14. Council of War

Bob convenes a full council of his team to address critical logistics for the Heaven's River expedition. The group discusses field-testing the mannies (androids) on the Quinlan home planet, settles on a risky plan to smuggle them through mining drone collection bins, and confirms that a tunnel must be dug immediately to gain entry to the topopolis.

Bob meets with his support team and expeditionary members in the expanded library to review expedition progress. Locutus raises a critical oversight: the mannies need realistic field-testing, but there is no suitable test environment available. Garfield suggests using the Quinlan home planet, but Bridget rejects this due to unknown weapons used in the planet's destruction, including possible biological warfare. Bill proposes instead sending one or two mannies to the Quinlan world for testing, then fabricating replacements—a solution Locutus improves by suggesting they send maintenance equipment and a small printer to perform real-time fixes. Gandalf then presents the entry strategy: the Spin Transfer system cannot be activated without alerting authorities, so the mannies must be ferried into the topopolis individually using the same mining drone collection bins that carried spy drones. Though risky, Gandalf argues this is safer than alternatives and poses negligible danger to the topopolis itself due to relative mass differences. Bill confirms the outer shell material is exceptionally durable. Bob requests a fifth spare manny, which Bridget approves. Hugh reports solid language comprehension sufficient to avoid suspicion, though some colloquialisms remain uncatalogued. The discussion confirms that the expedition will number four mannies—matching the Quinlan sabbat tradition of young adults traveling in groups. Finally, Gandalf reveals that the tunnel to gain entry must begin immediately, prompting Bob to acknowledge the mounting workload.