The Laboratory Omnibus Page 9

  "I'll have to draw up a list of possible targets for us to lure in next. Is there anything you need?" Anna asked.

  "Supplies. I'm short of building materials," I said.

  "Rockfist?" Mechos asked, with a look to Anna.

  "Out of commission, the Righteous got him," Anna said.

  "Goldenrod?"

  "Not real gold. Illusion bullshit. Way to disappoint a girl, let me tell you. What about the Slidekickers?" Anna asked.

  Mechos considered that and grunted, "Not exactly what she wants, but it might work. They're teleporters. So, no spontaneous material generation or transformation, but you could at least bring it in from elsewhere."

  Anna grinned. "Plus it would let me get around way quicker."

  Teleportation could improve a lot of base functions, potentially.

  I didn't have time to consider it. I was getting another proximity alarm from the surface. We had uninvited guests again.

  23

  The newcomers were approaching on foot. After the arrival of vehicles lately it was almost refreshing. They seemed to be a good bit grungier than the most recent invaders. Instead of any sort of armor they were dressed in tattered, ragged clothing. There were perhaps a dozen of them, about half had a pistol holstered at their hips, and the others had clubs or knives.

  I brought up the camera on a monitor so Anna and Mechos could see.

  "Scavengers," Mechos said.

  "I don't think you're going to get much out of them," Anna said.

  I understood her thinking that, but I rather thought I might. Since I would soon have the ability to create organic servants all that biomass had to come from somewhere. The most likely source was going to be encounters like these.

  I turned on a light inside the entrance. I didn't want them scared off or thinking there was nothing of interest inside. I wanted these people, I could use the resources.

  "Tell me about these Slidekickers," I said.

  "They can teleport. I'm not sure of their range, but it's more than just line of sight," Anna said.

  "You horrified them enough they got out of visual range? Predictable. How can we lure them here?"

  "You'll have a hard time of it. They can teleport anywhere and steal anything they want," Mechos said.

  "I really want that power," Anna said, sounding a little dreamy at the thought.

  "You captured one of the Righteous. Can you get any use out of their power-dampening abilities?" Mechos asked.

  Could I? I hadn't unlocked the ability to make use of that talent myself. It probably was a part of whoever led the Righteous and held that void core. It didn't mean there weren't ways I might be able to.

  I had the Righteous in a liquefied form—mostly. They were in that state for twenty-four hours between being killed daily. I hadn't tested if that goop retained their power-dampening abilities, but I could.

  I set up a testing routine for that.

  On the surface the Scavengers had made their way cautiously inside the main entrance. I closed the door behind them and killed the lights.

  Let them advance in the darkness to their deaths, or remain where they were and starve to death, if that was their desire. In the end, I'd win either way.

  "I believe I may be able to dampen powers. What do you have in mind?" I asked.

  "I doubt you'd be able to capture one to attempt to gain the ability. Given their mobility, I'm not sure you could do that. Kill though? That might be possible," Mechos said.

  "You need to lure them somewhere and kill them for their powers," Anna said.

  That was smart thinking. Sure, I'd far rather have their leader alive and in one of my testing chambers where I could get a long-term trickle of power, but short of that I'd take the Power core.

  I already had a plan coming together.

  "You said the Righteous sometimes capture the Powered and transport them back to their tower. These processions are usually well-guarded?" I asked.

  "Always," Mechos said.

  "So, we have one that isn't. We have a Righteous vehicle and a set of Righteous armor, I can get more if needed," I said.

  "You want to pretend to have captured someone?"

  "Hot Stuff. Her absence is notable... we can inflict burn damage on the vehicle. Allow word to get to the Slidekickers and their leader," I said.

  Anna said, "Her name is Sylph. Yeah, Sylph would want the prize, but wouldn't let any of her people do it instead of her. Not a Power core she could take easily to bolster her own abilities."

  "It's likely she'll decide to teleport straight into the vehicle. When she does we neutralize her powers and set off an explosive inside," I said.

  "My people could help you to rig that as well as make the modifications to the vehicle," Mechos said.

  "I look damned good in a set of body armor," Anna said.

  "That seems incredibly unlikely," I said. "But it does seem we have something of a plan."

  Anna spared a glimpse at the monitor. I'd shifted it to infravision and you could just see the heat signature of the Scavengers. They hadn't brought any sort of light source and decided to try pressing forward anyway.

  "I guess it's going to be after you kill these guys," Anna said.

  "I need to do a few days of testing anyways on power-neutralizing agents," I said.

  "I don't suppose you can build a movie theater?"

  "I don't suppose you know how I can unlock neurochemistry so I can upgrade your intellect?"

  "Listen," Anna said. "We're down here for a long time and it gets boring. Now that we've got the whole history of human entertainment available to us, we should start doing something."

  It was a preposterous, ludicrous idea. Still, I'd already seen the positive effects on productivity that amusing the humans could have.

  "I'll see if I can modify one of the monitors down below to display onto a bigger screen up here. Find an archive you've cleared of any dangerous materials and I'll make some chairs," I said.

