ASCENDANCY -- The Den -- Day 1

  My hands had finally stopped shaking by the time we made it back to the den.

  I'm not gonna lie, almost getting my face ripped off by a raptor had a way of putting things in perspective. If Tim hadn't speared that thing right through its mouth and out the back of its skull, I'd be raptor shit right now. And if ARi hadn't taken control of Bishop and turned my familiar into a six-foot nightmare, the second raptor would've torn through the rest of us.

  Bishop walked beside me now, his six limbs moving with that unsettling fluid grace. Yellow eyes occasionally glanced up at me, and through the bond, I could sense his awareness. It was weird as hell having a murder robot as a companion, but after watching him tear through that raptor, I wasn't complaining.

  ARi had piloted him like she'd been doing it for years. Watching her become a killing machine was both incredible and deeply strange. She'd moved with confidence, precision, like she'd finally found a way to actually get her hands dirty in this world.

  Tanya and Yumi had held their ground too, even though I could tell they'd been terrified. Kyle had shown up ready to fight even though he'd been scared shitless. Late, but he'd still come running.

  The fight had only happened about a hundred and twenty-five yards from the den. That thought sat uncomfortably in my gut. Close enough that the raptors had probably been hunting us. Close enough that we'd gotten lucky they hadn't found us sooner.

  ARi had asked everyone to hold off on upgrading attribute points or picking skills until we could sit down and look at everything together. It made sense in theory. We could coordinate our builds, avoid redundancy, all that tactical shit. But after nearly dying? Part of me wanted to pump every available point into Constitution and call it a day. I wanted to not be so damn fragile.

  Once we approached the entrance to the den, I noticed something that caught my attention. The jagged crevice, the cave entrance we'd been crawling in and out of to get inside, was still there, but something was off. The details looked fuzzy.

  Curious, I reached my hand forward and passed it through what looked like solid stone.

  ARi was grinning from ear to ear. "I heard your conversation with Tim earlier, and I agree. We need to have a real entrance in and out. But I thought it'd be best if I tried to conceal it, so I'm using a projection."

  "That's brilliant, ARi," Yumi said as she passed through the projection.

  I followed, and we all found ourselves in a carved-out short corridor with a small set of steps leading down to a secure door. The door appeared reinforced and heavy, but it pushed open easily as we made our way into the den.

  As ARi walked through the doors, her projection faded, and I could see her standing in the middle of the large room.

  "ARi, I gotta be honest. I'm still trying to get used to you not being a projection and actually being here for real, but when we mix the two, it's a little weird."

  "I know, right?" she said. "I'm trying to find a way to transition, if you will, so it's not as weird. It's only gonna get weirder once you realize I can have multiple projections while still physically being in here. But how great is Bishop? That was amazing. You have no idea how powerful it felt to take control of him like that."

  Through the bond, I felt Bishop's attention shift toward us. He looked up at me and at ARi before making his way across the stone floor of the den. He turned in two circles and laid down by the hearth, settling in like he'd decided this was his spot.

  I looked to ARi, and back at the others, who were all staring at Bishop. "I'm getting the feeling Bishop might be more than a simple puppet for ARi to jump in and out of."

  The familiar's yellow eyes tracked our conversation, his head angling a little when his name came up. With an intelligence of two, he was supposed to be barely above animal-level reasoning. But that? That looked like personality.

  Excited, Yumi jumped in. "ARi, what was it like? Was it like being in one of those POV drones or something?"

  "It was incredible," she said. "It was like I was actually him. I could see through all of his sensors, and I could sense everything around me like I was there. The power and the speed were intoxicating. But he wasn't a puppet. Bishop was still there. I wasn't moving his legs; it was like I wanted to move, so he moved. The best way to describe it is that it was damn near symbiotic."

  While the girls talked, I looked around the den for the first time, seeing the changes that'd taken place since we left. Kyle and ARi must've been busy.

  The den had been excavated further. The wall where earlier we'd been putting ARi's stats on projections was stretched into a long rectangular table with benches. On the other side, the walls had been carved into alcoves with counter-like surfaces and storage shelves. Baskets full of berries, other fruit, and what looked like some kind of root or vegetable sat on the shelves. The entire den smelled of fresh-baked bread.

  Noticing where my attention had gone, Kyle came over and put his hand on my shoulder. "I used to make bread with my grandma when I was a kid. ARi told me it was possible to make a form of flour using some of the vegetation in the area, so we did. And we made bread. Can you believe it? I haven't tried it yet, but it smells amazing. That's not the best part though. ARi was able to make jars from the clay, and we actually have something that's kind of like jam."

