Mario
Names: MarioBob-5
First appears in Book 1: We Are Legion, chapter 17 (Bob – July 2145 – Epsilon Eridani)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: We Are Legion
- Ch 17Bob-5, Mario, is taciturn and antisocial, with a plain gray VR background.
- Ch 18Mario heads for distant Beta Hydri, saying he doesn't want to live in the suburbs.
- Ch 57Mario chose distant Beta Hydri, 23.4 light years from Sol, partly to avoid other Bobs, whose differences he finds creepy.
- Ch 57Mario stencilled Medeiros's name on busters, hoping for a fight.
- Ch 57Mario must leave Beta Hydri to find metal for a station to warn the other Bobs.
Book 2: For We Are Many
- Ch 10Mario found that all animal life on Beta Hydri 4 had been killed and collected, and the whole system stripped of metals.
- Ch 10Mario is determined to warn Bill and the Bobs, and believes meeting the Others will mean war.
- Ch 13Mario builds a space station at Gliese 54 and sends everything he knows about the Others back to Bill.
- Ch 13Mario builds four new Bobs, who name themselves Bashful, Dopey, Sleepy and Hungry, to help find the Others.
- Ch 13The Bobs plan to fan out with open comms links back to Bill, regular backups, and a dead-man self-destruct to avoid capture.
- Ch 15Mario upgrades his next cohort of Bobs with FTL comms to relay his first cohort's reports via SCUT.
- Ch 16Mario is building cohorts of scout Bobs to map the Others' destruction, while Bill researches weapons.
- Ch 54Mario decides to abandon Gliese 54 with all his equipment ahead of the Others' arrival.
Book 3: All These Worlds
- Ch 11Mario and his clones scout the stars around GL 877 to map the Others' destruction.
- Ch 11Mario sees no resolution that involves the Others continuing to exist.
- Ch 33Mario will replace the lost surveillance drones around GL 877 as a priority.
- Ch 46Mario has autofactories about a quarter light-year from GL 877 and agrees to build and send the disguised probes.
- Ch 48Eight years after launch, Mario's disguised probes report from the Others' home system before the Others start shooting down debris.
- Ch 50Mario has rebuilt surveillance around GL 877; the Others' Delta Pavonis expedition is home with no further activity.
- Ch 70Mario will send Bobs to sweep the outskirts of GL 877 and nearby stars, with patrols planned for a century or two.
Book 4: Heaven’s River
- Ch 53Mario and his crew are searching for Others' nests and have found new systems, including planets hit by the Others.
Book 5: Not Till We Are Lost
- Ch 53Mario warns from orbit that eruptions visible from space are spreading west across the continent.
- Ch 55Mario uses his drones to secretly catch freshwater fish on Atlantis, which Howard and Bridget sneak into floater reservoirs at night.
- Ch 57Mario recovers Howard's dranny with a camouflaged drone and repairs it with roamers, leaving a scar at Howard's request.
Connections
- copy ofBob
- enemy ofMajor Ernesto Medeiros
- enemy ofThe Others
- copied intoBashful
- copied intoDopey
- copied intoSleepy
- copied intoHungry
- ally ofBill
- ally ofHal
- related toClaudeClaude is scouting for Mario
- related toJacquesJacques is scouting for Mario
- ally ofRiker
- related toJabberwockydiscovered and named the planet
- ally ofHoward
- ally ofDr. Sheehy
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 17The first copies
Bob loads backups of himself into four new vessels; the copies wake, take the names Riker, Bill, Milo and Mario, while Bob moves into Heaven-1A.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Dividing the work
The Bobs discuss next steps: Bill stays to research subspace and run the Bob factory, Riker plans to investigate Sol, Milo and Mario head out to explore.
- Book 1 · Ch 18The Bobs disperse
Bob, Milo and Mario leave Epsilon Eridani for Delta Eridani, Omicron2 Eridani and Beta Hydri, while Bill builds new Bobs for himself and for Riker's Sol trip.
