Earth Afire

by Orson Scott Card

  "We're going to be fine," Rena assured them. "We've been practicing for this."

  She moved to the exterior hatch and looked out the small porthole at the wreckage outside. It was difficult to tell what type of ship it had been. The alien weapons had blown most of it to bits during the battle, leaving only this rear section intact.

  She turned back to the group and lifted her arms high over her head. "Stretch out. Muscles need to be loose for takeoff and landing."

  The women complied, bending their legs and getting loose. Rena took a moment to reposition some of the gear she had strapped to her shoulders and belt. Arjuna had loaded each of them with salvaging tools. Rena carried a rotating saw, industrial shears, and a dozen other smaller tools stuffed into her suit's many pockets.

  Arjuna's voice sounded in their helmets. "Move quickly. Don't waste time on parts of little value." He was up in the helm, monitoring them, tracking the wreckage. "When you enter a room, look at everything. Put a price on every piece you see. And remember that the most valuable pieces may not be out in the open. Look for pipes, wiring, conduit. Follow them to their source. Find whatever they're powering or pumping from. Rip back panels. Expose everything. Then go to what's worth the most and start cutting." He was repeating himself. He had drilled this into them for weeks now. "And how much extra do you cut away?"

  He meant extra wiring or pipes, all the replaceable pieces that fed into the part and anchored it to the ship. Cutting a power cord was fine. Cutting the part wasn't.

  The women all answered in unison, some with a tired rhythm in their voice. They had been over this so many times already. "At least half a meter," they said

  "At the least," Arjuna repeated. "At the least. More is better. Err on the side of caution. If you cut the part too short or if you damage it when you cut it free, it's junk. We'll get nothing for it."

  Rena looked to her right and saw Abbi beside her. Abbi had come to El Cavador as a young bride from a Peruvian free-miner family that had never allowed their women to do spacewalks. She looked terrified.

  "Stay close to me," said Rena. "We'll go everywhere together."

  Abbi nodded, grateful.

  Rena's heart ached for the woman. Abbi had lost her only son, Mono, when El Cavador was destroyed, and the loss had been devastating. Ever since then Abbi had been detached and distant. Rena had tried comforting her on a few occasions, but Abbi had always brushed off the gestures and preferred to be left alone. Now, however, she was terrified and desperate for companionship.

  "We'll help each other," Rena told her. "No one's alone on this."

  Abbi nodded again, putting on her best face. She was trying at least, thought Rena.

  Arjuna's voice returned. "We'll have the nets open. Once you pull a part, bring it outside and push it to the nets."

  The nets had been a source of contention among the women. Arjuna had ordered his original crew to man the nets and catch the salvaged parts while he had ordered the women of El Cavador to go inside the wreckage and retrieve the valuables.

  "You see what he's doing, don't you?" Julexi had said. "He's giving us the dangerous work and giving the light, safe labor to his own family."

  "We're better cutters than they are," Rena had said. "We know the parts better than they do. He's doing this for practical reasons. We'll move faster and salvage more this way."

  It was true, but no one liked it.

  "You see how she always takes his side instead of ours?" Julexi had said. "Arjuna can do no wrong as far as Rena is concerned."

  It was a ridiculous accusation. Rena had argued privately with Arjuna on a half-dozen issues, usually winning those arguments and getting what the family needed. But she never bragged about these small victories to the women. No one else even knew they had occurred. That would only fuel those who still griped about being here. They would use those arguments as proof that coming along had been a mistake. It didn't matter that all ships had arguments like the ones Rena had with Arjuna. It didn't matter that all families operated that way. It had happened every day aboard El Cavador. People argued. Disagreements were voiced on how things should be done. Opposing viewpoints were considered. Compromises were made.

  But people like Julexi seemed to forget that fact when they were so desperate to build a case against their current situation.

  Arjuna said, "Hatch is opening in five ... four ... three ... two ... one."

