The Laboratory Omnibus Page 8

"This is proof you knew it was coming. I always thought you did. You found a compact storage medium that would work and you recorded everything," Anna said.

  "In a way I have no direct access to see? Viewable only with monitors requiring electricity?" I asked.

  Anna pursed her lips there. "I don't know what is with that. There must be another way."

  I didn't care. Not right now.

  I said, "Mechos and the Righteous both not only knew these were here, they devoted a lot of resources to coming after them. You don't know why?"

  Anna shook her head. "I've never heard of these. Honestly, and I know more about you than most."

  "How?"

  Anna paused, I could see her hesitating. I'd had enough of secrets. I might not have the leverage to get Mechos to talk, but Anna was another matter.

  "To date I've kept my word with you. You think us friends, as deluded as you are for doing so," I said.

  "You're terrible at this convincing thing. But fine, I am your friend, Emma. I'm not a local. The Cataclysm didn't just break the world, it split it up into all these little different pieces. I knew you from another piece," Anna said.

  I thought she was being honest. I couldn't entirely discount her words given how much reality was proving on a regular basis to not be what I'd expected.

  "Gather these tubes. We're going to move this entire archive up into my Core Room and then get you back to the Infirmary," I said.

  "Hard labor in excruciating agony. Yay friendship," Anna said.

  I'd at least deny these others what they were looking for. I could figure out what they wanted with this information later.

  20

  In terms of how the Righteous' resurrection might operate, I had a few ideas. It seemed likely to me that either the goop they dissolved into would somehow reform into them, or that they would by some means be reborn into some sort of facility nearby and make their way back here.

  Guarding against the former, I had the goop placed inside a large incinerator. Should they reform, I'd quickly be able to take them out of the fight again.

  In case they spawned outside the facility, I closed the exterior door. I had the Mechanites re-purpose the cannons into some makeshift turrets hidden behind fake walls of rubble.

  It was the goop. Twenty-four hours exactly from the moment the Righteous were killed, the goop reanimated, one after the other. They reformed in their full armor and with the equipment they were carrying when they died—without any injuries.

  I killed them again. They barely even had time to become aware before the flames were washing over them. But no matter how hot I made things the goop wouldn't dissolve.

  As a method of immortality went theirs struck me as functional at best. It wasn't much use at all if any opponent knew what to look for, but then, without the warning from Mechos I wouldn't have known.

  I made Mechos a plate of cookies as reward.

  Then I could get down to the business of proper repairs and research. The Mechanites proved to be able assistants, for all that the woman did keep talking against me to the others.

  Anna came out of the Infirmary after a week. All traces of her burns were gone.

  Research Menu

  "Thomas"

  Thomas has traces of a void crystal lattice throughout his skin. This not only makes him resistant to most powered effects, upon death it also allows him to become amorphous for the span of a day.

  You have unlocked disruptive burst.

  By use of a targeted burst from a Power core at the moment of dissolution the void latticework can be shattered. This would stop any future resurrections of a subject.

  I'd expected to discover how their power resistance worked. Learning how I could keep them dead was useful too. I studied the specifications of the disruptive burst. It would require 1 core energy and that was for each subject. That was pricey when really, I could just keep killing them each day.

  After another week I finally got back my results on the Mechanite research.

  Research Menu

  Mechanites

  The Mechanites possess impressions of a Power core matrix that render them particularly adept at working with equipment and technology. You can integrate those functions into your drone reducing the time to complete all tasks with it by twenty-five percent.

  That wasn't useless at all. I wondered, if I built either manufacturing or military drones, whether I would see them gain some further utility as well. It made selecting those options next time even more tempting.

  The upgraded quarters and Hydroponics sections were completed. It seemed to make the humans happy. I detected almost a twenty percent improvement in their work levels as their morale lifted.

  Anna and the newcomers seemed to be getting along.

  Between them and my drone, we'd repaired all the damage and were even cleaning out the lower levels.

  Research Menu

  "Mechos"

  Mechos is bonded to a Power core and you have tested him long enough to unlock and utilize his ability. You now have limited ability to upgrade tools and items of the facility out of a separate pool of upgrade points that refresh daily. These upgrades are additives to upgrades gained along the manufacturing line. Further testing will accumulate core points at the rate of 0.1 per week.

  That was all that I hoped it might be. I wanted to give it a try and analyzed the door to my Core Room.

  Door

  All values are on a scale of 10

  Durability 3

  Reliability 7

  Power 2

  Each upgrade up to 10 costs 10 upgrade points. You can a total of 25 upgrade points daily.

  I sank two points into Durability. I'd keep doing that until the door was as strong as I could make it. Protecting my core had to come before anything else and a few threats had gotten far too close to it.

  After my door, it would be all the other doors of the facility. When I sealed them, I wanted those on the other side to be trapped, not inconvenienced.

