Ten hours later, they were locked into high orbit of the planet. They'd still seen no sign of any other ship arriving, no suggestion Concordance forces were approaching. From their vantage point, the disc of the shroud was an insignificant sliver of matter in the gulf of space, but because of it, the surface of the planet was dark. No cities blazed out artificial lights in the darkness. No pearlescence glowed in the atmospheric envelope as dawn approached; no terminator swept across the planet's face to turn night into day as it would on any other world.
“We'll take a lander down,” said Ondo. “A smaller ship has more chance of being able to sneak through their observation arrays.”
The Dragon was perfectly capable of operating in the atmosphere of a planet – or within its oceans. But its
