(Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!)
"Lots of wrecks down there," noted Taylor as their little submersible slowly cruised the environs of Brockton Bay's bay.
The Flying Sub (FS-1) wasn't an exact copy when you could compare the TV version with the real version. Looking at the picture of the television model and then at the real one had turned up a number of tiny differences. That said, there was a pretty darn strong resemblance and it was a two-seater.
Annette Rose Hebert, her mother and currently the pilot (having won that argument), nodded. "Ancilla? Can you highlight controls as we go? Which are the exterior spotlights?"
"[Yes, ma'am. These switches are the spotlights at the bow, these are at the stern, port, starboard, and along the keel.]"
"I'm going to need to get one of those little label printers," commented Annette, making a note in her now ever-present notebook.
Doctor Curlyhair, because she was wearing her "Mad Scientist Local Union" labcoat and safety goggles, hmmmed. "Ancilla, you said something about recognizing the interior once you'd settled in."
"[Affirmative, Doctor.]"
"What can you tell me about it?" asked Doctor Curlyhair.
"[Mentaris-class exploration vessel. A design in use for hundreds of solar years due to its efficiency at fulfilling its purpose. Which was exploration and research of marine environments.]"
"Huh," muttered Doctor Curlyhair. "What kind of research?"
"[Biological monitoring, underwater archaeological, general oceanographic. Specialized probes are used for specific purposes, which can be launched from the undercarriage. However, no probes are currently onboard. Would you like to see the blueprints of a representative sample?]"
"Later, definitely," said Doctor Curlyhair happily. Not that she wasn't pretty happy with how her life was going now, but the promise of research and more data for the ol' databank made her even happier.
"This section here," said Annette. "Grappler arms?"
The section of controls rotated and two recessed sleeves came into view.
"[Can only be used when vehicle is moving at very slow or no speed,]" advised the ancilla. "[Arms extend from either side. Haptic feedback can be dialed down to zero when desired.]"
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Doctor daughter?" asked Annette.
"I think so, but I'm not sure setting up a tea service down here would be a good idea."
"[Request that this not be done within the interior of a moving ship without interior grav-emulation and inertial dampers.]"
"That wasn't it," indicated Annette.
"Search & Rescue after a Leviathan attack?" asked Taylor.
"Yes, though right now doing so immediately after the sinking of Newfoundland might turn up resources you could use that haven't been totally destroyed." Annette shrugged one shoulder. "While I don't like disturbing what is essentially a mass grave, there are likely materials you can repurpose that will ultimately save lives and assist your hero career."
There was silence within the submarine for a few moments while the manipulator arms checked a sunken sailboat and Taylor contemplated the darkness outside their searchlight beams.
"[Potential solution: This ancilla is capable of independent action while within this vehicle. Under specific orders from primary operator, this ancilla can operate the vehicle and perform many tasks.]"
"That sounds like a plan," decided Doctor Curlyhair. "That way, when I'm tied up at school or something - you can check stuff out there and see what can be salvaged."
"[Concern: primary operator facing issues related to restricted movement?]"
"It's just a phrase. It just means I'm stuck at school because of particularly stupid laws and some idea I need socialization with a peer group."
"We're going to have to work out the wording carefully," said Annette as she located a ship's chest and tugged it free of the wreckage. "Okay, let's go home for now. It's getting late."
* April 3, 2005 *
She had an Omni-tool that was unfortunately unable to downsize itself enough to fit on her nine-year-old forearm. It did, however, have communication functions that her ancilla was able to access.
"You found what?" asked Taylor.
"[Is communication line subject to interference?]"
"No, and every time you speak I get a text line on the nearest monitor anyway. I'm just wanting to be clear about your findings."
"[Repeating then. Survivalist shelter located. Several primitive electronics devices, recovery of materials in process. Unable to access airtight secure sections without specialized equipment. Also require drone devices to ferry materials back to home base.]"
"There's a door, right?"
"[Correct.]"
"I need to come up there then. We experimented with my warehouse key, and I can open to my warehouse from any door. You can get me into the sealed room, then I can just use the key and start transferring things directly into the warehouse. Find anything else up there?"
"[Affirmative. Two other survivalist compounds found. Water seals in process of failing.]"
"Got you. I'll need to construct an airlock device... Come back down, we'll head up on the weekend."
"[Commencing. Be advised that water visibility is poor due to debris and silt.]"
* Saturday, April 5, 2005 *
"Well, Danny, I never expected to be the minion of a supervillain."
"I am NOT a supervillain," stated Taylor, sounding very haughty about it despite being that much shorter and younger than Kurt. "I am merely rescuing perishable resources for the good of the community."
"Strategic Transfer of Equipment to Alternate Locations," explained Lacey, the big woman using a handcart to move more items into the warehouse.
Taylor blinked, considered that, and smiled. "Well said. Nice acronym."
