“Strength, hand-eye coordination, and speed, but most of all, you’ll gain stamina,” Andi said.
“You could use it,” Silk deadpanned.
“I thought you said you were the one who was tired?” I asked, feeling more steady by the second. The ‘bots worked fast.
“I lied,” Silk said, grinning. “Glad you’re back. What’s next, unless you wanted to talk about our sexual habits? I’m game, though it seems a bit like putting a ribbon on a corpse. Waste of time in this setting.”
“Speaking of corpses, we need to check the bird and see what’s new in the neighborhood. Then we can pick how many rooms to clear, even though the bottom level has to be drained no matter what,” Andi said.
I stretched my legs, feeling the lingering pain and stiffness despite the obvious efforts of my shiny new colony of ‘bots.
Andi watched me for signs of distress. “What’s it feel like?”
I scratched my thigh, considering how to answer. “Like I had a kickass migraine in my legs, but it’s gone and now there’s just that leftover ache. Sore, but I can sense it fading.”
“Good. Down the road you’re going to need to put your body through some challenges, if only to feel where your limits are—as well as your abilities,” Andi said.
I looked at her with a grim determination, then began to tug at my pants. “This is hardly the time for it, but if you insist—”
“For fuck’s sake, stud, pull ‘em up,” Andi said, laughing. “I’ll make you a deal. Clear the pests out and you can have me six ways from Sunday. You don’t mind, do you?” She addressed the last question to Silk, who watched with her lips curled in a half smile.
“I’d be glad of the rest. I can’t imagine what he’s going to be like with the—what generation nanobots did you say these were?” Silk asked.
“Fourth or thereabouts,” Andi answered.
“Then there’s no telling what I’d be getting into with him. Took all my tricks to get him to sleep last time,” Silk said, then put a hand on my shoulder when I began to bristle. “Not that I wasn’t happy to lose the rest.”
“If we’re done discussing my need for healthy sex, shouldn’t we check the Condor?” I asked.
“Hey, you’re the one who tried to take his pants off, but yeah, we should,” Andi agreed, thumbing her tablet to life. “I need the main CC and the big screens for this to really see the outer range. We can send the bird out on a circular pattern when it goes back up.”
“I thought it was airborne?” I asked.
“It went to roost. Automatic when the juice is low and it’s been flying lazy eights all night and then some. I’ll send it back up now and we can—wait, there it is,” Andi said, moving her fingers with rapid, confident motions. “It’s up again. Now let’s wake the girls and get control of this place. I want my fucking base back.”
“Your base?” I asked her playfully.
“Ours, then. All our bases belong to us,” Andi said, and I knew we were meant for each other.
17
“This a lot less complicated than I expected,” I said, sweeping the command center with my gaze. We were two rooms down, free of any giant insects, and relatively safe for the moment while Andi booted the system. It took a while, despite the constant power, but it worked. A screen the size of a small movie theater flared to life, gray at first but soon resolving into an overhead view of the base.
“We pared the system down, because nothing was installed with profits in mind,” Andi said, working her tablet to engage a second, smaller screen on the opposing wall.
“Profits? Why would that matter?” Silk asked.
“Defense contractors used to complicate things in order to guarantee their contracts. They would add needless bullshit to a system when the opposite was what we wanted. From ’94 on, the entire network around here was built with simplicity in mind. Once the pocket reactors became a reality, the power redundancies weren’t needed, either. Just like that, we cut the profiteers out of the loop and built something that could last—well, 2000 years. Or more,” Andi said. Her voice was ringing with pride as she finished, bringing the second screen to life with a final swipe of her thumb.
The room was big, but well-lit and now filled with two views of the outside world, bathed in daylight and somehow distant. Just knowing there were spiders and rats and scorps overhead made the sunlit desert seem like another planet. I pushed that thought away with an effort. I’d have time for fear later. For now, I needed intel, and Andi had given it to us.
