Earth Afire (The First Formic War) Read online

  “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”

  Victor turned away from the glass and came face to face with a woman in her midthirties. She wore a long, modest business skirt and loose-fitting blouse and clutched a holopad tight to her chest. “That one’s a leopard moray eel,” she said, pointing to one with vivid red stripes and black and white splotches. “They look vicious with that snout and sharp teeth of theirs, but they’re really quite harmless. They never bother humans, preferring instead really tiny fish.”

  “The big preying on the weak,” said Victor. “He must feel right at home.”

  She regarded him curiously, then extended her hand. “I’m Simona, Mr. Jukes’s personal assistant. I’m assuming you’re with Dr. Prescott?” She gestured to the desk across the room where Imala, Yanyu, and Prescott had gone to speak to the receptionist.

  “We’re to meet with Mr. Jukes,” said Victor.

  Simona appraised the Juke jumpsuit he was wearing. “Do you work in the observatory? I don’t recall seeing your photo on file.”

  “I’m not with the observatory,” he said simply. He didn’t like her questioning him. She appeared friendly enough, but she was fishing for information.

  “Dr. Prescott says this news of his is the biggest discovery in centuries,” said Simona.

  “He’s not exaggerating.”

  A dot of red light on the back of her holopad flashed for an instant, and then Simona looked down at her holopad. She tapped through it for a moment then looked back up at him. “Victor Delgado. That’s your name, isn’t it?” She turned her screen around and showed him his mug shot, which the LTD had taken upon arresting him. Beside it was the photo she had just snapped of him. Facial-recognition software had put the two together. “It says here that you’re in a holding facility with the LTD awaiting deportation back to the Belt. But seeing as how you’re standing in front of me, I’m going to assume you granted yourself an early dismissal.” She glanced back at the desk. The receptionist was pointing Prescott and the others toward Simona. “Dr. Prescott and Yanyu I know,” said Simona. “But the other one is a mystery.” She pointed her holopad, snapped another photo, and read the results. “Imala Bootstamp. Currently on probation from the LTD. This grows more curious by the moment.”

  Prescott and the others approached.

  Simona greeted them warmly, though her smile struck Victor as insincere. “You made it,” she said. “Good. Here’s how this will work. Mr. Jukes’s schedule is very tight. You will sit in the back of the studio and make nary a sound during the presentation. Once the holo transmission is done, Mr. Jukes will approach you. You’ll have five minutes. But before we go a step further, I need to know how these two are involved.” She gestured to Victor and Imala.

  “They brought the subject to our attention,” Prescott said.

  “And what subject is that?” asked Simona.

  “We went over this on the holo, Simona. Our message is for Mr. Jukes.”

  She pointed to Victor. “This young man has a rather extensive criminal record and might be a fugitive. I’m not bringing him into Mr. Jukes’s presence until I get some answers.” She crossed her arms across her chest and raised her eyebrows, waiting for someone to speak.

  “I saw something in the Deep,” Victor said. “Out in the Kuiper Belt. I took a quickship to Luna to warn everyone, and I was arrested on ludicrous charges. You have them there in front of you. You can read them yourself. They don’t make my story untrue.”

  “What did you see?”

  Victor looked at the others. He didn’t know how far to take this. Imala saved him the trouble. “I know you think you’re only doing your job here, Simona,” she said, “but we don’t have time for it. Thousands of people in the Belt are dead. We have proof and we know why. If you don’t take us to Ukko Jukes and he doesn’t do something to help us warn the world, thousands and millions and maybe even billions of people on Earth could be next. If that happens, then people are going to look up from the corpses of their dead wives and children and ask why didn’t Ukko Jukes do something when he had the chance. And do you know what we’ll tell them? We’ll tell them the truth. We’ll tell them Simona played gatekeeper and shooed us away because busy-as-a-bee Ukko Jukes didn’t have five minutes to save the world.”

