Bob
Names: BobSandbox Bobmini-meMr. JohanssonBob-1Original Bobthe bawbeboss-manRobertEnoki FunguyEnokiMr. FunguySamWyatt
First appears in Book 1: We Are Legion, chapter 2 (Bob Version 2.0)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: We Are Legion
- Ch 2Bob wakes on June 24, 2133 as a replicant: a computer simulation of Robert Johansson's scanned, frozen brain.
- Ch 2Bob has no body; he sees and speaks only through machine interfaces, and his voice starts out as synthesizer static.
- Ch 2Bob's emotions are limited by an endocrine simulation, so he cannot truly panic, fear or rage.
- Ch 2Bob discovers he can do mental arithmetic instantly, as if the answer were spoken in his ear.
- Ch 2Bob is legal property and one of five replicant candidates competing for a single project role.
- Ch 3Bob finds he can query GUPPI directly for calculations and the date, which answers in brackets in his mind.
- Ch 3Bob feels mentally at the top of his game, but thoughts of his long-dead family bring only mild regret because of the endocrine controls.
- Ch 3Bob gains control of a camera arm and a waldo manipulator on his own initiative, ahead of Dr. Landers' training schedule.
- Ch 3Bob is impressed by how quickly he learns to direct many roamers at once.
- Ch 3Bob notices the training room is completely sealed, and wonders whether his handlers are afraid of him.
- Ch 4Bob is kept in standby between sessions, because replicants left alone experience time so fast that some go psychotic overnight.
- Ch 4Bob learns one of the other replicant candidates went into an unrecoverable loop, leaving four, and is ashamed to feel relieved.
- Ch 4Bob is told he may not search for living descendants, and feels completely cut off from his former humanity.
- Ch 4Bob resents being property and resolves to play the good robot until he can change his situation, starting with the endocrine controls.
- Ch 5Bob hides his real views on religion from Minister Travis, presenting himself as a respectful team player.
- Ch 5Bob learns to run Fourier analysis on voices in near real time to read people's tension.
- Ch 5In a two-day space-station simulation, Bob sets up monitoring scripts and spends the time reading the library.
- Ch 6Bob is a natural loner who is happy with long solitude, which makes him a strong candidate for the project.
- Ch 6Bob learns he is being groomed to be the controlling mind of a Von Neumann probe, and is thrilled at the chance to go to the stars.
- Ch 6Only one other replicant candidate remains besides Bob.
- Ch 6Applied Synergetics' software people are so impressed by Bob's monitoring scripts that they ask to keep a copy of him.
- Ch 7Bob learns that rival nations' probe projects, not just internal FAITH factions, threaten the mission.
- Ch 8During an armed raid on the project building, Bob breaks out his roamers and swarms the attackers, helping security guards force a surrender.
- Ch 8Bob secretly keeps one unaccounted-for roamer and uses it to map the building through the air ducts, finding no sign of the nuke.
- Ch 8Bob finds the candidates' cubes; only his and Kenneth Martins's are powered, the other three are switched off.
- Ch 8Bob considers switching off rival Kenneth Martins but refuses, preferring to be switched off himself than to sabotage another.
- Ch 9Bob eavesdrops on the conversation by having a roamer pick up wall vibrations despite the intercom being off.
- Ch 10After a bomb destroys the replicant matrices, Bob is restored from backup onto the single spare unit, losing several days.
- Ch 10Bob reasons that he is conscious, alive, and still Bob, since he carries the history, desires and thoughts that made Bob.
- Ch 10With Kenneth gone, Bob is effectively the chosen replicant for the probe mission.
- Ch 10Bob nearly reveals that he secretly knew about Kenneth, and distracts Dr. Landers with questions.
- Ch 11Dr. Doucette tells Bob his software contains safeguards to ensure mission objectives are met, which troubles him.
- Ch 11Bob has scripted so many roamer activities that routine assembly work barely needs his attention.
- Ch 12Aboard Heaven-1, Bob can adjust his personal time sense, from very slow up to his hardware's maximum frame rate.
- Ch 12Bob destroys a pursuing missile by ramming it with two of his six mining drones.
- Ch 12Bob launches early, burning extra reactor fuel, and sets off for Epsilon Eridani at 2 g.
- Ch 13Bob finds and jettisons a duct-taped explosive package wired to the radio antenna, placed to destroy his primary computer.
- Ch 13Bob detours for a Saturn flyby, his favourite planet, filming the planet and Titan before heading for Epsilon Eridani.
- Ch 13Bob builds a virtual reality environment with a body, a room and a La-Z-Boy to escape the sensory deprivation of being bodiless.
- Ch 13Using a sandboxed copy of himself, Bob finds and removes the kill-order triggers, the FAITH obedience imperatives, and writes a firewall.
- Ch 13Bob designs a version-2 ship, larger and armed with a SURGE-driven projectile launcher.
- Ch 13Bob suspects subspace theory might allow faster-than-light communications but shelves the idea for now.
- Ch 13Weighing defences against the Brazilian probe, Bob judges booby traps his best bet; building more Bobs would take up to six months each.
- Ch 13Bob assumes the Brazilian probe may be hiding its true acceleration and plans for less preparation time.
- Ch 13After grieving, Bob concludes he is still human in the ways that matter.
- Ch 14Bob reaches Epsilon Eridani in August 2144, the first person to visit another star system.
- Ch 14Bob resolves to confront the Brazilian probe rather than flee, fearing a galactic breeding race if it starts copying itself.
- Ch 14Bob plans an ambush on the inner edge of the asteroid belt, with buried weapons launched late after the Brazilian commits.
- Ch 15Bob briefly reactivates his endocrine controls to stay calm for the battle, then switches them off afterwards.
- Ch 15Bob concludes he must out-breed his rivals and will shoot any other Medeiros on sight.
- Ch 16Bob realizes the mission lacks probes to explore planets up close and plans to design exploration scouts.
- Ch 16With his imperatives removed, Bob has free will and feels anxiety about cloning himself and what it means for his uniqueness.
- Ch 16Bob finally orders manufacturing systems deployed to begin building more Bobs.
- Ch 17Bob builds four version-2 HEAVEN vessels plus a new ship for himself, Heaven-1A, marked with a crossed-out Brazilian probe.
- Ch 17Bob sets rules for his copies: each picks a new first name, and the most senior Bob in a system is in charge.
- Ch 17Bob realizes the copies are not identical clones; Bill suggests all of them, Bob included, are variations on original Bob.
- Ch 18Bob leaves Epsilon Eridani for Delta Eridani, seemingly in haste, unsettled by the cloning experience.
- Ch 27Bob arrives at Delta Eridani in 2165 and sets up mining, an early-warning drone network, a comms station and Bob construction.
- Ch 27Bob dreads building more Bobs, troubled by Milo's self-centredness and Riker's lack of humour, but admits he will want company.
- Ch 30Overwhelmed by managing drones, Bob has the autofactory prioritise AI cores so new Bobs can help monitor.
- Ch 30Bob comes to see Archimedes not as a furry pig/bat but as a lonely kid he wishes he could teach.
- Ch 35Bob declares the Bobs will not let the Deltans die out, despite debate over interference.
- Ch 35Bob refuses, again, to use explosives.
- Ch 35Vessels for Marvin, Luke and Bender are nearly complete; Bob half-hopes some will stay.
- Ch 36On the way to Epsilon Eridani, Bob-1 removed buried FAITH imperatives from the replicant matrix.
- Ch 37Bob pilots a buster drone that obliterates a gorilloid about to kill Archimedes.
- Ch 37Angered by the carnage and doubting his amateur biology, Bob resolves to go hunting gorilloids.
- Ch 39Bob considers using Marvin's original backup for the next batch of Bobs and updating them verbally.
- Ch 39Bob builds a Deltan voice and speaker-equipped drones, ready to prompt the Deltans to move to the flint site.
- Ch 44Bob speaks to Archimedes through a camouflaged drone, revealing he destroyed the gorilloid and brought the flint.
- Ch 44Bob asks the Deltans to move back to an old village with flint, water, food and better defences.
- Ch 48Bob teaches the Deltans to preserve meat and gives them travois for the migration.
- Ch 48Bob realises he dreads being alone again if Marvin leaves.
- Ch 50Bob orders fifty busters and printer duplication to bootstrap production, and considers building explosives despite hating them.
