Chapter No.51 Year of the Sun

It helps to have a plan.

The next morning I joined Molly on the command deck. She was busy trying to determine where the material that went into the construction of Helios Station came from.

"I have a thought," I said. "They couldn't have launched all the material from Earth. We would have known about that."

"Where did they launch it from?"

"I was thinking maybe the moon."

Her eyes brightened. "Yes, I remember that Space Command had established a base on the south polar area of the moon. They chose that location because there is permanent ice in craters there because there is no sunlight."

"They probably mined the metals to make the construction elements. There is plenty of iron, aluminum and titanium ore on the moon."

"Maybe we should go there and see if we could find any left over construction items."

"Take us to the moon, Judy."

"Yes, Jason."

Our ship was in orbit within ten minutes. Molly began X-ray scans to detect any underground facilities. After a few minutes, she had a possible target.

"There's a sizable underground cavity near the South pole," she reported. "I'm detecting lots of metallic signals."

"That's probably their base," I said. "The question is: how are we going to get inside?"

She aimed a smirk at me. "We'll just have to go down and find a way in."

I turned to Judy.

"A shuttle is ready, Jason. You'll need spacesuits."

"Thank you," I replied.

Molly and I, along with Alicia and Faith, went to the flight deck and got into Class-5 spacesuits, which were skintight metallic-polymer suits with full vision helmets. We could actually go out on the moon with only oxygen masks, but it would make us feel weird to be in a near vacuum because of the rapid cooling effect.

The shuttle flight was quick because we didn't need to plunge down through an atmosphere. The base was inside a large permanently shadowed crater. It was dark enough for us to use lanterns to see where we were going.

"There's the entrance over there," Molly said, pointing.

We trudged over to a round metal door on a cement-like igloo structure. There was no obvious handle or a key entry box. I turned to our two androids.

Alicia came forward and placed her hand on what appeared to be an indentation. After a few seconds, the door parted, allowing entry.

"That proves that this was a Phoenix Project facility."

Molly turned to me. "Are you suggesting that Helios Station is part of the project?"

"It could have been. What better place to start up a new human race after all life on Earth was destroyed."

"Apparently, they missed their scheduled completion."

"Evidently they didn't allow for the degree of destruction from the asteroid collision."

We entered the igloo structure and found a massive elevator.

"Wow!" I exclaimed. "This is huge."

"Maybe this is how they got the construction parts up from the mining operation."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

We entered the monster sized elevator and Alicia operated the control to descend us to the bottom of the underground chamber.

Lights automatically illuminated the humongous chamber.

"They must have solar panels where there is permanent sunlight," I said.

"There isn't any nearby location with that," Molly said. "I think they're using a nuclear battery array."

I looked around at huge piles of materials. "This is definitely where they stored the construction materials for the Helios Station."

"Yep," Molly said. "There are some more chambers connected to this one." She pointed to an entrance that appeared to be an air lock.

We walked over to it and got inside. The door automatically closed and we could hear air being released into the lock. After several minutes, the inside door opened. At this point we were able to remove our helmets.

When we entered the chamber what we saw collectively blew our minds.

"Oh my God!" Molly exclaimed.

"Holy shit! There must be thousands of androids in here!"

"Yes, and they're both male and female."

I pointed to a huge machine that resembled a large barometric chamber. "I wonder if that's how they manufacture these androids."

"Could be," Molly said. "It makes sense now. This is a logical location for android production because it's out of sight, out of mind."

I turned to Alicia. "Are they operational?"

"Yes, Jason. They are connected to power stations."

"How many are there?"

"Six thousand."

I turned to Molly. "I suppose we should take them with us."

"Do we have room for them?" Molly asked.

"We do, Molly," Alicia replied.

I turned back to Alicia. "Is there any way to make this machine inoperable?"

"There is no need for that, Jason. The machine's central processor has been removed."

"Interesting! That made sure that no one else could produce androids."

"We can do that, Jason," Alicia said. "We have the central processor."

Hearing that made me nervous. This was beginning to sound like a recipe for a disaster.

I turned to Molly. "We'll need more shuttles to take all of these androids."

"We have already scheduled for them, Jason," Alicia said.

Molly gave me a smirk.

"It seems that there are lots of male androids in this group," I told Molly. "You'll have lots of opportunity for entertainment."

She giggled. "And they're all delicious hunks!"

I chuckled.