(Author's note; halfway through this I realize I'm not exactly happy with the whole timeschale of this chapter. But at the same time it shows off the complete death of time, from Taban's perspective. So, whatever.)

WIth a few wriggles back and forth Taban was able to remove the parts he needed to create his newest invention. Now he laid them out on a broken table that wasn't even close to replacing his workbench. He needed tools, but had nothing but his hammer. He reached for a long scrap of metal and started hitting one end until it flatted considerably. "That there is my new screwdriver." He bent it double so he had more of a solid grip on it. With it he was able to further strip down the machine. Meticulously he organized every part and doodad from small to big in a straight line.

"and this came from here…and there…"

'What are you doing?" The old man slowly approached his new workbench.

"I don't know…yet."Taban removed another part from the robot's inner workings and laid it next to the others. Then, it struck him. One of the metal strips was bent just like Lucca's G.U.N. With a few modifications he could use that as a start to create his own gun. Taban had everything he needed.

Carefully he attatched the energy box to the underside of the bent strip. He used a few wires to create a solid "basket" that would keep the box in it's place. After connecting two wires to the box he cut them in half. They would make for a simple circuit breaker. Now, he attatched the long cylinder that had produced the beam of light on the front end, attatching two wires to it as well. He completed his design by strapping a movable strip of metal to the middle of the device. If he pulled the string on with his left hand the gun would produce a beam…in theory.

Careful not to break it he removed it from his workbench. He tossed the smallest scrap of metal on the floor and aimed his gun at it. After pulling the wire the electrical circuit was completed and the cylinder came to life, producing a short beam that knocked the metal scrap across the floor.

"What…is that?"

"A gun, At least, that's what my daughter called it. I don't think it works on her level of physics though. So technically speaking, it's not a gun."

The old man gave Taban a confused look.

"Nevermind." Taban went back to his workbench. Gently he pulled the wire. The gun only produced a light that seemed to have no effect. Carefully he placed the tip of his finger under the light, and felt nothing. He then took aim at another scrap, and pulled the wire again. The beam didn't just knock the scrap away, but it immediately punched a small hole through the table as well.

"Holy…." Taban had severely underestimated the capacities of his new toy…weapon. Carefully he laid it down on the workbench, thinking about a way to prevent the gun from firing on accident and burning through his leg. A kind of safety, security.

With the extra light of the gun Taban managed to explore further into the regions below the central hall. In the beginning he had to move from corner to corner as it seemed that every simple hallway had one of those robots in them. He setteled into the routine of checking around the corner, firing at the robot until it stopped moving, and drag it's remains to the exit. He could use some spare parts, for starters. It took quite a while until Taban reached a far larger chamber.

Large rats were running around back and forth, while several slow-moving, yet more heavily armed robots patrolled the surroundings. For now, he didn't want to take the risk of alerting one robot and being overrun by the others. He slowly backed away when he felt something move past his legs. He screamed in fear and fired multiple shots all around him. Immediately he decided to retreat back to the exit, while hoping that he would even get there.

He climbed back to the central chamber, and put the broken lid back on top of the hole. Any feeling of tiring was quickly removed one session in the enertron. He immediately went back to work, stripping down the new set of robots for spare parts. Time was starting to lose it's meaning, as now he could work endlessly. It took him a while, but eventually he had three new guns. Every one of them had multiple improvements over the older version. The wire was replaced by a simple trigger that he replicated from Lucca's design. He managed to use a semi-weak setting of his gun to softly melt the the metal strips to each other, and create a proper casing that would protect the easily broken wires. He was ready to go back to the regions below when something made him stop.

The people were watching him. They had been watching him, ever since he came back. They were more like skeletons then real, living, breathing people. All this time he had only been thinking about himself. Working for himself. Living for himself. Taban had to help them.

He started looking around. How could he begin? Where would he start?

"Old man?"

"Yes?"

"How can I help you?"

"Help? With what?"

"That's what I'm asking." Taban pointed at his newest gun model "I made this in…eeeh….some time. I'm sure I can help you with something."

The old man pondered. "The roof has been broken for years."

"I'll see what I can do, no, I will fix this roof." Taban walked back to his workbench, deep in throughs over he he even could start fixing the roof. But before he could, he needed to take his tools along. He couldn't carry all of them a t the same time, so he had to work out his next invention. He pulled out the longest wire he could find and wrapped around his chest. From a set of smaller wires he created a set of rings that attatched to the larger wire. Then he hung his screwdriver, two of his guns, and his faithfull hammer on these rings. With all his tools ready he let out a slow gulp. He had to return back to the icy winds outside. A sudden rush of wind in his back made him realize that the wind had been blowing all the time. For him, but also for the others.

He left through the way he entered. Once outside he started evaluating the damage. There were many holes everywhere, but one detail instantly struck him now that he had been observing them. The holes all showed evidence of an impact from the outside.
He wanted to do further research into them but now was not the time. Uneasy, he started climbing the large metallic structure. At the first hole he found he started to use his hammer to rhythmically punch the deformed metal back into what he thought was it's original form. He then used one of his guns to melt the piece back into place.

Taban let out a deep sigh. This would be definitely take a lifetime to finish. Not to mention that he would need tons of metal to keep the wind out for good.. After every time he finished one hole he climbed back down to use the Enertron, strip down a new piece of useless metal, and carry it back up to where he could attatch it to the next hole in the roof.

He smiled, and stroke his chin, surprised to suddenly feel a surprisingly thick beard. Had he really been working for days apon end? He felt extremely hungry, but he had been dealing with the feeling for so long that it had stopped bothering him long ago. Time was nothing less then a blur. He had been working on everything and anything. The roof had bene patched up, the pipelines had been fixed, and was slowly restoring the power system . Life was simple, and in every thing that he created or fixed made him feel satisfied. He hadn't even bothered to explore the lower regions of the compound, not wanting to risk combatting these larger robots.

The people were still as lifeless as ever, but they were starting to improve. Or, it was Taban's mind was playing tricks on him. They were strong enough to walk to the enetron once a day, but too weak to do anything more then that.

Taban didn't think about it any further until now. They had no food and very little water, and somehow the enertron prevented them from dying of starvation.

He was going to work on his biggest project yet. He was slowly building a tiny pipeline to the sea from where he could transport enough water to supply everyone's needs inside the Dome. Sure, he did have to remove the salt from the water first, but that could be dealt with later. The first few pipes had been laid down when something suddenly pulled his attention.

For one of these rare moments the wind had stopped gushing Taban could look further then usual. Now, he noticed something distinctly…large in the distance. Perhaps it was another dome…or something else. Out of nowhere he decided to make the decision to stop working on his pipeline and journey towards the large shapes in the distance to his east.