Never leave a clever engineer with free time. You never know what mischief they will get up to.

  – Attributed to R. Goldberg

  I let the drones do the work, and only supervised them. This let me spend a lot more time with Sherry. A sixth city of the original eight signed on three months later. The big surprise was when, a week later, Valentine NE signed up. They wanted in on the goodies. I had already set up the Fortress of Solitude twenty miles south of the abandoned fort of Reliance NT in Canada. After it had enough time to create the outer shell, I informed the Family I was behind the experiment in automation. I asked they keep it from the public for now, until I could see how well it performed.

  I decided Valentine would be a good way to reveal my new delivery system for my hex. I called and asked to speak with the city’s representative for the hex placement part of the agreement. As it would take three days to generate the cargo for the YT, I made an appointment to meet them at the location four days from now. Along with making the appointment, I sent a list of initial and available modules. I wanted them to select what they wanted. When I arrived, there was a PMC at the site, clearly gawking as my ship came closer.

  After I landed, I lowered the ramp, and walked down to meet them. “Hello everyone. Who am I supposed to meet?”

  At that, one woman stirred, and came to meet me with one of the PMCs beside her.

  “That would be me, Miss Calamity. I am Sarah Caruthers, of the Bureau of Land Management of Valentine. Nice ship.”

  “It’s a cargo ship, but for what it is, it works well. Would you like to step inside so we can lay out the hex?”

  “Sure.”

  I waved to them to follow, and went back up the ramp. As we entered, the PMC Captain asked, “Is this really the Falcon?”

  “In appearance it is. It can even get you off the planet, but not to other stars.”

  Technically it can, but it needs a lot to be spaceworthy

  “How much did it cost?”

  “Close to four hundred thousand after catalogs.” I was ignoring Ysys’ comment for now.

  “That’s quite a lot.”

  Before I had a chance to reply, Sarah elbowed the Captain, and said, “I see you have the city laid out on the map table. Can you show me the hex?”

  I cause the hex to appear somewhat to the side of the city, and said, “Don’t worry about the walls not lining up with the city. We can shape them however you like with about the same land area. Likewise, adding a few more openings won’t really change things, as that is done on the fly. However, you do need to site my quarter, and where you want your Arc printer and other selected buildings. Please, sit.”

  She did, but the captain stood to her side. I also sat and explained how to use the system. Within a few minutes we had the wall layout. It took nearly an hour to lay the rest out, even though I had sent the dimensions of all the various things days ago. Finally, she locked in the result.

  Pointing to the pilot area, I said, “It’s a little cramped up there, but you are welcome to watch the initial setup.”

  “How long will that take?”

  “Just a few minutes. But first, we need to move the PMC to an open area. There’s one over there.” I pinged a location on their augs, and the Captain ordered his people to relocate. Once they were out of the way, I lifted off and settled about a hundred feet off the ground, slowly traversing the area. After a deep scan, the first thing I offloaded was a set of construction spiders. They prepared spaces for an Arc printer and a power plant, which I then offloaded. This was the one for my usage. Then I went to where the city’s Arc would go, and did the same. By this time, the first Arc was hooked up, and producing power cables. The drones soon connected the other Arc to the power plant, and it started running.

  Even as they produced stuff, I was circling both areas, and offloading quite a few structures, vehicles, and drones. My Arc created several construction spiders, one attack spider, plenty of spider crew, and several swarms of locust. All but the construction spiders started circling the scanned area to ensure there was no trace of antithesis before I started putting structures up.

  The next bit to be deployed were the AIs and the communications hub. A second batch of spiders and locusts were made and sent out to scan the perimeter. I followed in the ship, offloading wall sections. The construction drones would need to attach them together, and seal them and put the additional gate sections in later, but in half an hour there was a perimeter enclosing the hex. It shared a portion of the city wall with a gate. I then went back and landed near the PMC, and deployed safety drones to highlight the safe locations so the PMC could leave.

  “It will take a few days before everything is finished, but you can easily check the status anytime. Any issues, call me.” I sent over the site contact code, and left.

  On the way back, I said, “Well, Ysys, that went smoothly. Do you think it was well received?”

  Quite well, in fact. There are many long range clips of the YT currently online, generating much interest. There are even a few that had to have been taken by the PMCs. And the PMC Captain? He was apparently recording, as another short video just went online with the inside of the ship. You are in it also, both from the back as we walked in, and later sitting down by the map. Those clips are going insanely popular.