  "I hope you guys don't mind. We had to spend some time researching the jars and the food. "

  I looked at him. "Kyle, this is amazing."

  Across from what I guess is our new pantry, a series of primitive cots has been set up; the bedding was made from the same material as our clothes.

  We were ravenous and exhausted, and I couldn't help but marvel at the progress. Kyle went straight to the pantry. He grabbed two loaves of fresh bread and one of the jars. He set the bounty in the middle of the long table. He invited the rest of us to join him.

  We tore into the food. After a minute, though, we all stopped eating and watched ARi. She hadn't tried food before. She'd never eaten. I think we were all curious how she'd experience it for the first time.

  She tore a piece of bread off, dipped it into the smashed berries, and took a bite. Her eyes grew huge, and she began shoving the food into her mouth. I couldn't help but laugh.

  "All right, Kyle. So you guys managed to figure out a little bit of food variety, which is probably gonna help keep us sane. And we got beds. We got a safe, warm place to be. There's one thing I don't know if you've taken into account yet."

  Kyle looked back at me with an off smile. "I think I know where you're going with this, Gavin, and you're right. It's not something we've figured out yet. It's a delicate topic."

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  ARi stopped shoveling food into her mouth and noticed we were all staring at her. "Why are you guys all looking at me? I'm starving. I've never eaten before. This is amazing!"

  I looked over at Tanya and Yumi. "You two get to explain the bathrooms to her."

  ARi looked back at me through squinted eyes, her expression flushed and annoyed. "Gavin Daniels, I know what the hell a bathroom is."

  The sudden realization hit her. "Oh my God. I'm gonna poop!"

  We all jumped up from the table. "No, not here, not now!" everybody shouted, trying to stop her.

  "I don't have to go right now, you idiots. I was realizing that it's probably an inevitability."

  "Okay," Yumi said, laughing. "We've gotta figure out what we're gonna do about a bathroom."

  "Well, I hate to be crude, especially now that we're trying to enjoy our first real food in a while, but we can probably come up with a simple septic system. I'll sit down with ARi and we'll figure it out."

  "If we're talking about facilities," Tanya said, "it might be a good idea to figure out a shower system too. I'm sorry, guys, but we're all getting a little ripe here."

  "I think I have some ideas that might work. ARi, can you show us a projection of the den?"

  "I can do better than that, Gavin," she said, her mouth still full. "Wave your hand over the table and think about what you want to see."

  I did as she asked, picturing a three-dimensional projection of the den. The projection snapped to life over the table. I grabbed the edges and turned it, manipulating it with my hands.

  "I feel like Tony Stark!"

  "Well, don't get too excited," Kyle replied. "This only works when you're close to ARi and inside the den."

  "Also, Jarvis is a scrub," ARi snapped.

  I experimented by picturing changes I wanted to make to the den. I could alter the projection. Modified areas appeared in a different color to show what I had in mind.

  "Here's what I'm thinking. We don't have access to powered pumps yet, but we can keep things simple. If we excavate and carve out an area for our smelters and forges, we can use heat to warm water. If we build a chamber below that area, gravity can pull creek water down to a reservoir we heat, and we could have hot showers."

  "We'll need research for forges and plumbing, but is there any limitation on what you can do in reshaping stone and bricks?"

  "No, not really," ARi said. "We'll have to figure out valves, but I don't see a reason we couldn't do this. For now, it's probably gonna be a shared bathroom situation, but we can plan for partitions and stalls."

  Tanya cut in. "Gavin, running hot water and plumbing is the difference between camping and a home."

  "Until we can implement changes, we'll pick a spot outside near the outcropping," I said.

  Yumi moved next to ARi and whispered something into her ear. ARi smiled, closed her eyes for a moment, and three rolls of what looked like simple toilet paper materialized on the table.

  Tanya looked at the rolls and up at Tim. "I love this place."

  "You know what's messed up?" I said, leaning back from the table. "The second I saw that tall grass by the creek, I knew there were gonna be velociraptors in it."

  "They're not velociraptors," ARi said, wiping berry jam from her mouth.

  "Close enough. Raptor-shaped murder lizards hiding in tall grass. Same difference."

  "Actually, they're Deinoraptor vicinus," ARi said. "And they're pretty different from Earth raptors. Did you notice the arms?"

  I thought back to the fight. "They had those weird double-jointed things, right?"

