"Holy crap! Is that really a stargate?" Marty asked. "It looks like a big television."
"Oh, believe me I know. Brick, you there?"
"Where would I have gone, Jake? Did you forget something?"
"Kind of. I had a bit of a run-in with the local law enforcement. I've made a new friend and I'm showing him the stargate. I'm going to get on the road shortly."
Marty looked confused as I seemed to have a conversation with myself.
"Who are you talking to?"
"I'm talking to Brick, the station AI. You're missing the Interface, so he can't talk to you."
"Hi, Brick! Man, this is so cool," Marty said. "Jake, you can't leave this here. My uncle is going to search this house when he finds out you're gone. He's going to find this thing and it's going to end up in the Feds hands."
"Shit, why didn't I think of that? Of course he is. I'm amazed he didn't find it on his walkthrough. Also, your uncle?"
"Yeah, the sheriff's my uncle. He's not very fond of basements, especially dark ones. I expect he didn't look around down here that much."
"I guess I can fix the wall before we go, restore the hidden room."
"Nah, that's not going to do it, man," Marty insisted. "You think the Feds can't find your ghetto secret room? Anybody with a measuring tape could figure it out."
"He's right, Jake," Brick interjected. "This room's concealment was effective against casual searches only."
A few options flitted through my head. All of them involved way too much work, and time. I could make the concealment of the room much better than it currently was with some better materials, but Marty was right. Anyone with a tape measure could notice that space was missing.
"Brick, can you send some bots through to break all of this down into raw material and then have them self-destruct? I'd rather leave them a pile of raw material than a working gate."
"Of course, Jake. I recommend you construct a micro gate that we can use to keep in communication."
I had implanted all of the Union crafting skills, so I could theoretically build or repair a gate. But the thought of a micro version of the gate hadn't ever occurred to me.
"I didn't even realize that was a thing that you could do. Why didn't you tell me, Brick?"
"I thought it was obvious. They are rather power hungry, but once the connection is initiated, the station's fusion reactor will be able to maintain it."
"I'll do that. Send the bots through, Brick, we've got to be going. What's Metra up to?"
"She is currently designing components for the starship. She has instructed me to not disturb her unless there is an 'actual fucking emergency.' Should I disturb her?"
That made me smile. Metra got super pissy if you interrupted her flow state. I didn't dare. No need anyway, I hadn't actually been gone that long.
"No, don't bother."
Brick's Spider bots were passing through the gate, dozens of them. They lined up in neat rows just inside the room. Marty backed away through the hidden door, his flashlight shining on the ranks of bots.
"Those are friendly, right?" he asked, his voice unsteady.
"Yes, those are Brick's builder bots. They're going to break all this down into raw materials after we leave."
When the flow of bots stopped I pulled my Link free of the notch and shoved it in a pocket. The stargate remained open.
"I'll proceed with the disassembly now, Jake," Brick said. "Good luck."
"Thanks, Brick."
With that, Marty and I left the hidden gate room. Bots swarmed the machinery mounted on the wall, tiny bladed cutting arms and manipulators flashing.
The puzzle of the bags was a lot easier than I thought. I simply threw each of them up the stairs. The first throw was the bag of gold. I misjudged the throw a bit and it crashed through an interior wall upstairs, but I could live with the damage. I wasn't sure I'd ever be coming back to this house.
The second throw was the bag of material and I placed it neatly at the top of the stairs without destroying any more walls.
Marty took this strangeness in stride, his brain obviously racing.
"Were you serious? There's a shield and it's failing? Are we talking alien invasion, here?"
"Yeah, Marty. There's a shield, and it's shrinking. The galactic empire that set it up for us is AWOL, maybe toast. The invaders are post-singularity AIs driven insane centuries ago."
"Crap," he said.
"That about sums it up. I've got to go north to find my grandpa's observation post. That'll help me figure out how bad it is."
"Where is it?"
"In northern Saskatchewan, way up in the wilds. I've got GPS coordinates."
"Canada? What the hell, was your grandfather Canadian?"
"He was an alien actually. I've got to get moving. Thanks for your help, Marty. Watch the news, things are going to get exciting I'd guess."
I started moving toward the Civic. Marty sputtered before jumping in front of me, the snow crunching underneath his boots.
"Whoa, hold on. You're not leaving without me. I'm up shit creek with my uncle now. Besides, can't you use some backup?"
I was immediately tempted to say no, but he was right. It would be nice to have some backup. I wasn't certain how useful Marty would be, but maybe with some training and equipment, he'd be fine. I would have never survived on the station without Brick and Metra, after all. I couldn't do this all by myself.
"This is going to be dangerous, Marty."
"Shit, you want to live forever? Let's go. We can take my Camino. I know a guy who can help us; we'll stop there."
With a last fond farewell pat, I left my Civic half entombed in snow and got back into the passenger seat of Marty's El Camino. The V8 started with a throaty roar and we were off.
Chapter Nine: Meeting Theoden
WE HAD BARELY GOTTEN out of my driveway when Marty's phone binged at him. He pulled it out and glanced at the message.
"Shit."
"What?"
He tossed the phone
