Book 5: Chapter 4: A Foreboding Conversation
Bob
February 2336
En route to 82 Eridani
Iwas several years into my journey toward 82 Eridani. It would take a little longer than otherwise because I was limiting my top speed in order to stay in touch with the rest of the Bobiverse. The fallout from my last self-imposed isolation had been a little too traumatic, with the number of changes I had to contend with when I reconnected—like the Skippies, and Starfleet. This time I was determined to stay up to date on things.
I hadn’t talked to Will in a while, but his blog, while sparsely updated, told me he was juggling a number of balls, so I didn’t want to pester him without good reason.
And I had my own projects going, including helping ANEC with the basic setup for the proposed post-life VR for Quinlans, which had been dubbed the Quiniverse. If and when Theresa Sykorski died, I wanted a stable operating environment for her. We had already agreed that she should be the first Quinlan replicant, given her education and standing in Quinlan society.
And speaking of which, I had a meeting with ANEC coming up. My own VR redesign was going slowly anyway. I’d tried various Earth settings, themes from fiction, and extraterrestrial locations. None had really clicked. In a moment of frustration, I waved a hand and brought back my original library, complete with Spike the cat and my butler, Jeeves. I bit back a snarl, flopped into my La-Z-Boy, and signaled Jeeves for a coffee. Spike immediately jumped into my lap and headbutted my chin.
Okay, there was something to be said for tradition.
ANEC pinged me as I was finishing my coffee, and I invited him in. A six-foot-tall otter-slash-beaver-slash-platypus mashup appeared, looked around, and plunked himself down on a couch. ANEC insisted on appearing only in Quinlan form, even when interacting with ex-humans. His only acknowledgment that he was dealing with non-Quinlans was making his avatar two feet taller than average Quinlan height.