We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Book 3: Chapter 39: Retirement

Book 3: Chapter 39: Retirement

Marcus

February 2218

Poseidon

I sat in a lawn chair, soaking in the warm afternoon sun. I hardly ever thought about the fact that I was inhabiting an android any more. Howard and Bob kept improving the model, and Bill seemed happy with the delegation of responsibility. Couldn’t really blame him, I supposed. He had other things on his mind.

Around me, children played, couples walked hand-in-hand, and people did their jobs either through tablets or tele-presence. If this wasn’t utopia, I’d be damned if I could figure out what was missing.

Especially for me. Rather than take back control of the autofactories after the revolution, I’d aggressively created the means for the population of Poseidon to take over the responsibility. Now, three years later, I had absolutely no duties in this system.

As promised, Gina had me voted out on my ear. To her chagrin, she found herself voted in as Chairperson. The new Council was still arguing about what to put in as a permanent government, but that was certainly nothing new.

I got up and walked along the path toward the nearest food kiosk. That particular lawn chair might or might not be occupied if I returned, but there’d be another. Or I could just park my butt on the grass.

The problem I had run into was perhaps not totally unexpected. Bob had always been a driven, workaholic personality. Great for when you were defending the galaxy from the rampaging hordes; maybe not so good when you’d just arranged to have yourself made redundant.

Poseidon society had been fundamentally changed, and the change looked to be permanent. Fewer and fewer people were living on the mats, or even working on them for longer than necessary. The floating cities—the aquatic ones, that is—were being converted entirely to industrial use. Humans were now an aerial species on this world.

I grabbed a chocolate shake—nothing had ever been invented or discovered that beat chocolate—and headed over to the edge of the city. Looking down through the dome, I could see wispy clouds, drifting mats, sparkling blue water right out to the horizon, and the occasional huge shadowy silhouette gliding just under the surface. The krakens, hydrae, and leviathans weren’t the only large predators, or even the biggest. We kept discovering new beasties, often the hard way. There wasn’t really a concerted effort, yet, to catalog everything under the surface. Maybe because of the danger.

“So, how’s life as a retiree?”

I turned to find Kal grinning at me.

“Huh. I’m pretty sure I had my location turned off. How’d you find me?”

Kal rolled his eyes. “C’mon, Marcus. You’re kind of famous. There’ve been three social media posts with your image in the last fifteen minutes. If you want anonymity, you’re going to have to modify that mug of yours.”

I nodded and turned back to the dome wall. “Or disappear entirely.”

“What’s going on, Marcus?” Kal stepped closer, frowning.

“Oh, hey, that came out more dramatic than intended.” I gave Kal an apologetic smile and waved at the view. “I’m just thinking about a new career. Oceanography.” ?å?O?B??

Kal raised an eyebrow.

“I think there’s an opportunity here. You’ve seen videos of Garfield’s pterosaur-like android? Bob-1 has definitely gone non-human. Why even stick to bipedal?”

Kal looked out at the ocean below. “You mean…”

“I wonder how an android dolphin would fare on this world.”