Read Dark Sky (Keiko) for Free Online

she ain’t killed me yet,’ Apirana snorted, then grimaced as the
Jonah
lurched forwards out of the
Keiko
’s forward doors. ‘On second thoughts …’
    They were still on time for their re-entry window, even with the small delay while Jenna adjusted their systems so everyone could once more read what they needed to, and Uragan began growing beneath them as Jia angled them down into its thick, hostile atmosphere. Jenna had found herself clutching at her terminal with whitened knuckles during her first couple of descents on the
Jonah
, but had soon worked out that for all her arrogance and bluster, Jia was, pretty much, every bit as good a pilot as she boasted.
    Even so, it seemed that Uragan was testing Jia, judging by the fact that roughly halfway through their entry she snatched her ‘pilot hat’ up and jammed it on her head. It had a thick, furry lining, with a peak at the front and a fold-down piece on each side, presumably to keep one’s ears warm. Jia would never admit to it, but it was clear that she regarded it as some form of lucky charm in much the same way as her brother would absent-mindedly play with his dragon pendant.
    ‘That bad, huh?’ Drift asked brightly as the cockpit tilted sideways thanks to another gust.
    ‘Shut up,
bái chī
.’ Jia adjusted thrusters or flaps or … something – Jenna had about as much idea about piloting as Jia did about slicing into high-security information systems – and they started to level out a little. ‘O-
kay
, should be below the worst now. You wanna make yourself useful and check what berth we’re getting?’
    ‘Me?’ Drift looked hurt. ‘Your Russian’s better than mine!’
    ‘Yeah, but I’m flying,’ Jia replied shortly. ‘Don’t bother asking Kuai, either; I need him concentrating. Don’t wet your pants, they’ll have a translation program. Probably.’
    Drift muttered something uncomplimentary in Spanish under his breath and opened a comm channel. ‘Uragan City Port Authority, this is the shuttle
Jonah
requesting permission to land, over.’
    There was a short pause, then the speakers crackled into life with the stilted, pre-recorded voice of the
Jonah
’s own translation program.
    +
Shuttle
Jonah,
this is Hurricane City spaceport. Please state your language of choice so we may calibrate translation software.
+
    Drift directed a glare at the back of Jia’s head. ‘English.’
    +
Acknowledged. Please repeat your initial transmission.
+
    Drift sighed, and did so. The resulting conversation made no sense to Jenna as she looked down at the barren plain beneath them, but Jia clearly received some sort of coordinates as she began to bank their shuttle to the left. She’d just levelled out again when the cockpit door slid open to admit a somewhat vexed-looking Tamara Rourke.
    ‘Have you finished trying to kill us yet?’ the older woman asked bluntly.
    ‘Excuse me?!’ Jia’s head whipped around. ‘You see the sort of crosswinds I was dealing with there? I know you din’t, because
I’m
the one with the readouts and—’
    ‘The spaceport,’ Rourke interrupted her, pointing out of the viewshield, ‘it’s that way. Not over here.’
    ‘One day,’ Jia replied, pointedly waiting a couple of seconds before turning back to her controls, ‘you will have to fly this crate without me and then, god help you all, that’s all I say.’
    ‘If only that
was
all you said,’ Drift grinned, unstrapping himself and standing up before leaning on the back of her chair.
    ‘Don’t need you lookin’ over my—’
    ‘
Cristo
, I’m just looking outside!’ Drift pointed downwards and made a thoughtful noise. ‘Huh. See that? Never seen a spaceport like that before.’
    Jenna released her own webbing and peered out as best she could. There, laid out below her, was the surface of Uragan City.
    The city was in the partial lee of a ridge, but she couldn’t imagine that shelter would make a great deal of difference when the near-thousand mile per hour