  The hatch cracked, and the rush of oxygen in the airlock was sucked out into the vacuum of space. With the bolts pulled back and the seal broken, Rena pushed on the hatch, and it swung outward, revealing the wide, infinite expanse of space beyond. She had told herself that she would be the first one out, leading by example, showing the women that they could do this without lifelines, that all would be well.

  But fear paralyzed her. The blackness was a well she would fall into and continue on forever. It had taken Segundo. It would take her, too.

  "What are you waiting for?" said Julexi. It was an accusation as much as a question. It was as if she were saying: You see how she hesitates? You see how she's afraid?

  It was exactly the motivation Rena needed to shatter the fear. She reached up, pulled herself through the hole, got her feet outside on the hull of the ship, and pushed off hard toward the wreckage, moving a little faster than was necessary to prove she wasn't afraid.

  She flew, heading straight for the flat side of the wrecked ship's hull, which they had determined was the safest place to land.

  She knew the others were behind her. She could hear their grunts and exhalations as they launched from the Gagak's hull and made for the wreck.

  Right at the last moment, Rena tapped the retros on her shoulder pack, which shot out small bursts of compressed air and slowed the forward movement of her upper body. As she had hoped, the lower half of her body continued forward and she rotated so that her feet were now in front of her. She landed expertly feetfirst with her boot magnets turned on, anchoring herself to the wreck. Then she quickly turned around, saw the others coming, and shuffled back out of the way.

  Abbi came next, but she didn't land nearly as gracefully. She failed to get her feet under her in time and hit the hull with her shoulder and bounced away, nearly spinning off into space. Rena caught her by the arm and pulled her back, helping her to a standing position. Abbi was breathing hard, eyes were wide with terror, but she nodded her thanks and worked to compose herself.

  Julexi twisted her ankle on her landing, and when Rena approached her to help her up, Julexi waved her brusquely away. "Don't pretend to care. I'm fine."

  They found a hatch and went inside, entering into the airlock of a cargo bay. It was completely dark, and when Rena shined her spotlight around the room, the beam fell upon two corpses twenty meters away. They had expected this, but Rena still gave a quick intake of breath. The bodies were both men. One of them was turned away from them, but the other seemed to be looking at them, his expression pained. They wore heavy, nonmatching jumpsuits, which meant they were probably part of a clan; corporates would have had uniforms.

  The women crowded around Rena, staring at the bodies. Rena lowered her beam and faced them. "We knew we'd find corpses in here. Ignore them. Let's focus on the equipment."

  A quick scan of the cargo bay revealed all sorts of useful tools and heavy equipment: suits, helmets, mining tools, even a few digger mechs that looked to be in perfect working condition and worth a small fortune each. Most of it was anchored down tight and thus had not been thrown around and damaged during the battle. Rena radioed back up to Arjuna and rattled off what they had found.

  "Not a bad find for your first wreck, Lady of El Cavador. We are opening the nets now. I'll send down some men with cables and wenches to pull in the mechs. What about elsewhere?"

  "We haven't explored beyond the bay yet."

  "Leave most of your team there to recover what you've found and send a few out to check the rest of the ship. This is a sizable wreck. There might be more worth taking."
/>   "Roger that."

  Abbi was shining her light at the two dead men. "Doesn't seem right, Rena. Taking from the dead like this. These were free miners like us."

  "We've salvaged from dead ships before, Abbi. A lot of our equipment on El Cavador came from things we found."

  "Yes, but I never had to be the one to take it. And anyway, we were doing that to stay alive. Crows take to make a profit."

  "It's no different, Abbi. It's all survival. Now come on, I need your help." She pulled her away from the corpses. Several of the women had their drills out, removing the anchor bolts to the equipment they were hoping to bring in. "Julexi," said Rena. "Abbi and I are going to scout the rest of the ship. You're in charge of the recovery here."

  Julexi seemed surprised then narrowed her eyes, suspicious. "Why me?"

  "Because if anyone can handle a big job like this, you can." Rena figured it would help Julexi to feel some ownership for their success today. Arjuna had agreed to give them 30 percent of whatever they recovered, so today's haul would be a decent sum. It was nowhere near what they would need to buy their own ship, but it was a start. If Julexi felt responsible for that, it might mend things between them.

