Earth Afire (The First Formic War)

Victor lost control of the decoy, but he quickly regained it and righted the craft’s course.
    There was movement beneath him. Gears turning, pieces shifting, a machine coming to life. He could feel it in his feet.
    The hull opened silently. The gun extended and unfolded itself from the hole like a giant mechanical flower opening its petals and stretching outward. It was fifty times bigger than he had thought it would be, bigger than a shuttle. It had looked so small at a distance in the vids.
    The remote control was long forgotten. He was at the lip of the hole now, shining his light down into the blackness. The space was immense. There appeared to be corners and nooks and passageways down there. Perhaps one of them led into the ship. He couldn’t tell from here.
    The ground shook. The giant flower was firing. Victor looked behind him. The decoy ship was now a puff of shattered pieces. Victor turned back, working frantically. His window of opportunity was closing. He needed to keep this hole open. But how? He had envisioned a space much smaller than this. He had brought a bar to force into the hole and wedge it open to allow him to climb inside, but the bar was clearly too short. How could he have been so wrong about that?
    The giant flower began to fold in on itself, retracting, preparing to disappear back into its hiding place. Victor thought quickly, reaching out and shoving the bar between two braces that had begun to fold inward. The bar stuck, wedged tight, and the flower’s collapsing motion stopped. Victor waited. If the bar snapped free after he climbed into the hole, the flower might collapse inward and crush him.
    The flower didn’t move. The bar held firm. Victor closed the bag, threw it over his shoulder, and grabbed the lip of hole, ready to launch himself inside. He wished Father were with him all of a sudden. Father could lead out and Victor could follow, just as they had done for years on board El Cavador , moving about the ship and making repairs. Father always knew what needed to be done. Doubt was not in his DNA. His solutions weren’t always the most efficient, but they always worked, they always got the job done. Yes, Victor was the better mechanic, but Father worked better under pressure. Father never flinched. Father’s hands were always steady.
    Victor lifted his right hand and saw that it was trembling.
    Be with me, Father. Stay with me, fly with me. Somos familia. Somos uno.
    Then he lowered his hand back to the lip of the hole and pulled himself forward, shooting down deep, disappearing in the darkness.

By Orson Scott Card from Tom Doherty Associates
     
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    The Folk of the Fringe
    Future on Fire (editor)
    Future on Ice (editor)
    Hidden Empire
    Invasive Procedures (with Aaron Johnston)
    Keeper of Dreams
    The Lost Gate
    Lovelock (with Kathryn Kidd)
    Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card
    Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
    Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus
    Saints
    Songmaster
    Treason
    A War of Gifts
    The Worthing Saga
    Wyrms
    THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER
    Seventh Son
    Red Prophet
    Prentice Alvin
    Alvin Journeyman
    Heartfire
    The Crystal City
    ENDER
    Ender’s Game
    Ender’s Shadow
    Shadows in Flight
    Shadow of the Hegemon
    Shadow Puppets
    Shadow of the Giant
    Speaker for the Dead
    Xenocide
    Children of the Mind
    First Meetings
    Ender in Exile
    HOMECOMING
    The Memory of Earth
    The Call of Earth
    The Ships of Earth
    Earthfall
    Earthborn
    WOMEN OF GENESIS
    Sarah
    Rebekah
    Rachel & Leah
    THE FORMIC WARS
    Earth Unaware (with Aaron Johnston)
    From Other Publishers
     
    Enchantment
    Homebody
    Lost Boys
    Magic Street
    Stone Father
    Stone Tables
    Treasure Box
    How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy
    Characters and Viewpoint
    Pathfinder
    Ruins

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
    EARTH AFIRE
    Copyright © 2013 by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston
    All rights reserved.
    Cover art by John Harris
    A Tor Book
    Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
    175 Fifth Avenue
    New York, NY 10010
    www.tor-forge.com
    Tor ® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
    The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
    Card, Orson Scott.
    Earth Afire / Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston.—First edition.
            p. cm.
    “A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
    ISBN