I nodded, then turned to Hugh, who appeared to be having trouble meeting my eyes.
“I guess you have some questions,” he said.
“Just possibly one or two. But let's stick to the basics for now.”
“Okay, look. I was lucky in that the group that captured me was Crew. Things would've been a lot more complicated if they’d been Resistance. It wasn't hard to convince them to let me talk to the Administrator. Eventually, anyway. I get the impression they’d have been happy for an excuse to dissect me. We really have been a huge pain in the ass for everyone, it seems.”
“You have no idea,” Norm muttered.
I snorted and said to him, “Not by choice. But I guess I can see how you could see it that way.”
Hugh added an embarrassed head-bob. “So anyway, they finally introduced me to the Administrator. It was a lot like your interview.”
“Uh-huh. And?”
“We spent some time dancing around, but eventually got down to full reveals, and I made an offer that the Administrator found interesting. Once they had you and you verified that I'd been telling the truth, Annek it decided to accept.”
“What specifically did you agree to?”
“Um, let's wait until we’re all back home, okay? At least now we can leave by the front door, no need to skulk.”
“It's just letting us go? Just like that? That seems surprisingly trusting for an entity that otherwise has been very single-minded, especially if I'm carrying something that was stolen from it. What did you give it for a guarantee?”
“I’d just as soon discuss that later, Bob. Let's get home first.”
Well, that wasn't ominous or anything.
Despite my misgivings, there were no gotchas. Once Charlie showed up with Bender and a new backpack, we were escorted back to the station without incident and took the train back to Garrick's Spine. One immediate improvement that I appreciated was that we were able to make use of the proper spin-transfer system, rather than bundling one at a time into a mining drone. The ride to the outer shell was reassuringly civilized.
During this time, the Administrator didn't attempt to contact us, and Hugh continued to be close-mouthed about details of the agreement. It made for a somewhat tense ride, but eventually I found myself in the Heaven's River space dock facility. Gandalf, per Hugh's instructions had flown the transport drone in, and parked it by an airlock. Of course, there was no way our transport drone could mate up with the Quinlan technology, but it wasn't necessary. We simply exited through an airlock and jumped through vacuum into the drone's cargo hold. And once Bender's matrix and our Mannies were secured, we doffed them and headed back to virt.
I was a little surprised to find myself alone, but only a little. There's something about Hugh’s reluctance to discuss things that created a feeling of impending doom in me. I was pretty sure he was going to take some time to format the information with as positive a spin as possible. What had he committed us to? And would the Bobiverse agree to it? And with the humans go ape shit?
30. Cleanup
Bob
September 2334
Virt
I watched the video window as the roamers placed Bender's matrix in the cradle that I'd created for one of my intended clones. Since cloning was no longer necessary, I happened to have three spare matrices and associated hardware lying around. Maybe I’d clone eventually, anyway. Otherwise, those matrices 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 beseeching. “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 a 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 chase scene?”
“Uh…” I stared at him, unsure where to begin. “Things kind of went sideways after you were powered down, buddy. We now have a diplomatic relationship of sorts with the Administrator, who by the way goes by the name of Annek, or Annek-23 when it's been formal.”
“Oh… okay. Wait, seriously? What about the Resistance?”
“They’re now the official transition committee.”
Bender threw his hands in the air. “I get deactivated for one day, and the whole place goes to hell. … uh, how long was I out?”
“Waayyy the hell more than one day.”
Bender snickered. “Do you have details?”
“Kind of, but Hugh is going to give us a core-dump as soon as he's restored control of my relay station. Then everyone can come aboard.”
“Hugh? He’s…?”
“Uh, I really think you’re going to have to read through the blogs. You can get the whole thing in chronological order. And, alcohol is highly recommended.”
“We have alcohol now?”
I rolled my eyes. “Wow, you have some catching up to do. Wait until you meet Howard and Bridget.”
“Bridget? We have girls?”
“Relay station is up.” Guppy made the announcement without preamble, not even bothering to make an appearance.
“Okay, good. Thanks Guppy. Ping everyone please.”
A few milliseconds later, Bill, Garfield, Will, Bridget, and someone named Stephen Gilligan? winked into existence. This was presumably the expert on megastructures whose advice I'd been getting through Will. Stephen slowly turned and examined everything, a perma-grin plastered on his face, while the other Bobs welcomed Bender effusively. The backslapping having died down, I noticed that Bender was staring
