The cruisers were sorry-looking balls of metal, half melty-looking, with most of their hulls already stripped. Nacelles had been removed to act as transport thrusters. To one side, two chrome balls were just beginning to grow. They had no specific programming, as yet. They could be set to any of a number of different tasks, although that decision hadn’t been made. Ivan had to hope he could delay it until after the Navy’s move.

Three more sat to one side, ready for launch. Their programming was straightforward, and he had been pushing their manufacture. No doubt Ralph was wondering why he was so energetically pushing the manufacture and early launch of these items. Ivan kept his face neutral and carefully steered his thoughts in another direction. He could no longer hope that Ralph’s plans would be good for the human race. He was faced with his worst-case scenario.

Ivan sat in the Captain’s Chair of the Mad Astra. He patted the arm with a fond smile. In the short time that he’d been aboard, he’d managed to start thinking of it as a home of sorts. The Astra had fared a little better than the cruisers. She looked like a much-reduced version of herself, but she was still recognizably a spaceship. At least the skeleton of one. No environmental requirements made a lot of the mass of a spaceship redundant. The fusion nacelles, though, were unchanged.

As he stared into infinity, he wondered how the doctors had done with the Navy. There was a small chance that the Navy might believe them and offer a cooperator move. No, not really. The Navy would be out in force, and soon. He had to hope that the Getting Ahead crew would figure out the real message in time. Otherwise, his fallback plan was to have the Navy nuke the hell out of him and Ralph, before the computer realized it had been set up.

So far, Ralph didn’t seem to have copped on. So he did continue to enjoy some mental privacy. Or maybe it was just too much work to monitor him.

Ralph broke into his musings.

Nanite balls are ready. Confirm your intention to place these on planets one, two, and four and initiate conversion.

That’s right.

Why?

Trying to get their attention. I’m hoping that an external threat will bring humanity together.

Your plan is optimistic. The word ‘naïve’ seems appropriate as well. Is it?

You’re an expert on human psychology now?

Is anyone? Your species is fractious, disorganized both mentally and politically, unpredictable, immature—

But not beyond hope. You’ve said yourself that an Uploaded species would be valuable. We’re—

—not ready. And possibly won’t ever be. A decision must be made soon.

Fine. But let’s try this first.

Very well. Launching nanite payloads. Regardless of the ultimate decision, this reconfiguration will be useful.