 

"So am I!" 

Val sighs before entering the room. Why are they always like this. Why did her parents leave them unsupervised? She steps into the room to find the medic and mechanic shouting at each other while standing over the panel that they have to input the temporal information into. "Are you two done?" The two adults stop their shouting to look at her startled from their bickering. "Storm's over. Thought you should know." Val walks away again, not wanting to be a witness to them continuing their earlier argument. She makes her way back to her room. Or at least that is her intent. She hears footsteps behind her and knows her plans are going to be changed. 

Meg and Apollo come up behind her before passing her on their way outside. Val decides it is best to stay out of their way until told otherwise. The medic and mechanic move outside quickly. Both want to see the state of the hull after their earlier conversation. 

Once outside they start to circle the ship to see what the storm did to the ship, if it did anything at all. At first it doesn't seem like anything happened at all. Which is a big relief. Then they decide to take a closer look, just to be sure. 

"Why does it look like that? Like it's been worn down like that?" Apollo asks a little appalled at the damage to the hull. 

"Ever heard of sand blasting? That's essentially what happened." Meg explains, staring at the hull. She's heard of this happening to vehicles and structures in desert climates in their time. The damage can be devastating. That's why that decided to stop building in those areas until they developed a fool proof material to build with in those areas. The sam storms, and weather in general, has only gotten more unpredictable with time. It's just that most people don't get the chance to experience weather anymore in their time. At least not natural weather. She didn't think they would have to deal with this kind of weather so she didn't think to look into the materials being made for it. 

"What do we do?" 

"We replace the panels." 

Apollo looks at her shocked. "We replace them?" 

Meg nods. "Yes. Unless you want to take the time and resources to make more? But I don't. So we replace them." 

"In this heat? Can't we fly with them like this?" Apollo asks. 

Meg sighs, losing her patience. "They won't be able to protect us from the radiation of the time vortex when they're this damaged. I don't have to tell you how dangerous that is." 

Apollo holds his hands up in surrender. "Fine, fine. But we shouldn't work during the day. It's too hot." 

Meg shrugs. "You want to work at night when all the animals are out, ne my guest. I won't stop you." 

"you mean we'll be working at night." Apollo corrects. 

Meg grins. "No. I still have a little work to do in the engine room. Which does not have to be done at night. So it will be you. And probably Alex, and whoever else you rope into this, doing the work at night. With all the animals watching you. Have fun with that." She doesn't give him a chance to respond before walking away. 

Apollo sighs then goes in search of Alex to share the news. He doesn't have to go far. He literally walks into Alex in the corridor. 

Alex looks at him strangely after they both regain their balance. "What's got you in a rush?" 

"Meg says we have to replace the panels of the hull the storm damaged. But it's too hot to work during the day so we'll have to do the work at night." 

Alex looks confused. "The storm damaged the hull?" Apollo nods. Alex shrugs. "alright. I'll talk to Artemis and Will. Many hands make light work, right? I'll talk to them. We'll all get some rest. Then we'll get to work on it tonight." 

Apollo just nods and goes to his room to get some rest like his friend said. The sooner they get started the sooner they finish. And maybe even the sooner they can leave this time and place. They're so close, it's hard not to hope. But he has also learned to keep his expectations realistic. So, hope or not, he doesn't get too excited about their progress.