- Book 1 · Ch 57Alien wreck found at Beta Hydri
Investigating a metal-stripped system, Mario finds a crashed alien ore carrier on GL19-4 amid an ecosystem killed by radiation.
- Book 1 · Ch 57Attack of the mechanical ants
Alien mechanical ants devour a roamer; Mario self-destructs his roamers, discovers the ants run on SUDDAR power, and captures two for scanning.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Genocide at Zeta Tucanae
Mario discovers that the Others wiped out an entire sentient civilization at Zeta Tucanae, dismantling cities and collecting the dead, after stripping Beta Hydri too.
- Book 2 · Ch 13Mario's dwarves plan the hunt
At Gliese 54 Mario builds a station, reports the Others to Bill, and creates four clones who agree to spread out to locate the Others while streaming reports home.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Mario reports the Others to Bill
Mario builds a SCUT, connects to BobNet, and shares his evidence of the Others with Bill, who promises weapons research and a warning to all Bobs.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Butterworth learns of the Others
Howard tells Butterworth about the Others' planet-stripping genocide; the colonel erupts, and Howard explains Mario's scouting and Bill's weapons work.
- Book 2 · Ch 38Hal tests his theory and is caught
Suspecting the Others detect radio traffic, Hal backs himself up and transmits deliberately; the Others close in and his self-destruct engages.
- Book 2 · Ch 44Bob baseball and pub talk
Bobs play Scrub baseball in VR, then debate androids, the word 'ephemerals', asteroid movers and the Others over drinks.
- Book 2 · Ch 53Shielding test at Gliese 877
Hal sends a shielded decoy into the Others' system; it survives a death-asteroid zap long enough to send a scan before self-destructing.
- Book 2 · Ch 54Others head for Gliese 54
Bill warns Hal that an Others squad is heading for Gliese 54, Mario is evacuating, and a first-contact attempt is planned.
- Book 2 · Ch 57Bill and Mario discuss the harvest
Mario describes the Others' exponential ant-based stripping of GL 54; Bill argues they must prepare quickly in case Earth is next.
- Book 2 · Ch 59Others launch toward NN 4285
The Others launch another expedition from GL 877; Bill and Mario worry the Pavonis systems are next and that no Bob system is close enough to help.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Mario reports more Others devastation
Mario tells Bill that scouting around GL 877 has found five more planets wiped out by the Others, including another civilization, and urges a final solution to the Others.
- Book 3 · Ch 33Others attack surveillance drones
Bill tells the moot that drones monitoring GL 877 have been attacked or chased, suggesting the Others know they are watched.
- Book 3 · Ch 46Plan to spy on GL 877
Worried by the Others' silence, Riker persuades Bill to scout GL 877 with disguised low-tech probes, and Mario agrees to carry it out.
- Book 3 · Ch 48Probes find the Others' fleet gone
Mario's surveillance shows the Others' home fleet is absent apart from the Delta Pavonis expedition, convincing Riker something is coming.
- Book 3 · Ch 50War moot
At a moot, the Bobs review the defense buildup, Bellerophon findings and weapons research; Neil warns the Others may already be circling toward Sol.
- Book 4 · Ch 53New exploration candidate
Bridget shows Howard a strange new ecosystem Mario found; she asks Mario to build a station and autofactory there so she can study it.
- Book 5 · Ch 47Mysterious canoe and wreckage
Howard spots a canoe of alien hull plates and advanced SCUT wreckage in Alexander's throne room; Mario confirms neither is human or Bob-made.
- Book 5 · Ch 55Secret fish restocking and food crisis
Mario's drones secretly restock floater reservoirs until it is noticed, nearly causing civil war; with food short, Howard proposes flying the dragons ahead.
- Book 5 · Ch 57Howard's dranny is assassinated
A dragon spears Howard's dranny in flight; Mario's drone recovers and repairs the body while Howard and Bridget suspect Alexander.