Annihilation (Star Force Series) Read Online Free Page B

angles, sending input into his amazing nanite-chain brain. Others propelled him by dragging his body around. A few were reserved for directly manipulating his surroundings, like human hands.
    Today, he was in a floating configuration, gliding around on gravity repellers. I paused in concern to inspect his propulsion systems, making sure they weren’t powerful enough for full flight. He’d been forbidden to outfit himself as a ship. He’d gotten into serious trouble every time I’d allowed him that luxury. Flitting around the station was one thing, but having full run of the star system was quite another. I’d made the mistake of giving him flight permission in the past and he’d provided me a large number of sleepless nights in return.
    The trouble with Marvin wasn’t that he was an enemy. He was definitely on our side—but he got ideas . These ideas were things that no human could ever come up with, much less put into action. He was brilliant and useful, but also easily fascinated and obsessed. When I assigned him a critical task, often something no one else could do, it would get done eventually. But along the way he might become distracted by some idea of his own. He might want to grow a culture of intelligent microbes, for example, or explore a neighboring star system without permission.
    “Marvin!” I said, stepping forward and saluting him.
    He returned the gesture by slapping a tentacle to his brainbox. It wasn’t even close to a real salute, but it was the best I was going to get, so I didn’t complain.
    “Greetings, Colonel Riggs.”
    I did a quick count on the number of cameras he had following me. Often, Marvin gave away his true intentions by focusing more or fewer cameras on a subject. Things that bored him were covered by one drifting electronic eye. Things that fascinated him received the attention of multiple panning, zooming cameras.
    This time, to my surprise, Marvin had several eyes on Sandra. I frowned, not understanding what he had in mind. Deciding I didn’t have time to try to figure it out, I shrugged and pressed ahead.
    “I’ve got a new project for you, Marvin. I want a carrier ship produced quickly, with minimum downtime. Here are Miklos’ initial plans. Go over those, make adjustments for performance and faster production times. When you’re done, oversee the production.”
    By the end of this little speech, I’d gained the attention of four more of his cameras.
    “I’m surprised by these instructions, Colonel,” he said. “I’ve been working on the sensory data incoming from the Thor system. I’ve—”
    “Yes, I know that was your prior assignment. Do you have any new datum to report?”
    “No, Colonel. I—”
    “Then perhaps you’ve come up with a hypothesis to explain the situation?”
    “No, sir. However, I haven’t been allowed to make direct contact with the Crustaceans. If I were allowed to converse with them myself, I’m sure—”
    “Not going to happen, Marvin,” I said. “But I’m here now, and if it makes you any happier, you’ll be the first to know what is discussed between Star Force and the Crustaceans.”
    “Ah,” Marvin said. “I see. I’m to serve as a translator-bot again?”
    “You’re still better at it than the other brainboxes. So, yes.”
    I could tell Marvin was miffed. He wanted to be given diplomatic tasks to complete. I’d long since decided that was never going to happen. The mere suggestion gave my command staff fits. But I hardly needed their cautioning. Marvin could do the job, certainly. He understood the languages of the various races in our local space better than any being in existence. He was also very good at manipulation and getting what he wanted out of a conversation. Unfortunately, I couldn’t trust him to take such a conversation in the direction I wanted it to go. If he came up with any idea of his own, which he no doubt would consider extremely interesting, the entire diplomatic exchange might well transform