Star Fields

Chapter No.112. Quandary.

Chapter No.112. Quandary.

You never know what you'll find.

A few days later, Marie, wearing a paper gown, made her appearance on the command deck.

I stood up. "Welcome back to the undead."

"I see that you were successful in not allowing my destruction to affect you or anyone else."

"I realized what was going to happen, but it was too late to stop it from happening. I apologize for that."

"There's no need to apologize. My life is not more important than any one else's."

I gave her a warm smile. "Well, go get cleaned up and we'll talk more about it at our communal supper."

"Happy to see you alive, Marie," Molly said.

"Thank you," Marie replied before turning and entering the elevator.

"She appears to have adjusted well to being resurrected again," Alexa said.

"Hopefully, it hasn't left any serious emotional scars."

Everyone had the same hope.

That evening at the communal supper, the assembled crew greeted her with applause. Marie smiled and took her seat next to me.

"What happened after my . . . my demise?"

"What was left of Tyco's fleet turned and fled."

"That son of a bitch is on my shit list."

"He's on all of our shit lists," I said. "However, we have to find him before we can repay him."

"Where are we going next?" Marie asked.

"Molly has located a possible star system in a galaxy in the Great Attractor region," I said. "We'll go there tomorrow." I raised my glass of wine. "Right now, we wish to toast your return to the living dead."

Everyone raised their glasses.

"To Marie, our chief astronaut!" I said.

The rest repeated my words.

Maire smiled. "Thank you. I appreciate your affection."

"We love you, Marie!" Margaret said.

The others repeated her adoration.

What happened after the supper when we gathered in my living area surprised everyone. Marie took a seat on the main stage and played a guitar while singing. Her first piece was a Kacey Musgraves' song, Slow Burn. I was surprised that she chose Country, but her voice was perfect for it. Her next song was from the same singer/songwriter by the title of 'Space Cowboy', which I assumed was aimed at me. "You can have your space, cowboy, I ain't gonna fence you in."

I'm not sure why she decided to entertain us, but I surmised that it might be an effort at catharsis. This resurrection concept is daunting both physically and emotionally. All of us realized that we might experience it someday, if for no other reason than that our android bodies have become too old and need replaced.

Later that evening, I paid a visit to Marie. I found her holding her child, Evan. She smiled at me.

"I am so grateful to be able to hug my child."

"I think he's also happy about it. He was distressed by your absence. I am amazed that androids could be that emotional."

"Evidently, it was baked into them."

"Yes, I suppose you're right. It's both a good thing and a bane of sorts."

"What do you mean?"

"Emotions in humans can lead to true love, but they are also the origin of great evil."

"Hopefully, that isn't the case with us."

I had the same hope.

The next morning, after the command deck crew had assembled, I told Judy to take us to the system that Molly had discovered. It was in a rather small spiral galaxy that appeared to be dancing in space with a larger one. They were only separated by a million light years and the larger galaxy was stealing gas and dust from its smaller companion.

We came out of spin drive a few billion kilometers away from the star system, which consisted of only four planets, two of which were gas giants. I assumed that the gas giants had done a dosi-do and had either thrown the original rocky planets out of the system or sent them into the star.  The two remaining rocky planets were near the outer edge of the habitable zone of the G2 class dwarf star. What I found surprising was that they were orbiting the star in almost the same orbital planes, which meant that they would pass close every so many orbital journeys around the star.

"Wouldn't these two planets eventually end up colliding?" I asked Molly.

"That's what I would think. Maybe there's something going on here that we don't understand."

I was afraid of that. "Put us in stealth mode, Judy."

"Both planets appear to have intelligent life," Margaret said. "There is evidence of structures on both of them."

"I'm surprised that both of these planets appear to be equivalent," Molly said. They're just 1.2 times the size of Earth and have appreciable atmospheres with oxygen."

"Which one should we investigate first?" I asked.

"I think that the one that's orbiting closer to the star would be the best choice," Molly said. "The other one doesn't seem to have all that much land mass."

"Okay, put us in orbit around the closer planet, Judy."

After achieving orbit, Molly and Margaret began scans to determine what or who we were dealing with. This involved sending down a probe with robotic insects. When they were deployed, we began to receive video and audio from the planet's surface.

"They look like humans," Molly said, pointing to the main screen. In fact, they look a lot like us."

"Are they androids?" I asked.

"No. Their infrared signatures indicate biological human."

I rubbed my chin. "Interesting. What we don't know is if they were seeded here or were brought here."

"They're language is not Earth based," Alicia said. "The universal translator is working on a translation."

"They seem to be normal," I said. "They're wearing clothing that is unisexual, but it's not elaborate or revealing."

"Yeah, the women and men have similar haircuts," Margaret said. "The only thing that differentiates them is that the women have boobs."

Molly turned to me. "Are we going down there?"

"We'll wait until we have a good translation," I replied.

"Wait a minute," Margaret said. "That individual looks like a robot."

The individual she was referring to was indeed a robot. Its body was totally metallic, and it had no face.

"I don't like the looks of this," I said. "I think we'll wait to see what's going on before we decide to go down there."

No one objected to my plan.