We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse Book 1)

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We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse Book 1) Page 30

by Dennis E. Taylor


  Milo had left a couple of AMIs and a bunch of autofactory drones behind to continue mining the system. The drones put the refined metals into bundles of ingots and set beacons on them. With a couple of decades of peace and quiet, the automation had accumulated several hundred thousand tons of ready-to-use material, all in orbit inside the asteroid belt. Riker had started the AMI on building a farming donut a decade ago, to provide a backup food source. It would need only to be seeded from the stocks we’d brought with us. I hoped we wouldn’t need it. Of course, I didn’t hope that anything like as strongly as the colonists would. Kudzu was apparently not the food of the gods, although deities were often invoked when describing it.

  I had quick conversations with Bill and Riker, just to let them know we’d made it. Full reports would follow. Riker gave me a list of colony ships that were already launched and on their way.

  Hmm, but no pressure, right?

  ***

  Exodus-1 and Exodus-2 settled into orbit without a hitch. We had a brief flurry of SCUT exchanges, then Bert and Ernie shut down the drives and went to station-keeping.

  “Welcome to the home of Spock, boys.” I popped into the common VR and grinned at them. They were grinning back, of course. After all, Bob. Bert and Ernie had adopted Battlestar Galactica-style uniforms and command deck VRs. I was a little surprised by that, as it hadn’t been one of my favorite shows. Although the Cylons were definitely bad-ass.

  “I was seriously considering putting up a couple of Vulcan cruisers to escort us in,” Ernie said.

  I felt my face turn red, and Bert started laughing so hard he almost lost his seat.

  We took a minute to enjoy the joke—belly laughs are one of the best things about being sentient, and you should never miss a chance for one. We wiped the tears from our eyes, and I pulled up a holo of the system, with Vulcan and Romulus showing in an inset window.

  “We’ll want to push Butterworth to make a decision as quickly as possible. I want the colonists offloaded at the earliest possible date, and you guys on your way back to Earth.” I gestured toward the holo. “Butterworth already has Milo’s survey results, and I’ve been adding to the data. This isn’t going to be a negotiation. He picks A or B, and we move.”

  Ernie nodded. “Guppy advises me that Butterworth has come out of stasis, and he’ll be ready to talk within an hour. I’ll package it up for him, let him have some quiet time to study it. Meeting in, say, three hours?”

  Bert and I nodded, and we moved on to the next item.

  ***

  “There really was never much doubt,” Colonel Butterworth said with a smile. The video showed him sitting in the Exodus-1’s common room. “Barring significant new information coming up at this end, Vulcan makes much more sense. We will need time to establish our own food production, so a robust ecosystem will bridge that gap for us.” He nodded to the camera. “Thank you for confirming biocompatibility of the local ecosystem. It settles a lot of uncertainties.”

  I smiled in acknowledgement. Colonel Butterworth had become much more relaxed now that his civilian population seemed to have a future.

  He continued in a distracted voice, “We’ll hopefully be in a position to help out the Spits when they show up, until they have their food production set up.” He arched an eyebrow at me. “Farm-1 won’t be producing yet, right?”

  “Not yet, Colonel. But since most of the colonists will stay in stasis until we’re ready for them, ships stores will be sufficient for the first month.”

  Colonel Butterworth grunted. “Still tighter than I like.”

  The Colonel stared, rapt, at the virtual bulletin board that Bert had provided. The board showed real-time status of all current, upcoming, and completed colony setup activities. Video windows showed a constant rotation of views.

  Setup crews were awake and had begun shuttling printers down to Vulcan. On the surface, roamers were printing out modular residential units and assembling them. AMI-controlled bobcats and backhoes stayed just ahead of the construction, preparing the ground for the houses.

  In two days, we would start waking the first wave of civilians and shuttling them down to their new homes. And the universe would have actual Vulcans.

  Roddenberry would be proud.

  Table of Contents

  Part 1

  1. Bob Version 1.0

  2. Bob Version 2.0

  3. Bob – June 25, 2133

  4. Bob – July 15, 2133

  5. Bob – July 18, 2133

  6. Bob – July 19, 2133

  7. Bob – July 25, 2133

  8. Bob – August 4, 2133

  9. Bob – August 6, 2133

  10. Bob – August 10, 2133

  11. Bob – August 15, 2133

  12. Bob – August 17, 2133

  13. Bob – August 17, 2133 – En Route

  Part 2

  14. Bob – August 2144 – Epsilon Eridani

  15. Bob – September 2144 – Epsilon Eridani

  16. Bob – September 2144 – Epsilon Eridani

  17. Bob – July 2145 – Epsilon Eridani

  18. Bill – September 2145 – Epsilon Eridani

  19. Milo – July 2152 – Omicron2 Eridani

  20. Bill – December 2145 – Epsilon Eridani

  21. Riker – January 2157 – Sol

  22. Bill – September 2150 – Epsilon Eridani

  23. Milo – February 2153 – Omicron2 Eridani

  24. Riker – April 2157 – Sol

  25. Bill – September 2151 – Epsilon Eridani

  26. Riker – April 2157 – Sol

  27. Bob – April 2165 – Delta Eridani

  28. Calvin – November 2163 – Alpha Centauri

  29. Riker – September 2157 – Sol

  30. Bob – April 2165 – Delta Eridani

  31. Riker – January 2158 – Sol

  32. Bill – October 2158 – Epsilon Eridani

  33. Riker – March 2158 – Sol

  34. Homer – September 2158 – Sol

  35. Bob – July 2165 – Delta Eridani

  36. Riker – September 2158 – Sol

  37. Bob – August 2165 – Delta Eridani

  38. Riker – November 2158 – Sol

  39. Bob – October 2165 – Delta Eridani

  40. Linus – April 2165 – Epsilon Indi

  41. Riker – May 2162 – Sol

  42. Bill – April 2162 – Epsilon Eridani

  43. Riker – September 2164 – Sol

  44. Bob – January 2166 – Delta Eridani

  45. Bill – January 2165 – Epsilon Eridani

  46. Milo – August 2165 – 82 Eridani

  47. Riker – January 2166 – Sol

  48. Bob – May 2166 – Delta Eridani

  49. Riker – May 2166 – Sol

  50. Bob – June 2166 – Delta Eridani

  51. Bill – January 2174 – Epsilon Eridani

  52. Riker – January 2168 – Sol

  53. Bob – June 2166 – Delta Eridani

  54. Riker – October 2170 – Sol

  55. Bob – July 2166 – Delta Eridani

  56. Bill - March 2167 - Epsilon Eridani

  57. Mario – August 2169 – Beta Hydri

  58. Riker – April 2171 – Sol

  59. Bill – May 2172 – Epsilon Eridani

  60. Khan – April 2185 – 82 Eridani

  61. Howard – September 2188 – Omicron2 Eridani

 

 

 


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