Star Fields

Chapter No.168. On Hold

Chapter No.168. On Hold

Relaxation can be tiring.

Clear blue waves with frothy white crests gently rolled onto pristine brilliantly white sand.  Warm sunlight bathed the undisturbed beach as a gentle breeze caressed it. Sea gulls swooped above waiting for carless fish. Small lizards scurried for cover. Earth was beginning to return to its former glory, especially on the former Riviera.

Molly, Margaret, and Marie lay near to me on beach chairs soaking up the sun.

"This makes me feel human again," Marie said. "This is the way to relax."

"I'm just happy to be not wearing anything," Molly said. "My uniform makes me feel as if I'm encased in a sock."

"If this were in the time before the asteroid collision, we would get arrested," Margaret said.

"This would be really great if we could get tans," Marie said. "We wouldn't have to worry about having bikini stripes. Well, that would be the case if we were wearing bikinis."

"Speaking of tans," Molly said. "Here comes someone who doesn't need one."

Alexa sauntered up and propped her fists into her hips. "You guys are missing the fun of swimming in the surf."

"We're just lounging around here," I said. "Swimming in the surf sounds like too much work."

She waved a dismissive hand before turning and running back into the water.

"I suppose we should get some exercise before we have to go back up to the ship," Maire said.

She stood up and ran toward the water. We decided that she was right and got up to join her.

After swimming in the surf for several minutes Molly, Margaret and I ran back to the beach chairs.

"Doesn't that big dong of yours annoy you when you run?" Molly asked.

"Not really," I said with a smirk.

She laughed.

We ran back into the surf and swam out away from shore, plowing through the waves that rose up to challenge us. After several minutes of swimming through the pounding waves, we came back on shore.

"That was fun!" Marie squealed.

"It certainly was," I replied.

Suddenly, I sensed that Judy needed us.

"We're being summoned," I said after making my uniform appear on me.

They did the same and we teleported directly to the command deck.

Alexa appeared in her chair.

"We have detected a lone Explorer-1 craft approaching the orbit of Jupiter at half the speed of light."

"Are you able to determine who's on board?"

"Our scans indicate a full complement."

I turned to Alexa. "This doesn't make sense for a Tyco trick."

"I would tend to agree, but we know that he's sneaky."

I shook my head. "That's true." I turned to Judy. "Take us to that vessel. Go to Yellow Alert Status."

We approached the ship at a hundred thousand kilometers, matching our speed to its velocity.

"Their warp drive is not active," Molly said. "I'm not detecting any appreciable antimatter."

"There is over four thousand androids on board," Margaret said. "Only three of them are activated."

"This doesn't make sense," I said. "Are they from a different universe?"