Earth Afire (The First Formic War)

by Orson Scott Card

  “Forget it. I got this.” She yanked one of the pieces down from the pile and let it slowly clatter to the floor. Victor backed off and left her to it. He felt like he should apologize, but for what? He did have a system in place for the junk, and it was hard to explain; it was coming to him as they went along. He couldn’t spell it out like she wanted; he hadn’t finished defining it all in his head yet. As for the hammering, that was how he and Father had always worked: They talked to each other as they did things; they reminded each other of safety precautions; they watched out for each other. You had to. It was easy to forget things and get sloppy when you were tired, and you couldn’t afford to get injured in the K Belt.

  Only, we’re not in the K Belt, he reminded himself. We’re in Imala’s world.

  Imala was down on her knees, locked to the floor. She began pounding on the piece of metal, and the booming clang of it echoed through the warehouse.

  Victor backed off and returned to the crane he had been using. He was surprised to find Lem there waiting for him, a large duffel bag slung over Lem’s shoulder.

  “You have a unique way with women, Victor. Rather than make them swoon, you make them want to beat you senseless with a hammer. A new approach. You’ll have to tell me how that works out for you.”

  Victor tried to keep the disdain from his voice. “Something I can do for you, Lem?”

  “Something you can take from me.” He unshouldered the duffel bag, set it gently on the floor, and opened it. There were two large devices inside that Victor didn’t recognize and a third smaller device that looked like a detonator.

  “This is what you’ll carry inside the Formic ship to the helm,” said Lem. “That is, assuming you can reach the helm. There’s enough explosive here to do quite a bit of damage. I’d prefer you had a tactical nuke, but those are hard to come by. I had to pull off a few small miracles to get this.”

  “How does it work?” Victor asked. His family had used explosives all the time for mining asteroids, but Victor had always felt uneasy around them, even when they were disassembled like this and completely harmless. Lem showed him how the two pieces clicked together. Then, without doing so, he explained how to arm the explosive and trigger the detonator.

  “What’s the range on the detonator?” Victor asked. “How far away can I get before I trigger it?”

  Lem winced, looking uncomfortable. “That’s the tricky part. These things are designed for asteroids. They’re made for open space, easy communication between detonator and explosive. You drop them into a dig site, back up your ship, then boom. They weren’t designed to be placed deep within the bowels of a ship that’s—in all likelihood—intricately tunneled and made with layers upon layers of strange metallic alloys. And if you’re right about the helm, if it’s at the center of the ship, that’s quite a distance from the hull.”

  “You’re saying you don’t know the detonator’s range,” said Victor.

  “I’m saying there’s no way to tell without knowing what’s inside the Formic ship. You might be able to get halfway back to Luna and still be in range. Or you might be out of range the moment you leave the helm. There’s no telling.”

  “What about a timer?” Victor asked.

  “That’s option B. Plant the explosive where it won’t be discovered then set it to detonate twelve hours later or twenty-four or however long you think it will take you to get out. Personally, I’m not a fan of timers. We used those when we attacked the Formics the first time. It didn’t work out well.”

  He says we, thought Victor, and he means him and my family, him and Father. Victor still hadn’t gotten used to that image: Lem fighting alongside Concepción and Father and the other men of the family.

  “Thanks,” said Victor. “I’ll figure it out.”

  Lem walked over to the recon shuttle that Imala and Victor had purchased. It sat on the floor of the warehouse near the piles of collected space junk. It was a small, boxy two-seater, no bigger than a skimmer. The side door was open. Lem bent his knees and looked inside. It was comfortable and outfitted with all the latest flight controls. “Nice little ship. Seems a shame to trash it.”

  “We’ll only be trashing the exterior,” said Victor.

  “How are you going to do this?” Lem asked. “There’s no airlock in here, and the Formics aren’t likely to extend an umbilical. Once you open this door to go outside, you’re in a vacuum.”

  “I’ll be in a spacesuit the whole way,” said Victor. “I’m carrying all the oxygen I’ll need from the moment I leave Luna to the moment I return.”

