We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
Book 4: Chapter 13: Getting Busy

Herschel

July 2334

Bellerophon

I got a ping from Will and replied with an invitation. He popped in within a mil. It had been, what, almost a century since Will had been aboard, even if only in virt? I’d long since gotten tired of playing with virt layouts and had reverted to the default library motif.

Will barely glanced around. “Hi, Herschel. Thanks for having me over.”

“Hey, Will, long time no see. I hope this isn’t going to be as dramatic as the last time.”

He snorted. “No, no intergalactic battles pending. That I know of, anyway. Just the usual dull roar whenever humans are involved.”

I gestured to a chair and called Jeeves. He showed up with a coffee for me and a Coke for Will. “You know, your general dislike for humans seems incompatible with the amount of effort you’re putting into Valhalla.”

Will paused to drink his Coke, taking long enough that it was probably a delaying tactic. “Honestly Herschel, it’s simply my version of Ragnarök. If things had gone just a bit different back in Epsilon Eridani, I might have been the one to stay there and start a Skunk Works instead of Bill. I regret that sometimes. Dealing with humans has soured me a bit. Okay, a lot.”

I nodded slowly, trying to keep my eyebrows from climbing my head. Will was not usually this forthright. Something was up. “Okay. You have a solution?”

“Yes. Something I’ve been working on for a while. The Ever Onward Society, which I understand you’ve been sniffing around. At least that’s what my sources tell me, and you’ve been fairly public about looking for colony volunteers. I think we’ve been working in parallel on very similar plans, to the point where the urge to scream copyright infringement is almost overpowering.”

I raised a finger and opened my mouth to respond before I realized I was about to argue copyright law. Instead I smiled at Will. “Okay, you got me reacting. Now give.”

“Going off on a tangent for a moment, you guys have published enough analyses of the Bellerophon so that we could replicate it if we wanted to, except with a working SURGE drive instead of plates. I, uh, I started building a slightly smaller version about fifty years ago …”

I goggled at him. “In the 82 Eridani system? And no one noticed? That’s a lot of material.”

He grinned in reply. “Well, first, I’ve been very active with this Valhalla thing, and it takes a lot of effort and material to build all those fractionators and so on. And the colonies have mostly been concentrating on planetside improvements, so it’s not like we’re getting in each other’s way. Besides, the standard agreement between Bobs and colonies allows us to harvest such materials as may be necessary for activities relating to our original purpose, without compensation to the colony. I just never mentioned the side project.”

“Wow, that’s lawyerish. And it’s still a lot of steel.”

“The standard agreement doesn’t set any limits on how much we can take. It’s never really come up.”

I rubbed my eyes and checked metadata. Yep, definitely Will. “Okay, this is a little mind-boggling, especially coming from you, but I still don’t see the connection to us.”

“A couple of things, Herschel. First, your goal appears to be to place a colony far from current human space, with no attempt to maintain communications. I get why you want to do that, but I don’t think the part about severing communications is necessary. Second, your idea of sending AMI Heaven vessels ahead of you is a kludge forced on you by having a bunch of colonists in your belly. Even the original project designers on Earth were reluctant to trust AMIs with that level of executive control. Except China, of course, and look how that ended.”

Will paused, and I tilted my head and gave him the side-eye. “Okayyyyyyy …”

“What I intend to do is spit out ready-made space stations as I pass by systems. The stations decelerate to place themselves in a solar orbit and will have drones onboard to do a system survey. AMIs can handle that. And in the event there turns out to be something at all interesting, the stations will include a blank replicant matrix, just ready for a Bob to download into and take over. And if not, we still have an AMI-controlled relay station at every system along my flight path.”

I nodded slowly. “Bob seeds. And you never have to slow down. But again, why tell us?”

“If I lead and you follow,” Will replied, “then you’ll know when I find a good colony target, well before you reach that point. And once you’ve established a colony there, you’ll still have a full hold of material. So from that point on, you can do what you were originally planning.” ꭆ𝓪Ŋổ𝐁Êŝ

“Or do it your way.”

Will shrugged. “Sure, whatever.”

“Why, Will? What’s with this urge to head for the edge of the universe? Because this sounds like the same kind of thing Phineas and the others have been doing.”

