"Yes!" I yelled, pulling my head from the stove.
It took me a moment of patting my pockets to remember where my Link was. My parka. I uncovered Marty, who was mumbling nonsense. The heat from the flameless ration heaters had long since dissipated. I reached inside the parka and unzipped the pocket I'd left the Link in. It was where I'd left it, all of my keys still dangling from it.
The Link fit perfectly into the notch in the stove.
There was a muted click and the stove and part of the corner began to rise up. The floor beneath me began to sink at the same time. I stepped back, taking the Link with me.
A staircase formed, warm light filling the shack from below.
"Nice work, Grandpa," I said.
I picked up Marty and carried him down the stairs into the hidden outpost. The staircase closed behind us.
Chapter Twenty-One: The Northern Outpost
THE ROOM BELOW THE shack was nearly a carbon copy of the Security room below the Hab complex on the station. Bunkbeds along one wall, an empty weapons rack on the opposite wall. A comfy looking chair sat in front of a copy of the control console I remembered from the chamber.
The staircase I'd taken down was now closed off, but it was even in the same corner that the hatch had been. This was clearly another Union modular part that Grandpa had just plopped down under the shack.
The differences though were interesting. Two closed doors led somewhere. There was more to this base.
I put Marty down on a bottom bunk. The air down here was a bit chilly, so I hoped he'd be alright for a few minutes.
"Brick, I'm in the outpost. Can you do your thing, take over and get us an Induction kit?" I asked.
"Yes. Put the Link in a control slot, and leave this device in contact with it."
I looked around and spotted the familiar indentation on the control console. I sat in the chair and clicked the Link into place. The phone balanced easily on top.
"Connected. Stand by, bandwidth through this device is a little low."
Honestly, I didn't even know how he was using the Link at all. I hadn't built anything into my phone to allow that. The Link was a fantastically complicated bit of Union tech though, so perhaps it had what was needed. I'll have to spend some time figuring that out.
"I have control. This outpost is quite capable. I'm opening a new, high-bandwidth microgate and switching... Done."
"The outpost has a small stock of Induction kits, Jake. Should I Induct Marty?" Brick asked.
"What? Of course you should. Do it, Brick!" Metra shouted.
"Yes. Induct him, Brick," I confirmed. I knew Brick was waiting for my order.
A panel opened in the wall and a familiar spider bot scuttled out. It was carrying a pale orange-colored capsule about the size of a large chicken egg. My Interface helpfully labeled it for me.
╠═╦╬╧╪
Union Induction Kit
╠═╦╬╧╪
The bot hopped onto the bed and placed the capsule in contact with Marty's skin. Like a drop of rain hitting pavement, the capsule seemed to splash. Every trace of the material and Nanite Cluster infused Induction payload rapidly disappeared into Marty's flesh.
"The Induction process takes several hours. It will repair most of the damage to Marty's body during that process."
"I'm so glad you made it in time, Jake," Metra said.
"What's up with you and Marty, Metra? What happened while I was sleeping in the truck?"
"Huh? Nothing. We just had a good conversation. I like him, he's sweet."
"Okay, then," I said. I had no idea what that meant when she said it. With human women it often meant they considered you their new best platonic shopping buddy. Maybe it meant something different with Horgrim women.
"And what's happening with Regar and Kiril?" I asked.
"They traded us another fifty thousand Nanite Clusters for some materials and a whole lot of supplies out of the Manufactors. Things were so bad there that they filled almost all of the outpost's Nanite storage. After you two took care of the Spike, things have calmed down quite a lot."
"Did we kill the Shard?"
"Unlikely," Brick interjected. "They are extremely durable. The explosion was very powerful and it destroyed a lot of the Shard's built-up manufacturing, however."
"I guess that's good. We'll need a good source of Nanite Clusters in the future."
"They know. Regar and Kiril are still manning the outpost, but I think they don't want to do it for much longer. They've been stuck there for years."
I couldn't imagine what that was like. Year after year of constant fighting. Eating nutrient paste and drinking water. Watching your friends slowly die, one by one.
"We'll figure something out. Brick, you said this outpost was capable. What did you mean?"
Brick wasn't the simple, dunderheaded computer he'd been when I first met him. He'd gotten smarter when he'd reclaimed the processing power in the Security room. He'd grown even more when I'd removed the limitations my grandfather had placed on him retaining data. He'd been learning. I hoped doing that wouldn't come back to bite me in the ass.
All that to say, somewhere along the way he'd gained a sense of drama.
He'd led me through one of the doors and down a passageway, highlighting the route on a minimap my Interface was projecting for me. I could have just ordered him to tell me and he probably would have, but Brick wasn't a toaster. If he wanted to have some fun, who was I to interfere?
I stopped in front of an unmarked door. I'd passed through several Connector nodes and down another long set of stairs. Each node was spotless, as perfect as the day it was made. It was amazing what could happen when there weren't Ferals around to eat your stuff. Several branched off into other nodes, but Brick was
