Star Fields

Chapter No. 124. Shock

Chapter No. 124. Shock

Bad news is the last thing I wanted to hear.

Lori turned to me with a somber expression on her beautiful face. "The antimatter weapon that you fired at the attacking ships destroyed 10,320 lives."

I sighed. "Shit! I was afraid of that. Tyco deliberately sacrificed those lives in an attempt to destroy me and take over our collective." I sighed again. "Is there any way to determine who they were?"

"We did a scan of them and determined that they were many human lives taken by Tyco and resurrected as androids. We have created a list based on the signatures we obtained in our scan."

"Is there any possibility that we have their personality and memory data?"

"We believe that many of them are in the data files on Helios Station."

"Thank you for your work," I said. "I will see to it that they are resurrected."

They didn't appear to be fazed by my statement. I doubt that they have any feelings for the androids that were destroyed, but you never know.

I returned to the command deck and sat down next to Alexa. "I was informed that we destroyed over ten thousand androids with that antimatter missile."

She shook her head. "I'm not surprised. Tyco wasted their lives to get at us."

"Fortunately, the engineering androids did a scan and identified them. They believe that their data is stored in the data banks on Helios Station."

Her eyes brightened. "Are you going to resurrect them?"

"Yes, but the problem is that they'll never remember anything about their time under Tyco's control."

"Maybe that's a good thing."

I sighed, but then gave her a weak smile. "Yes, you might be right. We'll have to go over the list and discern if any of them are a threat."

"Judy, take us back to Earth."

We went into spin drive and within ten minutes were back in our solar system. As we approached Earth, I made a new order. "From now on, Judy, when this vessel goes out on a mission, I want three Myst Ships and Two Scath vessels to accompany it. You may select the crews for those vessels."

"Yes, Jason."

"Take us to Helios Station."

Our vessel turned and accelerated away from Earth. Within twenty minutes, we were near Helios Station, which orbited the Sun in the L1 Lagrangian point with Earth.

"Begin a search of the Data Stacks for the list of androids that were destroyed."

"I'm on it," Molly said.

Later that evening when we gathered for a communal meal, I greeted the dinners wearing my apron decorated with a stylized spoon and fork. "I have made an unusual meal that I think all of you might like. It's barbecued ribs with a tasty sauce. I remind you that this meal is a synthetic creation. Under no circumstances do we kill animals for their meat. I hope you like it."

After helping serve, I sat down next to Molly and Marie. "What do you think?"

"I haven't had anything like this in a long time," Marie said. "You've managed to duplicate it to a tee."

"You're a true chef, Jason," Vince said.

"I like to experiment," I said. "It takes my mind off the problems we face."

"Are you going to resurrect more people?" Alex asked.

I turned to Molly, and she gave the reply. "Yes, we will, but first we have to determine if there is any Tyco code hidden in their data."