Earth Awakens (The First Formic War) (22 page)

“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.”

“And what about the pilots and crew?” asked Ramdakan. “How do you know they’ll agree to something like this? Right now they’re getting paid for doing nothing.”

“The ship I captained to the Kuiper Belt is docked at Kotka. It’s called the Makarhu. The current captain, Chubs, is a friend of mine. He would jump at the chance. The rest of the crew would as well. I know them. They want this. And Chubs is a respected captain among the other crews. He can sway them. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll dangle the money carrot. Everyone will get double time plus hazard pay.”

Ramdakan scoffed. “How could we afford that?”

“We won’t have to,” said Lem. “Earth will foot the bill a hundred times over. Best of all, the company looks like the savior and shield of the world.”

Ramdakan was quiet a moment, his fusilli long forgotten. Finally he said, “Why are you coming to me with this? Why not go to your father?”

Because I need the Board to see I have value, Lem might have said. Because I’m not about to throw Father a lifeline and pull him out of the grave he’s dug himself. Because I need to bring the company success while it still feels the sting of Father’s failure.

But aloud Lem said what Ramdakan needed to hear. “Because I trust you, Norja. Because you understand finances and profit potential better than anyone. Even better than Father. You can build the model for this in your sleep. You could sell it to the Board today if you wanted to.”

Ramdakan nodded. He liked the sound of that. He pushed his plate away. “Have you written this up, given it a framework?”

Lem tapped his wrist pad. “I just put it in your in-box.”

Ramdakan nodded again. “I’ll talk to some people and get back to you. We’d need to move on this quickly.”

“I agree.”

Ramdakan made a move to leave but then hesitated and looked back. “Your father won’t run this company forever, Lem. There are some who say he shouldn’t be running it now, particularly after this business with the drones. But I’m not one of them. Ornery and headstrong as he is, I’m with him to the bitter end. You can count on me for that.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” said Lem.

“But when the day of his departure does come, I hope you’ll stay with us, Lem. Even if the company goes in a different direction. We can always use someone with your skills.”

Lem kept his face unreadable but inside alarms were going off. “What do you mean a different direction?”

“I know you, Lem. I’ve known you since you were a bump in your mother’s belly. You’re ambitious, just like your father. You’re so much like him when he was your age, it’s frightening. But there are those on the Board who want nothing to do with you. They know you want to run this company, and they’ll fight you tooth and nail for it.”

It took a moment for Lem to find words and when he did he tried making a joke of it. “I’m not sure which is more surprising, that there are people who think I’m gunning for the company or that I have enemies on the Board.”

“Don’t play innocent, Lem. I know you want your father’s position. Everyone knows it. Hell you probably deserve it. But it’s not going to happen. Ever. It’s not good for business.”

Lem blinked. And then quickly recovered, smiling again, appearing blasé. “And pray tell, Norja, why am I bad for business?”

“Because you’re a shadow of your father, Lem. You’re brilliant, don’t get me wrong. You’re savvy, educated, innovative, a real entrepreneur. You’d be a better CEO than most. But you’re not your father.”

“Of course I’m not my father,” Lem said. “No one is my father but him. Are you suggesting only a clone of him can run this company once he’s gone?”

“If you were CEO, Lem, the world wouldn’t give you a fair shake. They wouldn’t see you for the great man that you are. They would see you as a lesser version of your father. That’s all. Why did Lem get that position, they’ll say? Because he earned it? Because he deserved it? No, because of nepotism. Because Daddy dearest is tossing junior a bone. He’s no Ukko Jukes, they’ll say. He’s a child of privilege who only earned his success because his father helped him every step of the way, clearing the path before him.”

It was such an unfair thing to say, such an infuriating notion, such a flat-out lie, that Lem had to grip the table to control himself. If anything, Father had hedged up his way, dropped obstacles in his path, made him scrabble and fight and claw his way to every success. He was a child of privilege, yes, but that didn’t mean he
had
any privileges. In Father’s school of parenting it meant the opposite.

