The Corporation Wars: Dissidence Read Free

out of line-of-sight of the landing site. Seba scanned ahead with flickering fans of radar and laser beams. It internalised the resulting 3-D model, and picked its way along the narrow floor. Some spots under overhangs had been in permanent shadow since the crack had formed. In these chill niches, liquids pooled. Seba poked the murky puddles with delicate antennae as it passed, and found a slush of water ice and hydrocarbons. Here, then, was the probable source of the carbon molecules it had earlier scented on the thin breeze.
    The robot’s internal laboratories churned the fluids and digested the results, tabulating prevalences and setting priorities. A quick rattle of ground-penetrating radar revealed a seam of hydrocarbon-saturated rock about two metres down. Seba determined to log the report as soon as it was clear of the crevice and able to uplink data to the satellite that hung in stationary orbit over that hemisphere of the exomoon.
    It continued to pace along, tracing the seam’s rises and dips, and analysing the occasional drip and seep on the floor and walls. The slush’s composition of long-chain molecules became increasingly diverse and complex. Some intriguing chemistry was going on here. Seba’s internal model of the situation revised and expanded itself, sending out long chains of association that in some cases linked to available information, and in others dangled incomplete over unanswered questions.
    As Seba turned around an angle of the path, it found itself facing the exit from the crack, and a flood of exosunlight. It moved forward slowly, scanning and searching. The floor of the crater was clearly visible. Seba calculated it as several metres below the opening. Seba approached the lip cautiously, to find a reassuringly shallow slope of debris. As it scanned to plan a safe route down this unstable-looking scree, Seba detected an anomalous radar echo. A moment later this puzzle was resolved: a second ping came in, clearly from another radar source.
    Seba rocked back, sensors and effectors bristling, then edged forward again.
    From behind a tumbled boulder about ten metres away, halfway down the slope, a robot hove into view. It was of the centipede design favoured by another prospecting company, Gneiss Conglomerates. Capable of entering smaller holes and cracks than Seba, it could scuttle about between rocks and form its entire body into a wheel shape for rolling on smoother surfaces. There were pluses and minuses to the shape, as there were to Seba’s, but it was well suited to mineral prospecting. Astro America, the company that owned Seba, was more focused on detecting organic material and other clues from SH-17’s surface features that—besides being interesting in themselves—could serve as proxies for information about the exomoon’s primary: the superhabitable planet SH-0. Exploration rights to SH-0 were still under negotiation, so it was currently off limits to direct investigation with atmospheric and landing probes.
    The two robots eyed each other for the few milliseconds it took to exchange identification codes. The Gneiss robot’s serial number was later to be contracted, neatly and aptly, to the nickname Rocko, and—as before with Seba—we may here anticipate that soubriquet.
    Seba requested from Rocko a projection of its intended path, in order to avoid collision.
    Rocko outlined a track that extended up the slope and into the crevice.
    Seba pointed to the relevant demarcation between the claims of Gneiss and Astro.
    Rocko pointed to a sub-clause that might have indicated a possible overlap.
    Seba rejected this proposition, citing a higher-level clause.
    At this point Rocko indicated that its capacity for legal reasoning had reached its limit.
    Seba agreed.
    There was a brief hiatus while both robots rotated their radio antennae to the communications satellite, and locked on. Seba submitted a log of its geological observations so far to Astro America. That duty done, it uploaded a