Bender
Names: BenderMotorola
First appears in Book 1: We Are Legion, chapter 30 (Bob – April 2165 – Delta Eridani)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: We Are Legion
- Ch 30Bender, another new Bob, proposes naming the planet Eden, and everyone agrees.
- Ch 39Bender departs for Gamma Leporis A, an F6 star more than 16 light years away.
Book 2: For We Are Many
- Ch 27Bender still hasn't been heard from; one of Bob's clones is following his flight plan.
- Ch 52Bender has been silent for nearly thirty years since leaving Delta Eridani, and Bill thinks something happened to him.
Book 4: Heaven’s River
- Ch 2Bender, from Bob's second batch of clones, left Delta Eridani for Gamma Leporis A in 2165 and vanished without trace for over a century.
- Ch 2Searches by Victor, Marvin and Luke found no sign Bender ever reached Gamma Leporis A.
- Ch 3Bob's drones confirm Bender's trail turned toward Eta Leporis and that Bender entered the system.
- Ch 3Bob's scouts find a shredded section of a Version 2 Heaven vessel: Bender.
- Ch 5Bender's ship was destroyed by an internal explosion, most likely a reactor failure triggered by a laser.
- Ch 5Bender's replicant matrix and its interface hardware were carefully removed as a unit, implying someone meant to study or revive him.
- Ch 12There is no evidence Bender is inside Heaven's River, though few Boojum airlocks narrow where his matrix might have entered.
- Ch 35Motorola, the Resistance's radio contact, is Bender; he covers for Bob by claiming Bob belongs to a scattered Salty Seas clan.
- Ch 35Bender was shot down by Heaven's River patrol bots; the Administrator had his matrix cut out, but the Resistance intercepted and powered it up.
- Ch 35Bender helps the Resistance as an information source, having been given the choice of that or being taken apart.
- Ch 35Bender is held in a modern, windowless, bunker-like room a few hours from a place called Halep's Ending.
- Ch 46Bender's version 2 matrix has been kept for over 130 years without VR; he copes by frame-jacking down to his lowest rate.
- Ch 46Bender has spent about a century helping the Resistance hack technology, including registering Resistance members on the Crew rolls.
- Ch 50Bender's matrix is hidden in a battered locking trunk Bob buys, guarded by Bob's last spider.
- Ch 63Bender's matrix is returned and carried out of Heaven's River on a transport drone flown in by Gandalf.
- Ch 64Bender is reactivated in a spare matrix in Bob's ship and learns how much has changed while he was powered down.
Connections
- family ofMarvinsame cohort of clones
- family ofLukesame cohort of clones
- copy ofBob
- related toHeaven version-2Bender was a Version 2 Heaven vessel
- related toBobsearching for and hoping to rescue him
- related toMotorolaspeaks English and responds to the name Bender, apparently being Bender
- related toResistanceheld by and assisting the Resistance
- friend ofBob
- friend ofMarvin
- friend ofLuke
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 30New Bobs at Delta Eridani
Bob builds AI cores ahead of vessels; Marvin, Luke and Bender come online and join the Deltan observation project.
- Book 1 · Ch 30Planet named Eden
Bender suggests naming the Deltans' planet Eden, and the other Bobs agree.
- Book 1 · Ch 35Gorilloid attack
Gorilloids attack a Deltan hearth, killing six Deltans and dragging them off to eat; the Bobs realise the Deltans are being hunted to extinction.
- Book 1 · Ch 37Great gorilloid assault
Thirty-one gorilloids attack; Arnold turns Archimedes' axe on them and Bob's buster drone kills one about to reach Archimedes, routing the rest.
- Book 1 · Ch 37Bobs choose their paths
Bender and Luke decide to leave Delta Eridani to find their own projects, while Marvin chooses to stay with the Deltans.
- Book 1 · Ch 39Luke and Bender depart
Luke leaves for Kappa Ceti and Bender for Gamma Leporis A, while Bob sends a report to Bill.
- Book 2 · Ch 52Plan to search for Bender
At a moot, Marvin and Luke tell Bill they will mount an expedition to track the long-silent Bender along his trail.
- Book 4 · Ch 2Bob begins the search for Bender
Back at Delta Eridani after visiting Earth, Bob orders a hundred long-range scouts to sweep Bender's path and sets off himself toward Gamma Leporis A.
- Book 4 · Ch 3Bender's wreckage found
Scouts searching Bender's expected location find a shredded section of his Version 2 Heaven vessel.
