We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Book 5: Chapter 54: Education

Book 5: Chapter 54: Education

Icarus

August 2337

Roanoke

Isauntered casually along a tree-lined boulevard, admiring the flowers and various pieces of artwork. Okay, they weren’t really trees, although they filled a similar ecological niche. But the flowers were really flowers, and they seemed to have insect pollinators. Or something that filled that niche.

I sighed and decided to stop overanalyzing. This was an alien ecosystem, with its own evolutionary history. But so far, every biological environment the Bobs had examined followed the same general patterns. At the base of the ecosystem was something plantlike that converted energy to biomass. It didn’t have to be sunlight—even on Earth, entire fumarole-based ecologies had evolved around chemosynthesis—but the idea was the same.

Then something would evolve to eat the plants. Then something else would evolve to eat the plant eaters. Then something would evolve to parasitize everyone in sight. Viruses, microbes of every kind, fungi … Life followed certain patterns, probably simply because they were the paths of least resistance.

But because of all of this, I was enjoying a stroll down a tree-lined path on a totally alien planet.

“I can’t believe we haven’t done this before,” Dae said beside me. “The mannies are just so much more real than VR.”

“Mm, yeah, but we knew that from Howard’s blog, if nothing else. We’ve just never stopped long enough to smell the, uh … ” I made a helpless gesture at some nameless bed of flowers.

Dae stopped and took a deep breath. “I suppose from a strict efficiency point of view, this is a pointless distraction. But it’s not like we’re on a schedule.”

I frowned. “I’m not entirely sure we aren’t. The whole vanished civilizations thing does lend a little urgency to our investigation.”

“Yeah, okay, point taken. How’s the scanning going?”

I pointed in the direction of the library, for that was what it had turned out to be, and we headed that way. “Children’s books,” I said. “Gotta love ‘em. See Dick run. See Jane run. Dick sees Jane. Run, Jane, run.”

Dae snorted. “The eighties called. They want their joke back.”

“Give them their insult back while you’re at it.”

We both laughed easily, and I continued, “On the bad side, it looks like my assumptions were right. Library books are a legacy item. Everything up to about the tech level of the nineteen eighties, coincidentally enough, is represented. After that point, nothing.”

“So you think they went electronic for newer stuff. That seems like a pretty clean cutoff.”

“This species appears to have been very much on top of things, though. No slums, no private roads, green spaces everywhere … They must have been a decisive people; they decided to go electronic, and that was that.”

“Wow,” Dae said, shaking his head. “I wonder if the decision to take off was made as quickly.”

We arrived at the library, and I opened the door for Dae. The handle and latch were definitely slightly too large for my hand, but not unworkably so. We’d found images of the local species, which we were now calling Roanokians. We knew the name for them in their language, but only in writing—we had found an audiotape library, but for now, just learning the written language was the priority. RÄ?o?B?S?

They were about human size, perhaps a little shorter on average, bipedal and generally humanoid, but with disproportionately long arms and large hands. Dae’s theory was that their ancestors were some kind of ambush predator that would grab their prey as it passed by. It was as good a theory as any.

Our mechanical servants were about three-quarters of the way through scanning the library. The scene before us elicited involuntary chuckles, though. Dozens of roamers stood on tables, slowly flipping through books like a bunch of avid bookworms. And that was another piece of good news. Apparently, the automated maintenance extended to library books. Whether the books were repaired or replaced or just tended to by nanites was up in the air, but nothing in the library was moldy or dried up or crumbling from age.

Occasionally, though, a maintenance bot would come by and try to collect a roamer, presumably for disposal. We’d ordered the roamers to run away rather than attempt to defend themselves, and it seemed to be good enough. And we didn’t want to start a turf war with the maintenance automation.

But the bot would then collect the book and put it away, which required the roamer to retrieve it to continue its task. It was the ultimate test of consciousness, I decided. Any self-aware roamer would have long since whipped out its plasma cutter and laid waste to the miscreant.

I spent a few minutes wandering the aisles, just admiring the books. It was interesting that they were books, rather than scrolls or something even weirder. I supposed there were only so many ways to arrange words on paper.

Dae and I left the roamers to their work and went for a walk. Despite this being an urban setting, the air was alive with some equivalent of birdsong, and we spotted several small fliers landing on bushes and flitting between trees.

“No shortage of animals,” Dae said.

“Hmm?”

“There are no Roanokians anywhere. No corpses, no vehicles abandoned in mid-street, no evidence of a hasty exit or mass death. And the plants and animals seem to be unaffected. No matter how I parse it, Icky, this looks like a planned exodus.”

“Assuming they aren’t all in stasis pods in some underground bunker.”

Dae started to reply, then caught himself. “I was about to say how dumb that is, but we are dealing with aliens. Maybe let’s do a SUDDAR sweep.”

*****

We wanted to get it right, so the sweep took three days. A polar orbit, doing orange-slice passes as the planet rotated, eventually resulted in a thorough sensor map of the planet to several miles in depth.

“Nothing,” Dae muttered, slapping his video window. It obediently spun on its axis, then settled back into place.

“Well, lots of interesting stuff, but I know what you mean,” I replied. “No trace of a Roanokian population hiding in caves.”

“Uh-huh. So I can’t see any other conclusion. Voluntarily or otherwise, the entire population of the planet just up and left, in an orderly manner.”

“Which you could put down to species psychology if it was just the Roanokians, but every planet we’ve visited, with any number of different intelligent species, is the same.”

Dae shook his head slowly. “I have a bad feeling we won’t like the explanation.”