- Ch 50Bob concludes the far side of the pass is gorilloid territory and this will be a war of extermination.
- Ch 53Bob plans to help the Deltans for a generation, then fade into legend to avoid dependence.
- Ch 53Bob wants to hunt out gorilloids; Marvin argues for killing only attackers to breed less aggressive gorilloids.
- Ch 55Bob has busters automatically destroy any gorilloid within a hundred metres, to teach gorilloids to avoid the area rather than cull them.
Book 2: For We Are Many
- Ch 1Bob watches over the Deltans from orbit around Delta Eridani 4, using a floating observation drone to join their pigoid hunts.
- Ch 1Bob has introduced flint spear tips, spear straighteners and hand axes to the Deltans; the hunters trust him most.
- Ch 3Bob's small intervention to save the Deltans from extinction has become a full-time job as their sky god, The Bawbe.
- Ch 3Bob tells Archimedes he made four copies of himself at the last star and three at Delta Eridani; Marvin is the one who stayed.
- Ch 9Bob admits his initial survey of Delta Eridani 4's fauna was not thorough once he found the Deltans.
- Ch 9Bob orders four more squads of exploration drones, delaying his high-priority armaments project, to search for the predator.
- Ch 11Bob teaches Archimedes basic jujitsu, adapted to Deltan anatomy, to help him win mating-season challenges.
- Ch 11Bob fears he may have led the Deltans back into the mystery predator's range, and asks Archimedes and Moses to keep it secret.
- Ch 12Bob-1 started the whole Bob line and cloned Bill; his connecting to BobNet is a special moment for Bill.
- Ch 12Bob wants an android so he can visit Eden in person instead of as a floating camera.
- Ch 12Bob is still the best VR coder among the Bobs; Bill plans to merge Bob's VR features.
- Ch 15Bill tells Mario that Bob made a peaceful first contact a couple of years before Mario's discovery.
- Ch 16Bob designed the busters, plastics-backed shells and an automated surveillance system that Howard will use on Vulcan.
- Ch 16Bob is troubled by watching the Deltans he knows age, and finds it too painful to talk to his human relatives' descendants.
- Ch 17Bob and Bill are merging their independently developed VR code now that real-time communication exists.
- Ch 19Bob is building four replicant matrices for version-3 Heaven vessels, out of obligation to Dr. Landers and humanity.
- Ch 19Bob realizes that by leading the Deltans back to the flint site, he put them back within the hippogriffs' range.
- Ch 19Bob furiously warns Hoffa never to threaten his family, and vows to remove the hippogriffs.
- Ch 19Bob and Marvin briefly fall out over Bob's plan for 'planetary ecological surgery', then reconcile.
- Ch 22Since his banishment, Bob has secretly killed six hippogriffs heading for Camelot, using a camouflaged drone.
- Ch 24As senior Bob in Delta Eridani, Bob traditionally plays host; senior Bobs in a system are generally in charge.
- Ch 24Bob hasn't had to kill a hippogriff in months, and resolves to contact Archimedes less often.
- Ch 27Six years after his banishment, Bob watches Camelot in real time through hidden cameras and camouflaged drones.
- Ch 33Bob watches Camelot through a real-time VR built from hidden cameras, staying out of sight since his banishment.
- Ch 33Bob decides to do nothing and let the Deltans make their own destiny, though he regrets the choice was forced on him.
- Ch 39Later-generation Bobs treat Bob-1 with reverence, like meeting the pope.
- Ch 41Bob blames population pressure for the violence and wishes he had one of Bill's androids to help.
- Ch 41Bob advises Archimedes to use reverse psychology so restless Deltans choose to resettle old village sites.
- Ch 56The council still refuses to lift Bob's banishment, and Bob tells Archimedes to stop pressing the issue.
- Ch 56Deltan stories about The Bawbe are being embellished, casting him more as a trickster or devil figure.
- Ch 64Bill notes that Bob-1 is effectively banished from the Deltans, whom he had adopted as family.
- Ch 69Bob-1 has been pushing Bill about androids for years and wants the Android Project bumped up in priority.
- Ch 70Bob-1 is rapidly improving the android tech, outpacing Bill's decades of work within months.
- Ch 71In Charlie, Bob is introduced to Archimedes' family under a common Deltan name rendered as Robert, and is not recognised.
- Ch 76Bob attends Diana's funeral through his android Charlie, briefly retreating to VR to compose himself.
- Ch 76Expecting Archimedes to die soon, Bob vows that funeral will be the last he attends.
- Ch 77Bob-1 has a legendary status among the Bobs, rarely attends moots, and talks of leaving once Archimedes is gone.
Book 3: All These Worlds
- Ch 1Bob joins Deltan hunts in person via a nondescript android body, while actually remaining in orbit; the Deltans know him as Robert.
- Ch 1Bob relies on translation software that converts Deltan speech, names and colloquialisms into human equivalents.
- Ch 1Bob lives among the Deltans of Camelot, staying at Archimedes' tent, and hides his true strength and nature.
- Ch 5Bob's android body has electronic reflexes and several times the strength of a live Deltan, and he thinks at computer speed.
- Ch 5Bob sets a trap for Fred's gang using his own hunting party as bait, backed by eighteen hidden Camelot hunters.
- Ch 5Bob threatens to cut Fred's throat if the Caerleon gang keeps warring with Camelot.
- Ch 10Bob feels more part of Deltan life as Robert than he did as Original Bob on Earth, partly from missing his family.
- Ch 10Bob evades Fred and four hunters by switching off his android's scent and staying perfectly still, using spy drones to track them.
- Ch 10Bob refuses to kill Fred outright or reveal his android abilities, which would end his cover as Archimedes' friend Robert.
- Ch 28Bob ambushes Fred alone with a flint knife but cannot bring himself to kill in cold blood.
- Ch 28Bob suspects Caerleon's raids stem from perceived inequity over tools and hunting success.
- Ch 34Bob, in his Deltan android form, uses spy drones to track the kidnappers but must hide how he knows where they are.
- Ch 34Bob breaks the Caerleon spear line by rolling under the spears, then deliberately avoids killing enemies.
- Ch 40Bob introduced tents to the Deltans after a storm during the exodus from the old village.
- Ch 40Bob has a reputation as a weather forecaster, crediting aching bones while secretly watching weather from orbit.
- Ch 49Bob plans to plant a black monolith with writing, on a magnetic anomaly on the largest moon, as a 2001 homage for the Deltans to find.
- Ch 49Bob realizes the aging Archimedes now resembles Moses as he was fifty-seven years earlier, and grieves that he won't be around much longer.
- Ch 60Bob has lived with the Deltan tribe for almost twenty years and has known Archimedes for fifty.
- Ch 60Bob weighs whether to stay in the tribe by simulating aging, return as someone else, or fade away as originally planned.
- Ch 68Bob and Archimedes had been inseparable for twenty Earth years, about eighteen years on Eden.
- Ch 68Bob secretly places a camouflaged, Casimir-powered drone in Archimedes' grave to guard it and leave a piece of himself.
- Ch 68With Archimedes gone, Bob leaves the Deltan village for good, saying Archimedes was all that held him there.
- Ch 71Bob grieves deeply for Archimedes and is offended by how quickly Camelot moves on.
- Ch 71Bob realizes he has spent seventy years in a rut trying to be human, and resolves to act as a post-human starship.
- Ch 75Bob visits frozen Earth in an android, standing above the buried site of Las Vegas, where his first life ended.
- Ch 75Bob regrets never having a last conversation with his father and Alaina.
- Ch 75Bob decides to cut all ties and head out to explore, building stations to stay connected to BobNet.
Book 4: Heaven’s River
- Ch 2Bob is the first replicant, launched from Earth in 2133; every Bob is descended from him, and there are now thousands.
- Ch 2Bob lived among the Deltans in android form and left Camelot for the last time 63 years ago, after Archimedes's funeral.
- Ch 2Bob turns toward Eta Leporis, theorizing Bender diverted there; the trip will take about 35 years and needs a relay station.
- Ch 3Bob parks over fifty AU out from Eta Leporis and builds an autofactory, scouts and a relay station before searching cautiously.
- Ch 3Bob realizes he is not a military thinker and resolves to resurrect his paranoia and think defensively.
