All These Worlds (Bobiverse Book 3)

by Dennis E. Taylor

  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.

  Hah hah. Funny man.

  In typical engineering fashion, I’d been content to build drones and observe from afar. Bridget, the moment she’d heard about Bob’s Charlie android that emulated a Deltan, and Marcus’ experiments with aquatic versions, had suggested we try something similar.

  The mantas were a mid-level pack predator, shaped generally like the eponymous Earth fish. As with all Odin life, they contained a hydrogen sac to maintain neutral buoyancy. I had wanted to use helium instead for the androids, but the heavier construction created enough issues without using the less buoyant alternative.

  We caught up to the flock of blimps. These were the huge animals that I’d spotted on my first deep dive into Odin’s atmosphere. They filled a niche similar to baleen whales, feeding on the plentiful small life that seemed to fill the air. We began to circle them, and each blimp kept a huge eye on a stalk pointed our way.

  Are you recording?

  Yes, dear.

  Her response was a LOL and a heart emoji.

  [Reminder: Moot starts soon.]

  Who
ops. I messaged Bridget, and she reluctantly agreed to pack it in for the day. We set our androids to autonomous station keeping. They would fly a slow, large circle, avoiding contact with other animals, until we needed them again.

  We popped back into my VR. As usual after a manta session, Bridget’s face was flushed and she wore an ecstatic expression.

  “Are you sure you’re up for this? We can still put it off.”

  Bridget lost her smile. “I know, Howard, but I feel like I’m starting to become phobic about it. I have to come out in public sooner or later.”

  “All right. Take a deep breath…” I took her hand, smiled reassuringly—I hoped—and we popped into the moot VR.

  It could have passed for a photograph instead of a live action scene. Almost a hundred versions of my face stared back at us, eyes wide, mouths in the identical oh shape. No movement, no sound. Even the Jeeves’ had stopped to stare.

  The tableau held for a couple of milliseconds. Then I leaned close to Bridget and stage-whispered, “Don’t worry, they’re more scared of you than you are of them. Just don’t make eye contact.”

  The room broke up in laughter, and Bobs began coming over to say hi. It was starting to look like we’d be mobbed—well, Bridget would be mobbed; I might as well have been lint—but I’d carefully timed our entrance. At that moment, Bill gave the blaat from his air horn that meant the meeting was starting. Bobs turned to face Bill, and Bridget exhaled a sigh of relief.

  We maneuvered ourselves to the back to get a couple of beers and watch the moot without being too much of a distraction. A short, trim man with thick dark hair walked over and said hello in an Australian accent.

  I nodded to him and turned to Bridget. “Bridget, this is Henry Roberts. He’s from the Australian probe that Linus found in Epsilon Indi. Henry, Bridget.”

  Bridget made a small show of looking around, and said, “Henry, I only see the one of you. Are you not replicating?”

  Henry shook his head emphatically. “No way, ma’am. Since Linus rebuilt my matrix, I don’t feel any need for more of me. Nor to explore the universe, particularly. Hasn’t really gone that well for the Bobs, so far.”

  “Come on, Henry, just the one creepy marauding alien species. That’s pretty good, overall.” I smiled at him.

  Henry smirked back, then turned to Bridget. “What about you? Planning to replicate?”

  Bridget rolled her eyes. “I understand why that was the original plan with the HEAVEN project, but the whole concept just gives me the shakes.” She looked at me for a moment. “I don’t understand how the Bobs are comfortable with it. It may be related to Original Bob’s humanistic philosophy.”

  I cut in. “You’re probably right about the humanism, but to say we’re comfortable with it is a slight exaggeration. If not for the Others, and the issue with Earth, I bet there’d be only a few dozen of us.”

  Both Bridget and Henry nodded thoughtfully. Henry replied, “And since you have that covered, I guess we’re good? I haven’t felt any pressure to contribute copies.”

  “We’re resource-constrained, Henry. We can only build so many ships per year. Whether they’re Bobs or Henrys or Bridgets doesn’t matter. Might as well stick with the current system. At least the new clones come out knowing the full story.”

  Bridget smiled at me before turning back to Henry. “So what are you going to do with yourself to keep busy?”

  Henry looked surprised for a moment, then grinned. “To tell the truth, Bridget, I’m on my way to Omicron2 Eridani right now. I’m going to get an android body made, land on Romulus or Vulcan, and build a sailboat. Then I’ll spend a decade or two sailing the whole planet.”

  “In fact,” he added after a moment’s thought, “I think I’ll try to sail every ocean of every planet in the human sphere. Chances are I’ll never catch up.”

  I laughed and nodded my head in Bridget’s direction. “And she is going to catalog every species on every planet in the human sphere.”

  “Damn betcha. What’s it to ya?” Bridget glared at me in challenge.

  Henry chuckled. “Well, then, I expect I’ll run into you from time to time.”

  Bridget responded with her nuclear-powered laugh, and Henry’s eyes widened slightly.

