Rough Trails
Chapter One
"She's away!"
Without benefit of an antigrav, the crate tipped gracelessly over the lip of the shuttle's hatch and fell free. Chekov leaned to the extent of his safety cable and watched the container tumble toward the ocean of airborne dust below, wondering how much chance they had of it landing anywhere near the drop target. The high-pitched shriek of its sonic beacon was swallowed up so quickly by the howl of Llano Verde's winds that he suspected if it went too far astray, it would never be found again.
Behind him, Plottel's voice, muffled by a filtration mask already several wearings too old, intoned blandly, "...and three and two and one..."
The crate's parachute ripped into existence with a whhuf! Chekov could imagine but couldn't actually hear over the roar of the dust storm outside. Fluorescent orange billowed into violent bloom, snapping the crate out of reach of the maelstrom only briefly before relaxing back into its descent. Almost immediately, wind tipped the parachute sideways and began dragging the crate sharply lateral of its original drop path. Storm-blown dust and sand swarmed the crate, the lines, th ... read full excerpt from: New Earth: Rough Trails ebook
