Find Ivan, second comms station, nanite packages. Start now. Talk later.

Mandelbaum frowned. “Wait, they were all about the peaceful talking, now they want us to find and destroy them?”

“Find, Commodore. No mention of destroy.” Moore tapped the screen to emphasize the point.

“Fine.” Mandelbaum sent, Stand by, then hit the intercom. “Surveil. Assume two bogeys are headed from here to Earth and Luna. Calculate trajectories, send up to a third of our drones to look for them. Then send the balance out, all directions, looking for other artifacts.”

The tablet dinged, and Mandelbaum looked down.

Include nukes. Cruise missiles.

“I’m getting whiplash from trying to follow the logic of these people.” She typed a message. You’ll explain this?

The response came back immediately, allowing for light-speed delay. Less talk more search.

Mandelbaum gave Moore a rueful grin. “Well, that, at least, is clear.”

She hit the button. “Tactical, send cruise missiles on the trail of the drones. I want a wide enough spread to be able to hit anything we find, in any direction. Clear?”

“Aye.”

“Signals, send a message to base. Tell them to get every optical and radio telescope out and looking for anything at all. We need the bogeys spotted ASAP.”

“Aye.”

Mandelbaum sat back. “Now, we wait.”

80.Response

80.Response

Ivan drifted through interplanetary space, literally sitting on the end of a fusion drive nacelle. He had stripped the nacelles from the cruisers, attached some fuel pods to each. A set of thrusters around the front, and he had a spaceship.

As long as you didn’t need to breathe, of course.

It was the minimalist’s vessel. Thrust, steering, and fuel. All you really needed to get from A to B. A similar setup provided the transportation for two balls of chrome—nanite assault troops, heading for their targets.

Ivan wished he could cry. Unless Kemp and the crew pulled a rabbit out of a hat, his family would be dead within a couple of weeks. And everyone else on Earth, and all other life, but he found that last bit somehow less important. Ralph had made a decision, based on the approaching attackers, UENN and SSE alike. It had been close, oh so close. But humanity just didn’t quite make the cut. Instead, the system would be cleared and turned into an automated outpost in the war against the Arts. Plan B. The two remaining nanite balls were being programmed to do to Earth and Luna what had already been done to Mercury, Venus, and Mars.

You’ll kill us all off? Just like that?

It is not intentional. Simply a side effect. Modifying the system for defense will render the planets uninhabitable.

That’s not reassuring.

Reassurance is not in my goal tree. I recognize your objections. However, my prime directives necessitate maximizing value for the Makers, not for your people.

But billions of sentient beings. Billions, for God’s sake.