_____
Tarkos watched the vent tower of the city sink below the ice. It fell quickly, accelerating, and then was gone, leaving a black hole in the ice where water fountained up in its wake. The station would soon reach catastrophic depths if it continued that rate of descent. Tarkos lifted the tail of the cruiser, feeling the blood rush to his face as he swung around to face downward, and then he drove the ship through the hole left in the surface crust, shattering fragile crystal sheets of ice that had already begun to form. In a second, the cold dark swallowed the ship, and its engines groaned from the effort of moving through the dense water.
Tarkos signaled for Eydis and got no reply. He tried Bria, and again could get no message through. Something in the city generated interfer