  Yeah, she affects people like that. I’d made sure to preserve Bridget’s mannerisms as faithfully as possible. Henry’s reaction showed that the laugh was as effective in VR as it had been in real life. I frowned for a moment. She didn’t laugh as much as she used to, though. I wondered if that was because of replicant variations, or her recent experiences.

  “Er, um, have you used one of the human androids yet?” Henry was making a visible effort to get himself back on an even keel.

  Bridget shook her head and looked at me. “Howard’s been trying to get me to try it. I think I’m just going to take it slow. And I’m worried about running into my children.”

  “But she’s okay flying an alien predator around on a gas giant.” I winked at her, and she grinned back.

  Henry chuckled, then turned to face the front as Bill finished his opening speech. First item on the agenda was always the Others, Preparation For and Status Of. No one wanted to miss anything.

  Bill’s summary was short and to the point. The harvesting of Delta Pavonis continued, the Bobs still didn’t have any way of stopping it, and no one had a plan.

  Outstanding.

  Pav Arrival

  Jacques

  May 2247

  HIP 84051

  I settled into an orbit around HIP 84051-2. It was a young planet of a young star, according to the survey. Native plant life hadn’t reached the angiosperm stage, and animal life hadn’t figured out endothermia yet. I hoped that Phineas and Ferb had managed to pick up a lot of genetic samples on Pav before the Others arrived. According to updates from Bill over the last few decades, re-creating plants and animals from samples was getting a lot easier. Of course, that comment was based on Earth life, with which we were very familiar. Extraterrestrial stuff would take some more work.

  Mind you, we didn’t have to decant the Pav right away. Life forms didn’t suffer degradation in a stasis pod. We could take our time, figure out the Pav biology, get the process working, then wake up the refugees. I’d like that.

  I checked the notes on HIP 84051. The Bob that explored and reported this system was named Steve. There was no indication where his name came from. Maybe Steve Dallas from Bloom County? As good a guess as any. It wasn’t worth pinging him just to ask, even assuming he was connected to BobNet at the moment.

  I spent a month going over his notes while I waited for Phineas and Ferb to arrive. Steve went into considerable detail about climate, ecology, geology and such. He seemed to be a bit of a keener.

  Despite the fact that I was in a new star system, I found myself just going through the motions. I had no energy, no enthusiasm. It took me a while to realize what was wrong. I finally figured out that there was no joy here. This wasn’t expansion. This wasn’t a new colony, whether for humans or, in this case, Pav. This was being chased out—this was fleeing from a home that had been perfectly suited to them, to take refuge somewhere else that was nothing more than the best alternative available.

  The thought was dangerously depressing. I had to get out of this funk or I’d be no good to anyone.

  I waited until the colony ships were close enough, then popped in to visit.

  “Hi, Phineas.”

  “Hello, Jacques. Pull up a chair. Survey okay?”

  I settled into an overstuffed easy chair. “No surprises. Not the greatest. Kind of a Devonian level of ecosystem. They can live there…”

  “Right.” Phineas looked at me searchingly. “You’ve got a bit of the Dickie Downer thing going, I think.”

  I laughed. “Guilty as charged. There’s nothing about this whole situation that doesn’t suck donkey balls. I guess it’s just gotten to me.”

  “Mmm. Well, I have been following Bill’s blog on Somatic Regeneration from Ge
netic Material—”

  “Wow, that’s really good, Phineas. I could hear the capitals.”

  “Nyuk nyuk. Anyway, Ferb and I batted it back and forth during the voyage, and we took a look at the samples we have in stasis, and we think we could get Bill’s techniques to work on Pav biology.”

  “Huh. Okay, so we hold off on decanting them for a while so you can try out your ideas?”

  “I think so. The delay won’t harm them, and I’d like to hand them something a little better than this raw planet.”

  I nodded. “Good. Let’s do that.”

  I already felt better.

  City

  Howard

  June 2221

  Odin

  Bridget found me lounging in my office, feet up on my desk, gazing abstractedly at a hologram floating in the air.

  “What’s that?” She pointed at the image.

  “You know how Marcus created those flying cities on Poseidon?”

  “Mmm, hmm,” Bridget replied, “and a thorough shit-storm along with them. I read blogs, too.”

  I grinned at her. “Well, it got me thinking. Odin is this huge freakin’ planet, and if you’re going to go all floating-city, why not here?”

  “Okay. Is that his design?”

  “No.” I gestured at the hologram. “I don’t need SURGE coils to stay afloat. Turns out normal Earth-pressure air in an enclosed bubble will float in Odin’s atmosphere, at the 1.5 bars level. I’ve designed the city within a prolate spheroid, which will be very stable, and more than strong enough with carbon-fiber reinforced materials.”

  “Sure, but who’s going to live there?”

  “Well, I was thinking maybe us.”

  Bridget raised an eyebrow at me. “Uh, Howard, are you forgetting what VR stands for?”

  “No, dear.” I grinned at her as she stuck her tongue out. “I’m thinking android bodies. Our very own city in the clouds. Don’t say I never give you anything.”