  Simona stared at Imala, lips pursed, considering. Finally she said, “Very well. Follow me.” She snapped her fingers, turned on her heels, and led them down a corridor behind the receptionist desk and into a vast, mostly empty room. The lights were off in the room save for a series of spotlights that hung from a rig at the far end of the room. Beneath the spotlights was a large spherical holofield three meters in diameter. Ukko Jukes was standing motionless in the center of it while a makeup artist dabbed at his forehead with a small white pad. Floating words scrolled upward in the air in front of Ukko, and he seemed to be mouthing the text to himself, rehearsing.

  As a child on board El Cavador, Victor had feared the name Ukko Jukes. Whenever spotters spied a Juke ship in the vicinity, Victor knew it meant trouble and sometimes even violence. As a boy of four or five, Victor had assumed that Ukko captained all those ships himself, shouting orders from the helm like a giant menacing warrior. And even later, when Victor had learned the truth of who Ukko Jukes was, the name still carried an air of dread and danger.

  Yet here was the man now, shorter than Victor had expected, with thinning white hair and a trim white beard and a woman at his side dabbing his cheeks with makeup. It made Victor almost laugh to think that he had ever feared such a man.

  Simona put a finger to her lips and led Victor and the others to the back of the room where a few dozen chairs had been set up in the darkness. Most of the chairs were empty, but a handful were occupied by people who appeared to be helping with the production. Victor took a chair beside Imala and waited. It galled him to sit here and watch these people fret over something so insignificant. Whatever this production was, it was completely meaningless compared to what was coming.

  A woman with a headset and a holopad called for quiet, and Ukko dismissed the makeup lady with a brusque wave of his hand. The lady scurried off as someone in the shadows counted down from ten. At zero, a dozen heads appeared in the holofield in front of Ukko, all of them smiling and courteous. Ukko greeted them warmly, thanked them for their time, then the text of Ukko’s presentation appeared in front of him.

  “Today is a special day in the history of our organization. For the past twenty-five years, Juke Limited has been the leader in space mining, extracting hundreds of millions of tons of minerals a year and growing every economy in the world. Some might say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. But Juke Limited will never stop innovating. We continuously look for ways to make our industry more efficient and more productive. Today I give you proof of that. Today the space-mining industry takes a revolutionary leap forward.”

  A family portrait appeared in the air beside him: a father, mother, and three young children, all sitting under a tree and smiling for the camera. “Ask yourself, what is the one resource we waste the most in space? Is it oxygen? Fuel?… No. It’s time. We waste millions of man-hours prospecting for viable asteroids. Each of our prospecting ships has a crew of ten to twenty men and women, who spend months in space, oftentimes with little or nothing to show for it. That translates into lost time with spouses and little ones. What we need is a smarter, faster, less expensive way to determine an asteroid’s mineral content. Is it full of rich ferromagnetic metals? Or is it a worthless rock? Today, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the solution. The answer to all that wasted time.”

  The family portrait disappeared. Ukko walked to his left, and the holofield and light rig moved with him. He stopped at a large object no bigger than a skimmer covered with a black sheet. Victor hadn’t noticed it before in the darkness. The light rig shot up into the air, and the holofield expanded to five times its original size so that it now included the draped object.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the world’
s first space-mining drone … the Vanguard!”

  Ukko made a sweeping gesture with his arm, and the black sheet flew backward out of the holofield, unveiling a small, white, seamless vessel that sparkled in the rotating spotlights. “Working as a scout, the Vanguard will seek out mineral-rich asteroids via remote control and preprogrammed flight paths. By firing digger bots no larger than an apple down into the surface of the asteroid from space, the Vanguard can determine the asteroid’s approximate mineral content. That information is then relayed back to Juke. If the mineral content is high enough and the asteroid large enough, a mining crew is dispatched for immediate mineral extraction.”

  The floating heads in the holofield began asking questions. As each one did, Ukko brought the head forward and made it larger than the others. What is its fuel source? How soon will these be operational? How do you safely fly it via remote control if there’s a time lag between it and headquarters? What will happen to all the prospecting crews? Are these people out of a job?

