Epsilon Indi had a Jovian planet a bit outside the habitable zone, and not much else. I promised myself I’d have a more thorough look around as soon as possible. But first, I had to take care of Henry.
The system didn’t have an overabundance of ore, but fortunately Henry had located the biggest concentrations. I started the autofactory on a space station right away. I wanted to talk to Bill about this, but a conversation with a fourteen-year latency would take forever. I was playing with the idea of flying back to Epsilon Eridani and taking Henry with me.
I did a close-up investigation of the Australian hardware. It was very similar to my own. No, I mean really similar. There had obviously been some espionage going on, and someone had borrowed someone else’s design. No way this was coincidence.
I carefully extracted the replicant core from the palace. I set the autofactory to building a proper cradle, power supply, and extra memory. Once I was sure that I had Henry out and safe, I began breaking down the palace for material. I felt a little guilty, like I was stealing or something, but Henry really wasn’t using all this. And it saved time.
Henry didn’t have the knowledge to put together VR, but I did. I could piggyback him on my system. And he might still be salvageable.
***
I stood for a moment behind Henry and breathed the brisk, salty air. The Contessa cut through the chop with a bounce and roll that I found alarming, but that Henry had reassured me was normal. He had known his vessel down to the last bolt and screw when he was alive, so it had been simple to reconstruct in VR.
The South Pacific stretched out to the horizon in all directions. A steady wind to the northwest promised an easy, undemanding day of sailing. Or so the books all said. I was still figuring it out.
Henry turned from the wheel to face me. “Hello, Linus. Come for another round of butting into my life?”
I grinned at him in response. Henry was lucid nowadays, but believed himself to be back on Earth. His memories of the years as a replicant still came back to him as nightmares. I’d made his VR as realistic as possible, which included eating, sleeping, and, um, bodily functions.
“I had that dream again, Linus.” Henry shuddered a little. “The nightmare where I couldn’t feel myself. Where all around me, things talked at me and demanded my attention, wanting me to build something. Where the world was just an endless scroll of night…”
I sat down. “But it’s getting weaker, right? Less intense?”
Henry nodded.
“Good. Now, tell me about when the government came to you to offer you the chance to be the space probe replicant…”
Riker – May 2162 – Sol
Homer and I looked at each other in amazement, then back at the message.
Plans for a Subspace Communications Universal Transceiver (SCUT) with zero latency.
Homer shook his head in disbelief and admiration. “Sumbitch. He did it.”
I nodded at him, sharing the emotion. “I think this qualifies as a good reason to interrupt the printer schedule.”
***
We examined the finished product. It was obviously not built with marketing in mind. Not a trace of chrome, no logo… but according to the notes, communications should be instantaneous across interstellar distances. Almost shaking with excitement, I turned it on.
Connections available:
Epsilon Eridani
Omicron2 Eridani
I examined the menus, registered myself with the software, then pinged Bill.
Bill’s video image popped up immediately. “Hey, Riker. Long time.”
No kidding. Seventeen years, from Bill’s point of view. Less for me, thanks to Einstein. I sat back, arms crossed, and looked over at Homer’s video window. He was grinning ear to ear.
Bill waved at Homer. “Dude, I see you’re still in one piece. And I see you no longer use the cartoon avatar. Any causal connection?”
Homer threw his head back and laughed. “Yeah, pretty sure. Number two is actually talking to me these days. I must be slipping.”
I gave him the Spock eyebrow. “Yeah, but I don’t need you now.”
Homer looked shocked and Bill grinned at both of us.
“Well, it’s nice to see some things haven’t changed,” Bill said. “And now that we’ve gotten the reunion warm-and-fuzzies out of the way, I’ve got a bunch of software updates and VR improvements as well as some hardware upgrades I can download to you.”
“Anything that implements an ignore list?” I glared at Homer.
Bill looked from me to Homer, grinning at both of us. “Now, the big question. What’s the situation with Earth?”
I pulled up my logs. “Here, I’ll send this to you. Faster than explaining it. This setup allows all normal VR interfacing, right?”
“Yep. This is just a different transport layer. Same object interface.”
I nodded and pushed the files toward him. Bill did a momentary frame-jack as he absorbed the information, then came back with a wide smile.
“That is so cool!” Then he lost the smile. “Uh, not the part where 99.9% of the human race is dead. The survivors part. And the relatives part. Of course.”
I nodded. “S’okay, Bill. We’ve all had the same foot in the same mouth. So listen, have you got anything back from other Bobs on possible new homes?”
“Ah. I guess I’ve got a file for you…”
***
“Twin planets?” Colonel Butterworth’s eyes were wide.
“Yeah, just like the file says.” I knew I was grinning like an idiot. I couldn’t stop. After the years of worrying, this was such a huge relief.
The colonel looked at me with one eyebrow cocked. “I doubt you’ll give us both planets. I expect we get first choice, and the Spits get the other. That about right?”
I looked at him in surprise. He had to be testing me. He couldn’t possibly be that dense.
“Colonel, we won’t be giving an entire planet to twenty thousand people. We could put all fifteen million on one of them, in theory. If any travelling Bobs find more planets, we’ll expand the choice of destinations, but at the moment everyone is slated for Romulus or Vulcan.”
The colonel gave a small smile. Yep, testing me.
“As you say. Although I might suggest that some re-balancing of populations would be in order if more worlds are found.”
I nodded. “We’ll play it by ear, colonel. There are still too many unknowns to make any hard and fast plans. But at least we have a destination.”
“True. That means no delay once the ships are ready.”
“Mmm, hmm. Well, I’m going to make a general announcement to the community. I guess you’ll want to be there.”
The colonel smiled. “I’m also delighted that we no longer face the specter of living under domes on Epsilon Eridani Two. I’m not sure if I’d see the point of going at all, unless things got far worse here.”
Colonization of Ragnar?k had been a topic of conversation off and on since we’d first started the emigration plans. The general consensus was that it was a last-ditch option. I agreed with the colonel. It was nice to be able to set that option aside.