  “What about anchoring the ship? How will you keep it from drifting off when you leave it to go inside the mothership? The hull of the Formic ship is as smooth as glass. There’s nothing to hook on to. And I don’t know that I’d trust a ship to magnets.”

  “I’ll be flying it,” said Imala. Victor turned to see Imala approaching. She carried the hammer in one hand and wiped sweat from her brow with the other.

  “I’ll keep it in position,” she said. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t drift.”

  “You’re not coming with me, Imala,” said Victor.

  “Yes, Victor. I am. I’m a better pilot than you are. We both know that, and maneuvering this thing through that debris field will require a steady hand.”

  “I’ll be drifting at a negligible speed,” said Victor. “I think I can manage.”

  “A thousand things could go wrong, Victor. We drastically increase our chances of success if there are two of us.”

  “Absolutely not, Imala. I’m not letting you put yourself in danger like that.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You’re not letting me? You’re not my supervisor, Vico.”

  “I know that. Of course not. What I mean is … this is my fight, Imala. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you because of me. You shouldn’t have to take this risk.”

  Imala breathed out, brushed a long errant hair out of her face, and turned to Lem. “Would you excuse us, please?”

  Lem smiled. “As much as I’d hate missing the rest of this conversation, I’ll leave you two to figure it out.” He moved to leave then turned back. “But whatever you decide, choose the method that will most likely result in success. I’m not paying all this money to see that tiny shuttle blown to smithereens.” He walked away, leaving the duffel bag at Victor’s feet.

  When he was gone Imala said, “I appreciate you being concerned about me, Vico, and I recognize that you have a lot invested in this fight. You’ve lost half your family, and I can’t begin to imagine the kind of hurt that brings. But you’re wrong about one thing. This is not your fight. This is my fight, too. I haven’t lost my family, true, but if the Formics don’t stop, I will lose them. I’ll lose everything. And I’m not going to sit here and do nothing and allow that to happen when there’s a way for me to contribute. You’ve lost your home, Vico, but I’m losing mine as we speak. Right now Earth is burning, and that gives me just as much right as you have.” She leaned against the recon ship and folded her arms. “But even if none of that were true, Vico, even if I had no stake in this whatsoever, practically speaking it makes sense for both of us to go. You can broadcast to me what you see and find inside the ship. That way, if you die I can carry what you’ve learned and recorded back to Luna. I can make sure that intel gets to people who can use it and act upon it and end this war. I don’t want anything to happen to you, of course, but that intel would be more valuable than both of our lives.”

  Victor was quiet a moment. She was right of course. He couldn’t argue with any of it. “We’ll both have to wear suits the entire trip, which means we’ll have to double our oxygen supply, which means we’ll be crammed inside the cockpit practically on top of each other the whole trip. It will be very uncomfortable. There will be zero personal space.”

  She smiled. “At least we’ll have helmets on. That way, if either of us has bad breath, only the culprit will suffer for it.”

  “I’m serious, Imala. I
t won’t be pleasant. We’ll be cramped.”

  Imala put a hand on his shoulder. “Victor, we’re going up against an indestructible alien ship that just wiped out most of Earth’s space fleet. Uncomfortable seating is the least of our problems.”

  CHAPTER 26

  Biomass

  Mazer and Bingwen set out for the lander three hours before dawn under the cover of darkness. Bingwen led the way, the gas mask pulled down securely over his head, his boots padding quietly through the mud. They moved quickly, talking little, Mazer scanning the sky around them for any sign of troop transports.

  They weren’t likely to see any, Mazer knew—not until it was too late anyway. The transports were near silent and used no exterior lights, making them practically invisible at night. If one did come into view, it would likely be right when the lander was on top of them. And what could Mazer and Bingwen do at that point but fight and hope for the best? They couldn’t run for cover. There was none. Not anymore. In the north there had been patches of jungle in which to conceal themselves, but here, near the lander, the Formics had left nothing. Every sprout and sapling and blade of grass had been stripped or burned away, leaving a landscape so barren and devoid of any life that it was as if Mazer and Bingwen had stepped off of Earth and walked onto another planet entirely.

