James's Descent Ch. 06

They'd drive and park the cars just before the bend, going on foot for the last stretch. As soon as they were in sight, the twin-gatling turret started firing in their direction. Completely wild shots... its targeting computer could hit something only if it got closer, but it was unloading a lot of lead into the air. A warning... and a deterrent. They ran to take cover behind some rocks to consider their approach.

"That thing is firing almost as much as you are!" Pam ducked under the rocks, but popped back up to take a quick shot. Big, static target... but a tough one. Barely did anything.

"Yep, and I might get shredded if I get close enough to make a difference."

"Well, use that other thing!"

Right. That. Best go for maximized power, then. Frenzy on, insides burned again. Focus once more, the firing focus was on. Nathan could now once again humiliate miniguns. And one new power. Guided shot. Alters the path of his shot so he has pinpoint accuracy... and can kill things at double the range. Close enough... but it did not last long. One more focus... he was really feeling the heat. Hard to think. But he saw enough.

Nathan popped out of cover and held down the trigger to have bullets start coming out of that gun faster than physics allowed. The powers were enhancing it, distant forces affecting him just enough to allow it. Bullets flew with perfection towards the turret, the other women giving their shots on the side... not as accurate, not as deadly, but they helped. Shot after shot, the thing was slowly dismantled until it could fire no more. Best salvage what they can of it.

But now came a test... could James still make these things go away? Activate god mode and... YES. As the colonists approached the door, the solid, 50-ton door slid downwards with a grind of metal, without them even having to do anything. Anna smiled. The Outsider was with them. They carefully advanced into the complex. It was a remarkable sight.

The lights were still on, but not everything was lit. Every now and then, something was ruined, broken, rusted. Nathan almost shot a smaller turret that stopped functioning before he was born... which was 500 years ago. The vault had a dark-green tinge to it, the walls of the structure made exclusively out of this strange alloy that was incredibly unyielding. Nathan could fire at it for five minutes and it would barely gain a scratch. Whoever built this place had a similar philosophy, as the first room seemed exclusively so they could hole up and fire at approaching enemies, with turrets to their left and right providing extra support. Those turrets were just corroded metal now. Another vault door blocked entry further. James opened it, the colonists went further.

Nathan made a gesture to have them keep quiet. Someone might be home. He could hear distant footsteps, echoing through this place. They were now in a hallway that seemed to circle around a center, with bigger rooms set on the outside of it, and a few more important ones were inside this circle. One more giant door loomed before them. James went and... okay, that ran out. It wouldn't let him. They seemed almost disappointed that this one didn't move. A console was right beside it, asking for a 64-character password. It would take a LONG time to crack this open... either in the software or physical sense... the door would laugh at tank shells. Nathan was more worried about who might be here. They opted to go east, the light of ancient lamps guiding them, but flashlights were employed to help it out.

To their left, the first room had no door, just a gap in the wall. Shelving, crates, and lockers seemed to indicate a storeroom. They could see weapons, components, plasteel... was that GOLD? Yes, that was gold. And some respectable stocks of steel in the back. It went further. Nathan stood guard inside the room, just behind the wall as the two girls went deeper in. The thrum of machinery came from within... steam rose from a massive device that they recognized. A geothermal plant, but of a different, more efficient design. This one could also modulate heat... why this place wasn't a sauna. That thing could power the base forever... and was Ragnarok-proofed. A line of batteries sat to the south of this room, fully charged and capable of storing vastly more power than their designs. A pair of fuel tanks could be seen here, but nothing to fuel was in sight. A look at the gauge on them would show disappointment... they were empty. Take note, move on.

They'd see the first signs of resistance as they rounded the corner. An imprecise stream of bullets was fired their way from down the hall. Someone was unhappy with them being here. Nathan was still fired up, so he focused on that ability again to send shots with utter precision at the enemy. He expected something grand... nope, the guy fell like any others. That sense of danger went away.

"Wait, that was it? One guy?" His words echoed in the place.

