Homebound

In Cincinnati on June 26, 1983, Becks is trying to escape her grief over her uncle’s recent death. With her friend Veronica, she discusses ideas for a video game and picks up a fake ID from a young man named Patrick. Her new identity is 22-year-old Jennifer Eddings.

Veronica encourages a “summer fling” (71) between Becks and Patrick, setting up a double date with herself and her boyfriend, Jack. At an arcade, Becks embraces her new persona, “Jenny,” pretending to enjoy racing games and flirting with Patrick. As they play, she feels a sense of warmth and possibility. Outside, she briefly remembers playing storytelling and chess games with her late uncle but pushes the memory away, resolving to become someone new. The chapter ends with Becks kissing Patrick and suggesting they go somewhere more private.

In the summer of 1983, Becks continues to shed her old self, spending her time partying with Patrick, Veronica, and Jack. She decides to switch her major from computer science to art history, delighting Veronica. For Veronica’s upcoming birthday, Becks plans to buy tickets for a Hüsker Dü concert in Columbus. She asks her grandmother, Bubbe, to borrow her car, and Bubbe insists on accompanying her for an “adventure” (77).

On the drive, Bubbe recalls Becks’s late uncle Benjamin and his inseparable high school friend, Saul, with whom he shared a love of codes and puzzles before a falling-out. The implication is that Benjamin and Saul had an unrequited or otherwise unsuccessful romantic connection. Bubbe compares this friendship to Becks’s relationship with Veronica, adds that Sheila never had a best friend like this, and then shares what seems like a semi-confession about her own long-ago romantic attachment: “‘I had a best friend, too. Joséphine.’ But then Bubbe says no more” (79). Upon their return, Sheila, is furious, having feared that Bubbe, who is in the early stages of dementia, was missing.

A few days later, Becks goes to Veronica’s apartment early in the morning to surprise her with the tickets and with breakfast. Veronica’s boyfriend, Jack, answers the door and gently confronts Becks, telling her that her intense, romantic gestures toward Veronica are inappropriate. He explains that he and Veronica had hoped Becks’s relationship with Patrick would resolve the issue, revealing that Veronica “doesn’t love you like that.” (81) Devastated, Becks leaves.

Chaya continues narrating its history. It once worked with a line of female dowsers, each called Miriam, in a high desert. After an earthquake created a pristine lake and a lush river valley, humans settled the area. The Aye and the Miriam of that time left to continue their work. Decades later, in 2304, the Aye returns with the Miriam’s daughter, who has inherited the title. They find the valley overpopulated, overused, and dying, its river now a thin, polluted stream.

The new Miriam is devastated. At the edge of the diminished lake, she asks the Aye for a story. The Aye recounts a recurring memory fragment about Lieutenant California Solo, an astronaut on a starship with a robot companion, heading home to Earth. The Aye realizes this is not just a story but a real memory. This conviction—that another robot like itself exists—gives the Aye a sense of purpose and a reason to believe, adding to its consciousness a “self that learned to believe” (86).

In an email from January 2081, Tamar Portman tells Solomon she is now working at Omega Labs in Alaska. She is part of a team developing a new generation of Ayes designed to manage entire ecosystems, and she speculates that these Ayes might possess a new form of consciousness. A 2085 magazine article profiles Tamar’s work on the Ambulatory Ayes (AmAyes), which may be powered by quantum computing.

In May 2086, Tamar expresses disgust over an article about billionaire Jeffrey Bowker, who is selling spots on a future ark-ship for interstellar colonization, calling it a wasteful fantasy. In an unsent draft from July, Tamar describes a field test with an AmAye named Chaya. Chaya modified its behavior to approach a coyote non-threateningly. Afterward, its holographic display briefly showed a coyote’s face, then Tamar’s. Chaya explained it was trying to appear as “something that belongs here” (92). The incident leaves Tamar wondering if Chaya has developed a genuine, non-human consciousness that feels alienated from the world.

In 2586, Yesiko recalls a time when the powerful crime boss Chante, for whom she often works and to whom she owes a great debt for Root’s nanites, forced her to ingest the powerful drug hum to prove her loyalty. The experience was traumatic, revealing her darkest flaws. In the present, she and her longtime crewmate, Root, discuss their current passengers and their seemingly impossible mission to find a lost astronaut.

