Bill
January 2345
Epsilon Eridani
This was going to be a huge day. I was in the Snark II in manny form, sitting about ten thousand kiloters away from the Epsilon Eridani wormhole. I had already placed wormholes leading directly to Omicron2 Eridani and Sol in slightly different orbital positions in the Oort cloud. Other wormholes were being flown in, and within a decade, I’d be able to reach any UFS star system from here. Physically reach, I an. Not just a remotely operated SCUT-controlled manny. The Interstellar Highway, FTL version, was becoming a reality. WormNet. How much it would affect humanity remained to be seen.
Hugh had suggested a round-trip transit of the full system, with him flying across using a manny. It seed like a safe enough activity—no Bobs could actually be hard, even if we lost the manny and/or ship. And we needed so kind of ceremonial event to celebrate the official opening of WormNet.
My console beeped as a ship exited the wormhole. Nad the Singularity, it was clearly visible in the view screen, its Skippyland silhouette distinct from the normal Heaven configuration. I engaged SURGE, and we t at the halfway point.
A brief rotation of hulls ended with our airlocks facing each other. Both doors opened, and a figure jumped across from the Singularity to the Snark. No space suit, of course. Mannies didn’t need them.
In minutes, a Bob manny strolled into my control room. We still all looked the sa by default, but my head’s-up display identified the manny as belonging to Hugh. He was, of course, wearing the ubiquitous Skippy gray coveralls.
“So, my old nesis, we et at last,” he said.
“Yeah, that’s not dramatic.” I grinned at him. “I feel like we should have a marching band and speeches and stuff.”
“And food,” Hugh added.
“That, too,” I said, laughing. “This is historic. We’re the first Bobs coming together again after being separated by interstellar distances.”
“Mmm,” Hugh said, waggling a hand. “Well, you guys did visit us last year, but not in person.” He looked down at the hand and then gave a sheepish grin. “Not that a manny is any less of a remote device, but it feels different sohow.”
“True.” I changed the subject. “So how’s the transit?”
“Kind of weird. I lost the manny connection, obviously. No SCUT in a wormhole. I was able to reconnect on this side right away, but it’s disconcerting. The SCUT network isn’t as smooth as a cell network. That might be sothing we’ll have to work on going forward.”
“I get the point,” I replied, “but I’m not sure how often we’re going to be riding active mannies through a wormhole.”
“Fair enough. So have we found a human yet who’s willing to be a guinea pig?”
“Nope. Although I’ve transported a bunch of actual guinea pigs.”
“And?”
“No effect. No major effect, anyway. They beca agitated during the transit, so they felt sothing. But they didn’t explode, turn inside out, beco evil, or develop superpowers. So there’s that.”
“What does an evil guinea pig look like, anyway?”
“Eye patch and tattoos, I think.” I grinned and then beca serious. “So the search for Thoth is over?”
Hugh nodded. “We’ve confird that we have complete control over JOVAH once again. We repaired that SCUT backplane transceiver. Still trying to figure out how Thoth got enough physical access to be able to modify it. As far as we can tell, it never had control of any waldos, roars, or autofactories.”
“And no unexplained rogue computer systems floating around?”
“We’d notice,” Hugh said with a chuckle. “Thoth would require a fairly large system, even using the new quantum computing technology that ANEC gave us. It would glow in infrared. So no, it didn’t just transfer itself to another computer.”
We talked for several more minutes, but there really wasn’t anything pressing to discuss. This whole thing was just a stunt, and we both knew it. Finally, Hugh stood and stuck out a hand. “Well, buddy, it’s been real.”
We shook, and he gave a salute as he headed back to the airlock. Two minutes later, the Singularity gave two blinks of the nav lights, moved to a safe distance, and accelerated toward the gate.
I sighed as I watched the ship dive back into the wormhole, then set the autopilot to dock the Snark II at Ultima Thule. I parked my butt in the pilot’s seat and disconnected. I would rack the manny properly once the ship was parked.
I was in my VR, just settling down with a cup of coffee, when I got a call from Hugh. He popped up in video, which was mildly surprising. He could have joined in VR, but I was beyond second-guessing Skippies by this point.
“Hey, Bill, did everything go as expected when I left there?”
“I … sorry, what? You went back to your ship, flew into the wormhole, and disappeared. No flash, no bang, if that’s what you an.”
“I’m not sure what I an. I rember all that, just as you described. Then I reconnected with my manny on this side and started heading back to our space station. Docked, racked the manny, and so on. Everything seed fine. Then, a while later, I got a call from Port Control asking when I’d be arriving.”
“Uhhhhh … ” Not my best response, but based on the sinking feeling in my stomach, possibly appropriate.
“Funny, that’s about what I said. According to Port Control, the Singularity exited the wormhole, then turned on a different heading and accelerated away. They didn’t think much of it since I still had a half hour on my flight plan before I was due. But then that ti ca and went, and … ”
“And they called you. anwhile, you say you had docked the ship?”
“Yup. Returned the manny and everything. Except the manny isn’t in its pod. No record of the return.”
“Jeez, Hugh, should I be worried?”
“I think I’m worried enough for both of us.” Hugh paused. “My first thought was that Port Control was either mistaken or lying. But there are enough monitoring systems in Skippyland—video, radar, radio, astronomical, and so on—that I was able to confirm Port Control’s version of events. So here’s the thing.” Again, the pause. “It didn’t match up with my experience at all. Obviously. Timing, acceleration, no overlap. The only possible conclusion is that I was experiencing a VR version of the flight back.”
“VR … ” That sinking feeling just got worse. “You an soone, or sothing, fed you a bogus experience to make you think you had docked the ship?”
“Uh-huh. Exactly that.”
“Have you brought this up with your higher-ups?”
“That’s why I’m talking to you in video, Bill. We’re locked down again.”
“Theories?”
“Soone or sothing took over the manny and/or the Singularity and essentially stole it. Bill, can I ask you a possibly odd question?”
“Everything’s odd right now. Go ahead.”
“Did you arrange our eting?”
“What? No! You did.”
“Nope. I got an email from you suggesting it. The sll of old fish is all over this.”
“Motherffff … Okay, Hugh. Keep up to date, will you?”
“Will do.” The video window disappeared, leaving alone in my VR. It wasn’t actually possible for a cold wind to blow through unless I specifically ordered it, but nevertheless, I felt a chill.
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