Earth Unaware (First Formic War)

eyes and began to cry. “Don’t tell Vico. Please. Don’t tell Vico.”
    To Mono’s surprise, they responded with silence. No one lashed out. No one told him he couldn’t be an apprentice anymore. They just stood there and watched him cry. Finally Concepción spoke again, and this time her voice was calm. “From now on Mono, when I give you an order or when your mother gives you an order, you will obey it. Do I make myself clear?”
    He nodded.
    “I want to hear your answer,” said Concepción.
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “I appreciate your willingness to help, Mono, but lying to your mother and getting others to lie for you is not how we operate. We are family.”
    He wanted to tell her that it was for the family that he had stayed and for the family that he had lied, but he didn’t think that would help his situation.
    She made him stand off to the side while the men checked their equipment. Helmets, suits, propulsion packs, magnets, helmet radios. Mono watched them work, feeling foolish and angry with himself. He had frightened Mother when all he ultimately wanted to do was drive her fear away.
    Segundo set up a workbench to assemble the timers and magnet discs to the explosives. The explosives weren’t live. That required a blasting disc, which the men would insert into the mechanism when they set the charges on the Formic ship, so there was no chance of them detonating prematurely. Segundo enlisted four men to help him assemble the timers, but it quickly became clear that the men were out of their element; they could set explosives, but they didn’t know wiring and chip work. Finally, after forty-five minutes, Segundo excused the men and called Mono over.
    “Don’t think this means you’re not in trouble,” said Segundo.
    Mono kept his face a blank and didn’t say a word. He worried that he might say the wrong thing or smile at the wrong time and anger Segundo and spoil his chance to help.
    The timers were a cinch to assemble. He and Vico had done similar work on other things dozens of times. It was just a matter of cutting and rewiring and making a few taps with the soldering gun. The magnet discs were a little trickier, and Mono ended up changing the design Segundo had started. Instead of having the magnets underneath the explosive, which would dampen the explosive’s damaging effect to the hull, Mono used smaller magnets around the rim of the device and increased their attraction with a second battery. It was nothing innovative, really. Mono was merely copying something Victor had done when they had repaired one of the water pumps. But Segundo, who had been watching him silently work, picked up the piece when Mono was finished and nodded. “This is the kind of thing Vico would do.”
    It was more praise than Mono could have hoped for, and even though he thought it might get him in trouble, he couldn’t help but smile.
    *   *   *
    Segundo secured his helmet and stepped into the airlock. They were minutes away from reaching the Formic ship, and a quiet intensity had settled among the men. They had drilled their maneuvers so many times over the past few days—using a wall in the cargo bay as the hull of the Formic ship and setting down dummy explosives over and over again until it was second nature—that Segundo didn’t feel nearly as much anxiety as he thought he would. They could do this.
    Once everyone was in the airlock and the door secured, Bahzím had them check and recheck each other’s equipment. Segundo was especially thorough with those around him and found nothing out of order. Concepción then gathered them in a circle for prayer, asking for protection and mercy and that a heavenly hand watch over the women and children. At the “Amen,” Segundo crossed himself and offered his own silent prayer for Rena and Victor.
    Everything moved quickly after that. Bahzím ordered them to clip the D-rings of their safety harnesses onto the mooring cable that would be shot down to the surface of the ship. Segundo positioned himself at the front of the line so that he would be the first one on the Formic ship. He knew that many of the younger men were watching him closely, and he suspected it would put them at ease to see him leading out. Concepción strapped herself into the seat on the winch. She would pull everyone in once the charges were set. Segundo couldn’t remember the last time he had seen her in a suit and helmet.
    “Remember,” Concepción said. “Your suits weren’t