Earth Unaware (First Formic War)

them to look into it as much as we are. Why would anyone think less of us for our giving them irrefutable evidence? We don’t have to give them gloom and doom predictions. We just give them the facts. If anything, this would build our standing among the families. We would earn everyone’s gratitude and respect for informing them. Consider the situation in reverse: If we were to learn after an attack by an alien starship that another family knew of the existence of that ship and did nothing to warn us, we would despise that family. We would blame them for our losses.”
    Toron turned to Concepción. “Victor is your invited guest, Concepción. But he is monopolizing the floor.”
    “He hasn’t spoken any more than you have,” said Father.
    “Yes,” said Toron. “And I am a member of this Council. He is not. He is disrespecting the captain.”
    “She asked for objections,” said Mother. “He politely voiced one.”
    “Which he had no authority to do,” said Toron. “I recognize that your son can do no wrong in your eyes, but by the code of this Council, he is out of line.”
    “I happen to agree with him,” said Marco.
    “I agree with him also,” said Toron. “Everyone here wants to do the right thing. Of course we will send a warning to everyone if that ever proves necessary. But right now is too soon. We don’t know enough. And for Victor to presume to know how pirates would respond is laughably naïve.”
    “We don’t even know if there are pirates this far out,” said Father.
    “Exactly,” said Toron. “We don’t know. That’s why we should be prudent, not rash. I propose we put it to a general vote.”
    “I second that,” said Father.
    Concepción looked at the crowd. “Objections?”
    There were none.
    “Very well,” said Concepción. “All those who agree with sending out a blanket transmission immediately.”
    A third of the room raised their hand, including Mother, Father, and Marco. Edimar raised her hand as well, but a withering look from her father made her put it down again. Victor kept his hand down since he wasn’t a member of the Council. Concepción took a visible count, nodded, and said, “All those who feel we should inform only the Italians and Juke ship at this point.”
    The remaining hands in the room went up, a much larger portion of people. Toron allowed himself a small, triumphant smile.
    They were going to do nothing, Victor realized. Nothing immediate anyway, nothing significant, nothing that would ensure their safety in the coming months. They would send out two messages, and then they would sit and wait and hopefully learn something new.
    Victor wasn’t going to wait with them. He couldn’t control when and how the family warned others, but he could control the mechanical functionality of the ship. He could make improvements to the ship’s defenses and weapons. He didn’t need Council approval for that.
    The meeting was breaking up. People were dispersing.
    “You tried, Vico,” said Mother. “I’m proud of you for that.”
    “Thank you, Mother.” He turned to Father. “We should focus on the pebble-killers first.”
    “Agreed,” said Father, already tapping a command into his handheld. “I’ll wake up Mono.”
    Victor knew he wouldn’t have to explain himself to Father. It was obvious what they needed to do. They had to find a way to make the pebble-killers more powerful and lethal. With the whole ship helping, the work would have gone much faster, but now it was going to be just the three of them. Victor hurried from the room. Toron and others would probably think that his quick departure was that of a pouting teenager who had lost an argument, but Victor didn’t care. Let them think what they wanted. He had work to do.

 
    CHAPTER 5
    Benyawe
    Lem was in his office with the lights out, watching a holo simulation of asteroid 2002GJ166 being hit with the glaser. It was a simple holo sim. Only ten seconds long. But the engineers who had put it together had spent three days building it. Every detail of the asteroid had been meticulously re-created. The engineers had even gone so far as to painstakingly re-create the mineshaft the free miners had cut into the rock. In all aspects it was identical to the real thing, albeit a thousand times smaller. At first, nothing happened. Then, as the glaser hit it, the asteroid exploded, sending thousands of rock fragments shooting outward in every direction like a giant growing sphere of gravel. Soon