Revolution's Shore Read Free Page B

atmosphere was rough. Lily monitored radio traffic, but kept broadcast silence. Abruptly they hit calm like a sheet of stillness and banked into a smoother descent. Pinto kept up a quiet murmur of altitude checks and Lily began to attempt to get a fix on Harsh Main Block, the center of Harsh’s tight mesh of surveillance and prison administration.
    Through static and the whirring noise of the shuttle’s venting fans voices filtered, scraps of communications passing along the planet’s surface.
    â€œâ€”sealed tunnel thirty-six from further incursions, but left five cells without—”
    â€œâ€”regroup to point Alpha. Their resistance may prove too difficult to—”
    â€œWe have complete control of Portmaster’s functions. I repeat. Portmaster’s is now under Jehanist control. Supply and transport ships may now commence landing sequence. Acknowledge.”
    Lily toggled the “static” switch. At the back of her mind nagged some reference, forgotten but familiar.
    â€œAccepted. This is Vanov, on the Boukephalos . We will be sending an initial track of two supply boats and three transports to land at point two rev intervals. Acknowledge.”
    â€œAccepted. Block is not equipped to deal with landings at higher than point four frequency. Acknowledge.”
    â€œAccepted. Will alter the schedule. First boat in close orbit. Will enter Block instrument range in point three.”
    â€œAccepted. And out.”
    â€œFinch.” Lily sat frozen in astonishment, static crackling from the speaker at her fingertips, as the voice of the Main Block’s comm suddenly fell into place in her memory. “Finch!”
    Pinto glanced at her, curious, but returned his attention to the controls.
    â€œWho’s Finch?” asked Jenny, alert to the tone in Lily’s voice.
    â€œHow the Void did he get here?” Lily asked of no one.
    In the back of the shuttle, Kyosti had been resting, eyes closed, relaxed, but now his posture changed abruptly. He sat up, not stiff, but poised on some brink, and opened his eyes to examine with tight intensity Lily’s profile as she reached for a new control on her banks. She opened her stations for broadcast.
    â€œLily,” began Jenny, “are you sure—”
    â€œMain Block. Main Block, acknowledge.”
    â€œThis is Main Block. Identify yourself. All unidentified ships will be considered hostile. We are under Jehanish authority. Acknowledge.”
    â€œFinch.”
    â€œWho is—Lily!”
    â€œHow did you—”
    â€œHow did you—”
    There was a slight delay as their signals bounced and returned off each other, and a second as they each waited for the other to speak. At last Lily spoke.
    â€œWhere can we land?”
    A pause.
    â€œField Blue. There’ll be tight security measures. Troops. But I’ll meet you, Lily. I’ll leave now. And out.”
    A different voice guided Pinto down to the flat plain where a series of low domes rose like slowly emerging boils from the ground. He landed the shuttle smoothly on a strip lined by blue lights and taxied in to the nearby blue-lit dome. Around them, the air sat free of wind but permeated by a constant downward sifting of some heavy white element, drifting constantly to meld into the sandy surface of the planet. The shuttle’s wheels barely stirred this dust, but its falling made a soft drumming noise on the metal above them.
    The sound of the lock change rang through the hull, and then Pinto rolled back the layer of protective sheeting and they could see the huge cargo hold they now entered.
    The harsh gleam of fluorescent tubing cast unpleasant shadows onto the cluster of white-uniformed troops that had assembled by the loading dock. All of them had guns out.
    Pinto coasted into the berth and turned to Lily. “Should I open the hatch?”
    â€œYes.” She unstrapped herself. “I’ll go out first. Find Finch, and