The Last Ferry from Brannock

About this book

Brannock is a cold barley world at the end of a dying jump route, and in thirty days its only gate to the rest of human space will be shut down for good. One liner, the Saint Audra, will carry four thousand permitted emigrants away. Ilse Corran, twenty-two, sells forged passage permits to the farm families left behind. She is quick, funny and unrepentant, and she means to get her younger brother Tam out on a genuine ticket. Then one of her permits is caught at the orbital checkpoint, a shepherd's son is taken into custody, and the whole county wants her blood. The Concord's harbourmaster offers a deal: spy on the Stayers, the farmers plotting against the shutdown. The Stayers want her too, for a forgery no one has ever attempted. Ilse plays both sides. But thirty days is a short clock, and every lie has a price.