  "And popcorn," Anna said.

  This was pushing it.

  "I am a dangerously intelligent laboratory, not an entertainment superplex," I said.

  "You upgraded Hydroponics anyways and corn is a good test. Isn't popping kernels a good way to test how to apply the Fire Matrix?" Anna asked.

  I could be swayed by talk of SCIENCE. I could. It would be an interesting test of the Fire Matrix and new facilities. And again, if popcorn made humans more productive, it added some minimal value.

  "Fine," I said. "Get to work."

  The Scavengers had set off an acid sprayer. At least some things were going right.

  24

  Testing how well the goop of the Righteous could neutralize powers was easily enough done. There were several things I needed to measure, and Hot Stuff with her very dramatic power set made the perfect test subject.

  The next day, when the Righteous rematerialized, I immediately bound them with ropes. From there it was a simple enough matter to cut them out of their armor before killing them again. It was nice to have their equipment and I wondered why I hadn't bothered until now.

  Once they were again goop, I coated one of the targets inside Hot Stuff's labyrinth. The results were promising. A fire blast that normally completely devastated anything did little more than warm it.

  As a form of armor it could serve some protective purpose. Of course, we'd need it to do a good bit more than that.

  I had already modified a sprinkler to be able to handle the thick goop, and at the right moment I triggered it above Hot Stuff. The woman barely had a chance to look up before finding herself coated from head to foot in the remains of one of the Righteous.

  The flames that usually surrounded her flickered out and died. Her thermal readings shifted downward but didn't return to anything close to human normal. Hot Stuff's powers were dampened, but not overcome.

  "What the hell is this?" Hot Stuff said, glaring at my camera. Her internal temperatures ticked upward. Anger meant she was probably trying to channel
still more of her power. It wasn't having much of an effect.

  I operated a turret and put a bullet into each of her legs. I wanted to see how her usual defensive heat would fare with the goop surrounding her.

  Hot Stuff screamed and dropped to the ground, blood seeping out and pooling around her. From what I could tell the bullets hadn't penetrated deep, her internal heat had vaporized them before they could reach as deep as the bone, but they had still broken flesh.

  It also left her nice and distracted for my final test. A mechanical arm bearing a needle dropped from the ceiling and plunged into her arm. It was a small quantity of goop being shot right into her blood. I didn't want to kill her, only analyze the effects.

  Hot Stuff screamed again even more violently and her body began to spasm on the floor. Black veins rippled on her arm for a moment and I observed some sharply lowered temperatures before the effect was reversed dramatically, an explosion of white-hot heat bursting out from her flesh as the invading substance was expelled.

  Temperature readings were rising and flames began to flicker out from beneath the goop, the greenish coating on her skin rippling and sloughing as it peeled away as if being washed off by the flames.

  Interesting. The effects weren’t fatal in and of themselves, and pushing back against a Power core too dramatically seemed to force it to defend itself.

  Still, in the short term it appeared I should at least be able to dampen the power of another and, by direct injection, might at least, briefly, incapacitate them totally. Tied to an explosion, that could be used to good effect.

  I put a healing field into place around Hot Stuff. Here in the testing environment I could repair damage to my subjects far more quickly than would happen outside.

  I made her a plate of cookies and delayed her testing for half an hour. I could be nice when subjects proved helpful.

  "Stop whimpering and enjoy the cookies," I said.

  "I'm pretty sure any day that winds up in me being double-penetrated and covered in strange fluids should earn me more than a plate of damned cookies," Hot Stuff said.

  That was a reasonable point. I could be generous. I added a plate of donuts and increased the break to forty-five minutes.

  I'd have to gather the goop again later and move it back into the incinerator until ready to strike. I'd have to prepare a portable burner as well, so they could be kept liquefied as we travelled.

  It wouldn't do to have them come back to life on the road, especially if only Anna was there.

  The party of Scavengers were down to three now. They wouldn't last long. When they'd tried to sleep last night, I'd kept them awake with a series of growls and screams in the distance.

  They were beyond jumpy at this point, absolutely terrified. With this high state of excitement, they were scared to stay anywhere for too long. Keeping them moving made it more likely for them to find themselves in one of my traps.

  Perhaps I should take a cue from my experiences with Hot Stuff?

  I triggered production on that level and made a plate of a few cookies for the survivors. Even in the darkness the scent would draw them. Not far away I placed another. A third I put in a trap I liked to call my "Box of buzz saws." A wall would come down and deliver cutting sawblades from every angle. I hoped this worked, I'd been wanting to try it out.

  The dead Scavengers I had already recycled. My biomass supplies were up nicely, and while their equipment didn't add much to our stores the melee weapons were handy. It might also prove useful for my people to be able to dress themselves as Scavengers. Nobody seemed to pay them any attention and being able to escape notice could have many advantages.

  25

  My box of buzz saws wound up performing better than I hoped. It was a work of genius and I needed to figure out more "surround people on all sides" traps. They were incredibly gratifying.

  With the Scavengers out of the way I opened the upper levels again and the Mechanites could rebuild the vehicle.