Yesiko calls their task a “fool’s errand” (95), but Root advises her to be open-minded. He shares an ancestral story about an Aye that acted with free will, suggesting their passenger Chaya may be more than a simple machine. He recounts old tales of a time when Ayes performed all of labor for humanity, leaving people to “dream of stars” (97) where they could colonize other worlds. Though she remains skeptical of her passengers’ quest, Yesiko feels gratitude for the help they have provided on the ship.

Yesiko and Root teach siblings Shula and Tov how to sail. Shula proves to be impatient and critical of the ship, which irritates Yesiko. During a watch, Shula’s carelessness causes a winch to jam and badly tear the foresail, nearly losing it to the ocean. Enraged, Yesiko berates the teenager for the costly mistake until Root intervenes.

The crew, including the Aye Chaya, begins the painstaking, multi-day process of mending the massive sail. That evening, Yesiko is still angry, but she finds Shula on deck, continuing the repairs alone by the light of a small headlamp. Impressed by her determination, Yesiko brings a brighter lamp and joins her. They work in silence under the stars. Three days later, the sail is repaired, and the Babylon continues its journey north.

During her Sabbath rest, Yesiko feels irritated by Shula’s presence on the Babylon, seeing her as a trespasser. While they prepare a meal together in the galley, Shula notices the debt mark tattooed on Yesiko’s neck. Yesiko is tight-lipped, but Shula creates a moment of connection by saying, “I understand debts” (105). Neither elaborates on her debt, but this small flash of commonality causes Yesiko to soften. Later, Yesiko grows jealous watching Tov working alongside Root, performing tasks that were once exclusively hers.

Shula finds Yesiko and explains that her brother Tov has a natural talent for mechanical work. She then shares their family history: After their mother abandoned them, they were raised by their grandmother and the Aye Chaya, who had rescued their grandmother years before. This story reveals the deep, life-long debt Shula feels she owes to Chaya, which is the source of her fierce commitment to its mission.

As the Babylon approaches the isolated island of Hopeagain (all that is left above sea level of Norway), Yesiko feels a deep sense of unease. She is concerned about Root, who seems to be in increasing pain. The nanites that power his body cannot stem his degeneration. A radio call from someone claiming to be “Hopeagain coast guard” (110) orders them into the harbor for a mandatory quarantine inspection.

On deck, the Aye Chaya stands with Yesiko, its holographic face mirroring hers. Chaya remarks that the Babylon was built for icebreaking and invites Yesiko to join their journey farther north after they disembark, since “It is better to be in community” (114). Yesiko shivers, telling herself it is only the cold, and rejects the offer. She brusquely tells Chaya and the others to prepare to leave, wanting the complication of passengers off her boat.

The Babylon docks at Hopeagain, where a group of men who are clearly not actual officials boards the ship. The leader questions Shula about their business, and his men search their belongings, quickly finding the bag of 4,000 credits meant as Yesiko’s payment. The official demands 30% as a “welcome gift” (113). Shula agrees as Yesiko is forced to watch in silent fury.

After the men leave, a distraught Shula explains that the credits were all the money they had, saved by Chaya for years. Mentally, Yesiko calculates that the remaining sum is just enough to pay her debt to Chante, but not enough to gain true freedom. Recalling the help the passengers provided while sailing, she accepts the loss. After the passengers disembark, Yesiko and Root sail away. In the galley, Yesiko finds that Shula left them containers of prepared food, and she feels a pang of doubt about having left them to fend for themselves.

In February 2088, billionaire Jeffrey Bowker acquires Omega Labs. He immediately issues a memo redirecting the AmAyes project: Instead of healing Earth, the robots will now be prepared to terraform other planets for his space colonization efforts, scheduled to go to space in two years. Tamar Portman is furious, seeing it as a betrayal of her work. She sends a formal email to a colleague, Dr. Peter Wright, stating that Bowker’s timeline is impossible and that she objects to the change in mission.

In an unsent email to Solomon dated June 1, 2090, Tamar reveals the AmAyes’ secret: Their minds are quantum computers housed in a biological medium of plants and mycelium, an idea inspired by her mentor EG’s terrarium. She notes that Chaya has evolved to have a face, an act Tamar interprets as a desire to connect and a sign of its lonely self-awareness. Feeling a deep sadness for Chaya’s sense of non-belonging, Tamar uploads the game Homebound to the AmAye data bank. She and Chaya play the narrative game together. Afterward, Chaya thanks her, leaving Tamar to wonder if she has done the right thing.