  By the time we arrived at my enclave, it was clear the paparazzi were out in force to see the new ship. I ordered the hologram hanger door to open, and guided the YT in. Then, instead of walking down the ramp, I strutted. As I left the hanger, the door closed. I headed to the nearest clump of paparazzi and held a quick interview.

  “Hey folks. Like my new ship? Only took me about half an hour to get Valentine’s hex started. Any questions?”

  What followed was a feeding frenzy that only grew the longer it lasted. Only half the questions were about the ship or the alliance. I called it after an hour and a half. Then I said goodbye, and walked up into the air and past them to my home.

  Not long after, I got a message from Soundbite. “You’re such a nerd. Nice ride.”

  Best thing was that I wasn’t away from Sherry for very long.

  That evening there was a small incursion near the city. I sent over one of my attack spiders, but when I saw one of the new Samurai, I told her that I would watch and let her handle things. If she called for help, or was about to go down, I would intervene, but otherwise, it was up to her. A few hours later, that incursion was dealt with and I didn’t have to do a thing. But it did get me to thinking.

  “Ysys, do a lot of Samurai just sit back and watch lesser Samurai gain points?”

  Yes. The culture of mentorship is quite strong among the Vanguard. Not just this world, either.

  “How large an area do the higher tier Samurai tend to cover?”

  A number of factors come into play. Vanguard density of the area, and the mentor’s speed of travel are two of the most significant. You have a bit above average distance, but about as average number of lower tier Vanguard. I expect it is because of the Dragonfly, and your demonstrated ability to mentor the young Storm Lord.

  “Hm… I’d rather leave the Dragonfly here to cover the city. My other ship is more a business ship than a Samurai one. Yet I might be called on a moment’s notice. I’ve opened up some new catalogs recently. What can I do to allow myself a greater ability to travel?”

  It seems you have all the tactical speed you want, for now, but you want long distance speed. You have some flight, but better flight seems to be indicated. The Power Utility Belt 4G for five thousand points contains ten dimensional pockets. One of which holds a matter energy power pack capable of powering a field of directional gravity allowing you an acceleration equivalent of 10G in any direction. This field can be used to allow you to walk on ceilings, to being able to lift small buildings just by being close.

  “Nice. How big are those pockets?”

  You can easily fit a pair of Zin Attack Spiders or a medium sized truck.

  “What about control? Aim?”

  While you can control the direction of fall, it might be easier to use your existing jet pack flight to fine tune it, since you are already quite capable in controlling it.

  “I bet I could put in a construction spider, several spider crew, and a few locust swarms all in one pocket to make a do it yourself hive cleanup kit. Okay. Get the blueprints and print one up.”

  Blueprints for Power Utility Belt 4G – 50000 points

  New Total – 1,682,775 points, 9 tokens

  Over the next few days, I played around with it, and soon learned to control it. Then I got an alarming notification from the Fortress of Solitude. It had completed its initial build, and was a full fledged parked spaceship. It was in the process of cleaning the neighborhood, and had begun work near Reliance, and encountered some significant antithesis. Ones in the twenties. Tracking them back, they came from the Great Slave Lake nearby. An initial probe indicated a large hive, with at least some models in the thirties.

  There was no immediate need to deal with it, as there was no one stupid enough to live anywhere near, but I did tell the Family about it in case someone wanted points. They informed me that they would pass along the information, but that aquatic capable Samurai are scarce and busy. It might be a while before anyone dealt with it. They did ask that I monitor the area, and pass along the data to them, so I had the ship’s weekly report also sent to them.

  “Ysys, what can I do to make myself able to operate underwater without needing to worry about antithesis breaking my machines?”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Giving you the ability to breath underwater and withstand the pressure would be the minimum. Your Super Soldier catalog does have such, but to handle models in the thirties, You’re going to need some equipment. An armored diving suit would be best, but if you get blindsided, you could be severely injured and would need to be extracted. An alternative would be to drain the lake. Then you would not need to deal with the water, and aquatic antithesis are easier to deal with on land.

  “That doesn’t sound like there are any great choices there. Also, as a new mother, I really don’t want to risk my own life. What if I opened another catalog?”