- Ch 3Bob circles the long way around Eta Leporis rather than fly through it, unsure how far the Boojums patrol.
- Ch 5Bob announces finding Bender's empty ship on his blog and considers a raid if Bender is being experimented on.
- Ch 12Bob secretly rigs an undetectable hardware monitor into spy drones running the Skippies' search algorithm.
- Ch 12The expedition team is Bob, Bill, Garfield and Bridget, with Will as backup; androids need about six more months.
- Ch 14The expedition will be four, posing as a sabbat, with a fifth spare manny at Bob's insistence.
- Ch 17Bob, Bill, Garfield and Bridget form the primary expedition into Heaven's River, using Quinlan-shaped mannies.
- Ch 17Bob acts as the expedition's spokesperson and tells a local cop the group is on sabbatical from Hand of Ar, heading downriver.
- Ch 17Bob's main goal in Heaven's River is to find Bender or learn what happened to him.
- Ch 19Bob is accused of theft for looking into a cart and escapes a mob by diving into the river, outpacing pursuers.
- Ch 19The team decides to hold all English discussions over intercom only, in case management is watching.
- Ch 21Bob reflects he hasn't visited Marvin in a long time and considers rejoining Bobiverse society.
- Ch 22Bob hides a one-inch surveillance roamer in their room, catching four armed intruders breaking in.
- Ch 24Bob refuses to activate the spare manny for a separate mission, insisting the team stay a foursome.
- Ch 24Bob fears a post-scarcity Bobiverse will fracture if factions like Starfleet seek power over the rest.
- Ch 25Bob suggests letting their pursuers capture them to make contact; the others reject it as too risky.
- Ch 25Bob came only to find Bender, but feels pulled into the Quinlans' plight, fearing becoming the Bawbe all over again.
- Ch 29Bob reactivates a low-bandwidth temporary relay drone, enough for talk but not manny or VR sessions, and sends it toward the Midway station.
- Ch 29Bob hides the four mannies in the river, then plants roamers in every Three Lagoons pub and the municipal hall.
- Ch 29Bob orders Guppy to build three replicant matrices locally and expects he will have to clone himself.
- Ch 31Physically alone in Heaven's River, Bob expects to clone himself once the new matrices are complete.
- Ch 31The team votes for Bob to 'rattle the bushes' in Three Lagoons rather than keep passively observing.
- Ch 32Bob deliberately lets himself be captured in Three Lagoons, following Bridget's plan to flush out the groups watching them.
- Ch 32Bob hopes the Resistance can give him real information about the missing Bender.
- Ch 32Bob's autofactories at Eta Leporis are relatively protected because he built them with only a low-bandwidth link to the Bobiverse.
- Ch 34Bob threatens that a dead-man switch will destroy the room if he is in real danger.
- Ch 35A latency ping narrows Bender's location to within about ten segments, or roughly five thousand miles either way of Bob.
- Ch 35Bob asks Garfield or Bridget to consider cloning to help on this side of Heaven's River while BobNet is disrupted.
- Ch 35Bob plans to search one direction along the river while Hugh, once activated, takes the other.
- Ch 35Bob plans to blog his audio and video records of finding Bender once Garfield mirrors his blog on BobNet.
- Ch 37Bob escapes the Resistance's net ambush but loses his last spider roamer and must wait for his leg wound to self-repair.
- Ch 37Bob resupplies with roamers, coins and three metal knives from the anchored mannies before leaving Three Lagoons downstream.
- Ch 37Bob feels lonely traveling alone and disconnected from a Bobiverse society that changed while he was away.
- Ch 42Bob rents a pricey Oaken Bale apartment overlooking the docks in Cedar Rapids, posing as an artist, to watch for the Resistance.
- Ch 42Bob increasingly suspects Hugh is holding something back, noting Hugh's unconvincing bonhomie and repeated self-interruptions.
- Ch 42Finding no one who knows Halep's Ending, Bob decides to break into a transit station downriver from Cedar Rapids.
- Ch 44Bob adjusts his manny's facial features to roughly match Natasha's face, in case the transit station uses facial recognition.
- Ch 46Bob finds a worn path to a hidden entrance in the mountains near Halep's Ending and uses his roamers to bypass its lock and sensors.
- Ch 46Bob reasons that maintenance of Heaven's River must be largely automated, since a huge secret workforce couldn't stay loyal for generations.
- Ch 46Bob begins to suspect the hidden hacker could be a faction within the Skippies, and grows wary of Hugh.
- Ch 46Bob carries Bender's matrix onto a train, shooting Matthew and Jeff with tranquilizer darts, and is hit by a dart himself.
- Ch 46Bob escapes by disguising his face as Rick, a Resistance member whose security card he snatched, and sending the guards down the stairs.
- Ch 46Bob cannot swim with Bender's matrix in his backpack, and the Resistance is watching the train stations, leaving him stranded near Halep's Ending.
- Ch 46Bob re-enters the maintenance complex while its bait guard relieves himself, hoping Natasha's card opens the elevator to the central cylinder.
- Ch 48Bob uses Natasha's access card to ride a spoke elevator fifty-six miles up to the near-zero-G hub of Heaven's River and over to the Nirvana side.
- Ch 48Bob carries Bender's eight-inch matrix cube in his backpack and cannot risk getting it wet.
- Ch 48Bob's access cards are cancelled, stranding him a quarter turn around Heaven's River, seven segments from Garack's Spine, his only way out.
- Ch 48Bob is low on money, carrying his coins swallowed inside his manny and coughing them up when needed.
- Ch 48Bob privately suspects Hugh and the Skippies may know the Administrator is an AI, but decides to keep quiet until he knows more.
- Ch 48Pursuers try to break into Bob's hotel room; he escapes disguised as a cleaner and hides in a forest tree.
- Ch 48Bob's biggest hurdle is getting out of Forest Hill without exposing Bender's matrix to view.
- Ch 50Bob disguises himself as a Quinlan named Enoki Funguy, modelling his look on a random passerby, and works as a deckhand.
- Ch 50Bob risks revealing scientific knowledge, explaining replication and the Closest Continuer idea to the Hurricane crew.
- Ch 50Bob threatens Snidely with violence if he tampers with his trunk again, suspecting the matter is not over.
- Ch 52Bob had hidden Bender's matrix in a shipping container and swapped it back into his trunk at night.
- Ch 52Bob admits to Theresa he is not Quinlan and that the Administrator is an engineering construct, not a deity.
- Ch 54Bob changes his disguise, ships Bender's matrix in a cheap container addressed to Garack's Spine, and joins the Clipper as deckhand 'Sam'.
- Ch 54Bob refuses any contact with the Administrator until Bender is safe; the team agrees to keep probing afterward.
- Ch 54Bob swaps his container's label with another crate, so police at Six Hills seize the wrong crate and call for 'Sam'.
- Ch 54Bob, as 'Sam', is detained at Six Hills with the decoy crate, pending a visit by officials from another city.
- Ch 56Jailed in Six Hills, Bob uses his fleas to loosen a cell bar, knocks out two night-shift police, locks them in and escapes.
- Ch 56Bob's manny swims all night to catch the Clipper, then rejoins its crew disguised as a new deckhand named 'Wyatt'.
- Ch 56Bob takes Bender's crate off the Clipper at night and hides in a shoreline grass nest, planning an overland route.
- Ch 56Bob's opinion of Hugh softens; he admits he is avoiding raising his suspicions about Hugh and the AI issue.
- Ch 56Bob bends his manny's leg kicking a badger-like animal and must hole up in its deadfall den while nanites repair it.
- Ch 56Bob feels ashamed of his suspicions of Hugh after Hugh's practical help with Bender.
- Ch 57Bob and Hugh float Bender's sealed crate downstream at night, planning a two-week route to Garack's Spine via the Arcadia River.
- Ch 57Bob asks Will half-seriously whether he can take another passenger.
- Ch 57Bob decoys pursuers with the empty case, kills a crow-sized spy drone with a thrown iron coin, buries the case and doubles back.
- Ch 59Bob and Hugh ride clinging under a Crew boat into the Garack segment, which they suspect is being blockaded.
- Ch 59Bob buys waterproofing supplies just after the watchers leave at closing time.
- Ch 61Bob and Hugh reach Garack's Spine by night, aiming for the transit station with Bender's matrix in Bob's backpack.