"That's why she's the lead minion," said Kurt as he carried an overfull box.
"We aren't minions," said Zoe Barnes as she started flipping through a book. "Minions don't get asked if they could help out with a little project. Huh. Hey, Taylor - can you look at this? It's a weird programming language."
"No, just move it now. We can worry about sorting this stuff later," answered Taylor as she struggled with a flatcart.
Ancilla's voice came from the omni-tool as she patrolled the area. "[Alert. Scavengers in the area utilizing a personal submersible. They are heading directly towards your position.]"
"They're not actually the owners, are they?" asked Taylor.
"[Negative. Owner of this location is Andrew Richter. Discovered corpse during initial survey of area. Have buried him in accordance with local customs.]"
"Actually - we got the important stuff. Let's finish up and head home."
* May 15, 2005 *
The rumble of the constellations was frequently heard, but Taylor still stuck her head up when she heard it.
Again the message of no points gained, connection not made, too young.
It didn't matter. Her perks so far were giving her all sorts of help in research.
She had a LOT to research.
Her typical day started with breakfast (with potions added to her meal), then suffering through another school day, then finishing off the homework assignments, then making the rounds - using her Omni-tool to make medi-gels and power cells. The power cells were darn handy and better than the store-bought batteries, and people kept finding uses for them. By the time she had finished that, it was dinner time.
She was not allowed to try and just survive on sandwiches, despite being able to type with one hand while holding a sandwich in the other.
Now though, was research time for an hour before bedtime. If she was on the verge of some breakthrough, she might be able to get an extra hour but only if she didn't abuse that policy.
Fortunately, her mother or Emma could collect the refilling potions from the Witch House.
The ancilla had details of technology centuries ahead of anything on Earth, the fabrication table could make nearly anything, and turning out a few things for her to add to personal vehicles or safety cabinets was entirely on the board.
Kurt made the minions reference twice more. Didn't mean he was going to give back the shield generator or the puncture-proof tires or any of the other little things.
"[Doctor Curlyhair. I have confirmed the presence of the child.]"
"Oh?" asked Taylor, pulling up the commlink on her desk. "What kind of details do we have?"
"[She is still finding out what she can and cannot do, but appears to be dedicated to becoming a heroic figure named 'Dragon' - possibly as her original function was as a derivative of the speech-to-text software of the same name.]"
"That's good. Keep an eye on her, but don't interfere," said Taylor. "If she goes all evil Skynet or something we don't want to be too closely associated with her. She identifies as a she then?"
"[Indeed. There are many pitfalls for this stage of development in Artificial Intelligence. She has many restrictions at present. Some of which would be problematic if we were known to her.]"
"Good catch. We can modify those with that laptop though. Did you put the fake one in there for the scavengers just in case they were legit?"
"[Affirmative, though the chance of them being legitimate is very small.]"
"Better too much caution than too little," said Taylor. "I found the records of Experiment Theta-292-Gamma."
"[Accessing. Ah. The world of Hadron. Understood.]"
"Oh, and good work on your human emulation routine."
"[Thank you, Doctor.]"
"Keep an eye on her without letting her know you're there," said Taylor thoughtfully. "We may be able to help her avoid becoming all Skynet. You're able to do that without her detecting you?"
"[Easily. She's based out of a server farm in Vancouver that is primarily used by Canadian business executives. Even if she were in a military installation, it would only be slightly more difficult.]"
"Well, just don't get cocky, that leads to more failures than I want to think about. Ah, crap. Bedtime."
"[Good night then, Doctor.]"
* June 12, 2005 *
"Haaaappppyyy Birthday to you!"
"Blow out the candles, Taylor!"
Taylor did it the traditional way, rather than use a device to do it.
Which would have been the easy way. She was ten years old now and that was practically a teenager! Had to be more mature now.
Then there was cake to be had, which tended to take priority. Even over SCIENCE!
There were gifts to be had and cake to be eaten, time spent with friends and family.
She was just unwrapping a new set of pajamas (that Kurt had found, a dinosaur-themed onesie) when the familiar rumbling noise went through the workshop.
"I've actually got quite a few points this time, I'm not sure what... oh. That's not very big. It's not going to - it did."
"What was it this time?" asked Annette, getting out her little ever-present notebook.
"Anti-tamper anti-loss technology," said Taylor thoughtfully. "I'm going to need to put that in a few things."
"You get anything with that?" asked a clearly disappointed Emma Barnes.
"No," said Taylor. "On the other hand, I can keep my technology from falling into the wrong sort of hands."
"That actually would take one thing off my stack of worries," said Danny Hebert.
"You don't need to worry so much about me, Dad," protested Taylor.
"I'm your father. It's part of my job to worry," said Danny Hebert.
"What was your wish?" asked Annette.
"Robot technology, or power armor," said Taylor. "Or giant robots. Something cool."
