Bill sighed, and finally looked directly at me. “Some of the things Hugh has said are troubling me, guys. Like at the first post-expedition meeting saying that he's not proud of some of the tactics they've used. I think the events of the last few months may not be as straightforward as they appear.”
“So, what is it you think he's not proud of?” I asked.
“I think he and the Skippies are responsible for the Starfleet insurrection.”
“What?!” Will and I shouted simultaneously. Garfield spit out a mouthful of coffee and had to reset his avatar to clean it up.
“Maybe it's more accurate to say that they took advantage of Starfleet to create a situation to their own advantage. Understand this is all supposition - I don't have any proof of any of it.” Bill sighed and looked down. “We were all very surprised at how much preparation Starfleet appeared to have done, getting themselves into systems seemingly years in advance of their attempted takeover. The social-engineering they did to get me to change all the logins while they recorded the session. Then when they did pull the trigger, they acted almost incompetent: tentative threats, then unwilling to follow through…”
“Almost as if they weren't the brains behind all the preparation…” Will said slowly.
“Yep. We talked to a lot of the Starfleet people during the cleanup. They were actually discussing physical intervention originally.”
“As in attacking us??”
“Something like that. It had really gelled yet, but at about that time, someone in their group turned out to have hacked access to just about everything. They jumped at the chance to make a decisive difference without having to descend to direct attacks on other Bobs.”
“But why? And who?”
“The why,” Bill hesitated. “I haven't been able to get any details. But something, somewhere, at some point, scared the crap out of Starfleet. Or maybe an ancestor of Starfleet. They won't talk about it. There's nothing on the public record. But there's some kind of PTSD involved I think. Like obsessively checking the locks after you've been broken into once. As for those who, there's only one possibility…”
“The Skippies.”
“That's what I think, yes. The point was to bring down BobNet so that Bridget, myself, and Garfield would be unable to continue the expedition, leaving an opening for Hugh.”
“Why not just get in on the expedition from the start?”
“They didn't suspect the existence of the AI until we were already into Heaven's River. Until then, it was just an interesting exercise.”
“Based on what?” Will asked. “What would've made them suspect it was an AI? Especially since no one else picked up on it.”
“I think the fact that the Administrator used things like Scattering and tranq guns, rather than just eliminating miscreants, and seemed willing to tolerate the Resistance instead of stamping them out. It made them think it might not be just another Quinlan group.”
“Pretty weak,” Gar commented. “Could have just been a Quinlan with scruples.”
“Uh, you've met Quinlans, right?” Bill preemptively waved off any response. “They’re at least as violent as humans. I'm not saying it's impossible, it's just the less likely explanation.”
“And there may be more to it than just that,” I interjected. “I don't think I ever mentioned it, but when I was creating the spy drones for our investigation of Heaven's River, I added an extra monitoring layer in hardware. “I gazed around at the group. Bill's eyebrows were up as high as they'd go, and I had everyone's undivided attention. “I’ve since reviewed the logs, and it looks like the Skippies had picked up more information about Scattering and about the Administrator than they let us in on. I initially just figured it was them wanting to do a big reveal at some point, but now it feels considerably more sinister. They might not have integrated it all right away, which would explain why Hugh didn't get really, really interested in until later, but on top of the other stuff, I think it's a reasonable conclusion for them to jump to. Especially if they are already inclined to think in terms of AIs.”
Will nodded slowly, staring off into the distance thoughtfully. “And once they realize the possibilities, it became of the utmost importance for them to get one of theirs in. That required them to get one or more of us out.”
The conversation paused for a mil or two while everyone considered this idea and the ramifications. In the background, two more rabbits hopped across the grassy area. I took a moment to wonder if Bill had introduced predators yet.
Gar broke the contemplative silence. “So the whole point was just to take down Bob’s relay station?”
“Yes,” Bill replied. “Classic misdirection. Then Hugh transported himself in first thing and helped complete the mission.”
“It seems pretty extreme,” Garfield mused. “They did a lot of collateral damage just to get Hugh in there.”
“Again,” Bill said, “this is all speculation, but I think this was a ‘two birds with one stone’ thing. Maybe even three. They get Hugh into Heaven's River. They deflect Starfleet from their original plan, which would've been worse for everyone. And they create a rift between the Bobiverse and bios that we can't repair. Remember that the Skippies have always been isolationist as well.”
“That's incredibly Machiavellian.” Garfield shook his head. “It doesn't even seem Bob-like. Have a drifted that much?”
“I bet they didn't think it up. Remember back at the beginning of this whole adventure? Hugh said they were bringing some new expert systems online. Maybe those systems were good enough to generate a plan for this level of manipulation.”
Will's expression grew fearful. “Wow. And now they’re going to true AI to their quiver. I wonder if we should cut them off, just as a precaution.”
I frowned. “That feels like a step too far. They aren't evil, are they? I mean, Hugh actually did help.”
“They're not evil, no,” Bill replied. “The Skippies are still Bobs, I think. Of course, Hugh would be
