Earth Awakens (The First Formic War 3)

"Our stock out of the toilet is a good prescription," said Ramdakan. "We're a mining corporation, Lem. We mine rocks. You know how many rocks we're mining these days? Zippo. Every available ship in the Belt is doing recovery and rescue. And you know how much revenue that brings in."

"The Formics cut through the Belt like a sword, Norja. We lost a lot of ships. We lost a whole settlement at Kleopatra. There's

cleanup to do."

Ramdakan rolled his eyes. "Don't get me started on Kleopatra. I never wanted to build a station on that rock to begin with. I was opposed to it from the beginning. And did you hear? The families of the deceased are forming a foundation now. The Families of Kleopatra, they're calling themselves. We haven't even recovered all the bodies yet, and they've formed a damn foundation."

"They're searching for support. Healing."

"They're searching for a class-action suit is what they're searching for. You think these people want to sit around, sing 'Kumbaya,' and cry on each other's shoulders? No, they want to suck us dry like leeches. Lawyers feed off this kind of thing. They'll swarm to these people."

"The company didn't destroy the base," said Lem. "The Formics did."

Ramdakan laughed. "You think that makes any difference? They'll say we didn't build the base sturdy enough, that we didn't provide adequate defenses."

"You're overreacting," said Lem. "It was an act of war. Corporate law gives us immunity."

"You're young, Lem. Once your backside has been singed by a few lawsuits, you'll remember this conversation and know that I'm right."

"We have very good lawyers, Norja."

"The best in the world," Ramdakan agreed. "But that may not be enough. They're saying the drone attack is what caused the second wave, Lem. All those ships in China, all those cities being gassed, all those people being turned into a gooey paste, they're saying that's our fault. They're saying we poked the sleeping giant and the blood is on our hands. For a lawyer, it's a feeding frenzy. This is Christmas come early. They hardly have to lift a finger to make bank on this. Just put the right person on the witness stand, and it's like printing your own money. Kid with an eye patch. Old lady with a missing limb. Juries eat that crap with a spoon. It doesn't matter who's at fault, Lem. We have the money, so we're the bad guys."

"Maybe I can help," said Lem.

Ramdakan looked dubious. "We're not taking another loan from you, Lem. Your father nearly removed my head the last time you did that. Forget it."

"Not a loan. A repurposing of resources."

Ramdakan took a bite of his fusilli and narrowed his eyes, skeptical. "What resources?"

"We've got forty ships docked at Kotka right now with their crews and pilots sitting on their hands doing nothing."

Kotka was the company's largest docking station, positioned just beyond Luna. Asteroid mining ships on the Belt routes would dock there to refuel, restock, complete repairs, whatever. It had congested in recent weeks as ships came limping in from the Belt.

"Are you trying to raise my anxiety?" said Ramdakan. "Do you want to give me heart palpitations? Just hearing the word 'Kotka' grows an ulcer on my ulcer. The station is a bleeding wound right now. Money is pouring out of there like water. Food, salaries, heat. It's doing nothing but draining us."

"So why not turn it into revenue?" said Lem.

Ramdakan put down his fork and wiped his mouth. "You've got my attention."

"We know that the Formics can send reinforcements from their ship now," said Lem. "Who's to say they won't send more? Who's to say they don't have ten times that number ready to launch right now? And who's to say those reinforcements will land in China next time? Couldn't they just as easily drop into Europe, America, the Middle East?"

"The media is already saying that," said Ramdakan. "What's your point?"

"My point is this is a business opportunity if I ever saw one. Earth needs a shield, Norja, a defensive wall between it and the Formic ship. That way, if another round of Formic reinforcements is deployed, we'll blast them before they reach the atmosphere. No military has done this yet because a) we didn't know the Formics had reinforcements, and b) everyone has been too busy attacking the mothership. We've been playing offense when we should have been playing defense. And now, since every military spacecraft in the world has been destroyed in fruitless attacks, there's no one else out here to provide this shield but us."

"Our pilots aren't soldiers, Lem."

"Of course they are. I was out there, Norja. I saw normal people like you and me take on these bastards toe-to-toe. We're miners, yes, but that doesn't mean we don't want to defend our planet. Look at the Battle of the Belt, Norja. Do you think any of those ships were crewed by soldiers? No, they were manned by average people--people like the crews we have right now at Kotka."

"Yes, and every single one of those ships in the Battle of the Belt was destroyed, Lem. You want to send our boys out there to die?"

"That's just it. We're not sending them to attack. We're not putting them up against the mothership. We're sending them to form a wall to stop additional reinforcements. We're waiting for troop transports to come to us. And let's not forget that these are transports, tiny ships. Our PKs could take them out easily."

"Where's the revenue generation? What you're proposing would drive us into bankruptcy."

"Every nation on Earth will pay through the nose for us to provide this wall. They don't have a choice. Either they finance it or they have nothing between them and Formics raining down on their cities and gassing their civilians. We have relationships with these countries. Most of them are our clients already. Tell them we only ask that they help cover the cost of ship maintenance, fuel, supplies, and salaries. Then we inflate those expenses and pocket the difference. And if they don't want to unite and form a single, global shield directly between Earth and the ship, we do it on a country-by-country basis. So the U.S. buys a shield to protect U.S. airspace. And Russia buys a shield for Russian airspace. Et cetera. In the absence of a fleet, I guarantee you these countries will pay through the nose. And if they don't, we go to the private sector. Companies with large, valuable real-estate holdings will pay to have those properties protected, even from near-Earth orbit. The business model works regardless of the client. We're giving people what no one else can, Norja. Peace of mind."