“And you and Neil. What’s your motivation for this?”

“I’m concerned about running into someone or something that can wipe out humanity. We’ve found a lot of intelligent races for the small segment of the galaxy that we’ve explored. It’s only a matter of time until we run into something we can’t handle.”

Will nodded. “No disagreement, Hersch, but don’t you find it curious that all the civilizations we’ve found are or were at about the same age, give or take a few hundred to a few thousand years? No K2s or Heechee or anything at that level. Don’t you wonder why that is?”

“Not necessarily. The local stars are all of similar type, similar age, with similar metallicity. There’s really only a billion-year or so window when life can develop, so—”

“I know where you’re going, but I’m talking about a window of a few thousand years. That’s a lot more coincidental. And nothing more advanced out to as far as we can see.”

“The Dyson dilemma? Will, there’s a simple solution to that. With Casimir power sources, civilizations don’t have to cluster around their suns. Except the Others, who had a biological imperative.”

“Yeah, yeah, but still. Nothing. You don’t think we’re at the pinnacle of knowledge, do you?”

I laughed. “No, of course not. But it’s a pyramid, by necessity. The most advanced civilizations at the top will be the smallest group.”

“Not good enough.” Will shook his head. “At least, I don’t think so. There’s something more at play. But there’s no conflict, Hersch. Your motivation and mine are compatible. Either way, we both want to get humanity more spread out. And while it’s laudable that you’re going to found a colony or two on the way out, this is still very much a one-way trip for you too, isn’t it? Look, I can’t speak for Phineas, or Ick and Dae, or any of the other Bobs. But for me, the problem is that I can’t shake myself loose. You know why I’m still our rep in the UFS?”

I laughed. “Because everyone knows if no one else volunteers, you’ll keep doing it.”

Will chuckled a little ruefully. “I didn’t think it was that obvious, but yes. I have this outsized sense of duty. It’s my replicative drift, I guess. But they can’t expect me to continue to carry it if I’m not around.”

“Wow.” I shook my head and thought for a moment. “To be honest, I’m coming around to the idea that this maybe isn’t some kind of sinister urge taking us over. Bob-1 was looking forward to the adventure when he left Sol that first time—I distinctly remember the feeling. Maybe this is what we’ve all always wanted but have gotten distracted out of.”

“Not all of us. I doubt you could get Howard to budge. Or the Gamers. Or Bill, for that matter.”

“Yes, they’ve found something else to dedicate themselves to. Original Bob had a strong sense of responsibility as well. You’re not that far removed in that way, Will. But in the absence of anything to tie us to one spot, I guess there’s a little wanderlust still in all of us.”

“I agree,” Will replied, “but I don’t think it’s strictly either/or. Guilt can do funny things to people.”

I nodded. We settled into a mutual silence for a few mils, although I couldn’t decide if it was the awkward or companionable variety.

Neil popped in at that moment. “Will! Long time no see. Come to inspect our research?”

Will looked surprised, and I controlled the urge to roll my eyes. I couldn’t suppress a low growl, though.

“Research?”

I waved a hand in dismissal. “Well, we do have this large ship, full of raw material, and a lot of time on our hands …”

“I hadn’t heard anything.”

“We haven’t been posting any papers,” I said. “Neither of us is quite sure why. The best we can come up with is that we’re not sure if we want this stuff to be public yet.”

“Oh, now you’ve really got me curious,” Will said.

I shot Neil a glare, which he studiously ignored. “We’d appreciate it if you’d keep it quiet until we feel ready to do a reveal.” I sent Will a guest manny address, then closed my virt session and entered my personal manny.

I pulled myself out of the manny pod. Beside me, Neil was just sitting up. On the other side of him, Will was peering over the edge of the guest manny’s pod.

“This is the Bellerophon’s control cavern,” I said to Will, gesturing around us.

“You’ve pressurized it?” he replied.

“Just the control cavern. The rest of the ship is still in vacuum. We have to use the airlock if we want to go anywhere else, but that’s a minor inconvenience.”

I lifted off from the pod and hovered a few feet away. Will’s eyebrows rose on his head. “You’re, uh, you appear to be flying in control.”