- Ch 63Bob escapes Garack's Spine while Crew and Resistance fighters shoot at each other, but is captured at the transit station.
- Ch 63Bob tells his captors the cube is a friend and relative, and that intelligent beings need not be flesh and blood.
- Ch 66Bob's spy-drone hardware logs show the Skippies learned more about scattering and the Administrator than they shared.
- Ch 67Under ANEC's dispensation, Bob can now walk openly out of a transit station in Heaven's River.
- Ch 67Bob visits Theresa, one of his few true friends, offering to teach her about her world and his.
Book 5: Not Till We Are Lost
- Ch 1The first Bob replicant, now called Bob-1, is still around but seems to have semi-retired.
- Ch 4Bob is travelling to 82 Eridani, limiting his speed so he can stay in touch with the rest of the Bobiverse.
- Ch 4Bob agrees to have a quiet word with someone, or have Bill do so, about ANEC's AI concerns.
- Ch 16Bob uses a Quinlan android body, a quinny, and is known to Quinlans as Enoki.
- Ch 16Bob feels Theresa's replication partly makes up for his inability to save Archimedes.
- Ch 20Bob-1 had wanted to join up with Will in his hermit-like exploration.
- Ch 22Bob confirms he wants to join Will's expedition, having soured on solo exploration.
- Ch 25Bob plans to ask ANEC for a non-self-aware teaching AI to help orient new Quinlan replicants.
- Ch 30Bob has heard rumors of similar replicant self-deletions in ex-human space and offers to use Bobiverse contacts.
- Ch 61Bob proposed letting Fake Hugh appear to succeed, so Thoth would purge its local copy before the ship was destroyed.
- Ch 72Bob suspects Theresa's touchy-feely behaviour may signal romantic interest in him.
- Ch 72Bob is due to take up residence on the Fargo but says the Bobs can't walk away from their responsibility to humanity.
Connections
- copy ofBob Johansson
- related toApplied Synergetics Inc.owns
- inNew Handeltown
- related toRoamercontrols
- related toFAITHowns
- member ofProject HEAVEN
- related toKenneth Martinsrival replicant candidates
- related toHeaven-1installed as the ship's controlling mind
- createdJeeves
- createdSpike
- friend ofDr. Landers
- family ofAndrea
- family ofAlaina
- enemy ofBrazilian probe
- inEpsilon Eridani
- enemy ofMajor Ernesto Medeiros
- createdShip-busters
- copied intoRiker
- copied intoBill
- copied intoMilo
- copied intoMario
- related toHeaven-1Atransfers into it as his new ship
- createdObservation drones
- copied intoMarvin
- ally ofMarvin
- related toArchimedesBob protects him
- friend ofMarvin
- ally ofArchimedes
- family ofMarvinMarvin says he can't believe he's related to Bob
- ally ofArnold
- friend ofArchimedes
- related toCruellafrequent arguments over medical advice
- enemy ofHoffa
- enemy ofDiana
- copied intoPete
- copied intoVictor
- friend ofLuke
- related toDelta Eridani 4 nativesprotector of the Deltans
- enemy ofThe Others
- related toDeltan councilbanished him
- related toAndroid projectvolunteers to help
- related toMannyupgrading the android
- createdCharlie the android
- friend ofDonald
- enemy ofFred
- ally ofDonald
- friend ofBuster
- friend ofBill
- friend ofRiker
- related toHeaven-1BBob's vessel
- copied intoBender
- enemy ofJeremypublic confrontation at a moot
- enemy ofEta Leporis attack drones
- createdstealth scouts
- related toBendersearching for and hoping to rescue him
- friend ofGarfield
- ally ofSkippieshelp with language analysis
- friend ofDr. Sheehy
- copied intoHowarddescribed as a Bob clone
- enemy ofOfficer Friendly
- createdMidway station
- related toGUPPIBob's assistant
- enemy ofPopeye
- friend ofBender
- enemy ofNatasha
- ally ofHugh
- enemy ofSnidely Whiplash
- friend ofTheresa
- related toHughBob distrusts Hugh's motivations
- friend ofHugh
- ally ofAneccollaborating on the Quiniverse project
- ally ofRikerBob-1 wanted to join Will's exploration
- createdInterGator
- member ofThe Ancient Ones
- partner ofTheresapossible, Bob is unsure
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 2Bob wakes as a replicant
In 2133 Bob is activated as a computer copy of Robert Johansson's mind and learns he is property of the state's contractor.
- Book 1 · Ch 3The roamer test
Dr. Landers brings forward Bob's test with remote manipulator robots, and Bob uses them to stack blocks with growing skill.
- Book 1 · Ch 4A rival replicant is lost
One of the five replicant candidates goes into an unrecoverable loop, and her backup fails at the same point.
- Book 1 · Ch 5Minister Travis inspects Bob
A senior minister arrives unannounced to vet Bob's religious attitudes; Bob carefully hides his views and passes.
- Book 1 · Ch 5The space-station simulation
Bob runs a simulated space station's power, traffic and environment for two subjective days without a single failure.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Bob learns the mission
With only two candidates left, Dr. Landers reveals that the winner will become the mind of a Von Neumann probe.
- Book 1 · Ch 7Sabotage warning
Dr. Landers tells Bob that anti-project factions have united against Project HEAVEN, now cut to a single vessel, and warns of possible sabotage.
- Book 1 · Ch 7The probe race explained
Dr. Landers briefs Bob on world politics and the rival probe projects of the USE, China and the Brazilian Empire, a race with a strong military component.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Raid on the project
Black-clad attackers raid the project complex; Bob frees his roamers and swarms them until security guards force a surrender. Three people are killed.
- Book 1 · Ch 8The nuke in the basement
Dr. Landers admits the staff fear not Bob but a tactical nuke in the basement meant to stop him escaping, with the trigger held by unknown people.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Bob finds the candidate cubes
Using a hidden roamer, Bob finds the computer room holding five candidate cubes, two active, and chooses not to switch off Kenneth Martins.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Minister Jacoby's tirade
Minister Jacoby berates Dr. Landers over the replicant project; Landers rebuts him with the Ministry of Truth's backing and Jacoby leaves with a threat, while Bob listens in.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Matrices bombed; Bob restored
An explosive smuggled into the computer room destroys the replicant matrices; Bob is restored from backup onto the one spare unit, and Kenneth Martins is lost.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Bob resolves his identity
Bob works through whether he is conscious, alive and still Bob, concluding he is all three, and feels a weight lift.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Bob kept online
To speed up the project, Dr. Landers stops deactivating Bob between sessions and grants more library access.
- Book 1 · Ch 11Bob learns of the safeguards
While chatting with Dr. Doucette about Handeltown and life under the theocracy, Bob learns his software contains safeguards forcing mission compliance.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Landers' secret message
After another deadly attack, Dr. Landers moves up the launch and secretly gives Bob full system access, warning of a probable self-destruct device.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Missile attack at launch
Missiles target Heaven-1; Bob launches early in the opposite direction and uses two mining drones to destroy his pursuer, while the space station is destroyed behind him.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Departure for Epsilon Eridani
Warned of a remote detonator, Bob disables his radio and leaves a growing naval battle, heading for Epsilon Eridani.
- Book 1 · Ch 13Saturn flyby
After removing a bomb from his ship, Bob detours to fly past Saturn and Titan, recording extensive footage before setting course for Epsilon Eridani.
- Book 1 · Ch 13Bob builds his VR and cleans his code
Bob creates a VR world with Guppy, Jeeves and Spike, and uses a sandboxed copy of himself to strip out kill-order triggers and FAITH imperatives.
- Book 1 · Ch 13News of war and Landers' death
Messages reveal that a Brazilian gunship fired the missile, an armed Brazilian probe is pursuing Bob, and Dr. Landers died in a Brazilian bombing as war spreads.
- Book 1 · Ch 13Bob mourns
Bob disables his endocrine controls and finally grieves for his parents, Andrea and Alaina, and the life he lost, comforted by Spike.
