Earth Afire (The First Formic War)

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. It 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