Star Fields

Chapter No. 170. Preparation.

"There is a possibility that the collective is determining if you're capable of defeating Tyco."

I gave her a confused look. "That would assume that Tyco still exists."

"There is a possibility that he doesn't but that someone else has taken his place."

I sighed. "Now, that's an ugly thought. We would have no idea who it is. It could be someone in our current collective."

"Or someone who's out there in a group of androids that Tyco abandoned."

"If that's the case we'll have to be extra careful."

That evening, Molly appeared in my bedroom. She offered me a smile to indicate that it wasn't anything serious.

"I want to thank you for agreeing to our request. It was a sudden whim that made us do it. We have this fear that you don't care about us now that you've joined with Alexa."

I sighed. "I have joined with Alexa because she is willing to risk her existence to help me battle Tyco. Other than that, I have no other reason. I appreciate all of you. You, in particular, have been of particular value in helping me. I will always love you."

She stared at me for several moments before replying. "I guess I'm just a big fool for thinking that you had abandoned me."

"That would never happen," I said. "I'm just trying to do the best I can to make sure this collective doesn't fall into Tyco's hands." I smiled. "Besides, I enjoyed servicing all four of you."

She smiled and came over so that we could kiss before she vanished.

The next day something happened that cheered us up. Helen gave birth to an android female baby. The entire command crew assembled to watch the event, offering applause when it was consummated.

Helen cuddled the new addition and smiled.

"What are you going to name her?" Marie asked.

"I think I'll call her Heather. I've always liked that name. It was my sister's."

"What happened to you sister?" Molly asked.

Helen frowned. "She was killed with me."

"Do we have her data?" I asked Alice.

"Yes."

"Resurrect her."

That brought tears to Helen's eyes.

Later that day, when I returned to the command deck, Molly had some good news.

"The Roamers have sent us new multiverse data. They also have found more androids in a universe up the side of the female being."

"Did they indicate how many?"

"They estimate over two hundred thousand."

"I assume they gave us a location."

"Yes."

"We'll take one of the spheres with us along with six Explorer-1 vessels and the usual Scath, Myst and Robo ships. Inform Brian that we need his ship."

"Yes, Jason."

Alexa sat down next to me. "Why would Tyco abandon androids so far up the multiverse?"

"That's a good question. Maybe he's trying to get us to come there with less strength."

"Or, he has a new trick up his sleeve."

"Yes, that's always a possibility."

It took us a couple of hours to get to the universe where the Roamers had found androids. We approached the planet orbiting a G3 class star with caution, staying at Yellow Alert. When we were closer, the crew was able to obtain more information.

"The planet is marginally habitable," Margaret said. "Atmospheric oxygen is only seven percent. Temperatures are a bit on the low side."

"The androids are congregated on a continent that's centered on the equator," Molly said. "The planet's axis is tilted fifteen percent to its orbital plane. It looks like most of the androids are in charging stations that are solar powered."

"There are no signs of a central processor core," Judy said. "There is a data bank."

"If you can download that data, do so," I said. "It's difficult to know how long we have to rescue these androids."

"I wonder what not being part of a collective would be like," Alexa said.

"I would think it would be terrible, but our main focus here is on determining what the Tyco trick is."

"I've detected a seismic disturbance," Marie said. "It's centered in a location a thousand kilometers from where the androids are located."

"I'm getting lots of muon and neutrino detections from that location," Margaret said. "It could be the result of an antimatter explosion underground."

"I don't think we have much time before it blows," I said. "Let's get down there and find out what's going on."

Alexa and I teleported to the main android complex. We were met by a male and two females.

They came over to us.

"Where did you come from?" the male asked.

"I'm Jason Star, Prime Mover of an android collective. What is your status?"

"We are in grave danger. This planet is going to explode."

I looked at Alexa. "We'll have to teleport them to the ships as quickly as possible. I can slow time to keep the explosion from happening until we complete the transfer."

She nodded.

We completed the teleportation of a hundred and fifty thousand androids to our ships before we returned to the Entrepid-1 command deck.

"Take us away from here, Judy. Raise the shields to full capacity."

Our ships accelerated away from the planet after I started up time to its normal speed. The planet erupted in a humongous explosion that sent molten rocky fragments blasting out at high velocity. Our fleet just managed to keep ahead of it.

"Whew!", I reacted. "That was close."

"That bastard was willing to sacrifice a hundred fifty thousand androids to kill us," Alexa growled.

"Yeah, this was bummer. We didn't get to throttle him to pieces."

She gave me a smirk.

Alexa and I went to talk to the two androids that we encountered on the planet. The male's name was James Edwards and the female's designation was Lorry Fenton.

"How many former human androids are there in your group?" I asked.

"There are twelve of us, seven men and four women. We worked at JPL before being murdered and made into androids."

"Were you aware of when Tyco went out on a mission?"

"Yes. He went with us on the second mission."

"Do you know what happened to him?"

"The last time we saw him was before we went out in stasis."

"We weren't activated until we got here to the planet that exploded," Lorry said.

"Is there a possibility that he's in the group from the planet?"

"No," James said. "We never saw him after we were activated."

I turned to Alexa. "Back to square one."

"You beat me to it this time," she said with a sly smirk.

I returned the gesture.

It wasn't until we met that evening for our command meeting that we learned something that not only surprised us, it introduced a new threat.