I grinned at him. “These mannies have small SURGE drives, based on the mover plate technology. Very small. Good for maybe a tenth G, and not sustainable over planetary distances. At least not yet. But they’re perfect for moving around in free fall.” I demonstrated by doing a few loops, then returning to my original position.

Will grinned, then got that slightly distracted look manny operators get when they’re concentrating on internal systems. Then he shot out of his pod with a whoop, did some barrel rolls, and swooped over to us. “How is this something you’d be reluctant to share? This is awesome!”

Neil replied before I could. “This isn’t what we’re talking about, Will. This is a minor item we implemented for convenience on the Bellerophon. Until we get the SURGE power up a lot higher, it’s not useful for anything but free fall maneuvering, and I can’t think of any situation where mannies are used right now where this would be useful. Except here, of course.”

“I bet every Bob in existence would want a turn, though,” Will said, still slowly doing loops. “But okay, let’s see what you consider to be more than a minor item.”

I gestured him to follow and headed over to a corner of the cavern, where we’d set up our workshop. Walls, cables, pillars, and stanchions had been welded to the deck in whatever random location we’d needed them at the time. Looking at it through fresh eyes, I felt a twinge of embarrassment. It did look somewhat haphazard.

But Will didn’t seem to mind. He headed unerringly for the structure that dominated the work area. It vaguely resembled an oversized manny pod, but with a lot of science-fiction-ish greebles tacked on. I did a quick mental inventory to check if any of those were actually gratuitous. Will would probably ask.

He stopped, hovering in front of the pod. “This is impressive. I have no freaking clue what it is, but I like it already.”

I cocked my head at Neil. “You want to do the honors, or should I?”

“You had it last time,” he replied. “My turn.”

I gave Neil a pro forma eye roll, then gestured for him to get on with it. “I’ll hold your manny,” I said, and grabbed his arm just as his manny went slack.

Will looked from one of us to the other, perplexed. “He’s gone back to virt? Why—”

He was interrupted by a door opening on the giant pod. Will floated back several feet as our experimental manny stepped out and hovered in place. I gestured to it. “This is the Ex-Man-1. Stands for Experimental Mannequin One. Neil is running it right now.”

Will’s expression was slack with amazement as he examined it. The size and shape were consistent with our standard Bob mannies, but the Ex-Man-1 was a mottled silver-grey color. It wore no clothes and had no particular gender. Neil did an exaggerated bow, then slowly rotated in place, grinning the whole while.

“So what do you call it?” Will asked. “Instead of Ex-Man-1, I mean.”

Neil and I exchanged a glance. Will looked back and forth at us, noting our no-doubt shamefaced expressions. “Okay, guys, give. You can’t tell me you haven’t come up with a nickname.”

I responded, with a sickly smile, “Mannequin Skywalker.”

Will stared at me for several mils before responding. “You’re despicable.”

He flew over and examined the manny at close range. “The skin, er, surface, whatever. It seems to be, um, moving? It’s a little unsettling, to tell the truth.”

“This manny,” I replied, “is made up entirely of ants. Or our adaptation of the ants, to be more precise. We’ve managed to miniaturize them to about the size of a tardigrade. They link up, kind of like actual cells, and can form any shape we program into them.” I grimaced. “We haven’t quite got the fine control nailed yet, though. Neil’s skin actually is crawling.”

Will made a face of exaggerated disgust. “Man, I can see someone getting a phobia just being near that thing. For that reason alone, I’d approve of not making it public.”

“The thing is, Will,” I said, “this design can shape-shift. Not quickly yet, but we’ll keep improving it. There’s no built-in discrete structure as such. Every ant unit is capable of doing any required task by reconfiguring itself. Everything from the SCUT transceiver to the SURGE drive is built from cooperating units. Skeletal structures are generated by units locking themselves together with double bonds. And so on. The computer core is distributed throughout the structure, as is the power core. There’s no Achilles’ Heel, no weak spot. That’s a lot of power for a post-human replicant.”

Will nodded. “Yeah, I get it. Look, when you feel like it’s ready for a real demo, let’s have the senior Bobs look it over and maybe make a recommendation.”

“Sounds good.” I looked at Neil and tilted my head. He nodded and climbed back into the pod.

Will shook his head in wonderment. “Wow. This beats Transformers and Space Whales hands down.”

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