NABC Book 5: Chapter 3: What’s Up?
Book 5: Chapter 3: What’s Up?
Book 5: Chapter 3: What’s Up?
IcarusNôv(el)B\\jnn
June 2312
Interstellar Space
Iwas reconfiguring my VR when Dae abruptly popped in. He opened his mouth to say something, then stopped and looked around at the black walls, floor, and ceiling with horizontal and vertical yellow lines.
“Cute,” he said. “Enterprise holodeck.”
“It seems like an appropriate metaphor for a VR reset,” I replied. “Although kind of meta, if you think about it. You generally ping me before popping over. Something’s up.”
Dae shrugged. Even from a Bob point of view, we knew each other’s behavior far too well. “Uh, yeah. The surveys I’ve been doing of passing systems ... ”
“Sure thing. Entertain me.”
[You rang?]
Ignoring the gibe, I replied, “Begin deceleration, maximum safe rate. Contact Dae’s Guppy and coordinate. Let us know when you’ve established an expected date to have dropped to galactic orbital velocity, and we’ll set up our destination system.”
Guppy nodded and disappeared.
“He nodded,” Dae said. “You programmed that?”
“No, I think he just picked it up from us. But it’s an improvement from just disappearing, so I’m gonna go with.”
Dae chuckled. “I guess we should squirt a preliminary report back to Bill as well.”
“Yep. Looks like we’re back on the clock.”