We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Book 4: Chapter 4: Collection Run

Book 4: Chapter 4: Collection Run

Herschel

October 2332

New Pav

I watched on the monitor as the drones chivvied the ingots into the hold. As each massive block of metal arrived, roamers wrapped it in cable netting and carefully winched it up against a wall, then tied it down. We’d have raw materials for just about any project we cared to take on—for a long time.

The deal Jacques had struck was certainly efficient. Because Neil and I had been running around from system to system for the last fifty years or so, we had not had much opportunity to stop anywhere and stock up. And in any case, the residents of those systems would not have been happy with us poaching their natural resources.

We’d contacted the Pav on the way in. The kindest description I could give for their attitude would be curt. I guess Jacques was right about them. The thought made me sad; overall, we hadn’t been having a lot of luck with alien species. Between the Others, the Pav, and the Deltans, I was starting to wonder if it was outright impossible for mutually alien intelligences to get along. And if the local area was at all representative, there must be a lot of intelligences out there. Eventually, we’d run into another starfaring species with a technological advantage. That made war—and possibly the extermination of humanity—statistically inevitable.

I shared my thoughts with Neil, who was, as usual, draped over his chair sideways. “Jeez, Hersch, that’s gloomy even for you. You need a new hobby. Or a hobby at all.”

“Har de har. But what’s wrong with my logic, Neil?”

He sighed and was silent for a few mils. “Nothing, I guess. So what do you want to do about it? We’re still pond scum.”

“Nah, we haven’t been that for almost eighty years. We own and operate the biggest damned cargo ship in human space. We are personally responsible for setting up at least five colonies. I think we have some street cred.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” he replied. “And please don’t take that as permission to do a Picard impersonation. I don’t think I can take it anymore.”

“You got it. So what can we do with all that cred?”

Neil pursed his lips and stared into space. “To be honest, my first thought when we got word about this windfall was to double our mover-plate count and accelerate to beat hell for somewhere interesting.”

“Like Ick and Dae? And Phineas?”

“And at least a dozen others. A lot of Bobs are just taking off, Hersch.”

“Seems kind of, I dunno, self-absorbed. I was thinking more like trying to place a human colony well outside of human space.”

“In case you turn out to be right.”

I gave him an apologetic shrug. “We still have all the stasis pods from the Great Exodus. There’s simply never been any reason to off-load them anywhere. And that’s the thing. There’s no more reason for the pods. Or for the Bellerophon, really. We’re obsolete.”

“So to make ourselves relevant again, we try for another colony. And if we used the ore to add another thirty-two plates, we’d be able to push some really stupid G’s,” Neil said, warming to the subject.

“So a human colony out in, say, the Perseus arm—”

“Would ensure continuity, even if the rest of humanity ran into a bigger, badder Others.”

I nodded. “Now all we have to do is figure out how to locate some volunteers.”