Chapter No. 127. Additions.

The more the merrier.

I still wasn't satisfied with the fact that some vessel could penetrate our defenses and attack us on Earth. There had to be some system we could employ to detect such an attack.

"I think it's possible to detect spin drive by the neutrinos it releases just before coming out of the warp bubble," Molly said. "They exhibit a specific signature. I think we should be able to enhance our neutrino detectors to sense that signature."

"That's great. Do it."

We didn't have another Tyco intrusion, thank goodness. When we met for our discussion after the communal supper, everyone seemed on edge, but what Molly told us did a lot to settles us down.

"I've successfully enhanced our neutrino detectors to alert us to a spin drive," she said. "It should be sensitive enough to detect a vessel coming out of spin drive at a million kilometers."

"That's encouraging. However, I don't think Tyco will try anything like that again."

"Now that he knows that we have the same powers as you do, won't he try to separate us?" Margaret asked.

"He might. We'll just have to remain together. However, that could result in concerted attack on us."

"I think that we can come up with a way to thwart such an attack," Alexa said.

No one disagreed. The remainder of the evening broke into small talk.

Later that evening when I was in bed watching an old Babylon Five episode, I saw Molly, Marie, Margaret and Alexa appear.

"What's up?"

"We have to discuss something," Molly said. "Alexa here has a rather disturbing thought about our powers."

I got out of bed and went to a sitting area in my bedroom. It had two couches and two easy chairs. I sat in one of the easy chairs. The women sat on couches.

"Okay," Alex said. "We have evidence to indicate that these powers we possess were not given to us by the originator. They're baked into androids."

I squinted at her. "How is that possible?"

"It turns out that quantum physics can account for most of them. Take flying. It turns out that it's based on the method that we use to not only create gravity in our vessel, but also how we use it in the warp drive. Both processes are based on gravitons."

"Yes, I know that, but how do we use it to fly?"

"It's in our positronic brains. Since they use quantum effects to keep us working, they are also able to tap into the graviton system to allow us to use gravity to fly."

"What about teleporting and the ability to halt time?"

"Those use dimensional shifts, both of which can be manipulates with quantum effects."

"I'd like to see the math on that."

Alexa gestured to Molly. "She has that worked out."

I looked at her and then back to Alexa. "This means that Tyco could have the same powers."

"Yes. However, he hasn't used them yet."

"Maybe he's holding out for the final battle."

"That's possible, but it might mean that he doesn't know how to use them."

I sighed. "I hope you're right. This is certainly one of the biggest problems we face."

"We'll find a way to prevail," Alexa said. "We're stronger than he is."

I hoped that she was right.

"I'm too worked up to go back to my bedroom," Molly said. "Let's go to the pool and relax."

"We're certainly dressed for it," Marie said.

They laughed.

The problem with going somewhere at night is that others are also roaming around. Since we don't have to sleep, our bedrooms are more like recreational rooms.

Of course, we found others using the pool.

"Hey, It's Jason and his harem," Barney shouted. He was standing over near the diving boards with Alicia and Valery.

"There are no harems on this vessel," Molly reminded him. "We are all free of any attachments."

Barney held both hands up in submission. "Hey, I was just kidding."

The women went off by themselves, leaving me with Barney, Alex and Marty.

"Maybe we would be better off going to the bar," Alex said.

"We're not dressed for that, but I can remedy that." I put clothes on all four of us and teleported us to the Black Hole bar. The barmaids immediately served us beer.

"This is kind of late to be imbibing the fruits of barley and hops," Alex said.

I smiled. "The good thing about time is that there are no restrictions, especially at night."

"Yeah, I'm having trouble getting used to the fact that I don't need to sleep," Barney said.

"You'll get used to it," I said. "We don't need sleep because our positronic brains operate at full efficiency around the clock, so to speak."

"Positronic," Barney said. "I have no idea what that means."

"The term is redundant. It's a term used by the Star Trek series to explain Data's brain. Our brains are operated using quantum principles. They're much more efficient than human brains and only require energy to operate."

"We're essentially thinking computers," Alex said.

"That's a generalization, but it's essentially true."

That called for more beer.

The next day I was able to go over Molly's math and found that she had nailed it. Working with quantum mechanics vector notations was not easy. It proved that she was a brilliant mathematician.

In the meantime, I thought it would be a good idea for us to continue to practice our combat skills back on Earth. We teleported back to the Sahara and began to work on our ability to defect weapons fire. I fired plasma balls from a BFG while Molly, Margaret, Marie and Alexa practiced deflecting them.

Another skill would be the ability to inflict damage by use of our fists and feet. We used a robotic dummy to test our punching and kicking skills. For some reason we were able to do all of this physical activity without getting tired.

We decided to quit for the day and teleport to a location on the French Riviera. The Mediterranean Sea water crashing on shore acted to sooth our nerves.

"If these powers are baked into androids, why don't the other androids display them?" I asked.

"The coding to turn them on is not activated. It was in our case," Molly said. "You have direct control of the core processor and that's how you could give them to us."

"That means that the originator had nothing to do with this," I said.

"That's the way I see it. It's all just quantum physics, unless the originator was responsible for quantum physics."

"Maybe we could activate these powers in all of the human-based androids," Marie said.

"I don't think that's a good idea. It could result in conflicts that would get out of control."

"Yeah, we're still human enough for that to happen," Molly said.

Margaret shielded her eyes to glance at a sun-filled sky. "This place is really pleasant. We should allow people to come here to enjoy it."

"I think this was one of the suggestions for shore leave," I said. "But, I'm not sure it would be wise just yet. They would be vulnerable to a Tyco attack. We have to make sure that Tyco is defeated before we allow shore leaves."

No one objected to my opinion.

A message from the ship was both unnerving as it was exciting.