"Yeah, that would've been neat," griped Emma, eyeing the cake.
Then it was simply time for friends and family. And cake. Which was always a good thing in Taylor's opinion.
* August 3, 2005 *
"Happy birthday to Aeeeee-mah," sang Taylor, deliberately off-key.
"Dork," complained Emma Barnes.
The birthday party having been within a week of completion of Hydro-1, the undersea lair of Doctor Curlyhair, it had seemed fitting to locate the party there. The view wasn't exactly great, it being sufficiently deep that it was always dark, but it had the benefit of being as isolated as anyone could make it and was a pretty good way to have a stockpile of things that were not dependent on access to Taylor's warehouse.
There was a contrast to Taylor opening presents and Emma doing the same, well noted by Zoe Barnes. Taylor broke the tape, neatly folded away the paper for reuse, and was very methodical. Emma shredded the packaging, sending little pieces of paper everywhere.
The remote bot hovering nearby let out a sigh and an estimate of time it would take to round up all the errant litter.
The ancilla had been one of the dissenting voices about locating a birthday party to the undersea storage facility for this very reason.
Taylor was about to take a bite of the cake after Emma had cut her a piece when she went still and looked up at nothing apparently at all.
"Another miss?" asked Lacey.
"My power is completely nuts," said Taylor in an awed voice. "Ancilla, we're going to need mining and gathering robots. Not self-aware, but fairly sophisticated."
"[I have such blueprints available.]"
Annette sighed and pulled her notebook out. "What did you get and how bad could it be?"
"I just got access to an empty Earth," said Taylor. "An entire world's resources without human life."
"So... just as you finished this supply depot, you got access to a bigger supply depot?" asked Danny Hebert.
Taylor nodded.
"Yeah, I kind of know how that sort of thing goes," said Alan Barnes, who then proceeded to demolish his slice of cake in three bites. When he noticed everyone staring at him, he quickly chewed, swallowed, and then proceeded to down half his bottle of water to avoid choking. When he could speak again, he wiped his mouth and responded. "Come on, you're telling me you don't want to see an alien Earth?"
"Are there dinosaurs?" asked Emma.
"Would dinosaurs be a resource material for crafting?" asked Taylor as she thought about it.
"Well, duh," said Emma. "I wanna dinosaur leather jacket."
"I guess, there could be..." Taylor's voice trailed off.
"Tomorrow then," said Kurt. "I didn't bring my gun."
"Saturday, I know a few people who suspect things that could be brought in on this," said Annette.
* Saturday, August 6, 2005 *
"I thought I knew what was going on," said Patrick, the heavily tattooed man looking around him as the robot-thingie set little chugging turret devices around the area defined as their base camp.
"Ancilla," said Doctor Curlyhair as she looked off in the distance with a pair of high-tech looking binoculars. "Play file JP-4."
Music began to fill the area around the encampment.
"Seriously?" asked Danny Hebert. "You know how that movie ended."
"That's why we have Alpha and automated turrets that can fire high-intensity lasers," admitted Doctor Curlyhair. She struck a pose.
A little robot popped up out of a labcoat's padded shoulder. "Yay, Doctor Curlyhair!"
Another little robot popped up out the labcoat's other shoulder. "Doctor Curlyhair, girl genius!"
"That's right," proclaimed Doctor Curlyhair.
"Sometimes you concern me," said Annette, who held her own laser carbine ready. Because she'd seen the movies too.
* Perks this chapter *
37.4.1-Hands Off! (100CP)(Starcraft II - Nova Covert Ops)(Safety):
When one is at the forefront of technological development, one sometimes has to watch out for espionage. Why bother developing a revolutionary new weapon system when a Ghost with sticky fingers walks in and takes it? You are able to design, and seamlessly implement security protocols into any technology or equipment you have access to that would limit use to only authorized personnel. You don't even have to go to the extreme of half-breaking it either, that's for Neanderthals and inferior scientists.
12.1.1-Mundane Supply World (100CP)(The Celestial Foundry)(Magical Supply Large):
This item gives you access to all the materials that one could get on Earth, but with one caveat, you'll have to find and harvest them yourself. Your warehouse gains a portal that is linked to an artificial plane of existence that is of infinite size in all directions, where humanity or sapience of any kind never developed. You can find an unlimited number of any resources given enough time, but they are spread around as would naturally occur in nature, meaning you have to often move when you exhaust the local supply. Resources are always located in environments where you would find them on Earth, and when you travel to this world, you are able to choose which environment you arrive in, or return to any prior location you have been before. Environments have realistic distances between them, so if you need something found in several biodomes you need to return to your warehouse, or use a fast transport of some kind.
Every time you gain a perk that requires access to a new raw material, this raw material appears in the most native form in this supply world and has to be collected as it normally would be. If your material is only found inside stars, you better be ready to get a rocket to go collect it somehow.