Earth Unaware (First Formic War)

ago.”
    She nodded and put a hand on his arm. “Just promise me you’ll sleep more.”
    “Only if you promise to make this chili more often.”
    “Yeah,” said Mono, smacking his lips. “Sabroso.” Delicious.
    Victor’s handheld beeped, and Father’s voice came through. “Marco and I could use your help out here, Vico. If you’re done with that pebble-killer, send Mono on to bed and come give us a hand.”
    When not working in the mine, Marco had been helping Father in recent days, joining him outside to build the ship’s defenses.
    “I’m here with Mother,” said Victor. “She can hear you. She’s giving me the skunk eye.”
    “I don’t want to leave this thing half installed overnight,” said Father, “and these new parts of yours are being a little finicky. Tell your mother I need you.”
    “Tell your father he’s in big trouble,” said Mother.
    “She says she loves you dearly,” said Victor.
    Mother rolled her eyes, and Victor knew then that she wasn’t going to argue.
    “I’m on my way out,” said Victor.
    “Can I come?” said Mono.
    “Absolutely not,” said Mother. “I told your mom I’d have you go straight to your hammock, and that’s exactly where you’re going.”
    Mono looked ready to object, but a quick look and stern finger from Mother made Mono think better of it. He let his shoulders sag and launched up toward the hatch. When he was gone, Mother put a hand on Victor’s shoulder. “Please be careful, Vico. When we’re tired, we make mistakes. And you can’t make mistakes outside. Even little ones.”
    “I’ll be careful.”
    Five minutes later he was outside with Father and Marco, his lifeline stretching out behind him to the cargo bay.
    “We rebooted,” said Father, gesturing to the newly installed PK. “But it’s still not coming online.”
    Using his heads-up display—or HUD—Victor blinked his way into the ship’s computer to pinpoint the problem. He wasn’t a coder, but he had learned enough code to manipulate it when he needed to accommodate modifications. By the time he had uncovered the glitch, tweaked the code, and brought the PK to life, another hour had passed. Marco and Father were nearby, bolting one of the new armored plates onto the hull. The metal had come directly from the dig site, where the smelting machines had been modified to make them. There had been a lot of discussion on the ship about using the metal, with some people insisting that they send the metal directly to Luna with the rest of the minerals to build up more income. In the end, however, Concepción had sided with Father, and the smelters had been making additional plates ever since.
    Victor joined Father and Marco and began helping them secure plates to the hull. He couldn’t hear the drill in his hand, but he knew the vibrations would be making noise inside the ship. Most people were sleeping, so if the sound was loud enough to wake them, Victor was sure he’d get a message in his helmet telling them to stop. After several more hours of work, no message came. Initially, Marco made the time pass quickly by telling old mining stories, some of which were so hilarious that Victor and Father had laughed until their stomachs hurt. It was the first time Victor had felt any sense of normalcy with an adult—other than Mother and Father—since Janda’s departure.
    Eventually the stories dried up, however, and the three of them fell into a silence as they worked. They could stop at any moment, of course; Father and Marco had only started installing plates to keep busy while Victor worked on the PK. With that done, there was really no reason for them to be out this late. Victor stood up to suggest that they call it a night, when something in the distance, down on the surface of the asteroid, caught his attention. A flicker of movement, a streak of something out of the corner of his eye. Victor squinted into the darkness, straining to see. He blinked up the magnification feature on his helmet and zoomed his view down to where one of the mooring lines was anchored to the asteroid. It was hard to see much detail in the blackness, but it looked as if something was on the line.
    “Father?”
    “Yeah?”
    “I think there’s something on the—”
    There were twelve simultaneous, blinding flashes of light down near the asteroid. Victor instinctively clenched his eyes shut, feeling the ship shift slightly beneath his feet.
    “What was that?” asked Marco.
    Victor opened his