  "So we work while you two play explorer?" said Julexi.

  "We won't be poking about," said Abbi. "We're looking for other parts. That's why we came."

  Abbi's response surprised Rena. Usually Abbi was all too eager to echo Julexi's complaints, but here she appeared to be siding with Rena. Maybe the infighting was beginning to subside.

  "We'll hurry back if we don't find anything," said Rena. She launched toward the hatch on the far side of the cargo bay, and Abbi followed. Out in the corridor they found two more bodies, one of them a woman about Abbi's age, the other an old man. Rena pushed them aside without looking at their faces, and the corpses floated to the opposite wall.

  "You paint," said Rena. "I'll lead."

  Without lifelines or a lot of light to see by, it would be easy to get lost in the labyrinth of a ship, so Arjuna had supplied them all with spray paint. They were to mark the walls wherever they went and use the painted markings to lead them back to the ship.

  Abbi painted a circle on the hatch they had come through while Rena moved down the corridor, scanning right and left with her light, searching for anything useful. She followed pipes for a while, but they turned upward into the ceiling, heading up to another deck. They passed several less-valuable items--compressors and filters and purifiers--but Arjuna had given them strict instructions not to waste their time on those. Big-ticket items were their goal. They moved through a series of hatches, turning right or left. Abbi sprayed arrows whenever they changed direction. The size of the ship surprised Rena; it had seemed much smaller at a distance.

  They passed more bodies: men, women, some young, some old. Rena made a point not to look at their faces. She paused, however, when they came upon the corpse of a young women clutching a bundle wrapped in a blanket. The expression on the woman's face was earnest and desperate, as if she had passed her final moment pleading to God in prayer. Rena didn't dare pull back the blanket flap; she couldn't bring herself to see a dead infant.

  The signs on the walls were all in French, and the people had a European look about them. Rena passed door after door of living quarters. The rooms were decorated with colorful paints and bright fabrics and framed portraits, as if everyone had worked hard to make their little corner of the ship their own. There were hammocks and containers of food, children's toys and holopads. Rena even saw a few paper books floating in the hall.

  They had been a wealthy family by the look of things. Rena couldn't tell if they had belonged to a big clan or were a single-ship operation, but either way they had been a successful outfit. More importantly though, they had been happy. She could see it in their faces in the portraits. Husbands holding wives, children clinging to parents like monkeys held to trees. It was as if each portrait held all the love in the world.

  Her thoughts went to Segundo. Her rock, her other self. She had never been afraid with him at her side. When he held her, all anxiety melted away. There was nothing they couldn't face together, no pain they couldn't endure when they shared the burden and held each other tight. And yet when he had needed her most, she hadn't been there. He had been alone. His last moments, his last breaths, he had passed and taken alone.

  Rena opened the door to a mechanical room and found something worth salvaging. The electrical generator was tucked neatly in the corner, and appeared to be undamaged. Generators didn't usually bring in a lot of money, but this one looked fairly new, only a few years old at the most, with decades of life left in it.

  Rena moved closer and examined it, noting the many bolts and anchors that held it fast to the wall. Cutting it free wouldn't be easy, and carrying it back to the bay would be a cumbersome task--the generator was tall and bulky, and maneuvering it through the corridors without damaging it would be tricky.

  For a moment Rena considered not calling it in and ignoring it completely, but the thought left her just as quickly. To come back empty-handed would be to invite the wrath of Julexi. No, she needed to prove that she was pulling her weight while the others salvaged what was in the cargo bay.

  Rena clicked on her transmitter and radioed it in, sending photos and vids directly to Arjuna. The crow captain sounded pleased by the find and asked her to bring it in as quickly as possible. Rena anchored her spotlight to the wall and used her juice meter to ensure that the generator didn't currently have power. Then she unstrapped the saw from her leg and got busy. The room was tiny, so Abbi waited out in the hall while Rena cut.

