9:30 AM, May 7, 2136
The lag varies . '' He waved impatiently toward the massed banks of SRB machines . `` As you well know . '' At this moment , 9:30 AM , May 7 , 2136 , the statistical ratio on the SRB machines stood at 21-17 on the Centauran side of the ledger . All facts considered , the odds favored a successful repulsion by Proxima Centaurus of a Terran military attack . The ratio was based on the total information known to the SRB machines , on a gestalt of the vast flow of data that poured in endlessly from all sectors of the Sol and Centaurus systems . 21-17 on the Centauran side .