  “If I tell you to run, you run,” said Mazer. “Do you understand? No questions asked, no hesitating. Immediate obedience.”

  “Immediate obedience,” Bingwen repeated.

  “It could mean your life, Bingwen. It could mean both of our lives. If I tell you to drop, you drop. If I say jump in the river, you jump in the river.”

  “The river’s probably polluted,” said Bingwen. “All of the runoff from the mist is in that water. I might die if I swim in that.”

  “You see? That’s the type of hesitation I’m speaking of. You can’t question my orders. Ever. If I tell you to jump in a polluted river, it’s only because every other option means death. It means the chances of surviving a polluted river, however slim, are greater than the chances of surviving not jumping in it.”

  “River. Jump. I got it.”

  Mazer stopped and took a knee, facing him. “I’m serious, Bingwen. If I give you an order, it’s only to keep you alive. It may contradict what you think is best or what you want to do, but you must obey it. That has to be instinct. You have to believe with absolute certainty that anything I tell you will be for your good.”

  Bingwen nodded. “I believe that.”

  “So if I tell you to crouch down and take cover…”

  “I crouch and take cover.”

  “And if I tell you to hide in a hole…”

  “I make like a snake and hide.”

  Mazer unholstered his sidearm. “And if I tell you to take this and go north…”

  “I thought you weren’t going to teach me how to shoot.”

  “I’m not. Not really. This is a last resort. This is when all other options have failed. But if I tell you to take this gun and run north, you take it and protect yourself and run north. Understand?”

  “But why would you give it to me?”

  Mazer made a move to speak, but Bingwen continued, cutting him off.

  “I wouldn’t question you in the moment,” said Bingwen. “If you told me to do it, I’d do it, no hesitation. I’m asking the question now, when you can still answer it. If you’re alive enough to give me the gun and give me the order, then aren’t you alive enough to keep fighting with it yourself?”

  “If I give you the gun and tell you to run, it’s because it’s the only way to keep you alive and get you away.”

  “Me … but not you.”

  “I don’t want to die, Bingwen. I will do everything to get back home. But more important to me is that at least one of us survives. If I can hold them off long enough for you to get away, I prefer that than something happening to both of us. Do you understand?”

  Bingwen waved his hands. “No. That can’t be how it works. That’s wrong. If you were by yourself, you’d fight for as long as you could. You’d stay at it. And who knows, because of perseverance or luck or skill or desperation, maybe you would survive, even if you didn’t expect to. But giving me the gun is guaranteeing failure. That’s giving up. You’d be dying because of me. I can’t allow that.”

  “Listen to me, Bingwen.”

  “No. I’m not letting you do that. If you have it in mind to give up your weapon, you will do it at the wrong time. You would hold off for as long as you think is necessary to ensure my survival instead of yours. And you would overcompensate. You would give me more time than I needed and therefore give up sooner than necessary. You can show me how the gun works, but I’m only going to use it if you no longer can.”

  Mazer was quiet a moment. “In the military we call this insubordination. People are stripped of rank and imprisoned for it.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I’m not in the military.”

  “You’re making this difficult, Bingwen.”

  “No. I’m making it the opposite. I’m removing a consideration from your mind. I’m letting you fight with a clearer head. That’s in my best interest, too. The more focused you are on staying alive, the better my chances are, too.”

  Mazer considered then nodded. “All right. No giving up the gun.”

  “Good.”

  “But if I can no longer use it, you pick it up.” He showed him the weapon. “You see this light? Red means it can’t fire, the safety is on. Flip this switch here, the light goes green, it’s ready to fire.” He flipped the safety back on. “Don’t run with your finger on the trigger, even if the safety is on. That’s the fastest way to shoot yourself. Keep your index finger flat against the receiver like this until you’re ready to fire. And use the wrist brace. Here.” Mazer tapped a button on the grip, and the wrist brace extended backward, found Mazer’s wrist, and wrapped around it. “It will tighten automatically to fit the diameter of your wrist and help steady your aim.”