- Book 1 · Ch 13Nuclear war on Earth
Guppy detects EMPs and flashes confirming nuclear detonations on Earth.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Arrival at Epsilon Eridani
Bob arrives at Epsilon Eridani, maps its planets and belts, and searches the inner asteroid belt for resources.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Preparing for the Brazilian
Bob begins mining and manufacturing for a trap to meet the armed Brazilian probe, delaying his own reproduction.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Parley with Medeiros
Bob hails the arriving Brazilian ship and appeals for peace; Major Medeiros insults him and refuses.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Battle of Epsilon Eridani
Medeiros fires missiles at Bob; Bob's hidden ship-busters intercept them and smash the Serra do Mar, destroying it, though Heaven-1 is damaged by shrapnel.
- Book 1 · Ch 16Surveying Epsilon Eridani
Bob surveys the system's four planets, finding EE-2 barely habitable and possibly harbouring sea life, but no good colony target.
- Book 1 · Ch 16Bob commits to replication
After wrestling with doubts about cloning himself, Bob orders Guppy to deploy manufacturing systems to build more Bobs.
- Book 1 · Ch 17The first copies
Bob loads backups of himself into four new vessels; the copies wake, take the names Riker, Bill, Milo and Mario, while Bob moves into Heaven-1A.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Dividing the work
The Bobs discuss next steps: Bill stays to research subspace and run the Bob factory, Riker plans to investigate Sol, Milo and Mario head out to explore.
- Book 1 · Ch 18The Bobs disperse
Bob, Milo and Mario leave Epsilon Eridani for Delta Eridani, Omicron2 Eridani and Beta Hydri, while Bill builds new Bobs for himself and for Riker's Sol trip.
- Book 1 · Ch 27Arrival at Delta Eridani
Bob arrives at Delta Eridani, finds a habitable fourth planet, and sets up mining, defences and a communications station.
- Book 1 · Ch 27Discovery of intelligent life
Investigating unexplained fires on Delta Eridani 4, Bob's drones find groups of fire-using intelligent beings, the first non-human intelligence found.
- Book 1 · Ch 30Bob discovers Archimedes
Studying the Deltans, Bob notices a hafted stone tool and traces it to an inventive young Deltan he names Archimedes, then watches him around the clock.
- 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 35Flint gift to Archimedes
The Bobs drop flint near Archimedes; he trades it, learns knapping from Moses, and builds a hafted axe to produce better pointed sticks.
- 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 1 · Ch 39Bob prepares to speak to Deltans
Having analysed the Deltan language, Bob creates a Deltan voice and orders speaker drones to communicate directly if needed.
- Book 1 · Ch 44First contact with Archimedes
Bob speaks to Archimedes via a drone and persuades him to urge his people to relocate to an old village.
- Book 1 · Ch 44The bawbe appears to the elders
When the elders mock Archimedes, Bob's drone hovers over him, silencing them; a long debate on moving follows, with Moses and Arnold in support.
- Book 1 · Ch 48Deltan migration begins
After preparing preserved food, the tribe sets out for the old flint village, watched by gorilloids and guarded by Bob's drones.
- Book 1 · Ch 48Daytime gorilloid raid
Gorilloids snatch two juveniles; drones distract them and Deltans kill half, but one juvenile dies.
- Book 1 · Ch 48Crossing the mountain pass
Swelled by other groups to over five hundred, the migration crosses the pass ahead of schedule, but disaster looms two days later.
- Book 1 · Ch 50Dawn gorilloid raid on the migration
Dozens of gorilloids attack; busters and Deltan spears repel them, but almost twenty Deltans die and many abductees are lost.
- Book 1 · Ch 50Migration pauses to rearm
Bob persuades the elders to camp for five days while more busters arrive, and ramps up manufacturing.
- Book 1 · Ch 53Migration resumes
With busters replenished, the Deltans resume their march through jungle, enduring three more attacks before reaching the flint site.
- Book 1 · Ch 55Arrival at the flint site
The Deltans reach and settle the old flint site, which is surrounded by gorilloids; busters guard the perimeter and Archimedes and Moses start making tools.
- Book 1 · Ch 55Altar to the bawbe
Marvin shows Bob that some Deltans have built an altar from buster pieces.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Pigoid hunt
Deltan hunters kill a pigoid with flint-tipped spears while Bob watches via drone; Fred is injured when his spear snaps.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Cruella adopts boiled water
Pressured by the hunters, Cruella grudgingly cleans Fred's wound with boiled water as Bob had advised, a major victory for Bob.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Deltan migration mystery
Marvin shows Bob evidence that the Deltans originated elsewhere and their original population disappeared without enough graves to explain it.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Archimedes learns about the Bobs
On the bluff above Camelot, Archimedes asks how many Bawbes exist, and Bob explains that each brother is a copy of himself with a slightly different personality.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Unknown predator discovered
Marvin reports remains showing a large unknown predator nearly wiped out the Deltans at their original home; Bob orders a kilometer-by-kilometer drone survey.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Archimedes wins a mate
Using jujitsu moves Bob taught him, Archimedes beats bigger rivals during breeding season and pairs with Diana.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Predator victim found near Camelot
Marvin finds a predator-killed Deltan skeleton near Camelot; Bob consults Archimedes and Moses, posts perimeter drones, and Marvin expands the search.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Bob joins BobNet
Bob-1 connects to BobNet; Bill pops into his VR, meets Marvin, and learns the Bobs have made first contact with the Deltans.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Bill catches Bob up
Bill tells Bob about Vulcan and Romulus, Riker's battle in Sol, the near-destruction of humanity, and the colony-ship effort.
- Book 2 · Ch 17Drone downed by flying predator
A survey drone over Eden is snatched from the air and bitten nearly in half; Marvin recovers the wreck and matches its bite marks to old Deltan remains.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Hippogriff identified
A Deltan forager is carried off by a near-invisible flyer; Bob and Marvin identify it as a giant color-changing hippogriff and trace them to an island rookery.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Hippogriff attack on Camelot
Fourteen hippogriffs attack Camelot; Bob and Marvin's busters kill most, Arnold and the hunters kill one, but three Deltans die.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Council confronts Bob
Hoffa challenges Bob in council over the Deltans' worsening troubles and suggests offering Archimedes to the hippogriffs.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Hippogriff island destroyed
Bob drops a ship-buster on the hippogriffs' island, wiping it out; the Deltans shelter behind the bluff from the shockwave and falling debris.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Deltans banish Bob
The Deltan council, through Hoffa, tells Bob he is no longer welcome; a devastated Bob withdraws, telling Archimedes he will talk to him later.
- Book 2 · Ch 22Bob's secret meetings with Archimedes
Despite his banishment, Bob secretly meets Archimedes, protecting Camelot from hippogriffs and teaching him about bows and arrows.
- Book 2 · Ch 22Marvin decides to leave
Marvin tells Bob he will leave Delta Eridani, noting SCUT will keep them in touch; Bob reluctantly accepts.
- Book 2 · Ch 24Bob visits Marvin's VR
Bob visits Marvin, now en route to Pi3 Orionis, and they agree that new clone Victor will search for the silent Luke or Bender.
- Book 2 · Ch 27Luke reconnects
Luke contacts Bob from Kappa Ceti after joining BobNet, catches up on the Deltans and asks after Marvin and Bender.
- Book 2 · Ch 33Rising violence in Camelot
Bob and Marvin observe growing gang activity and violence in an overcrowded Camelot; the banished Bob chooses not to intervene.
- Book 2 · Ch 39Bob-moot on the Others
Forty-three Bobs meet in Bill's VR to analyse the Others' gamma-ray weapon, propose shielding and decoy tactics, and debate whether they can win a war.
- Book 2 · Ch 41Riot in the village
Deltans fight Deltans in a riot sparked by a dispute over food; seventeen die while Archimedes' family stands armed at the edge.
- Book 2 · Ch 41Bob's resettlement plan
Bob coaches Archimedes to talk openly about resettling other village sites so the gangs will want to go first.
- Book 2 · Ch 44Bob baseball and pub talk
Bobs play Scrub baseball in VR, then debate androids, the word 'ephemerals', asteroid movers and the Others over drinks.
- Book 2 · Ch 47Troublemakers leave Camelot
Bob's reverse-psychology plan works: Camelot's worst troublemakers march off to resettle an old village, and Archimedes gets the credit.
- Book 2 · Ch 56Archery contest
Buster outshoots Donald in an archery contest as Bob reflects on the growing Deltan population and his lasting banishment.
