Chapter 181

  The second fabricator lifted off the workshop floor, tons of industrial equipment responding to Alexander’s will. Metallokinesis guided it across the room toward the right wall where the first unit already waited, power feeds dangling from ceiling mounts.

  His new workshop stretched out before him. The room ran long from the entrance, maybe 70 feet to the far wall where display screens waited in near darkness. Tool racks flanked the doorway on both sides, with empty slots ready for equipment he’d acquire over time. The left wall held a workbench running most of the length, the surface already populated with circuit board stations, welding equipment, and precision cutting tools.

  Everything he’d need for detailed electronics work.

  The fabricator settled into position beside its twin. Feed bins mounted above each unit, waste disposal chutes below. Collection baskets waited beneath the output ports for completed parts. The setup was functional but crude. A professional manufacturing line would have conveyor systems with automated handling arms and quality control scanners at each station.

  He had to start somewhere though. And he’d been making do with worse for quite some time now.

  The third fabricator rose. Alexander guided it over the central island workbench, careful not to clip the scanning equipment and testing stations built into its surface. Holographic projectors waited at intervals along the table, ready to display schematics in three dimensions. Piled across it were the damaged drones that had survived his trip into space in various states of disrepair. They’d made it through the cultists. Cultivators. Beasts. New York. But not whole.

  Feed lines connected automatically as the third unit locked into place. Mechanical clicks echoed through the empty workshop as power systems engaged.

  The fourth fabricator was the hybrid unit, heavier than the others by half a ton. Alexander’s focus tightened as he lifted it. The weight wasn’t a problem for Metallokinesis, just required more concentration to keep the ascent smooth. Damaging the new equipment before he got to use it would be a tragedy.

  Mostly because he’d have to find someone else to borrow replacements from.

  It settled into the final position. Four fabricators lined the right wall in neat formation.

  Alexander reached into each unit simultaneously using Technopathy. The systems opened to him like books, their architectures clear and simple compared to the complexity of true 3D printers. Three were specialized units. One for basic metal alloys, one for polymers, one for ceramics and composites. The fourth could handle layering multiple materials during fabrication, but would require manual finishing work to properly bond the different substances.

  People called them 3D printers. The terminology was technically correct, and while he preferred that most days, in this particular instance it obscured what mattered. The Zhao-Matsuura NX-7000 he’d rented on Astra Omnia was a comprehensive 3D printer. An artist’s tool that allowed research and creation, along with all the experimentation required between the two. It had a two-nanometer resolution with real-time atomic monitoring. It could handle almost anything you needed, even offering material synthesis on demand.

  These were fabricators. Industrial photocopiers for manufacturing work.

  The distinction mattered. The NX-7000 could print a complete functional drone in a single build cycle. Frame, electronics, casing, all molecularly bonded at material interfaces. A finished product when the chamber opened. These fabricators would produce components. Fast and reliable components, but components nonetheless. The metal unit would print drone chassis. The polymer unit would handle casings and flexible parts. Then he’d need to manually assemble everything, integrating the electronics and running his own tests.

  Time-consuming work. But still faster than doing it manually, even with superpowers.

  Alexander examined their specifications more carefully. Print resolution sat around fifty nanometers. Acceptable for structural work and laying down basic circuit board pathways, though he’d need to install commercial or custom-built chips and modules. The capacitor banks in his gauntlets required perfect carbon lattice alignment down to two nanometers. Fabricators couldn’t even approach that level of detail.

  They’d serve their purpose though. He already had established designs for the drones. The fabricators could reproduce parts while he focused on new development work. These units could run continuously, pumping out chassis and components in parallel.

  His mind drifted to what he really wanted. An NX-7000 of his own. Full capabilities with no time limits or rental fees burning through credits. Fifty million for the printer itself. Probably another ten for installation and infrastructure. The cooling systems alone would cost millions. Clean room construction, backup power, repair contracts, all before worrying about material spools and feed bins.

  Stealing one would be a nightmare. The printers weighed multiple tons, were the size of a small room, required specialized cooling infrastructure, and every fragile component demanded exacting calibration. Even if he successfully borrowed one, getting it operational somewhere new would take months of work.

