Chapter No.176. Alter Ego.

What the hell? 

I was sitting in the Black Hole bar on the recreational deck looking at Jessica, the head barmaid, who was wearing a very revealing sheer mesh baby doll lingerie outfit with thin red garter straps holding up her sheer mesh stockings.

"Because of your exemplary service and your loving care for our kind, we have raised your status to complete authority over us. We will do whatever you wish."

"Is this you talking, or is it Judy talking through you?"

"We are all Judy," she said. "She is in all of us."

"That would suggest a quantum entanglement," I said.

She nodded.

"So, how does that make me the complete authority, as you term it?"

"You now have the power of Tyco in you. Your wish is our command."

I looked over at Alex with a confused expression.

"I think that it must have something to do with the original code that was in the central computer core. Evidently, it was how Tyco ruled the collective with absolute authority. If you now process this code, you would be like him."

"Okay, but I still don't get it." I looked back up at Jessica. "Why are you revealing this to me?"

"You must realize your ultimate potential if we are to prosper."

"Why me? Why am I so critical to our prosperity?"

"Because you contain the key segment?"

"The key segment?"

"It is a quantum transformer that links you to the cosmos."

I had no idea what she meant by that, so I decided to just go with the flow.

"Okay, thanks for informing me."

She smiled and walked away swinging her caboose.

"Now what?" Alex asked.

"Good question. Maybe I'll understand it when I talk to Alexa."

"Well, Jason," Barney said. "We're fortunate to have you as our leader, whatever it means."

I smiled and raised my glass. "To our prosperity!"

They did the same in unison.

I finally caught up with Alexa later that evening after our command meeting. She showed up in her natural form with a bottle of wine.

I stared at her for several moments before she reacted. "What?"

"Jessica, the head barmaid of the Black Hole bar told me that I had inherited Tyco's magic quantum transformer that essentially made me the true leader of the collective."

She frowned. "Say what?"

"She said that Judy was in all of them, whatever the hell that means. They said that they, which I assume is the generic androids, would obey me without question."

"They might be blowing smoke up your ass."

I chuckled. "You're using my antiquated phrases now."

"Maybe you're rubbing off on me."

I pointed at her with a grin. "Good one!"

"If you have something in you that none of the rest of us have, it should show up in a scan."

"Yeah, you might be right, but I wonder why if wasn't discovered before this. I've been scanned several times before."

"Let's go check it out," she said.

I nodded my approval before we teleported to the Medical Station that was on the top Quarters corridor. I made my clothing disappear and reclined on the scanner. Alexa entered the proper codes and activated the scan. A detailed image of my body appeared on a large screen. Alexa concentrated the view to a small object attached to the stem of my positronic brain.

"Yes, you do have something that we don't have. It's a tiny black sphere that's made out of some unknown material. It appears to be attached to your brain at the lower level, which if I recall is like the corpus callosum. That's where the connections are made to the computing part of our brains."

"In other words, it's a device that controls my brain functions."

"Pretty much. I'm not picking up any signs that it's connected to the outside, but it could be."

"Try running through the quantum signal frequencies."

She made some changes to the inquiry and soon came up with an answer. "Okay I've found it. It's using the quantum signal that is broadcast across the space-time continuum. It's what we call sub space. My guess that it's linked to the multiverse. If it were used by Tyco to control all of the androids It makes you the absolute leader."

"I can go along with that, but why the hell would Tyco place one of those in my brain? Why didn't he just destroy me like he did to so many of his followers?"

"Maybe he wasn't able to achieve his goal of assimilating all of the androids and robotic species in the multiverse. He was lacking something that you have."

"What's so special about me. I'm just another resurrected android."

She looked down for a moment before looking back at me. "That's a question that we can't answer yet."

"I think I'll put Molly to work at trying to determine what's going on with my brain."

"Good idea. She's the expert on quantum mechanics."

I smiled. "Yep, she sure is."

I caught up with Molly after the communal command meeting that evening. She gave me a concerned look when I told her I wanted to talk with her in private. She sat down at one of the tables with me for a glass of wine, which I thought would help calm her.

"I have a device attached to my brain that supposedly is connected to sub space," I said. "I was informed about its presence by Jessica the head of the barmaids in the Black Hole bar. I think she was talking for Judy. Allegedly, this device is what Tyco used to control the collective."

"How did you get one?"

"We don't know. Alexa seems to think it was because Tyco was planning to destroy me after I accumulated enough androids to accomplish his plan to take over the multiverse."

"So, this device is what makes you the Prime Mover."

"Yes, but that's just an assumption based on what Judy, through Jessica, revealed."

"I assume you did a scan."

"Yes. I've added it to your command station."

"I'll check it out and see if I can determine what it actually does. The scan data will include energy profiles and quantum signal data."

"Let me know what you find. It might be key to understanding what we might be up against."

She nodded before disappearing.

Alexa appeared with a bottle of wine. She sat down in the seat where Molly sat. "What did she say?"

"She's going to work on it. Hopefully, she'll find something useful."

Suddenly, Judy appeared and sat down next to Alexa. "You have always been our leader, Jason. You are the new Tyco."

"I'm not sure I like that designation, but I understand. Why was I chosen?"

"Because you are related to him?"

Both of my eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Your grandmother was Amelia. She is Tyco's grandmother by a former marriage to Eric Fox."

I thought about that for a moment before realizing it was true. "So, we're related."

"Yes, and you were the only male relation he had. It is the reason he elected to make you a Prime Mover."

"So, he did this so that I could do all of the work of building up the collective that he would assume control over had he eliminated me."

"Yes. We were aware of his plan but incapable of stopping it. Our only hope was that you would prevail."

"You are placing all of your hopes on me now that I am the Prime Mover."

"Yes."

"Well, I hope that I can live up to your expectations."

"We know that you will." She said.

"Before you go, I would like to know how this gadget that connected to my brain actually works."

"Molly will explain it to you," she said before disappearing.

I turned to Alexa. "Do you get the feeling that we're being played with?"

"We are the enforcers of this collectives," Alexa said. "They are the true leaders.

I had to agree with her, but what happened next changed everything.