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The team decided to leave before midnight central so they wouldn’t have to
explain their end-of-the-day disappearance. They were determined to hunker
down and really figure out who in this galaxy might actually need their
help. The larger colonies could have huge problems, but the infrastructure
and procedures to deal with them. The single-person sites were harder to
pinpoint, and populated by people who were typically there because they
wanted to be alone. It was the sites like Patsy Richelieu Best First Quarter
Star colony that were likely most in need. Of course, this particular colony
didn’t need anything from them. It was wild to see, though. They would kind
of always expect a colony to either be the fruits of a grand cosmic exodus,
or only one person looking to disconnect from society. There was a lot of
middle ground, though, and they would probably meet others like Patsy and
her cake-loving friends.
“What we need is some kind of monitoring system,” Mateo suggested, not
knowing exactly what he was going for. “Like in movies where aliens are here
to protect us. I guess they don’t have to be benevolent. They just have to
know a lot about us, and have spent time studying us without giving
themselves away.”
“It sounds like you’re talking about invisible probes,” Leona offered.
“Movies often don’t explain how they remain hidden, but it would be
something like that.”
“Invisible probes, I can do,” Ramses decided. He jumped over to the nearest
workstation. “It can stay optically invisible using holography, and shield
its waste heat signature using a miniature hot pocket. It would be able to
move on its own power, and teleport when necessary. It would send signals
exclusively through the bulk, so only we receive the data. It keeps watch
over establishments throughout the year, and compiles a report for when we
return.” He was getting really excited about the possibilities. “I wish I
had thought of it myself. We keep jumping from place to place when we just
need to let the information come to us.” He looked up to find everyone
staring at him.
“Go on,” Romana encouraged. “What else were you thinking?”
“That I should work alone,” Ramses said. He reached over, and squeezed the
band of his watch.
After he held the button down for a few seconds, the whole team vanished.
“Did he just kick us out of his lab?” Angela questioned.
“Wow. Rude,” Marie joked. “But it’s smart for him to have that, for
security.”
“It might take a few days,” Leona estimated. “He won’t just be designing the
new probe, but testing for failures and black swan events. In the meantime,
I think I would like to consider building something for us all that is in
this dimension, instead of our pocket dimension habitats. Nothing
against them, but they’re more for mobile use.”
“I agree,” Mateo said. “If our enemies are right, and this is going to be an
important planet in the future, then I imagine we stay here for a long time.
Or not. Perhaps,like all the other things we’ve had in the past, we’ll hand
this off to someone else, while we move on to something else.”
“I believe what Ramses is doing will keep us busy for quite a while,” Romana
pointed out. “There is probably a lot going on in the galaxy that we simply
do not know about, so it seems boring. We lack data, and we’re about to get
it. But yeah, I’m in.”
They sat down to start drawing up plans for residences fit for an
interstellar capital—not too gaudy—they were not trying to play themselves
as gods. By the end of the day, however, Ramses was finished with his
probes. They sent a small test batch out to some past establishments. They
returned to the timestream the next year with a hit.
