FOR WE ARE MANY
Book 2 of the Bobiverse
Dennis E. Taylor
Titles by the author
The World Lines series:
Outland
Earthside (coming soon)
The Bobiverse series:
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
For We Are Many
All These Worlds (coming soon)
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Copyright © 2017 by Dennis E. Taylor - All rights reserved.
eBook edition published by Worldbuilders Press, a service of the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency
Cover art by Jeff Brown
Author Blog: www.dennisetaylor.org
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this book to all the people who love good old-fashioned space opera.
Acknowledgements
I am truly amazed and grateful for how We Are Legion (We Are Bob) was received by science fiction fans. The response has been both overwhelming and humbling. Thank you. It has been quite the journey…and along the journey I have had great help.
First I would like to thank my agent Ethan Ellenberg for not only taking me on but guiding me through all this. Your help has been invaluable and I am grateful. To Steve Feldberg who saw the potential in We Are Legion and the series…thank you so much for the opportunity you have given me. Betsy Mitchell – thank you for editing my manuscripts and for the words of encouragement.
It takes a “village” of sorts to create a novel, everyone from beta readers, critiques, artists, editors, publishers and now a narrator. To Ray Porter, thank you for bringing Bob Johansson to life.
I’d like to particularly mention the members of the Ubergroup and Novel Exchange group on scribophile. I appreciate your input. And to my beta readers – thank you.
Thanks in particular to:
Sandra and Ken McLaren
Nicole Hamilton
Sheena Lewis
Patrick Jordan
Trudy Cochrane
And my wife Blaihin
...for reading the raw draft and early versions.
It is not down in any map; true places never are.
— Herman Melville
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
1. Sky God
2. Colony Site
3. Life in Camelot
4. Water Planet
5. Progress
6. Contacting Bill
7. Back to Work
8. Farming Satellites
9. Something is Out There
10. Genocide
11. Mating Dance
12. Bob Calling
13. Investigating the Others
14. Sabotage
15. A Visit From Bill
16. Hunted
17. We’ve Lost a Drone
18. It’s Getting Worse
19. Prey
20. Parasite
21. Attacks Continue
22. Fallout
23. VEHEMENT
24. Visiting Marvin
25. Rabbits
26. Selling Poseidon
27. Luke Returns
28. Et Tu, Homer
29. Emergency
30. Found Something
31. Taking Care of Business
32. Linus
33. Trouble in Paradise
34. Moose
35. Sales Call
36. Asteroid Movers
37. He’s Gone
38. Following up
39. Bob-Moot
40. Gotcha
41. Casualties
42. Business
43. An Exchange of Words
44. Baseball
45. Replication
46. Klown Kar Planet
47. New Village
48. Operation
49. Arrival
50. Second Expedition
51. Wedding
52. Bullwinkle
53. Testing
54. Stuff is Happening
55. Contact
56. Descendants
57. Moot
58. News
59. Another One
60. Arrival
61. Starting Over
62. Departure
63. The Pav
64. Moot
65. Grandpa
66. It’s Happening
67. Bad News
68. Recording
69. Wake
70. Conversation
71. Charlie
72. Battle
73. Collection
74. Observing the Process
75. Reunion
76. Funeral
77. Completion
Appendices
List of Terms
Cast of Characters
Genealogy
1. Sky God
Bob
February 2167
Delta Eridani
An angry squeal erupted from the pile of deadwood. The two Deltans paused, poised to retreat. Seeing no further response, they resumed pelting the area with rocks. The individual I had named Bernie, his fur erect along his spine and ears straight out with excitement, chanted, “Here, kuzzi, kuzzi, kuzzi.”
I moved my observation drone to the rear to get out of their line of sight.
They were okay with me observing the hunt, but I didn’t want to distract them when even a slight misstep could result in injury or death. Mike glanced up at the movement, but the Deltans otherwise paid no attention to the football-sized drone.
Someone must have scored a direct hit with a rock. Screaming like an irate steam engine, the pigoid erupted from the entrance to its den. The two rock-throwers sprinted out of the way and the other hunters moved up. Each braced the butt of his spear on the ground and placed a foot on the end to hold it in place.
The pigoid reached the hunting group in less than a second, screaming in rage. The Deltans held their positions with all the courage of medieval pikemen facing a cavalry charge. Even though I watched the action remotely via a floating observation drone, I could still feel my nether regions puckering up in fear. At times like this, I wondered if I hadn’t gone a little overboard with the level of detail in my virtual-reality environment. There was no reason for me to even have nether regions, let alone for them to pucker.
The pigoid crashed into the waiting spears without slowing. Fast, yes.
Smart, not so much. I’d never seen a pigoid try to dodge the spear points.
One of the hunters, Fred, was thrown to the side as his spear bowed and then snapped. He screamed, either in pain or surprise, and blood spurted from his leg. A distracted part of my mind noted that Deltan blood was almost the
same shade of red as human blood.
The other Deltans held fast, and the pigoid was lifted right into the air by the leverage of their spears. It hung in midair for a moment, then crashed to the ground with a final screech. The Deltan hunters waited for any more movement, lips drawn back to show their impressive canines. Occasionally, a pigoid would get back up after this level of mistreatment and wade in for another round. No one wanted to be caught with their guard down.