We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

The epigraph comes from one of the lectures Bob attended during the Las Vegas convention. Lawrence Viem forecasts that communications and transportation technologies will be key to exploring the cosmos. He predicts that while our capacity for engineering such technologies exists, there must be worldwide political will to pursue it.

Bob arrives in the Epsilon Eridani system. His scans reveal two rocky planets, two asteroid belts, and two gas giants. None seem to be great prospects for colonization. He thus prioritizes scanning the inner asteroid belt for manufacturing resources.

Bob’s exploration is cut short by the anticipated arrival of a hostile Brazilian probe. He forgoes a detailed planetary survey to prepare for conflict, planning an ambush along the enemy’s most likely approach. He deploys his mining and factory systems to construct defenses, including decoy reactors and kinetic weapons he calls ship-busters (basically, large heavy spheres that he can launch as projectiles). He worries the Brazilians may have concealed their probe’s true acceleration capabilities, meaning that Bob has less time to prepare than originally believed.

The epigraph is from Sun Tzu’s Art of War. In it, Sun Tzu argues that winning generals are ones who perform “many calculations […] before the battle is fought” (87).