Chapter 46: Miracles of SCIENCE!

  “Arthur C. Clarke once wrote ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’.

  So, unless you can explain this tech, I’m a magical girl bitch!”

  –Neon Girl Happy Chan while debating with a reporter, 2039.

  ***

  I looked upon my deeds and smiled! Those motherload drones did some great work!

  We had teams working all over every fucking floor of the first section since HVAC got fixed. Oh, there had been ridiculous amounts of cleanup and repair work to do, but this? Actual. Fucking. Improvements!

  And repairs. Lots of them. So, so fucking many…

  I’d been adamant about waiting for non-poisonous air. Due to the size of a megabuilding, it took a while to no longer be ninety percent smoke stack after the entire system died a tragic and stupidly long overdue death. No idea how the damn thing held out for so long… for a generous definition of held out.

  A week after the incursion, the whole HVAC retrofit was done! Another one later? The air smelled cleaner than… Actually, I had no point of comparison! I’d never tasted air that clean!

  Water wouldn’t be solved for a little bit since the acid rain might just melt the pipes eventually. The drones needed to apply some sort of coating or some shit like that so they wouldn’t explode.

  At the moment, my very well paid people focused on repairing the ground floor’s… well, floor! I loved seeing it, the drones working in tandem with the army of workers we hired, all working relentlessly for damn good pay! All of them lived here and had families and friends that would benefit and argh! Happiness attack!

  Humans placed supports, molds and poured concrete, then the drones passed behind and cleaned up the little mistakes, flattened the surfaces, all that good stuff. I actually made an executive decision to make something special for the center. That highway would never be used, so why keep it there?

  Now, I replaced the center with a park! A beautiful one!

  Or… Well, it would be, in a bit. This, thankfully, only cost credits! I’d get bio-gened plants and stuff. Robin was throwing himself hard into that project! It was going to be amazeballs! Fully grown trees though… yeah, those were expensive as fuck! At least the gened ones that would fit inside and work with everything were. Took a while to grow a tree!

  We could buy seeds, but fucking hell that’d take an eternity. Still working on that little problem. No points to spare, after all…

  Nearby, a heavily guarded room held our new super fabricators! They’d start pumping out more samurai tech soon. We still had to wait on a few materials. I supplied a few blocks of Mole-Bear alloys along with a couple hard to find but point-efficient elements. The low amounts surprised me until my bestie brain buddy explained that they’d be used for internal components, which by definition required very little mass. Everyone already received the sidearms because of their production speed and cost (tons fit in the output thingy).

  I also bought the blueprints for the HFUGs ammo and that’s mostly what they focused on for the time being, along with any other system’s ammunition. They partially pumped out ammo for the future guns we’d make, which… I didn’t know why that hit a chord. Maybe the faith they had that shit wouldn’t go sideways massively?

  After asking Altany if buying all that tungsten with points kind of defeated the purpose, she claimed that since we fabricated it and supplied most of the other materials, it saved ninety-eight percent on the cost. Would not complain about that!

  Tons of materials delivered daily would become amazing samurai-grade weapons soon. Couldn’t fucking wait! Most of them were cheap, some even counted as industrial waste, yet became valuable when put through the recyclers, so we were getting fucking paid to get rid of it!

  Also, I reserved some fabricator time for our ‘enforcer neighborhood’ project. We had a couple stacked apartment sub-sections earmarked for that with renovations in progress. We’d knock down the floors between three apartment rows, make a nice place where my family and friends would be protected. The only way they’d be safe enough for my peace of mind? Shit-tons of security and bunker-level paranoid construction!

  It would be large enough for the families of all my enforcers, both living and dead, plus a lot of space to expand! Every one of them contributed to the shared point pool. I’d make sure that section could survive a goat fucking nuke and that the defenses could take on an army by themselves! Still missing points to make it as safe as I’d like though.

  I didn’t give a singular fuck about anyone’s opinion on my paranoia or whatever, my family and friends would be safe! That… shouldn’t happen. Upon completion, no MaxTac assholes could get to them, tactical smart rockets wouldn’t even dent the place, the defenses could take out a wave of antithesis without human input and on and on the list went!

  For fucking once they’d be… safe. The simple idea of it made a wave of relief flow through me…

  That whole thing turned into a project real quick, but Robin handled most of it, making sure they’d have access to amenities and comforts, that it wouldn’t isolate them from the community at large and tons of other stuff I knew jack-shit about.

