For the first time since this adventure started, I felt Bender was actually within reach.
11. The War in Meat-Space
Will
July 2334
UFS Council Session
I read the message in my heads-up twice, hoping that I'd misunderstood.
Nope. The Romulus world gov had just preemptively nuked the local space-based autofactories. I supposed after the New Home and Pangaea experiences, they kind of had a point.
I sighed and ordered the roamers to begin cleaning up my work area. I wasn't going to be getting more work done on this water filter design anytime soon. The roamers would take care of putting everything away, so I walked over to a convenient Adirondack chair and made myself comfortable, then exited my Manny.
I immediately connected to the UFS Council channel and signed in. As expected, discussion of the nuking was in process - at full volume. Representative Ella Cranston, the granddaughter of my old nemesis, had the floor.
“-and no, we will not be compensating the Bobiverse for the loss of their assets. Let's not forget where the threat is coming from. In fact, if this becomes an ongoing issue, I will move to demand compensation from the Bobiverse for our losses, both equipment and productivity. We’ve lost billions because of the economic volatility, never mind direct costs. At this time, we are negotiating with our neighbors on Vulcan to pass legislation mandating only human-owned and operated autofactories in the Omicron2 Eridani system.”
She went on for considerable time, but the upshot was that all Bobiverse equipment in their system would be deactivated or nuked, forthwith. They would be replacing the relay station with their own unit, which we were welcome to use… as paying customers, just like everyone else. Well that was something. The Pangaean colony was talking about cutting us off completely and treating us like an un-trusted foreign power. To be fair, they'd have the worst experience with Starfleet's strategies, so I couldn't blame them.
A ding indicated a private conference request. It was from representative Ben Hendrix, one of our descendants. That alone made one of my favorite people. The fact that he was conscientious, ethical, and dedicated was just a bonus.
I pressed accept, and his face came up.
“Will, the agreement with Vulcan will almost certainly go through. The Bobs are going to be all but tossed out of the system. Is there anything we can do?”
“It's not that bad, Ben.” I made a calm-down motion with my hand. “The Bobiverse is the single biggest user of the relay stations, since everything we do is via SCUT. Omicomms LLC will no doubt be taking over completely in Omicron2 Eridani, and they want to keep us as a customer, whatever the government mouthpieces are threatening. Plus, we’re a major shareholder, so we could force the issue.”
Ben smiled and nodded. As the owners of the communications and production systems for many years, the Bobiverse, and accumulated huge wealth in the human economy, almost without trying. It was quite possible in fact, that resentment of that fact was fueling at least some of the glee with which the humans were dismantling things.
“My real concern,” I continued, “is the talk of restricting Manny use. It’s pointless, as we'd still be able to do business by video call, but it would socially isolate us. I’ve got our lawyers working the human rights angle.”
“And the government is contesting your right to be considered human,” Ben replied.
“Yeah. FAITH, all over again. Even if they are calling themselves that anymore.” I frowned. “I don't think they can win that, Ben. Unless they just start ignoring laws and daring us to do anything about it. I think that would take us and them down the road I don't want to speculate on.”
Ben nodded. “Uh-huh. It would be a constitutional crisis, at minimum.”
I brought up the volume on Cranston's rants for a moment, then turned it down and smiled. “Looks like her signal-to-noise ratio is dropped to zero. I’m going to keep a low profile on this, unless she and her allies go off the deep end. Keep me updated, okay?”
Ben nodded again and gave me a wave. I close the conference, signed off the Council session, and sat back. It wasn’t unlikely that any colony government would be able to ban Mannies outright. Lobbyist groups representing the replicant preserve companies, along with rich people who had signed up for replication, would bring a lot of pressure to bear. But the pattern was worrying. Replicant resentment, plus Starfleet War, plus Pav threat, plus all the rumors circulating about the Quinlans, were proving to be too much for the average human citizen. With too many threats from too many directions, Joe Average wanted to circle the wagons. We’d spent 100 years setting up a single galactic government that would provide some safety and stability for all sentiments, and now it was unraveling.
Ugh. As if I needed reminding of why I hated politics.
12. Helep’s Ending
Bob
July 2334
Heaven's River
There was a subtle vibration through the floor, followed a few moments later by one set of doors opening.
“The train for Helep’s Ending has arrived,” the voice it in my ear. “The train will be leaving in 112 seconds.”
I walked through the open doorway. A short airlock section ended in another set of doors, which opened into what was presumably my train. Certainly, it had that long tube-like train shape. There were no windows, but there were rows of comfortable-looking seats.
I glanced over my shoulder and realized that the row of doors at the end of the platform connected to matching doors on the train with two sets of doors leading into each car. Very much like a subway. All in all, it seemed very civilized. I studied the area at the back of the car and realized it held a washroom. The same sign on the door was used in every town in Heaven's River.