  The Class III Super Soldier Body catalog for six thousand points and three tokens combined with your other catalogs can allow you a remote body with all your current abilities and perhaps more. The best part is that the brains in such a body can be used to augment your own thought processes. In essence, it would be a class three clone, but modified.

  “Oh, I like that. And if we’re bumping the body’s abilities, why don’t we bump everything I already have to the best equivalent in class three. What all would the be?”

  Just upgrading your existing items would be near two hundred thousand points. It would also take almost two months to handle everything. However, with the Zircon Cloning Module for twenty thousand points, the time for a clone preloaded with everything would only be one week. However, customization could add some time to it.

  “I do like. Lets go for it, but again, blueprints for everything. If a clone dies, I don’t want to spend more points. And let’s print a new set of equipment as well for the clone. As for customization, this clone will need to deal with cold and wet, so how about light blue hair and eyes, as well as accents like her lips and such. Can you set up a visual for color choices?”

  Opened Class III Super Soldier Body catalog – 6000 points, 3 tokens

  Blueprints for assorted Super Solider Body items – 190000 points

  Gill adaptation – 1200 points

  Depth adaptation – 3000 points

  Cold adaptation – 1500 points

  Blueprints for Zircon Cloning Module – 200000 points

  Blueprints for Mesh Hyperlink Mental Link – 15000 points

  Other assorted blueprints – 10000 points

  Aesthetic Customization Module – 1300 points

  New Total – 1,254,775 points, 6 tokens

  An image formed in my augs of my nude self. To the side was a selector, and below that a color wheel. At the bottom was a texture style bar. I started on the eyes, and made icy light blue eyes. Then I colored the hair a bluish white. I thought about changing the length, but decided to leave it be for now. Then I selected the lips, and made them an icy blue like the eyes. I was surprised that the lip color also controlled the naughty bits as well. Satisfied, I had Ysys start the cloning process as soon as it could be done.

  I had to wait for tomorrow evening for the cloning module to complete. It started a self checkout that would not finish until the middle of the night, so I let it be, and played with Sherry. The next day, Ysys asked me to head into the Field Medical System to begin treatment.

  A sample was taken, and then I was given the first shot, and the first synthetic upgrade. I was only out for an hour, but Sherry noticed my absence. A few days later, it was time for another shot and upgrade. I waited until Sherry had fallen asleep before getting on the table. Yet another few days, and I had another upgrade. But this time after waking, Ysys directed me to the cloning module. I went and checked on Sherry. She was still sleeping, so I went to the module. When I got there, Ysys spoke even as it opened.

  Behold, here is sleeping beauty. Currently in stasis. The connections supporting her in this state will disconnect as she activates. What are you going to name the body?

  I hadn’t thought of that, but I was able to think fast. “Azure. Can you tell me more about what she will be like?”

  Just as your secondary brain began blank, so too will her brains be blank. The hyperlink was installed in you today, but she was cloned with it already in place, along with other hardware. She needs to be in very close proximity to you for a week or so, to allow enough thought duplication to collect so she can operate autonomously to care for herself. And when you focus on controlling her body, it will have a side effect of improving the duplication rate of the mind.

  “So, how do I activate her?”

  Same way as Prince Charming did. A nice long sensual kiss. That will trigger the start of the mental cloning, as well as help you both deeply focus on that link.

  I looked over the nude body and saw it was almost exactly the same as me. The only thing I noticed beyond the color changes, was very faint lines at the neck where there were supposed to be gills. I leaned over her, and gave her a kiss as instructed. I felt a faint mental click, and then a small thread of indistinct thought as I connected to the new brains. Then suddenly, her tongue was in my mouth, kicking the kiss up a notch. I instinctively reacted and put mine in her mouth, as though it was a lesbian kiss. Next, her arms wrapped about me and pulled us together, even as she sat up.

  We must have kissed nearly a minute before it broke. Azure pulled her head back and stared into my eyes. I could feel her need for me, and even an echo of her Cuckoo empathy of me. I then focused on taking control of her body, even as I sat next to her. I had her stand, and then walk over to the table with a duplicate set of Samurai equipment. Once fully equipped, I had her trigger the ring to pull her equipment and clothing off. Then I had her dress in the other set of regular clothes that was left on the table.

  I released my focus, and got up. I went to play with Sherry, and was surprised Azure was following me and staying very close.

  “Ysys, will she be this close the whole time?”