“I know that’s a hard thing to hear, Lem. I know that sounds cruel. But that’s the heart of it. And it would be unwise for the company to appoint a CEO who creates that kind of impression. It makes the company look weak. Like we’ve taken a step backward. It would be an invitation to our competitors to come at us claws out, fangs bared. You know why we squash MineTek and WU-HU and the others right now? You know why we have the market share we do? Because your father haunts their dreams, that’s why. Because he’s Ukko ‘Iron Balls’ Jukes. Because whatever they’re cooking, they know Ukko is cooking something better. You’re a pretty boy, Lem. It’s not your fault. Your father married well, and you got your mother’s genes. Your face is on the nets. Women swoon over you. Juke Limited can’t have a CEO that makes women weak in the knees. We need a CEO that makes competitors wet their pants.”

“So you want a tyrant?” Lem asked. “A Genghis Khan? That management approach died a long time ago.”

“You’re not hearing what I’m saying,” said Ramdakan. “If you weren’t your father’s son, this wouldn’t be an issue. If your last name wasn’t Jukes, you would probably be on the shortlist. You’ve accomplished great things, Lem. But since you
are
the son, the world would put you up to greater scrutiny and find you wanting.”

He made a sympathetic face and reached across the table and patted Lem’s hand like a parent comforting a grieving child. Lem almost recoiled at the touch. It was such a condescending thing to do.

“I tell you this because I care about you and your father,” said Ramdakan. “The Board is already doing everything it can to keep you out, Lem, despite your father’s protestations, and they’re not going to stop. In the end they will win.”

“What do you mean, despite my father’s protestations?”

Ramdakan seemed surprised by the question. “Do you think your father wanted to send you to the Kuiper Belt? No. He wanted you here on Luna with the company, close to him, shadowing him. But there were those on the Board who saw you as a threat. They knew Ukko would give you more attention than he would give to them, and they feared they’d eventually lose their seat on the Board to you. So they lobbied that your father send you to the Kuiper Belt for two years. It will give him leadership experience, they said. It will give him a chance at command. They hoped you’d fail, of course. They hoped you’d get whacked with a giant asteroid. And now that you’re back, they lobbied to have you sent to Earth as a partner in one of our failing subsidiaries. A death sentence. They wanted to exile you, Lem. Send you into obscurity. So your father gave you the nothing job you have to simply keep you in the company. He wasn’t going to overrule them and force them to hire you. That would be hell for you. So he protected you by creating an assignment away from them with your own people who knew your value and who would follow your leadership. Whether he did you a favor is still to be seen.”

Ramdakan pushed back the curtain and stepped out of the booth. “I’m sorry I’m the one telling you this, Lem. But you deserve to know the truth. I’ll take your idea to the Board. We’ll build this shield. Who knows? Maybe that will cause some on the Board to warm to you. But don’t hold your breath.”

And with that he was gone.

Lem paid for the meal and left the restaurant in a daze. The magnetic sidewalk outside in the French Quarter was as busy as ever: window-shoppers, couples in arms, street performers and vendors; as if nothing were amiss in the world. Everyone’s living a lie, Lem thought. Including me.

He breezed by the crowds, took the tube to where his skimmer was docked, and then flew west toward the warehouse.

Everything he knew about Father had been flipped on its head. Was it true? Had Father wanted him to stay on Luna? Lem had always assumed that Father had sent him to the Kuiper Belt because
Father
had felt threatened by him. It had never occurred to Lem that there were other wolves at play here. And yet hadn’t Father spoken to Dublin and Chubs in private and asked them both to protect Lem? Lem had assumed that Father had done so to assert his control over Lem, to diminish Lem in the minds of his crew. But maybe Father had done so because he knew there were those in the company eager to keep the prince from reaching the throne. Maybe he genuinely feared for Lem’s safety.