A Forest of Stars - Kevin J. Anderson [166]
“There, I’ve switched on all of the bright beams,” Robb said. “Someone should see me. Hello?”
Tasia hoped that the lights didn’t attract some giant leviathan in the clouds.
Then Robb fell silent for ten agonizing minutes. Concerned, the communications officers sent queries, trying to re-establish contact. Tasia looked at the depth gauges to see how deep the encounter vessel had gone. Her uneasy crew fidgeted, biting their lips or fingernails. The silence dragged on.
Finally, in a crackle laced with loud background static, Robb sent another message. “…amazing! I can see…never imagined anything like it.” A long pause with another roar of static. “It’s beautiful…beautiful!!!”
A swell of white noise flooded the communication channel. Tasia listened to the rapid-fire transmissions from the flagship. General Lanyan’s best communications officers tried several times to re-establish contact, but were unsuccessful.
“All contact lost with the encounter vessel, General. Sensors show no trace of it, at any depth.”
“Did it crumple from atmospheric pressure, or did the drogues destroy it?”
“No way of telling, sir.”
Tasia sat in her command chair, wild with grief and fury, swallowing deep breaths. Robb! She hammered the communication link. “General, we should send a scout after him! How about some of the Soldier compies? They could dive down there and drag the encounter vessel back up to safety.”
Robb had to be alive, somehow.
Then an alarmed Lieutenant Ramirez cried out, “Drogue activity spotted down below, Commander! Three compy scout Remoras reported destroyed.”
Over the primary channel, Lanyan shouted, “That’s our answer, then. Nobody can say we didn’t try. Prepare for a full-scale offensive! You know the drill. Hold nothing back.”
86
TASIA TAMBLYN
As the squadron of Manta cruisers charged forward, Commander Fitzpatrick spoke flippantly over the comm. “All right, let’s go get some payback for our friend Robb Brindle.”
Fighting back her paralyzing grief and shock, Tasia wanted to strangle him—Fitzpatrick had never been Robb’s friend—but she would deal with the real enemies first. Damn the hydrogues!
Another compy Remora had been destroyed, and the warglobes continued to rise through the deep cloud layers. The EDF was ready…or so they believed.
Mentally, Tasia clutched a glimmer of hope—what if Robb was still down there, but unable to transmit? But the drogues had established their pattern of behavior time and again. They had wrecked three compy-crewed scout Remoras just moments ago. Almost certainly, the enemy aliens had grabbed or destroyed the armored diving bell.
Just as she had known they would…
She drew a deep breath, counted backward from ten to control her roller coaster of grief and anger, then finally said with forced calm, “Stations, everybody. No itchy fingers—and no wasted shots, either.”
Deep inside, her heart clamored for Robb. Once the EDF bombardment started, she could not hold out any hope for him. But there was no way to stop it. She wasn’t sure she wanted to. “Let’s make those bastards hurt.”
From the Goliath ‘s bridge, General Lanyan checked on the Mantas, his human-crewed Remoras, his survey satellites, and scan technicians. “Dispatch three robot cruisers in the vanguard. It’s time to see what sort of return we get on our investment.”
A computer technician transferred specific orders to the Soldier compies aboard the battleships. Prior to the mission, all commanders had received their detailed deployment instructions; they knew the first phases of the attack plan. Tasia’s stomach lurched, as if she were falling into a very bad situation.
Lanyan barked, “Next, Thunderheads down. Take up positions and prepare to deploy your heaviest bombs. Keep the fracture-pulse drones in reserve until we can see what we’re aiming