Daedalus and Icarus are cloned by Bill in 2221 in Epsilon Eridani. Icarus’ nicknames are Ick and Icky.
Their first project is to supervise the first short-range test of Bill’s planet-moving equipment. The equipment — part of Bill’s Skunk Works — is made up of giant plates that envelop a body in a large SURGE field. The test involves moving EE1 into a new orbit while also moving one of the moons of EE3 into orbit around EE1.
Their next project begins in 2225, when they depart for Gliese 877. They arrive in 2257 and complete the mission.
After departing GL 877, they decide to travel to Sagittarius A at the center of the galaxy.
During his and Icarus’ voyage to the center of the galaxy, Daedalus develops a powerful telescope using the bubble created by the SURGE drive. He detects unnatural microwave emissions in a system they are passing, and they stop to investigate. They discover a pair of wormholes that lead to nearby systems, each with their own pair of wormholes. They start exploring the network, discovering many abandoned civilizations. They are taken captive by AMI sentries at the center of the network, along with another replicant vessel that had been captured earlier and had run out of power. They manage to communicate with the alien sentries and negotiate their release on the condition they go back the way they came. They rescue the other replicant, Gunther, and revive it, helping it to return to its home system. They stop at a planet they name Roanoke and study enough of its language to communicate with the sentries. They are able to pass the checkpoint and reach the capital system of the Pan-Galactic Federation (PGF), where they painstakingly query the Archivist until they discover why every Federation system is abandoned, and where all the inhabitants went.