Hydra
by Ian Stewart (Analog, February 1993)
Not so much a short story as the author’s midnight musings on Von Neumann Probes, tacked onto the end of an all-female deep-space mining scenario. While big on character conflict, Stewart skips though action sections as if wielding a mis-firing magic eraser.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
by Dennis E. Taylor; audiobook read by Ray Porter (Brilliance Audio, 2016)
Despite a paucity of character and story arcs (at least within this first volume), there is something very appealing about Taylor’s geek-cool, freewheeling what-if scenario. Porter’s audiobook reading is spot on as a cohort of AI Von Neumann probes guide humanity’s destiny.