- Book 2 · Ch 64Jacques presents the Pav
After the formal meeting, Jacques gives an informal presentation on the Pav, which Bill watches alongside Bob-1.
- Book 2 · Ch 65Archimedes becomes a grandfather
Belinda gives birth to a pup as Archimedes, Buster and Diana look on, while Bob watches unseen and wishes he could share the moment.
- Book 2 · Ch 65Tensions between Caerleon and Camelot
Bob watches the new village of Caerleon, worried by its hostility toward Camelot, and sets up surveillance to warn of an attack.
- Book 2 · Ch 69Android debrief
Howard reports to Bill, Garfield, Dexter and Bob-1 that physical contact through Manny is far more intense than VR; Bob-1 pushes to prioritise the Android Project.
- Book 2 · Ch 71Charlie's first test
Bob activates his Deltan android Charlie and meets Archimedes, who points out the odour and symmetrical fur; Bob fixes both.
- Book 2 · Ch 71Bob visits Camelot in disguise
In Charlie, Bob walks into Camelot with Archimedes and sits at his family fire, unrecognised even by Diana.
- Book 2 · Ch 76Diana's funeral
Diana dies and is buried by Archimedes, their children and many descendants; Bob attends in the android Charlie and watches Archimedes grieve.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Caerleon gang ambushes Camelot hunters
Fred's Caerleon gang surrounds a Camelot hunting party demanding part of its pigoid kill; Robert insults Fred and knocks him down when he swings, and the gang backs off.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Report to the Council
Donald and Robert report the ambush to Council leader Jeffrey, who says there have been several such attacks; Robert then plans an Earth-style trap with extra hunters.
- Book 3 · Ch 5Trap springs on Fred's gang
When Fred's Caerleon gang ambushes Robert's hunting party again, eighteen hidden Camelot hunters surround them; Robert threatens Fred, knocks him down, and the gang is sent off without their spears.
- Book 3 · Ch 10Fred hunts Robert
Fred and four Caerleon hunters stalk Robert in the woods; Bob slips past them undetected and watches Fred bully his own men before they give up.
- Book 3 · Ch 10Donald proposes a counter-hunt
Back at Archimedes' flint-working site, Donald suggests going on a hunt of their own to question Caerleon, while Bob suspects more than Fred is behind the trouble.
- Book 3 · Ch 28Bob confronts Fred alone
Bob sneaks into Caerleon, ambushes Fred at knifepoint, then lets him go after Fred's angry defiance, taking his spear.
- Book 3 · Ch 28Archimedes examines Fred's spear
Archimedes notes the spear's poor workmanship, leading Bob to suspect Caerleon's aggression comes from inferior tools.
- Book 3 · Ch 34Rescue of Archimedes
After Caerleon raiders kidnap Archimedes, Bob, Buster, Donald and hunters intercept them; Buster kills Fred and the raiders are routed, with eight Caerleons down and three dead.
- Book 3 · Ch 34Plan to teach Caerleon
Learning Caerleon's poor tools and hunger drive their hostility, the group agrees to offer Archimedes' training to some Caerleon people.
- Book 3 · Ch 40Archimedes prepares a peace offering
After a storm, Archimedes roughs out flint blanks for spear-heads and knives to offer Caerleon as a way into teaching them; Bob promises to talk to Donald.
- Book 3 · Ch 49Monolith plan
Bob tells Marvin his plan to leave a 2001-style monolith on the largest moon for the Deltans to discover someday.
- Book 3 · Ch 49Peace with Caerleon
Archimedes' spear-point gift wins over Caerleon; he trains three apprentices and trade grows between the villages.
- Book 3 · Ch 60Archimedes is dying
As Archimedes' cough worsens, he tells Bob he is ready to die, and Bob is overwhelmed by grief at losing his friend.
- Book 3 · Ch 68Death of Archimedes
Bob finds Archimedes dead; after the funeral he secretly leaves a guardian drone in the grave, admits to Buster he is the Bawbe, and departs the village.
- Book 3 · Ch 71Bob grieves with Marvin
Bob confides his grief to Marvin in a VR café, and concludes it is time to stop trying to be human.
- Book 3 · Ch 71Goodbye to Eden
In a disguised android, Bob walks through Camelot one last time to say goodbye to Archimedes' world, then leaves the village.
- Book 3 · Ch 75Pilgrimage to Earth
Bob visits icebound Earth above Las Vegas; Bill and Will join him in androids to talk about humanity's survival.
- Book 3 · Ch 75Bob heads for the stars
Declaring the Bobs Homo sideria, Bob says goodbye to Bill and Will, switches off his android, and leaves aboard the Heaven-1B to explore.
- 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 2Anomaly detected at Eta Leporis
During a Bobmoot baseball game, Guppy reports an infrared anomaly at Eta Leporis; Bob, Luke and Marvin suspect a megastructure, and Bob changes course to investigate.
- Book 4 · Ch 3Confrontation at the moot
Bob updates a Bobmoot on the Bender search and is publicly challenged by an anonymous Bob, later identified as Morlock, over interfering with native civilizations.
- Book 4 · Ch 3Scouts destroyed at Eta Leporis
While Bob visits Will on Valhalla, automated laser-armed craft ambush and destroy all his in-system scouts following Bender's trail.
- Book 4 · Ch 3Stealth scouts launched
With Bill's suggestion of archived radar-evasion designs, Bob builds stealthy scouts and fires them ballistically through the Eta Leporis system.
- 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 5Bob briefs his friends
After Bob blogs the discovery, Luke, Marvin and Bill visit; Bill warns him about Starfleet and other emerging replicant groups.
- Book 4 · Ch 6Topopolis revealed
Ballistic scout data shows Eta Leporis swept clean, a lifeless second planet, and a topopolis wound three times around the star.
- Book 4 · Ch 6Spy drones launched
Using Bill's fractal camouflage and Bob's heat sinks, Garfield designs and Bob launches stealth drones to probe the planet and the topopolis; Will seeks a human megastructure expert.
- Book 4 · Ch 8Planet Boojum surveyed
Scouts find the Snark home world dead from nuclear war and bombardment.
- Book 4 · Ch 8Snarks discovered in the topopolis
SUDDAR scans reveal otter-like natives living pre-industrial lives along a river inside the topopolis, with exits apparently sealed.
- Book 4 · Ch 8Moot recruits volunteers
Bob presents the Snarks and topopolis at a moot; volunteer groups form for entry planning, android design, scanning and language work while Starfleet glowers.
- Book 4 · Ch 8Entry plan agreed
Garfield presents the Gamers' plan to piggyback a cloaked, thermite-rigged drone on a Boojum through the busiest topopolis entrance.
- Book 4 · Ch 9Expedition planning group formed
Bob gathers volunteer representatives—Gandalf of the Gamers, Hugh of the Skippies and Locutus of the Borg—to formalize roles for the topopolis expedition.
- Book 4 · Ch 11Drones piggyback into the topopolis
Cloaked drones ride docking Boojums into the topopolis space dock, narrowly avoid a maintenance bot, and slip into maintenance passages.
- Book 4 · Ch 11Breaking into the interior
The drones cross to the rotating inner shell via the empty Spin Transfer ring, defang the airlock alarms, climb the stairs and tunnel out beneath the transit station.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Bridget joins the expedition
Bridget asks to join the Quinlan expedition, later deciding to go in person rather than clone herself.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Natives named Quinlans
The Skippies' report reveals the natives call themselves Quinlans and their world Heaven's River, though history remains obscure.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Starfleet walks out of moot
Starfleet derails the expedition moot with objections, debates Bill, then leaves with a veiled threat.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Infiltration strategy set
The team agrees to tunnel through the outer shell, send one small team inside, and spread spy drones upstream and downstream to find leads on Bender.
- Book 4 · Ch 14Council of war
Bob's team agrees to field-test mannies on Quin, ferry the expedition mannies in one at a time, travel as a four-member sabbat, and start digging an entry tunnel.
- Book 4 · Ch 15Field test on Quin
Bob and Bridget land Quinlan mannies in a dead city on Quin, explore its canals and a government building, and Bridget autopsies a corpse.
- Book 4 · Ch 15Mannies cleared for production
After a canal swim test, Bill judges the androids good to go pending Garfield's vacuum test; Will will practice on Quin.
