Star Fields

Chapter No.160. Novus

The guys raised their beer mugs to express their support and confidence.

When I returned to the command deck, I decided that it was time to take our fleet out to find more of Tyco's discarded androids. "Take us out to a universe that's connected to the last one that we recovered Tyco's androids."

"Do we know if there are any androids there?" Alexa asked.

"We don't, but we need to keep the search up. The more of them we recover the better off we'll be."

After an hour of jumping from universe to universe, we finally entered the universe connected to the last one that we recovered androids. However, universes contain trillions of galaxies, which makes finding a needle in a haystack a much easier task than what we faced. But we had an edge. The Roamers' new shielding technology had a hidden bonus. It has the ability to conduct long range scans for android quantum positronic signals.

After an hour of searching for signals, Molly had a response. "I've detected a sizable amount of quantum signals emanating from a galaxy that's there hundred million light years away."

"Take us there, Judy. Maintain stealth mode when we arrive."

"I wouldn't be surprised if Tyco is enticing us into a trap," Alexa said.

"Yeah, I could see that, but we have to keep trying to find more of his androids if we hope to win this stupid war."

When we arrived at a barred spiral galaxy Judy placed us above the galaxy plane in order for Molly to use her virtual mirror to hunt for habitable planets. However, it didn't take her that long to trace the quantum signals to a planet.

"The signals are coming from a G3 class star system at the edge of the outer arm of this galaxy."

"Take us there, Judy."

We arrived a light year away from the star.

"I'm not detecting any neutron stars or black holes near the star system," Molly said.

"Okay Judy, move us to within a million kilometers of the system."

We arrived at the safe distance from an Earth-like planet orbiting the star in the habitable zone. Everything looked normal, but that was about to change.

"I'm detecting a whole bunch of antimatter missiles coming in at near light speed," Marie said loudly.

I stopped time. "I suppose this is Tyco's welcome call."

"Each of those missiles has an android in them," Margaret said.

I shook my head. "You've got to be kidding me! That bastard did this to present a moral dilemma for us."

"Why can't we transport the androids to our ship?" Marie asked.

"Well, let's see what Tyco has done to keep us from such a simple solution," I said sarcastically.

"They're probably loaded with explosives," Alexa said. "And, I'm sure that we can't just remove the explosives without destroying them."

"I think the antimatter missiles are armed with the androids," Molly said. "They are the explosives."

I rubbed my jaw. "Okay, let's think this through. We can't just make them vanish or remove the explosives. Either action would destroy them. The only way out of this is if we can obtain their personality data and memories."

Alexa smiled. "I think I see where you're headed on this." She turned to Judy. "Can we detect a central core for these androids?"

After a few moments, Judy had a response. "Yes, but we are having trouble penetrating it."

I turned to Alexa. "Let's see if we can break through together."

After combining our thoughts, we managed to penetrate their collective core. We had to use all of our computing power to overcome it."

"We have control of their collective," Judy announced.

"Can we download their data?"

"Yes, Jason. We have commenced a download."

"Let me know when you have all of it."

After several more minutes of our suspended time, Judy nodded.

"Okay, Madison, we're going to start up time. I want you and all of the other ships to target and fire at those missiles as quickly as you can."

She nodded.

I turned to Alexa. "Okay, let's start it up."

The weapon's fire lit up space. Multiple explosions emitted gamma ray bursts that peppered our shields like a hailstone storm. Despite the extreme violence, the battle was over quickly.

"Take us into orbit, Judy. Maintain Red Alert Status."

The planet was far from being habitable. There was little water on a very arid surface. The planet had active tectonic activity with plenty erupting volcanoes.

"Appropriate location for a Tyco trick," I said.

What we saw on the surface reinforced my statement.