: Sue Parritt
: Pia and the Skyman
: Odyssey Books
: 9781922200532
: 1
: CHF 4.40
:
: Science Fiction
: English
: 270
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

The year is 2401, the location a farming settlement on the northwest coast of North Island, Aotearoa. Pia has lived at Kauri Haven since fleeing imprisonment in Australia for seditious activities, through the intervention of Kaire, the man she calls the Skyman. On the first anniversary of her mother Sannah's death, Pia's fragile composure threatens to shatter upon receiving disturbing news from the Brown Zone in apartheid Australia. Five Line Leaders have been incarcerated in the infamous prison complex beneath the central desert. An ingenious plan is undertaken to free the women, but from the moment Pia meets the youngest, Yuki, she feels troubled. Her fears are compounded when Kaire receives unexpected orders, which threaten his survival and that of his Sky friends. Can Pia assist Kaire in his preferred mission, without compromising her position as an authorised refugee?

Chapter 1


Long after the familiar face had faded, Pia continued to stare at the screen, her hands suspended above the communication console as though a sudden movement could shatter her fragile composure. Her interior world ran riot, bitter memories racing to the surface, swiftly overshadowing Line Leader Zira’s disturbing message. A stranger’s voice swirled through her head, one minute welcoming, the next evasive, ultimately a direct response for truth, the news of her mother’s fate relayed in a single sentence Pia would never forget: ‘The death penalty was carried out last night before the rescue team could reach her.’ Time unravelled; once more she witnessed Kaire’s quiet collapse against the Sky-ship console, heard her own impassioned reaction. Hands flew up to cover her ears in an attempt to silence spinning screams and the woman’s shouted warning as the Sky-ship careered towards an Aotearoan mountain.

How could she impart this latest appalling news, destroy confidence, today of all days?

It was one year to the day since she’d promised to rise above her own grief and work to secure a future free from oppression for the thousands still suffering back home in apartheid Australia. Safe at Kauri Haven, a farming community established forty years earlier on the northwest coast of Aotearoa, Pia had laboured long and hard not only to fulfil her promise, but also to keep herself occupied and prevent images of her mother Sannah’s last weeks from pushing to the forefront of her mind. Initially she had joined a group of former political prisoners building a ship for the Women’s Line, the clandestine group that worked to undermine the tyrannical Australian government. Sawing timber, hammering nails, varnishing decks—physical activity that along with sweat had brought anger and grief to the surface, slackening the tension pervading her young body.

Two new ships capable of transporting prison escapees from Australia to Aotearoa had now been built, a considerable feat for those previously unskilled in such work. Several Aotearoan shipbuilders had provided expert advice, but most of the credit had to go to the Australians. So far the ships had only been used to bring over the three hundred political prisoners freed when members of the Women’s Line, youth workers and local villagers had sabotaged a train trans