On the dark side of the horizon, where the ocean of stars met the blackness of night, a tiny point of light gradually grew brighter than all the others. It was the station, reflecting the starlight. As they came closer, the man-made structure gradually took shape: two narrow wheels running at cross-purposes to each other around a fat central cylinder with long antennae on either end. Isaac gripped the flight stick a little tighter and rechecked the nav-computer to make sure that they were still on course. Down below, a flash of pale blue lightning lit up a tiny patch of the planet’s atmosphere, but only for an instant. Whatever tempest swirled in the clouds below them, it preferred to brood in the shadows.
“We’re coming up on the station,” said Aaron. “One klick and dropping.”
“Can you try to contact them as I make the final approach? Be sure to try the shortwave too—if anyone’s still alive in there, chances are better that they’ll have something rigged up on those bands.”
Aaron shrugged, but he went ahead and did it anyway. Isaac kept an eye on the main screen as he made the final maneuvers to put them in a parallel orbit just 500 meters away.
“So this is Alnilam station,” he mused as he peered out the forward window. The station’s hull was a dark gray, the beacons at the ends of the antennae a deep flashing red. The starlight was too dim to give anything more than the basic shape of the structure. On the inside of the wheels where the windows should have been, there was a blackness as dark as the night on the planet below.
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Brothers in Exile (Sons of the Starfarers, Book I) is my latest book, due to come out later this month. It expands the Star Wanderers universe and starts an epic new story arc that will eventually tie in with the Gaia Nova books as well.
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Thanks for reading!
