Redemption : A LitRPG Space Adventure (The Last Enclave Book 2)

by Morgan Cole

  "Put your right hand through the bars, please," he instructed.

  I did and he pressed my fingers down onto the scanner one at a time, waiting for a beep. He then repeated the process with my left hand before leaving again.

  Farnell came back a minute later, pulling his toque back on his head.

  "I've got a bit of a crisis that I have to deal with. You're going to have to wait, I'm afraid. We'll be back in a couple of hours. Anything you need to tell me before I go?"

  "Sheriff, I know I look different. I've changed over the last two weeks and you don't believe it, I get it. I'm Chris Monde's son. The same guy that got punched in the face by Wayne a couple of weeks ago. I can explain all of it, but I haven't got a lot of time. I've got somewhere I need to be. Let me go. Please."

  Farnell scratched his chin, looking tired. "You're right, I don't believe it. Not at all. But I'll listen when I get back. I've got to go talk these Minutemen dickheads down before they get the ATF here and we have another Waco. You sit tight."

  With that, he was gone. I heard a few engines start outside and vehicles roared off. The station was quiet.

  It didn't take more than a minute to decide staying in that cell any longer was completely pointless. Sure, maybe I could convince the sheriff, but I didn't need to do that. I could just leave, and now that he was gone, there wouldn't be any conflict with him.

  I brought up the salvage interface and positioned it to take a tiny slice out of the cell door, right where the locking mechanism was.

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  Salvage: Metals, tier 1

  Cost: 2 Nanite Clusters

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  Marty chose that moment to come back into the room, a piece of paper in his right hand and a driver's license in his left. He looked at me and then back to the license in his hand.

  "What's the deal? Your license says you're five foot nine and the sheriff says he met Jake a few weeks ago and that wasn't you. So why do your fingerprints match?"

  I thought about spouting some bullshit, but I couldn't see the point. I'd be leaving no matter what he had to say about it.

  "It's still me, I'm just a bit different."

  "That's not possible. What scam are you trying to pull here? It's a pretty dumb one."

  "It is possible. Just not with Earth technology."

  Marty sneered, glancing down at his shirt. "You think because I'm an X-Files fan that I'm a gullible idiot? Try again."

  "Seriously. I used alien tech to get this big. I also upgraded myself to be super strong, fast, and smart. I'm basically bulletproof as well."

  "All that, and you're in a cage. Nice work. If that were true, why would you tell anyone?"

  "Earth's in trouble, Marty. There's a shield protecting the solar system, and it's shrinking. It might be failing. I've got to get out of here. I've got work to do."

  "Only you can save the universe, huh?" Marty said, laughing. "What a bunch of horse shit. You can't even get yourself out of a cell. Where's your alien technology, huh? Use a blaster and blow that door off. Beam up."

  "You're right, Marty. Enough screwing around," I said.

  I hit the Salvage button with a thought, and a small swarm of tiny black Nanites flew out of my left hand and disappeared into the locking mechanism.

  "What in the fuck!" Marty yelled. He recoiled in the doorway.

  A tiny slice of salvaged tier 1 metal fell to the ground as the Nanites finished their cut. I pushed the door open. Pieces of the locking mechanism fell to the floor and I kicked them out of the way as I stepped through.

  Marty seemed paralyzed with astonishment, fear, or both as I stepped up to him.

  "Marty, I need my stuff. My car keys, phone, and wallet. The sheriff took them from me."

  "Are you real? Is this actually happening?" he asked.

  "Totally happening, Marty. I need my stuff. Off to save the world and all that."

  "Take me with you! Please!"

  Chapter Eight: Escaping the Sheriff's Station

  EIGHT MINUTES LATER I was in the passenger seat of Marty's beat-up El Camino.

  He'd quickly dug my stuff out of a desk drawer and given it back. Without asking he'd erased the recordings from the two cameras in the cell area, muttering about the Feds the whole while.

  It didn't take much convincing to let him give me a ride back to my house. He'd locked up the station behind us, leaving his cordless phone—and responsibilities—behind.

