We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Book 5: Chapter 66: In System

Herschel

February 2345

Omicron2 Eridani

Will pinged us while we were in the lounge. I looked over at the manny pods; gave Neil an eyebrow waggle, which he answered with a grin; and sent Will a manny address. In moments, one of the pods opened, and Will stepped out.

“Nice,” he said, looking around. “But this isn’t a Skywalker, right?”

I shook my head. “No, those are still a long way from being generally useful. Although we’ve been able to find a couple of uses where we need to change shape to get at things. But since we built the lounge”—I gestured to the room—“we started working on being able to entertain visitors in real. Coffee?”

“Always.” Will frowned, then looked around. “Hmm … I guess I have to find a physical place to sit. I actually tried to invoke a chair for a moment. Speaking of,” he said, plunking himself down on a handy couch, “I guess someone has to actually make coffee?”

I smiled as Jeeves entered the room, looking like John Cleese from his Monty Python days, with three cups on a tray. Will did a double take. “You’ve instantiated Jeeves into a manny? You guys have way too much time on your hands. I need to give you more work.”

“Like extracting thirty thousand people from Romulus?” I replied. “Operation Bug-Out isn’t going—”

I gave him an offhand shrug. “Just thought of it. As I was saying, without somewhere to put them, I’m not really sure what we can do. Other than dump them on Vulcan until we organize something.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“All covered, guys,” Will said. “I can put them in my hold, and I’ll arrive at Vulcan shortly after you.”

I gave him the stink-eye. “You been misdirecting everyone about your location, too? Wow, you can’t trust anyone anymore.”

“Yes and no,” Will said with a smile. “There’s been a lot of secret projects lately. Not just because of FAITH. Unfortunately, that means even most of the Bobiverse is in the dark. I’ll explain it all when I arrive.”

I glanced at Neil before replying. “Okay, Will. But this will have to be executed quickly. The moment either of our ships is detected in Omicron2 Eridani space, the jig will be up.”

“You installed a cloak, right? Did you get the internal drive working?”

I nodded. “Yes, and yes. We’ve long since retired the pusher plates. But in regard to the cloaking, even a faint signal from a ship the size of the Bellerophon is going to set off detectors. We’ll be able to get within a million kilometers of Romulus and Vulcan, but any closer, and we will be noticed.”

“Got it. So let’s set our rendezvous location appropriately. See you guys soon.” Will put his empty mug down on a side table and disconnected. The manny, under AMI control, got up and headed for its pod. ṟΑɴОВΕṩ