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The cat’s A.I. was realistic, right down to the total lack of loyalty.
A self-propelled forty-pound ball of steel impacting at Mach 1 didn’t leave much room for argument.
Guppy somehow managed to look disappointed, although if pressed, I couldn’t for the life of me describe what a disappointed fish looked like.
So far so good, but my movie-conditioned mind was still waiting for the inevitable disaster.
Just when you think humanity has found the limits of stupid, they go and ratchet up the standard by another notch.”
Immortality had sounded like a great idea back on Earth, but there were costs, especially when you became attached to ephemerals.
I hadn’t even been aware he knew the f-word. Turned out he was an expert in its use as a verb, noun, adjective, adverb, article, and several forms of punctuation.
But explaining population trends to essentially innumerate people was a losing game. They understood death when it happened in front of them, far better than they understood attrition.
I invoked a glass of Sam’s cognac and turned on my alcohol receptors. A slight buzz was just what the doctor ordered.
Today, I was visiting Marvin. In Delta Eridani, as senior Bob, I generally played host. It was interesting that traditions and modes of behavior were developing even among a bunch of post-human computers.
Guppy nodded. I’m sure the expression of sardonic amusement on his face was all in my imagination. After all, what does sardonic amusement look like on a fish, anyway?
“Me too.” I paused the appropriate amount of human time. “I guess I’d better go. Places to go, species to meet…”
Anyway, there were still enough interested Bobs to keep things rolling. I decided not to worry about it. I could always start my own dynasty if I needed to.
It would take decades, if not centuries. Then I smiled. Still thinking like an ephemeral. How long it would take was irrelevant. We had forever.
If they didn’t happen to kill off a planet, it was only because there was nothing to kill off, not because of some moral reluctance. Lack of opportunity isn’t the same as self-restraint. They were evil. End of story.
They could walk bipedally, but for any kind of distance, they went down on all fours. I was having a little trouble getting used to the sight. Apparently, I’m a bipedalism bigot.
“There’s also relativistic ramming,” another voice interjected.
It hit me that he was the best friend I’d had since well before I died. I scheduled a good cry for later, when I was alone.
If this was Earth, it would be about 3 a.m. A dog barked—well, the local equivalent of a dog did the equivalent of barking—but otherwise, there was no movement.