  Marty wanted to know everything, right now.

  "Are there aliens here on Earth right now?"

  "Maybe."

  "Have you got a spaceship?"

  "No, but I have a space station."

  There was a lot more of that, but we arrived at my house pretty quickly. The El Camino pulled up behind my Civic in the driveway.

  "Marty, I don't have time. I've got to get my stuff and get out of here."

  Marty nodded and killed the engine. I was relieved to find my bag exactly where I had left it, invisible in the darkness under the Civic.

  "What's in there?" Marty asked when he saw the bag.

  "Tools, weapons."

  "Weapons? Like what? Plasma gun? Laser pistol? Phaser?"

  "Something like that."

  I unlocked my front door and quickly went downstairs, Marty following me like a loyal puppy.

  The two bags I'd left behind were undisturbed. If Farnell had been down here he hadn't looked in them. I grabbed Excalibur and clipped it to my belt again. It felt good to have it there.

  Marty looked curiously at the wrecking bar and the chaotic mess of the basement. "What happened down here?"

  "I was knocking out the walls when I found the stargate," I said, absently. I was trying to figure out how much weight the stairs could take. How many trips would I need?

  "What! The fucking stargate? There's a stargate down here?" Marty said, his voice going up an octave.

  "Yeah. Do you want to see it?" I asked, grinning. His excitement was infectious. I don't know when having a stargate in my basement had become just another thing in my basement, but I had to admit that taking a step back it was seriously cool.

  "Where is it?" he asked.

  "Down there."

  The part of the basement I indicated was pitch black, and I only realized that when he took out his phone and turned on the flashlight. My vision Augment had been automatically piercing the darkness without me even noticing. That also reminded me, I still needed to charge my phone.

  The far wall was as I had left it. The gaping hole I'd punched through the drywall bugged me a bit. I'd really ruined my grandpa's hidden room.

  I popped the hidden door open, stepping through. My Interface showed me the gate capacitors were still full, the charge that had come through from the station still there. I'd wondered why Grandpa hadn't placed a power source here to keep the gate charged. It turned out he didn't need it. When the gate connection established, the station's fusion reactor pushed power through to keep the gate open and the initiation capacitors fully charged. Sure, it wasn't foolproof, but it was good enough for his purposes.

  Marty was freaking out, panning his light around. "This is amazing! Where can you go with this? Can we open it?"

  "Right now the only destination code I have is to my station."

  To answer his last question, I pulled the link out and clicked it into the notch beside the gate frame. With a snap, the gate established, showing the gate room on the other side.

  "Holy crap! Is that really a stargate?" Marty asked. "It looks like a big television."

  "Oh, believe me I know. Brick, you there?"

  "Where would I have gone, Jake? Did you forget something?"

  "Kind of. I had a bit of a run-in with the local law enforcement. I've made a new friend and I'm showing him the stargate. I'm going to get on the road shortly."

  Marty looked confused as I seemed to have a conversation with myself.

  "Who are you talking to?"

  "I'm talking to Brick, t
he station AI. You're missing the Interface, so he can't talk to you."

  "Hi, Brick! Man, this is so cool," Marty said. "Jake, you can't leave this here. My uncle is going to search this house when he finds out you're gone. He's going to find this thing and it's going to end up in the Feds hands."

  "Shit, why didn't I think of that? Of course he is. I'm amazed he didn't find it on his walkthrough. Also, your uncle?"

  "Yeah, the sheriff's my uncle. He's not very fond of basements, especially dark ones. I expect he didn't look around down here that much."

  "I guess I can fix the wall before we go, restore the hidden room."

  "Nah, that's not going to do it, man," Marty insisted. "You think the Feds can't find your ghetto secret room? Anybody with a measuring tape could figure it out."

  "He's right, Jake," Brick interjected. "This room's concealment was effective against casual searches only."

  A few options flitted through my head. All of them involved way too much work, and time. I could make the concealment of the room much better than it currently was with some better materials, but Marty was right. Anyone with a tape measure could notice that space was missing.

