Error: "A severe error occurred on the current command" when attempting query which uses any form of sorting

I'm working with a clients on-site SQL Server and an Access front-end

Recently I started getting an error in Access when I attempted to write to one of the tables in the database.  I was unable to resolve this issue from within Access so I turned to SSMS and now when I run this query

SELECT TOP 1000 *
from tbl_Cygnet_Readings_Frequent 
order by report_DT

I get the error:

Msg 0, Level 11, State 0, Line 0
A severe error occurred on the current command.  The results, if any, should be discarded.

I'm able to run:

SELECT TOP 5 * from tbl_Cygnet_Readings_Frequent 

and get these results.

ID     FacilityID	Report_DT                 PDIFF      PSTATIC    RGAS       LastModified               SSMA_Timestamp        TMPGAS
3198031   10521	2018-04-20 20:49:00.097   40.61012   817.1606   1917.925   2018-04-20 20:49:00.097    0x00000000003902E6    74.510755
3197797   10521	2018-04-20 21:30:05.473   42.62617   818.8284   1965.338   2018-04-20 21:30:05.473    0x00000000003901E2    75.17493
3197673   10521	2018-04-20 21:49:35.800   42.16301   819.0925   1953.901   2018-04-20 21:49:35.800    0x0000000000390165    75.59758
3197415   10521	2018-04-20 22:30:05.313   41.17471   819.7466   1930.659   2018-04-20 22:30:05.313    0x000000000039001B    76.0209
3197222   10521	2018-04-20 22:50:40.303   41.18724   820.0338   1932.077   2018-04-20 22:50:40.303    0x000000000038FF4E    75.708015

But when I add an Order By clause containing any field other than FacilityID (nvarchar -20), I get the error mentioned above.

I can filter the data (over 9M records) using a where clause on any of the fields, and can even generate grouped data with queries like:

SELECT cast(Pstatic as integer) as PD2, COUNT(*)
from tbl_Cygnet_Readings_Frequent
WHERE LastModified >= '2020-03-01'
GROUP BY CAST(pstatic as integer)

or

SELECT FacilityID, COUNT(*)
from tbl_Cygnet_Readings_Frequent
WHERE LastModified >= '2020-03-01'
GROUP BY FacilityID

but as soon as I try something that requires a sort, it gives me the same error:

SELECT FacilityID, MAX(LastModified)
FROM tbl_Cygnet_Readings_Frequent
group by FacilityID