Two skimmers broke away from the fighting and moved unhindered toward the other side of the Formic ship. None of the mining ships gave chase. In the confusion of the battle, none of them seemed to notice.
Where are you going? Imala wondered. She grabbed the stick and accelerated, taking off after them. They were making for the hole in the back of the ship, she realized, the hole the gamma plasma had made. They were trying to get inside the ship that way.
"Victor, can you read?"
"Imala, please tell me you're safe on Luna."
"There are two skimmers heading for the hole in the ship. If they land, if they get through, they will make for the helm. You need to get out of there."
"I'm not leaving, Imala. We're holding this ship."
"Then call the others to come help you."
"They've got their hands full, Imala. The Formics are pouring down the launch tubes."
She came around the other side of the ship just in time to see the two skimmers fly into the hole. "They're inside, Victor. They're in. I'm going after them."
"Negative, Imala. You are not equipped. You have no way to stop them, nowhere for you to go. You can't land in here."
She ignored him. The hole was the same size as the tunnel of gamma plasma she had flown through. She could do this. And she did have a weapon, she realized--she did have a way to stop them. Her fighter. Herself. She could ram them from behind, she could push them into something, crush them.
She angled her approach to come at the hole head on. She saw the skimmers now, far inside the ship. They had stopped to a slow drift, and Formics in pressure suits were leaping from them and clinging to the inside of the mothership, grabbing at anything they could. Two of them scurried into the ship, disappearing from view. Then two more. It was too late to stop them, but she could stop the others.
"Imala, listen to me," said Victor. "Don't do this. You can't stop in the tunnel."
But she could stop. She would stop. But not before she did her part, not before she did what she could to save him.
She entered the hole. The interior of the ship rushed past her. Her console was beeping. "Warning! Warning! Collision imminent."
It all happened in an instant. She collided with the first skimmer and sent it careening into the wall. Her impact foam inflated, slamming her back against her seat and encasing her in a tight inflatable cloud. The skimmer bounced back and hit her. By then she had rotated. She struck something protruding from inside the ship--she never saw what--and started spinning end over end down the tunnel. She smashed into the second skimmer and crushed it. The Formics were thrown, shattered, ripped apart. She saw it all happen in her HUD in a blurred, spinning flash of violence, and then she struck something else, and all went black.
*
They were pouring down the launch tubes in a flood of bodies. Hundreds of them, rushing downward in a fury. Already there were twenty or more inside the ship, firing their weapons. Caruso was down, a dozen darts in his chest and back and throat. Bungy and Lobo had found cover with Benyawe and were mowing down Formics from their position, slicing through them as quickly as they could.
But it wasn't fast enough, Mazer realized. The Formics would overrun them any minute. "Lobo, we need to seal the tubes shut and launch them. Bungy, hold your position with Benyawe. Lobo, you take the tubes on the right. I'll take the tubes on the left. Do you know which lever to push?"
"Affirmative."
"Don't worry about orientation. There is no orientation in space. Launch back and forth between walls. Upside down, right side up. It doesn't matter. Keep your movements random. Change your approach every time. Don't give them a pattern to follow. Don't let them predict where you'll be."
"I got it."
"Bungy," said Mazer. "Give us as much cover as you can."
"Will do."
"Ready," said Mazer. "Launch!" He pushed off with his feet. Landed on the wall nearby and launched again. In three quick leaps he was at the console. He spun the big wheel, closing all the tubes at the top and bottom and trapping hundreds of Formics inside. Then he pressed the lever to launch the tube nearest him. The mechanism shot upward, catapulting the Formics up against the ceiling and into each other in a bone-crushing mass of suits and limbs and broken bodies.
Mazer didn't stick around to relish the moment. He was already leaping away, moving to the next tube, repeating the process. Darts pinged on the wall where he had been only a moment before. He fired his laser as he twisted through the air, taking out a cluster of three Formics who were giving him chase. He reached the second tube. A large crowd of Formics was gathered at the base of the tube, scratching at the locked hatch in a desperate attempt to climb inside. Mazer pushed down the lever, launched the tube, and sent them to their deaths instead.
*
Imala blinked her eyes open and thought she might be sick. She felt dizzy and disoriented and sore. The world was warbling like a tapped tuning fork. Her whole body was one giant bruise. She initiated her helmet lights and gave the order to deflate the foam. It unstiffened and she pushed it away from her face.
"Imala, can you hear me?"
Victor's voice. "Vico. Hi. Don't let me forget where I parked."