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