  Training was going well for the new enforcers, but I’d need to find some aliens to kill for them or they wouldn’t grow like the ones that fought during the incursion.

  Huh… Apparently, the protectors made killing aliens the solution to all of life’s problems! I could get the logic and appreciate it, being the one who’s problems were getting solved! I loved to fight plus good for all of mankind or whatever, so no complaints here!

  “Altany, this is a fucking miracle, you know that, right?” I asked my favorite AI in the whole wide fucking world!

  By definition, since I overlooked the entire process from start to finish and no supernatural events occurred, it cannot be a miracle.

  I rolled my eyes hard! “You know what I mean! Come on! Altany, look at this! My people are working, earning honest money, building a mother fucking park! This is fucking insane!” I shouted inside my armor. A fucking park! For… like, just having a park! Blew my fucking mind!

  Your use of profoundly inaccurate language is distressing, but I understand the feeling you are trying to convey. You did good work, Louis.

  I shook my head. “We did good work, Altany. None of this would be possible without you. Look at them! Look at their faces! You did that. You provided the materials and the equipment and… everything! That not even taking into account how much of everything you’re organizing! You should be proud!”

  There was a beat of clearly artificial silence. I might have struck a cord.

  Thank you, I will take the compliment as it was intended. In any case, you earned the points, but I understand my part in this and gain satisfaction from that understanding. So, yes we did good work.

  I nodded, satisfied. There had been a lot of running around, installing stuff like cameras, buying equipment we hadn’t thought of. Lots of work still needed doing and would take a while.

  On top of that, this would only be repairs. Actually renovating, improving? Fucking hell that’d take a lot longer. That also meant work for my people for the foreseeable future! Not only that, those renovated locations might get filled with businesses, which would create more jobs for those without at the moment!

  I felt giddy excitement like never before! My cheeks hurt and butterflies filled my stomach!

  Oddly, one of the easiest projects would be revamping the parks in the central concourse of every section. All of them were deader than dead even before we eradicated all the antithesis shit that might have been in them. Now? We just had to buy dirt and hire some dudes that could plant pre-grown trees and shit! I could steal trees, right? Would that work? They might fit on a troop transport…

  We had a lot of money, as in a ridiculous amount. Altany’s daemons would have made me rich enough to buy our floors without almost any starting investment, but Laser Jack’s AI’s assistance and his added capital raised profits into the stratosphere!

  My points were running dangerously low however. After equipping my enforcers, buying the therapy AI, helping the newly freed slaves, etc… I only had a thousand to spare.

  It’d be my buffer, just in case. If there was an emergency or a surprise incursion or something, it’d be vital.

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

  In order to keep that reserve, I had to be a bit cheaper. Actually, no, more… point efficient. When we finally had time –and the points– I’d check out the enforcer candidate list Altany made. However, for now, I just didn’t have enough.

  I hadn’t been avoiding it! Not at all! I just… Whatever…

  The therapy AI, who named itself Bob, and I were working on my issues.

  Also, the newbies hadn’t all specialized! Right, better to wait. All of them kept training, getting commando’d up, but mostly using basic equipment and my baseline training regiment. Still had to work with many of them in person to fix that. The current training was important, marksmanship, tactics, moving in combat, hand-to-hand, etc… but they could be so much more. A few had found their thing, but most didn’t. Personal attention required.

  I started walking off. I needed to do stuff. No idea what, but I wanted to. “Altany, what could I do? Our home still needs a lot of work. Can’t sit on my ass…”

  There are several options. You could train the new enforcers?

  I shook my head. “Nah, it’s what I do with most of my time…”

  You could help with manual labor using your prodigious strength.

  I slowly nodded. “Could be an option…”

  You could check in on the progress of various endeavors personally?

  I nodded more firmly. “Yeah, good idea… It’ll give me an idea on what to prioritize. Call Lila please.”

  Connecting through vastly superior net framework, also known as Altanet.

  I chuckled and rolled my eyes. A moment later, Lila answered. “Hi panboss! What can I do for you?” She sounded upbeat! The miracles never ceased.

  “Hey Lila! Just wanted to check in, see how things are going. How are the new arrivals adapting?”

