Star Fields

Chapter No. 175 Unbelievable.

"I don't understand any of that."

"Think of it this way. Bosons carry fields. The Higgs boson carries mass to other particles, and bosons can occupy the same state at the same time unlike the other particle types. In other words, it's how Tyco was able to create avatars. He could be in two places at the same time."

She frowned. "Whatever!"

I chuckled. "Don't sweat it. Just accept it and enjoy the ride."

"I have detected a weak quantum signal coming from a galaxy that's fifty billion light years from our present position," Molly informed us.

"Good. Take us there Judy."

We arrived at a smaller spiral galaxy that had a well-formed bar. Its supermassive black hole was shooting out quasar-like beams that were heating up nearby gas to a brilliant white glow, meaning that the galaxy was being bathed in lots of radiation.

"I've pinpointed the quantum signal to a system that's nearer to the center of the galaxy," Molly said.

"Really? That doesn't seem like a very habitable region."

"I don't think it's a normal star."

"Take us there, Judy, but maintain distance."

We accelerated into warp and after a half hour were near the quantum signal source.

I looked at the main screen to see a beam of bright light flash across the image. "What are we dealing with here?"

"It's a pulsar," Molly replied. "There's a planet orbiting it, but it's being raked by the pulsar."

"I don't understand. How could the android signals be coming from a planet orbiting a pulsar?"

"I think the androids are underground."

I turned to Alexa. "If this is a trick, it's a weird one."

"It doesn't make sense."

"I can sense the underground cavity where the androids are. I suppose the only way to find out what's going on is to go there."

"Do you need me?" Alexa asked.

"I don't want to risk both of us. I'll take Ben and Alice instead."

They appeared on the command deck, and I turned to them. "We'll teleport to the underground cavity. We'll go with armor. Ben, you take a BFG. Alice, you bring a scanner."

They made those items appear and we teleported to the underground cavity to find a large number of android charging stations. There was no light, so we created our own.

Alice began a scan of the androids. After several minutes, she had a report. "These are all human-based female androids."

"How many?"

"Ten thousand."

"What in the hell are ten thousand human-based androids doing on a planet orbiting a pulsar?"

I didn't get a response, but I realized there was a problem. "We have to teleport these androids to the ship, but we have to time it to avoid any of them getting struck by the pulsar beam."

"We will take care of that," Ben said.

"Good. I'm going to see if I can find anything else that would identify them."

Ben and Alice began the tricky task of teleporting the androids to our vessel while I searched for additional information about them. I couldn't find anything that would explain what was going on.

After the androids had been transferred, Alice, Ben and I teleported back to our vessel. I sat down to Alexa.

"Who are those people?" she asked.

"Good question," I said.

"We have assimilated them," Judy said. "Their identifications are available."

"They are just a random group of females," Molly said. "They have no connection to Space Command. The data seems to indicate that Tyco simply collected a bunch of females for no reason."

"After they're sufficiently charged, resurrect them."

Later that evening at our command meeting, Molly had additional information. "These women are performers. There's a complete classical music orchestra, a dance company, and a . . . well, I guess you could refer to them as a male entertainment ensemble."

That resulted in snickers.

"Just what we need," I quipped.

They laughed.

"What I don't understand is why they were left on a planet orbiting a pulsar."

"I think that Tito assumed that we couldn't rescue them," Molly said. "I don't think he realized how we could use our powers to do it."

"Okay, that makes sense. I wonder how many other androids are out there in the multiverse."

"We'll just have to hunt for them."

"Yeah, that's all we can do."

Later that evening, we got to see the fifty women who had been made pregnant. They seemed happy with their baby bumps. Marie and Margaret had provided them with maternity tops. The sight of that many pregnant women was both amusing as it was soothing. It made all of us feel more human.

I met up with the men in the Black Hole bar to enjoy male comradeship.

"Alex gets the prize," Barny said. "He knocked up three of them. I only did one."

"I did two," I said.

"How do they know who did what?" George asked.

"Judy knows everything that goes on," I said. "She is one of two thousand Judy's.
Each of our vessels is piloted by two of them."

"That's crazy," Vince said.

"No, it's how the collective is controlled. She is the true leader. I'm just a figurehead."

"Basically, you're just like us," Tyler said.

"Yeah, a mere commoner."

He chuckled and raised his beer mug. "To our de jure leader!"

The others joined him.

"I accept your designation as being the recipe for a better life."

"Here, here!" They shouted in unison.

Jessica, the leader of the barmaids, dressed in her sheer mesh baby doll lingerie outfit, walked over in her high heels and placed her hand on my shoulder.

What she said next changed everything.