"And when will this scout ship reach them?" asked Concepcion.

"It's already decelerating," said Toron. "Best guess: a day and a half, if not sooner. It'll arrive long before we do."

Victor suddenly felt sick. A ship, likely an alien ship, was moving toward the Italians. Toward Alejandra.

For the past week, Victor had been trying to ignore the fact that El Cavador was heading toward Janda's position--she was a closed part of his life now; he had no business thinking of her. Yet, somehow, often without him noticing it happening, his mind kept circling back to her. He would wonder, for example, which Italian ship El Cavador would dock with when they arrived. Would it be Vesuvio, Janda's ship? That seemed probable; Vesuvio was the largest ship and, therefore, the most likely to store the spare parts El Cavador needed. And, if the two ships did dock, would Janda board El Cavador to see her family? And if so, would she see Victor as well?

Then Victor would realize he was having such thoughts and he'd throw himself even more into the repairs, frustrated with himself for letting his mind wander.

Now here Toron was telling them that Janda might be in danger.

"Given the uncertainty of this situation," said Toron, "we have to consider the worst-case scenario. This could be an attack on the Italians. We

have no evidence to suggest that, but we would be foolish not to consider it. And if that's the case, what do we do?"

"We get to the Italians as fast as we can is what we do," said Victor.

"And do what?" asked Toron.

"Help. Fight back. Whatever it takes."

"With two PKs?" said Toron scornfully. "That's hardly enough for collision avoidance. We couldn't possibly defend ourselves."

"We don't know that," said Victor. "We have no idea what that ship's defenses are. Two PKs might be more than enough to take it down."

"And they might not," said Toron. "They might just aggravate it. You want to take that gamble?"

"Absolutely."

Toron threw his hands up, then turned to Concepcion. "We are in no position to jump into a fight, if it comes to that. Look at us. We don't even have our main generator up. Everything's running on the backups, which barely put out enough juice for life support. We've got half our lights off to ration power, so we're all bumbling around in semidarkness. The temperature on board has dropped twenty degrees because the heaters aren't getting the power they need. We have no communication. We're one step above a crippled ship. We can't even help ourselves. And we're considering fighting? The corporates just wasted us. Did we not learn anything from that experience?"

"That was different," said Victor. "They took us by surprise."

Toron scoffed. "Oh, well, I'll make sure the aliens play by all the rules of chivalrous warfare and treat us 'fairly' when they attack." He turned back to Concepcion. "We can't defend ourselves, much less anyone else. It might be more sensible to come to a full stop now and read the data that comes off the Eye. Let's wait and see what happens when this ship reaches the Italians."

"Do nothing?" said Victor. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Sit here and watch the scout ship attack them?"

"We don't know if it's a scout ship," said Toron. "Nor do we know if it intends to attack. And stopping here is not inaction. It's intelligence gathering. It's getting the information we need to choose the safest course of action."

Victor pointed at the dot in the holospace. "Your daughter is on one of those ships."

"And my wife and other daughter are on this one," said Toron. "Do you think I don't know Alejandra is there? Do you think I've forgotten that fact? I'm quite capable of keeping track of my daughter's whereabouts, thank you."

"Let's calm down," said Concepcion. "These walls aren't soundproof. We're all adults here."

"He isn't," said Toron, gesturing to Victor.

Concepcion ignored him. "Toron is proposing a legitimate concern, Victor. There are a lot of unanswered questions here. We have a responsibility to protect our people."

"Maybe so," said Father. "But I agree with Vico. We can't sit back and wait to see what happens. If it were us out there, and the Italians out here, we'd want them with us, supporting us. I say we push on. The Italians might need us in a critical moment."

"Each of the Italians' ships is faster and better equipped than ours," said Toron. "And there are four of them. If we made any contribution to a fight it would be minimal and a day and a half late. Do we really want to risk losing everything for that?"

"We're better defended than they are," said Victor. "That accounts for something. Their ships are fast, yes, but we have better armor. That might prove critical."

"Again," said Toron, "you're basing these assumptions on human technology. Who's to say this scout ship, or whatever it is, doesn't have a weapon that can't penetrate any armor."

"Where was this violent imagination of yours when I wanted to warn everyone?" said Victor. "You were perfectly content to deflect any suggestion that this thing was dangerous before. Now you seemed convinced it's programmed to kill."

Tags: Orson Scott Card The First Formic War Science Fiction
Source: readsnovelonline.net