A Forest of Stars - Kevin J. Anderson [165]
During that night with Robb, whom she really cared for, she felt terrified. Tasia made foolish accusations, but Robb didn’t look hurt. Instead, he took her into his arms and gentled her. Then they made love with a mixture of sweetness and desperation, one of the best times they’d ever had together.
In the morning, the duty clock went off much too soon, and they both barely had time to scramble into their uniforms and take their places. In a silent and pointed decision, neither of them said goodbye to the other…
Now, in the launching bay, engineers and flight sergeants pushed the curious soldiers back. “Give the man room to breathe. He’s gotta climb inside his spacious new accommodations.”
“Go get ‘em, Brindle,” someone shouted.
Before he climbed into the diving bell, Robb touched his fingers to his brow in a silent, warm salute meant for Tasia alone. She blinked away a sudden excess of moisture in her eyes.
Then, oblivious to the EDF soldiers, Rossia limped forward to the hatch, cradling his potted treeling in one arm. “Wait, Wing Commander. I have something for you to take.” He held his free hand under one of the drooping fronds of the palmlike tree, and a small leafed branch dropped into it, as if on command. “You are not a green priest, so you can’t use the tree to communicate…but I believe it may still do your heart good.”
Robb took the frond and looked curiously at it. “I get it, like an olive branch?”
The priest shrugged. “Perhaps. Or perhaps you can draw comfort from it. Who knows what the worldforest can do?”
Robb tucked the frond into the breast pocket of his uniform, like a boutonniere. “Thanks.” His duty done, the green priest backed away and returned to his station before the General could call to him.
“Prepare to launch encounter vessel,” the staff sergeant shouted.
“Okay, I’m ready to go hot-rodding,” Robb said.
Over the intercom from the bridge, General Lanyan said, “Wing Commander Brindle, this is a brave thing you’re doing. We didn’t want this war, and we must pursue every avenue to peace. Go talk some sense into those drogues.”
The soldiers cheered again, and two EDF engineers sealed the heavy hatch, then pressurized the interior, checking the chamber’s hull integrity one last time. After cycling through the drop chamber, the encounter vessel fell like a smooth metal egg out of the bay.
Lanyan’s voice came over the intercom. “I want the fleet to stand at high alert. All officers, return to your respective fighting ships. Let’s not get caught with our pants down again.”
Eddies scrambled to their stations. With a heavy but determined heart, Tasia boarded a small shuttle that took her and three other assigned officers back to her Manta.
“Still descending without incident,” Robb transmitted. The entire battlefleet listened to his updates. “The atmosphere is getting thicker, and I detect a spike in temperature. Wind velocity increasing.” He grunted with a sudden effort, and they could hear the thumping shear of wind. “It’s like trying to sit still on top of a restless cat.”
When Tasia arrived back on her cruiser’s command deck, she checked with the acting commander. The battleships had already received dispersal orders and positioning information. Ten enhanced Juggernaut-class battleships and fifty Manta cruisers—a dozen of which were automated and crewed by the new Soldier-model compies—waited above the planet.
Tasia took the seat from her acting officer. “Play Wing Commander Brindle’s transmissions loud enough for us all to hear.”
“Still no contact, though I’m zapping my standard message on all bands,” Brindle said. “I see swirling colors in these dense gases. Not much else.” Crackles of static infiltrated his signal as he descended farther into the hostile environment. “Really getting thrown around here. Didn’t people use to go over waterfalls in a barrel? That’s what this feels like.”
Patrick