Jennings was as good as his word. The acceleration was heavy enough to make breathing uncomfortable, but smooth, which told Kemp that the ship’s engines weren’t going flat out. That raised the obvious question of just how much acceleration the Getting Ahead was capable of. Kemp hoped not to have to find out. The current level was quite enough, thanks.

After several minutes of hell, Jennings reduced acceleration to what felt like about a half gee. He stood and motioned his guests to unbuckle as well.

“I’ve taken on a full load of fuel, including aux tanks. With just the three of us and no cargo, I can keep us under power all the way to the destination. We won’t bother with the hab ring at all. That will mean sleeping in one of the on-axis bunk rooms, though.” Jennings looked sheepish for a moment. “The return trip will be more leisurely, of necessity. I hope you packed your toothbrushes. And a lot of reading.”

76.Defensive Strategy

76.Defensive Strategy

Twenty fusion signatures, all approaching on different vectors. All carefully timed so that they would arrive in an almost spherical formation around the location of the last encounter. Ivan could feel the computer’s cool calculations going on in the background: threat analysis, species evaluations, decision trees, all flying past too quickly for him to follow. Ralph didn’t try to explain its ruminations in detail, but it did give him occasional summary images of the analyses and goal weightings. So far, humanity was balanced on a knife edge, not quite belligerent enough to be worth wiping out, and not quite potentially useful enough to be Uploaded. But when the two new balls of nanites were ready, a decision would be made.

Although Ivan would have preferred a third option, at least Ralph hadn’t settled on Plan A or Plan B yet. For the moment, his family and all of humanity was still safe.

And now, following those first signatures, six more, from another vector. Drive flame analysis and acceleration indicated something heavy. Ivan’s guess was SSE warships. He’d seen programs on the Vid about their military; they built big—no finesse, no concession to economics or efficiency. Simply massive brute force.

Well, it was a bonus of a sort, from a Plan B point of view. The UENN and SSE would be competing to see who could blow up Ivan first. And right about now, Ralph would be realizing that all the nanites had gone to Mercury, Venus, and Mars, and there weren’t enough in the two new balls to defend with.

These incoming groups are from different human cohorts, are they not?

Different nations, yes.

I assume their intentions are hostile?

Probably a safe bet.

Given the situation, I find their response disappointing.

A value judgement? You’re getting opinions now?

An expression indicating that reality falls short of expectations. Am I phrasing it incorrectly?