We Are Legion (We Are Bob) Book 2: Chapter 64: Moot

Bill

March 2207

Epsilon Eridani

The airhorn’s blast brought the usual expressions of appreciation. I couldn’t bring myself to grin at the antics, though. This was going to be a tough eting. The looks on everyone’s faces showed that they understood this.

“Okay, guys. Let’s summarize. The Others have kicked Mario out of GL 54 and they’re busily stripping the resources. They’ve launched another expedition heading for NN 4285. I’ve expressed concern that Gamma and Delta Pavonis are going to be next. And oh, look, there’s a habitable planet in one system and a civilization in the other.”

I looked at the sea of faces. Everyone was totally focused on my words. “Oliver in Alpha Centauri has co up with a latest and greatest battle-wagon design. He’s too far away to help Jacques and Claude, though, unless the Others hold off a lot longer than I really expect. Jacques is prepared to send reinforcents for Claude if it cos to that.”

“Or the other way around, if necessary.”

I looked for the owner of that comnt. It was Jacques. I raised my eyebrow at him in an invitation to continue.

“Delta’s farther away from GL 877, so from that point of view, Gamma is a more likely target. Except that Delta has way higher tallicity, as can be seen plainly in the spectral lines. Maybe the Others will skip the closer system for the better system. They already bypassed Gamma once.”

I closed my eyes for a mont. An undercurrent of muttering passed through the room.

“It’s a point, Jacques. We won’t know until they move. We have full coverage around GL 877 now, so we can see any departures.” I motioned to Garfield, who was standing to one side of the podium. “Garfield will give us a rundown on weapons capability.”

Garfield stepped forward and gave an aborted wave to the crowd. He wasn’t in the mood, either.

“We have fission bombs, thanks to deiros. We have fusion bombs, or at least the plans, thanks to the USE and Colonel Butterworth. We’ve been able to size up the plasma spikes sowhat, but there’s a practical limit to the size of the magnetic containnt. We’ve probably reached that. It’s enough for the smaller Others’ vessels, but not enough to seriously harm the death asteroids or cargo vessels.”

Garfield popped up a diagram. “We’ve got the basic concepts of the cloaking figured out, but we weren’t able to salvage enough hardware to see how the Brazilians were actually doing it. Which ans we’re starting from scratch. This appears to have been another one of those accidental discoveries, so it’s not just a matter of hours thrown at the problem. We’re going to need so breakthroughs.”

Soone at the front comnted, “Without the cloaking, we can’t get the bombs close enough to be effective. They’ll just zap them or shoot them down. I think it’s safe to assu the Others have things like missiles as well.”

“We can get the items close enough,” soone else responded, “if we transport them in the cargo hold of a battle-wagon.”

There was silence as everyone looked at each other. We all knew what that ant. The battle-wagon would be destroyed in the explosion as well.

“We could put AMIs in so battle-wagons and make them suicide bombers.”

I felt my eyebrows climb up my forehead. That was actually not completely idiotic. We’d have to think about how many dreadnaughts we’d staff with AMIs, though.

“Or SCUT-based remotes.”

I looked around. “Okay, who is that? Those are so good ideas. Maybe you should be on the committee.”

Soone stepped forward. It was Elr. “No thanks. I’m just trying to spare my hide.” He grinned around at the audience and we finally got so laughter.

“There’s also relativistic ramming,” another voice interjected.

I shook my head. “We thought about that. It would have to be busters, or sothing that could be directed. And even so, you’d have to launch weeks before the encounter, and you’d have to plan it to intercept the enemy at the right place and the right ti. Chances of getting it right are too low. Plus they’ll see the approach from a light-hour out with SUDDAR and they just have to dodge. The busters would have a ridiculous tau and wouldn’t be able to react quickly enough. If we forget about relativistic speeds and just stick to our normal ramming, they won’t even feel it. Or they’ll just zap ship-busters a couple dozen at a ti with those big zappers.”

There was a short silence as everyone digested this.

We knocked around the weapons issue for a while, but soon realized we were all rehashing the sa information. I ended the eting, and we broke into groups. Technically, this was the social part of the get-together, but we’ve always been a workaholic. Each small crowd turned into a single-issue discussion group. Ɽåℕ𝖔ʙƐꞨ

In one group, Jacques was doing an informal presentation on the Pav. I found Bob, Bob-1 that is, in the audience. I stepped up beside him; he nodded an acknowledgent and turned back to the presentation.

I wanted to say sothing to him about the Deltans—to commiserate, or express sympathy, see how he was doing, sothing. He was effectively banished from their society. He’d pretty much adopted the tribe as his family, and to be cast out like that couldn’t be easy.

But, you know, we are Bob. Smart, driven, and socially inept. I focused my attention on the presentation.

The Pav seed, in many ways, to be very human. Okay, they were furry, had group marriages, and ran around on all fours. But other than that...

The Pav tended to a sort of natural socialism. They had social institutions for the less fortunate, but those seed to be supported by private funding. And well supported, too. Pav governnts, even the types that, on Earth, would have been heavily interventionist, tended to be lean and hands-off. On the other hand, the Pav were, by human standards, about as organized as a basket of puppies. I wondered what effect introducing Robert’s Rules of Order would have on them.

Jacques finished his presentation, got a round of applause, then the questions started. I grinned, nodded to Bob, and wandered off.

So many Bobs. So much intelligence in this room, if I did say so myself. So much control of resources, spread over a sphere that might be approaching a hundred light-years in diater. And we couldn’t put together a plan to protect a single planet. With a grimace of self-loathing, I popped back to my own VR.