  "Brick, can you send some bots through to break all of this down into raw material and then have them self-destruct? I'd rather leave them a pile of raw material than a working gate."

  "Of course, Jake. I recommend you construct a micro gate that we can use to keep in communication."

  I had implanted all of the Union crafting skills, so I could theoretically build or repair a gate. But the thought of a micro version of the gate hadn't ever occurred to me.

  "I didn't even realize that was a thing that you could do. Why didn't you tell me, Brick?"

  "I thought it was obvious. They are rather power hungry, but once the connection is initiated, the station's fusion reactor will be able to maintain it."

  "I'll do that. Send the bots through, Brick, we've got to be going. What's Metra up to?"

  "She is currently designing components for the starship. She has instructed me to not disturb her unless there is an 'actual fucking emergency.' Should I disturb her?"

  That made me smile. Metra got super pissy if you interrupted her flow state. I didn't dare. No need anyway, I hadn't actually been gone that long.

  "No, don't bother."

  Brick's Spider bots were passing through the gate, dozens of them. They lined up in neat rows just inside the room. Marty backed away through the hidden door, his flashlight shining on the ranks of bots.

  "Those are friendly, right?" he asked, his voice unsteady.

  "Yes, those are Brick's builder bots. They're going to break all this down into raw materials after we leave."

  When the flow of bots stopped I pulled my Link free of the notch and shoved it in a pocket. The stargate remained open.

  "I'll proceed with the disassembly now, Jake," Brick said. "Good luck."

  "Thanks, Brick."

  With that, Marty and I left the hidden gate room. Bots swarmed the machinery mounted on the wall, tiny bladed cutting arms and manipulators flashing.

  The puzzle of the bags was a lot easier than I thought. I simply threw each of them up the stairs. The first throw was the bag of gold. I misjudged the throw a bit and it crashed through an interior wall upstairs, but I could live with the damage. I wasn't sure I'd ever be coming back to this house.

  The second throw was the bag of material and I placed it neatly at the top of the stairs without destroying any more walls.

  Marty took this strangeness in stride, his brain obviously racing.

  "Were you serious? There's a shield and it's failing? Are we talking alien invasion, here?"

  "Yeah, Marty. There's a shield, and it's shrinking. The galactic empire that set it up for us is AWOL, maybe toast. The invaders are post-singularity AIs driven insane centuries ago."

  "Crap," he said.

  "That about sums it up. I've got to go north to find my grandpa's observation post. That'll help me figure out how bad it is."

  "Where is it?"

  "In northern Saskatchewan, way up in the wilds. I've got GPS coordinates."

  "Canada? What the hell, was your grandfather Canadian?"

  "He was an alien actually. I've got to get moving. Thanks for your help, Marty. Watch the news, things are going to get exciting I'd guess."

  I started moving toward the Civic. Marty sputtered before jumping in front of me, the snow crunching underneath his boots.

  "Whoa, hold on. You're not leaving without me. I'm up shit creek with my uncle now. Besides, can't you use some backup?"

  I was immediately tempted to say no, but he was right. It would be nice to have some backup. I wasn't certain how useful Marty would be, but maybe with some training and equipment, he'd be fine. I would have never survived on the station without Brick and Metra, after all. I couldn't do this all by myself.

  "This is going to be dangerous, Marty."

  "Shit, you want to live forever? Let's go. We can take my Camino. I know a guy who can help us; we'll stop there."

  With a last fond farewell pat, I left my Civic half entombed in snow and got back into the passenger seat of Marty's El Camino. The V8 started with a throaty roar and we were off.

  Chapter Nine: Meeting Theoden

  WE HAD BARELY GOTTEN out of my driveway when Marty's phone binged at him. He pulled it out and glanced at the message.

  "Shit."

  "What?"

  He tossed the phone into my lap. "Pop the sim out, would ya?"

  I read the text displayed on the lock screen.

  Sheriff

  Marty, answer the goddamn phones. I've got people calling my cell.

