Chapter 11Ersand adjusted the transparency of the great cowled viewport over the leisure area. The huge disc of the planet dominated the scene, and the sunlight reflecting from its surface was almost unbearable.
Looking first to the left and then to the right he could see the sleek black flanks of the Rithid.
She might be an old tub, he thought, but she’s a stylish one.
Ersand was a Captain to the core, possessed of that strange deep affection for his vessel that only a Captain can know. Especially one who has nursed it against the odds through the vast, improbable distance that they had covered.
Although, like everyone else, he was excited at the coming settlement, and looking forward eagerly to his first drop down to the surface, he was oddly relieved that his special position would
