But for right now, Kaleb was putting the finishing touches on a new batch of sidearms. With their most recent trip to Under-Town, he and Roy had gained plenty of tech for them to upgrade. They had a wide collection of K-Tech branded weapons. All damaged or broken prototypes. Most of the more proprietary stuff had been stripped from the things, but Kaleb could make do. And with the help of Daivor and Roy, Kaleb eventually completed enough small energy pistols for the rest of the team. Although nothing to the level of his or Two Gun’s weapons. Those required Daivor and Roy’s battery.
The new energy supply was a combination of the Weikacol solution their generators used and some Non-terrestrial metal K-Tech had. They had a ready and steady supply of the solution, but the metals were hard to come by. So Kaleb decided to save the new battery for something bigger. Still, he was happy with the new energy pistols they had created.
“Simple and elegant.” Kaleb grinned as he checked over the last gun.
“Then quit fondling them and set them aside already. We have other work that needs doing.” Daivor grumbled.
But even as the surly gnome complained, he helped collect the weapons and handed them off to Roy. The young teen rushed out to hand the weapons to the other members of the SG that were still here. Kaleb grinned at the kid’s excitement as Daivor practically dragged him into their new server room. He flinched as a sudden wave of heat hit his scales. It felt good on his body, but the temperature change was alarming. Daivor glanced at him from his position on his shoulder.
“I see you’ve noticed the problem.”
“Overheating?”
“Not yet, but once things really start cooking in here, we’ll be in trouble.”
Kaleb nodded as he looked over their room full of hard drives, robotic brains, and power cores. The place was humming with power, although they bits of equipment weren’t doing much right now. Kaleb noticed a small terminal in the room's corner that hadn’t been there before. But before he decided to investigate, he wanted to get the temperature under control.
“Okay. I need an Elentian crystal, some fans, and my tools. We can create a decent enough cooling system for the servers. No problem.”
“That brings me to our other issue: the generators need to be optimized again. We’ve added a few new buildings and we need to check the power management.”
Kaleb rolled his eyes as another problem cropped up. “Okay, then. I guess we’ll head down to the basement. Has anyone been down there in a while?”
“Occasionally. Some of the hunters and Brutes hunt Joraneks down there.”
“The giant fly things? Why?”
“Cause the workshop pays them for their glands. We’ve got a steady supply of half-decent energy containers.”
“You mean I’m paying them… At least we’re getting something useful out of it.” Kaleb made a mental note to check his bank account as he left his workshop and walked toward the stairs.
Making it to the stairs, Kaleb ventured down in the dark hallway of the first basement floor. A few brutes and teens were scattered throughout the hall, ostensibly patrolling. But Kaleb could see a few of them sitting at a table playing cards. He bit his lip in thought as he watched the workers hurriedly try to hide their game. He said nothing to them and kept walking as he told Daivor.
“We have to get some recreation rooms set up before our employees go mad.”
“I don’t know. They seem to be amusing themselves.”
“I’d rather they have a dedicated room either way.”
“Fine. It’s going on the list.”
Kaleb bit back the retort that Daivor wasn’t going to have to build anything anyway. The system did most of the heavy lifting where rooms were concerned. All the players had to do was supply the needed room parts. He was making a list of what they would need as they walked down to the second basement floor. Things here were much the same as the first level. A few wandering patrols walking up and down the hall as others played games and stood around yapping. Some of their guards seemed embarrassed at having been caught, while others simply waved at Kaleb as he passed. Engrossed in their games.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Shaking his head, he made it to the bottom floor and walked over to the large cage door blocking their generators. Already he could hear the hum of their turbines and see the glow from the Weikacol solution. Kaleb moved around the two guards playing jacks near the front door to the generator room and walked inside. As he did, he looked around. Surprisingly, the previously dark room was now well lit and cleaned up. The hole in the wall where the Joranek flies came in was the only blemish on an otherwise decent generator room. All three generators hummed happily as he walked up to their command terminal.
“Man, it feels like forever since we were last down here.”
“Speak for yourself. I check these babies once every couple of days. One of the kids brings me down. I also used the time to gather up some of the solution. The stuff is an interesting study.” Daivor explained.
Kaleb felt a little put out that he had missed the gnome’s experiments with the weird blue fluid. But he put that to the back of his mind as he examined the energy draw of the generators. The hangar, shield, turrets, and the rooms all pulled power from the here. It looked like everything was operating at one hundred percent, though. But Kaleb noticed they were only using a fraction of the power given off from the machines. The generators had the capacity to boost their already considerable power. Unfortunately, the only bit of equipment the SG had that was capable of handling a bigger draw from the generators was the shield. If he juiced the power going to the hangar, all he would get is probably a few blown bulbs and a lot of their systems being fried.
The terminals were probably okay. They were system constructed and mostly invulnerable. He only had to worry about the player-made things in the hangar. Which was surprisingly a lot. He looked over the various power usage amounts from D34d-I’s office and Farrah’s Command Center. But neither of them seemed ready to deal with a bigger power draw. They need more equipment to spread the energy around. Kaleb’s lab was able to take a small increase, but that was only because he had installed a few new items into his workshop. Once he allocated the new power draw, Kaleb waited for the energy to stabilize before moving on.