  Then he’d have to figure out how to convince Zhao-Matsuura to send maintenance technicians every other month…

  Someday maybe. But these fabricators solved the immediate problem. Eighty percent of his personal manufacturing bottleneck was resolved. New designs and experimental work would still require time with a commercial workshop, but everything else could happen in-house now.

  Alexander pulled up the metal fabricator’s control interface. Loaded the drone chassis specifications from his personal files. The machine accepted the design and calculated material requirements before estimating completion time at six hours per unit.

  Six hours. That was one thing the fabricators did better. The NX-7000 would need twice as long for the same chassis, and only then by cranking the precision down to match fabricator tolerances anyway.

  He queued up a series of orders. The fabricators hummed as feedstock began flowing from the overhead bins.

  Alexander surveyed the quiet workshop.

  Everyone had scattered to their own priorities. Annie was somewhere on the island drilling Gilly and Felix in combat exercises. Augustus had locked himself away with a spellbook he’d purchased off some dark web store site. Alexander was half-convinced the old goat had been scammed, but Augustus swore he knew what he was doing.

  Talia was upstairs working on the Dubai action plan. Carmen had finally taken a break, though her version of relaxation involved slotting herself into the Sleipnir’s watch rotation for a couple of days.

  Which left him with actual free time. A rare commodity.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  His gaze drifted across the workshop and caught on a toolbox resting near the far end of the left workbench. Alexander crossed the room and grabbed it, then dropped into the leather chair. The seat was ridiculously comfortable, one of Augustus’s contributions to the space. He spun around as he flipped open the toolbox’s lid.

  The cultivator’s storage ring sat nestled among screwdrivers and wire cutters and other standard kit.

  It was a simple metal band, unassuming and stubborn.

  He’d made some progress since the first time. Routing Electrokinesis through his Cultivator’s Core had revealed an entrance into the ring’s internal structure during his first examination. From there, the current had traced out an increasingly larger maze of energy pathways twisting through the solid metal. Branching paths, dead ends, a puzzle that required navigating correctly to unlock whatever storage mechanism the cultivator had used.

  Alexander set the toolbox aside and lifted the ring, turning it between his fingers. It was time to finish what he’d started.

  He settled deeper into the chair and closed his eyes. Electrokinesis cycled into his Core, the power responding smoothly to his intent. Then the current flowed down his cybernetic arm and into the ring.

  Power poured into the metal.

  The maze opened before him. Energy pathways stretched through the ring’s interior, wrapping around its curved surface. Alexander followed the routes methodically. Left at this junction, straight through that passage, right when the path split, forward over the cross. Time passed. The fabricator hummed in the background as it worked.

  Another dead end. He backtracked and tried a different route. Progress was slow. The maze was complex, and every wrong turn cost him time.

  Then he had an idea. Multithreading kicked in, following the thought.

  Alexander reached out with his right hand and gripped the ring, now holding it with both hands. Animachina cycled through his Core separately from the Electrokinesis. The two powers remained distinct as he pushed the second current down his flesh arm.

  He’d tested his other powers on the innocuous band before, and while Animachina had provided a sensation of the energy somehow engraved into the ring, it had provided no further insight. But that was before he could simultaneously trace the inside of the maze and map the patterns outside.

  He wondered if he were truly generating two individual streams of thought or just task-switching extremely fast.

  The analytical consideration fractured his focus. Both currents flickered and died. Alexander cursed under his breath, opened his eyes, and glared at the innocent metal band.

  He took a breath, closed his eyes again, and started over.

  Electrokinesis flowed down his left arm. Animachina down his right. This time he kept the thoughts on task. One stream navigating. The other mapping.

  The process revealed something that he’d been unable to perceive using either power alone. The maze had depth. What had felt like simple dead ends were actually exit points that spatially corresponded to other disconnected sections of the labyrinth. Multiple separate mazes occupying the same locations within the ring but energetically isolated from each other.

  A dead end he’d hit earlier aligned perfectly with an entrance to a completely different maze segment.

  Alexander frowned. He didn’t know if Qi worked differently to the current he was channeling into the ring, but the energy creating the patterns, the maze, locked his Electrokinesis within its structure. He’d already considered blasting current through the energy before, tearing it open with raw power. But he was afraid that might destroy the subtle enchantment, losing the ring’s contents forever.

