We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
Book 4: Chapter 28: Claiming Victory

Bill

September 2334

Virt

I gave a blaaat with the airhorn, and the mass of Bobs gradually quieted to a ragged rumble. There would be no total quiet, though, if I was reading this crowd right.

“Okay, a couple of reps from Starfleet will be here”—I had to wait several mils for the insults and catcalls to die down—“and we’re going to hear them out. Then we’ll ban-hammer them.” Laughter greeted the last statement.

I sent a text, and Lenny popped in, flanked by a couple of other Starfleet members. The uniforms looked slightly different. I did a comparison with an earlier image and realized they’d toned down the TNG resemblance a bit. I wondered how much time and discussion had gone into that change.

Now I got my silence. Not the respectful kind, but the kind where a crowd is sizing someone up. Lenny and friends felt it as well. They moved a little closer together.

“All right, Lenny, let’s make this quick.”

Lenny nodded to me. “As a gesture of goodwill, we will release all remaining assets that are still under our control. We’ve accomplished what we set out to do.” He was interrupted by laughter and jeers. Lenny took a moment to regroup, then continued, “We’ll be setting up our own version of BobNet, our own backup site, and so on. I get that there’s no repairing this, and honestly I don’t see us wanting to continue the association anyway. We’ll give you a star map of our territory. You stay on your side, we’ll stay on ours.”

I waited a few moments for the latest round of jeers and insults to subside, then I said, “You haven’t, you know. Won, I mean. You did some damage, but it won’t have the effect you were hoping for. What you did wasn’t a strategy. It was just lighting things on fire to watch them burn.”

Lenny frowned. “We had an opportunity presented to us, and we had to make a choice. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than sitting around, doing nothing except complaining at moots.” Lenny looked directly into my eyes for a moment, and an unspoken message travelled between us. There was more to this, it had to do with the private conversation we’d had, and he wasn’t going to bring it up if I didn’t.

After a brief moment of silence, Lenny waved a hand in dismissal. “Anyway, it’s done. No point in obsessing about it.” And with that, he and his fellows vanished.

“That was kind of anticlimactic,” Garfield said, as the background chatter increased to a shouting level.

“Hmm, yeah. Interesting.” I frowned and turned away. This would take some more thought.

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