We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Book 3: Chapter 54: Party

Book 3: Chapter 54: Party

Riker

March 2257

Romulus

I knocked on the door, still not sure if I really wanted to be here. Oh, I was always happy to see my relatives, but Justin—

The door opened, and one of Justin’s great-granddaughters opened the door. Beatrice, I remembered. She’d been introduced to me on one of the video chats a few years back.

“Uncle Will! Come on in. Grampa is in the sitting room.” She shut the door behind me and pointed, then was off to take care of something else.

I looked around the house, or as much of it as I could see from the front foyer. There must have been fifty people, from gray-haired elders down to toddlers barely able to stay on their feet. The occasion, Justin’s seventy-fifth birthday, was being used as an excuse to get the whole clan together. Or as many as could come, anyway.

The organized chaos was—no, scratch that, there was nothing organized about this. The chaos was mostly confined to the common areas. Children were not allowed in the kitchen, as the women worked on the meal. Funny, two hundred years after Original Bob’s death, women still ruled the kitchen. Probably, I admitted to myself, because men would have just opened up a bag of chips and a jar of dip.

Well, nothing wrong with chips and dip.

I looked over the dishes spread out over the dining room table, already being attacked by hungry relatives. They were going all out, and I promised myself I’d try a few things, if only to catalog the taste for VR.

I wandered around for a few minutes, saying hello to people and exchanging a word or two here and there. This type of scenario had never been Original Bob’s forte. Small talk and cocktail party socializing had always seemed so shallow and meaningless.

But this was different. Every single person here had some of my DNA, or was married to someone who did. Every single person gave meaning to my life, and the lives of my sisters and parents.

I looked around, and realized I was stalling. Really, this shouldn’t be that difficult. People aged. People grew up, had children, grew old. Died. Julia’s death still haunted me. Now I was visiting Justin, on his seventy-fifth. I could remember the first time I saw him, as clear as the day it happened—two years old, sitting on his mother’s lap in front of the camera. Space Cadet Justin, laughing in delight at the pretty pictures.

With a deep breath, I entered the sitting room. Justin was surrounded by family, chatting, all making sure he was comfortable and wanted for nothing.

Justin turned and smiled when he saw me. He raised a hand in greeting, and I smiled back. One of the entourage vacated a chair and I sat beside him. “Hey, Space Cadet. How are things?”

Justin grinned back at me. “That’s Admiral space cadet to you, whippersnapper.”

“That’s uncle whippersnapper to you, Admiral.”

We both chuckled at the exchange. I looked at Justin’s face. I could still see Julia in him, which of course meant I could see Andrea. I felt myself starting to tear up and clamped down on it. Instead, I took his hand. “Just as well you retired. There’s nowhere left to go from admiral.” I hesitated. “Justin, we talked a long time ago about replication…”

“The day my mom died. I remember. Nothing’s changed, Will. You guys are still doing chores, and now you’re stuck fighting some alien menace for us. It just doesn’t seem like much of an afterlife.” Justin tilted his head and looked at me with a small smile. “I know what you think of religion. But right or wrong, I’ll die in peace. And Pascal’s Wager works both ways, right?”

I nodded, returning his smile. “Yup. If you’re wrong, you won’t have the opportunity to regret it.”

Justin was silent for a few moments as he looked around the room. “Y’know, Uncle whippersnapper, a lot of the younger ones probably don’t even recognize you. You’ve made fewer and fewer appearances over the years. Is that on purpose, or just the Others thing?” ?????Ë?

And there it was. The thing I’d been avoiding. But I owed it to Justin to not evade. “It’s a bit of both. I think it was your mother’s death that really got to me. People die. And I remember each and every one, as clear as the day it happened. Over time, that’s more and more unhappy memories to deal with. I think I’m trying to move toward thinking of my relatives more as a group and less as individuals.” I gave him a small smile to soften the message. “It distances me a little—well, a lot—but on balance I think it works out better.”

“So I’m the last one of our clan that you’ve been keeping in touch with?”

“Yeah. Bob-1 calls it ‘fading into legend’.”

“Well, I’m glad to have known you, Uncle Will. And it’s nice to know I’ll be remembered.”

I snorted. “Look around. I don’t think that’s an issue.”

We spoke for a few more minutes, then I excused myself and gave up my chair. Someone immediately sat down for their turn with the clan patriarch.

I raised my hand in a parting wave, and Justin smiled at me before turning to answer a question.

Family.