35.      Sales Call

Bashful (a Bob replicant) investigates the Gliese 877 system and discovers artificial radio signals indicating intelligent life. After deploying stealth probes, he detects a massive artificial structure in orbit around an inner planet, but is intercepted by six alien vessels. During a high-speed evasion maneuver, one of the alien ships fires a grid weapon that critically damages Bashful's ship, triggering a reactor overload and self-destruct sequence.

Bashful arrives at the Gliese 877 system following orders to search for the Others. Detecting artificial radio signals, he proceeds with extreme caution, deploying two stealth probes made from carbon-fiber and non-ferrous materials designed to avoid detection. The probes take two weeks to survey the inner system while Bashful follows a powered flight path around the outer system. Probe telemetry reveals two inner rocky planets, a small Jovian, and a massive artificial structure with significant activity orbiting at 80% of the inner planet's orbital radius. The electromagnetic signature is concentrated around this structure rather than the planets themselves. Days into his analysis, proximity alarms detect an approaching vessel with a shielded reactor, identifiable only by SUDDAR. Bashful calculates he cannot outrun the contact and executes a doubling-back evasion tactic at a thirty-five degree angle. Over the following hours, six alien vessels become visible: five resembling the cargo ship wreck encountered previously and one large structure approximately half a kilometer in diameter resembling a Death Star with a flat grid section. The chase develops like a chess game over nearly a day, with closest approach calculated at less than ten kilometers. As Bashful prepares to pass the vessels, the larger ship rotates to bring its grid weapon to bear. Despite Bashful's evasive maneuvers and maximum shielding, the grid weapon fires and hits the ship, destroying the controller replicant and SURGE drive. The reactor overload self-destruct protocol activates.