Earth Afire (The First Formic War)

Formics would still be an issue. That would need addressing as well. But they were an enemy for another day. Right now Father was the one with the exposed flank, and Lem wasn’t about to ignore it.
    Lem straightened his jacket and gestured to the door. “Let’s get this over with.”
    She looked relieved. “You’re doing the right thing, Lem. People need to hear this story. And don’t edit yourself. Give it some drama. People want drama.”
    “Relax, Simona. I’ll have them biting their nails.”

CHAPTER 22
     
    Crows
     
    The airlock was small, but all fifteen women managed to squeeze inside it.
    Rena pulled the interior hatch closed—sealing them off from the cargo bay—then she spun the wheel and secured the lock. The exterior hatch, on the opposite wall, was now all that separated them from the vacuum of space.
    “Check the suit of the person beside you,” said Rena. “Look for punctures, scratches, any sign of structural deterioration, especially at creases: elbows, armpits, back of the knees. Make sure everyone’s suit is airtight.” Their pressure suits were newer and nicer than anything they had ever had on board El Cavador, but Rena wasn’t taking any chances.
    The women obeyed without hesitation. They had come to trust Rena’s leadership when it came to the equipment. “Check your oxygen levels,” said Rena. “Fiddle with the air valves, make sure you have manual control of your air intake if you need it. Know what you’re breathing. Monitor your mixture. Ask your helmet to run a full scan of life support. If any of your biometrics are off, if you sense the tiniest of glitches, speak up now. This is not a drill this time. This is the real. No mistakes.”
    Their faces were visible through their visors, and Rena could see that many of them were nervous. Rena didn’t blame them. She was afraid as well. Most of them hadn’t done a spacewalk in years; it was the men on El Cavador who had done all the mining. Worse still, crows didn’t use lifelines—or the long hoses that connected to the back of a spacesuit and kept a person anchored to the ship. On El Cavador, going outside without a lifeline was suicide, the most dangerous, reckless, stupid decision a miner could make. The lifeline was exactly what its name implied. Power and air came down the lifeline, and if you were ever in trouble, if you needed a quick rescue, the lifeline was the means by which you were pulled back into the ship.
    But lifelines were impossible with scavenger work. The wreckage constantly moved; lifelines would knot and twist and kink once everyone got on board. Plus the insides of ships were mazes, with corridors extending in any direction; lines would too easily twist and tangle and tie into knots. Then there was the risk of severing a lifeline on the sharp edges from torn metal and wreckage.
    No, portable oxygen and batteries were better for scavenger work. Yet lifelines were the only type of spacewalking any of the women had ever done. The idea of going out into the black without a tether was terrifying.
    “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