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a nonissue. I didn’t expect Victor and Imala to be so far behind schedule.”
    “Victor is a kid, Lem. He was giving you a ballpark estimate. You can’t bet his life on that. Of course there would be delays. There always are.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe you would endanger them like this. Did you even tell them what your father was planning? Do they know drones might be coming?”
    He hadn’t told them of course. He had worried they might abort. “I wasn’t going to burden them with that knowledge. They were already worried enough about the Formics’ defenses.”
    Benyawe waved a dismissive hand. “Spare me, Lem. Don’t pretend you kept this from us for any reason other than your own self-interest. This is you and your father playing war games, desperately trying to outdo the other with no regard for the people caught in the middle.”
    “You’re forgetting this whole escapade wasn’t my idea, Benyawe. It was Victor’s and Imala’s. I brought it to you, I asked for your opinion, I got you involved.”
    “Yes, and you left out that crucial bit of information about a fleet of drones potentially firing on the mothership and ripping Victor and Imala apart.”
    Lem put up his hands, stopping her, his voice even. “Are you done vilifying me? I just told you, the drones don’t launch for three days. That gives us plenty of time to remove Victor and Imala from harm.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier, Lem? At the very least, you should have told me about the drones the instant it became apparent that Victor and Imala would arrive behind schedule.”
    “I didn’t tell you because I was afraid you would abort the mission and pull them back immediately, before they reached the Formic ship.”
    “You’re right. I would have.”
    “Then I made the right decision to keep it from you,” said Lem. “We had to know if this tactical approach would work. No one has reached the Formic ship until now. Every military that has approached it has been obliterated. Even nukes can’t get within a thousand klicks of the thing. And if we can’t touch it, we can’t stop it. This entire war hinges on that single objective: Getting in that ship and cracking it wide open. That’s why I kept the drone attack from you. Victor and Imala had to reach the ship. And if they die today, if all we learn from them is that there’s a way to reach that ship, then that’s knowledge worth dying for. Victor and Imala would agree with me.”
    She shook her head and was quiet a long moment, not looking at him. Finally she said, “So now what? We pull them out? Tell them to turn back?”
    “No, we tell them nothing. They’re at the ship. That’s the first big hurdle. They actually might sabotage it. And if they do, my father will have no need to launch the drones. In the meantime, you will help me convince him to postpone his attack.”
    “How?”
    We’ll go to my father and tell him about Victor and Imala, show him they’ve reached the ship, and ask that he postpone.”
    “He won’t listen,” said Benyawe. “You know him as well as I do. He’ll see Victor and Imala as unfortunate casualties and he’ll launch anyway.”
    “Which is why you and I are going to prove to him that attacking the mothership with glasers is a dangerous idea.”
    “That won’t take three days,” said Benyawe. “That’s an easy argument to make. I’ll talk to him myself.”
    Lem shook his head. “It’s not that simple. The glaser my father is using with the drones is not like the prototype you and Dublin developed. It’s smaller, more compact. A different team of engineers has been developing it for over a year now based on your and Dublin’s original designs. They started as soon as we sent word from the Kuiper Belt that the glaser was operational.”
    She looked affronted. “Why aren’t Dublin and I consulting with these people? We spent six years designing the prototype. We know the tech better than anyone. We could