Read The Pirates of Sufiro (Book 1) (Old Star New Earth) for Free Online

together, they watched the screen. Roberts went back to the mess and retrieved some water. He came back and passed it around. They all drank greedily, not realizing how badly they had been dehydrated.
After an hour, the planet started to become visible. As they came near, Roberts read statistics from the computer screen. "Diameter, 655 million centimeters. Surface gravity is 1.05 times Earth normal. Intensity of light from the star on the surface is so close to Earth's it hardly matters. Rotational period is 25.89 hours. Revolutionary period is 414 local rotations."
The surface of the planet showed mostly a bluish green ocean and broken white clouds. Underneath, dark landmasses could be made out. A single oblong moon orbited. It looked as though it were a captured asteroid. As they approached, they saw two polar continents.
Firebrandt maneuvered the ship carefully into orbit. As they gracefully swung around the planet, two large continents could be seen, one in each hemisphere. There appeared to be four smaller continents, about the size of Australia.
"It's beautiful," said Suki, dreamily. She still clung to Firebrandt. "What will we call it?"
"Officially, the planet's name is G.S.C. 47689329 III," said Roberts.
"That's no name for a planet," complained Suki. She twirled the end of her hair, lazily. "It's got to have a real name."
"Why don't we name it after the three of us," suggested Firebrandt with a lopsided grin.
"You mean Suki-Firebrandt-Roberts?" Suki shook her head, perplexed.
"Awkward." The captain's brow knitted. "How 'bout we shorten it to Su-Fi-Ro?"
Roberts shook his head. "I hate to intrude on your romantic thoughts, but we are low on fuel for the thrusters. We won't be able to maintain orbit for much more than another hour or two."
Firebrandt turned sharply. "That's not enough time. The Admiral only left us one launch. We don't have room nor time to load it with the supplies we need."
Roberts nodded gravely. "There are two alternatives. If we begin immediately, we can perform a controlled atmospheric entry with the ship. We'll need shields to full. The computers can control most of the piloting until we are near the ground."
Firebrandt shook his head. "If we take the ship down, it'll never lift off again."
"With no Quinnium, where are we going?" asked Suki.
"What's our second option?" asked the captain.
"We do have enough fuel to put us into a stable orbit." Roberts shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Whatever we do, we need to decide now."
"I haven't even had time to check if there is fuel for the launch's reactor. If we stay in orbit, we may die here." The captain exhaled slowly. "Make your calculations and bring us in. Where will you land us?"
"I'm aiming for the first large continent we saw. I've been checking the Rd'dyggian survey reports. Records show there is a large north-south river running through it, slightly east of the continental center. If nothing else, the water should keep us alive for a while." Roberts had started typing before he finished talking.
The captain and Suki returned to their seats at the gunner's rig. The ship's electromagnetic shields popped on. The long black ship spiraled in toward the planet. As it slid into the diffuse upper atmosphere, the outer skin began to heat. The Erdonium hull designed for super light travel would absorb much of the heat. The internal graviton field compensated for the worst of the bumpy ride to the surface.
As they approached the surface, there were several power failures on the ship. The lights flickered and went out. The graviton generator died. Suddenly, the hapless crew was jostled about, their restraints digging deeply into their skin. The ship's hull could withstand the motion and the heat, but many of the internal systems were not designed to take long periods of violent, tumultuous motion. The holographic wall went dead again. They were blind as the ship moved up and down spastically, jolted by air turbulence. There was a resounding crash