  Next, I investigated what I could do with my new core point. These were for the major facility upgrades and I wanted to know my options.

  You have an unspent core point.

  Core points can enhance your competencies and open new options for Research and Manufacturing.

  Your options are:

  Research 3

  Research 3 will expand your testing facility to be able to hold six test subjects at once. In addition, your genetics lab will be upgraded with a genetic fabricator allowing you to create biological agents to either labor or fight on your behalf. Each of these have a cost to produce, although alongside either the Military or Manufacturing upgrades a pool for a certain standing number of drones will be created.

  Military 1 will allow you to build defense drones. Defense drones are mobile weapon platforms capable of base defense and attacks at a distance. While basic in function they can ultimately be updated to become formidable weapon platforms.

  Manufacturing 1

  Manufacturing 1 will allow the production of automated minions. They are capable of autonomous facility repair and will halve all build and production times for new facilities.

  Research was always going to tempt me, but this time I had to give the other options real consideration. Even the latest research option seemed to be urging me in that direction. On the other hand, it also made them unnecessary.

  With test subjects, I was gaining a steady supply of core points, and it seemed if I took the new research upgrade I'd be able to spend those to create some combat drones or builders.

  It was a viable path that would only see me get stronger as time went on, and as I could get more test subjects to imprison. I liked playing the long game. I selected that upgrade and began to build.

  Now I had a mystery to solve. It was time to figure out what was going on with those archives.

  21

  "We need to talk," I said, as I activated a monitor in Mechos' workshop

  "Going to let me out of here? You must hav
e deciphered how my ability works by now?" Mechos said, swiveling a chair to face a camera.

  "You think you know how my Power core operates?"

  "You can't observe me without being yourself observed. I understand how things work. I watch and I unravel their processes. I've been watching you," Mechos said.

  Disturbing, at least, if I believed him. I didn't want anyone knowing too much about what I could do. Especially someone I didn't trust at all. I thought he was safely trapped here, but the more he learned of me, the more he might be able to find a way around that.

  "You watch me, but can't focus on a naked woman. You really are a twelve-year-old boy Mechos. I have questions."

  Mechos spread his arms wide. "Ask away. I've nowhere to go, being part-prisoner and part-guest."

  I bought up a visual of one of the metal tubes from the archives.

  Mechos studied the display for a long moment and he gave a grin. "Did you figure out what they are yet?"

  "Information," I said.

  "You did. You restored power to the level, I'm guessing, but you wouldn't have figured out an interface just yet," Mechos said, waggled his fingers. "You need someone to do it for you?"

  It seemed he was continuing to get more information out of this exchange than I was. Unacceptable. I really needed to research some sort of interrogation chair, it would make conversations so much more successful.

  "You do realize I've already gotten most of the benefit out of keeping you alive," I said.

  "Meaning, you are still getting some. I'll tell you this. You and I both once worked for some very bad people who found out that the end of the world was coming. You figured out a way to save yourself."

  Pieces of information that had been bothering me slid into place like a puzzle assembling itself. This man knew me, and he had powers eerily similar to those I ultimately manifested.

  "Let me guess. You were a service technician meant to install a new Power core into me after the catastrophe. Instead you stole it," I said.

  Mechos tipped his head. "Only partially true. You had calculated the best gains would come from installing it into a reactor which would become your new beating heart. When I tried to steal it, there was a powerful and destructive burst of energy. It killed all in the facility accept for me and fused me with the core instead."

  That fitted with what I'd discovered.

  "Then why did you wish access to the archives?"

  "Haven't you found it odd that they were located somewhere off your power grid? It was uncertain how compliant you would be once upgraded. There are codes meant to ensure your compliance," Mechos said.

  Well, he was being helpful.

  "How would the Righteous know of them?" I asked.

  Mechos shrugged. "They are not survivors from this facility, which means they are perhaps descended of those who gave that order. It might explain much, in fact."

  It might at that.

  "You've been helpful. I shall see you have more cookies," I said.

  "I don't even like cookies," Mechos said.

  "Two plates, then." I was certain they were just an acquired taste. All humans loved cookies.

  "I could help you, you know. Go through the information, even help you to devise an interface so you can access that storage directly," Mechos said.

  I didn't doubt that he could. If what this man said was true, he probably knew more about me and my operations than anyone else alive—more than I did myself.

  That confirmed for me that he was exactly where he needed to be, locked up in a containment cell.

  I considered those archives. If they were prepared by me, then I might have useful information that would aid me now. If they did contain things like control codes that could inhibit me, then that data had obviously not gone through me initially. It meant that anything which might aid me had already been removed.

  The data could even be booby-trapped, and if I imported it without some specific procedure it would have negative consequences.

  I still wanted to know what the data contained, but I had to be cautious. I didn't like where logic was taking me, but sometimes you had to do deeply unpleasant tasks in the interests of knowledge.