  “Oh, really well. Some decided to get back into the red light district, others are living comfortably until there is a job for them. A few used to have useful professions, you know? Teachers, plumbers etc… We’re still cataloguing. That adapted mod is also making the rounds. You know, the fun one!”

  I remembered. Organ elasticity, which I ended up taking and yes, it tightened me up. I could also stretch much more, which had been quite…

  I shook myself. “That’s awesome! Is Johnny helping with the points? I know I bought quite a few of the modified just for sex version, but I can’t imagine only that many used it, right?” Said modified version hadn’t been overly expensive, just a single or double suppository, depending on equipment. I didn’t mind the spending because, well, it changed a lot of lives! Just like it did for Robin.

  Living with the side-effects had been extremely difficult on him. Dealing with it had involved copious amounts of encouragement and reassurance, but having that shit fixed!? Fuck that was amazing.

  “Oh, don’t worry, Johnny helped and I even used some of my own points. Couldn’t give it to everyone, but those who really needed them got them.” Of course Lila would do the self-sacrifice thing. I couldn’t blame her since I did the same. “Some of those with it got back to the brothels with some impressive results. Clients are happy! I made sure they were well and willing. More points would be nice but what’s new?” I could hear the shrug in her voice.

  “Right now we’re doing renovation since the upstairs brothels were pretty… disgusting. There’s still business through our old ones, seems we absorbed most of the old client base. Things are going pretty good so far! Hoping to ramp up massively later too. Not turning a profit yet but that’s very much expected. I’m adding features with the renovations that might bring in more clients.”

  I nodded again. No need for me then. “Coolsies, hit me up if you need anything!” I got a quick ‘awesome possum’ and moved on. “Call Robin please!” I asked Altany with a smile.

  Connecting through the flawless and perfectly coded Altanet.

  She’d milk that one for a while, eh? Well, the AI’d earned it. “Thank the mesh for the amazing Altanet.” I said in joking extreme seriousness. To my surprise, Robin reacted.

  “I know right? It’s so much faster and smoother! Altany must really have done a lot of very good work to make it this amazing!” I recognized Robin’s ‘lots of praise to boost confidence’ tone. I decided not to interfere.

  “So, love of my eternity, how are things going? Need any help or something? How’s everyone, you know people better than I do.” I asked, somehow hoping for something to do and for there to be nothing to do.

  “Oh, things are good, morale is high, people are working, it’s great! With all the cleanup we need to do, we’re damn lucky to have such a dedicated workforce. It’s basically the dream of every corporation to have people this invested! Our economy’s pretty great given the circumstances. Already our neighbors are starting to love us with all the increased business.”

  “People have more money, some of them spend it on filling a need in the community, which creates more jobs and that doesn’t even touch our renovations. It would be better if they spent their cash here, but we’re not done rebuilding so it’s to be expected. This’ll take a while. We also have to be careful with some of the cleanup crews going deep in the building. Already, those trackers from Laser Jack probably saved lives.”

  That sobered me up a bit. Antithesis were good at hiding in corners, and a building the size thirty-five small towns stacked on top of each other? Yeah, that created the greatest hide-and-seek playground of all time… Fuck. “We’re thankfully buying a lot of stuff with credits instead of points, which helps a ton, but still…”

  Alright, I’d call that good! Working people had the credits to improve their lives and those of people around them! I’d call that amazing progress! Had to be careful about the xenos but Laser Jack gave us tools for that.

  It… okay, that was a great gift. Didn’t forgive what he did! However, yeah, it helped. “How’s the vent and whatever cleanup? I know those drones are supposed to do something, right?” I furrowed my brows. Someone mentioned it in a meeting maybe?

  “Yeah, those flying things sometimes spray some nasty stuff in the pipes and vents, but thanks to our workforce, we’re able to evacuate the needed areas. That ‘work with organics’ thing in their programming is useful, lets people participate. They can actually interact and cooperate with the workers! It’s amazing, honestly. Thank you sincerely Altany, you did great work.”

  It is my pleasure to assist.

  Oh, she sounded all proud and mighty. I wouldn’t dissuade her. “How are the new arrivals? Socially I mean? I’m not great at that stuff.”

