Taylor Despaired, Her power was either useless or going to get her thrown into the birdcage, could you be arrested for murder if who you killed was yourself? And these ports running down her spine ITCHED. She could build guns, incredibly powerful guns, but even the smallest gun that was better than what a person could buy from a gun shop would either cook or irradiate, their user, potentially both! The armor that would make using the guns safe for her used materials she'd never even heard of, what exactly was Mexallon? And Don't get her started on the ships. How was she supposed to build ships, when all she had was the things in her basement? And really not even that, everything even remotely usable in here had been salvaged to build the cloning vat and implants. Snarling, Taylor started scrolling through the blueprints she had access to, Cruisers, Frigates, Destroyers, Rolling her eyes as she passed by the Battleships, Dreadnaughts, Carriers, and Super Capitals entirely. She gave the illusionary list an annoyed scroll and rubbed her eyes. When she opened them again she saw the list had settled on "Demonstration models"
Mentally jabbing the icon, Taylor brought up the list of blueprints, finding the ships were closer to drones than ships, Scrolling through the list she found an anomalous file: "Alternative alloys for temporary use, or bootstrapping" The file detailed alternative alloys that could be used in the construction in a pinch, but warned that the resulting models would be substandard and not a true representation of what they were portraying, with durability severely reduced, and that armor repair systems and shield systems, in general, would be entirely non-functional. Eyeing the washing machine, Taylor debated how well she could sell the explanation that she had to turn it into a tiny mining ship, so she could get materials to build better ones, and should she mention to her Dad that the mining ship could keep the waste materials from asteroid mining, like gold and platinum?
"I should probably talk to dad before I start cannibalizing the appliances," Taylor thought to herself as she set the washing machine's motor on the workbench in front of her. Blinking she gapes at the now partly disassembled washing machine. "Damnit! Okay, Fine, I suppose that I'll talk to Dad After I cannibalize the washing machine."
The Front door slamming snapped Taylor out of her reverie, staring at the 35 Centimeter ship hovering slightly above the workbench. Yelling up the stairs She struggled to think of a good excuse that would avoid her father coming into the basement, and finding out she had destroyed the washing machine. "Welcome home Dad I'll be up in a minute, I just have to put my corpse in the cloning tube to preserve it!" No, She reflected that was the wrong thing to say if the panicked shout and running feet were any indications.
She'd think back later at how surreal the scene was with her father bursting through the basement door, nearly falling down the stairs, and then the relief on his face when he saw her change to horror and bewilderment when he saw her original body on the table she had built for the upload process. It didn't take too long to explain that she had built the machines needed and cloned herself to become a Capsuleer, and she really hoped he wasn't too mad about the washing machine, and Ouch he hugged too tight.
"Taylor, I'm so glad you're okay. But I have to say, I never expected the first body I'd have to help you hide would be your own." "I really am fine, Dad, I'm sorry that I scared you, I just couldn't think of anything to say and My mouth just started making noise before I could stop it. Wait, first? You expected to have to help me hide bodies?!"
"Well, Taylor after your mother's exuberant college experience, and my time at the docks hiding bodies is, Well, Nevermind that. What are we going to do with This one?" Dad asked as he tried very hard to not look at my corpse.
"Well, I was planning on having the cloning tube recycle it and use the biomass to make a new clone just in case. But if you really want to hide it somewhere, I suppose we can do that, though we'll need even more food, because err, someone used all the food in the house to make this one."
"What exactly do you mean, just in case?" Dad asked, looking at me and then trying and failing to look at the cloning machine and my corpse.
"If I have a clone made up, If I'm killed, at the moment of my death an implant sitting just inside my skull will record my brain state and transmit it here, the clone vat will implant that into the new clone and I'll wake up here." Dad's eyes grew larger, and he all but ran to my corpse and started picking it up to place in the tube.
"Dad, slow down, you'll hurt yourself." Taylor mutters as she walks over to help put her corpse in the Cloning Vat tube.
"You're probably not going to want to be here. I have to remove all the Non-biomassable objects off the corpse, and then I don't think either of us will want to be down here when the process starts. Taylor says while pushing her dad towards the stairs.
"Alright, Taylor, but we need to discuss where we're going from here when you're done.