Star Fields

Chapter No. 56 Understanding

Part No.6 New Beginning

Synopsis: Jason and Molly now realize that they are actually androids and that their original bodies are dead. They also realize that the Phoenix Project was designed to have androids take over Space Command and rule Earth. With that plan aborted, Jason and Molly find a new source of human life data that can be used to resurrect people into android bodies. They use this procedure to create androids of Jason's wife, Marie, as well as two other female scientists. Their job now is to find a new Earth to prolong the existence of human life in the universe. But, they are not aware of a new danger.

Chapter No. 56 Understanding

Emotions are a detriment.

Molly, Marie and Margaret spent time at the astronomy station looking for candidate systems that could harbor a new Earth while Alexa and I spent time together in an attempt to improve the bio-generation food processor. We also had the help of the androids in engineering.

"Don't you find being surrounded by females distracting?" she asked.

I smiled. "Yes, but not for the reasons you might think. Molly and I went through a period of determining who should be in charge. She had managed to get into the android core system and assume prime mover status. During that time, she began to dominate me as if I were her slave. She even threatened to make me into her personal slave. Fortunately, the androids would not permit it. They insisted that we cooperate as a collective."

"That means that she had sexual thoughts about you."

"I don't think it was so much sexual as it was about dominance."

"Perhaps she was jealous of all these bimbo female androids."

I chuckled. "She is very similar to them. It would be like the kettle calling the skillet black, no pun intended."

She stared at me with her dark eyes. "Do you find me to be attractive?"

"I find you to be a very unique female. I am pleased to have someone different on board."

She smiled. "You are very good at diplomacy."

I laughed.

"What are the chances of finding dark skinned humans?" she asked in a serious tone.

I shrugged. "That's a good question. We haven't seen any yet, but I'm sure there could be some still out there. There is the possibility that your embryo ended up in one of the females we obtained from the reptilians and inserted into a colony on Maui."

"Is there any way that we could verify that?"

"Yes," I said before turning to Queen. "Display close visuals of the Maui colony."

The images appeared on a large screen. They showed the women caring for babies and infants in a nascent domesticated scenario.

"Stop the visual!" Alexa yelled. She pointed. "Look, that baby is dark skinned."

I peered at the screen. "Yeah, you're right. I guess your embryo did get used."

"I wonder what the mother thinks of her child?"

"Evidently, she's just happy to have given birth to a baby that won't end up as food for some alien lizard."

"This means that the African ethnicity will be preserved in future humans."

I nodded my approval.

Later we gathered in my quarters for a supper of corned beef and cabbage with a stout beer.

"We believe we've found a candidate system for a new Earth," Molly said. "It's about a thousand light years down the Orion Arm."

"It's a large moon orbiting a gas giant in the habitable zone of a M1 class red dwarf star that's about three billion years old," Margaret said. "It appears to have an atmosphere with water vapor and oxygen."

"That sounds very promising," I said. "I suppose we should go check it out."

"How did you get this corned beef to taste so good?" Molly asked.

"Alexa and I made some improvements to the bio-synthesizers," I replied. "We can make quite a few new food duplicates."

"I like this beer," Margaret said. "Is it a synthetic product?"

"Actually, the androids brew it from crops they grow on the agricultural deck. We're limited by what they grow down there, but what they do produce is genuine."

"Are we ever going to live on a planet?" Margaret asked.

"We don't have to," I said. "This vessel was designed to hold fifty crewmembers. There is only five of us, and we're not placing anyway near the environmental load on this vessel's systems as would six living beings."

"What about oxygen consumption?"

"We actually consume very little oxygen compared to living humans. Android bodies are powered by antimatter energy generation, and when we need power it's available at a surprisingly high level. Most of our power is generated from the food we eat."

"I still can't get over the fact that we're artificial life forms," Margaret said. "Our senses are identical to a human's . . . actually, our senses are much more improved over what I remember."

"It's all simulated. As you must know, all sensations of pain and pleasure take place in the brain. This is how we feel alive even though we are effectively dead."

"How is our fleshy parts maintained?" Alexa asked.

"Our circulatory system is full of intelligent nano-bots that repair our flesh continuously. They are able to cause regeneration and renewal of the cells that make up our flesh. This is how we are able to continue indefinitely."

Alexa stared at me. "So, what you're saying is that we exist, sense our world, are able to think and feel, but are essentially not living."

"Yes. We only think we're alive."

She shook her head. "That's hard to accept."

"I agree, but we must realize that we are not biological creatures, and as such have a duty to preserve living creatures despite our non-living status. Life is precious in this universe. We cannot allow the systematic destruction of life that has been going on for a very long time. We must do our part to make the universe a safe place for life."

"But, to accomplish that, we must conquer the universe," Alexa said.

"We have to find another way because conquering would result in killing, and we must not kill just because we can."

"But, you have already killed."

"Yes, I know that, but we must find another way to stop the systematic destruction of life. Maybe we could accomplish it by demonstrating that we are more powerful than any other species. I don't know if we are, but we might be. Somehow, we must find a way to preserve, not destroy."

I realized that my preaching was sounding draconian, but I couldn't resist making my feelings known to both my fellow ex-humans and the androids.

The next morning we gathered on the command deck to begin our journey to the new Earth. As usual, Judy was at the helm and now we have Madison at the weapons station just in case.

It only took us a few hours to arrive at the red dwarf star system that contained a habitable moon orbiting a gas giant about the size of Uranus. What we found there boggled our minds.