Annihilation (Star Force Series) by B. V. Larson Page B

understand his hesitation. I also understood now why he’d asked for absolution before making an attempt to do this.
    “Marvin,” I said. “I get it. You’re talking about hacking this thing. About attempting to get it to do what you want. But you know you don’t understand the interface. You’d be making guesses, and bad things might happen as a result.”
    “Exactly.”
    I thought about it. What if Marvin reversed the ring’s direction of flow and put the other end of it into the flaming surface of an unknown star? Anything was possible. He might destroy Yale, or save it.
    I knew a little about hacking. It was a hit-or-miss thing. Usually, there were a lot of misses before hits were registered. It would take time, and it would be dangerous. But really, what other choice did we have?
    “You know Marvin, this interchange represents a shift in your behavior. I think you might be maturing. Instead of hiding the possible disasters that may occur, you brought them up ahead of time. I’m proud of you, Marvin. You’re learning about responsibility and honestly, I think you’re growing up.”
    “That’s an unexpected compliment, Colonel Riggs.”
    “Keep it in your RAM,” I told him. “I don’t give a lot of those.”
    “Audio saved.”
    I smiled and summoned Captain Jasmine Sarin and the rest of my command staff. We had a decision to make.
    “I think the Crustaceans have to decide, Colonel,” was Jasmine’s opinion. I wasn’t surprised. Everyone felt that way. We’d discussed it for nearly an hour, and the prevailing decision was clear.
    I nodded and contacted Professor Hoon. They all listened intently. No one seemed more interested than Marvin himself. He desperately wanted to make the attempt, of course. His main interest in this meeting was spreading the blame for it afterward, in case it turned into a royal shit-bomb. No one could blame the crazy robot if he’d gotten us all to agree it was risky.
    Professor Hoon’s answer was quick and decisive.
    “Yes, by all means. Make the attempt. But be warned: there will be an investigation afterward. If this is an elaborate ruse to increase the speed of our world’s demise, there will be a censure forthcoming.”
    I tried not to smile. After all, we were talking about billions of possible deaths. The fact they were all doomed in the near future seemed almost immaterial to them. What mattered more was the correctness of the procedure. I thought about asking Hoon who he thought was going to perform this investigation and censure, but held back.
    “Understood, Professor Hoon. We’ll take every precaution.”
    “We also request dissemination of the results,” Hoon continued.
    I hesitated. This was a sore point among my staff. If we did gain some level of control over the ring, they didn’t want to give that powerful technological advantage away to the Crustaceans. They’d been hostile just a month ago. They were cooperating now, but were not really our allies.
    “We will consider it after the successful conclusion of the operation. Possibly, we will utterly fail, in which case there’s nothing to disseminate. If it does work out and relations between our governments are normalized we can consider sharing technologies. We have a lot of things to share, far more than just this little trick.”
    “We accept your conditions, because we have no choice.”
    I turned to Marvin and the rest of them. Marvin was barely able to crouch at the conference table, he was so excited. No one else was sitting within a chair or two of him for fear they’d get slapped by a tentacle or knocked in the head by a drifting camera.
    “Can I proceed, Colonel?” he asked.
    “Yes,” I said, “there’s no time to waste. See if you can turn off that damned ring, Marvin.”
    “Channel open,” he said.
    Suddenly, Marvin froze up. Every tentacle stopped moving, and he resembled a still-motion photograph. The effect was uncanny. No human could have gone from such a state of