  No. You can order her to remain in a place while you go off and do something, but that will slow the mental duplication. Also, if you focus and do whatever through her body, that will speed duplication.

  So, since Sherry was so young, I remained with her, but focused on Azure and had her do most of the playing. Eventually it came time for me to head to bed. As she followed me, I realized she would probably sleep with me as well. So I focused on controlling her, and got her ready for bed, even as I also got ready. Then we headed into the shower, and still focusing, I had her wash me even as I washed her. Once in bed, we spooned, and went to sleep.

  Dreams that night were odd. They felt both familiar and exploratory. They were also somewhat sexual. When I woke in the morning, I found her hand cupping my breast. She woke at the same moment. I ignored it, and got dressed and headed to Sherry’s room. I picked her up and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. Rather than juggle Sherry and making breakfast, I focused on Azure and she made breakfast.

  Next, I built a training pool in my new hanger. I had Azure use my stealth cloak to shadow me as I walked over to it, carrying Sherry. I focused and had her remove the coat, and then get in the water. Currently, there was fresh water in it, and so I had Azure swim for a bit before trying out the gills. That’s when the first problem appeared. I had no idea how to swim. At least the gills were fine. Next, I tried some combat forms I knew. I wanted to see how well they worked underwater.

  And the answer was, apparently, poor. So I tried increasing the local gravity for Azure to keep her feet in contact with the bottom of the pool. That helped, but she had less traction than she needed to keep her footing. It’s all that pesky water’s fault. I already knew bullets were generally a bad idea underwater due to friction and cavitation when going too fast. Likewise plasma wouldn’t work well as it would cool off and create steam, as well as having even less mass to push through.

  I had Azure enter the ship, and use its facilities to get dry and to dry her clothes. Then we returned back home with her wearing the cloak. All told we were in there less than an hour. I could fix one thing fairly simply. I had Azure get one of my visors, and had Ysys buy an underwater combat training module for it, and had her go through it.

  Basic Underwater Combat – 5 points

  New Total – 1,254,850 points, 6 tokens

  “Ysys, looks like this will be more difficult that I initially thought. Can you transform the training pool from a simple pool into a full fledged dojo and firing range, with hard light targets. Be sure it has a hefty backstop so I don’t accidentally cause problems when one of us shoots at it.”

  I will convert it to something far better suited to the combat training she is now learning. There will be some bleed of the training into you.

  “I expect that. I also plan to take it after her, so I can spar with her. Next problem: mobility. I can glide well with some hard light wings. Even fly with an assist. Can such be made to help swim?”

  There are two methods. The first is essentially underwater flight. It would be the same as in the air with smaller wings, but instead the jet pack pushes water out the back. Additionally, it can be placed higher on the back rather than to the sides. But for sheer speed, a towing engine is the most efficient and somewhat quieter. But for true silence, you can skip the speed assist and have the hard light provide webbed hands and fins on your feet.

  “If I truly need speed, I’m in trouble, and need to leave the water. On the other hand, I think I need to think like a shark, and always be in motion. What do you have for the underwater flight choice? It needs to go real deep also.”

  In that case, I would suggest the Dutchman Mark Three for six hundred points. Designed for transporting troops into combat from a distance, the Dutchman uses force fields to control the currents produced and encountered. While the Mark One goes over three hundred miles an hour in straight line underwater, the higher class Mark Two goes over five hundred miles an hour. The Mark Three can hit eight hundred miles per hour. It is also rated to pressures half again what is encountered in the deepest parts of your oceans.

  In addition to speed, it also manifests a force field based exoskeleton. It is not an strength aid like most such, but rather a highly controlled method of mobility. Simply use your augs to control the flow through the force field paths, and you can aim your arms and legs to apply offset leverage, allowing you to turn about your center of mass with this flow. Likewise, your lesser wings will grab the surrounding water and apply control the same way you control your gliding.

  “That sounds good. Lastly, weapons. Mine aren’t suitable for underwater combat. What do you suggest? It needs to be able to take out models in the thirties.”

  The largest problem of kinetic weaponry is the friction of the water. What if we got rid of the interaction between the bullet and the water? The Ympaler 69 for twelve hundred points is a modified rail gun. It uses a dimensional shift to make the ammo phase through water. It is only able to keep the ammo out of phase with the water within one mile. Combined with your augs, you can even have it phase through obstacles that don’t have dimensional characteristics. Obstacles like walls, people, or even tough hide of some antithesis.

