We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Book 5: Chapter 48: Gunther’s World

Book 5: Chapter 48: Gunther’s World

Icarus

January 2329

Centaurvania

It was eight light-years from Gunther’s world to the system where he’d found the wormhole. That would be an average kind of distance back in the area of Sol, but this was a more crowded section of the galaxy. Gunther’s race could have easily targeted any of several systems that were closer. But none of those systems had an anomalous microwave source. It’s what humans would have done.

The sky view here in Gunther’s home system was spectacular, though. Even from the bottom of an atmosphere, the stars would be far more crowded than Earth’s had ever been. The strip of the Milky Way would be far more visible as well. And the dwarf galaxy that we couldn’t see from Earth’s side of the galaxy dominated the sky on this side. Primitive cosmology would have been a lot more complicated with that apparition to explain.

We came into the system, following Gunther at a respectful distance and waiting for cues. We certainly didn’t want this to look like a chase to any planetary defenses that might be watching. Gunther, ahead of us, was continuously broadcasting on every standard band in use by the centaurs.

I swiped through several monitor windows, then turned to Dae. “There’s no response that I can see.”

“I know, Icky. If Gunther’s civilization has also disappeared, that puts an even weirder spin on things, since they weren’t part of the empire.”

“Yeah, so it wouldn’t have been because of something that spread through the wormholes.”

“Maybe. Consider the sentries. Maybe that was the only place that erected a defense in time. Maybe everyone’s behind the second wormhole, on the other side of the DMZ.”

“Or everyone that’s left.”

“There is no response,” Gunther messaged, interrupting our debate.

“How concerning is that?” I asked.

“There is no good reason for lack of reply. Extremely concerning.”

“Have you been able to get any indication of how long you’ve been gone?” I asked.

“No response from any installations. Not even station IDs.”

“How about an estimate based on orbital positions?” The idea was that Gunther would have astronomical data on all the planets and satellites in its home system and would be able to calculate from their current position what year it must be in the centaur calendar.

“I will collect position data as we proceed,” Gunther replied.

That was good. That meant Gunther had the base data necessary to make the calculation.

*****

It took six days to arrive at Gunther’s home world from the edge of the system. It was immediately obvious that we were looking down on the ruins of a technological civilization. The occasional small bits of city structure that were visible were nothing more than crumbled walls and pieces of foundation. ??N??È?

“Gunther? You okay?”

“My operations are at nominal level. However, my orders do not cover this eventuality.”

“Are the environmental parameters within viable range for your species?”

“Yes.”

“So the planet isn’t dead. There might still be centaurs down there.”

“It is possible. I will do a close scan.”

Although Dae and I had never personally participated in this kind of survey, we both remembered Bill doing it on Ragnarök, and of course, many other Bobs had covered the process in their blogs. A deep and continuous SUDDAR scan from low altitude would result in a detailed planetary map, along with identification of any anomalies. These might include anything from still-working machinery to radioactive craters.

We hung back in a high orbit while Gunther circled the planet, doing orange-slice scans. Finally, it flew out to join us.

“Scans show no operating technology of industrial level or higher,” it said. “There are indications of controlled heat sources in concentrated areas, consistent with possible small structures.”

“So something like villages might still exist? Your people might still be around?”

“Yes. Next step would be to make contact. However, in the absence of technology, that will require a landing. I am not equipped for this. I request assistance in this regard.”

“Of course,” I replied. “We’ll transfer a drone and a couple of roamers to you, and I’ll show you how to control them. In the longer term, though, I think we need to upgrade your printer.”

“That would be appreciated.”

*****

The drones were large enough to have SCUT transceivers, but not the roamers. Since Gunther was going to have to learn our radio comms standards anyway, we decided it would be simpler to just downgrade the drone to the old radio comms, to keep things consistent. We weren’t trying to keep SCUT tech from Gunther; we just didn’t want to throw too many changes at it all at once.

Gunther took to the new units right away and ferried a couple of roamers down to one of the villages it had identified to do some basic spying. Meanwhile, Dae and I began constructing an autofactory out at a high orbit around the centaur planet. There was more than enough orbital debris, like former geosynchronous and high-altitude satellites left over from the centaur civilization.

We were taking a break, going over the project plans, when we got a call from Gunther. “I have completed the astronomical calculations. It has been 562 years since I left Centaurvania.”

I did a quick mental conversion while Dae muttered, “We have to come up with a better translation of their planet’s name.”

I spared him a brief eye roll. “That’s almost seven hundred Earth years, Dae. So whatever happened to the empire was already old news by then.”

“Uh-huh. But really, seven hundred or seven hundred thousand—after a certain point, how much difference does it make?”

“Depends on what actually happened, I guess.”

Dae paused, a thoughtful look on his face. “Icky, whatever it was, I don’t think it was the same thing that depopulated the empire. Centaurvania has never been connected to the wormhole network, so I doubt they were subjected to whatever happened there.”

“So this was just a good old-fashioned civilization collapse?”

“Something like that.”

“I have also established surveillance of the local populations,” Gunther continued, breaking into our sidebar. “They speak a language that is recognizable as Standard, but only just. I will have to study them extensively to establish meaningful dialogue.”

“What will you do, Gunther? Long term.”

“Learn what caused the collapse of our civilization. Take steps to avoid a repeat. Try to build the people back up to our former level. Some of these are doubtless the descendants of my family. In the absence of specifics, I must aid everyone in order to aid any members of my bloodline.”

“I don’t think we can hang around for this, Gunther. You’re talking about decades of work.”

“It is my duty. It is not yours.”

I glanced meaningfully at Dae, and he nodded. “However, we have more technology that we can give you. Take your time implementing it. None of it is necessary immediately, but it will help in the longer term. We’ll put together some files and send them to you.”

“Appreciated.”