  “Oh, they’re fantastic! On one hand, they feel incredibly grateful, which leads to wanting to repay the kindness and serve the community. That means they’re being very nice with everyone. It might have lead to a problem where they’d become somewhat subservient through their conduct. Thankfully, there’s a lot of us who share the experience and we’re making sure they know that they’re just like us! We all feel grateful, that feeling aimed mostly at you and the enforcers in one way or another, and we make sure they feel a sense of belonging.”

  Robin, being his perfect self, worded it in a way I could understand! It always helped to have a logical chain that made sense. “Did some of them get adopted? I know some were… way too fucking young…” I said, a weight pressing on my heart and bad feelings trying to invade my mind.

  ‘No, focus on the good, they’re free because of us. They get to live good lives because of us!’

  Altany, of course aware of my subvocalized self-peptalk, answered kindly.

  Indeed. You have given large quantities of innocent people the opportunity to grow and live happy, fulfilling lives. You should feel proud, Louis.

  I nodded at myself, smiled and mouthed ‘thanks’ at Altany while Robin talked. “Yes, we had many adoptions but most decided to share apartments. Since tons of them know and survived with each other, they feel safest together. It helps us make sure they all get living space. However, we’re trying to make sure they still interact with the community at large and integrate. It’s not easy since lots of them still feel suspicious, which I get! Even I feel like shit’s too good to be true these days!”

  “The very, very shortened version: Shit’s great, don’t need help you’ve done plenty. I’m sure you’re needed somewhere else, go! I’m managing just fine, my sexy overprotective papa bear.” Robin purred the last part, doing things to my body. Still…

  “Not a fucking bear…” I muttered before Robin laughed and cut the call.

  Alright, next thing! Which was… “Uh… Altany, help? What’s the next thing?”

  There are many, but few that concern you or that you could move along. The cancer eradication program is being implemented, but it’s a slow process, in part to prevent gathering industry attention. Doctor Portia Nykas and her husband are taking care of the Peach-Trees side of the operation with remarkable dedication. That is, both to the task and the secrecy. I am ensuring that no deaths will occur until it is finished and that the worst cases are handled first.

  You cannot rush the delivery of materials for the militia’s equipment and the fabrication of vanguard-grade ammunition is running smoothly.

  Clean running water should be available within nine days and you have already ordered a delivery to handle the missing supplies.

  There is nothing to handle in regard to the therapy AI since I am handling the schedule.

  You could speak with Johnny Law on the matter of security?

  “Ah! Yes, call him please.”

  Connection established through the unassailable Altanet.

  I chuckled as Johnny answered. “Howdy! What can I do you for?”

  “Hey Johnny! Wondered if there was anything I could do for security? Need any help?”

  “Nah, there ain’t no issues. The new cameras and security AI are doing their job well. I’d like more cameras and scanners, sure, but guess it can wait ‘till we get more xeno bastards to destroy.”

  Huh. Welp, moving on. “Good to hear! How’re you and Francis doing? Robin told me you were grabbing some food together?” Even through the audio-only call, I could tell the poor guy blushed hard!

  “Wha– it… it ain’t like that! Just grabbin’ lunch is all! He’s nice and funny and all but that… it don’t mean we’re together or anythin’!” Oh boy, the poor man had a crush!

  Thankfully, I knew Francis well. He’d take his time, wouldn’t push anything on him and go slow. Johnny’s upbringing made things more difficult, but they’d get there!

  Jesus I’d miss that dick. Great girth, shape, everything… I caught my brain before it could spiral into some fun memories. Welp, Johnny would get to enjoy it! A happy friend would absolutely make up for the loss a thousand and one times!

  “Well, whatever he is to you, I’m glad you’re getting along!”

  “Friends! Jus’ friends!”

  “Sure thing, bud. Have fun!” Then, I cut the call. It took a bit for me to stop laughing. “Man, should I send him a picture of Francis’s dick to speed things along? It is pretty amazing.” I asked Altany, still giggling like an idiot.

  In my estimation, it may speed things along but also has a high chance of backfiring massively and damaging their budding relationship. Also, please don’t sully my perfect network.

  If my abs weren’t made of alien alloys, they’d hurt like hell. “Oh, sweety, It’s cute you think there isn’t sex stuff on it already.”

  I ran a search. I have no idea why the protectors decided to save your race. Disgusting.

  It took a full minute before I could speak coherently (from the floor).