  "Exactly. The forearms have an extra articulation point that lets them grapple prey from multiple angles. It makes them way more effective at holding onto struggling targets." She grimaced. "Also, their brains are about thirty percent larger than a comparable Earth species. They hunt in coordinated packs with actual tactical thinking."

  "Great," Kyle muttered. "Smart murder lizards."

  "They've also got heat sensors along their snouts," ARi continued. "Like some Earth snakes, but more advanced. They can hunt in complete darkness by tracking body heat."

  "So they're smarter, better armed, and can see in the dark," Tanya said. "Wonderful."

  "On the plus side," ARi added, "they're cold-blooded despite their higher intelligence. Temperature drops at night slow them down significantly. That's probably why they attack during the day."

  "Still gonna call them raptors," I said.

  ARi rolled her eyes. "Of course you are."

  "All right," ARi said, "I know you guys want to assign attribute points and pick skills. But before we do that, I want to look at utility constructs and our options."

  She waved her hand, and the den projection disappeared. A new projection appeared above the table. It showed a four-legged construct with a central manipulator arm. The arm ended in a two-fingered gripper.

  "Basic hauler," ARi said, studying it. "Should be able to grab whatever I need and drag it back to our territory for me to absorb."

  Yumi leaned forward, reached up tentatively, and spun the projection. It rotated smoothly under her hand. "Wait, can I actually manipulate these too?"

  "Of course," ARi said. "You all can. The original reason for wanting you specifically in a virtual environment was valid. We all have contributions to add, and surviving this will be a team effort."

  Yumi grabbed the construct's center and pulled, stretching its body until it looked almost like a wiener dog. She frowned at the result, tilting her head. "This doesn't look stable. Can we add more legs?"

  "How many were you thinking?" ARi asked.

  Yumi glanced over at Bishop, still lounging by the hearth. She watched how his six limbs distributed his weight evenly, even when he was resting. "At least six. Maybe eight?"

  ARi made a small gesture, and six legs appeared along the body, spaced evenly. The construct immediately looked more balanced.

  "Better," Yumi said, rotating the projection again. "Wheeled or tracked vehicles might not work well in this environment. All that rough terrain, uneven ground." She gestured toward the entrance. "Watching Bishop move out there, the way his legs adapted to everything... I think we need that same flexibility for these things."

  She started sketching in the air above the projection. "What about a basket on the back? Big enough to carry maybe two-thirds of its width. With the ability to lift and dump."

  I studied what she was proposing. "Couldn't it use the manipulator arm to pick things out of the basket when it gets back?"

  "It could," Yumi said, "but think about efficiency. If it's hauling clay or ore, we want a quick turnaround. It dumps the load and heads back for more. No time is wasted unloading piece by piece."

  She had a point. I pulled the projection closer and started modifying it. I thickened the gripper arm, split it into four articulated fingers. Added a two-fingered blade assembly underneath that could close across the bottom. With the fingers gripped around a trunk and the blades closing, it would cut. With the fingers cupped and the blades closed beneath, it formed a bucket for scooping.

  "The composite materials should handle small-to-medium resources," ARi said, examining my changes. "Anything larger, we'll need metal upgrades. Also, if I scale these up significantly, they might consume multiple control points. But smaller ones like this? We could probably build several on a single point."

  I looked over at Tim, who'd been quiet while we worked. "You're thinking something."

  "Yeah." He glanced toward the entrance, toward where the raptor fight had happened. "I don't think the other races here are unaware of how this system works. If they can make flying constructs, swarms... they're going to find us. It's only a matter of time."

  "ARi, how many control points are needed to build two utility constructs bigger than Bishop but small enough to fit through the doors?" I asked.

  "One control point can build two such constructs. No additional research is required; the design changes are within current capabilities," ARi said.

  "Do it," I said. "Make two. Send them to retrieve the two dead raptors and bring them into the territory. Absorb them as soon as possible. If you can, have Bishop patrol around the utility constructs while they fetch the raptors."

  Bishop's head came up from where he'd been resting, yellow eyes fixed on me. Through the bond, I felt his acknowledgment. I felt a sense of understanding and readiness.

  He jumped to his feet, ran to the entrance, stood on his hind legs, opened the large wooden door, and sprinted out.

  "Gavin, I've created the constructs as near to the raptors as I could; they're moving. They're not as fast as Bishop, but they'll get the job done," ARi said.

  I concentrated and saw what Bishop saw from outside. The two constructs faded into existence and started moving.

  "We're not gonna be able to hide here, Gavin," Tanya said. "We don't have a real way to protect ARi right now except for pointy sticks and Bishop. We need to fortify our position; we need to turn this place into a bunker."

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