“Dammit,” Crow whispered as the second of his two ships winked out.
“Give me a count, Barrera.”
“Thirty-five ships, sir. Single file, all cruisers. They’ve only lost two so far due to the mines we had left waiting for them at the ring.”
I ground my teeth, and felt the muscles in my cheek jumping of their own accord. “How long before they can reach Earth?”
“Two days—maybe less.”
We all watched as the parade continued. When the first cruisers nosed up into orbit over Venus’ cloud layer, we had our moment of revenge.
“They’ve run into the orbital minefield, Colonel. Looks like the first nine ships are going down.”
We all cheered, we couldn’t help it. The heavy mahogany doors opened with a bang then. We all looked up, startled. Sandra stood there, dripping wet. She had a long black raincoat and a black fedora on her head, but she was still soaking.
“Everybody knows,” she said.
I could hear some cheering behind her. I walked out into the open floor with its ranks of cubicles. Every screen was watching some version of our visual.
Sandra was right behind me, whispering over my shoulder. “I thought you should know,” she said. “If this is supposed to be a secret, the whole world is watching with you.”
“Great,” I said, feeling slightly more tense, if such a thing were possible.
“Sir?” Major Sarin called to me from my office. “It’s General Kerr, sir. He’s on the line—conference-calling with the President of the United States.”
I turned around and slammed the big doors. I made a dismissive gesture toward Major Sarin, the President and Kerr. They could all wait. I had a war to run.
I heard Sarin speaking quietly into the headset. “Colonel Riggs is unavoidably detained by the situation, sirs. He apologizes and will get back to you at the earliest opportunity.”
“Kyle,” Sandra whispered at my shoulder.
I glanced back at her. She had a wild, suspicious look on her face. “Don’t you get in a ship and go out there. Not this time. I don’t even want you thinking about it.”
I looked at her. “Honestly, I hadn’t even thought of that one yet. We have many hours before we scramble the Fleet.”
“Just don’t scramble with them.”
I shook my head. “No promises.”
She crossed her arms and glared at the image of Venus. The rest of the command staff stood around, operating different sections of the big table, talking to others on headsets. Crow was counting his ships and ordering pilots to report in. Major Barrera had called out the hovertank reserves and ordered them to take up stations around the island.
“It’s not fair,” Sandra said. “We just got home. We deserved a longer break than this.”
“I’ll file a complaint with Macro Command tomorrow, my dear,” I said.
“Don’t be a smart ass. We’re all about to die.”
I thought about denying it, but there didn’t seem to be any basis on which I could blow any happiness into her ears. Things were bad, and getting worse with each Macro ship that flowed out of the ring and sailed gracefully up to orbit Venus.
We were aided somewhat by the vicious clouds and pressure of Venus in the end. Normally, it took as many as ten mines to take out a cruiser. But when you added in high winds, sulfuric acid and intense pressure, the ships we damaged even lightly were often disabled.
“Forty-six ships have been disabled or destroyed, sir,” Barrera reported after another twenty minutes.
“How many have survived?”
“Ninety-two,” he said.
“All cruisers?” I asked.
“Yes, sir. They stopped coming through a moment ago.”
I strode to the table and stared at it, fixated. “You didn’t tell me they were all through.”
“I’m not sure they are, sir. They could have another wave coming.”
I shook my head and a slow, grim smile spread over my face. “No, Major. The Macros don’t work that way. If there are more ships coming, they are days away at least. They are gamblers who push their whole pile of chips into the pot when they make a bet. This is all they have at the moment.”
We watched closely for another hour, but ninety-two ships remained the total. About a quarter of what I’d faced years ago when their battle fleet had last come to our system.
“They are forming up ranks behind Venus, sir,” Major Barrera said.
I didn’t bother to respond. I watched the Macros morph into a long crescent of glittering red contacts.
“Why are they waiting?” Sandra asked.
“Repairs,” I said, shrugging. “Or maybe they are on hold until reinforcements arrive.”
“Reinforcements? There are more of them? Where are they now?” Sandra asked, voicing the questions in everyone’s mind.
“We don’t know,” I said. “But I’m damned glad they aren’t here at the moment.”
“So many… Can Fleet destroy them all, Kyle?”
I eyed the screen. “No,” I said. “But we might not have to.”
-8-
After the Macros did nothing for a full hour, I broke up the meeting. We didn’t know how much time we had, but I figured we didn’t have any extra hours to waste getting ready.
I left Major Barrera in my office, with orders to monitor everything and call me back in if anything changed. He nodded without looking away from the big screen. I left him there, confident the situation was in good hands for now.
Crow hurried to catch up with me out on the sidewalk. I was thinking hard and heading toward Socorro. I hadn’t flown my personal ship since I’d been back, and it was about time I got into this game personally.
“Kyle,” Crow said at my shoulder.
I glanced at him, expecting another hail of jokes at my expense. I was surprised to see a worried, haggard expression on his face.
“Look,” he said, “we have to pull it together. I’m serious. We’re all in this together, and we’re all going to die this time if we cock it up.”
“Agreed.”
We were walking side-by-side now. I’d slowed down a bit, but kept moving toward the collection of circular pits we used as a landing field at the southern edge of the base. They looked like blast-pans from an aerial perspective, but since our ships usually used gravitational repellers to lift off and land, they weren’t used that way. The low walls of concrete around each landing pit mostly served to shelter crews and cargo from the weather. They also helped manage traffic. If a ship was told to land in pit eighteen, everyone knew where they were headed.
I heard a sound behind us. A thump and a splash. I glanced back, not really surprised. Crow’s reaction was much more dramatic. He stopped and whirled, eyeing Sandra who now walked behind us. She nodded to him coolly, and he nodded back. She wore her raincoat and a black fedora. Maybe she’d grown tired of having rain running down her face.
Crow started walking with me again. Sandra shadowed us about five paces behind. She reminded me of a Secret Service agent, trailing dignitaries while they had a private conversation. I knew Sandra could hear everything we were saying, but by staying behind she gave people the illusion they were speaking with me privately.
Many powerful men had bodyguards, that was nothing new. In my case, I only had one lovely agent, but that was all I needed. Now and then, Crow gave Sandra a quick, worried glance over his shoulder. No one liked to have her behind them. Everyone knew she could probably kill them before they could move. That was the beauty of the arrangement.
“I’ve got something I need to show you, mate,” Crow said, keeping his voice low.