Part 16. Expansion
Synopsis: Jason has his hands full trying to keep his command staff together. With the addition of many new androids to his collective, he's busy having new much larger ships constructed to accommodate the surge. He knows that he's being tested to see if he's up to the task of permanently defeating Tyco.
Chapter No. 150 Cornucopia of Knowledge.
If you go out, go out big.
After my tirade against the dearth of knowledge about android technology, my command staff began a concerted effort to find its source. We met to discuss their findings at the hidden pool chamber after the usual evening supper.
"After a very thorough and tedious purse through all of our positronic brains, we've found snippets of code that indicate an alien involvement," Molly said. "That's the good news. The bad news is that their location is not part of the code."
"How do you know that it's alien?" I asked.
"Because it uses reverse logic."
I squinted. "You mean like the reverse Polish notation used on the original digital calculators?"
"Yes. Space Command would never use that sort of calculation method."
"That sounds crazy. Why in the hell would an advanced alien species use something like that?"
She shrugged. "Maybe they're Polish."
Everyone laughed.
"What exactly does this code do?" Margaret asked
"It saves memory," Molly responded.
I smiled. "Yes, I remember that. Interesting."
"Maybe it wasn't an alien species," Marie said.
"What do you mean?"
"Maybe it was a human scientist."
"What makes you think that?"
"The original reverse logic concept was created by an Australian Computer Scientist by the name of Charles Hamblin in the 1950's. I don't think he had anything to do with android tech, but maybe it could be someone who liked him."
"What about the Japanese?" Alex said. "They were big into android-like robotics."
"It's possible, but we need to find a reference to someone connected to Space Command. As I recall the Japanese and Korean work with androids was with robotic units that resembled human and mimicked human emotions and speech. We are much more advanced than that. We're not robots. I think that there must be something in the data that indicates who might have come up with the android technology."
"We'll work on that," Molly said. "Maybe there's someone in the data stacks that could help us find who came up with it."
"Good plan," I said. "Finding someone who knows where this android technology came from would be a big help."
The answer to that came a few days later and was reported at our daily staff meeting in the hidden chamber.
"I'm really surprised about this one," Molly said. "There's a scientist in the data stacks that is listed as an android expert. Her name is Lucia Fibonacci."
"Ah, an Italian."
"Yeah, she was married to a Canadian by the name of George Taylor. Evidently, they worked together on the android development team."
"Good work. Let's resurrect them. Maybe they can explain how the android design was accomplished."
Alexa and I met the newbies in my quarters two days later, and what we heard from them was mind blowing.
"As you must know," Lucia said. "Android flesh is abiogenic, which in this case means that it's not based on organic life. Essentially, our flesh is not created or regenerated by means of DNA but is maintained by the nanobots in our fluidic system. The bots use special abiogenic stem cells that can mimic the particular tissues they need to make a repair. Because of this, we are not subject to infections by biological pathogens."
"Yes, we know that," I said.
"To answer your question about the positronic brain, the first thing I must point out is that it's based on a neural net concept, but as you might have guessed, the computer system needed to mimic the human brain would be a humongous one. The way we solved that problem is by creating neural networks based on abiogenic neurons. In other worlds we duplicated the human brain's processes using something that's not biological. However, there is one fundamental difference in what we developed. Our brains contain a central quantum core to allow our brains to connect to the collective's core processor."
I ran my hand over my head. "That makes perfect sense, and it means that the android design is not alien."
She tilted her head. "What made you think it was alien?"
"We were under the impression that Tyco brought the android technology to Space Command."
"That fucking Nazi idiot didn't know anything." She shook her head. "Scusa my language."
I turned to Alexa and smiled, and she returned it.
"Well, we're happy to have you with us. We are a collective that's working to purge all traces of Tyco from the universe and to bring peace and tranquility to all."
"Jason, here, is the Prime Mover," Alexa said, gesturing to me. "But, he's very lenient. He lets the androids take care of running the shop, so to speak."
"Anything would be better than being under that idiot," Lucia said.
I looked at George. "As you might have guessed, relationships like marriage are no longer valid. However, there is no restrictions concerning sex as long as the female permits it."
He nodded. "I understand."
"I'm adding both of you to our command staff. We meet daily after the communal supper to discuss situations. You will have the ability to teleport to any place you can imagine. Alexa, here, will show you the location where we meet. It's hidden and there is no entrance. It's a place where we are not under surveillance."
They didn't react to my revelation of the meeting chamber.
I introduced Lucia and George to our command staff at the meeting in the hidden pool. When she explained how our android brains work, the others seemed satisfied. It made them realize that we were more human like than they had realized.
But I wasn't satisfied yet. I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my jaw. "I have a problem with your explanation of how the android technology was developed."
Everyone stared at me with concerned eyes.
"As I recall, the United Nations had passed a ruling that outlawed all work on artificial life. Space Command made that ruling a law because they were afraid that androids would evolve and be superior, which is what happened. How did you create all of this advanced tech under the threat of arrest?"
"We broke the law signore," Lucia said. "We did the work in secret under Tyco's patronage. If I had known what his intentions were, I would have personally killed him."
"Okay, that makes sense, but what I don't understand is why we're designed as sex toys."
"Again, that was Tyco's directive. He said that it would designate our work as being recreational. No one would question that."
I chuckled. "Yeah, that make sense."
"How did you create the process of transferring human personality and memories?" Molly asked.
Lucia looked at her and smiled. "Did you know, signora, that your memories could fit on a pendant?" She held up the oval metal pendant of her necklace.
Molly stared at the pendant and then at Lucia. "How?"
"How many atoms do you think are in this pendant?"
"A lot, depending on its mass."
"What if they each have individual magnetic moments?"
Molly's eyebrows shot up. "Oh my God! How is that possible?"
"It can be done by violating quantum mechanical laws."
Molly turned to me. "Do you realize how much we could increase the storage capacity of our data stacks?"
"Ah, this is getting into science we're not familiar with." I turned to Lucia. "How did you get this technology?"
She turned to George, and he responded.
"That came from an alien source, from a planet on the opposite side of our galaxy."
"Do you have a location for this planet?"
"Yes, but they may not wish to make contact."
"Why is that?"
What he told me was disturbing but very interesting.