"Guess that's it. Okay, let's check the place over." Beat. "Any of you feel bad for this? I mean, we're the raiders this time, and... these guys never actually came to attack us."

"Hm. Ya got a point there. I guess... might be mercy. Considering their situation, I don't think it would have ended well for them."

"Maybe it could have. But... mm, still a bit bad."

"I would like to say that we are enacting a valuable purpose... but our purpose is no better than theirs." Anna did not find her faith to give her certainty here. "Perhaps the best thought is that there was never a chance of a good ending here. Even if we left them alone."

They would carry that feeling for a bit. The second room had water extraction and treatment facilities, hydroponic farms, and a lot of rusted crates and barrels. The third would contain another power plant... and a transmitter. The game let James hack that.... They had the location of another vault, not far from here. The transmitter self-destructed upon providing this information. The south side seemed to have once contained another entry, but the mountain collapsed down on it. The southwest corner contained a VERY interesting room. Here were the devices used in the supersoldier program, the gene-tailoring pod, some supporting electronics, and a total of EIGHT doses of those nanites. These would have to be packed away and transported back home. The west side had a dormitory, a recreation room, a toilet... and a room that seemed dedicated to watching propaganda to keep their spirits up for the fight. Ancient steel beds were lined up in that room, still comfy enough for use. One had been obviously used by the sole resident of this place. Making a full circle would reveal a mess hall and food storage, still containing a generous stock of packaged survival meals, food with no expiration date. The kitchen seemed to have seen no use. The nutrient paste dispenser had visible dust on it and nothing to break down.

Checking the inner circle through doors to the east and west would reveal a workshop and a lot of computers and desks... but those computers had long since bricked out. The centermost room was both a hospital and contained several cryosleep caskets. All empty. Nothing more for this vault. The war was over. They could make use of a lot of furniture here, as the ancients seemed to exclusively use steel in everything. They could also break down a lot of the other useless things around. Best focus on what they could bring back efficiently.

"It's kinda sad, you know. Someone told them to just fight so long ago and they just... never questioned it. Just did it until the end."

"Others might consider those qualities to be laudable."

"I consider that they threw away their life. The guy just stayed here and... what? Makes me feel like they never lived."

An agreement would come to spend the night here before setting out in the morning. That agreement would have to be prolonged as packing up took an entire day. The suspension of those trucks cried, the metal complained and Pam was afraid that the cars would have their back broken by the heavy load... but it was just within the limit.

They disassembled what they could use, and broke down what they couldn't for base materials. One ton of steel was coming home with them and some fancy new devices. Time to turn towards home. Another week of travel, this time slower because of the heavy load. But after two more ambushes, they could see the cliff that they called home, finally ready to return from that trip. This steel should hold them for a while, but the new devices were just a drop in the bucket of what they needed for the gene-tailoring room. They'd hit many more vaults.

And, eventually, they would figure out how to build those devices.

*

This was a rather nice overlook. James stood right beside the girl, watching the colony in the distance, with both of them having a great view of this momentous occasion. Their short-range transport ship was launching. It was a utilitarian, yellow, and cuboid thing, held aloft by a dozen thrusters that held its cargo, the many robes rendered from the skin of their enemies and their recycled clothes, the organs pilfered from their cold bodies, the drugs made locally or taken off those bodies, every weapon they could not smelt down that was worth a damn... Anna would have quite a lot of work in negotiating the sale of such industrial quantities.

Half a year. The time for him was under a few hours, for them it was a long wait. Fiona had taken her pregnancy to completion and was no longer waddling around. Her father and THE father of the child had missed that time in full. Fiona did not think any less of him.

"Here the reach of our colony increases. Bet that's going to come back loaded with goodies and silver." James was also enjoying a smoke in addition to the fine view.

"Makes me proud. Sure, Mom built it with the bots, but I thought it up! Oooh, I could tell you about all these little things about it, like why it's doing that little slowdown right now. Leaning back, lower power to the holding thrusters to give the back one more, push it forward, then the gliding field provides lift almost like wings."

