Herschel
September 2333
Interstellar Space
I sat back in my chair, laced my fingers together, and grinned at Neil. “I do love it when a plan cos together.”
“Plan, my hairy white butt. We floated an idea—”
“And got bites. It would seem a lot of people on Romulus do not like the political climate.”
“Hardly surprising, Hersch. FAITH never completely went away, even if they suffered so, er, PR setbacks. They’re still trying to take over, still trying to drive policy.”
“And still ssing things up.”
“Mm-hmm. So, what’s the count?”
“Well, soone started a society …” I paused to reread the email. “Ever Onward, they call it. Very high-sounding. They have sothing like fifteen thousand mbers.”
“All willing to climb aboard and start a new colony, sowhere far away?”
“That’s the theory. I’m sure a lot of them are just playing at it, or joining up as a form of protest vote.”
“Are you sure you want to go this way, Hersch?” Neil was frowning, and his tone was more serious than usual. I decided I should pay attention.
“C’mon, Neil, we’ve had lots of conversations about the way things have stalled. You’ve agreed with —”
“Wait, I’ve agreed with you? When did you beco the mastermind?”
“Not important. The point is, we agree the Bobs seem to have turned to various forms of navel-gazing. Gars, Skippies, even Will with his Valhalla terraforming. They’ve beco like old n with their stamp collecting.”
“There are still Bobs heading outward.”
“Phineas, Ferb, Icarus, and Daedalus. They’re running away as much as anything. I tell ya, buddy, sothing is going on that’s not healthy.”
“So you’ve changed your mind about this?”
“No, I think I maybe want to expand it so. Do more than just ferry another batch of humans to another planet.”
“Like …”
“We’ve got this crap-ton of refined material from the Pav deal, so we don’t have to stop for a long, long ti. Set up enough manufacturing internally so we can crank out Heaven vessels assembly line style. Populate them with AMIs, like they did in the Battle for Terra, and squirt them out at every system we pass by.”
“And remote-control them?”
“Yeah, Neil. It’s called delegation.”
“Or laziness. What about the colony?”
“If we’re sending the AMI-controlled vessels ahead of us, we’ll know if a system has a viable candidate planet, and we can stop and set up.”
“Then continue on? Sounds a lot like Ick and Dae.”
“At least we’ll be doing sothing. I’m tired of being a museum piece.”
“It’s not the most terrible idea you’ve ever had. Let’s talk to the Ever Onward people.”
I nodded to Neil and started composing an email. For the first ti in a long, long ti, I was beginning to feel excited again.
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