With the departure of the refugee ships, there was no longer any reason to maintain a presence in this system. It represented our greatest failure, and several Bobs had complained that it felt as though it was full of ghosts.
Everyone who didn’t have a reason to stay had long since left, and now most of the rest of us would be departing. A couple of eighth-generation Bobs had volunteered to stay behind and do a post-invasion survey.
I looked at Andrew across the table, waiting for him to speak. Finally, he took a deep breath and leaned forward to put his elbows on the table.
“Everyone is gathering at Gamma Pavonis. Threats or no, the Others still have a Dyson Sphere to build. They won’t halt everything while they march off to Sol. We want to be ready next time.”
I stared into space, nodding. “Meanwhile, Riker has started building dreadnaughts at Sol, and I’m building a fleet in Epsilon Eridani. Ditto Oliver in Alpha Centauri. We have the cloaking nailed now, so we’ll be able to give them a harder time of it. The root problem, though, is still to produce enough ordnance to make a dent in the Others’ armada. The size problem is still
overwhelming.”
“This is all just a delaying action.” Andrew shook his head morosely. “As long as the Others are always making the first move, we can never defeat them. All they have to do is huddle for a decade or two, rebuild, and we’re back to square one. We have to take the fight to them.”
“This is true, and you know damned well it’s been the subject of many a moot.” I glared at Andrew. “I have an idea that I’m working on that might form a final solution, but I’m not sure yet if it’s even feasible. And even if it turns out to be workable, it’s a long game. Meanwhile, we’re also trying to gear up to an invasion fleet. Maybe we can drop in on the Others and pay our respects.”
Andrew’s only answer was a predatory smile.
END BOOK 2
Appendices
List of Terms
AMI
Artificial Machine Intelligence
ETHER
Estimated Time of Habitable Earth Remaining
FAITH
Free American Independent Theocratic Hegemony
HEAVEN
Habitable Earths Abiogenic Vessel Exploration
Network
SCUT
Subspace Communications Universal Transceiver
SUDDAR
Subspace Deformation Detection And Ranging
SURGE
Subspace Reactionless Geotactic Emulation
VEHEMENT
Voluntary Extinction of Human Existence Means Earth’s Natural Transformation
Cast of Characters
In alphabetical order
Archimedes
Deltan native that Bob befriends.
Arnold
Large Deltan warrior.
Arthur
One of Riker’s clones. Dies in a salvaging accident.
Bart
Calvin’s clone. Resident Bob in Alpha Centauri for a short time.
Bashful
One of Mario’s clones. Part of the group that works to identify the Others’ range.
Belinda
Buster’s mate.
Bender
One of Bob’s clones in Delta Eridani
Bill
One of Bob’s first cohort of clones. Sets up a Skunk Works in Epsilon Eridani and acts as the central clearing house for news and information.
Bob Johansson
An engineer and business owner, who gets killed in a traffic accident and wakes up as a computer program.
As Bob-1, the first Heaven vessel.
Stéphane Brodeur Security Chief on Vulcan, and Howard’s best friend.
Bullwinkle
Bill’s name for his experimental android.
Buster
Archimedes’ eldest son. Deltan Native.
Colonel George
Leader of the USE post-war enclave, and of the USE
Butterworth
Vulcan colony.
Calvin
One of Bill’s clones. Calvin and Goku battle and defeat Medeiros in Alpha Centauri.
Charles
One of Riker’s early clones.
Charlie
Bob’s Deltan-configured android.
Minister Michael
Leader of the FAITH post-war enclave, and of the Cranston
FAITH Romulus colony.
Cruella
Deltan medicine woman.
Dexter
One of Charles’ clones, who takes over for Howard at Omicron2 Eridani.
Diana
Archimedes’ mate. Deltan native.
Donald
Arnold’s son. Deltan native.
Dopey
One of Mario’s clones, part of the group who work to establish the Others’ range.
Minister Sharma
UN rep for the Maldives on post-war Earth.
Garfield
Bill’s first clone, and his assistant in Epsilon Eridani.
Goku
One of Bill’s clones. He and Calvin battle and defeat Medeiros in Alpha Centauri.
Guppy
Bob’s personification of the GUPPI interface. Various Bobs give Guppy different levels of system resources, resulting in slightly different behavior.
Hal
One of Mario’s clones, part of the group who work to establish the Others’ range.
Hoffa
Deltan native, council leader in Camelot.
Homer
Riker’s first clone, assists in the Battle of Sol and invents the Farm Donuts.
Howard
One of Charles’ clones. He accompanies the first two colony ships to Omicron2 Eridani and stays to act as the resident replicant.
Howie
Bridget and Stephane’s son, named after Howard.
Hungry
One of Mario’s clones, and part of the group that works to establish the Other’s range.
Linus
One of Bill’s clones. He goes to Epsilon Indi and discovers Henry Roberts, the Australian probe replicant.
Luke
One of Bob’s clones in Delta Eridani.
Manny
The first anthromorphic android, used by Howard on
Vulcan.
Mario
One of Bob’s first clones. Mario is somewhat misanthropic and takes off for GL 54, where he discovers evidence of the Others, and sets up a program to determine their range.
Marvin
One of Bob’s clones in Delta Eridani. Marvin hangs around and assists Bob.
Major Ernesto
The Brazilian Empire replicant. Brazil sends out a Medeiros
number of copies, which keep popping up to bedevil the Bobs.
Milo
One of Bob’s first cohort of clones in Epsilon Eridani.
Milo goes to Epsilon2 Eridani, where he discovers the double planets which he names Vulcan and Romulus.
He then goes to 82 Eridani where he runs into Medeiros.
Moses
Deltan Native. An elder who teaches Archimedes how to work flint.
Oliver
Bill’s clone, who sets up in Alpha Centauri after Bart’s departure.
Riker
One of Bob’s first cohort of clones in Epsilon Eridani.
Riker takes on the task of going back to Sol to find out what happened, and ends up in charge of the Earth’s emigration effort.
Henry Roberts
The Australian replicant
Rocky
Garfield’s attempt at a flying android.
Sam
Exodus-3 controlling replicant.
Bridget Sheehan
Senior Biologist in the Vulcan colony and Howard’s eventual love interest.
Sleepy
One of Mario’s clones, and part of the effort to determine the Others’ range.
Surly
One of Bill’s clones and part of the second expedition to 82 Eridani to oust Medeiros.
Gudmund Valter
The Spitsbergen enclave leader on post-war Earth.
Verne
One of Bill’s clones and part of the second expedition to 82 Eridani to oust Medeiros
Bertram Vickers
Head of VEHEMENT
Victor
One of Bob’s later clones in Delta Eridani. Takes off after Bender to find out what happened to him.
Genealogy