The hulk snapped to a rigid stance and nodded in salute. “Ithan Milla Chans reporting, Admiral.”

“Relax,” he ordered, stepping out of the pit to come face-to-face with the ithan.

Or as close to it as he could manage since the armored suit placed her faceplate about two feet over his head. Tanner didn’t flinch, though, or alter his expression as he looked up at the faceless features of the armor.

“What can you tell me about the…Odyssey, Ithan?” he asked.

“They belong to the…to a human world that is not part of the colonies, sir,” she told him, obviously correcting herself as she almost mentioned the mythical Others again. “Their technology is largely of inferior quality to ours; however, they have markedly superior weapons systems and an ingenious, though disconcerting, trans-light drive.”

The admiral’s eyebrows went up. “And their intentions?”

“Sir”—the hulking figure seemed to relax a bit, her stance shifting and becoming more pensive—“they rescued me and the survivors at Port Fuielles without second considerations. In this system, they were reluctant to engage the Drasin until it became obvious that the Drasin would continue on to kill the civilians of this world.” She paused. “They don’t wish to be involved in this war, Admiral. But they…I don’t think that they can turn their backs on the annihilation of an entire world.”

Tanner nodded. “Are you in contact with them now?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very well,” Tanner nodded. “Give them my thanks for their aid and ask them what my people can do to help.”

“That’s it?” Brinks blinked.

It couldn’t be that simple.

“What is it?” Milla asked him over the link, her voice as puzzled as the computer translation could manage.

“What can he do to help?” Brinks repeated. “No demands, no posturing, no questions?”

“We have very little time, Major,” Milla reminded him.

This was true, the major had to admit, but it still seemed insane to him. If nothing else, the admiral should be talking about how to integrate Brinks’s people into his own strategies. Military people didn’t just let some rogue group pop onto their turf and start shooting things up.

Brinks shook it off, chalking it up to a complete alien mentality.

“Fine. Inform him that we’ll need to start coordinating the sweeps of the city if we want to be sure that we get them all. We also have a problem where one of the landers apparently crashed.”

“Tunnels?” Admiral Tanner asked, his eyes narrowing. “Where?”

Milla’s eyes flickered over the map on her suit’s HUD. She looked up to the large display that showed a similar map at the front of the large room. “There.”

Tanner turned to look where she was pointing. “Nero!”

The big man came up from the ground forces control pit, standing almost as tall as Milla in her armor, and looked curiously at her. “This must be your missing ithan?”