  I cycled some of the parts in and out of Hot Stuff's tests so they would be authentically singed. The vehicle looked as if it had been through a fierce battle.

  Inside the back of the van was a rather convoluted mechanism. Four tight, separate cells were made for each of the Righteous. Each day, when they came back to life, they would perfectly fit inside with no wiggle room, and a mechanical timer released a razor-sharp blade at neck level.

  A hand-crank pump then transferred the goop to four sprinklers aimed to spray the interior of the van around the chambers. These were activated by a pressure sensitive release on the floor. A moment later, an explosive charge would be triggered that should kill anyone and everything within. Especially any Slidekickers who had teleported into the truck to steal the prisoners.

  All Anna should have to do from the outside is turn a hand crank for about twenty minutes each day to keep the system primed. I could have done much more if electronics worked, but so far from my systems we had to do everything without them. I transferred the Righteous in liquid form to the sprinklers and we tested the system every day for a week ahead of time.

  It was functional, if inelegant.

  Completing all this also gave me time to finish my latest research upgrades, which opened some all-new possibilities.

  I was going to make some creations.

  Enough time had passed that I had 0.8 core points. Another week and that might be enough for another full facility upgrade, if I understood correctly how that worked. Although it was tempting to wait for that, I felt in the short term I'd be better served putting those to use.

  I first wanted to build myself a worker.

  Biological Constructs

  You have unlocked the following patterns for biological constructs.

  Worker Options:

  Human - Cost 0.4

  Mole - Cost 0.2

  I could create my own humans. That was an interesting revelation. They cost twice as much as the moles, but then opposable thumbs were useful. Still, if the moles were an option, they must be of some utility and I already had plenty of humans.

  I selected the mole and the sequencer went to work. The mole, when it was finished, weighed around eighteen kilograms and had especially well-developed paws that seemed suitable for tool use. I also found that I could interface directly with its mind and issue it instructions. That was convenient. If only the humans were so obedient. I sent the new worker off to join in the cleaning out of the lower levels and informed the humans so they wouldn't panic.

  It was time to invest in a defender. I expected to spend the majority of my points on this one.

  Biological Constructs

  You have unlocked the following patterns for biological constructs.

  Warrior Options

  Human - Cost 0.4

  Mole - Cost 0.2

  Here again I had the option for a human. That was tempting, especially with all the armor and weapons we had stored, but I had something else in mind.

  I selected the mole, but this time instead of going straight through to production I chose more features.

  Mole

  Statistics

  Values out of 10

  5=Average

  Allure: 3

  Endurance:3

  Strength: 5

  Agility: 6

  Intellect: 2

  Upgrades can be purchased at 0.1 per point

  You can also apply the following templates

  Fire Matrix

  Temperature Resistance

  I had to wonder what certain statistics were based on. Allure to whom? I was sure my mole would be at least somewhat appealing to other moles even without many points invested.

  Anna had a perplexingly high allure, which anyone who knew her must agree was totally undeserved. Upgrades here were 0.1 per point, while with Anna they had been twice that. Either the moles were overall less expensive or this one was cheaper as my construct.

  Regardless, it gave me a little more room to work. I wanted to apply the Fire Matrix to the w
arrior mole. Hot Stuff had proved repeatedly just how destructive she was. It was that sort of destruction I wanted on my side.

  Based on the mole's stats, that left me a few other options. I could try increasing the intelligence. That would probably give it more self-control without me having to micro-manage its life, but with a neural interface that wasn't too taxing on me. I was better at multitasking than humans.

  Strength seemed useless, I wasn't out to do damage with its bite or its claws, but rather with the heat that would be surrounding it. Allure had its amusing possibilities, I could picture joyful humans reaching down to grab the adorable mole and hug it to their breasts before being incinerated. Unfortunately, that cost more points than I was willing to spend.

  Endurance would certainly be useful, but again, I wasn't hoping to get into any sort of protracted battle. Instead I sank two points into agility. This would let the mole move more quickly to close with my foes. To this I did add the Fire Matrix.

  I set my warrior to manufacture. It took some time for it to sequence and step out of the manufacturing center. This mole was leaner and sleeker than the worker, ripples of fire coursing along its body. Yes, this would do nicely.

  I set the mole to patrol the Testing Center. It was somewhere the humans really shouldn't be, and a good place to park this defender out of the way.

  26

  With my new facility put to good use and all the preparations made it was time to begin the next stage.

  "You look like a complete badass, at first glance. Then you look like a child wearing their parent's armor," I said to Anna.

  We had resized the armor of the Righteous to fit her, and I even had my warrior mole scorch it a bit to make her look as if she was fresh from a nasty fight with a pyrokinetic.

  Anna hooked the rifle over her neck. Between it and a pistol at her hip she was at least well-armed. The pistol had been heavily modified. I didn't think she'd have any warning of an oncoming fight with any Powered, but just in case I'd had the Mechanites make her up some custom rounds. They could be loaded with goop from the back of the truck and should shatter inside a body, discharging their contents.