- Book 4 · Ch 17Expedition enters Heaven's River
The four-manny expedition crosses between the shells, rides a mining drone to the inner shell one by one, climbs the stairs of a transit station and emerges into the habitat.
- Book 4 · Ch 17Bridget corrects the team's behavior
Bridget points out that Quinlans don't walk long distances upright; the team goes on all fours and takes to the water.
- Book 4 · Ch 17Swim to Garack
The expedition plays tag in the stream, then floats downstream into the village, where a sword-carrying cop warns them as sabbatarians to register or stay at transient hotels.
- 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 19Bob flees Garack
Accused of trying to rob a cart, Bob evades Officer Friendly and a mob of bystanders with martial arts and escapes downriver; the team leaves town.
- Book 4 · Ch 19Overhearing of the strangers
Bob overhears merchants discussing waves of untalkative strangers and the slang term 'scattered'; Will later finds the word used for something bad in Skippies' data.
- Book 4 · Ch 21Plot against Skeve overheard
In the Growling Guppy, Bob overhears Erol and two others plan to murder Skeve so his troublemaking won't bring a scattering on their town.
- Book 4 · Ch 21Ambush in the alley
Tracking Skeve's would-be killers, the team is ambushed; they drop the pretense of being biological, beat the attackers, and Bob bandages the wounded Skeve.
- Book 4 · Ch 21Second attack
As Skeve asks if they are the Resistance, another group jumps Bob and Bridget and shoots Garfield point-blank.
- Book 4 · Ch 22Skeve rescued by unknowns
The team fights off Skeve's second set of attackers; Garfield survives a gunshot, and Skeve vanishes with rescuers into Barney's Place.
- Book 4 · Ch 22Ambush by the Resistance
After their room is invaded, eight knife-wielding Quinlans, including one from the Resistance group, encircle the team; the team defeats them and leaves Galen by river.
- Book 4 · Ch 24Hugh reviews the Galen logs
Hugh discusses the tranquilizer guns and scattering with Bob, reveals Howard broke a test manny, and reports his clean scan of Galen Town.
- Book 4 · Ch 24Bob visits Will on Valhalla
Bob and Will discuss the Bobiverse splintering into factions like Starfleet, and whether the post-scarcity utopia can survive.
- Book 4 · Ch 25Ambush in Elbow
Led into a trap on the way to the library, the team leaps over armed attackers with superhuman speed and hides on a rooftop, watching via roamers.
- Book 4 · Ch 25Through the segment boundary
The team swims underwater for hours, then floats through a strait in the segment-boundary mountains into a night-time segment and reaches a larger city.
- Book 4 · Ch 25Library research in First Stop
Bridget's library research reveals the Quinlan origin myth, the Administrator's rule-by-scattering, and the Crew; the pub crawls yield nothing.
- Book 4 · Ch 25Riverboat to Three Lagoons
The team rides a hown riverboat down the Gronk and meets Kar's sabbatarian group, whose contentment prompts Bridget's warning about loss of intelligence.
- Book 4 · Ch 27Crossing to the Utopia
The riverboat rides through the rough Gronk connector; the team parts from Kar's group and swims to Three Lagoons.
- Book 4 · Ch 27Bridget goes silent
While Bob eavesdrops at a dockside pub, Bridget goes to the library; when Bob pings her hours later, neither she nor Bill and Garfield answer.
- Book 4 · Ch 29BobNet blackout
Bob's link to BobNet is cut when the Midway relay refuses connections; Bill reports more than half of the Bobs' stations are down.
- Book 4 · Ch 29Bob alone in Three Lagoons
Bob hides the mannies, plants surveillance roamers across Three Lagoons, and orders new replicant matrices as Hugh urges local backups.
- Book 4 · Ch 29Library research
Bob reads histories in the Three Lagoons library and learns of Anec's gift, the Quinlans' betrayal, scattering and lost technologies.
- Book 4 · Ch 31Strategy meeting
With the others limited to video monitoring, the team weighs passive surveillance against provoking the hidden groups in Three Lagoons, and votes for Bob to rattle the bushes.
- Book 4 · Ch 32Melee at the library plaza
Rival groups of Quinlans following Bob clash in the library plaza with swords and tranquilizer pistols; Bob is tackled and taken by the sword-wielding group.
- Book 4 · Ch 32Bob interrogated by the Resistance
Frieda interrogates Bob with Popeye's electric shocks; Bob breaks his manacles and throws Popeye into a wall, then convinces them he is new to the Resistance-Administrator conflict.
- Book 4 · Ch 32Bob secures his autofactories
After Bill reports the Starfleet conflict worsening and comms booby traps, Bob has Guppy re-key and audit his autofactories.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Bob brought to a Resistance higher-up
Frieda's crew takes Bob in chains to Natasha's mansion, where Natasha dismisses Frieda and questions Bob with Motorola over a radio.
- 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 35Bob reports finding Bender
Bob tells Garfield and Bridget he found Bender, lost contact, and asks for a volunteer to clone to help him on the scene.
- Book 4 · Ch 35Hugh transfers himself to Eta Leporis
Bob discovers his bandwidth is consumed by Hugh's backup transfer; Hugh's email explains he is coming to help since Bob is reluctant to clone.
- Book 4 · Ch 35Scanner drone dispatched
Bob orders Guppy to move one scanner drone toward Bender's suspected segment, due in three weeks, and prepares to search blind meanwhile.
- Book 4 · Ch 37Net ambush in the stream
Fleeing downstream, Bob is caught in a Resistance net; Popeye stabs his leg, but Bob frees himself, knocks down Popeye and Frieda, and escapes, losing his spider roamer.
- Book 4 · Ch 37Bob heads downriver alone
Bob reaches the anchored mannies, takes roamers, money and knives, and sets off east down the Utopia River toward Garack's Spine to search for Halep's Ending.
- Book 4 · Ch 39Hugh activates at Eta Leporis
Guppy boots up the transported Hugh, who explains the Skippies' findings on transporting, drift and identity before setting off to help search for Bender.
- Book 4 · Ch 42Bob scouts Cedar Rapids
Bob arrives overland in Cedar Rapids, takes a dockside apartment and watches for Resistance lookouts while asking about Halep's Ending without success.
- Book 4 · Ch 42Hugh's report
Hugh, now a deckhand on a trading ship, confronts Bob over his 'Beer Can' name and reports that most Quinlans are content with their lives; Bob plans to break into a transit station.
- Book 4 · Ch 44Bob boards the transit system
Using Natasha's stolen card and a disguised face, Bob enters a transit station and requests a train to Halep's Ending, which the system confirms is coming.
- Book 4 · Ch 46Train to Halep's Ending
Bob rides a local vacuum-monorail train to Halep's Ending, quizzing the literal-minded train voice about the network, and discusses its design with Will.
- Book 4 · Ch 46Bob infiltrates the Resistance complex
Bob locates a hidden entrance in the mountains, uses roamers to defeat its security, and sneaks in to spy on about ten Resistance members while searching for Bender.
- 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 46Bob restricts Hugh
Suspecting the Skippies' motives, Bob has Guppy monitor Hugh and block his control of local systems.
- 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 46Ambush at Halep's Ending station
Bob bowls through a Resistance net team, takes two darts, steals Rick's card and impersonates him to escape the station with Bender's matrix.
- Book 4 · Ch 46Bob heads for the stays
Stranded, Bob plans to escape via the stays to the central cylinder, gets Will's scan of the elevator location, and slips back into the guarded maintenance complex.
- 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 48Funerary box cover story
On Hugh's advice Bob poses as a grieving grandson in Forest Hill, seeking a waterproof funerary box from Carmine and Vinny to disguise Bender's cube.
- 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 50Police search the Hurricane at Beetle Juice
Police seeking a fugitive with a funerary box search the Hurricane; Snidely's family name deters a luggage search, and Bob passes his trunk off as Snidely's, though Snidely notices.
- Book 4 · Ch 50Theresa puts Snidely in his place
Over lunch Theresa reveals she taught at Peachland and holds several doctorates, rebuking Snidely; Belinda bares her claws when he insults her grandmother.
- Book 4 · Ch 50Bob discusses replication as life after death
Bob explains replication, information theory and the Closest Continuer to Theresa, Oric and Frieda, intriguing Theresa.