  The blade screamed as it sliced though the steel braces, shooting sparks back toward the hand guard. Rena cut the first two braces away easily, but the third and fourth ones were behind the generator and the saw wouldn't reach them. Those she would have to do by hand. She set the saw aside and got out the hacksaw. The space was barely wider than her arm. When she reached back with the hacksaw, she didn't even have room enough to turn her bulky helmet to the side to see what she doing. She felt around blindly with the hacksaw until she found the brace and started cutting. It quickly became apparent that this would take forever. By the time she stopped to catch her breath, she was hot and sweating and frustrated.

  She called Abbi on the radio to give her a hand.

  Abbi didn't answer.

  Rena tried calling her again, but still got no response.

  She retracted her arm from the tight space and went out into the corridor. Abbi wasn't there.

  "Abbi?"

  "I'm here." The voice was quiet. It sounded like she had been crying.

  "Where?"

  "The corridor to your left."

  Rena's light was still with the generator. She left it there and moved to her left. Light from Abbi's suit spilled from one of the rooms up ahead. Rena moved toward it. When she reached the doorway she saw that it was a room for young boys. The walls had been painted with mining ships and planets. Five child-sized hammocks were positioned along one wall. There were toy figurines and plastic helmets, sports balls, and stuffed animals. To Rena's relief there were no children here; perhaps they had been moved elsewhere on the ship before the battle.

  Abbi floated in the middle of the room holding a toy hand drill. She didn't look up. "Mono had one of these," she said softly. "It was broken when we gave it to him. He was only about two years old then. He played with it for hours, flying around the room, making the drill noises, pretending to unscrew everything." She turned it over in her hands. "I think that's why he wanted to be a mechanic. He had this stupid little plastic drill and then he saw Segundo and Victor using the real thing, and his eyes lit up."

  Rena said nothing.

  "He was going to be a mechanic," said Abbi. "That's what he told me all the time. He was going to be like Victor. It was always Victor this and Victor that. He asked me more questions about Victor than he asked about his own father."

  She let go of the drill.
It floated there in the air in front of her. She stared down at it. "If I had given him something else, a different toy, everything would have been different. He wouldn't have wanted to be a mechanic. He wouldn't have snuck off that day. He would've stayed with me. He wouldn't have been on El Cavador."

  She lifted her head and looked at Rena. There were tears in her eyes. "We should have died with them, Rena. All of us should have died."

  "They didn't want that, Abbi. They wanted us to survive. Segundo said so."

  "Who cares what Segundo said!" She was yelling now. "Mono was a child! He died alone! Everyone else was outside the ship. He would've been afraid. He would've wanted me with him. He would've screamed my name."

  Rena didn't know what to say.

  "You keep telling us somos familia, somos uno. We are family, we are one, we need to stick together. Well why didn't we stick together when it mattered most? Huh? Why did we ever leave the ship? Why weren't we familia then?"

  Rena moved to embrace her. "Abbi--"

  "No! Don't touch me!" She shoved Rena away. The action pushed them both away from each other. Rena caught herself against the far wall.

  She kept her voice gentle. "Abbi--"

  "GET OUT!"

  Rena didn't move.

  "I SAID GET OUT!"

  Rena left. She moved back down the hall to the room with the generator. She didn't pick up her hacksaw. She stared at it. She had been kidding herself, she realized. They were not familia. That had died with Segundo and Mono and Pitoso and all the others. What they had before was forever broken. Even if they were to get another ship one day, what would that change? That wouldn't mend anything. They'd still be who they were; they'd still be missing that other part of themselves.

  Arjuna's voice on the radio startled her. It was fast and frantic. "Everyone get back to the ship now! Drop what you're doing and move! Now!"

  "What is it?" asked Rena.

  "Don't ask questions! Move!"

  "Abbi and I are still several minutes away. We're deep in the ship. Tell me what's going on." She grabbed her light and rushed back to the room Abbi was in.

  "Khalid," said Arjuna.