Abyss Deep

Abyss Deep
Ian Douglas

Big, bold military science fiction action from New York Times bestselling author, Ian Douglas.Marines are still the toughest sons of guns in the galaxy.As Bravo Company defuses a hostage crisis on an orbiting mining station, Navy Corpsman Elliot "Doc" Carlyle not only saves the lives of a wounded Marine and two extraterrestrial friendlies – he averts a terrorist strike intended to kill billions. His reward? Deployment on a recon mission into the darkest depths known to man…Abyss Deep is a foreboding ocean planet torn by extremes: boiling storm world on one side, unbroken glacier on the other. Humans established a research colony there to study the planet's giant sea serpents—but the colony has gone ominously silent. When Carlyle's team arrives, they discover a vessel belonging to a warlike alien species hovering above the atmosphere. But below the ice lurks a mystery so chilling it will make even Elliot Carlyle's blood run cold.

Dedication

For Dave Plottel, who first introduced me to the wonders of Godel numbers many years ago …

and, as always, to my beloved Brea.

Contents

Dedication (#uf0a670da-2d2e-5ab7-a611-410819aeba1f)

Armor up! (#u56642d0a-7d09-582e-8b3f-7151be3430e6)

Chapter One (#u642e2277-84de-5ca3-ab3e-9854dc8dd2e4)

Chapter Two (#u36f2c78d-d1cd-5949-8c64-f31a31336c34)

Chapter Three (#udfc71324-48e9-558e-a2b8-56578a6c3dae)

Chapter Four (#ua66ff506-5017-5e83-8c7f-40610e2b83d5)

Chapter Five (#u4d06f6f5-ed8d-5a99-8e65-6dfbc027cf92)

Chapter Six (#u61ca211a-03c8-53bb-a604-555b65ea09aa)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Star Corpsman (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

By Ian Douglas (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

“Armor up!”

I squeezed into a waiting Mark 10 hanging on the rack, sealed it off, and accepted a helmet from Thomason. “Thanks, Staff Sergeant,” I told him. “What’s going down?”

“Some of our people are on the ice,” he said. “Trapped … by one of those things.”

Wiseman handed me a Mk. 30 carbine. I checked the safety, wondering if a half-megajoule laser pulse would even register in a cuttlewhale’s consciousness. I might have better luck throwing snowballs at the things.

“Open the hatch!” Hancock called. The dim red-dish light of Abyssworld spilled into the lock as the ramp lowered in front of us.

Haldane had touched down on the ice perhaps a kilometer away from the spot where the cuttlewhale had lunged up through the ice. Thirty Marines and two Corpsmen were out here, converging on the ship as quickly as possible. I could see several of them using their meta-thrusters to make low, bounding leaps across the pressure ridges, their combat-armor nanoflage making them almost invisible in the dim light. In the distance, the snaky silhouette of a cuttlewhale weaved against the swollen red face of the sun.

“Perimeter defense!” Hancock called. “Dalton! Set up your weapon to put fire on that thing!”

We spread out, creating a broad circle around the grounded Haldane. Visibility sucked. The wind from the west had picked up, and we were staring into a layer of blowing ice crystals and freezing fog perhaps two meters deep. I dropped to the ice alongside Bob Dalton, helping him unship his M4-A2 plasma weapon.

Chapter One

There’s an old, old expression in the military, one that can probably be traced back to some platoon sergeant in the army of Sargon the Great: hurry up and wait.

In fact, it’s been said that 99 percent of military life ranges from tedium to unbearable boredom, with the remaining 1 percent consisting of stark, abject terror. A lot of that tedium comes with the waiting … especially if what you’re waiting for is that few moments of crisp, cold terror.

“Doc Carlyle!” the gunnery sergeant’s voice called on my private channel. “You okay?”