Book 2: Chapter 12: Bob Calling
Bill
May 2171
Epsilon Eridani
[Incoming SCUT connection. New node]
Guppy made the announcement with the same fishy poker face that he would use to announce the end of the world. I looked up and grinned. Garfield dropped the file he was working on and came running over. Only a handful of Bobs, so far, had received the SCUT plans that I’d been broadcasting and had built their own FTL transceiver. Each new connection was an event.
I held the moment as long as I could. Just as Garfield drew a breath to yell at me, I said to Guppy, “Play the incoming.”
“This is Bob calling. Bill, you actually cracked FTL communications? I’m impressed!”
I did a fist pump, and then Garfield and I whooped and performed a high five—the nerd kind, where you miss.
Logically, Bob-1 was no more significant than any other Bob that received the SCUT plans, but this wasn’t a matter of logic. Bob-1 was like Odin the All-Father. He started the whole thing. For me it was special, since he’d cloned me. For any of the third-generation or later Bobs, it would be like legend walking among us.