Book 5: Chapter 63: A New Beginning
Bill
January 2345
Epsilon Eridani
This was going to be a huge day. I was in the Snark II in manny form, sitting about ten thousand kilometers away from the Epsilon Eridani wormhole. I had already placed wormholes leading directly to Omicron2 Eridani and Sol in slightly different orbital positions in the Oort cloud. Other wormholes were being flown in, and within a decade, I’d be able to reach any UFS star system from here. Physically reach, I mean. Not just a remotely operated SCUT-controlled manny. The Interstellar Highway, FTL version, was becoming a reality. WormNet. How much it would affect humanity remained to be seen.
Hugh had suggested a round-trip transit of the full system, with him flying across using a manny. It seemed like a safe enough activity—no Bobs could actually be harmed, even if we lost the manny and/or ship. And we needed some kind of ceremonial event to celebrate the official opening of WormNet.
My console beeped as a ship exited the wormhole. Named the Singularity, it was clearly visible in the view screen, its Skippyland silhouette distinct from the normal Heaven configuration. I engaged SURGE, and we met at the halfway point.
A brief rotation of hulls ended with our airlocks facing each other. Both doors opened, and a figure jumped across from the Singularity to the Snark. No space suit, of course. Mannies didn’t need them.
In minutes, a Bob manny strolled into my control room. We still all looked the same by default, but my head’s-up display identified the manny as belonging to Hugh. He was, of course, wearing the ubiquitous Skippy gray coveralls.
“So, my old nemesis, we meet at last,” he said.