Victor took the controls and began studying the footage. The attack was well coordinated. The first wave targeted the shield generators and other defensive targets on the ship’s surface, but the rockets fired by the human ships detonated before they reached the mothership, hitting whatever shielding surrounded the Formics. Laser fire broke through the shielding, however, and this seemed to spur the human shuttles forward. Any hope of victory was dashed a moment later as plasma erupted from the surface of the Formic ship on all sides and decimated the entire human fleet in under a minute.
“It’s like they’re not even trying,” said Imala. “We give them everything we’ve got, and they shrug us off.”
Victor replayed the footage. On the second viewing he asked the computer to monitor the human ships’ speeds, their angles of approach, and the number of times each ship fired. On the third viewing he saw the pattern. On the fourth viewing he was sure he was right.
“Look at this,” he said, starting the vid again and playing it at a slower speed. “The apertures on the surface of the Formic ship open, but look, they target the fastest ships first.”
“So,” said Yanyu. “That’s what I would do. The fastest ships are the ones that will reach them first and are therefore the most immediate threat.”
“That’s just it,” said Victor. “Some of these fast ships aren’t even heading toward the Formics. A few of them are moving in an arc, getting into position, preparing to come at the Formics from another direction. So their trajectory is taking them to a spot in space on the other side. A few of them aren’t even firing yet.”
“What’s your point?” said Imala.
“My point is, it doesn’t make tactical sense. Humans would defend themselves differently. We would target those ships that pose the biggest, most immediate threat, right? The ships that were firing. But the Formics don’t. They target the ships that are moving the fastest.”
“They wiped out every ship,” said Imala. “Does it matter what order they did it in?”
“It absolutely matters,” said Victor. “Look.” He sped up the vid to the end of the battle. “Watch. The ships that were destroyed last were the ships that were moving the slowest. And yet some of these ships are scorching the surface of the Formic ship with laser fire. So in some instances, the Formics took out ships that weren’t firing before they took out ships that were.”
“Meaning what?” asked Imala.
“Meaning their defense is somehow built on motion detection,” said Victor. “They identified all the ships and destroyed them in the order of how fast they were moving. Which means if a ship was moving slow enough and inconspicuously enough, it might be able to reach the Formic ship.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” said Imala. “If it’s moving toward the ship, it’s in motion. That would set off the Formic sensors.”
“Not if it’s moving very, very slowly,” said Victor. “Here, look at the debris around the Formic ship. Most of the debris from the destroyed ships is gone, blasted off and moving away at a constant speed. But you still have hundreds of pieces of debris surrounding the mothership. Now, none of these pieces is completely inert. They’re all spinning or drifting slightly, so they have some motion. And yet the Formics don’t blast them. Why?”
“Because they’re not ships,” said Imala. “They’re debris. They’re not a threat anymore.”
“Exactly,” said Victor. “They have some motion but they’re being ignored because they’re debris.”
“If you’re making another point, Vico,” said Imala, “we’re not seeing it.”
“This is the answer,” said Victor. “This is how I can reach the Formic ship.”
“How?” said Imala.
“By camouflaging a tiny shuttle to look like debris and then piloting it very slowly, as if it were drifting, right up to the surface of the ship. It would blend in with all of the other drifting debris. The Formics would completely ignore it. And if the motion was slow enough, their sensors wouldn’t detect it.”
“Theoretically,” said Imala. “You don’t know how sensitive their sensors are.”
“Actually,” said Victor, “we have a pretty good idea. My father and all the men from El Cavador, along with Lem’s men, reached the surface of the ship. How? By having their ships match the Formics’ speed, which meant their ships looked stationary to the Formics. And more importantly, for whatever reason, the men passed through the shield. I can get on that ship, Imala.”
“And do what exactly?” asked Imala. “Blow it up? Your family already tried that, Vico. It didn’t work.”
“My family tried damaging it from the outside. They didn’t go inside.”
“So you’ll go in the ship? How?”
“I don’t know yet. I just came up with the idea. I’ll figure something out.”