Chapter No.157 First Person Shooter.

No rest for the wicked.

Alexa and I materialized on our vessel's command deck.

"Are the androids we rescued still functional?" I asked.

"Yes," Judy answered.

"How many of them did we recover?"

"Ninety thousand."

I looked at Alexa. "I didn't think it was that many."

She gave me smirk. "I think I'm beginning to understand why you want to build a Dyson sphere."

I smiled. "Yeah, we're going to be up to our ears in androids."

The real surprise came later when I was able to see some of the rescued androids that had been fully charged. Alexa and I were walking down a corridor when we spotted a dozen of them.

"What the hell?" I blurted. "They're a new type."

"Yes," Alexa said. "They're true curly brunettes."

"I'm not sure that I understand why there are so many hair types," I said. "Is it simply for identification purposes."

"It's because of their specific functions," Molly said as she approached behind us.

We turned around to look at her.

"What functions?"

"Some, like the blond-haired type, are better at engineering and navigation. The red heads and black-haired ones are designed to handle construction. The white-haired androids are care takers. We're still trying to determine what the other types are designed to do."

"What about me," Alexa asked. "I have black hair but I'm not much good for construction."

"You're designed for combat," I said, adding a grin.

She raised her fist. "I'm ready for war."

"Hopefully it won't degrade into a full-blown war, but we must prepare for that possibility."

Alexa smiled. "Yeah, you only have two ears to lose."

"I chuckled and felt my newly created left ear. "At least the nano-bots can recreate them."

I stiffened. "Judy is summoning me."

We all teleported to the command deck.

"There are a number of androids on the planet, but they are not of the same type as the ones you've rescued."

"What type are they?" I asked.

"They appear to be bald."

I turned to Alexa. "What the hell's their purpose."

Her face muscles stiffened. "I sense that they are here to test us in combat."

"Damn it anyway! Didn't that bastard have enough combat for one day?"

"I think these androids are armed."

I sighed. "This is a whole different situation. It's not a one-on-one combat. It's more like a first-person shooter game. I would suggest we go with the BFG's for this."

"I'm not sure why Tyco would want to engage us in this type of combat," Alexa said. "We have the ability to deflect weapon's fire."

"Maybe he believes he could overwhelm us," I said.

She paused for a moment before replying. "I'm game if you are."

"Let's do it."

No one objected. Alexa and I used our powers to dress in reactive armor and secure BFG's, the weapon of choice for androids. When we teleported to the planet's surface, we came under immediate plasma ball fire, which we were able to deflect. We took cover in a narrow culvert that was once an ancient river. Our enemy was in trenches dug a hundred meters from our position.

The enemy attacked our position and we repelled their effort, causing them to take cover. The battle degraded into occasional fire across the rugged landscape.

"I can't see any way to resolve this by a frontal attack," I told Alexa. "I think the only solution is for us to split up and move into flanking positions so that we can get them in a crossfire."

"Won't they see us do that and then attack one of us."

"If they do that, the one of us that isn't under attack could come up behind them."

She thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"This culvert bends around like a U. We should be able to sneak into flanking positions and
then mount a simultaneous attack."

"Okay," she said. "Let's do it."

We moved to the flanking positions without being seen or heard. After deciding on a time to launch our attack, we synchronized and jumped up and began firing as fast as we could while running a zig-zag course.

We managed to knock out all six of them, but one was still functional but damaged.

I stopped Alexa from finishing the damaged android off.

"Why are you attacking us?" I shouted.

Her mouth moved but we only heard gurgling sounds. However, my mind could hear her words.

I turned to Alexa. "She says that she is being controlled."

"By Tyco, I would assume," Alexa said.

"Maybe we could get some useful information out of her if we have her repaired."

"I'm detecting an explosive device," Alexa said. "I'll remove it before I teleport her to Medical."

We teleported back to the ship and materialized at the Medical cubical. Alice and Ben came to help us.

"She has severe damage to her oxygenation systems," Ben said. "I think they're good enough to keep her functional until the nano-bots complete repairs."

"Are her bots connected to our core processor?"

"Yes," Alice said. "We have isolated the Tyco code and have eliminated it."

"Was there any information that could help us eliminate Tyco permanently."

"Tyco is aware of our process," Alice said. "But we have identified a reference to a system in this universe that might contain the primary Tyco code."

"I would be very interested in what you could ascertain," I said.

She nodded.

The damaged android recovered and Alexa, Molly and I had a chance to question her. She seemed at ease despite her ordeal.

"We were isolated on a planet before we were forced to come here," she said.

"How many are on the planet?" I asked.

"Ten thousand minus the five and me."

"How did you get here?"

"We were transported here in our vessel."

"Are the others hairless like you?" Alexa asked her.

She turned to her. "Yes."

I decided that it was time to act. "We'll go to the planet and assimilate them," I said.

Judy had already begun the journey to their planet by the time we got back up to the command deck. Heather, the bald android, went with my assistants to be oriented.

We arrived at the planet, which was in a K2 class star system with a M-5 dwarf companion. The planet was slightly larger than Earth with much less oxygen, which was not a problem for androids.

The first thing we noticed was an Explorer-1 class vessel in orbit, but before I could issue a warning to Judy, she had already taken care of business.

"We have assimilated them," she reported.

"Is there any evidence of large masses of antimatter on the planet?" I asked.

"I'm not detecting any muons or neutrinos," Molly said.

I turned to Alexa. "We'll have to go down there and purge any explosives from their bodies."

She nodded and we teleported to a main complex that resembled a geodesic dome.

The androids had already gathered together.

"Welcome to our collective. We will remove the explosive devices in your bodies before we teleport you to our vessel."

They didn't react to my statement.

After Alexa and I had teleported them to our vessel we materialized on their vessel in engineering. It didn't take me long to realize that it was not as I had expected.

"This ship has been upgraded with spin drive and the newest antimatter production equipment."

"The means that our technical advances are being sent out through the quantum fields to all of Tyco's androids," Alexa said. "Maybe they have also gained our powers."

"If that were the case, we would have been destroyed long ago. I believe that there is some unknown factor that's contributing to our powers, something that is unique to us."

She tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"There must be something in our positronic brains that's not in the others. Maybe we should consult with Lucia about that."

She nodded, but I wasn't sure that she approved.

We sent a small compliment of androids over to their vessel to power it up and come back to the Dyson sphere system with us.

Later that evening, we met with Lucia and George to discuss my ideas, and what she told us was both interesting and scary.