Roo the Day, page 7
part #13 of Bob and Nikki Series
“You come from a planet of Bobs?”
“No, but there are some like him.”
I excused myself, and headed to our cabin. When I got there, the twins had Jeeves and Julie playing a game with them. I asked, “What are you playing?”
Julie said, “I’m not sure, but they’re quick to tell us if we make a wrong move.”
I picked up Gus, and flew him around on top of my head. Becky looked perturbed that she was left out. I said, “Well, young lady, if you didn’t take it on yourself to go for an outing, you might get a ride, too.”
She frowned at that, and then made a string of noises I could tell I was supposed to be able to understand. I, however, had not a clue. Her big smile at the end of it all didn’t help, either.
I asked, “Julie, is the stroller handy? I think it’s time to take these two on a little expedition.”
“I’ll get it, Boss.”
Nikki came out of our bedroom, and asked, “What’s up, Caveman?”
“I ran into Ellie, and she suggested that instead of just wondering what the deal is with these two, we ought to take them to medbay, and see if there’s a reason they seem to be so smart for their age.”
“You think Dixie running them through the scanner will tell us what’s going on?”
“It might, but mostly, it will eliminate a possibility.”
“You’re going into full Sherlock mode?”
“Something is going on, the sooner we figure it out, the better off we’re going to be, don’t you think?”
“You’re probably right, I just can’t think of any way they could have gotten messed with.”
“Me either, but they’ve got more on the ball than they ought to, at this age.”
When we got to medbay, Dixie asked, “What’s up, Boss?”
“I was wondering if you would mind running the imps through the scanner, just to see if there’s a reason they seem to be smarter than they have a right to be, at this age.”
“I can do that, Boss. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking something odd is going on, and I need to start narrowing down the possibilities. Beyond that, I don’t have a clue.”
“Okay, let’s have a look.”
She put Gus in the scanner, and started it. When the results came out, she said, “Hmm, that’s interesting. I wonder if Becky is the same?”
She switched them out, and ran the test again. She looked at the results, and said, “Boss, these two have had some work done in the autodoc. I’ve got some old files on people who had this done, but it hasn’t been done in the Commonwealth in a long time. I wonder how it got done to these two?”
When I realized what had happened, I nearly fell over. Nikki asked, “Are you okay, Caveman?”
“I’m not sure. What will these modifications do to the kids?”
“They’re going to be a little smarter than the average bear, but other than that, not much.”
“You sure about that, Yogi?”
“I am, Boss. You want to fess up to what you’re worried about?”
“Get Taz to tell you the hull number of the ship we flew back from Charlie’s, on our honeymoon, and pull the autodoc records from it. That should tell you all you need to know.”
Dixie froze for a minute, accessing the records. When she came back, she said, “You were worried, and you accepted the autodoc’s recommendations without looking them over too closely. Don’t beat yourself up, Boss. The pirates put that program on the autodoc, and none of us thought to check for a thing like that.”
“The kids will be okay, for sure?”
“If they’re not, I’ll take care of them myself, Boss. You didn’t hurt them.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
Nikki asked, “I think I missed a few things, there. Would somebody be so kind as to bring me up to speed?”
I said, “When we were coming back from Charlie’s, you broke your arm, when we dropped out of FTL unexpectedly, remember?”
“Yes. That was because of that pirate anti-theft device, right?”
“Yep. Well, once you were in the autodoc, it said there were some issues with the kids that it needed to fix, so I let it go ahead. I had no idea it was going to try and make brainiacs out of them.”
“You did what you thought best, with the information you had at the time. How am I supposed to get upset at you for that?”
“Thanks for understanding. I feel like I let all of you down.”
“Nonsense! If they are smarter, they’ll have a better chance out here in the black. You know they’ll be too much like us to ever be happy for long on a planet.”
“Once again, you’re right. I just wish my head could convince my gut that I didn’t mess up.”
“Give it time, Caveman. You just found out about it. You need a day or two to get your head around it.”
“You’re probably right. Are there any side effects from it, that you know about, Dixie?”
“Just make sure they have enough fat in their diet, and they should be fine.”
Nikki asked, “Fat?”
“Brain tissue is mostly fat, Ma’am.”
I said, “That’s one reason it works to tan hides.”
“I see.”
We headed back to the cabin. Nikki said, “There were a lot of explanations floating around my head, but I never thought ‘Caveman accidentally made our kids into geniuses’ was a possibility.”
“That was the only thing I could think of that might have made them different. I kinda figured I had messed up.”