"Same concept of those jets that can spin thrusters around and take off like a helicopter. Just bigger. Nice job. Hey, they don't put worth on us, but the guys thinking stuff up move things forward. Though I guess nothing happens if they don't get built."

"I kinda feel like I'm not doing much when I just sit in the lab and think up ideas for them to use, but we sure see them soon. But some we just... don't use."

Mostly because James had the "research whatever" mod that went and grabbed something for her to do when he had no purpose. He had no use for many of the items on that tree.

"Maybe they thought about it and decided there's better stuff, or just that you don't need it. But... we're supposed to be on a date. Unless you want the date to be me talking philosophy. Or ranting. Again."

Fiona found herself chuckling. Yep, she could rely on hearing from her dad on how terrible that world he lived on was. From which he managed to get away to here ever so often. Her expression turned into a smirk. Just a bit more... she didn't have enough evidence.

Behind them was their set-up for the date. Camping table with some packed food and refreshments to ease things along. Both coffee and some of the colony's newly produced gin. Sourced and aged locally, though it relied on employing the nanites in the air to age it rapidly, or they had to wait a while longer. As the ship in the distance ascended to the sky, they could turn and walk over to that spot, claiming a folding chair each. Fiona went to fetch what would pass for lunch... a lunch that Pam cooked after a lot of failed attempts.

"Mom looked really proud when she handed me this. But I still have no idea what it is."

The covered bowl was secured with twine to not spill any of its precious contents. As that binding was set aside, the smell clued the man in before the sight of it. Fries. A whole bowl of thick-cut potatoes, fried as per his unintentionally given directions, wholly submerged in an oil bath and put to flame until the tips were brown. The shredded white cheese on top was half-melted, though he had less of an idea how to make it. He just got lucky with what the cheese presses made. He smiled at the sight. Something about his woman cooking for him exactly what he wanted brought a degree of satisfaction that he did not experience before.

"Oh, damn... remind me to give her a good pounding for this."

"I'll be there to help."

It was in no way strange for Fiona to be aware that her parents fucked. It actually made her feel good, to see them get along and enjoy themselves, a sure sign that things were well in the family. Yes, she fucked her family and they all fucked each other as well, which many would consider a sign of it being dysfunctional, but they were staying away from what actually made it so. They were happy and growing well. The new generation had great models to follow.

She waved for him to try the first bite and James did not hold back. Neither from trying them nor honest criticism. He appraised both texture and taste. A bit too much salt, probably used from not having cheese on top, that one adding more of its own, but just right. Not the exact cheese he might use on his, but it was the kind to really work with it, not a sharp one, but softer and so damn harmonious in its company.

"Mmmmhhhph.... These... are good. A bit too salty, but good. Go on, or there won't be any left."

With him, the procedure was that everyone else got as many fries as they wanted and he just took the rest. Fiona set aside a decent portion on the other plate, still leaving him with essentially three times the amount. She had to agree on the salt, but these were damn good fries. A moment of relative silence as they just shoveled food and looked around at the view... or each other. It was still decent as a date. Just themselves out here... it could get better. Once enough of the food was down to make them slow down, Fiona dared to ask a question.

"That secret you said that you'd share in a few years.... Could you tell it to me? I feel like... we shouldn't have any."

"I'd want to." A cough. Ate too fast. "But, I feel like you'd look at me differently. And I don't want that. But, give it time. Secrets come out. And I do agree they make life complicated. Some might argue it makes it interesting, but more often than not I'd rather have boring and pleasant."

Yep, she was sure now.

"Then let me say it."

James felt a knot in his stomach. This was why he did not lie.

"You have... some connection to the outsider. Or are them."

"A bold claim. Might I hear what you base it on?"

She chuckled as the girl was not lacking in reason.

"Grandma said in her little sermons that the outsider is from a world that is hell, a world he wants to escape from, and maybe through our work we can bring him here. And you keep going on about how where you are sucks...."

