Weston looked over to Ensign Waters. “Scan those ‘orbiters’ when they lift off. I’m hoping that they built them small enough to fit our locks.”

“Yes, sir.”

Weston turned and walked over to Ensign Lamont’s station. “How are the preparations coming?”

“They’re about as expected, sir. The primary- and secondary-sensor arrays have been degaussed as you ordered, and the tachyon generator has been taken offline.”

“And the transition drives?”

“Should be completely offline in an hour, sir.”

“All right, good,” Weston nodded. “Thank you, Ensign.”

Weston turned back, thinking.

The tachyon systems were among the most delicate on the Odyssey, engineered to tolerances determined in nanometers. Taking them offline was a risk, particularly with the tokamak generator that fueled the active systems and the transition drive.

Bringing that back online would take at least an hour, under normal circumstances. The chief had assured him that she could actually cut that back to fifteen minutes, and he hadn’t questioned her on it despite the shiver that ran down his spine when she said it. He hadn’t really wanted to know what corners she was going to cut to get that done.

She couldn’t cause any more damage than those alien warships could, anyway.

Well, not much more.

“We have two more drones inbound from the Odyssey, Lieutenant,” Brinks transmitted.

Savoy nodded, flipping his HUD over from the ground-penetrating radar display to the drone control screen. The two new drones flashed red as they approached, indicating that they were loaded with the bunker-buster weapons he’d requested.

He ordered them into an orbit of the area while he waited for news concerning the civilians.

“Burke!”

“Yeah, L.T.?”

“Start calculating the impact point and program the GBU Ninety-eights for the job,” he ordered his explosives man. “I want to launch as soon as we get this area cleared.”

“You got it, boss,” Burke replied, automatically working as he talked. “We’ve got four of the Ninety-eights to work with. Do you want to use them all?”

Savoy frowned, thinking.

The GBU (guided bomb unit) 98s weren’t exactly cheap, nor were they small, either in stature or payload. The five thousand–kilogram penetrators were loaded with the equivalent of five-kiloton payloads and weren’t something he’d want someone setting off indiscriminately in his backyard. However, given what they knew about these little alien monsters, Savoy didn’t want to take any chances, either.

“Give me a plan for two- and four-bomb placements,” he ordered. “I’m sending the ground-penetrating radar readings back up to the Odyssey’s exo-geology lab for analysis. If they say that you’re not going to sink the city or something, we’ll go with the full blast.”

“Yes, sir,” Burke replied, just a little too eagerly.

Savoy shook his head. Burke loved his explosions just a little too much for the comfort of those who had to bunk anywhere near him.