In Evil Times by Melinda Snodgrass

Author:Melinda Snodgrass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan

16

GOOD NEWS! THE LEAGUE IS HERE

Radio contact had been formally made. The flagship had made the hail in Español and got back a response in Inglés. It was a widely used language favored in business and law, and most League citizens spoke both. They settled on Inglés as the default. The women on the planet were still a bit hard to understand. The accents were strange with long drawling vowels and mushy consonants. Tracy wondered how long ago they had left Earth. There had clearly been a lot of language drift on the part of the League. Linguists were going to have a field day studying a language that hadn’t changed significantly for almost five hundred years. Tracy had a sudden sharp childhood memory of arriving on Reichart’s World. He didn’t recall the language seeming strange to him.

The three shuttles were instructed to land at an airbase near the city of Amastris. One shuttle contained Mercedes, Cipriana, Captain de Vilbiss, the admiral, the two adjutants to the top officers, and Tracy. The other larger shuttles, one from each ship, carried the fusileros. Tracy studied Mercedes. She was biting at the corner of her lower lip and staring off into space. It meant she was nervous and thinking hard. Tracy smiled, remembering. She began to spin the elaborate wedding set on her left ring finger and his pleasure at seeing her evaporated. She drew in a quick breath and pulled off the ring and tucked it into a pocket.

They entered the atmosphere. A nimbus of fire surrounded the shuttle. The pilot used both drag and the rockets to slow their descent. Mercedes looked up and shot the pilot a sharp glance. Once again Tracy smiled. He knew what she was thinking—that she could have flown the shuttle better. Her eyes briefly met his and she beckoned to him. Startled he moved to her side.

“This is my private scoop number,” she said softly and touched her ring. “Just in case we should get separated. In an emergency you know you could… should use it.”

“Thank you. I won’t abuse the privilege.” They touched their rings together and he returned to his seat.

The sharp peaks of ice and snow-covered mountains rose up around them. The shuttle was buffeted by wild and erratic winds. Snow blew across the canopy and withdrew as if massive white shutters were being opened and closed. Fortunately the pilot had locked onto a homing beacon and was making an instrument landing. There were a few more wild tips and swoops and then they were flying down the length of a deep valley, the mountains to either side like grey and white fortress walls.

They had a brief glimpse of dwellings dug into the canyon walls. Beneath them were clear domes where crops were growing. The blinking orange lights of the airfield beckoned them. The shuttle hovered, dancing on blazing jets, and slowly dropped in to land. The other two shuttles settled in moments later.

The engines whined into silence. Tracy listened to the wind’s mournful wail outside and the pock of snow against the canopy.

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