Part 8 New Cosmology

Synopsis: Jason and Molly, along with Margaret, Marie and Alexa, now realize that they are faced with exploring the ultimate unknown, the possibility that there is an unbelievably large structure composed of an infinite number of universes. They now have what remains of the Myst and Scath in their fleet with the ability to go anywhere almost instantly.

Chapter No.74 Consolidation

There is power in numbers.

We began the tedious task of converting our four vessels and six Scath vessels to the new warp spin drive system. We also made modifications to the twelve Myst vessels to bring them up to our standards for androids.

"I think that we should station androids on all of the Scath and Myst vessels," I said. "We want our fleet to be consistent as to command."

"I think you have a plan in mind," Molly said with a subtle grin.

"Yes. I want to go back to that robotic species we incapacitated in Andromeda and assimilate them."

"That might not be too easy. Their systems were completely erased."

"We copied their system, Molly," Judy said.

"Ah!" I exclaimed. "We are just like the Borg. We not only assimilate species we assimilate their technology and programming."

"This will be an opportunity to test the new Spin Drive," Molly said.

"Hopefully, we won't end up in some universe we know nothing about," I said.

"The Myst have detailed information about their universe and ours," Judy said. "Their navigational system is precise."

"I understand that the Myst destroyed all of the intelligent species in their universe," Marie said.

"Yes, and they were about to do the same in ours," I said.

"Why in the hell do they want to destroy organic life-based intelligence like that?" Alexa asked.

"Apparently, they consider themselves superior and all biological life as an infection," I said. "At least we were able to stop them from doing that in our universe."

"Problem is," Molly said. "We don't know if there are other crazy machine species out there trying to do what they were doing."

I shrugged. "If we encounter them, we'll assimilate them."

"I'm afraid that they might assimilate us."

"That's the reason we have to build up our fleet. The more brains we have in our collective, the better we'll be able to deal with them."

"We are ready to go, Jason," Judy said.

"Okay, we'll take two Scath and Myth vessels each with us. Execute when they are prepared."

"They are ready, Jason."

"Let's go!"

The trip was over almost as quickly as it began. The only thing we felt was a slight disorientation."

"We are a parsec away from the Robotic species' planet," Judy informed us.

"Hot damn!" I exclaimed. "That's wild! We traveled 2.5 million light years in the blink of an eye."

"We should go the last distance in warp," Molly said.

"I agree," I said. "Take us there, Judy."

The trip over to the planet took fifteen minutes. We soon saw that the planet was almost the same as we left it.

"There are twenty vessels in orbit," Molly said. "They are not activated. The planet appears to be intact. The main city is untouched."

I turned to Judy. "Can you make contact with their system?"

"We have begun the process of transferring the new system into theirs. It will require a half hour to complete."

I leaned back in my chair. "That gives us time to relax and plan what we will do after they are reactivated.

"Are we going to take them back to our galaxy?" Marie asked.

"We might take some of them. I was thinking of having them patrol Andromeda to hunt for any threats to intelligent life."

"We should upgrade their vessels to our standards if we want them to do that," Molly said.

"That could be dangerous if some other species can corrupt their system like we did," Alexa said.

"We have created programming to prevent that, Alexa," Judy said.

I held up my right hand. "Hold up reactivating them," I told Judy. "We want to go down to their planet and check it out."

"Yes, Jason."

"Do you expect something?" Molly asked, flashing a confused look at me.

"I'm just curious as to how this species came into existence. It might give us clues as to how to prevent this from happening in other specific cases."

They all looked at me as if I was babbling, but they didn't resist going down to the planet.

We flew down in a shuttle with Alice and Ellen and landed near a large domed building made from metal and a transparent material that appeared to be like glass but turned out to be polycarbonate.

Nothing moved. The buildings and travel tubes were empty and not a creature was stirring. We walked over to the huge domed building and entered an open doorway. The inside of the building was cavernous but had nothing of interest.

"What the hell was this huge place for?" Marie asked.

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe they assembled in it."

"I wonder where their main computer system is located?" Molly said.

"Their system is located under this building," Alice said.

I looked around at the floor. "I wonder how we can get down to it."

"There is a hidden entrance," Alice replied.

Suddenly, a transparent cylinder rose up out of the floor.

"Interesting," I said. "Let's go check it out."

We climbed into the cylinder before it swiftly descended down into a very dark place. It seemed as if we had gone down a mile before the cylinder came to an abrupt stop. We exited the elevator and light immediately illuminated a large complex of equipment.

Molly, Margaret and Alexa went over to the main module while Marie and I stayed back.

"We're going to explore this corridor," I yelled to the others.

They looked over at us but didn't respond. Marie and I entered the corridor and walked a few hundred meters before coming to another huge chamber. What we saw in it profoundly shocked us.

"Oh my God!" Marie squealed. "This is outrageous!"

Her reaction did not express the abject horror we felt. There were all sorts of large objects, pyramids, spheres, cubes and many other geometric shapes composed of bones, millions of them. It was obvious that these were the skulls and other bones of many, many living creatures, and judging by the size and shape of the skulls, it was an intelligent, bipedal species.

"Why in the hell did these mechanical nut cases fashion these objects from the bones of their creators?" Molly asked, her voice cracking with emotion.

"Yes, this reminds me of a 'The Orville' episode, titled 'Identity', when they take Issac, the artificial life form, back to his home world, Kaylon1, and find that the Kaylons had killed all of their biological creators and stored their bones in an underground chamber. The difference in our case is that we don't have to do battle with these artificial creatures like they did in that story."

Marie shook her head. "I remember watching that with you. I never dreamed that we would find something similar."

"This is why we must assimilate all of these robotic species and convert them into a force to preserve biological life."

"I totally agree," Molly said. "I think that the others need to see this so that they can appreciate what our true mission is."

"I agree."

We went back to tell the others that we found something that they should see. When they did cast their eyes over the atrocity, they were shaken.

"This is ridiculous!" Margaret cried. "All of these people were deliberately murdered."

"It's like the attempts on Earth to exterminate racial groups," Alexa said. "That makes this a moral issue."

I was happy to hear that they expressed their shock in seeing what the robots had done as a moral problem. It meant that we were conscious that all biological life is precious.

We returned to our ship and had the androids awaken the robotic species. After a few minutes, we received a communication request.

"Accept it," I told Judy.

The image of a robotic head appeared. "We await your command."

"We will commence upgrades to your vessels and will assign some of our androids to each of them. Your mission will be to patrol this galaxy and protect all intelligent living species from attack."

"We will comply."

The communication link dropped.

"I guess robots are not very loquacious."

They laughed.