Earth Afire (The First Formic War)

information.”
    Simona remained quiet, considering.
    “You heard my father. Thousands of people are dying every day. I’m ready to move now. We are set to launch. I’m ready to stop those deaths right now. But I can’t unless you give me information.”
    She sighed. “Bullick says the fleet of drones won’t be ready for at least five days.”
    Lem breathed out. “Thank you.”
    “So are you going to tell me how you’re getting people inside?”
    “I’ll give you the whole rousing narrative some other time.” He retracted his face from the field and ended the transmission.
    Five days. That was more than enough time for Victor to drift to the ship, do his business, and get out. Or so they had calculated. Victor had estimated three days and thought it might be as much as four, but no more than that. Then again, anything could go wrong.
    But no, five days was an eternity away. If they started to approach that, if it looked like they would be delayed, then Lem would radio them to abort.
    He went back out to the warehouse and tried busying himself with other things while they finished. Nothing held his attention, and he eventually returned and hovered over them until it was done. Men with lifters came and took the camouflaged ship into an airlock. Benyawe and Dublin had done a good job with the decoy. It attached to the recon ship quite nicely and looked as realistically like junk as the recon ship did.
    Victor and Imala were waiting by the airlock entrance already in their spacesuits. “You have the explosive?” Lem asked.
    “Wouldn’t be much of a trip without it,” said Victor.
    Lem nodded. No one spoke. There was nothing more to say. Lem extended his hand. “Good luck.”
    Victor considered the hand, hesitated. Imala poked him in the ribs with her elbow and Victor took the hand and shook it. “Thanks.”
    “Thank me when you get back,” said Lem.
    Victor and Imala entered the airlock and climbed into the cockpit. Lem stood at the glass and watched them take off. It seemed strange to watch a hunk of junk fly like a ship, but that was the beauty of the idea, Lem supposed. The ship accelerated, getting smaller and smaller as it moved into the blackness. Lem watched it until it was nothing more than a dot in the distance. In less than a day it would decelerate and approach the Formic ship at a drifting speed, but for now it shot away like a rocket.
    Now that they were off, the whole idea seemed utterly ridiculous. A ship disguised as junk. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. Now, with them out of sight, it felt like a fool’s errand.
    Benyawe came and stood beside him at the glass, looking out into space, her long gray braids dangling to her shoulders. “They’re going to do fine,” she said.
    He turned to her. “You’re a scientist. You act and think and decide based on facts. Do you honestly believe that? Do you honestly believe this has a chance?”
    “Probably not.”
    He exhaled and turned back to the glass. “That’s what I thought.”
    “But the scientist is only part of who I am, Lem. There’s also the wife part and the mother part and the sister and the friend and all the other parts. Those parts say we cannot lose. And those parts are the ones I choose to believe.”

CHAPTER 28
     
    Drill Sledges
     
    The military base was little more than rubble and burned earth and bloated, rotting bodies lying scattered in the sun. Most of them were Chinese soldiers, but Wit saw Formics among the dead as well. Wrecked troop transports, downed skimmers, the husk of a burned-out Chinese helicopter. Wit had expected the sight, but it pained him to see it nonetheless. It was further evidence that the Formics were winning the war. The Chinese didn’t even have the manpower to bury their dead.
    Mazer directed the vehicles to a hangar at the airfield. There were two aircraft inside that Mazer called HERCs. They both appeared undamaged. “We lucked out,” said Mazer. “At least one of these is sure to fly.”
    They then drove northeast of the airfield to a bunker overlooking a muddy valley. There Wit saw the three drill sledges Mazer had told him about during the drive from the lander.
    “They’re still there,” said Mazer. “Miracles never cease.”
    “Vehicles are not a plan,” said Wit.
    “The underside of the lander isn’t shielded,” said Mazer. “So we attack it from the bottom, underground. We tunnel in with these three drill sledges and punch a hole through the