Book 5: Chapter 22: A Visit to the Moot Pub
Bob
September 2342
Bobiverse
Iwas idly playing around with my VR in a down moment when I got a knock from Theresa. In the new era of security consciousness, thanks to Starfleet, people no longer just popped in, even if they were on the same subnet. A protocol had developed that had come to be referred to as knocking. Theresa, of course, had never known anything different.
I accepted the request, and she popped into my VR. Well, someone popped into my VR. She was human, hair just starting to go gray, elegant, and well dressed. I said, “I, uh … ” or something equally stupid, and checked metadata. Confirmed as Theresa. “Um … ” I added helpfully.
She smiled at me and twirled once. “What do you think? Anec helped me with the design. I’m not going to frighten small children, am I?”
“No, not at all.” I smiled and mentally regrouped. After our last conversation, it shouldn’t have surprised me that Theresa would be thinking ahead. Still speaking Quinlan, though. But that would only take a translator module update. And speaking of which, in Quinlan, there was an inflectional difference between common nouns, personal nouns, and classification nouns. She’d referred to ANEC as a personal name rather than an acronym. I made a note to check with him.
“You look good, Theresa. And as it happens, there’s a pub day in the Bobiverse right now, if you’d like to test it out.”
“Ah. Pub days. Beer. Anec is not a fan. He suggested self-immolation as a preferable alternative. Said I could try coffee, though.”