  For short range, I recommend Dimensional Daggers for three hundred points. These fingerless gloves generate extensions to your fingers that are essentially a planar interface shaped somewhat like claws. These will cut through almost anything, and will serve well at knife range. Again, you use your augs to control size and if they are on.

  “That should work. Get the blueprints, and print two sets. Also, print dimensional magazines for the Ympaler and fill with a variety of ammo that I like to use.”

  Blueprints for Dutchman Mark Three – 6000 points

  Blueprints for Ympaler 69 – 12000 points

  Blueprints for Dimensional Daggers – 3000 points

  New Total – 1,233,850 points, 6 tokens

  “I guess that’s it for today. I still need to do the training, and then we can practice in the underwater range.”

  After playing some more with Sherry, I fed her, and lay her down in her drone. After I was sure she was asleep, I went into my office to catch up on my paperwork.

  Later that day, Azure brought me the visor with the lessons, and I gave her enough focus to handle Sherry while I took the training. Oddly, it all seemed a little familiar. I guess I did get some bleed through from Azure’s training. I took a break for dinner, and for feeding Sherry again, but I completed the training before it was time to go to bed. I wasn’t surprised when Azure followed me into bed and spooning with me.

  The next few days we spent a lot of time underwater. I also bought a nanny-bot for Sherry. Inspired by Teddy’s own bots, it was shaped like a teddy bear about three feet tall. It had an AI that let it care for any child up through five years old. But it needed supplies, so I dedicated another drone to fetch whatever it needed from one of the printers. But I wanted to be the one to feed her, so I gave my instructions that I was to handle that. I also gave it a point budget in case I overlooked something. I also opened a nursery catalog.

  Class I Nursery Catalog – 40 points

  Blueprints for Nanny Bear – 1200 points

  Nanny Budget – 1000 points

  New Total – 1,231,650 points, 6 tokens

  Finally, Ysys indicated Azure was ready for this mission. The mental synchronization was sufficient.

  “Azure, I am sending you north to see if you can clear a hive. First go to the Fortress of Solitude and familiarize yourself with the situation and environment. That will be your home base for the mission. Ysys, I want to allocate her some points to use should she need anything.”

  While you can allocate a pool of points, she cannot use them unless you are near. Nor can I deliver to her unless you are rather close.

  “Shit. Is there a way for her to get things farther from me?”

  There are two ways. One is a point tax per delivery of ten percent per additional mile. The other is equipping both of you with a teleport transfer system.

  “How does that teleport system work?”

  The simplest version is a Dual Access Purse for two thousand points. It is a paired set of purses that share the same dimensional pocket. However, the pocket is small, only a foot and a half, so it cannot transfer large things. Lastly, it is limited to a range of about one hundred miles. A more complex method is a Small Item Teleport Transmitter for three thousand points with a corresponding Small Item Teleport Receiver for six hundred points. While you could send your Overwatch, you could not send a Zin Attack Spider with it. It has about half the range. With more points, the limits can be increased.

  “If I was in the Fortress, and we used the latter system, then it would work.”

  Yes, but you will not gain full value of the points due to distance. However, if you were within ten miles of her, the loss would be minimal. This is since you are essentially controlling her remotely, and so counts as you. Rather like when you were controlling all those missile systems when Phobos attacked.

  “I see. Azure, new plan. Sherry and I will be going with you. We’ll relax within, but when it is time to attack, I’ll be top cover in the ship. We’ll leave in a few days. I need to coordinate with others first.”

  I had Ysys get the blueprints for the Small Item Teleport system, and after I printed two sets, practiced sending things in both directions.

  Blueprints for Small Item Teleport Transmitter – 30000 points

  Blueprints for Small Item Teleport Receiver – 6000 points

  New Total – 1,195,650 points, 6 tokens

  As it was quite dangerous, I made sure to update my will via Ysys. I wanted to insure all my business interests and civilization building interests could continue without me. Going through the process, I learned I could bequest points to allocated pools like the one I defined for medical stuff, and I could also give points to other Samurai. Not tokens though. When I alerted the council, there was a little squawking, but nothing came of it. The Family’s response was more panicked, but again, there was nothing they could do.

  The day came to leave, and we headed north to the Fortress of Solitude.