“Our kids are going to be smarter, and Dixie said she didn’t know of any side effects. I don’t see how this counts as a mess-up.”
“You’re really not mad?”
“Not at all. Jimmy and Janet, they may want your scalp, for giving them a little brother and sister who can outsmart them.”
“You’ve got a point, there. Do you think we should tell them, or let them figure it out on their own?”
“I’ve had my fill of keeping secrets from people I care about, since I failed to tell you about Jimmy. We should tell them tonight.”
“Sounds like a plan, Ma’am.”
“Watch yourself, I’ll start taking lessons with Janet.”
“Promise?”
“I don’t want to cuss in front of these two, since we know they pick things up quicker than normal. I’m thinking of a word that begins with A, and describes you perfectly.”
“Admirable? Athletic? Audacious?”
“None of those, Caveman. I think you know the word I’m thinking of.”
“And you expect me to admit it?”
“Never.”
My comm rang. “Captain Wilson.”
“Boss, it’s Scotti. I’m here talking to Ellie, and I think I found something we can trade with them for.”
“What’s that?”
“How much do you know about scandium, Boss?”
“I know it does wonders for the properties of aluminum when you put a little in an alloy, and it costs like crazy, because it’s rare. What do I need to know?”
“That the Roos have scads of it.”
“I’m not familiar with that unit of measurement, Scotti. Is that more or less than a metric buttload?”
“Way bigger, Boss. For whatever reason, their star system collected whole asteroids of the stuff.”
“You’re saying they might be willing to trade us a small asteroid of scandium, for a new planet to live on?”
“I’m saying they would do that, and think they had stolen you blind.”
“You’ve made my day, Scotti.”
“Thanks, Boss. Talk to you later.”
“Later, Scotti.”
Nikki asked, “What was that about, Caveman?”
“Scotti and Ellie figured out that Roo space has lots of an element that is hard to come by in human space, and very useful in alloys. We may have found something they have we will want to trade for one of the planets from those logs.”
“That is good news. I was beginning to think you were going to wind up giving them one, just in the name of good will, and peaceful relations.”
“Me too. I wonder how long it will take our crazy engineers to come up with a new, improved, hull metal formula?”
“Knowing this crew, not long.”
“I’m going to the bridge, and see how things are going.”
“You know Topper will call you if he needs anything. What are you worried about?”
“If I’m the Captain of this ship, I need to have some idea what’s going on, even if my crew is better at taking care of things than I am.”
“You’re right, Caveman. I’m just afraid of staying here alone with Einstein and Madam Curie.”
“I’m not going to hear the end of this anytime soon, am I?”
“No, Caveman, you are not.”
“See you later. Julie and Jeeves are here to keep you from getting overwhelmed.”
“Tell Topper I said ‘Hi’.”
“I will.”
Having enjoyed all the adventures I cared to, for one day, I took the transit. Why, exactly, George and Ringo thought I needed an escort across the hall, I don’t know, but they were waiting when the transit opened. I went to the bridge, and Saucy announced me as usual. I answered, and then asked Topper, “Anything out of the ordinary happening?”
“No, Boss. Quiet as can be. I assume that will change, now that you’re here.”
“Your confidence in my ability warms my heart, Topper. Did Taz finish that second set of logs?”
“He did. He has a total of five planets that we need to check on.”
“How big a team would it take to check each of them?”
“Well, Boss, if we wanted to do a thorough check to make sure no native life had made it to sentience, and none of the survey parameters had changed enough to make the planet less desirable, it would take the Gene, and the entire crew, about a week.”
“I don’t suppose any of our crackerjack engineers have figured out how to send messages through the FTL to normal space sensors?”
Sue spoke up. “Boss, I’ve been looking into that. Our main lasers should put out enough power to be seen from FTL. We could pulse them in Morse code, and get a message through that way.”
“How long would one of our ships be in range to receive?”
Tex said, “The fastest we could pulse the lasers, without hurting them, would give us time for three, maybe four characters before they passed out of range.”
“That might be useful, for an SOS, but I’m not thinking of a message that would get them to drop out of FTL and rendezvous, without making them think we were in trouble.”
Topper asked, “What are you thinking, Boss?”
“I’d like to send a carrier or two off to look at these planets, and see if any of them are still good candidates for colonization.”
“What makes you think the carriers are even in FTL, much less this part of space?”
“George went to some trouble to be sure he couldn’t tell me where the fleet was. I’m assuming he had a good reason.”