  I opened a channel to Anna. "Mostly useless one, I need your help with something."

  "Only mostly?" Anna asked.

  Oh, if only I could grind my circuits, I would be right now.

  "You have rare moments. This may be one of them," I said.

  "You know how to flatter a girl. What do you want?"

  "Those archive files we collected. I think there may be useful information in them, but I fear there is a danger in my attempting to access them directly."

  "You want me to hike up and down those stairs and review them? That will take a long time," Anna said.

  It would. I didn't trust any of the Mechanites to help, and I was discovering to my dismay that I did trust Anna.

  "You could use the exercise," I said.

  "And it's totally like someone reading your diary. You only trust a friend to do it. I get you. It will take some time, but I'll get started today," Anna said.

  "Before you do that. Stop down here. I want to have a conversation with you and Mechos together," I said.

  We'd been reacting too much. It was time to set an agenda.

  22

  I wasn't going to breach the containment field around Mechos so Anna could enter, instead I settled for placing a glass wall along one edge of his workshop and setting up a table on either side.

  I even decided to have a physical presence via my drone and set a space at the table for it.

  "So many visits," Mechos said.

  "Why does he get two plates of cookies. I've never gotten two plates of cookies," Anna said.

  "He doesn't like them," I said.

  "Then I don't like them," Anna said.

  "Please. One look at you and we all know that is a lie," I said.

  Anna scowled at my drone and folded her arms. "Hey Mechos. Your people are doing okay."

  "I'm glad to hear it," Mechos said.

  "I wanted us all to meet like this because, unlikely though it seems, we have become something resembling allies," I said.

  "You've got him locked up in a cell," Anna said.

  "I actually rather like it in here," Mechos said.

  "Really?"

  "I've had people trying to murder me a very long time. This is relaxing."

  If he was too comfortable I really should liven things up. Hot Stuff certainly wasn't having a boring time of it in her testing chambers. I'd taken to shooting at her with super-cooled rounds and having her navigate mazes to find an angle to melt the turrets and stop the gunfire. It was tremendously entertaining.

  "And that is exactly why I thought it best to have this conversation. To determine exactly what it is we each want and how the others might be able to contribute," I said.

  "I want what I've always wanted. To be the absolute Queen of the world," Anna said.

  "That is why you are doing all this?" Mechos asked.

  Anna nodded. "I'm sick and tired of living off the scraps of others."

  "I just want me and my people to remain alive," Mechos said.

  "And I want a steady supply of test subjects and to unravel exactly what happened to me and the world," I said.

  "I've been helping with that," Anna said.

  "That is why eight of my people had to die?" Mechos asked.

  Anna didn't look guilty, she looked defiant. "You had power we needed. We took it. We're going to kill a lot more people to get what we want."

  We were. Anna might make a capable Queen of the world after all. I certainly didn't want the job, I just wanted to conduct my studies and run my facility. That would be easier with a ruthless and cooperate dictator in charge on the surface. Anna truly might fit the bill.

  It was a pleasing realization. Was I growing fond of her? No, that would be foolish.

  "Then what are our next steps?" I asked. "Continue to gather more test s
ubjects as we have been?"

  "The Righteous have come for you once. They'll come again," Mechos said.

  "They come back every day and I keep burning them alive."

  Anna said, "No, he's right. There are a lot more than the five of them you have here. They have this tower set up in the Arathorian Heights. They capture the Powered and take them there, and when they come out they aren't Powered any longer."

  They were hunters like myself, although they went out in pursuit of their prey.

  "The one I captured has quantities of something called a void crystal," I said.

  "Is that how they counter abilities?" Mechos asked.

  "It seems to be."

  "That's a problem," Anna said.

  "I've rigged the corridors with death traps. I'm ready for them, if they enter again," I said.

  "Death traps?" Anna asked.

  Was she somehow unaware of this?

  "Spikes, acid sprayers, incinerators, mines, strangle wires," I said.

  Anna held up a hand, "Enough. You're weird and totally crazy, and we're friends, so it's all okay. I'm just going to keep telling myself that."

  Whatever lies made her comfortable.

  "Two of the Powered have also gone missing. People are going to be investigating what took them down, looking for some advantage for themselves," Mechos said.

  "Would they dare?" I asked.

  Mechos shrugged. "Powers are useful, but a well-placed bullet to the skull can serve just as well, usually. If others think there is a chance for them to gain hold of a powerful core, they'll come whatever the danger."

  "Good. Let them come. You humans need more weapons, and I can recycle the biomass if they don't make good research material."

  "The cookies are people," Anna whispered to Mechos, who looked a little sick.

  "I thought you said you liked them?" Mechos asked.

  "I do. I just, you know, feel a little guilty about it."

  "Humans love cookies," I said. Mechos really would have to learn his place in relation to the baked goods I provided.