“Can you send the, um, drone to the east?” Chloe asked, uncertain about her choice of words. She pointed off screen, past where the view ended at a washout filled with debris from the storm that nearly killed us. Dead trees and rotting cacti were piled like jackstraws among broken rock that gleamed sharp in the bright light. If there had been access to our base from the east before the storm, it was gone now. Nothing larger than a squirrel could traverse that landscape, at least not at any speed. That was good. Natural barriers meant a slower approach when Rowan finally got around to his attack.
“I can do better than that. I can send up a second Condor, if you want to spread our range?” Andi asked. When I nodded, she pulled a dropdown menu up on her tablet, launching the second bird with a worried intake of breath. “It’s up,” she said after a minute, and I felt myself exhale with her. “Sending bird two to the west. I’ll preselect a pattern that will—hello, who’s this?”
I stared at the screen, adjusting my mind to the overhead view. Below, two figures crept along a gulley, staying low and barely visible in some kind of desert camo. The gleam of rifles on their backs revealed they weren’t stopping by for coffee. “Scouts, I’d say, and experienced. They’re moving low and fast, but from here it looks like they would be more or less invisible from ground level. Those aren’t rookies.”
“Not by any measure,” Chloe said.
Mira nodded as well, knowing what it looked like to be comfortable in the harsh Empty.
I didn’t take my eyes away from the screen. I couldn’t. The enormity of an airborne presence would take some time to filter through my head. The scouts neither saw nor heard the drone. It was a stunning advantage. I finally turned to Andi, who held the tablet like a musician ready to play. “Can you take them out, but bring the other drone close enough so we can see the Condor operate?”
Andi grinned, wicked and quick. “Damn right I can. You’re my kind of guy. Want to see the weps in action?”
“Just right. I know what you say they can do, but this system is from the time after I went on ice. I’d like to judge what it can do for myself,” I explained.
“Say no more. Retasking second bird. Give me sixty seconds,” Andi said, her fingers moving with confident strokes. When she was done, she stuck her tongue out in concentration, leaning to one side as if she was wishing the drone into position. “Done. Split screen coming. Watch the main monitor,” she said.
The giant screen broke in two, revealing the first view of the scouts and a second, wider angle view of the first drone. The Condor’s belly opened to reveal a small set of barrels, locked side by side. “That’s all there is to it?” I asked, dubious.
“Trust me, these little fuckers punch way above their weight. We’ll record the shot, because it’s going to be too fast for the eye. Even ours, with the ‘bots,” Andi said. “Ready?”
“Take them,” I said.
“Firing.” Andi touched the tablet once, and the barrels spat a silver flash lasting less than a half second. “Two targets down.”
“What—holy shit,” I muttered.
Below, the scouts weren’t just dead. They were unzipped from head to toe, like a bag of guts torn apart by a chainsaw.
“Right? Vicious little bastards, these Condors. I’ve seen them leave impact craters a meter deep. We’re lucky the bodies didn’t liquify.” Andi peered at the screen, then shrugged. “Actually, they sort of did. Might want to clean them up after we secure the site.”
&n
bsp; I said nothing. No one even breathed as we looked over the images from the feed. The scouts were alive one second, and the next, they were paste. It was that simple.
“How many rounds have you got for these?” I asked.
“Not enough for a company, but enough to take out a couple platoons, at least,” Andi answered.
“Can you fabricate more ammo? Not now, but in the future?” I asked, thinking down the road for larger concerns. Like building a stable state. And beyond.
“Sure, given time and material. Like I said, everything is on the table except some medicines, and even then, we can drastically improve the quality of life here,” Andi said.
“Can you stop consumption from killing people?” Silk asked.
“Like—in the lungs? Tuberculosis, we called it. It was wiped out, more or less. You’re telling me it’s back?” Andi asked.
“You wiped it out?” Silk asked, a touch of awe in her voice. To her, the disease was a killer. To Andi and me, it had been a relic.
