Star Fields

Chapter 129. Contest.

Chapter 129. Contest.

Combat is a game of tactics.

I was standing on a planet's surface facing my adversary, Tyco, who was all bulked up. I assumed that this was an attempt to intimidate me.

"You should have joined me, Jason. We would have made an invincible team."

"Two heads will ultimately clash. We're not compatible."

He gave me an ornery smirk. "Tsk, tsk! Too bad!"

He hardened his expression before he rushed at me at a velocity that I was not expecting. My attempt to avoid him was not quick enough and the blow sent me flying back ten meters into a large boulder. I got up and aimed my attack, but he moved out of the way. Evidently, this game wasn't going to be easy.

He came at me again, flying with his fist out. I timed his approach and spun around so that my fist struck him in the side, sending him into a large cliff. He got up and made another flying attack. We met in midair in a horrendous collision that sent both of us flying off at angles.

I got up and flew back at him. We collided again with enough force to cause damage to my ribs. I fell to the ground and knew that I had been severely damaged. However, I turned my head and saw that I had managed to separate Tyco's head from his body.

Alexa appeared and came to me. "Are you okay?"

"No, but you must finish him off before you attend to me."

She didn't need any further enticement. She flew over to him and pounded his head to pieces before she made his head and body disappear.

She came over to me. "Can you stand?"

"I don't think so. My spinal skeleton is broken."

"I'll teleport you to medical."

After some scans were done, Alexa had a diagnosis. "You're right. Your spinal skeleton has cracks in three locations and two of your ribs are broken. However, the nanobots are busy as beavers making repairs."

"What about the thousands of androids underground?"

She made a disgusted face. "Good thing you didn't see what was happening there. That bastard had people in tiny cages without any charging or clothing."

I sighed. "Well, at least we were able to save them. How many thousands of others have been destroyed?"

"We'll never know for certain, but we estimate that it was over a hundred thousand."

"I would like to talk to the ones you recovered."

She patted my chest. "You just get better. We'll take care of them."

I smiled, and she returned it.

I did get better after a couple of days. I was lucky that he didn't completely sever my spinal column. That would have required a lot more time to heal. It only illustrated that we weren't entirely invincible.

When I came onto to the command deck, the crew applauded. I bowed and sat down next to
Alexa.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I'll live, but I came very close to having my spinal column severed."

"Yeah, that would have been a real bummer."

"What about the androids you rescued?"

"They are a very happy group. They hated Tyco."

"I wonder why!" I said sarcastically.

"I wonder if we've actually gotten rid of him for good," she said.

"That's a good question. At least we have most of his assets now. That might keep him from being a nuisance for quite some time."

"I hope so," she said, frowning.

What I said next surprised them. "I've changed my mind."

Alexa looked at me with a concerned expression. "About what?"

"I want us to be attired in uniforms while we're on duty."

She blew out a relieved breath. "Is that all. I thought you were going to . . . I don't know what."

"I realize it's something silly, but I just think it would make sense to be wearing uniforms more befitting our mission."

"What mission?"

"Our mission to pacify the multiverse."

"That's a very ambitious mission. We haven't even explored all of our own universe."

"I realize that. Our first step is to make sure that all of Tyco's assets are under our control. That means exploring this universe."

That led to a long pause in the conversation.

"So, what sort of uniforms did you have in mind?" Alexa asked me.

"I think I'll give that project to Margaret."

Margaret didn't look back at me. "Gee, thanks."

We laughed.

Later that evening after the communal meal. We heard something that was not going to make us happy.

"There is a fifty percent probability that Tyco's data exists somewhere," Molly said. "Which, as you know, means that he could be resurrected."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"It's based on something I heard from one of his former captives. She told me that his data might be on the vessel that we haven't found yet. It's the one that went into the portal from our universe."

I sighed. "That means that our top priority is to locate that vessel."

"That's easier said than done. We know some things about this parallel universe, but it contains a hundred billion galaxies. All we know precisely is the location of the portal is to go back to our universe."

"I would think that it's hanging out at some location that was once Tyco's base," Margaret said.

"The only thing I can do is search near our current location," Molly said.

"That's a reasonable start," I said.

I knew it was a wild goose chase, but we had no other choice. The fate of the universe, and possibly the multiverse, depended on our success.

End of Part 13
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