- Book 4 · Ch 5Bender's matrix found missing
Bob's roamers open the intact matrix containment in Bender's wreck and find the replicant matrix and interface hardware deliberately removed.
- Book 4 · Ch 17Planning the search for Bender
In VR the team agrees to search local written records first; scanning the topopolis for Bender is ruled out as taking far too long.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Bob recognizes Bender
When Natasha brings in torturer Philip, Bob threatens a dead-man switch; Motorola answers in English, and Bob realizes the voice may be Bender, who answers 'Bob?'
- Book 4 · Ch 35Bob escapes with Bender's radio
After Bender's cover story fails to save him, Natasha orders Bob killed; Bob fights free, grabs the radio, a trank gun and a security card, and flees uphill.
- Book 4 · Ch 35Bender tells his story
Over the repaired radio Bender explains his capture and the Resistance's situation, gives the clue Halep's Ending, and helps Bob estimate his distance before being cut off.
- Book 4 · Ch 46Bob finds Bender's matrix
Bob's spider roamer finds Bender's matrix in the Resistance complex and taps into his comms; Bender reveals the Administrator is an AI, which Bob relays to Bill.
- Book 4 · Ch 46Bender's rescue and train chase
Bob powers Bender down and runs with his matrix, trank-shooting Matthew and Jeff, escaping by train under fire, then prepares to sprint past a waiting reception at Halep's Ending.
- Book 4 · Ch 48Bob crosses via the spokes
With Bender's matrix in his backpack, Bob uses Natasha's card to ride the Utopia Spoke elevator up and the Nirvana Spoke down, but finds his cards cancelled at the train station.
- Book 4 · Ch 48Escape from the hotel
Unknown pursuers try to break into Bob's room; he retrieves Bender, slips out the back hidden behind a garbage can, vaults a fence and hides in the forest.
- Book 4 · Ch 48Planning to leave Forest Hill
Short on money, Bob ponders how to slip out of Forest Hill unnoticed while keeping Bender's matrix hidden.
- Book 4 · Ch 50Bob joins the Hurricane as a deckhand
Disguised as Enoki Funguy, Bob packs Bender's matrix in a trunk and signs on as a deckhand aboard Captain Lisa's boat, the Hurricane.
- Book 4 · Ch 52Theresa discovers Bob's secret
Theresa sees Bob with Bender's matrix; Bob confesses he is not Quinlan, that the Administrator is an engineered construct, and that he is rescuing a friend. She agrees to keep his secret.
- Book 4 · Ch 56Bob jumps ship with Bender
Expecting a boarding party, the team agrees Bob must leave; he slips over the side with Bender's crate at night and hides ashore to await Hugh.
- Book 4 · Ch 56Hugh arrives and Bender is waterproofed
Hugh lures the badger out so Bob can escape with the crate; they seal Bender's matrix in waxed vellum inside a pitch-coated crate to float downstream.
- Book 4 · Ch 57Ambush on the river
Four boats converge on Bob and Hugh; Hugh takes Bender underwater and hides beneath a boat while Bob draws pursuers ashore with the empty case.
- Book 4 · Ch 59Bypassing the Scrubber blockade
Bob and Hugh hike uphill around the blockade and guard posts, then traverse the Scrubber with Bender in a waterproofed backpack, emerging exhausted at the far end.
- Book 4 · Ch 61Hugh sacrifices himself
Caught by a masked group, Hugh holds the attackers so Bob can break free with Bender; Bob takes a gun and runs for the hills.
- Book 4 · Ch 63Bob captured at the station
Reaching the transit station, Bob finds his secret hatch discovered; Crew ambush him, cut away the backpack holding Bender, and take him by train to a stronghold.
- Book 4 · Ch 63ANEC ends the era of control
After a deal with Hugh, ANEC 23 appears in the sky to announce no more scatterings and an end to its controls, then releases Bob, Hugh and Bender, who leave Heaven's River.
- Book 4 · Ch 64Bender restored
Bob's roamers install Bender's matrix in a spare cradle and Bender wakes in Bob's VR, delighted to have a body again.
- Book 4 · Ch 64Hugh reveals the ANEC deal
Hugh tells the Bobs he traded SURGE, SUDDAR and SCUT to ANEC for the secret of true AI, explaining ANEC's prime directive and defending the trade against Bill's objections before leaving for Skippy space.