Book 4: Chapter 5: Investigation
Bob
November 2332
Outskirts, Eta Leporis
A cloud of wreckage slowly revolved around a common center of mass. Some of it was recognizable; most was not. I was a little surprised that there was much of anything—I wouldn’t have expected a laser to leave much more than slag. Of course, I was assuming that whatever attacked Bender used the same techniques as the drones that attacked my scouts.
I would know more once I arrived. It didn’t make sense to have the drones try to collect all the detritus and bring it to me. That would take too long and carried too much danger of losing or further damaging something. Instead, I’d fly in with my complement of roamers and do a close-up inspection. But first, I set the exploration drones to watch for any approaching Boojums, even though it seemed unlikely that they’d take a sudden interest after letting the wreckage drift unmolested for so long. The fact that the wreckage was drifting away from the system was probably relevant. But if I’d triggered any alerts with all the activity, they might change their mind.
I fully admit that I crossed the distance a lot more quickly than I should have. Caution, for the moment, was taking a back seat. Fortunately, I didn’t run into Boojum pickets. Even more fortunately, I didn’t run into an asteroid.
I set the roamers loose to examine the wreckage. It quickly became obvious that what I’d suspected was true—an internal explosion had ripped Bender’s ship apart. Most likely the laser had taken out the nuclear reactor control system in such a way as to make the reactor fail catastrophically. I remembered my first encounter with Medeiros, in Epsilon Eridani, so many years ago. He’d suffered that very fate. In addition, the meltdown had taken out his matrix. I had to hope that Bender hadn’t come to a similar end.
It was an entirely different ship design, of course. Medeiros was riding a military ship designed by the Brazilian Empire. They considered even their human soldiers expendable, never mind a replicated intelligence. Bender was riding a ship that I’d redesigned, with special attention to keeping the replicant matrix safe. This bit of simple self-interest gave me hope.
Outside inspections complete, the roamers entered the section of ship. I had multiple windows up, trying to watch everything at once. Finally, I gave up trying to maintain my VR. I dismissed my library and frame-jacked. Now I could keep up with everything, and putting up with naked floating data windows was a small price.