We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Book 3: Chapter 51: Moot

Book 3: Chapter 51: Moot

Bill

June 2230

Epsilon Eridani

I waited for the catcalls to die down. More than a hundred Bobs looked back at me, and this wasn’t close to all of us. The war effort was now producing a couple of dozen new Bobs per year, over several systems.

Herschel and Neil huddled together near the front of the crowd, whispering and preparing notes. They’d be giving one of their regular updates on the Bellerophon. The two Bobs were as inseparable as Calvin and Goku, except less quarrelsome. As a youth, I’d always wished for a brother. I wondered if some Bobs in the same cohort got into that mode for just that reason.

“Okay, everyone. We’ve got updates from Oliver, Will, myself, and Dexter on Bob production. I’ll be giving a summary. Herschel and Neil will give us an update on their excellent adventure. Garfield will give a report on weapons research, and on the Casimir power core. After that it’s open floor.”

There were a few clink sounds as Bobs dealt with coffees and beers, but everyone was all business now.

I went through the reports, projections, and graphs on replicant production. “Bottom line, folks, we expect to have close to five hundred dreadnaught-class vessels available for the defense of Earth. About half will be staffed by AMIs carrying H-bombs. We’ve already decided not to try to build a defense for Epsilon Eridani. If they show up there, I’ll just blow everything up and bail. And on that subject, Mario?”

Mario stepped forward. “We’ve rebuilt the surveillance and monitoring system around GL 877. The Others’ Delta Pavonis expedition is back home, but there’s been no other activity. We don’t know enough about their habits to know if that’s unusual. The quick sequence of sorties to GL 54, NN 4285, and Delta Pavonis might have been an exception. Or they might have enough material to keep them busy for a while.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Neil frowning and shaking his head. I resolved to ask him about it.

The questions quickly ran down on the military buildup. Herschel and Neil were up next.

Herschel stammered and blushed when their turn was announced, but soon got it under control.

“Nothing really new, other than exploratory notes. We’re continuing to investigate the interior of the Bellerophon, and although we’re able to answer some questions that have been asked, we just keep running into new questions. The ship appears to have been multi-purpose. Moving mining cargo was just one intended use. The way the cargo bays can be reconfigured…” Herschel shook his head, telegraphing the perplexity that shaded every one of their written reports.

The Bellerophon blog was currently one of the most popular on BobNet, so this was more review than anything. There were one or two pro forma questions, then the two stepped back with relief written all over their faces.

Garfield stepped forward. “We’ve been pursuing militarization on two fronts—improvement of existing weaponry, and creation of new modes. The second hasn’t been all that fruitful. We’ve managed to build big honkin’ lasers, and they’re a little more effective against big enemy ships than plasma spikes, but like the spikes they suffer from an inability to follow the enemy. Where light-speed lag is a significant factor, if the enemy changes direction after you’ve fired, you’ve just wasted a shot.”

Garfield looked around at his audience. “Intelligent weapons remain our best tactic, especially the ones that go boom. We’re working on hardening delivery drones against the zaps, and we’re working on bigger and better bombs.”

Garfield looked at me, and I added, “But in the end, our best strategy seems to be numbers. Lots of Bobs, lots of bombs.”

Will, after a moment, stepped forward and said, “We’re pursuing the problem on three fronts: One, defense of Sol; two, stopping any other expeditions; and three, some kind of final solution. If they attack Earth before we’re ready to defend it, none of the rest matters. But we can’t just fight a defensive game, either.”

He paused for a moment, and his gaze swept the audience. “It means we’re splitting our efforts, and it means an assault on GL 877 will be farther in the future than we’d like. But defense of the Earth comes first. And the longer they wait before launching an expedition, the more prepared we’ll be.”

“Assuming they haven’t already.”

There was dead silence in the moot, as we all turned to look at Neil. He was frowning; Herschel was blushing a perfect shade of tomato.

“Explain, please,” I said to him.

Neil looked down for a moment. “Remember when the Others started cleaning house around their system, then stopped? Why did they stop? Maybe because they’d done what they wanted, which was to launch something through a blind spot. And we did the predictable thing—we moved our surviving drones to the near side.” ???????

Garfield and I looked at each other in consternation. “If what you’re saying is true,” Garfield finally said, “then they’re circling around, rather than going directly toward Sol.”

“And space is big. We’d never detect them except by accident,” I added.

Will looked at me. “We’d better run some models.”

* * *

“Yeah, space is big. Bigger than I thought.” I looked at the spreadsheet in dismay.

“Um. A circle of twelve square light years. That’s what we have to monitor.” Garfield rubbed his forehead wearily. “Almost eighty thousand drones.”

“Which will cut into the stasis pod construction.” I said.

“And the bomb construction, the Bob construction, the colony ship construction, and all the other maintenance stuff we still have to support.” Will looked up at the ceiling and silently mouthed an f-bomb. “It never stops.”

“We have no choice, though. If the Others come swooping in with no warning, we’re dead.” I thought for a moment. “At least we don’t have to produce them all at once. The most direct path from GL 877 has to be covered first, and we can work outward to cover more circuitous trajectories.”

Will stood up with a groan. “Right. I’ll talk to Oliver, see if he can contribute. We still have a few decades before the earliest that the Others could get here. Deliveries from Alpha Centauri would arrive in plenty of time.”

“Good idea, Will.” I looked around at the other Bobs. “It looks like, as usual, we will be living in interesting times. Woo!”

“Hah!”