  Ukko answered them all deftly, as if he expected each one. No, the crews would not lose their jobs. Drones would increase the discovery of minerals and thus increase the need for mining crews. All those employees would be transitioned to mining vessels.

  Well, doesn’t that debunk the whole “saving time” argument? Victor wanted to ask. How are you giving people more time with Daddy dearest if you’re moving him from one ship to another and keeping him in space just as long?

  But none of the journalists seemed concerned with that detail. The technical specs and increased efficiency potential had them practically salivating. By the time the questions ended, the journalists were all applauding enthusiastically. Ukko thanked them for their time, promised them each packets with further specs and photos for their stories, and bid them all good-bye.

  When the last journalist winked out, the holofield disappeared, the lights in the room came on, and the small production crew rushed forward to congratulate Ukko on a job well done. He took an offered water bottle and downed a long drink, mostly ignoring the praise around him. When Simona approached and whispered in his ear, Ukko stopped, listened, and looked in Victor’s direction. A moment later Simona was ushering the production crew out of the room.

  When they were alone, Ukko smiled, approached Prescott, and put a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Richard, this is a wonderful surprise. I haven’t seen you since the Deep Space Expo. Linda is well, I hope.”

  “Yes, sir. Thank you for asking.”

  Ukko continued down the receiving line. Without looking at Yanyu’s gimpy right arm or giving any sign that he noticed it, Ukko deftly offered her his left hand instead, which was the hand she preferred to greet people with. “And Yanyu,” he said, smiling affectionately, “one of our prized grad assistants. I hear only good things about the research you’re doing for us at the observatory. Keep it up. There will always be a place at Juke for the best and the brightest. Or as my finance team likes to call them, profit producers.” He winked and moved on.

  Ukko turned to Imala and didn’t appear at all surprised to see her. He took her hand gently in both of his. “Imala Bootstamp. When last we spoke I believe you were turning down my generous job offer.”

  At the LTD, Imala had learned that auditors were being paid under the table by Juke Limited to ignore the company’s tax and tariff evasions. Ukko had offered Imala a job within the company to silence the scandal, but Imala had refused and left Ukko with a few colorful remarks instead.

  “You’re wearing a Juke jumpsuit, Imala. And running with my scientists now. I’m confused. What could pique the interest of the Customs Department and two of my finest astrophysicists?”

  “A matter of mutual interest.”

  “Clearly. And tell me, Imala, how are things at Customs? Are you regretting turning down my offer?”

  “I’m no longer with Customs, Mr. Jukes. At least that’s my suspicion. I was on administrative leave, but after yesterday’s events, I suspect they’ve since given me the ax.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. You must stop this habit of getting fired, Imala. Your résumé is turning into a list of terminations. It will make recruiters nervous.”

  Victor could tell Ukko was enjoying this.

  “If I can do anything to help,” said Ukko, “be a reference perhaps, just let Simona know. I’d like to think my opinion still holds a little weight in the world.”

  “How generous of you to offer,” said Imala. “I’m sure you’d be all too eager to give others your opinion of me.”

  “I would indeed.”

  They stood there facing each other a moment longer, hand in hand, each of them maintaining a mask of politeness. Ukko finally broke his gaze and turned to Victor, offering his hand. “And who is this fine-looking young man?”

  “Victor Delgado.”

  “A pleasure to meet you, Victor. And are you on my payroll, or is this a loaner as well?” He gestured at the jumpsuit.

  “A loaner. I’m a free miner actually.”

  Ukko raised an eyebrow. “Free miner? Interesting. The surprises never cease. Tell me, are you with a clan I may have heard of?”

  “We only have one ship. My family’s not big enough to be considered a clan.”

  “I see.”

  “We work the Kuiper Belt. Our ship is called El Cavador.”

  “A Spanish name.”

  “We’re Venezuelan. It means ‘The Digger.’”

  “An appropriate name for a mining vessel. Kuiper Belt, you say. You’re a long toss from home, aren’t you?”

