Chapter No.86 Adventure
Exploring can be fun.
I turned to Judy. "Okay Judy, let's get this big slug up to speed and into spin drive."
"We're heading on out, Jason."
"You make it sound like a cattle drive," Molly said.
"Yeah, he watches too many of those old movies," Marie said.
I just rewarded them with a grin.
The ship went into spin drive, but it required a fifteen-minute ride to get to the other side of the universe. When we dropped out of spin, we were near a large spiral galaxy, one that resembled the Milky Way galaxy.
"We are approaching the portal, Jason," Judy informed me.
"Activate the hydrogen beam," I ordered.
At first nothing happened, and then a small hole opened in space that quickly expanded into a whirling wormhole.
"As soon as it's safe, take us in," I ordered.
The ship moved forward and entered the spinning maelstrom. When we were totally inside the wormhole, waves of negative energy buffeted our vessel. We continued to move forward until we were traveling at half the speed of light. The main screen displayed the spinning tunnel of energy as if it were a theme park ride.
Suddenly, we shot out of the other side into an amazing new sight.
"This is definitely a young universe," Molly said. "There's a plethora of quasars in it, a sign of newly formed galaxies."
"How old do you think it is?" I asked.
"My guess is that it's at least seven to eight billion years old."
"Yeah, that's a young pup as universes go!"
"I see galaxies, but they're just in the process of forming. There are plenty of large blue stars, which are mostly first generation."
"This universe is probably too young to have produced life," I said.
"I doubt that there are all that many planets yet," Margaret said.
"Okay, get as many readings as you can. We won't waste any more time in here than we have to."
After a half hour of intense scrutiny, Molly gave her okay for us to return to our own universe. Judy powered up the hydrogen signal beam and centered it on the coordinates of the wormhole. As before, it opened and permitted our passage through it to our universe. We emerged not far from the spiral galaxy.
"We may as well explore this nearby spiral galaxy," I said. "I think it would be interesting to see if there is any intelligent life over on this side of the universe."
Judy positioned our vessel overtop the spiral galaxy and Molly activated her virtual mirror telescope and began a search for habitable star systems.
But that search required time, so I decided to take a break. I was just going to rest in my quarters, but Alex and Ben talked me into going to the Black Hole bar on the agricultural/recreational deck.
"We're not supposed to be drinking on the job," I told them in a teasing manner.
"Yeah, but you're in charge, so technically we're safe," Alex said.
We laughed.
As soon as we sat down around a table, the barmaids arrived with glasses of beer.
I noted that their barmaid outfits were more revealing than before. "Don't you gals feel a bit breezy wearing those skimpy outfits?"
Jessica rewarded me with a sly grin. "We don't really require clothing, Jason. Would you prefer that?"
I raised my hand. "No, you're fine the way you are."
Both Alex and Ben laughed.
After the barmaids retreated to the bar, Alex decided to tease me more. "Actually, they could do away with clothing altogether."
"No, that would be too sexist. The women would never cease teasing me about it."
He laughed.
Alex became serious after imbibing half a glass of beer. "Are you planning on moving humans into that baby universe?"
"That's one option for preserving human life, but it wouldn't be as easy as it sounds. Early universes are dangerous to life because of frequent supernovae and black hole collisions. We would need to wait for maybe two or three billion years before we could safely insert humans onto planets there."
"I can't imagine living for billions of years," Alex said.
"Neither can I, but it's a fact of life now for us. In a way, I think that we're actually in Hell, or at least a form of Hell that no one had ever thought of. We will eventually become bored, and it will begin to affect us psychologically. It's important for our mental health to stay busy pursuing the ultimate goal of preserving biological life.
"I think it helps that we are able to reproduce. It will give us the satisfaction of creating life based on our own personality data."
"Yes, I agree, but we're limited as to how many new human androids we can beget."
"Is there a possibility of resurrecting other human women?" Alex asked.
I rubbed my jaw. "I hadn't considered that." I turned to Jessica. "Is there other human female data in the data stack?"
"Yes, Jason. There are twenty female data profiles."
Alex and I exchanged surprised looks. The first thing that came to my mind was the fact that the androids had claimed that there were no other technical individuals in the data stack. Did they deliberately lie, or are they carrying out a hidden plot?
"We'll have to check that out. I'm not sure that our present human female staff will like us reviving more women to compete with them for our attention."
"Yeah, you're right about that," Alex said with a smug grin.
"Are there other human male data?" I asked Jessica.
"Yes, Jason, but they are Phoenix Project officers. The women are not. They were included to become receptacles for android births by the males. However, there is one male that is not part of the Phoenix Project."
"Fascinating. I wonder who he is," I said.
"His name is Vincent Fields. He's Molly Fields' brother."
"Oh, my!" Alex said. "That would be an interesting addition."
"Well," I said, smiling. "It seems that you, Vince and I have inherited that interesting project by reason of survival of the fittest."
Alex laughed, and I joined him.
When I arrived on the command deck, Molly had just finished her survey of the galaxy. "I found one particularly interesting star system."
"How so?"
"It's a single G-class star like our sun and the planets are arranged around it pretty much the same as in our system. One of those planets is nearly the same as Earth."
"Okay, let's go see what it has to offer."
Judy started the journey into motion.