Earth Afire (The First Formic War)

to keep it that way.” She punched the code into the wall and sealed the door without another word.
    That evening a group of technicians came and administered a lie detector test. Victor didn’t object; he had nothing to hide. Once they had all the patches and sensors on him, however, he began to worry that the machine would misinterpret his brain activity somehow and conclude he was deceiving them. Then he feared that all the anxiety he felt over this possibility would skew the results even further. When the machine finished, the technicians said nothing and packed up the equipment.
    “What were the results?” he asked.
    “Don’t know,” said the tech. “We administer the test. Someone else reads it.”
    The test must have strengthened his case because the next morning small groups of people began visiting him every hour. Engineers. Psychologists. Biologists. Victor answered their questions as best as he could, though more often than not he had no answer to give. No, he hadn’t seen the ship up close. No, he didn’t know how many hormigas were inside.
    He could tell many of them were skeptical. They listened intently and took studious notes, but some had a hard time hiding their disbelief and disdain. A few of them returned for a second, third, and fourth time, repeating the same questions over and over again.
    By the fourth day Victor was losing his patience. “I’ve already answered these questions multiple times,” he told them. “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to catch me in a lie. You’re throwing in details I didn’t give you to see if I’ll notice or change my story. You’re desperately looking for signs of deception because some of you are so pompous and wrapped up in your own self-importance that you can’t accept the fact that a man without all your college degrees could possibly know something you don’t.”
    Some of the scientists laughed. Others scoffed and stormed out. Victor didn’t care. He preferred to be alone anyway.
    On the fifth day it happened. Simona came to the apartment with Imala, who was so relieved to see Victor that she embraced him. “They’ve been drilling me for days,” she said. “I can only assume you were getting the same.” She smiled at him. “They found it, Victor. Prescott and Yanyu found it.”
    Simona set her holopad on the table and extended the bars in the corners. A live news broadcast projected in the field. Ukko stood at a lectern crested with the Juke corporate logo. Behind him, clustered together, was a crowd of people, most of whom had come to Victor’s apartment in the past few days. Prescott was among them, as was Yanyu.
    “Ladies and gentlemen of the press,” said Ukko. “Citizens of Earth and Luna. We are not alone in the universe.”
    Victor felt a weight lift. In that one sentence, his task was complete. The burden was someone else’s now. He was free.
    Cameras flashed as Ukko continued. “An intelligent and hostile alien species is at this moment approaching Earth in a ship unlike anything we’ve ever seen.” He gestured to his left, where a holofield resided above a platform. The alien ship appeared, suspended in space. “This holo and others I supplied to STASA this morning leave no doubt in my mind that our planet is in grave danger.” The alien ship minimized, and Yanyu’s wreckage from the Belt appeared. “Dedicated members of my staff have discovered evidence that this alien vessel is responsible for the destruction of an unknown number of mining vessels in the Asteroid Belt and beyond. We fear the loss of human life may already be in the thousands. We can also prove definitively that this alien ship is the cause of the communications interference that has crippled space commerce for months. My team is tracking the ship as we speak, and if its current rate of deceleration continues, it will reach Earth in approximately eleven days.”
    There were murmurs from the media.
    Ukko signaled them to quiet. “We must do all in our power to remain calm and prevent a worldwide panic. I call upon all governments of Earth to convene an emergency summit at the United Nations so that immediate precautionary measures can be taken. And I vow that Juke Limited will continue to do everything in its power to keep the world informed and to assist in whatever preparations will be made. I’ll now turn the microphone over to members of my team who will take you through the evidence and answer all of your questions.” He