Earth Unaware (First Formic War)

reaches us. Not enough to damage us. Not a lethal dose. We were lucky.”
    “Don’t know if I’d call this lucky,” said Rena. “This means the ship’s weapons are far more powerful than we thought.”
    “What if they aren’t weapons?” said Segundo. “Or at least, maybe the ship wasn’t using the radiation at that moment as a weapon.”
    “What do you mean?” asked Concepción.
    “If it’s sucking up hydrogen atoms at near-lightspeed and taking in all this radiation, it has to expulse it somehow,” said Segundo, “especially when it’s trying to slow down. It doesn’t want to shoot it out the back like it normally does. That would only give it massive thrust. And it doesn’t want to accelerate. It wants to de celerate. So it must be getting rid of the buildup some other way.”
    “And if its weapons and fuel are the same substance like we suspect…,” said Concepción.
    “Then its weapons are the means of releasing all that buildup,” finished Segundo. “Notice how the weapons fired in all directions at once at the same amount. That’s logical, because if it released the plasma on just one side or if it released more plasma on one side than on the other, the plasma would generate enough thrust on that side to change the ship’s course, which the ship doesn’t want to do. Its course is set.”
    “So Weigh Station Four was destroyed by the ship’s exhaust?” asked Selmo.
    “If you want to call it that,” said Segundo. “It’s the one drawback of their weapon. The ship never stops collecting hydrogen. And when they’re decelerating, that’s a problem because they have no other way besides their weapons to dump all the excess. So they blast it out in every direction, and whatever happens to be right outside, tough luck.”
    “That’s irresponsible,” said Bahzím. “If you have a system like that, you have to make sure nothing is in the way.”
    “Apparently the hormigas don’t care what gets destroyed,” said Segundo.
    “So the weigh station was at the wrong place at the wrong time?” said Rena.
    “No,” said Concepción. “The weigh station was destroyed by a careless species with no regard for human life.”
    There was a silence among them.
    “What are we going to do?” asked Segundo.
    “I’ve made a decision,” said Concepción. “Only because one had to be made immediately. If you think I’m wrong, it’s not too late to change that decision. But I don’t think I’m wrong. I told Selmo not to decelerate. Rather than move for Weigh Station Four, we’re moving to intercept the ship and attack it.”
    The reaction was fierce and loud as everyone began speaking and shouting at once. Concepción raised her arms to quiet them, but the tumult continued.
    Segundo’s voice thundered over everyone else’s. “Quiet!”
    The voices died.
    “Let’s hear her out,” said Segundo.
    “Thank you,” said Concepción. “I know what I’m suggesting is extremely dangerous, but consider our situation. As far as we know, no one else is aware that this ship is headed to Earth. No one else knows it’s killed hundreds of people, or that it has a weapon powerful enough to annihilate anything within a hundred thousand kilometers of it or more; or that its creatures care nothing for human life and will attack without provocation. We’re the only people who know that. And right now we don’t have any means of issuing a warning. Weigh Station Four is gone. We can hope that Victor will reach Luna and warn Earth, but he’s still several months away. The hormigas will cover a lot of space in that time. And if we let them, if we do nothing, more people will die.”
    “How can we possibly stop it?” said Dreo. “We can’t compete with its tech and weapons. A whole fleet of warships couldn’t stop it. You thought going up against the pod was impossible? This would be a thousand times worse.”
    “We don’t have to destroy it,” said Concepción. “It might be enough to cripple it. That would give Earth more time to build a defense, or it would give military ships enough time to come and destroy it.”
    “And how would we cripple it?” asked Dreo. “We have five PKs. Five. Have we forgotten how big this thing is? We’re a fraction of its size. Five PKs might not inflict any damage.”
    “I don’t know how we’d do it,” said Concepción. “That will require thought. But doing nothing isn’t an option. If we let it go, families will die. Whole clans