Page 67 of Escape Velocity

To distract herself, she asked Rafe, “You’re not letting the—swamp rats—know you’re coming?”

“Safer for us to maintain communications silence. We don’t exactly want the authorities—or Tudor—to know we’re here.”

Once they’d transferred the goods and themselves to Rafe’s shuttle, they headed for the planet’s surface.

She was still worried, but she couldn’t help watching wide eyed as they descended to this unknown world. The only thing she knew about it was that Elgin Tudor was waiting for her there. On the way up to Max’s ship from Naxion, she’d looked back at her planet, seeing more brown and orange patches than green—interspersed with huge bodies of blue water.

Danalon was very different. There was more green and blue than brown, with an anomalous area she couldn’t identify along a large river.

“What’s that,” she asked, pointing.

“A city. Port City.”

“Which is?”

Rafe’s head swung toward her. “An area where a lot of people live together. There are none of those on Naxion?”

“I don’t think so. At least I never saw one or heard people talking about them.”

“Where do people live?”

“In freeholds. A freehold with three hundred people would be large.”

“Why are you so spread out?” he asked, maybe to keep her from dwelling on what was ahead.

“I think there’s too much fighting for people to gather together where they would be vulnerable.”

“A small population would be vulnerable,” Rafe pointed out if a couple of groups banded together.

“From what I heard, there are small squabbles going on all the time.”

“And nobody gets together to attack any group?” Max asked.

“For what?”

“To rule over a large population.”

“I never heard of it. But, of course, they didn’t exactly discuss politics with the slaves,” Amber answered.

“True.” Max conceded.

Switching the subject to the planet below them, she asked. “How long ago was Danalon settled?”

“A hundred years,” Max answered, “But hacking civilization out of the wilderness takes time, policing, and credits. That’s why there’s only one big population center.”

“And nobody wants to spend the money to make more?” she asked.

“They seem content to do it slowly,” Max answered. “After the swamp rats revolted, the government decided it was best to keep control of what they could dominate.”

Amber nodded. “But we’re going to a lawless area.”

“They have their own laws. We just don’t know what they are.”

There was no point in arguing. They were coming in closer now, and she leaned forward, looking toward the city. It was so different from her experience that she asked, “Can we fly over there and have a look?” She pointed toward the large buildings in the distance.

“No, a ship can’t just fly into town. You have to make arrangements with the spaceport—and we don’t want to identify ourselves.”

That made sense, but she was still disappointed.

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