Book 5: Chapter 49: The Quiniverse
Bob
August 2341
In Virt
I’d received an invitation from Theresa to attend the first Quinlan moot, and a token since this was going to be in Quiniverse dataspace. This was also a milestone for Theresa and Anec, as they would be officially welcoming their one-thousandth resident.
I activated the token at the required time and found myself in Quinlan form in an enormous pub. Theresa, seated at a picnic table, smiled at me and patted the bench beside her. Anec sat across from her, holding a coffee with both paws. Around us, a drone of conversation filled the hall as hundreds of Quinlans drank, talked, and ate.
“So what’s on the agenda?” I said, sliding into the seat.
Theresa looked at Anec, who made a slight hand motion back to her. Taking that as permission, she explained, “The intent here is to form more of a community for our replicants. Anec is concerned that most of the new residents have been engaged in solitary VR lives, with very little interaction with their neighbors.”
“I get that,” I replied. “Quinlans are social but not necessarily sociable. Being mobile, furred predators makes you much more able to strike off on your own. Humans”—I pointed to myself—“would have a lot more difficulty surviving outside of a tribe, so we more naturally tend to congregate.”
“Still,” Anec said, “solitude is suboptimal.”