“We did, and we can do it again. For now, though, we have to clear this land and get loverboy here in position to raise his flag,” Andi said.
“He certainly likes to raise something,” Silk said, a smile on her full lips.
“You didn’t complain,” I answered, but it wasn’t the stony answer I intended.
“No, I didn’t. And I won’t next time. If we live. What are you going to do about it?” Silk asked me.
“We are going to start by doing distant recon with the drones,” I said.
“Then what? Hand to hand with Rowan?” Andi asked.
“Not if I can help it. I have some ideas about how to take them out, but it starts with thinning the herd like you just did. Get me an idea of where Rowan and his people are, and we’ll go from there. How long do you need to put birds out in their max circuit?” I asked.
“Two minutes to program, and then we let them fly, but slowly. They’ll conserve juice and extend their range by a third. I can have data back by tonight,” Andi said.
“Perfect. In the meantime, show me how to run the CC. Start with the tablet and go from there. I want everyone in this room able to operate drones, boot the system, and shut it down if necessary. Can you do that?” I asked.
“I was born to teach this shit. I built it. I can show you all how, but we have to be fast. You need to clear those drains and find out why my reactor is dying,” Andi said.
“I’m a fast learner, and we can take the time for this. If anything happens to you . . . ” I let the nightmare scenario trail off. Andi merely grunted in agreement. She was ballsy.
“Let’s start with the tablet. I’ll need everyone’s thumbprint. We’re going to add you all as sysadmins, and then you can learn how to jumpstart the system. You with me?” Andi asked us all. When we all nodded, she turned the tablet around to show us. “Good. Let’s begin.”
18
It didn’t take an hour to learn the system basics. It took two. As for me, my background made the process simple. For everyone else, it was akin to magic. Still, Silk proved the most receptive to new technology, followed by Mira and Chloe, who used dogged determination to break through their inexperience with things from my time.
As we wrapped up a final lesson on passcodes and system restore, a bell chimed in the speaker system linked to the main screen.
“The drones have found sign of our new friends,” Andi said.
“Range?” I asked. Numbers mattered less. Time and distance were my first concerns.
“Let’s see . . .” Andi pulled at her lips as she swiped across her tablet with deliberate motions. She was trying to grab data from both drones in an overlay. After a minute of pasting, she produced a glowing series of lines on the area map. “Three squads. Moving slowly. Whatever Rowan’s military experience might be, he’s not charging in without caution.”
I stood in front of the giant screen with my arms folded, doing rough math as I picked out landmarks and compared them to what I remembered form our journey south. “Can you tag each group?”
“It’s done,” Andi said, as a glowing A, B, and C appeared over three points on the wider map. “Judging by their heat sig, I’d say Rowan’s people number around sixty. Does that sound right by your estimates?”
“Close enough. I was more concerned with him finding two or three hundred people to throw at us. Sixty isn’t good, but it’s not the worst news. They still have to get here, and they still have to get in. Then, they have to get past us. I don’t like their chances for all three,” I said.
“I don’t like their chances to arrive without some loss. The storm trashed lines of approach, and there’s no way they have the data we do. Also, I can pick them off with the drones. We should be able to reduce them prior to any entry of the facility, and even then the gun mounts are waiting,” Andi said.
“If they follow the beaten path. He won’t. His people might, but Rowan won’t. He’s too smart,” Chloe said.
“You mean paranoid?” I asked.
“Same thing. He’ll throw a few people into those guns, but as for his own precious skin, he’ll take the hard way. He’s always been like that, at least since he—since he had me,” Chloe said with disgust.
“What’s our distance, in kilometers?” I asked. The map was rich with detail, but poor in scale.
“Squads A and C have the hard road. They’re ten klicks out and every inch of it is dangerous, especially if they try to cross this right here.” She flicked her fingers, and a depression lit up. “Unless I miss my mark, that’s either a gorge or a torrent of water. It’ll be a full day before they can clear that. No way you can swim it, and it’s—hold on, let me ping it,” she said, adjusting the most distant drone. “Okay, forty meters deep. No way you go over or around. Gotta climb down and up. I be stunned if they made it intact.”
