Lair

by Carl Stubblefield

  Getting a quick heel lock on the edge of the balcony, he pulled himself over the rail to safety. Lying there, he looked to the left and saw his reflection in the dark glass, with the sea behind him. Looking upward, there was no balcony above, but he saw another large structure, octagonal in shape, five stories up. “Always something new about the manor…” Gus panted as he lay there. The cool concrete on his back was nice on his achy muscles, but the naginata he had strung across his back as he climbed was not. Groaning, he rolled over and got to his feet and slid the window open. He thanked his lucky stars that he hadn’t had the habit of latching the window shut.

  An alarm was sounding as Gus entered the room, and the lights alternated normal illumination with a red flash. Gus quickly changed into a new jumpsuit and picked up his naginata. Running to leave, Gus turned and locked the large sliding window. Now that he was inside, he wanted to be sure nothing could follow him. He looked longingly at the shower but he had no time for that. He had to act quickly before the zombies found a way into the manor.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Don’t Threaten Me With a Good Time

  Day 9 11:43 AM

  1:11:27 remaining

  After sprinting up the stairs to the main control room, Gus saw the reason for the alarm. The cameras in the main atrium were focused on the main entry, and the cameras at the main entry just showed a white static. Listening, Gus could hear a loud rhythmic booming echoed every ten seconds.

  “What the—" the words dropping off as Gus saw two of the Juggernauts punching the doors in tandem with their enormous fists. Immediately behind them, all sorts of Mantids paced, anxious to make it inside the facility as soon as the smallest breach could be exploited.

  Fortunately, the doors were holding, but he could see some significant white discoloration spidering away from the point of impact to the corners of the doors. Right then a small pea-sized piece of glass chipped away and skittered down the entryway.

  “Nick, is there any way to reinforce that door?!”

  “We could drop the blast doors…”

  “Hurry, do it!” Gus yelled.

  “Compliance!” A thick metal slab dropped down from the ceiling behind the doors, and an eerie quiet filled the entryway and atrium. Gus doubted the Dark Nth could make their way into the manor through that route, so he flopped down into a chair, shaken by how close a call that had been.

  With the blast doors down, the alarms silenced, easing the tension a bit. The lights still pulsed an intermittent red.

  “Nick, let me know immediately if any of the zombies move beyond the front doors. I don’t want any sneaking in somewhere else.”

  “Got it,” Nick replied, and Gus felt a little more relieved. Only Mantids could climb up to any windows, and they didn’t have the strength of the behemoths. If there weren’t too many, and he acted quickly, he should be able to hold them off.

  Crap. I need to get some defenses in place. Checking his logs, he had 6900 FP to play with, so he began searching the menus to see what he could use. He had also gained some XP from his big battle, but since nothing had leveled, he didn’t see the characteristic chimes that urged him to check. He was only 1700 XP from level eleven. He figured he must not have gained any XP from the turret kills, or that number would have been much higher.

  “Nick, how many zombies are left out there?”

  “Three hundred thirty-one.”

  Gus blinked; it seemed like there were a lot more. He still had a lot to get rid of, especially the behemoths at the doors. He was unsettled as he accessed the terminal for manor facilities management, and saw that the gold bar representing total energy available for upgrades was much smaller than it was before. Currently he saw basic operations taking up twenty-five units, cafeteria fifteen, training arena seventy-five. He vaguely remembered the bar having 2000 units total, a bit less than a quarter the length of the screen. Now the bar was down to maybe one-fifty points total, and a gauge showed the loss of energy continuing at a slow rate, like a leaky tire.

  “Why am I losing energy?” Gus barked.

  “Less and less magma is reaching the absorption matrices. This appears to be related to the changes Methiochos made when he first arrived on the island.”

  Gus growled and tried to come up with a plan, using his FP and energy available. He had found some things, but could tell that it still was incomplete.

  He felt a slight tremor and a loud boom outside. Making his way to the smudged windows, he saw that more smoke was roiling out in a large plume from the cinder cone of the volcano. Blacker this time, instead of the gray drizzle it had been. Shaking his head, he went back to the console. After a quick search he found some things he could use but they required Tier 2 of the Foundry. The upgrade was going to be 5000 FP. Wincing at the expense, he unlocked it. There were other goodies he really wanted, but even if he had the FP, he should hold off on them until the power problem was sorted.

  Another thirty points of the golden bar were grayed out as more energy was utilized. The gold bar had less than half the available energy remaining. The bar reminded him of a burning fuse on a stick of dynamite. He hoped he could figure out what was happening with the power, whether it was a result of something the zombies were doing, the volcano, or both.

  If it got too low, he had no doubt he would lose power to those sections of the manor and they would be inactivated. All the more reason to finish this and see what needed to be done to recalibrate the energy converters that were powering the manor. It was irritating to have yet another problem to deal with, but it didn’t bother him as much as it would have before today. Maybe it was because other things were more pressing; he looked again at the countdown. Less than a day and a half. Get super powers. It’ll be fun, right? Gus sighed and hurried to get the next crucial item on his to-do list: armor.