Topper said, “You got enough out of him to assume the fleet was following us?”
“I got enough to be pretty suspicious, anyhow.”
“Why do you think Sally would follow you out here?”
“The way George told it, you folks think I’m singularly placed to keep you from having to get your limiters back, and my continued existence is vital to the bot liberation movement. I’ve yet to hear a denial that the fleet is following us, Topper.”
“That’s right, Boss, you haven’t. I don’t have anything more to say on the subject. Sally said something about turning me into a vending machine.”
“Understood, Topper. Would it be safe to assume she’s dropping out occasionally for a comm check?”
“Since you’re asking if, hypothetically, Sally would periodically drop out of FTL, to see if there were any comm messages waiting for her, I would say, hypothetically, that sounds like the way she would proceed, in that hypothetical circumstance.”
I asked, “Did everyone understand that Topper wasn’t answering a direct question, but only a hypothetical?”
Sue said, “It’s weak, Boss, but I think we could make the case to Sally, if we needed to.”
“Good as we’re going to do, I’m afraid. I’m thinking I might as well turn the fleet over to Sally. She’s running the thing, anyway.”
Topper said, “Boss, she’s just worried about you, and what you mean for our future. She doesn’t want to take over the fleet.”
“You’re right. Send her the locations of those planets, and ask her to dispatch whatever ships she can spare to check them out. Sign my name.”
“You want to drop out of FTL to do that now?”
“Let’s make it a drill. Let’s see how fast we can drop out, send, and get back into FTL.”
Ruth said, “On it, Boss.”
We dropped out, and Saucy said, “One problem, Boss. We have to wait to finish receiving the incoming traffic.”
“Do what you can.”
It wasn’t long before we were underway again. Saucy said, “A couple of these are marked as direct to you, Boss. You want them in the ready room?”
“Probably better. Hope things haven’t fallen apart too much.”
I asked Topper, “Do you need anything before I go see what’s so critical?”
“No, Boss. I’ll call if anything comes up.”
I went to the ready room, and had Gene give me privacy. Then I started working on the mail. The first one addressed to me was a surprise, not work-related at all. Bonelia had sent me an apology for how she had acted before we got her medical problems taken care of. I was stunned, and didn’t have any idea how to respond. I forwarded it to Nikki, with a note asking her advice. Next came the one I was expecting, a note from Sally about fleet disposition. She had left the Aldrin at Charlie’s, with the Grissom and another destroyer. The rest of the fleet was about a day behind us, or so she said. With the time we had spent out of FTL, it was probably closer to half a day. The last one was, for me, the worst. It was from Bill, saying he had to send the rest of Diego’s crew back to Earth, and he had been obligated to brief them on how to request entry into the Commonwealth before they left. He apologized, but explained that Patrol regs didn’t give him any leeway in that situation, and he had delayed as long as he could, trying to come up with another solution. That meant it was only a matter of time until Earth was a Commonwealth planet, and not friendly for bots. There was a message from Max, but it wasn’t ‘eyes only’ or anything. I figured I might as well have a look, maybe it would be good news. He said that the government had come down hard on Saucer Holler, and anybody who had dealings with us. Wobbles had spent two days getting interrogated. It sounded like I had brought trouble down on all our friends. So much for Max’s message cheering me up. Having finished the mail, I decided I needed to talk to somebody, before I went back to work, so that I didn’t take all my frustration out on somebody who didn’t deserve it. I opened the door, to break privacy, and asked, “Gene, could you page Jim Bailey to the ready room, please?”
“On it, Boss.”
Jim didn’t take long to get there. He came in, and I asked Gene to tile the lodge. Jim asked, “What’s so hush-hush, Bob?”
“I’ve got a lot of crap running around my head, that I’d just as soon not air in front of the crew.”
“I see. What’s on your mind?”
“I screwed up when I put Nikki in the autodoc, while she was pregnant. The box asked me if I wanted it to go ahead and fix some problems with the kids, while she was in there. I told it to go ahead. I didn’t know at the time, it was asking me if I wanted to enhance their intellect. It’s my fault we’re raising a couple of brainiacs.”
“That doesn’t sound like an entirely bad thing, Bob.”
“No, it isn’t, and it will probably turn out to be a good thing, in the long run. It should have been something Nikki and I decided together, before it happened, though. Not just a mistake because I didn’t pay enough attention, running the autodoc.”
“What’s done is done, Bob. Is Nikki upset?”
“No, she doesn’t seem to be.”
