Interstellar space
The phrase middle of nowhere took on an entirely new meaning when you were between star systems. I sat in the middle of a sphere of empty space, with nothing more than the occasional lonely hydrogen atom for literally light-years. The Orion-Cygnus arm of the Milky Way stretched across the sky, annotated by overlays showing distances, readings, and the location of local tourist attractions. Sixty trillion miles to next gas station. I snorted at the thought.
“Status check.”
I looked up at the call from Dae. Right on time, as usual. Well, why not? I didn’t begrudge him his tics, and he didn’t tease me about my wraparound planetarium view.
I returned to my library and opened up my calculation page before responding. “Everything’s in the green.”
“Your tau is a little low.”
I glanced at the status board. “I was drawing slightly ahead of you. I had to cut back my acceleration just a tad.”
“I would have preferred if you’d extended your curve instead, Ick. We need to be synchronized.”
“Understood. Still lots of time to adjust.”
“Um. And on that subject, how are the calcs going?”
“So-so. I still can’t find a definitive answer. Of course, it’s not like anyone’s ever done this before.”
Daedalus chuckled. “Yeah, granted. Have you determined a safe minimum tau, though?”
“Sure,” I answered. “But it’s probably overkill.”
“I’m good with overkill.”
I could hear the grin in his voice. “As am I, Dae. As are all the Bobs. And we have the tau for that. Or will, by the time we get there. Which won’t be long on our clocks.” I smiled into the air. “I guess we could get ourselves into the Bobiverse Book of Records with this. Highest recorded tau by a Heaven vessel.”
“Uh huh. You thinking of heading for the galactic core?”
That got a chuckle from me. “Y’know, once we’re done—”
“—assuming this works—”
“Sure, sure. But it’s not a terrible idea, really.”
There was a moment of silence. “I was going to laugh at you, Ick. But the more I think of it… Really, what’s holding us here?”
“Homo sideria, baby. Maybe it’s time to join up.”
Daedalus popped in, holding a coffee. “Or start it up. Even Mario hasn’t really left the area. I don’t think anyone qualifies yet.”
I waved up a patio chair for Dae, his favorite seating device, and popped up a coffee for myself. “You think we’re timid as a group?”
“No, maybe just creatures of habit. And comfort zone.”
I nodded slowly, letting a grin form. “So, you up for it?”
“Hell, why not?”
I raised my cup in salute. “To Sagittarius A-Star. May it not fry us to twigs.”
Dae made a sweeping motion with his hand. “Just have to make this delivery first.”
Arrival at 82 Eridani
Mack
October 2220
82 Eridani
I was incredibly lucky to have been preparing to go out with a set of colony ships when 82 Eridani was secured. The vote by the colonists to change destinations was barely a formality, probably the most one-sided vote ever registered on Earth, pre or post-war.
And now, twenty-five years later, we’d arrived. Three colony ships, two from Vancouver Island and one from Japan, would be the first human beings to settle this system.
The inner of the two habitable planets resembled Venus in the old pulp-fiction novels—thick, impenetrable jungle, heavy clouds and mist, and large, hungry animals. The outer planet was cooler, with predominantly steppe climates. But it also had about seven percent heavier gravity than Earth. The second generation would adapt. The first would have sore feet for the rest of their lives.
And the larger moon of the outer planet was habitable. Marginally. It would require a serious beefing up of atmospheric pressure. But thanks to years of research and, frankly, screwing around with the environment on Ragnar?k, Bill had solutions ready. We would have the atmosphere up to Earth normal within fifty years.
I checked the L4 points for each planet, looking for the materials caches that Verne’s notes said he’d left for us. Sure enough, a couple of million tons of various elements, bundled up with radio beacons attached, all ready and available for manufacturing. Awesome.
Well, time to report back. I pinged the colony ships, then invited them into my VR. Isaac, Jack, and Owen popped in. This group had no particular VR theme or style, and all three affected simple jean-and-tee-shirt ensembles. Original Bob had always been a bit button-down, so it was surprising to see the same variation in three clones at the same time. One of these years, someone would have to do a study and see if there were any patterns to the cloning variations.
“Hey, Mack,” Isaac said. “How’s it looking?”
“Well, the stuff Verne left for us is still there. The system appears to still be Medeiros-free, which is a bonus, of course.”
I arranged holograms and data sheets for the three planets in midair, then turned to the other Bobs. “We need to name the planets. The humans seem to accept suggested names from us, but leave it to them and, well, we’re still waiting on KKP.”
“I thought it was Quilt?” Jack grinned.
“It might end up as that just through common usage. But the official name is still KKP, until they can agree on something.”
Jack waved the comment away, not really interested. “Looking at the pictures, I really like Owen’s suggestion of Valhalla for the moon of planet three. Can we settle that one?”
I looked around. Everyone nodded. “Okay, Valhalla it is,” I said. “I agree, that’s a good one. Now, the primary?”
“Asgard?”
“That’s a little trite, don’t you think?” I gave Jack the evil eye.
He shrugged, unrepentant. “I like themes.”
No one but me seemed to have a problem with it, so I shrugged. “Let’s take it as tentative. Now, planet two?”
“Tartarus?”
“Oh, sure, if you don’t want anyone to settle there, ever.”
Jack grinned and shrugged again. “Well, if we want to stay on theme, there’s Muspelheim.”
“That sounds like some kind of rash,” Isaac interjected. We all laughed.
“Jotunheim?”
We all looked at Owen. “Land of giants,” I said. “Actually kind of appropriate.”
“And sticking to the theme!” Jack exclaimed.
“Okay, then, vote on those three. “In favor? Opposed?” I grinned at the guys. “Carried. Looks like we have a Norse mythology going here.”
I sat down and grabbed a Coke. “So, now that the fun stuff is out of the way, how will we handle the settling?”
“We’ll wake up a rep from each colony group, Let them decide.” Isaac waved a hand at the holograms. “There’s enough space on Asgard and Jotunheim that they could reasonably pick the same planet.”
“Hmm, jungle planet, heavy planet, or can’t-breathe planet. This should be fun.”