  Gus locked the door to the control room to prevent any Nth getting inside. He didn’t know if it would make any difference, but better not to make it too easy if any got inside. It made him think of any other ways they could infect the manor.

  “Nick, can you make steward and any other robots go into a standby mode and hide in storage until we sort the zombies out?”

  “Good thinking. You won’t be able to access Stuart or any other automated manor systems besides the ones you have unlocked with FP.”

  “That’s fine. It’s my next stop.”

  Gus headed to the Foundry. He checked the screens and tried to enter design mode, but the system apparently had a timeout on how long it retained scans, and he would have to once again stand on the sensor. As he stood to get scanned, the system flashed an alert that there was a hairline fracture down the length of his naginata. Gus was glad that his luck stat was so high or he might have had the weapon splinter in half during a battle. Using Kroutonium only in the blade was a little short-sighted, but he hadn’t considered the implications.

  A quick check showed minimal time for repairing his naginata. Gus input additional mods for strengthening the shaft. Gus made a core that extended down the entire length of the spear, and connected to the blade. By selecting a reinforcement mod, channels in the core split into a hexagonal meshwork that spread down the shaft, highlighting where the Kroutonium would be placed. Then as the metal was redistributed, the length and width of the blade decreased, but less than Gus expected. The screen directed him to deposit the naginata into a nearby hopper, and a time of one hour with a picture of the weapon showed up in the queue.

  Gus swiped through the different types of armor available. Multiple types of items that covered individual parts of the body as well as sets were available, but they had penalties to agility, some severe. Gus needed something that helped with evasion, not slowed him down.

  “Gus, would you be open to a suggestion?” Nick asked tentatively. Thrown off by how different Nick’s new persona usually acted, Gus stopped looking at the screen.

  “This manor is one of only twenty-six locations worldwide that can synthesize Nth. You now have
the ability to make more Nth, which can be utilized in your own body or to create one for me— “ Nick started to say.

  “Yeah, I remember. Sorry for being selfish; I really should have thought about it more. There’s just been so much going on, but that’s really no excuse. Here let me see what—”

  “Hold on. I have an idea, and just listen to it all before you discount it, can you do that for me?”

  “Sure, shoot.” Gus cocked his head at Nick’s atypical behavior.

  “What if you use the remaining Kroutonium to make additional Nth? I could utilize the new Nth and embody it to become a living armor, able to modify according to different needs.” Nick suggested.

  “You can do that? That sounds awesome!” Gus squinted his eyes knowing that Nick was holding something back. “Wait… what’s the catch?”

  “There is a little drawback…” Nick said tentatively.

  “Spill it.”

  “Kroutonium is almost always used for weapons and armor. Over the millennia, it has been used like this, then gathered and taken with the Nth if they leave the planet due to an apocalypse event. If you chose to use the Kroutonium to make Nth, it would become part of the Nth as a collective. Forever. It could have large repercussions adding another foreign consciousness in the mix, plus if Earth is lost and I go back to the collective, who knows what happens then? Without a guide, will the consciousness in the Kroutonium take control and a new Nanobot Interface Construct come into being? It could potentially be very bad for the whole cycle and possibly against what the builders intended when they made the Nth.” Nick said.

  “You’re telling me no one in forever has tried this?” Gus said with disbelief.

  “Usually most hosts who have access to this amount of Kroutonium are so megalomaniacal that this suggestion would never be considered. I hesitate to even suggest it, but the benefits would be amazing. You would have an armor that would scale with your level, able to be modified on the fly as needed. If the rumors that the quantum server is made out of Kroutonium are true, as well as the rumors that it is unhackable due to its sentience, it could be some of the only armor to withstand a direct Dark Nth attack.”

  “That seems a little sketchy. You’re guessing a lot of that, aren’t you?”

  “You’re right, none of this is tested, so it could offer no protection against the Dark Nth. We could be creating the first Kroutonium-infused Dark Nth if we fail,” Nick said ominously.

  Overwhelmed, Gus leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair in indecision.

  “I don’t know if it’s worth the risk. I’m assuming there’s no real way to test this beforehand either…”

  “No, not really.”

  Gus was torn again by indecision. He hated how wishy-washy he could be because he was always worried about problems that never happened. Something has got to change. I can’t live in fear forever. He rubbed his face in his hands and decided.

  “You know what? Let’s do it. I’ve lived my life with too much worrying about worst case scenarios, and every time it’s been a huge waste of time and a lot of mental anguish playing over the possible bad things that could happen. Bottom line, I can’t let these Dark Nth make it off this island. Whether I do or not is immaterial in the long run.”

  It was discouraging but chances were good he would not make it out of this alive. He would die in ignominy, and no one would ever know that he had become a super or something unique and special when he hit level ten. But with the time limit and the possibility that the volcano erupting would not take out all of the Dark Nth, Gus realized what choice he had to make. While his baser nature wanted to hole up in the manor and hide, and let come what may, he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. The world didn’t need him any less because it was ignorant of him. And with the bio-stasis field, he was the only one who could.

