“How will you decide who to load?”
Will groaned audibly. “That is an issue that I admit I’ve been carefully avoiding thinking about. We’ll be abandoning almost half of the population of Earth to whatever fate the Others are able to dish out. No matter how you phrase it, this is going to be difficult.”
Neil stared at the ceiling for a moment. “Lottery?”
“That would be the most fair, I guess,” Will replied. “But I think we have to worry about efficiency. So biggest enclaves first, and move in an efficient path from one to the next. We can’t hop all over the planet just because of a random draw.”
“Wow.” This was mind-boggling, and not in a good way. “You’re going to make arbitrary decisions about who lives and who dies. How do you live with that?”
Will’s face took on a haunted look. “I don’t know, Herschel. I just don’t know.”
Reconciliation
Howard
October 2230
Odin
I was standing at the fibrex wall, staring out into the Odin airscape, when Bridget came up and put her hand on my shoulder. The subdued and silent approach made me turn to look at her, already expecting trouble.
Her eyes had a look—haunted, surprised maybe, but not horrified, not panicked. I cocked my head, waiting for her to talk.
She tried several times to smile, before finding her voice. “I’ve been invited to a wedding.”
“Those are always nice. Whose?”
“Howie’s.”
My eyebrows went up. “Hasn’t he skipped a few steps?”
Bridget smiled. “I’ve missed quite a bit of my children’s lives, it seems. But your idea of having Riker’s relatives—” she grimaced. “—you know what I mean, of having them talk to him, seems to have helped.”
“So he’s talking to you.”
“Um. And Lianne will be there. According to Howie, I should give her some time and she’ll come around.”
“Rosie?”
Bridget shook her head. “She laid down an ultimatum. If I show up, she won’t. Or if you do, for that matter.”
“She seems pissed.”
Bridget winced, and I immediately regretted the flippant comment. “Sorry, Bridge.”
“It’s probably permanent, Howard. She is who she is. She won’t back down. Howie said he wanted his children to be able to know their grandmother. He had to make a choice.”
“So, when?”
“It’s in less than a month. I’ve already asked Dex to make me a Bridget android. And you’re invited as well.” She gave me the hairy eyeball. “And yes, you’ll be wearing a suit.”
*
I was wearing the suit and tie, again. That was okay, though, because I got to see Bridget in full get-up. She wore a green dress, of course, to go with the red hair. You’d think it would be cliché, but apparently not, when done right.
In my opinion, it was done very, very right.
Bridget had held on to her apartment in Landing. Originally, I think it was just nostalgia on her part, but now it was turning out to be useful. We could keep our androids here when not in use, and otherwise have a permanent address on Vulcan.
At the appropriate time, we called for one of the communal transpods and gave the AMI driver the address of the church.
The wedding was, well, wedding-like. Catholic, of course. Howie looked a little older, a little more mature. His bride, Angelina, was beautiful as only a bride can be. I found myself tearing up, which surprised me a little. It wasn’t actually my family, after all. But that didn’t seem to matter.
At the reception, Bridget finally came face-to-face with her son. There was a moment of hesitation, and I braced myself to intervene. But it passed, and Howie embraced his mother. The hug lasted longer than you’d normally expect. Neither seemed inclined to break. I took that as a good sign.
Finally, they moved apart, wordlessly. Then it was my turn. I stuck out my hand. “Congrats, kiddo.”
He took the hand and grinned at me. “Thanks, Howard. I don’t really have to call you uncle anymore, do I?”
I laughed. “Call me whatever you want, Howie. It’s all good.” I looked at Bridget, who was barely holding back her own tears. “And call me whenever you want, as well. We’re always around.”
We moved aside to let the line advance. “That wasn’t bad,” I said to Bridget. She didn’t answer, and I noticed that she was staring off into the distance. I followed her gaze, and saw Lianne. Oh.
“I’ll, uh, I’ll be over at the buffet. Food calls.”
Bridget nodded, and walked toward her daughter.
*
I was just polishing off some excellent roast beast, when Bridget sat down beside me.
“And?”
She sighed and looked at me. “Rosie is emigrating to Romulus.”
“Seems a bit extreme.”
“That’s Rosie, Howard. Never back down, never compromise. She’s cut off her brother and sister.” Bridget’s eyes were tearing up. “Howard, am I being selfish? Should I just leave?”
“Oh, Bridget, there comes a point where you can’t be the one always doing the accommodating. Everyone’s tried with Rosie. It’s now time for her to do a little compromising. And I don’t see it happening.”
She nodded, but she was still not happy.
“Look, you can try reconnecting with her children, eventually. Assuming she has any. Remember, we’ve got forever.”
Bridget sighed and nodded again. I pointed to Howie, who was dancing with his bride, and Bridget’s face brightened.
Family. Good, bad, or nasty, you had to deal with them.
Sneak Attack
Riker
April 2257
Sol
Bill had put up a number of display walls in the moot room. Two hundred Bobs filled the hall, and several hundred more attended remotely. For the first time since he’d built it, the moot VR was maxed out.
The display walls all showed the same image—a graphic of the Others’ projected course into the Solar System, terminating at Earth. At various angles to that approach, with tooltips attached, were our counteroffensive units. We would be taking the battle to them, hopefully before they realized we were aware of them.
“We have to take out as many of them as we can,” Bill was saying, “before they have time to react. They have the size and power advantage in a toe-to-toe. But hit-and-run attacks favor us.”
Thor stepped up and pointed to one group. “Cloaked fusion bombs are going in first. Three minutes. These babies have mechanical backups, so even if they zap them, the bombs will still go off at the preset time.” He looked around. “We hope.”
I looked up at the countdown timer. Less than three minutes to first engagement. The tension in the room was palpable.