At some point, when I hadn't been paying attention, Marty or Theo had moved the El Camino into the line and covered it. I recognized the shape.
Theo handed me a single key. "Sorry, just have the one. Don't lose it."
The back seat of the truck was full of camping supplies. I could only hope we wouldn't need them. Marty had already picked some more cold-weather gear out of Theo's stores, which was mostly military surplus. It hung awkwardly on his lanky frame.
My own gear had been made in the station's Manufactory, and combined with my Transcendent Flesh I shouldn't need anything else to survive any weather Earth could throw at me.
Once the bags were safely stowed in the truck, I turned back to Theo.
"Thanks for all the help, Theo," I said, and extended my hand. He shook it.
"My pleasure. I hope to see you two again soon. Don't forget me when it comes time to fight."
"We won't," I promised. I knew that Theo would be a reliable ally in the fight against the Ferals, and I'd need all that I could get.
"Don't sell my car, man," Marty said.
"I'll take good care of her for you, Smoker," Theo replied.
We left it at that, and a minute later Theo's gates were closing behind us. The GPS had a route plotted, farther north down some of the county roads until we finally crossed the border. If Theo was right, it should be unstaffed and we could just drive across without even stopping. I hoped he knew what he was talking about.
I pulled out onto the road and turned right, heading north.
Chapter Fourteen: Headed North to the Border
THE ROAD STRETCHED in front of the truck, mostly empty and recently cleared and salted by a snowplow. Our headlights pierced the night, framed by blowing snow. Even though it was pitch-black, I could see perfectly nearly to the horizon with my vision Augment's assistance.
"Marty, can you reach into my bag and pull out my Zeropoint energy unit?" I asked.
"Uh, one of those boxes?"
"Yeah. It should be the one on top," I replied.
Marty rooted around in the back seat, opening a bag and pulling out one of the boxes. He set it on the seat beside me.
"How can you tell these apart? They're totally unmarked and they're even the same size."
I glanced at the box he'd taken.
╠═╦╬╧╪
Portable Zeropoint Energy Generator
A scaled-down, easily portable Zeropoint generator and battery.
50 PU/sec generated, 1000 PU internal storage.
╠═╦╬╧╪
"The Interface. That's the right one," I said.
Without taking my eyes off the road, I found my phone in a pocket and placed it on top of the Zeropoint energy unit. Once it was in contact with the generator I had enough available power to open the microgate.
The road continued to be empty so I triggered the microgate's interface. Marty watched, curiously.
╠═╦╬╧╪
Microgate Control
Initiate connection to:
Pax
Hephaseta 2
╠═╦╬╧╪
I pressed the button to connect to Pax. The gate connection established itself nearly instantly.
"Brick."
"I'm here, Jake. This connection is now being maintained by station power," he responded.
Brick's voice was coming to me through the Interface, so Marty still couldn't hear him.
"Brick, can you use the device the microgate is connected to? Marty is here with me and I'd like to introduce you."
"Yes, I can," Brick said, his voice now coming out of the phone's speaker.
"Whoa! Awesome. Hi, Brick. You're the station computer, right?" Marty said.
"You could call me that, yes. Nice to meet you, Marty. What is the status of your mission, Jake?"
"We're driving north to the Canadian border. Once we're over, it should be pretty simple. Just drive north and find Grandpa's outpost at the coordinates."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Can you Induct me, like you did Jake?" Marty asked.
"I am afraid not, Marty. Not through this microgate. The Induction package is small, but not small enough to fit through this connection."
"Don't worry Marty, we'll hopefully be able to do it at Grandpa's outpost."
"As you know, I cannot confirm what is in place at the outpost, Jake. I do agree that it is likely there is a Manufactory there, but I have no evidence."
Grandpa had been paranoid about his data, and very paranoid about Brick. Everything had been siloed, and Brick had been forbidden from retaining data about the other parts of Grandpa's operation. I didn't blame him. He was living in a post-singularity galactic apocalypse and Brick was an AI after all.
Brick knew that the outpost in northern Canada existed, but had no details about what was there.
"Once I'm Inducted, I can get all swole like you, right?" Marty asked.
"Swole?" I said and chuckled.
"You know what I mean. I've seen your driver's license."
"Yeah, you can spend some Clusters and change your body as you like, within reason. You can implant skills and learn just about whatever you want. My grandpa has a ton of Earth-tech skills in his library, plus all the Union ones."
"If you plan to Induct many people, Jake, we will need to budget our Nanite Clusters. We have a surplus, but without either you or Metra hunting Ferals, we have no income source."
"It's so weird that the galactic economy is based on hunting monsters," Marty said. "After I'm Inducted can I hunt them?"
"I don't see why not, although the station is pretty much cleared at this point," I said.
"Mattias regularly ventured to the system's fourth planet to hunt, as it has a substantial infestation of Ferals. However, until Metra finishes her starship that won't be possible," Brick said.
"Mattias?" Marty asked.
"My grandfather," I supplied. "I remember you mentioning that, Brick. I'm having a hard time picturing my grandfather gearing up to hunt Ferals."
"I have records of his departures and returns, but no other details due to the data retention policies he instituted."
"That figures," I said.
Marty eventually ran out of questions for Brick, and we all stopped talking as the truck ate up the miles
