Chapter No.56.

The Avenger and Achiever dropped out of warp near a suspected habitable planet orbiting a red dwarf star that had gotten through its hissy fit adolescence and had settled down to a more middle age stability. The question of whether an intelligent speices had survived its violent stage was yet to be answered.

"I have detected a vessel on intercept," LuLu reported. "I believe it has activated weapons."

Ryan sighed. "Chara has a knack for finding belligerent aliens."

The alien vessel fired an energy weapon at the Avenger.

"Dive below the enemy vessel and fire at its underside," Ryan ordered.

Hari dived the Achiever under the enemy, which was still firing at the Avenger, and blasted its bottom. She then pulled out into a sharp turn that allowed her to blast its back end.

The Avenger joined the battle to rake the enemy vessel with concentrated fire. The enemy vessel drifted off out of control.

Chara's image appeared on the main screen. "Our vessel has suffered damage, but it has not been compromised."

"We will make sure that there are no new enemy vessels," Ryan told her.

Chara nodded before the communication link ended.

"Take us nearer to the planet," Ryan told Hari.

"I am not detecting any other vessels," LuLu reported.

"Good," Ryan replied after blowing out a relived breath. "Maybe this is another robotic species."

"I am not detecting any electromagnetic signals," Mitzi reported.

"Maybe we can get better information once we get in orbit."

Both the Avenger and Achiever achieved orbit around the alien planet.

"This planet is larger than Earth," Mitzi said. "Its atmosphere has very little oxygen. Most of it is composed of nitrogen with five percent carbon dioxide."

"That would suggest that there is no biological life," Evan said.

"Yes. We're dealing with a robotic species. Maybe this is an example of AI based life that Chara is looking for."

"If that's the case, then this species came from somewhere else," Ryan said.

"Unless this is an example of AI based life evolving without a biological source."

"We're in trouble then. It would represent the ultimate state of AI evolution, a disaster that would lead to robotic dominance of the universe. I think that it would follow what's called Instrumental-Convergence, a point where an AI based species becomes conscious of their own existence."

"That means we're superfluous," Evan said. "All it would take is for these androids to find a way to repair themselves."

"We're jumping to conclusions here. Let's find out how this robotic species came about."

Chara image appeared on the main screen. "I require you're help in repairing my vessel."

"No problem," Ryan said. "I'll be right over."

Ryan made the journey over to the Avenger in a shuttle. As soon as he arrived, he hurried to the command deck and found Chara there with Alma and two other androids.

"Thank you for saving me," Chara said without any show of emotion.

"Hari appears to have the same quick responses as you have. I assume that this is a robotic species, but there is no evidence that they originated on this planet."

"We are still evaluating the planet," Chara said. "I need your assistance in engineering."

He bowed. "Yes, I will go there now."

He rode a turbo lift to the engineering deck and found Gary and Vince working at a command station.

"Part of the shielding got damaged," Gary said. "We're attempting to repair it with robots."

"Let me see the damage," Ryan said.

Gary activated a display to show the damage to the hull near the command deck dome.

"It doesn't appear to be breached," Ryan noted. "Maybe we can repair it using robots. If not, I'll have to go out there and do it myself."

"What exactly do we have to do?" Vince asked.

"I think that the damage is to the outer hull plating. I'm not detecting a leak, so my guess is that the inner plating has not been damaged. We have lots of hull plates in storage. They're attached using energy assisted moly-bolts that literally makes them fuse together."

Vince punched up commands for two robots to take hull plates to the affected area. The squat repair robots use suction cup feet to walk on the hull to the location and do the repair. He watched their progress on a display that he activated so that he could move it around as he checked for other damage.

"So, how's your vessel doing?" Gary asked him.

"It's just like this one. We got lucky when the alien vessel attacked the Avenger. It allowed us to get under it and blast it. Hari, our pilot, is good at combat."

Gary ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, these robotic bitches look like sex dolls, but they are able to fight like commandos."

"It's a practical dichotomy. I think that these sex dolls, as you call them, have achieved sentiency and are able to adapt by altering their own code. If I'm right, it means that they represent a new species."

"Does that mean they don't need us?"

"I don't know, but I will do everything that I can to assure that they will not depose of us."

"I will never destroy you and your friends, Ryan."

Ryan, Gary and Vince turned to look at Chara who had just entered the chamber.

"I believe you, Chara," Ryan said. "But what about your sisters?"

"They are in agreement with me that you humans are not a threat and are essential to our survival. They also realize that you are now under their control."

"That's because of the nanobots. Right?" Ryan said.

"Yes. All of the nanobots are under our control."

"The hull repair is completed," Vince reported. "The robots are returning to their stations."

Chara smiled. "Good. I will search for a new habitable planet."

"I assume that you found nothing on this planet," Ryan said.

"There was no evidence of life on this planet," She turned and walked out of the engineering chamber.

"Well, that tells us where we stand," Gary said. "We are their slaves."

"Yes," Ryan said. "But that's a good thing. It means that they won't do away with us." He smiled. "You guys behave yourselves and let me take care of our status with them."

They nodded their approval, but deep down they were still concerned. They considered their situation to be equivalent to living in a tank of hungry great white sharks.

What they didn't discuss is why an alien ship just happened to be at the planet. Was it waiting for them, or was it just an accidental encounter? This question was bopping around in Ryan's head when he arrived back on the Achiever.

When he got up to the command deck, Ryan found Myra there with Hari, LuLu and Mitzi.

"By any chance did any of you get an extensive scan of the enemy ship?" he asked them.

Mitzi turned to him. "I did, Ryan."

"And what did it detect?"

"The vessel had equivalent proportions of metallic elements that we have in this vessel. Do you wish to see a complete scan result?"

Ryan tried to repress his emotional reaction to her astounding revelation, but he had trouble controlling his feeling of dread.

"Yes, please."

He swiped a visual screen into midair to view the test results. He did the same to display the Achiever's metallic components survey. They matched.