"Plenty of worlds out there suck. Heck, this world sucks in plenty of places."

"And despite travel between planets being something that takes forever, you can just zip back and forth easily. If you could come here, why not stay here?"

"Well, I'm not here. It's just a projection." That was not untrue, even if he was trying. "And trust me, if I could stay, I would."

"But I think it's more... how you feel. Like, you feel like a protector."

"I'm your dad... that is a job. Even if I can't fully do it."

It might sound like she got shot down, but the girl kept at it. Something in her mind told her that she was right. Was it desire or just imagination? We can imagine many things as true until the time comes that we find out otherwise.

"I still think... that you are something like that. Too much fits."

He could keep denying it. The man was in a good place for it. These people saw the outsider as a god and often saw proof of it. He could firmly deny it on just the basis that he was a person. The man looked to his right, where the colony's courtyard and entry mat were just visible enough. In the end, he did hate keeping secrets.

"You know, sometimes I think that more people should have figured it out. I tell people to question things. I'm hoping that we're not seeing the rise of the obedient sheep." A look back to her. "And now you're going to think of me differently."

The girl had plenty of time to think about it, so much that she might be disappointed if he was not. Fiona did not have any particular pride in the matter, just pride in being right. And her smile widened. There was a lot to process. She'd hold it until later.

"Is there anything at least good where you come from?"

"I'd be a liar to say no. Yes, there are... many, many pleasant things. I would qualify some as distractions, but others are unambiguously good... a show that things are working well. Like seeing that even though an authoritarian group is trying to bring the world in their grasp, defiance exists. Just a month ago I heard a man in the high levels of corporate, one that I might consider to possibly be the most automated thing around... mock that whole bugmeal initiative. And then everyone mocked the vegan options."

"Defiance is inevitable. But you said that."

"I wish it was. I don't have any influence at all in the world. Well, no more than the average man. But, I do think that people are not built to be slaves. Or maybe they are and they rebelled against that."

He had no idea how right he was.

"You keep the whole outsider thing a secret so that... we don't... praise you?"

"I want to be valued for exactly what I bring. Yes, I may bring direction, but you guys do the work. Doesn't mean the inventor of something gets all the proceeds from people actually making his stuff."

"But they should get some of them." Fiona was an inventor herself.

James looked at the girl with a strange feeling in him. Her reaction was... conserved. Then he noticed what he was seeing.

"You're as smart as me. Or smarter. God damn. No having to explain everything."

"Hehe... maybe. But... yeah. I can sort of... tell where you're going with things."

"I met a girl once that was this smart. Didn't notice it. Sadly, she was taken. But, you get the struggle, don't ya?"

"Having to explain everything because it takes like an hour for someone to think what you can do in five seconds?" Yes, she knew the struggle. And not an hour, but sometimes thirty minutes.

A shared laugh. Yep, she had the same mind he did. A sharp one that could hold more threads than the average and reach the end much quicker. There was a new appreciation here, one as they both just... understood in silence and placed only the questions needed. It was satisfying. Fiona was internalizing everything, adding it all up, she did not need to be told it all.

"Why can't you get girls so easily back where you're from?"

"A long, complicated answer. But I would say that the short of it is that I'm not attractive and women have become unreasonably demanding."

His face was rounded, his jaw was not at all prominent, he was out of shape and the deformity of his spine, ruined from having to carry five kilograms of books on his back in a developmental stage, made his gut far more prominent. James was not at all fat, and if he forced himself straight, his stomach would be flat, but neither did he win the genetic lottery nor did he have any of the other things that women want.

"Define unreasonably."

"You pretty much have to have everything ready for someone who brings nothing to your life but the occasional access to tits or pussy."

"With those demands, why not just go gay and see if you can figure out reproduction without women? Hm, maybe I could do that."

"To be frank, I'd give guys a try, but even with the current gay movement, there is still an unreasonable shame on gay men. Because those men do not go for women. Yep, having a preference that is not them counts as a crime in their book."