“You know the Weikacol isn’t that volatile. You can shuffle the power around freely.” Daivor grumbled.
Kaleb listened to the winding generators as they seemed to whir louder. “Yeah, I trust you Daivor. But I’m going to be cautious here, okay?”
The gnome sat on his shoulder grumpily as Kaleb watched the energy readings spike slightly. “I’m telling you, that solution is more biological than anything else.”
“Biological in what way?”
“In the alien verity. But I’m unaware of any such alien whose blood reacts like this. In human biology, we would call the solution blood plasma. The liquid part of a human’s blood. Now, in a human, that liquid is made up of multiple parts. Things like water, salt, proteins, etc. But this stuff has been sanitized somehow. All that’s left is the liquid and an ultra-thin membrane that activates the regenerating aspects of the solution.”
Kaleb kept his eyes on the generators as an electrical current went through the machines. The blast of electricity seemed to excite the Weikacol, and it roiled happily in its cylinders. Daivor took a long puff on his pipe before he continued.
“I don’t know for sure if the alien’s blood plasma is the same as a human’s or even yours. But I know that gathering this much of the solution would require a steady supply. From either volunteers or victims.”
“What could hurt something that repaired itself that fast?”
Daivor shrugged. “Who knows? But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Dr. Kersait only cultivated a little of the solution and then had it replicate itself. Over and over again until he had enough to fill three massive generators.”
“Seems unlikely.” Kaleb winced.
“Just cause you have a habit of being impatient doesn’t mean others are.”
Kaleb feigned being wounded by the gnome’s words before he snorted. “Pfft! Please, I’ve seen Kersait’s notes. That was not a patient man. In fact, if anything, he seemed fairly rushed in his conclusions and theories.”
“That’s just because the man was a genius. He wasn’t rushing things, he was just thinking quicker than the average person… or lizard.”
Kaleb shrugged at that, noncommittal. He knew Daivor was probably right, but for a person who made a living selling his inventions, Kersait had a lot of incomplete ones in his notes. The generators began to wind down and Kaleb switched the terminal screen over to the shield. The massive blue dome surrounding the hangar was working at half capacity right now. Enough to keep the riffraff out, unless they had one of Kaleb’s handy little patches. The small devices allowed members of the SG to walk in and out of the hangar. This included the Hunters and Brutes as well. Who each had one.
He turned the draw to the shield up and waited as the generators began to spool up again. As he waited, Kaleb checked the rest of the rooms. But they were each still operating at close-to maximum efficacy. After that, Kaleb went through the menus and set everything to auto-calibrate every couple of days. This would free up some time and allow him to focus on more important tasks. He was about ready to leave when Daivor cracked his pipe against Kaleb’s temple.
“Hold on! Before we go, I need you to grab a sample of the solution.”
“Don’t you have enough at this point?”
“No.”
Kaleb rolled his eyes at the gnome’s simple answer and listened as the diminutive creature explained how they need multiple samples for various experiments. But Kaleb could see the gleam in the gnome’s eyes that said he was simply hoarding stuff. Then again, the stuff was good for their new batteries. Kaleb rubbed his chin as he grabbed the ladder on the side of the generator and climbed up.
Collecting a sample of the solution was fairly easy, and Kaleb did it with one eye on the Joranek's hole. The little buggers were attracted to the generators like moths to a flame. But the giant space flies were too juicy a resource to let go. Even if the only thing they could get from the flies was their power glands. Thankfully, none of the fuckers came rushing in during Kaleb’s time with the generators. He managed to get a sample and get out of there fairly quickly.
He had collected the sample, walked past the game-playing guards, and was back up on the hangar floor before the generators wound back down. As Kaleb made to the hangar floor, however, a guttural noise of alarm came from the front of the room. Kaleb and many others turned to see a Brute Clan lizard pushing his way through the outer shield. The big scaly alien appeared unharmed, but was having some issues with the shield's new thickness. Several others around the front shield seemed a little alarmed at the problem. But they quickly helped their compatriot through the shield and into the hangar.
“It seems the new shield is going to take some getting used to. You mind telling Farrah to spread the word while I get started on the cooler for the server?”
Daivor didn’t answer. Instead, Kaleb heard the telltale ‘fwipping’ of the gnome’s swinging lines. He turned in time to catch the back of his tiny friend swinging toward the command center. With a sigh to himself, Kaleb returned to his workshop and rushed to his desk. Designing and building a competent cooling system for their slapdash server farm was going to be a cinch to build. Once that was done, Kaleb and the others in his workshop could get started building more important things. The thought sent a shiver up Kaleb’s unprotected back. His armor hugged the front of his frame pretty well, but he needed to complete it. Of course, his Cybar and Sun Gun needed complete overhauls as well.
Kaleb glanced to his left, seeing the back wall of junk and equipment he and the others had gathered. A lot of their bins were running over with stuff. Robot pieces, ingots of prototype metals, half-completed weapons, and cybernetic limbs. Kaleb ran a hand down his own cybernetic arm as he looked at the sleeker, newer looking arms.
“There’s a lot of work to do.” Kaleb muttered to himself before he returned to his desk. He had a fan to build.