We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Book 3: Chapter 47: Foreboding

Book 3: Chapter 47: Foreboding

Riker

December 2240

Sol

Bill stared into space, slowly twirling the glass of whiskey in his hand. I’d managed to tempt him with a scan of one of the more recent vintages from Vulcan.

Funny, Vulcan had become the acknowledged expert in alcoholic products, real or VR. Howard’s company—well, the Brodeur family’s company—was even financing construction of some AMI-controlled starships to start trade routes between systems. I privately thought that might be a little premature, but I guess life goes on, even with the threat of an alien menace. In any case, the project gave people something positive to focus on, so what the hell.

“It’s not bad,” Bill said. “Original Bob would have approved. And he’d have slowly gotten tanked without realizing it. I think this would sneak up on you.”

I grinned at the image. “Yeah, pretty sure.” I hesitated, and shifted in my chair.

Bill saw the movement and raised an eyebrow. “Okay, so this isn’t just a social call. I sort of assumed, anyway. What’s up, Will?”

“There’s been no activity from the Others, Bill. Nothing. No sorties, no attacks, no nothing. It smells.”

“Um. I’m wondering if a quick examination of GL 877 might be in order.” I tried to keep my voice casual, but the expression on Bill’s face showed me I’d pretty much failed.

“I get it, Will. But we have to balance any knowledge we might gain against the possibility of them capturing some of our tech. They haven’t tried again with the monitor drones in the Oort, but if we sent something in-system…”

I’d been giving this some serious thought, so Bill’s objection wasn’t really a surprise. And I had my answer ready. “They can’t capture our tech if we don’t send any new tech inbound. I’m suggesting an incursion using only common tech. SURGE, level 1 SUDDAR, so on. No SCUT, no cloaking.”

Bill’s eyebrows rose on his forehead. “Okay, how will that work?”

I popped up some schematics. “We disguise the probes in an asteroid-like coating. It’ll block causal SUDDAR pings, and fool radar and visual inspections. Just another piece of space junk, floating through the system. The units will store their observations for retrieval on the way out, or they’ll transmit everything and self-destruct if they see anything approaching.”

“They?”

“As many as we can build. Send them in at all kinds of angles and speeds.”

Bill stared into space, silent, for several milliseconds. “It does actually sound like a no-downside kind of plan. What the hell, let’s talk to Mario. It’s up to him, in the end, but I bet he’ll go for it.”

* * *

“I can do that.” Mario nodded in thought for a moment, then looked at us. “I’ve got autofactories about a quarter-light-year out, ready to pump out more replacement monitor drones if the Others get uppity again. Something like what you describe would be dead easy.” He rubbed his chin. “Little bit of a pain to get everything into position, but we’ve got the time, I guess. If the Others suddenly make an appearance, you’ll have your answer anyway.”

I nodded in agreement. “Good. And, let’s face it, we might see nothing but more Dyson Sphere construction, but if we find a massive fleet of death asteroids and cargo vessels being prepped, I’d kind of like for it not to be a surprise.”

Mario grinned at me. “Got it. I’ll get started.”