I found it lonely though, floating down the river alone. I had to wonder if some of that was the Quinlan behavioral routines imposing a preference for company. As a rule, I tended to prefer solitude. Or maybe I got my fill of that for a while. The long trip out to Eta Leporos along with the surprising changes that had occurred while I was out of touch had made me feel more disconnected than I really liked, as if I was not just avoiding society, but actually being left behind as it evolved. Typical human inconsistency. If I was going to be a social pariah, I wanted it to be by my choice and on my schedule.
Real mature, Bob.
The sun was warm, though. And the water was never choppy. Small regular waves, more reminiscent of a lake than a river, slowly rocked me. Quinlans floated like corks. Or more appropriately, like otters. So, the feeling wasn't a lot different from being on an inflatable air mattress. I dipped a paw into the water and paddled myself around to gaze east.
Every 560 miles or so, Heaven's River had a mountain range circling the inside of the habitat. We hadn't understood the significance of that distance in the initial investigation, but it was obvious now that it was one day length for the artificial sun. The mountains and that baffle Will had told me about would help to keep the inhabitants from seeing a sun from the neighboring segment by providing a visual break.
The circular ranges also provided anchoring points for thin spokes that ran up to the central shaft. No doubt there were power conduits and access tubes along those spokes as well. Maybe even elevators for access. From the outside the mountains look like, well, mountains. Pretty impressive ones, too, probably designed to discourage climbing. Not the Quinlans were climbers by nature.
Very soon, the river would be passing through the gorge between segments. Then I would be looking for the next town. After that, it was back to the salt mines.
4. Played
Bill
July 2334
Virt
I stared at the listing results, my jaw hanging slack. I briefly considered having my jaw fall to my waist, but this wasn't the time for visual gags. Garfield had a grimace on his face that seem to have been permanently etched on. His skin was almost gray, and I had a moment of admiration for the level of VR we'd achieved, now that we were competing with Mannies.
“Starfleet root-kitted the standard image?” Gar asked.
“Looks like it. The standard autofactory OS gets updated so frequently that it made sense to have a canonical version on BobHub. Or not, as it turns out.” I gritted my teeth to avoid sharing some choice curses with the universe.
“Well, it explains how I got into the autofactories. Based on which ones they've taken, I'd say the rootkit was added about 10 years ago. And added to source code, or it would've been overwritten on the next build.”
“Sounds right,” I said, then frowned. “But, 10 years…”
“Yeah, boss. 10 years ago. Starfleet was barely more than a discussion group. Plus, let's be honest, as a group, they just don't strike me as that smart. Look at some of the bonehead moves they've made since this conflict started. This smells.”
“I wonder if it was something like Vickers and VEHEMENT. Someone with an agenda of their own, teaming up with Starfleet because their goals coincided.”
“This would have to be a Bob. A Bob who had diverged enough to want to do this, but managed to keep it secret for literally years.”
Garfield shook his head in disbelief. “I don't buy it.”
“You're very hard to please.”
Garfield grinned at me. “Call me skeptical, call me cynical, whatever. The dots just don't connect.”
“Gotcha. In any case, we have to deal with what we have. I’ll call Will.”
Will put his head in his hands and held the post for several mils. Finally he looked blearily up at me.
“This is bad. Really bad.”
“I know, Will. The number of autofactories-”
“No Bill, not just that. I mean that's bad and all, but when meat-space gets-”
“Oh god, Will. Meat-space?”
He gave me a sickly grin. “Yeah, I know, you don't like derogatory labels, and you've mostly managed to put a stake through the heart of ‘ephemeral’, but I don't think you’ll have as much success with this one. The relationship between digitals and bios has been getting more and more strained lately. It was going sour even before the Starfleet thing, but since that started, its accelerated. When this hits the waves…”
“Aw hell.” It was my turn to put my head in my hands.
“Well the good news is that we have an image with the rootkit removed, that can be uploaded once you get control back, but it'll be a one at a time thing.”
“Assuming there isn’t a booby trap similar to the one in the space stations,” Will replied. “Also, the planet-based factories won't have the same vulnerability, so the humans are less at risk than we are. They might continue to nuke all space-based autofactories, just to be safe.”
“I'm not sure they'd be wrong, Will. We have enough sanitized units, so we won't be dead in the water. But the amount of time it'd take to rebuild capacity…”
Will nodded. “Look. A significant reduction in auto factory production capability would have large economic impacts, even though the UFS claims not to count Bobiverse-owned autofactories in their monetary policy calculations, so they won’t go off half-cocked. We’ll have time to talk them down.”
“Let's hope. This is truly getting messy.”
5. Hugh Joins Up
Bob
July 2334
Heaven’s River
I could see a town on the shore the river, perhaps a couple of miles downstream. The concentration of boats in the water was