  "I thought we had more time, but if he notices that you and I are both gone he'll come looking. I don't want him tracking my phone. I think there's a paperclip in the glove."

  "Shouldn't we just toss the phone?" I asked, but opened up the glove compartment and started rooting through it anyway.

  "Fuck no, man. That's an expensive phone. Turn it off without a sim and we'll be fine. I think."

  I found a small enough paperclip in the junk Marty had crammed into the compartment and popped the sim out a moment later. I powered down the phone and tossed it back into his lap.

  We had just left the city limits and were headed north on one of the smaller state highways. It looked like it had only recently been cleared by the snowplows.

  "Where are we going?" I asked.

  "I've got a buddy that owns a salvage yard. We're on a lot of the same message boards. He's solid. He's a prepper and has no love for authority. He'll help us get across the border. Once my uncle knows I'm gone, this car won't be good anymore. Neither would yours. He'll put out a BOLO and they'd stop us at the border or maybe even up in Canada. You've got some cash, I hope?"

  The bag full of gold was beside my feet, along with the rest. "Some."

  Marty looked at me sideways, but nodded.

  "Listen, man, I saw the magic whatever that was you did with the cell lock and I'm totally on board. We've got some time now—it'll be another forty minutes of driving to Theo's yard. Can you tell me the whole story?"

  I didn't see any reason not to, so I did. The stumble through the gate, the fight to survive and reclaim the station. The trip through space to intercept Metra's wrecked ship. Crash-landing that ship so that Brick's bots could salvage the raw materials. I showed him the GN-75, although it probably just looked like a toy gun to someone who hadn't seen what it could do and didn't have an Interface.

  "And then I left Metra to build a ship and reclaim the satellite stations. I built what I needed for this trip, loaded up, and came home. I was about five minutes from driving off when Farnell spotted me in my driveway."

  "Why didn't you just, you know, zap him or something?" Marty asked, slowing down as the car drifted into the exit lane.

  "I don't have a phaser with a stun setting. Everything I've got is super lethal. Besides, your uncle's a good guy. I'm not going to start kill
ing people if I can help it."

  "Fair enough, I'm glad you didn't. Uncle Farnell can be a hardass but he's still family."

  "We're going to need everybody if the Connahr field fails," I said. "Humans are going to have to stop killing each other and work together."

  "Speaking of that, I want to help. I want to be Inducted. Honestly, it'd be like a dream come true, man."

  "I wish I could, Marty. I know, theoretically, what I'd need to do to get you Inducted, but I can't make what's needed without a Manufactory. I've got some tools with me, but they're not enough. Maybe when we get to my grandpa's outpost there will be a Manufactory or we can open a gate and get Brick to send an Induction kit through."

  "An Induction kit?"

  "Yeah, it's basically a bundle of materials and Nanite Clusters to do the initial conversion for Humans, along with some software. It's pretty complex actually."

  "Shit, that sucks, man. Do you at least have a laser pistol or something I can have?"

  I laughed. "Sorry, man, I left my spare on the station."

  The Camino exited onto a two-lane road, scrub trees and snow the only things visible.

  "How well do you know this guy we're going to see?"

  "Oh, really well. We've been posting on the same board for like five years now. A year ago I found out he had this yard up here in the boonies, and he invited me to visit. I've been meaning to go ever since."

  "You're telling me you've never actually met him in real life? Great," I said, and sighed.

  "It's not like that, man. Theo's a good guy."

  I pulled my tools bag onto my lap and zipped it open. The holstered pistol was right where I'd left it. It was a 9mm pistol designed to look—and work—like a Glock, but not set off sniffers or metal detectors. Basically my grandpa had wanted a gun he could get through typical security checkpoints but that wasn't obviously alien technology. I extracted it and sealed the bag again.

  "Whoa, what's that?" Marty said. "You won't need that."

  "As Clarence Worley said, ‘it's better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it.’"

  Marty paused for a moment. "True Romance. Nice, deep cut."