  His gloating seemed so childish now, but it wasn’t as important now that everyone knew what he could do. What mattered was what he actually would do. With his new clarity, he replied to Nick.

  “I will agree to it if you can put a failsafe that would explode and make us unable to be converted into a Dark Nth. That would keep the Kroutonium out of Dark Nth hands. If the planet goes through an apocalypse event in the future, then it really won’t matter to me. It might even help the Nth as a whole evolve more. So, to be clear, you feel you are being hacked or turned, then both of us die immediately. Are you ok with those terms?”

  There was a long silence and finally, Nick said, “Yes.”

  Nick showed Gus the submenus where the Nth modifications and augmentations were stored, and how to program the changes he suggested. He wondered why this menu did not have any cost to unlock. Perhaps they figured in the design that to access the manor, Nth had to be present. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a distraction if people used the Foundry to access this functionality.

  Nick synced with the control panel, configuring the Nth to be made to link with his consciousness when completed. Gus picked up the unassuming piece of plate from the space suit, took it to the hopper, and put it inside. He thought he would regret using what amounted to a fortune for a handheld weapon and armor, but instead he felt a sense of calm. Of rightness. Within the calm, Gus began to get ideas. Adding some more items to the queue, he began to plan how he would clean up this Dark Nth mess.

  “Nick, this whole time I’ve been here, I’ve been plagued with carrying things everywhere. Is there some skill or power that will make something like a bag of holding or pocket dimension of some sort? I’m going to need something besides a backpack for what I’ve got planned.” Gus asked.

  “Fiiiiiiinally!” Nick drawled. “How come it took you so long to ask?!” Nick asked. “One of our core protocols restricts revealing certain level information unless it is specifically requested. It was killing me to see you run around like a crazy man, lugging things all over.”

  “Wait. What?! I didn’t have to be carrying those sensors and turrets like I was?” Gus asked.

  “You know what the Prime Directive is, right?”

  “Like on Star Trek?”

  “Yeah. Did I mention Gene got some good ideas from the Nth scouts? Anyway, Nth can’t offer some information in an attempt to artificially advance a species. Earthlings have already discovered dimensional folding, but Nth cannot simply give the information until it becomes part of the collective consciousness of the planet’s apex lifeforms.

  “Besides, you may have not been ready to do what needed to be done to make what you want. We can get started now since we’re just waiting for the queue to finish.” Nick offered.

  Gus bounced his legs in agitation as he sat at the Foundry control center. So much to do, so little time. Gus wanted to hit up another training module, and boost some fighting skills. Maybe that would give him another influx of FP and maybe even a level before confronting the horde. He still felt he had to go back to the main control to see if he could refine the defenses. He was missing something.

  “Ok, how much time will that take?”

  “It depends, but it isn’t complicated. It can be time consuming, depending on how well you learn, though.”

  “How do I make whatever it is we’re making? Something from the Foundry that needs to be unlocked?” Gus sighed, expecting another list of prerequisites before he could begin.

  “No. But you’ll need a little background so your brain can wrap itself around what needs to be done. Have you ever seen a magician ‘disappear’ a handkerchief from their hand?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Typically, they make a show of waving the handkerchief around then cup one hand and start putting the handkerchief in it. The cupped hand has a fake thumb into which the handkerchief is stuffed. For emphasis near the end, the thumb really packs it in there and the fake thumb with the handkerchief inside locks onto the magician’s actual thumb. Then, PRESTO! The handkerchief has disappeared.”

  “Thanks for the entertainment and ruining my sense of childish wonder,” Gus
snarked.

  “I’m getting to the point! Anyway, a pocket dimension can be formed of various sizes and is most easily accomplished by ether folding. You tuck the ether and form a kind of pouch—”

  “A seamless pouch?”

  “Yeah, I see what you did there. And yes, it IS seamless. Just like those baskets you made, items can be carried without you physically lifting their mass, and their volume can be displaced into the ether. They will remain buoyant there too, like a floating beach ball. The tricky parts are maintaining the opening so you can open and close at will and detaching your pouch from the surrounding ether so that it is portable.”

  “That does sound complicated.”

  “You’ll get it. Maybe. Ok, let’s get started with Trans-dimensional Manipulation 101!”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag

  Day 9 12:11 PM

  1:10:59 remaining

  “Remember that time when you were ten and you tried to blow a bubble out of a full pack of Big League Chew?” Nick asked.

  “Vaguely…”

  “Well, making a pocket dimension is a lot like that. It’s easy to make very tiny ones that have no functionality but as they get bigger, it’s a whole lot harder to keep the bubble from popping. If you can get it to the size you want and seal the edges, voila! You have a fully functioning bag of holding. Trust me, it takes a lot of practice, and it’s a whole lot harder than it sounds.