  “Where should I aim?”

  “Center mass. Middle of the chest. Two rounds. One right after the other. You’ll feel a recoil, but it’s slight.” Mazer stood, noticing the disquiet in Bingwen’s expression. “It won’t likely come to that though, Bingwen. You’ll probably never have to use it.”

  Bingwen nodded, but Mazer could still sense his unease. I shouldn’t have brought Bingwen south, he told himself. We should have pushed west, away from the patrolling transports in the north and away from the lander. What was I thinking to bring a child here?

  “You’re reconsidering,” said Bingwen. “I can see your gears turning.”

  “I’m reconsidering because what we’re doing is lunacy, Bingwen. This isn’t a game. This is war. It’s one thing for me to go. It’s quite another for you to come along. Soldiers don’t take eight-year-olds to war.”

  “I’m eight and a half.”

  “I’m not joking. This is wrong. My training says so. Common sense says so. The law says so.”

  “We’ve been over this. This is my decision.”

  “You’re not old enough to make that decision. You’re a minor. There’s a reason why we don’t take recruits until they’re eighteen years old.”

  “I’m not going as a soldier. I’m going as a guide. I’m taking you to the lander. If I hadn’t course-corrected us already, you would have missed it by a few kilometers.”

  “I would have found it eventually,” said Mazer, tapping the side of his nose. “Just follow the stench.”

  “It may not be as dangerous as you think,” said Bingwen. “Have you noticed that the closer we get to the lander, the fewer transports and skimmers and Formics we see? Maybe the ships and infantry are all moving away from here, pushing outward, expanding the Formics’ territory. If it’s an invasion force, they’re going to keep invading. They might not even be guarding the lander. Why would they? It’s indestructible. It has shields. Why waste men and ships defending something that doesn’t need defending? It’s probabl
y the safest place within a hundred kilometers of here.”

  Mazer smiled. “I’ll put you through school when this is over, but not law school. You’re too dangerous.”

  Bingwen gave him a wide toothy grin.

  They pushed on, crossing wide, muddy fields, with stagnant pools of water that smelled of rot and death. Bingwen pointed out a hillside where a small village had once stood. All that remained of it was scorched earth and a single sheet of metal roofing, rattling softly in the wind like thunder.

  They reached the base of the hill an hour before sunrise. Beyond it was the lander and the biomass. Scaling the hill wouldn’t be easy, Mazer could see. The Formics had stripped it of vegetation, and the heavy rains had softened and eroded the exposed earth, leaving steep muddy slopes that threatened to give way beneath their feet and slide downward like an avalanche. Mazer showed Bingwen how to take sideways steps up the steepest parts to more evenly distribute the surface area of their boot soles, but even with that approach they fell often and slipped constantly and had to painstakingly claw their way up to the summit. By the time they reached it, the sun was up, and they were covered head to foot in muck, their bodies cold and wet and spent.

  Mazer took the binoculars from the pack and crawled forward in the mud to a small outcrop of rock overlooking the valley below. The lander was as he remembered it: impossibly large and completely unscathed, sunk into the ground like a giant unearthed landmine. The biomass stood beside it, a mountain of rotting biota as wide and as tall as the lander had been before it had spun itself into the earth. Mazer had expected to be able to identify the various objects in the biomass—a tree here, a water buffalo there—and perhaps at one time that had been possible. But not anymore. Everything ran together like melting wax as cell walls broke down and the biota disintegrated into a thick viscous liquid.

  Above the biomass, a cluster of six Formic aircraft of a design Mazer had never seen before were spraying a mist onto the biomass as dense as a rainstorm.

  Mazer watched through the binocs as the mist fell and reacted to the biota, dissolving it into thin trails of goop that rolled down the side and gathered into dark pools at the mountain’s base. A metal wall had been built there, surrounding the mountain of biomass like a circular dam and feeding the goop runoff into pipes that extended outward to processing machines and small structures spread out over the valley floor like a massive industrial complex.