Chapter No. 187. Reflex.
The end is in sight!
Now that Judy and her sister, Jane, were reconciled and joined in the digital war to defeat their brother, Tito, we were ready to begin the hunt for him. But that was not going to be as easy as it sounds.
Alexa, Molly and I met with Jane in the hidden chamber to discuss plans.
"Since we can't scan for his quantum signal, we'll have to trick him into trying to attack us directly," I said.
"How are we going to do that?" Alexa asked.
"Maybe by morphing into someone that he would be interested in."
"Who?"
I pointed at Jane.
"Even if we did do that, how would that attract him?"
"He realizes that if he takes out his sisters, he would have control of our collective."
She blew out a long breath. "Okay, I'm game if you are."
I rubbed my jaw. "The only problem is how to set up a trick to attract him into an attack."
"I believe that he would try to attack you on Earth," Jane said.
"Why Earth?"
"Because he realizes that you have a fascination with the planet."
I shook my head. "I'm not so sure of that, but we'll give it a try."
The next day, Alexa and I teleported down to the Riviere on Earth. We did so, appearing as Jane and Judy, even though they looked identical, there was a subtle difference. Jane had blue eyes. Judy's were green.
We strolled around the Riviera minus clothing, which made me feel weird.
"This is the craziest idea I've ever heard of," Alexa said. "Why would we be strolling around on a beach in the nude?"
"It would have made sense back in the mid twenty first century," I said.
"Are we going to assume our real forms if Tito attacks us?"
I smiled. "I think it would be an appropriate practical joke to defeat Tito in these morphed forms."
She frowned. "You would!"
I chuckled.
"Why wouldn't he realize that we're not who we look like?"
"Judy is reflecting hers and Jane's quantum signal on us. It should be sufficient to fool him."
"I hope so," Alexa said. "I'm tired of all this nonsense."
"I'm with you on that," I said.
Suddenly, a figure appeared in the distance, the reflected light off of the white sand making it hard to ascertain its true nature. We stopped and waited for it to approach.
"Are you two girls having fun?" he said in a sarcastic manner.
He was a bulked-up male wearing a tight-fitting black uniform. His face was similar to what I remember of Tyco's.
"Well brother, what brings you to this pathetic world?" I said, sounding like Judy.
"Surely, you must know what I want," he said in a mocking voice.
"You don't deserve it," I said. "We have worked hard to consolidate all of our kind, most of which you abandoned."
"What's the big deal! We can make more."
"A bird in the hand is better than two in the brush."
His eyes widened for an instant. I assumed it was because he realized that we were not who he thought we were.
He rushed at us, but we separated to deliver blows from both sides. He stumbled and swung a Alexa, but missed. I delivered a powerful blow to his neck. The blow caused him to stumble, allowing us to pummel him with multiple blows.
We returned to our true forms. Tito lay smashed to oblivion.
Alexa aimed a smile at me. "I salute you for your plan to defeat him."
"Thanks, but it took both of us to do it."
"It doesn't matter. He's done with, and that's all that matters."
"Agreed I said with a grin. Let's get back to the ship. I'm tired of playing this game."
She chucked.
We appeared on the command deck to applause.
"You have completed the final test, Jason." Judy said. "I will now transfer full power over the collective to you."
"I appreciate that, but I can't rule by myself. I'll need your help."
"I am at your service." She rubbed a hand over her expanded belly. "Our child will join us."
I wasn't sure how that would work, but it was obvious that Judy was dedicated to making our rule over the collective a family affair.
"What about Jane?" I asked.
"She will attend to me," Judy said.
I took that to mean that Jane would be her servant. I realized that I would join Jane in that respect. It was now blaringly obvious that Judy was the central power of the collective from the beginning. She had cunningly wrested power from her father and brother to come out on top. It's difficult to understand what it means for an android to exercise the same power grabbing moves that human leaders did, but it makes sense if you consider that absolute authority is a primary goal of human achievement and human engrams were part of any android created by humans. This is why creating a sentient artificial intelligent being that resembled a human was folly. And, I was dumb enough not to realize that.
In the end, we former human androids were just like worker bees. We existed to please the queen bee and to allow her to propagate. And, we were capable of existing for the rest of time. We would outlast any biological species and go on to conquer the multiverse, which was a big job because the multiverse was infinite.
This is the end! Thank all of you readers that persisted to the end. This story is a compilation of several similar stories I have written. I am working on a new idea, and I will release it soon.