  “You could say that.”

  “I’ve never been out that deep myself. I never saw the appeal, quite frankly.”

  “There are fewer corporates,” said Victor. “That’s what makes it so attractive. My family used to work the Asteroid Belt, but we were bumped by Juke ships so often, we could no longer survive there. It’s hard to make a living, Mr. Jukes, when someone is always stealing your mine shafts.”

  Simona stiffened slightly. Ukko’s expression remained pleasant. “Yes, well I’m sorry to hear your family had a hard time. I’m glad to hear they’re doing better deeper out.”

  “I didn’t say we were doing better, Mr. Jukes. We’re not. We were doing better, but then your son Lem bumped us off an asteroid, crippled our ship, and killed a member of our crew.”

  “Victor,” Imala protested. “This isn’t why we came here.”

  The smile on Ukko’s face had vanished. He shot a look to Simona, who was now wide-eyed with shock. “I assure you, Mr. Jukes, I don’t know what this man is talking about!”

  “What the hell is this?” said Ukko, rounding on Prescott.

  Prescott opened his mouth to speak, but Ukko was already back at Victor. “What do you know of my son? Is this some kind of extortion attempt?”

  “Marcus!” said Simona.

  A bodyguard lumbered into the room. Ukko held up a hand, stopping him, his eyes now boring into Victor. “You have three seconds to explain yourself, boy, or you will not like where this conversation goes.”

  “Like father like son,” said Victor. The words came out of him before he had even considered what he was saying.

  Ukko’s cheeks flushed, and his expression hardened. “You rock suckers are all the same. Ignorant, pompous heathens.”

  “This isn’t helping, Victor,” said Prescott. “We need him.”

  Victor looked at Prescott, considered his words, exhaled, then turned back to Ukko. “We didn’t come hear to talk about your son. We came here to discuss—”

  “To hell with whatever you came here to discuss,” said Ukko. “If you mention my son, you explain yourself.”

  “Fine. About ten months ago, your son’s ship jumped ours during our sleep-shift, cut our anchor lines, and bumped us off a rock. One of his lasers sliced off an external sensor, which then struck and killed my uncle.”

  “That’s a lie.”

  “It’s not a lie. It happened right in front of me.”

 
Ukko shook his head. “My son wouldn’t bump you. He had no reason to. He isn’t on a mining mission. If you think for an instant you can muscle money out of me with some made-up story—”

  “I can describe the ship,” said Victor. “I was out on spacewalk when it struck us. It hit me as well. I got a very good look at it.”

  “Anyone with access to flight records here on Luna could find out what type of ship my son is on. That doesn’t prove anything.” He stepped closer to Victor, his smile acid. “You think you’re the first pebble pusher to try to blackmail me?”

  Victor didn’t flinch, though he realized now how foolish he was being. If they lost Ukko as an ally, or worse, if they made him an enemy, they would never get a warning out in time. “If you don’t believe me,” said Victor, “you can ask him when he returns to Luna. Assuming he isn’t dead already.”

  The color drained from Ukko’s face. “What are you saying? Are you threatening my son?”

  “I’m not threatening anyone, Mr. Jukes. But something out there is. The same thing that has threatened every ship in the Belt and destroyed a good number of them. That’s why we’re here. I know what’s causing the interference. And if you don’t help us do something about it soon, we’re all in a world of hurt.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Mazer

  Lieutenant Mazer Rackham jogged across the tarmac to where the HERC sat on the landing pad and climbed up into the copilot’s seat. It was three o’clock in the morning, and cloud cover from the west off the Tasman Sea had blotted out the Moon and left all of Papakura Military Camp in near total darkness. Mazer put on his helmet and switched on his HUD while the other three members of his unit climbed into the HERC and did the same. A holo of the HERC appeared in the air in front of Mazer, covered with blinking dots. Six months ago it had taken the team ten minutes to run through the preflight sequence. Now they could do it in twenty-seven seconds flat.