She nodded, thoughtfully, then looked around. “Um, so what do I do?”
“Oh, boy. I guess we should start with lessons. Replicant VR 101.”
*
I received a text from Bridget, indicating that she was finished with her phone calls. I popped into her VR right away, to find her sitting on her couch and quietly crying. I sat down beside her and without saying a word, took her hand.
She took a few more milliseconds, then smiled at me through the tears. “I have to admit, I love that you didn’t include runny noses in the VR world.”
“Look, there’s a limit to even our obsessive realism.” I grinned at her. “We also don’t have mosquitoes. That by itself is worth the price of admission.” I lost the grin and looked into her eyes. “So, want to talk about it?”
Bridget sighed and sat back into the couch. I noted in passing that it was the same couch as she’d had in her real apartment, the one I’d used when I brought her back. The VR was, in fact, a mostly faithful copy of her former home, except for the addition of a bigger sitting room area, and a bay window with a sun-filled view of the Vulcan landscape.
“I talked to Howie,” she said. Her lip quivered for a moment. “He was distant, but seemed embarrassed about it. I think he’s caught between a rock and a hard place, wanting to accept me, but knowing that Rosie would never forgive him.”
“Um.” I said. I figured that would be safe.
Bridget smiled sadly. “Rosie was always difficult. She knows what she wants, and isn’t interested in differing opinions. Or concerned about damage from trying to get her way.”
“Be patient, Bridge. Howie will come around. Out of curiosity, if nothing else. I can put him onto my relatives as well. Give him a more positive viewpoint on replicants as family.”
Bridget nodded and wiped her eyes. Then she looked at her hands with a quizzical expression. “I suppose I could really just alter the VR to clean myself up, couldn’t I?”
“Yes, but don’t. If you start getting in the habit of shortcutting things, you end up just floating around the room like Dracula. The VR helps us remain grounded.” I stopped and thought for a second. “Although now, with the androids and all, it might not be as important.”
Bridget stood up. She wandered slowly around her VR, occasionally picking up objects and examining them. She ended up at the bay window, looking out at the Vulcan forest in the distance. The sun was setting, and long shadows stretched across the foreground.
She gazed out at the landscape for a few moments, then raised a hand and made a small gesture. The Vulcan landscape changed into an aerial view of the Odin cloudscape. Blimps floated in the distance, moving in small groups.
“That’s from the videos I took,” I said, pleased. I walked over to stand beside her.
Bridget turned to me and returned my smile. “Please don’t be insulted, Howard, but it was the chance to study the Odin lifeforms that turned me around on the replication question.”
“Hah-HAH!” I replied. “My evil plan is working like a ch—Ow!”
“Just remember you can still feel my wrath, wise guy.” She grinned as I rubbed my shoulder. “Now, can we see about a field trip?”
“Yesss, precious, just don’t hurts us again.”
“Oh, Howard!”
Well, I’d wanted a family.
Results Negative
Bill
February 2228
82 Eridani
I’d received a report from Mack, so I popped into his VR to discuss it.
“Hey, Bill. Pull up a rock.” Mack waved a hand at a very comfortable-looking overstuffed easy chair, and I took the invitation.
“I read your report, Mack. Not very encouraging.”
“You mean the Medeiros part. Yeah, we’ve scanned this entire system right out to the Oort. Nada. In fact, I did a second scan, staggered in relation to the first one, in case something was hiding in a weak scan zone or something. Still nada.”
“What are the chances that what we saw with Medeiros was all there was?” I doubted that, myself, but wanted confirmation that my thinking was reasonable.
“Can’t see it, Bill. Those busters, and those missiles, had to come from somewhere. You saw that I talked it over with Calvin, right? ‘No damned way’ were his exact words.”
“Nor could he have hauled all those busters, missiles, and roamers all the way from Alpha Centauri.” I stared into space, considering. “Mind you, he couldn’t have brought them in from a nearby system, either, at least not in one trip.”
Mack nodded and rubbed his chin. “So, either he took two trips, or he had help, or he’s building them locally.”
“Maybe you need to go out farther on the scan.”
“Or… Bill, something I’ve been thinking about. We use the cloaking for busters and bombs, and that’s basically what Medeiros has been using it for. But what if he got the bright idea of cloaking an entire autofactory?”
I could feel my eyebrows going up. “Oh, that would be bad. Then he could be in this system, and we’d have to hit him with a focused pulse to even have a hope of detecting him.”
Mack sighed and sat back in his chair. He looked up at the ceiling, not speaking, for almost a half-second. “On the other hand, I could be invoking imaginary dangers, here. We are completely in the dark on this one.”
“You’re up to strength, now, right?”
“More or less.” Mack waved a hand dismissively. “We’ve got printers, we’ve got resources, I’m building a new cohort, I have busters to spare… But it looks like I’m going to have to mobilize a system-wide defense.”
“There’s a lot of that going around, these days, Mack. Look, once you have your cohort up and running, start on more surveillance drones. Give them both long-range and focused scanning capability. I know the chance of hitting something at random with a focused scan is low, but it’s not zero.”
Mack nodded. I stood, gave him a wave, and popped out.
Between the Others and Medeiros, life was just way too interesting.
Course Correction
Icarus
March 2240
Interstellar Space “I am coming up on Epsilon Indi, Dae. From here, it’s a quarter circle. How’s your flight path?”
Daedalus’ response came immediately. “Checking…”
I waited for what seemed forever, but was probably a few milliseconds. This was the critical point in our approach. From this point on, we’d each describe a nice, smooth arc, terminating at GL 877. But timing became increasingly critical, now.
“I’m right on the money, buddy. Tau is correct, everything’s in the green.”
“Excellent,” I responded. “Let’s go kick some Others butt.”
Debut
Howard
December 2220
Odin
We flew effortlessly through the Odin skies, our wings beating just fast enough to maintain momentum. The manta android bodies seemed to be fooling the local wildlife—prey animals bolted, larger animals circled their young or simply ignored us. Ahead, a flock of blimps moved lazily through a krill field, grazing.
They’ll keep an eye on us, but shouldn’t otherwise alter their behavior as long as we don’t start chasing the juveniles, Bridget messaged to me.
Got it. Observe, but don’t snack.