Guppy nodded and went into command fugue.
The session moved on to the emigration question. The Maldives and Micronesia had pretty much cemented their claim on Poseidon—partly due to lack of interest by the other enclaves. They needed about six hundred more people from other enclaves to form a full colony-ship complement, but they were having a hard time making that. No one wanted to split off from their group, especially to go to a planet so, um, specialized. It was attractive to islanders; to everyone else, not so much.
At the same time, other groups were trying to lay claim to the semi-completed ships for emigration to Vulcan or Romulus. The whole thing was acrimonious and mostly information-free.
[No detectable increase in Earthside traffic. One anomalous communication to spaceside]
Okay, that was something. “Source? Destination?”
[Source New Zealand, although not near any population centers. Destination Homer]
“Uh, excuse me?”
[It was a tight-beam signal. It would not have been detectable except for a chance alignment with one of our drones on cleanup duty]
Oh. Shit. That just did not make sense. Why would Homer be helping them? Why would he be sabotaging his own project? Unless he didn’t have a choice…
Suddenly Homer’s change in personality took on an ominous cast. It was very un-Homer-like. The complete cessation of jokes, the withdrawal from the rest of us…
Perhaps because it wasn’t Homer.
I sent a message to Charles, requesting a physical meet-up.
27. Luke Returns
Bob
March 2178
Delta Eridani
I walked through the village VR, watching the activity. There had been improvements in the six years since I’d been kicked out. I had enough hidden cameras and camouflaged drones around the village now to feed a real-time VR. No more recorded scenes.
Archimedes had finally started taking my tent design seriously. A few other couples copied the result, and now there were a half-dozen pretty good facsimiles of teepees scattered through the village. It was the dry season, but once the rains started up again, I expected this innovation to increase in popularity.
I was trying to ignore a couple engaging in some very public displays of affection when I received a ping. From Luke!
I responded and he popped in. “Hey, Bob. Long time.”
I grinned and slapped him on the shoulder. “Luke! Good to see you, buddy.”
Luke appeared momentarily surprised. We’ve never been physically demonstrative like that. In fact, Original Bob was a little standoffish in terms of physical contact. Luke got over it quickly, though, and grinned back at me. “I just went through the whole surprise-visit-by-Bill thing. Apparently it’s a standard hazing ritual.”
I laughed. “Oh, yes. I went through it, too. You don’t expect a VR link across light years, and I notice that Bill’s transmitted plans still don’t mention the possibility. So, where are you right now?”
“Kappa Ceti. And before you say it, Bill already gave me crap about not picking up his transmissions right away.” Luke materialized a coffee, waited while Spike sniffed his hand, and then turned back to me. “I’ve spent the last several minutes reading blogs. Lots has been happening, apparently.”
I nodded, knowing he would have caught up on events with the Deltans first thing. “What have you found, out your way?”
“A super-Earth.” Luke shrugged. “Absolutely not suitable for colonization. Gravity just over 3G, but a full-on ecosystem. I’ve been having fun cataloguing things. And I’ve started another load of Bobs.”
Luke stopped talking as Archimedes came into the VR area, his son trailing him. Buster was almost as tall as his father, and not showing any sign of slowing down. Archimedes had filled out as he reached full adulthood and wasn’t looking at all bookish any more. The two of them together made a formidable team.
They were carrying bows and had quivers on their backs. Each was carrying some kind of small game, sort of a wild turkey analogue, freshly killed.
Luke turned to me. “Bows and arrows? Wow, dude. Moving things right along.”
I waved a hand in dismissal. “Sooner or later the hippogriffs will find them again. I want them to be ready.”
Luke nodded and materialized a La-Z-Boy. “Good to be back. This looks like fun. Where’s Marvin?”
“He took off a few years ago, right after I got kicked out of Camelot. He keeps in touch, though.”
“Cool. I’ll look him up when I have a moment. Heard from Bender?”
I shook my head. “No, and I have no idea why. One of my clones has followed his flight plan, and should be able to report something in a year or two.”
Luke nodded. I materialized the couch and coffee table setup and got comfortable. There’s always time to get caught up with old friends.
28. Et Tu, Homer
Riker
December 2175
Sol
There was seldom any reason for the Bobs to meet physically these days. SCUT and VR meant we could do everything we needed to in virtual space. SCUT-equipped drones made distance irrelevant for remote administration as well.
Now, two Heaven vessels floated less than fifty meters apart, in a section of space not far enough from a Lagrange point to look suspicious, but not so close that nearby clutter might disguise an eavesdropper. A laser link ensured that communications would be leakage-free and interception-free.
Charles sat across from me, the coffee in his hand forgotten, his expression a mix of confusion, disbelief, and horror.
I hastened to explain. “This is just speculation on my part. Or it started out that way, anyway. When I went over the recent instances of VEHEMENT spaceside sabotage, Homer was always a recent visitor. In a couple of cases, the only recent visitor. We’d been saying that nothing had been near the locations, but that’s because we’ve been discounting ourselves as suspects.”
“But… Homer? How?”
“You remember the hacking attempt on me? I thought that was the only instance, but maybe it was the only instance that we detected. VEHEMENT obviously has some heavy-duty tech on their side. Maybe they discovered another way in.”
“So what do we do?”
I looked down for a moment. This wasn’t going to be easy to say. “We have to disable Homer and check him out. We can apologize afterwards if I’m wrong. Remember the Battle of Sol?”
*
[Investigation complete. File uploaded]