Chapter No. 141. Stop Check.

It's better to proceed with caution.

I was right about the new android additions. When they were completely charged and scanned for any Tyco code, we activated them, but I saw right from the start that there was something wrong. They exhibited fear. Their expressions never changed, and they acted as if we were going to punish them at any moment. It was obvious that it would take time for them to become adjusted to a friendlier environment.

We sent command crews from our vessel to theirs to help them adjust to our collective.

In the meantime, we returned to Earth to take some time off from our attempts to destroy Tyco.

I spent time working on the plans for converting the ten explorer-1 vessels that we had assimilated from Tyco's collective into the sleeker outward appearance of our Explorer-3 Command ship. I also wanted to make the same upgrade to the Explorer-2 ship. This would require these ships to be out of commission for several days, so I scheduled them to be done one at a time. The good news is that we have plenty of androids to do the work.

I assumed that everything was going well, but I was about to find out that there is no rest for the wicked, or in our case, the undead.

I was in engineering along with Alex, Molly and Alexa to supervise the vessel conversions when one of the new recruits from Tyco's collective came up to me and hugged me. In a tiny fraction of an instant, I realized that she was going to explode so I stopped time and reversed it to an instant before she made contact with me.

"What the hell's going on," Molly cried.

"This android that's about to hug me has an explosive inside her."

Alexa came over with a scanner. "Yep! She got an antimatter bomb inside her and it's integrated into all of her major systems. How in the hell did we miss this?"

"It could be a projection from errant Tyco code in one of the ships," I said.

"So, what are you going to do with her?" Alex asked.

"I'll send her out away from all of the ships and start up time."

The explosion caused an annoying ringing on Explorer-3's shielding.

"So much for the idea that Tyco is giving up," Molly said.

"I knew that was bullshit," Alexa said. "We'll have to locate the code and eliminate it."

Molly got to work at an engineering station.

I sat down and rubbed my face. "This is beginning to look like we're caught in a loop, an endless cycle of defending against a virtual devil."

"Like you said," Alexa said. "We're in a version of hell."

I looked at her. "We are not really alive, at least not in the traditional sense. Yet, we suffer as if we were. Everything about us is virtual, including pain and suffering. Our flesh is not really alive. It's abiogenic and is maintained by tiny little robots. Our brains are essentially thinking computers, the ultimate goal of artificial intelligence. We are essentially avatars of our former selves. We are in a digital hell, and this hell will continue forever."

"Are you losing faith in what we can do?" Alex asked.

"Not really. I'm just telling you what the reality is. If we are to achieve peace in this universe, we must find all of the instances of Tyco and eliminate them."

"I found it," Molly said. "It was in a packet of core code in one of Tyco's former vessels. I've purged it."

I sighed. "in the meantime, another android had to be destroyed."

"She's only one of millions," Molly said. "We can't do much about that. That bastard made it impossible for us to save her."

"Yes, you're right. It just makes me sad that I have to be the reason they are destroyed."

Molly smiled at me. "Maybe this news will cheer you up. I've just decoded the latest data from the roamers, and the result is mind bending."

We all gathered around to look at the latest multiverse being map.

Our mouths dropped.

"Does this mean that the being is . . . is pregnant?" I asked.

"It sure as hell looks that way," Molly said.

"I don't get it. Is it going to give birth to a baby multiverse?"

"Maybe this is the way that the multiverse keeps expanding," Molly said. "It's possible that there are several multiverses and this being is only one of an infinite number of beings."

"That's certainly mind bending," I said. "It's as if we are microbes in the being's body, and the being is a member of a family, or even a species."

"That would mean that we're more insignificant than we thought," Alex said.

"Maybe," I reacted. "However, unlike the microbes in a human's body. We insignificant insects are smart enough to understand where we are and what we are part of."

"Yeah, thanks to the roamers," Molly said.

"Bless them," I said. "They put our struggles into perspective."

That evening, I decided to sit by the hidden pool and contemplate my situation. I was the leader of a huge android collective that's growing, and I wasn't sure that I could continue with the task of saving the universe. I needed some cheering up.

That arrived in the form of Alexa with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

"You need some of this," she said, sitting the two glasses down and pouring the wine into them.

I smiled at her and took a sip of wine. "How'd you know I was here?"

"I know you," she said, sitting down and taking a sip of wine. "You get moody when shit happens."

"I just hate when people die because of me."

"It's what comes with the job of leadership. You have to realize that you can't control everything, that shit is going to happen no matter how well you plan something. It's part of being in a war."

"A war against a pernicious devil," I said.

"You upset his plans of conquest," she said. "And, he baked his pernicious self into the Phoenix Project. It's not going to be easy extricating his ass out of it."

"It's almost as if all of this was inevitable, that he had assumed that we would oppose his plan."

"That's the way I see it. We are the, in essence, the fruit of his evil plan."

I lowered my eyes before looking back up at her. "Yeah, you're right. I'm just not happy with it."

She gave me a subtle smile, which turned to concern when we heard the red alert signal.

We teleported to the command deck and found ourselves in something we hadn't expected.