  Not that the contents really interested him.

  Droney had proven that Animachina could reach across vast distances, treating the space between as if it were merely a suggestion, allowing Technopathy to ride along the connection it formed between them

  That was what had given him the idea to create Soul Circuit. Which proved that Electrokinesis could do the same.

  Alexander focused. Sharpened the stream of Animachina, turning it from a questing wave, mapping out the energy in its entirety, into a single tube. A temporary connection spanning the gap between constructs.

  Electrokinesis flowed across it, finding itself in an entirely new maze. The pathway twisted in different patterns, branching in unfamiliar directions. Alexander navigated carefully, one thought stream piloting the current while the other continued mapping and maintaining the path.

  Another dead end. Another bridge.

  The fabricator chimed as it completed the first chassis. The sound nearly shattered his concentration. Alexander’s focus wavered, both currents threatening to collapse. He steadied himself and sharpened his Will.

  Electrokinesis stabilized. Animachina held.

  He pushed forward.

  More mazes. More bridges. The pattern became clearer as he progressed. Each section led to the next in sequence, a lock mechanism that required threading power through every disconnected segment.

  Then, abruptly, something clicked into place. The sensation was metaphysical. Energy patterns within the ring began rewriting themselves as the locking mechanism adjusted, shifting from whatever Qi signature the original cultivator had used to reflect Alexander’s own power signature.

  Vertigo washed over him.

  Suddenly he was aware of standing inside an enclosed space. Except his body remained in the leather chair, hands gripping the ring. Alexander released both powers, allowing one part of his mind to acknowledge his physical position while the other accepted the awareness of the ring’s dimensional storage space.

  The vertigo faded.

  The space was modest.

  Perhaps ten feet by ten feet. Three meters high and on each side.

  Mostly empty except for a few scattered items. What he assumed were cultivation manuals bound in weathered leather. A handful of jade slips and painted paper slips. Several sealed wooden boxes and stoppered vials with pills or liquid inside. A small pile of roughly shaped glowing rocks, right next to a smaller pile of smooth colored orbs.

  Some of the cultivator’s personal effects. A locket. Spare change of clothes. And a painting of a fierce-looking young woman.

  Alexander allowed the guilt to wash over him for several heartbeats, then crushed it. They may not have been responsible for opening the gateway to the Nexus, but there was no doubt in his mind they would have joined their guild or clan or school in attacking if the opportunity presented itself. He didn’t deny it might not be all of them, might not be their individual choice, but it mattered little. They would have followed the cultivator who took his arm if he’d demanded it.

  He couldn’t afford to feel remorse at defeating every enemy. For killing them if the need arose.

  Especially because deep down he knew there would be a lot more to come.

  Alexander opened his eyes. The ring still sat between his palms, warm from the power that continued flowing through it passively. He didn’t need to focus anymore. The lock was solved. It responded to the slightest flow of Electrokinesis.

  The storage was his.

  He grinned.

  Finally.

  Then he dumped the ring’s contents out onto the floor. For a moment, he was curious about the manuals and the knowledge they might contain. But only for a moment. The Cultivator’s Core didn’t make him a cultivator. It was a superpower masquerading as a Core. He’d give them to Augustus. Or Talia. They could figure out what the cultivator’s junk did.

  Alexander held out a hand. Metallokinesis pulled, and a drone flew into his hand. He focused on the drone, on the ring, and Willed it inside.

  It vanished from his hand.

  Alexander blinked, then checked the ring’s interior by sending a quick pulse of Electrokinesis into it. The basketball-sized drone sat inside, taking up a tiny corner of the available space.

  He grinned and seized another. Focused for an instant before it disappeared too. He kept going, adding a third, a fourth, then more.

  Until every drone was stacked inside. Neatly, according to his intentions. No fumbling to place it. Just Will and execution.

  He did some quick math, realizing he could easily fit over fifteen hundred drones in there with room to spare. Which meant he could fit a lot more interesting things in there than just drones.

  Alexander glanced down at the unassuming metal band and laughed.

  No longer would he have to travel without his drones. Everywhere he went from now on, he’d do so with a portable drone swarm.

  He slipped the band over the middle finger of his cybernetic left hand, sliding it down until it rested snug against the wolf ring.

  A single ring had changed everything.

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