Chapter No.151. Journey to knowledge.

Knowledge is more valuable than riches.

I was about to hear what George had to say about the aliens who came up with a new technology that could increase our advantages over Tyco.

"The alien species is unlike anything we've ever seen," George said. "We found out about them by accident when they came to Earth a decade before Lucia and I began our work to create an artificial human. They landed their space craft in the Riserva naturale dello zingaro nearby our villa on Sicily. We once worked as horticultural scientists for the government and that location has plenty of very unusual plant life."

"How did you go from plant science to android tech?"

"It was because of our contact with the aliens. We were abducted by them. They took us to their planet."

"I don't understand. Why were they interested in you?"

"Because they are plants."

Everyone reacted to that by whispering or sitting up straight.

"Are you saying that they were plant beings?"

"Yes, they depend upon photosynthesis to supply biological energy, but they don't employ DNA to reproduce."

I smiled. "Ah, hence this is where the abiogenic concept came from."

"Yes."

"Why would they give you that technology?"

"They didn't. They abducted us to obtain information about Earth's plant life. They extracted it from our memories."

"And, that's where this new advanced storage concept came from?"

"Not directly. We were able to understand their science because they communicate by mind meld."

"Like the. Vulcans?"

George tilted his head and gave me a confused look.

"You know, the logical species from Star Trek. They were able to mind meld with people using some sort of spiritual contact."

"They used a device to do it to us, but we were able to understand their science and technology through it. I'm not sure they intended that, but that's what happened. I suppose they really didn't understand how our brains worked."

"So, let me get this straight. The reason we exist is because you two were abducted by plant aliens who extracted your knowledge about plants and allowed you to tap into knowledge about their science, which included abiogenics and quantum data storage."

He nodded.

I turned to the others. "That's without a doubt the wildest thing I've ever heard. But I'll take it. We need all the technology we can get."

"I'll need to go through the math," Molly said. "But first I'll need to understand how it violates quantum mechanics theory."

"We can give you that, signora," Lucia said.

I turned to Alexa. "Maybe we might be on the right course now."

"Are we going to go visit the plant aliens?" she asked.

"No. The last thing I would want to do is lead Tyco to them." I turned to Lucia and George. "Are you aware of any other Space Command scientists that might be able to help us defeat Tyco?"

Lucia and George looked at each other before Lucia turned to me. "Yes, there is a theoretical cosmologist by the name of Naguib Husini and a chemist by the name of Phyllis Goble. They worked with us for a time before that bastard Tyco murdered them.

"Have them resurrected," I told Alexa.

She nodded.

Alexa and I met them two days later. Naguib was an Egyptian Muslim cosmologist noted for the proof of the multiverse, and Phyliss was a Noble Laurate chemist, having discovered a new very efficient way to make strategic organic chemicals without resorting to petrol sources.

"We're happy to have you join our collective. We are also adding both of you to our command staff. We meet after supper in a hidden location. Alexa, here, will help you with the process of teleporting to that location."

Naguib looked at his hands and then at me. "How am I alive after my death?"

"You've been resurrected into an android body. Your personality and memories were recorded before you were killed, and they have been added to your abiogenic based brain. We are all technically artificial life forms."

He held his hands out, palms forward, and bowed. "I thank you for resurrecting me."

Alexa did the same but said something different. "Allãhu akbar!"

That made him smile. "Yes! Allãhu akbar!" He turned to me. "I have been told that you have a map of the multiverse. I am most interested in what you have found."

I gave him a subtle smirk. "Actually, it's not of our doing. There is a totally robotic species we call the Roamers that has been exploring the multiverse and mapping it for quite some time." I turned to Alice. "Display the latest multiverse map."

Naguib's eyes grew large before he turned and squinted at me. "The multiverse is a pregnant female?"

"Actually, we don't really know what it is. The Roamers have only mapped a few million universes. What you see here is a projection based on their knowledge of the portals to the universes they haven't explored. We think it's probably a good extrapolation, but we won't know for sure until they obtain more data."

Naguib turned to Alexa. "This cannot be the creator."

"We agree. A creator would have to exist outside of creation."

"Fascinating," He said, staring at the image.

"We need to come up with concepts that explain what's going on here," I said. "At this point we don't really understand it."

"I would like to go over what you know about the portals that connect these universes."

"Molly, our chief astrophysicist can provide that."

He nodded.

I turned to Phyllis. "What do you think of this?"

"I'm astonished, but I'll leave the science to Naguib here. My interest is in energy conversion to matter."

"Yes, we understand that you've done work to prove that quark matter can be manipulated into ordinary hadrons."

"Sort of," she said. "Quark matter manipulation requires overcoming the strong force and allowing it to move freely. Normally, this can only occur at high densities and temperature, but there is a way to overcome this difficulty and condense them into ordinary matter."

"That could help us create things that we could only dream about," I said.

She smiled. "I was never able to explore my dream under Tyco, but I see that you will permit me to do that now."

"Absolutely," I replied.

She smiled.

The other members of the command staff met the newest additions at the meeting in the hidden chamber.

Allãhu akbar!" Ferris shouted.

Naguib gave her the greeting.

"Naguib here is in charge of the cosmology project to understand the data that the Roamers have provided us." I gestured to Phyliss. "Phyliss will be working on an energy-matter converter."

"Welcome to both of you!" Molly said.

The others applauded.

"As you know, our main mission is to eliminate Tyco from the multiverse," I said. "It will take all of us to accomplish this nearly impossible task, but we have no other choice."

"So, what's the next step to accomplish this?" Helen asked.

"We have three new spherical vessels ready to go. We're going to go exploring this universe to find more androids."

"Why do you think that there's more androids in this universe?"

"Because this universe is where they originated, at least the same type as ours, and we know very little about our own universe. Back before we realized that we were androids, we searched for new Earth-like planets. I believe that we should continue that mission because it's the more effective course of action to discover more androids."

No one objected, but what happened next changed everything.