The figure, clad in alien body armor, stiffened and saluted. “Ithan Milla Chans, Admiral.”

“Ithan Chans died when the Carlache went down with all hands,” Tanner told her coldly. “I lost a good friend on that ship, and I’m not inclined to be flippant about his fate.”

The woman looking at him paled, her eyes widening, and her jaw locked momentarily. After a second, she got herself back under control. “Admiral, I survived the loss of the Carlache and was rescued by the Starship Odyssey.”

“The ship in orbit?” Tanner asked, not willing to give up the chance to identify the ship in question.

“Yes, Admiral,” the supposed Ithan Chans replied.

“Why don’t you tell me who they are?” Tanner said coldly. “Assuming that you are who you claim to be.”

“They are…” Milla’s face twisted. “I believe them to be of the Others, Admiral.”

Tanner heard a hissed intake of air, but ignored it. “Ithan, I don’t believe in myths.”

Milla looked shocked but didn’t cross him on the statement.

Tanner ignored her look. “So what I’ll presume you mean is that although they are not a Colonial vessel, however, they are human.”

“That…that’s correct, Admiral.”

“What frequencies do they use?” Tanner asked. “I wish to speak with their captain.”

“They communicate on radio frequency, sir.”

Tanner grimaced.

Radio.

That was irritating. He wasn’t even sure that they had anything that would transmit on so low a band.

He glanced over his shoulder. “Find me a way to talk to these people.”

“What? But we…” The technician paled suddenly under a withering look. “Uh…yes, Admiral.”

Tanner turned back to Milla. “What else?”

“Admiral, they have soldiers on the ground here and—”

“Yes, I am aware of that,” Rael told her. “They are engaging the Drasin at several key points and have been—” A sudden explosion of curses erupting from the army control pit startled him, and Tanner looked over. “What the hell is going on over there?”

His naval ratings looked at him in shock, but he ignored them.

“Admiral,” one of the army ratings came running over, “there has been an explosion over the third habitat.”

“Damage?”

“Minimal, sir, if any,” the rating replied. “But it was…unexpected…and very, very large, sir.”

Rael glanced back at Milla. “Your friends?”

“I don’t know, sir,” she replied, hefting something. “One moment, I’ll check.”

The overlapping compression waves ripped through the Drasin drones like five separate hurricanes of power all tearing and rending in different directions. One drone would be lifted into the air by the front of one wave and then slammed into a dozen other drones and torn in another direction completely as it intersected the front of a second overpressure wave.

From the outside, the scene was hellish, the sort of thing one might expect from an action movie, flames and smoke obscuring the deadly consequences of the eruption of power.

Several of the drones were thrown clear off the peak of the pyramid, flying out into the air hundreds of feet above the ground until gravity took over and guided them down to, what Brinks hoped would be, extremely rough landings.