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Book 5: Chapter 32: Second Wave
Book 5: Chapter 32: Second Wave
Book 5: Chapter 32: Second Wave
Ferb
March 2342
Somewhere above the galactic plane
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered. The radio message, coming from ahead of me, was unequivocal. Someone named George had had the same idea as mine, but way sooner. That shouldn’t have been a surprise, really. What would interest one Bob would interest another.
I’d decided to head for galactic north a few years back, once the War for Earth ended. I’d built a cargo ship with room for a bunch of relay stations, with the intent of forming a chain so I’d never be out of SCUT contact. But George had apparently thought of it back in the twenty-second century, back before SCUT was a thing. He might have gotten the plans from Bill’s transmissions by now, but without relay stations, he was still out of range. He wouldn’t have been able to build relay stations en route without a supply of raw materials to work with, but he would have built an onboard SCUT anyway because it’s what I would have done.
George continued to send back reports by radio because it’s what we did. Whether Bill was receiving them or not was another thing. George didn’t seem to be in the registry, either as a clone or as a flight path. Things had been a little anarchic back then, so it was maybe not so surprising.
But that didn’t change the fact that my grand gesture had turned out to be a me-too. Outstanding.
Well, George was some two hundred light-years north of me by now, and his reports were quite interesting. He’d left behind the galaxy’s thin disk and its Population I stars and was now well into the thick disk with its Population II stars. Far more metal-poor and therefore far less likely to have any kind of habitable planets. Or planets at all, since even gas and ice giants needed something to form around. But the search for planets didn’t really seem to be George’s focus.
I was idly playing around with the idea of changing my itinerary—maybe heading for galactic south or the edge of the galaxy. Icarus and Daedalus were heading for the center; George was heading north. Didn’t leave me much unless I just picked a random direction.
I sat back and crossed my arms, feeling a little put out. But it wouldn’t hurt to follow a little longer. Maybe listen to a few reports, just so I knew what I would be missing.But I would make a point of not enjoying it.