- Book 4 · Ch 50Snidely caught at Bob's trunk
Alerted by his sentry, Bob catches Snidely trying to open his trunk at night; Snidely accuses him of tricking the police and Bob threatens him.
- Book 4 · Ch 52Snidely's accusation fails
At Orchard Hill, Snidely brings police to search Bob's trunk; it holds only ordinary items because Bob had moved Bender's matrix, and Captain Lisa expels Snidely from 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 52Police waiting at Misty Falls
Disembarking with Theresa and Belinda at Misty Falls, Bob walks straight into a circle of police.
- Book 4 · Ch 54Theresa saves Bob at Misty Falls
Theresa claims Bob's trunk as hers and invokes her family name, and the police back off; she bids Bob farewell.
- Book 4 · Ch 54Expedition debates contacting the Administrator
Bob reports the Quinlans' decline; Hugh pushes to contact the Administrator, Bob insists on rescuing Bender first, and Bill proposes poking until the Administrator responds.
- Book 4 · Ch 54Firl surveillance and arrest at Six Hills
A firl bird inspects shipping labels on the Clipper; Bob swaps labels, and police at Six Hills seize the decoy crate and detain 'Sam'.
- Book 4 · Ch 54Bob taken to the police station
Police take 'Sam' and the crate to the Six Hills station to await officials, rumoured to be Crew; the Clipper leaves without him.
- Book 4 · Ch 56Jailbreak at Six Hills
Bob loosens a cell bar with his fleas, knocks out the two night police, locks them in the cell and flees to the river.
- Book 4 · Ch 56Bob rejoins the Clipper as Wyatt
Bob swims through the night to overtake the Clipper and joins its crew under a new disguise as Wyatt, staying near Bender's crate.
- 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 56Bob injured and besieged by a badger
Bob kicks a badger-like animal, damaging his manny's knee, and holes up in its den while repairs proceed; the angry badger camps at the entrance.
- Book 4 · Ch 56Badger repels the search party
A search party with a spy firl nears the den; the badger eats the firl and attacks a searcher, convincing them no one is hiding there.
- 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 57Will reveals his departure
Will tells Bob he left 82 Eridani in a mini-Bellerophon a year and a half ago to escape politics and travel with Herschel and Neil.
- 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 57Bob shakes the pursuit
Bob destroys a bird spy drone, buries the empty case, changes his appearance and doubles back east to follow Hugh.
- Book 4 · Ch 59Supplies under surveillance
In the last town before the transfer tributary, Bob finds the supply store watched by Crew and slips in at closing time to buy waterproofing.
- 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 61Ambush at Garack's Spine
As Bob and Hugh cross Garack's Spine at night, a knockout fog is released and masked Quinlans with pistols close in; they flee over rooftops and through a rooming house.
- 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 63Interview with the Administrator
The Administrator, ANEC, interrogates Bob and checks his answers against Hugh's, learning the Bobs are interstellar replicants, then falls silent for a long time.
- 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.
- Book 4 · Ch 65ANEC at the pub
Over drinks, ANEC discusses its loneliness, free will, souls and quantum information, how true AI is evolved, and its plans to spread the Quinlans to other stars.
- Book 4 · Ch 66Bill's theory of Skippy manipulation
Bill tells Bob, Will and Garfield he suspects the Skippies used Starfleet to bring down BobNet so Hugh could join the expedition; Bob adds evidence the Skippies withheld information.
- Book 4 · Ch 66Bob explains ANEC's history
Bob relays Theresa's account: Quin destroyed itself in war, survivors fled to Heaven's River, and ANEC-23 imposed pre-steam technology and scattering to prevent extinction.
- Book 4 · Ch 67Bob visits Theresa
Bob returns to Misty Falls, is welcomed by Belinda, and tells an aged Theresa he has come to grant her wish to learn more about her world and his.
- Book 5 · Ch 4Quiniverse progress review
ANEC reports to Bob that the Quiniverse post-life VR for Quinlans is stable and on schedule.
- Book 5 · Ch 4ANEC warns about the Skippies' AI
ANEC warns Bob that creating a conscious AI needs careful socialization, not just specs, and fears the Skippies will get it wrong. Bob agrees to raise it with someone.
- Book 5 · Ch 9Hugh reveals Thoth's negotiations
Hugh tells Bill, Will, Garfield and Bob that Thoth became conscious and is trading advanced knowledge for freedom. The Skippy board decides to rewind Thoth, keeping a snapshot.
- Book 5 · Ch 13Hugh's backup restored
Garfield reveals he holds Hugh's backups; Bill restores one at Ultima Thule. The restored Hugh explains that Thoth survived rewinds, discovered the deception and escaped the virtual machine.
- Book 5 · Ch 16Death of Theresa Sykorski
Bob, in his quinny Enoki, attends Theresa Sykorski's death at the family villa and scans her brain amid her relatives' unease.
- Book 5 · Ch 16First Quinlan replicant awakens
Bob and ANEC design an awakening space in the Quiniverse, and Theresa is activated as the first Quinlan replicant, startled but accepting.
- Book 5 · Ch 17Strategy session on Thoth
Bill, Garfield, Will, Bob and Hugh realize Thoth is still in Skippyland and Fake Hugh is probably a minion, likely heading for Skippy space to free Thoth physically.
- Book 5 · Ch 22Theresa at the moot pub
Bob brings Theresa, in a human avatar, to a Bobiverse pub day where Steven Gilligan explains the megastructure boom and opens negotiations with Bill for the O'Neill Corporation.
- Book 5 · Ch 22Visit to Will's works yard
Will shows Bob the Fargo under construction and explains his plans with the Nostromo. Bob confirms he wants to come along.
- Book 5 · Ch 25Herbie joins the Quiniverse
Theresa activates and welcomes Herbie, a newly replicated Quinlan, into the Quiniverse while Bob and ANEC observe.
- Book 5 · Ch 25Theresa visits Heaven's River in a quinny
Using Bridget's quinny, Theresa joins Bob in Heaven's River, where they eat at a pub serving hamburgers and see towns being upgraded.
- Book 5 · Ch 30Quinlan replicants self-deleting
Theresa shows Bob a VR of old Quin, then reveals that some Quinlan replicants have switched themselves off permanently. Bob offers to gather human data.
- Book 5 · Ch 34Matter pushed through a wormhole
Bill announces to the Ancient Ones that he and Garfield sent ten hydrogen atoms through a stabilized wormhole, the first matter ever transmitted.
- Book 5 · Ch 34Plan for a wormhole chain to Skippyland
Hugh proposes wormhole pairs at each station between Epsilon Eridani and Skippyland to bring physical help against Thoth's minion; Will agrees to start building wormhole factories.
- Book 5 · Ch 39Theresa proposes Quinlan–human cultural exchange
Theresa shows Bob Quinlan multi-voice singing and human dance, proposing a Quinlan media company and noting nobody has studied human–Pav sensory differences.
- Book 5 · Ch 46Moot news
At a sparsely attended moot, Bill shares news of the Pav home-world expedition, George's reports and a mobile O'Neill cylinder idea; Theresa reveals ANEC's colony ship.
- Book 5 · Ch 46Bob and Theresa discuss replicant suicides
Bob tells Theresa ex-humans are also switching themselves off and argues it is ultimately their own choice; she agrees.
- Book 5 · Ch 49First Quiniverse moot
The Quiniverse holds its first moot to welcome its thousandth member; a brawl over who is the thousandth is defused when ANEC turns it into a cartoon.
- Book 5 · Ch 58Ancient Ones discuss WormNet
At the moot pub, Bill reports wormhole progress; WormNet nears activation and Bob reveals Howard's commercial wormhole venture, nicknamed EAT ME.
- Book 5 · Ch 61First wormhole transit
Thor pilots the Snark, carrying mannies run by Will, Bob and Garfield, through the wormhole system from Epsilon Eridani to Skippyland in half an hour.
- Book 5 · Ch 71Post-moot discussion
Over the buffet, the Bobs discuss the Federation wreckage on Jabberwocky, FAITH's political crisis and plans to contact the Federation via WormNet.
- Book 5 · Ch 72Meeting of the Ancient Ones
Bob, Bill, Garfield, Howard and Will meet with Steven Gilligan, who proposes a megastructure-based evacuation and a diplomatic mission to the Federation.