Chapter No.148. Impulse.

A knee jerk reaction is often not good.

I was sitting in the hidden pool area with the command staff when Judy informed me of an impending disaster.

"Oh, oh!" I exclaimed. "We're facing an attack. Everybody to their stations."

We all teleported to the command deck and assumed our appointed locations.

"There is a large number of vessels approaching out position," Judy informed us.

"What is their configuration?" I asked.

"We are not familiar with the vessel type."

I looked up at the main screen and squinted to help me observe a large number of vessels approaching us. "They look like birds of prey, the type of ships that the Klingons used."

"I am receiving a video request," Judy said.

"Put it on," I said.

The image that appeared was both fascinating as it was frightening. The face looked truly alien, sort of a cross between an insect and a human. The eyes were human like, but the face looked more like that of a praying mantis.

"Why are you here?" the being asked in broken English.

"We are here to rescue others like us that have been imprisoned by our enemy."

There was a long pause before we received a reply. "You have vessels that resemble the ones that attacked us."

"Yes. We have captured them from the enemy. Our mission is to save all species, both biological and artificial, from the enemy we call Tyco."

"Are you the one they call Jason?" the being asked.

"Yes."

"We have heard of your actions against the enemy and welcome you. We have recovered many of your kind from the enemy."

My right eyebrow shot up. "How did you recover them?"

"They have been captured in battles with the enemy."

"How many of the recovered do you possess?"

"They are uncountable."

I turned to Alexa. "Ah, I think we have a problem."

She nodded but remained somber.

"Where are they located?"

"They are on a nearby planet."

"Give us the planet's location and we will remove them."

A three-dimensional plot of the location appeared with an indicator for the planetary system.

"You have that, Judy?"

"Yes, Jason."

The fleet of alien vessels went to warp. We did the same and arrived at a K3 class dwarf star solar system with five planets, one of which was in the habitable zone.

"Stay at Yellow Alert, Judy and take us to the planet."

"The planet is about one and half times the size of Earth and has an atmosphere," Margaret said.

As we approached the planet, it was obvious that it wasn't exactly Earth-like. It had an atmosphere that was mostly nitrogen with only small amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide and there were very little signs of life on its rocky surface. It did possess large oceans, but they were not like the oceans on Earth. They were green.

"I'm detecting many signs of android life," Molly said. "I can't get an accurate number, but it's one hell of a lot of them."

"What's your estimate?"

"At least a couple of hundred thousand, but it could be much more."

I rubbed my jaw. "There's something wrong with this situation."

"How so?" Alexa asked.

"It's too many. I have a hunch this is a Tyco trick."

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I guess I'll have to go down there and find out what the hell's going on. You stay here and hold the fort."

She gave me smirk, followed by a frown.

I teleported to the location where the androids were kept in limbo, so to speak. They were packed into a large cement structure that resembled a bunker from a long-forgotten war. I sensed that they were in storage mode because they showed very little electronic energy production. I scanned them and determined that they were all blond-haired androids like ours. I couldn't imagine how that many of them existed, but there was no doubt that there were lots of them.

Suddenly, I caught sight of a figure approaching at high speed. I braced for a collision, but something happened that I hadn't expected. Another figure appeared out of thin air and latterly smacked into the attacker. The collision resulted in the attacker being cut in half.

I was surprised by what had happened, but then I saw Alexa holding a light saber with a smile on her pretty face. She used the weapon to literally hack the remains of the Tyco avatar to pieces.

"I enjoyed that," she said, grinning.

"I have no doubt that you did," I replied. "Thanks for a propitious act of salvation."

She laughed before turning serious. "What the hell are we going to do with all of these androids?"

I ran a hand through my hair. "Well, we'll have to scan them and remove any explosives. I think that we had better summon the Explorer-3 and -2 to help transport them back."

"I hope that idiot doesn't plan another attack until we get this done."

I looked up. "I think Judy needs me. You can scan them until I get back to help.

She nodded.

I teleported to the command deck. "What's up?"

"I have a video request," Judy said.

"Put it on."

It was the insectoid alien again. "We saw your defeat of the enemy. We will continue a search for more of your kind."

"We appreciate that."

The video session ended abruptly.

"Interesting," I said quietly. "I'm surprised that a biological species would help us."

"Maybe they hate Tyco as much as we do," Alex said.

"Could be." I turned to Judy. "Summon the Explorer-3 and -2. We'll require them to return the androids on the planet back to our solar system."

"They are on the way," Judy informed me.

"Hold the fort, Judy. I'm going back down there to help Alexa."

I arrived near Alexa. "How's it going?"

"I think there's more of them then we thought," she said.

"Let me guess. It's more than a few hundred thousand."

"Try a million."

I shook my head. "I can't believe how many androids Tyco has lost to us."

"Maybe he's doing this to try to overwhelm us," Alexa said.

I sighed. "You might be right."

Alexa's eye grew larger. "Something's wrong!"

It took me a fraction of a second to realize that she was right.