Earth Afire (The First Formic War 2)

"When was this vid made?" said Zihao. He climbed up into the chair, clicked back on the site, and checked the date. "See?" he said, turning back to them, smiling triumphantly. "This proves it's phony. It was uploaded a week ago."

"That doesn't prove anything," said Hopper.

"Yes, it does, mud brain," said Zihao. "You're forgetting about the interference in space. No communication is getting through. Radiation is crippling the satellites. If this was filmed in space a week ago, then how did it get to Earth with all the satellites down? Huh? Tell me that."

"It was uploaded a week ago," said Bingwen. "That doesn't mean it was filmed a week ago." He clicked through a series of screens and started scanning through pages of code.

"Now what are you doing?" asked Meilin.

"Every vid file has mountains of data embedded into it," said Bingwen. "You just have to know where to look." He found the numbers he was looking for and cursed himself for not checking this sooner. "Says here the vid was filmed over eight months ago."

"Eight months?" said Hopper.

"Let me see," said Zihao.

Bingwen pointed out the dates.

Zihao shrugged. "That's just further evidence that it's bogus. Why would someone record this and sit on it for eight months? That doesn't make sense. If this were real they'd want everyone to know about it immediately."

"Maybe they couldn't tell people immediately," said Bingwen. "Think about it. The interference has been going on for months now, right? Maybe these aliens are the ones causing it. Maybe their ship is what's emitting all that radiation. So the people who recorded this vid couldn't send it to Earth over laserline. Their communications lines were down."

"Then how did it get here?" said Meilin.

"Someone must have hand carried it," said Bingwen. "They got on a ship and they flew to Earth--or, more likely, they flew it to Luna. There's no atmosphere there, and gravity is less. So it would be much easier to land there. And since the Moon's close enough to us that communication between us and Luna is still getting through, we would hear about it here on Earth."

"Someone flew eight months to deliver a vid?" said Zihao.

"The discovery of alien life," said Bingwen. "What could be more important than that?" He tapped his monitor. "Think about the time line. It makes complete sense. Eight months on the fastest ship could take you pretty far out, maybe even to the Kuiper Belt. Precisely to the people who would first encounter something like this."

"Asteroid miners," said Hopper.

"Has to be," said Bingwen. "They've got the best view of deep space. They'd see something like this long before anyone else did."

Zihao laughed. "You pig faces think with your knees. You're all jabbering about stuff you don't know anything about. The vid is a fake. If it were real, it would be all over the news. The world would be in a panic." He put a cupped hand to his ear, as if listening. "So where are the sirens? Where are the government warnings?" He folded his arms and smirked. "You weed heads are idiots. Haven't you ever seen a spook vid before?"

"It's not a spooker," said Hopper. "That's a real alien."

"Oh?" said Zihao. "How do you know what a real alien looks like? Have you seen one before? Do you have a pen pal alien friend you've been swapping photos with?" A few of the boys laughed. "Who's to say aliens don't look exactly like paddy frogs or water buffalo or your armpit? If you guys believe this is real, you're a bunch of bendans." Dumb eggs.

Several of the children laughed, though Bingwen could tell that most of them weren't laughing with any confidence. They wanted Zihao to be right. They wanted to believe that the vid was a spooker. It had frightened them as much as it had frightened Bingwen, but it was easier to dismiss it than to accept it as real.

Meilin narrowed her eyes. "It is real. Bingwen wouldn't lie to us."

Zihao laughed and turned to Bingwen. "Cute. Your little girlfriend is sticking up for you." He looked at Meilin. "You know what aliens like to eat, Meilin? Little girl brains. They stick a straw in your ear and suck your head empty."

Meilin's eyes moistened with tears. "That's not true."

"Leave her alone," said Bingwen.

Zihao smirked. "See what you've done, Bingwen? You've scared all the kiddies." He bent down from the chair, got close to Meilin's face, and spoke in a singsongy voice, as if addressing an infant. "Aw, did Bingwen scare the little girl with his alien vid?"

"I said leave her alone." Bingwen stepped between them and extended a hand, nudging Zihao back. It wasn't a hard shove, but since Zihao was leaning forward in the chair and his center of gravity was off, the push was just enough to twist him off-balance. He stumbled, reached for the counter, missed, and fell to the floor, the chair scooting out and away from him. A few of the children laughed, but they instantly fell silent as Zihao jumped to his feet and seized Bingwen by the throat.

"You little mud sucker," said Zihao. "I'll cut out your tongue for that."

Bingwen felt his windpipe constrict and pulled hard at Zihao's wrists.

"Let him go," said Meilin.