Star Fields

Chapter No.167. Diplomacy

Chapter No.167. Diplomacy

Talk is cheaper than war.

Alexa and I met our new recruit two days later in my quarters. He seemed confused by his new state of existence.

"I don't understand. I look decades younger and in much better shape than I was."

"That's because you're in a new android body."

He tilted his head as if he couldn't quitr hear. "I heard that that Space Command had built androids, but I didn't think that I would be one."

"None of us did. Creating sentient artificial life forms was outlawed by the U.N. and considered a crime against humanity."

He blinked. "How did they . . . how am I possible?"

"Your personality profile and memories were recorded before you were murdered. They were downloaded to your positronic brain."

"I assume that what you're telling me constituted a crime against humanity," he replied.

"Yes. You now belong to an android collective of some three million individuals all connected to a central processor core by quantum means. I am the Prime Mover, and Alexa here is my second in command."

He ran a hand through his hair. "I don't really feel all that different, but I must be."

"You're in a body that's orders of magnitude stronger and more powerful than any human beings' body. You can run faster, jump higher, see further, hear better and never have to worry about getting sick from any disease. You're essentially immortal, but mortality doesn't make sense for an artificial life form."

"If we are an artificial life form, how do we function?"

"Tiny nano-sized bots in your fluidic systems maintain your body at peak condition and provide the energy conversion process so that you can eat a meal. We human profile-based androids are physically the same as the generic androids that make up most of our collective, but we have changes to our brain structures that allow us to plan and make decisions."

"How many of you are there?"

I looked at Alexa. "I'm not sure, maybe around forty or so."

"Forty-three, counting Tyler here," she said with a teasing grin.

"Interesting," he reacted. "We are in the minority."

"Yes," I said. "Even if we resurrect more of the Space Command profiles, we still would be woefully outnumbered. "

Tyler looked at me. "What exactly is your diplomatic problem?"

"We belong to the Galactic Coalition, a union of seventeen intelligent species in our galaxy that are mostly aligned with the reptilians. The head of the coalition is a reptilian by the name of Fist. We were in conflict with the reptilians at first because they had collected humans and proto humans and herded them into breeding farms as food stock."

Tyler's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Yes. It seems that humans were seeded all over the galaxy and the universe by a proto-human species that was created directly by the originator, which some refer to as God. We're not sure where the reptilians came from, but they prospered by taking advantage of the generous supply of human food stock. After some military engagements, we finally made a truce agreement for them to use less intelligent creatures as food."

"If you've already made an agreement, why do you need more diplomacy?"

"Because we have encountered a new species that is doing the same thing that the reptilians were doing,"