Earth Afire (The First Formic War 2)

It was expertly done. Professional, sincere, and quite touching. Lem even found his eyes misting over, though his relief might have added to the emotion.

He waited an hour before recording his own holo. He humbly thanked Chubs for his selflessness and insisted that Chubs continue as his chief officer. It was a decent take, but he knew he could do better. Might as well get it right before sending it out. On the seventh take he had it. Every pause and breath and word was exactly as it needed to be. He sent it, waited another hour, then returned to the helm.

Chubs was waiting for him at the system chart. "What's your first unhindered command as captain?"

"Take us closer to the Formics' trajectory," said Lem. "Our scanners can't read much out here. Let's learn what we can and get back to Luna as soon as possible."

"You're the boss," said Chubs.

Yes, thought Lem. For the first time in two years, I am.

CHAPTER 4

Ukko

The track car sped east through the city of Imbrium, passing dormitories and government buildings and small industrial complexes. Victor sat by the window watching everything zip by, still amazed at the size and immensity of the city. "How do you fill all these domes and connector tunnels with oxygen?" he asked. "Where do you find that much air?"

Yanyu was still sitting opposite him, escorting Victor and Imala to the Juke observatory. "Lunar oxygen mostly comes from excavation," she said. "Everything you see is what we call the Old City. When people first came to Luna, they built the settlement on the surface. That required them to first build all these airtight domes to contain the oxygen and to protect the settlers from a constant bombardment of space particles. It was very expensive. These days all new construction takes place underground. That's where most people live now, as a matter of fact."

"You live aboveground," said Victor.

"Only because I'm on a budget and can't afford to live in the tunnels," said Yanyu. "But if I had the money I would. It's safer. You don't have to worry about bombardments or collision threats. And since there's no tectonic activity on the Moon, you don't have to worry about earthquakes either. Plus it's much quieter. The real benefit, though, is all the raw materials we extract from the excavated rock. Metals for construction of course, but also oxygen."

Victor looked surprised. "Oxygen from rocks? Is that possible?"

"You're breathing it," said Imala.

Victor sat back and shook his head. "Do you have any idea how useful that tech would be out in the Kuiper Belt? All of our O2 came from mining ice. If we didn't find ice, we were muerto. Dead. A lot of families were lost that way."

"It's much easier to extract oxygen from ice," said Imala. "That doesn't take a lot of equipment. Pulling oxygen and nitrogen from rock, on the other hand, takes massive processing facilities. We don't build ships big enough to carry that tech out to the Deep. Someday perhaps, but not in our lifetime."

"What about fuel and energy for the tunnels?" asked Victor. "If the heat of the sun doesn't reach them, they must be freezing."

"All power on the moon is electric," said Imala. "It all comes from high-efficiency batteries powered by solar energy. There are solar arrays all over the surface, with the biggest ones in the equatorial area where the collectors lie flat on the ground. There are big ones at the poles, too, where rotating collectors on towers face the sun twenty-four/seven. Believe me, as long as the sun shines, power and heat aren't an issue."

Victor nodded, though he didn't share Imala's confidence. Batteries were unreliable. They failed all the time on El Cavador. "So this observatory we're going to, since it has telescopes, I'm assuming it's aboveground?"

"Oh no," said Yanyu. "It's below the surface. Almost all of the Juke facilities are. In fact, most of the tunnels outside the city belong to Juke Limited, although few people know how vast the company's tunnels really are. Mr. Jukes has secret R&D efforts in almost every industry, and yet few of those operations or departments appear on any tunnel maps. If I had to guess, I'd say the company's tunnel system is much bigger than the city itself."

"But if the observatory is underground, where are the scopes?" asked Victor.

"Far from here," said Yanyu, "positioned at various points around Luna, away from any light pollution. We tell them where to look, then we process all the images and data in our observation room. Traditional observatories like those on Earth don't exist on Luna. Up here they're all cubicles and office space. Not very interesting, I'm afraid."

The track car dipped suddenly into a tunnel entrance, and for a moment they found themselves in total darkness until the vehicle's interior lights turned on.

They maintained their speed for several minutes until the car took a fork in the track and began to decelerate. It took a series of turns and then pulled into a docking slot and stopped. Air tubes extended from the wall and encircled the vehicle. Then a chime sounded the all-clear, and the doors slid open. Victor, Imala, and Yanyu stepped out onto the docking platform. Yanyu then led them through a labyrinth of corridors and a series of locked doors. Victor was lost almost immediately.

At each door, a cubical holofield hovered by the doorjamb. Yanyu extended her hand into the holofield and did a series of wrist twists and finger movements that unlocked the door. At first Victor thought the movements were random, but then one of the doors buzzed in the negative and Yanyu had to retract her hand, reinsert it into the field, and begin the dance again. Finally they reached a simple, metal door adorned with the Juke Limited logo and the words:

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY

Yanyu led them into a low-lit observation room with a domed ceiling. Images of star clusters and nebulae and astronomical data were projected onto the ceiling, dissolving in and out like a screensaver. A dozen desks were scattered around the room with lamps and computer terminals and person

al items. In the center of the room was a conference table, where a small crowd of researchers stood waiting. Yanyu stopped and gestured to the bearded man near the front. "Victor, Imala, I'd like you to meet Dr. Richard Prescott, the director of the observatory and our lead astrophysicist."

Prescott stepped forward and shook Imala's hand. He was younger than Victor had expected, midthirties maybe, with a mop of brown hair and casual street clothes. "Ms. Bootstamp. A privilege. Welcome. And Mr. Delgado, good to have you, as well. I hope you had no problems getting here."

"I had to sneak Victor out of the recovery hospital where he was being held," said Imala. "Which broke a few laws and makes both of us fugitives. Other than that, no problems."