Cibola Burn

How it opens

On Ilus, a world settled by refugees, Basia Merton helps Coop and Scotty plant barrel bombs under the landing pad that Royal Charter Energy built for its heavy shuttles. The bombs are meant to buy the colonists time against the corporation, but the heavy shuttle from the Edward Israel starts down before they can be removed, and when Basia sets them off early the blast leaves it trailing fire. Aboard that shuttle, the exobiologist Elvi Okoye survives the crash on a dry lake bed, and her colleague Fayez Sarkis tells her that Governor Trying is among the dead. Colonists from the nearby village, among them a doctor named Merton, tend the injured, while Fayez suspects the people treating them of causing the crash.

Who you meet early

• Basia MertonBasia Merton fled Ganymede with his wife Lucia and their children Felcia and Jacek and now lives on Ilus, still grieving his son Katoa. He sees the corporate newcomers as people with no right to the planet.
• CoopCoop is an old-school Belter colonist on Ilus whose plan it was to bomb the landing pad, and he wants it to go ahead even with the shuttle coming down.
• ScottyScotty is a colonist on Ilus who smokes home-grown cannabis in his pipe and helps Basia and Coop set the bombs under the landing pad.
• Elvi OkoyeElvi Okoye is an exobiologist with Royal Charter Energy who spent a year and a half aboard the Edward Israel on the way out from Ceres. She survives the shuttle crash on Ilus with an injured leg.
• Fayez SarkisFayez Sarkis grew up on Mars and works on the RCE geology team and hydrological workgroup. He and Elvi Okoye have known each other a long time.