“Major…” Savoy staggered in pain as he tried to walk. “We’ve got trouble.”

CHAPTER 26

“TUNNELS?” COMMANDER ROBERTS demanded, fists tightening into a clench as he looked at the face on the large screen. “To what end?”

“According to Lieutenant Savoy, they seem to be…eating the minerals in the ground, Commander,” Major Brinks said. “Using it as resources for breeding or something similar.”

Roberts’s eyes flickered around the room for an instant, taking in the reactions of the others sitting on the auxiliary bridge, strapped down against the zero-gravity environment. Their eyes widened. Some of them seemed to understand the implications more than others, paling at the thought. Roberts himself had enough of a base in concept technology to understand what was being implied, though he wasn’t certain he was ready to believe that it could possibly exist in a naturally evolved species.

“Major, are you aware of what you’re saying?” he asked grimly.

“I’m afraid so, Commander,” Brinks said. “But it does make the pieces fit, Commander. If they’re able to process minerals in order to fuel themselves, it explains their rate of reproduction.”

“What evidence did the lieutenant give?”

“His suit’s computer counted no less than two hundred of the drones in those tunnels,” Brinks replied. “Our worst-case estimate is that a lander can’t hold more than a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty. Unless they’ve got some other twist that they’re working, I think his theory is sound.”

“Damn.” Roberts closed his eyes. “Major, the situation up here is deteriorating quickly. In less than twelve hours, unless we withdraw, we’ll be facing six of the enemy cruisers. If you’re still on the ground then…” He let the words draw out.

“Understood, Commander. Do we know what the captain intends to do?”

“Not yet,” Roberts replied. “I’ll be meeting with him shortly in order to confer…However, I doubt that we’ll abandon the planet easily.”

“All right. I have to get back to work, Commander. I’ll contact you later with an updated sitrep.”

“Very well, Major. Godspeed.”

The connection closed and Roberts forced his fists to relax. The situation was turning from bad to worse, and even at best, there was no way that they could take on six of those alien cruisers. The computer had run the scenarios, and even adjusting for the severe lack of imagination in any simulation, the best they could hope for would be to eliminate or disable four of the enemy ships.

The damages they were likely to incur while dealing with those four would make the Odyssey a sitting duck for the remaining ships. Those were best-case scenarios as well, assuming that the enemy followed patterns of behavior consistent with their last engagement and that the Odyssey made no mistakes and suffered no interference from Mr. Murphy.

Roberts thought that they’d be lucky if they successfully took on two enemy cruisers at once, forget the added disadvantage of the additional four. Two of the enemy ships attacking from a similar tangent would turn their armor advantage into a joke. The phase shift in the armor would work against one of the lasers, but the second would cut them up like a hot knife through butter.