We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Book 5: Chapter 70: Bill Gets a Call

Book 5: Chapter 70: Bill Gets a Call

Bill

June 2345

Epsilon Eridani

Iwas strolling through the woods on Ragnarök in manny form, enjoying the peace and quiet, when I got a ping from—from Icarus? I was so surprised I checked the head’s-up twice, but no mistake. I spun on my heel and began jogging for the lab building while I picked up the call.

“Icarus? Shouldn’t you be a hundred or so light-years away? Something happen?”

“Hi, Bill. Yeah, things didn’t go quite according to plan. So hey, why audio only? And what’s with all the extra firewalling? Have I missed something interesting?”

“Oh, much more than something. It’s been that kind of century.” I paused. “So is this a social call? I’ll be back in my lab in two minutes; then I can switch to virt and invite you over.”

“Ah, well, it’s kind of a good news/bad news thing, Bill.”

“Isn’t it always. Give.”

“So the good news is, Dae and I found a technological civilization. Actually, a federation. A hundred and fourteen species, according to the Archivist.”

“Wow. Pretty good—wait, according to the who?”

“The Pan Galactic Federation has been studying it for literally thousands of years, refining their measurements. To the limits of error, it’s a line drive right down the throat of our resident central black hole.”

“Okay, but a hundred thousand years—”

“It’ll sterilize the galaxy, Bill. It’ll be the granddaddy of gamma-ray bursts when the accretion disks collide. The gravity waves when the black holes collide will destabilize star systems for tens of thousands of light-years. The entire population of the Federation realized this and hightailed it out of the galaxy centuries ago.”

“Wait, how did you guys—”

“Wormhole travel, Bill. We bring you new technology.”

“We have that, thanks. But I appreciate the offer.”

It was worth any amount of money to see the totally poleaxed expressions on their faces. So much so that I actually flipped polarity and began to feel sorry for them. “Lots has happened in the last century, guys. You need to do some reading to get caught up.” ṞäŊꝋBЁS

“Yeah, I guess so.” Icarus’s face lit up. “But hey, we did get to the center of the galaxy. Twenty-six thousand years early!”

“You actually saw Sagittarius A*?”

“Yup. Got pics and everything.”

“Okay, now you’re talking.” And just like that, it was nerd time. Still, there was going to be a moot, and it was going to be loud and rowdy.