Book 4: Chapter 30: Cleanup
Bob
September 2334
Virt
I watched the video window as the roamers placed Bender’s matrix in the cradle that I had created for one of my intended clones. Since cloning was no longer necessary, I happened to have three spare matrixes and associated hardware lying around. Maybe I’d clone eventually anyway. Otherwise those matrixes would just go to waste.
The roamer hit the power button, and Bender appeared in the middle of my VR. He spun around, raised his arms over his head, and whooped. “God DAMN, it’s good to have a body again.” He looked at me beseechingly. “Coffee?”
“Coming up. Jeeves, coffee please.”
Bender flopped backward into a La-Z-Boy, which appeared just in time to catch him. Jeeves handed him a steaming mug, which Bender raised to me in salute. “I think it’s going to be a while before I start to take this for granted again. I feel like I’ve just come out of surgery, but without the nausea. Kind of cottony feeling, you know?”
I nodded sympathetically. “I get it. I’m just glad you came through okay.”
Bender sipped his coffee in silence for several mils, his eyes slowly closing in apparent ecstasy. Then he put the coffee down and gazed at me, ready to get down to business. “So I guess you managed to sneak out. Was it dramatic? Was there a chase scene?”