12
Exhausted, Melissa checked the readout on the shuttle’s port-side control console. No enemy ships nearby. She was tempted to breathe a sigh of relief, but it was starting to seem like every time she did that, more craziness ensued.
She looked up to find Larani sitting in the pilot’s seat, and beyond her, a field of stars glittered in the canopy window, bright against the blackness of space. They had assumed a geosynchronous orbit above Alsen’s Hill. Melissa thought they should hover at a lower altitude – the gravitational engines would allow for it – but since most of the big Ragnosian ships were incapable of atmospheric flight, the greater threat was up here. Or that was what they told her anyway.
She supposed it made sense. After all, if the big ships were able to assume orbit abov