“Same here. I don’t like their chances, not given the lizards and whatever else is waiting since the storm got everything stirred up.” I considered our options. We had tasks in descending order of importance, and I was key to the one that could rebuild our future. I made a decision. “Even if they straightline it here, we have a day. If Rowan is as cautious as I think, then we have two. That means I go underwater next, clear the drains, and get the reactors secured. Nothing matters except that. Once it’s done, we rest and refit for our date with Rowan.”
“What about all the drones?” Silk asked.
“We use them, but sparingly. I want us to keep the advantages we have for as long as we can, and that means working with the possibility that we’ll never be able to find more ammo. For the guns, the drones, all of it,” I said.
“Works for me,” Andi said. “I like our chances for rearming, but it’s the smart play to save some darts in reserve. Who gets thinned first?”
“I leave that up to you. If one of those squads shows too much initiative—which I expect they will—then that’s our prizewinner. They get the Condors first, and then we’ll let the remote gun sites do their work, too. I expect one of the squad leaders to get greedy and break into a sort of charge, if only because of what they think is waiting for them,” I said.
“Which is?” Silk asked.
“Loot and women, of course,” I answered, smiling.
“He’s not wrong,” Chloe said, looking around.
“I’m counting on it,” I said. “Imbalance means they don’t attack as a cohesive unit, and that buys us response time. We need it. I’m strong, and you’re all strong, and the drones are fucking lethal—but we can’t kill sixty or seventy armed fighters at once. They can get us in a rush if they find a way in, and people who are desperate will find a way in.”
“Good plan,” Mira said. “We go down to the next levels now?”
“We don’t do anything of the sort. I’m not risking any of you in what might be a toxic soup. Not before we can start dosing you with ‘bots,” I said.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for that,” Chloe admitted.
“Nobody is, and tha
t’s why I’m going to hold my nose and see what the hell is going on underwater. When we secure this place, you can be the first round of people who get ‘bots, and not a moment sooner. I want a stable medical facility before you get dosed with anything stronger than aspirin,” I said. There was no room for negotiation in my tone. I wasn’t about to risk losing one of my inner circle to a fouled dose of ‘bots because their bodies weren’t used to the tech. I was a different story—I didn’t start at the ground floor. Chloe, Mira, and Silk might well die, and I wasn’t about to watch that happen.
“I can wait,” Mira said with a hesitant note in her voice. She was uncertain about being given anything from the past, especially in her blood. She was a true child of the desert. She trusted her gun, her sword, and her hands. I could respect and understand that belief.
“Then you will, and we’ll do this the right way when it’s completely safe.” I turned to Andi. “Get me to the door I need, and then everyone back off. I don’t know what’s down there, but it does no one any good to get in the water with me.”
“I’m going to—” Andi began, but I put a firm hand on her arm.
“No, you’re not. We can’t operate this facility without you, and I’m augmented for combat. If you thought the water was safe, you would have volunteered to go in it yourself to clear the drains, but based on what we’ve seen so far, that isn’t likely, is it?” I asked her. My eyes were kind despite the firm tone I took. I knew she was worried. Everyone was on edge, including me.
“Not gonna lie. I don’t know what’s in the water, and I’m not sure I want to find out. After that fucking spider, I wouldn’t be surprised if Godzilla was waiting down under,” Andi admitted.
“Which is why I go alone. Take me to the door, and Silk will guard the approach from a dry position. If anything goes sideways, she closes the door until you can use the guns to discourage Rowan. If you can. If I don’t come back, your priorities are two—stay safe and get some kind of power system back to the Oasis. That’s it,” I said.
Future Rebuilt: A Post-Apocalyptic Harem (Future Reborn Book 2) Page 16