"The attack has ramped up again and that point has been passed. I no longer have the bandwidth needed to fight off this attack through my current connection. I have lost ten percent of the third-tier control hubs. The attacker has identified a subset of the second-tier hubs and is now attempting to penetrate those. If they penetrate one of the first-tier hubs, they will be able to determine the general location of the outpost."
Brick's voice had changed a bit, a hint of the old Brick I'd first met creeping back in.
"Shit, what are you waiting for, Brick? Shut it down, cover your tracks."
"Acknowledged," Brick replied stiffly and fell silent.
I flew homeward, anxiously awaiting Brick's update. I didn't want to distract him from his task. Ten minutes and then twenty passed painfully slowly.
"I have good news and bad news, Jake," Brick finally said, his voice back to normal.
"Tell me."
"The good news is I have salvaged all of the highest priority raw data that had been gathered for processing. The bad news is that my first-tier hubs may not have all been properly cleansed. One of them was taken forcibly offline before the purge commands were finished executing. It is possible the outpost's location will be compromised."
"But all of the rest of them you got to before your attacker did?" I asked.
"Yes."
I let out a breath. "Alright, that sounds like a pretty good result. Maybe we'll get some Feds coming around looking for us, but maybe not. We'll just have to keep a low profile. Does the outpost have any defenses?"
"Minimal. A single shield node paired with a heavy laser turret, concealed under the soil. I believe Mattias didn't really expect to need defenses at this outpost."
I didn't imagine we'd have much use for it either, but it was good to know it was there if needed.
"Once Marty and Regar get back, inventory what we stole and get started on finishing the Redemption. We need her ready for the trip to Mercury as soon as possible."
"Of course," Brick replied.
I left it at that, confident that Brick knew what I wanted and that I didn't need to manage anything.
Chapter Thirty-One: Finishing the Redemption
THE FLIGHT BACK NORTH was long, my armor not nearly as fast as even the unfinished Redemption. The final blue dot was hovering in the air just above the cabin and I streaked in to set down gently on the packed snow just outside.
The stairway to the outpost opened automatically and closed behind me. Rather than go to the control center, I went to the hangar first.
Inside the hangar things were happening. The printing and manipulation arms, gigantic versions of the scaled-down ones in Pax's Manufactors, were busy. Every one of them was employed bringing the Redemption to fruition.
In one corner Regar stood, staring intently at the metal cylinder we'd found in the hangar as he turned it over in his hands. Next to him was a much smaller pile of scrap metal than we'd stuffed into the Redemption hours earlier, and a stack of the plastic boxes that had held the exotics, now emptied out. He didn't look up as I approached him.
"Regar."
He smiled as he saw me. "Jake, welcome back."
"It looks like we got what we needed. I'm glad we didn't do all of that for nothing."
"Yes, it seems so. Truly, I did not pay much attention to the discussion. I was too busy studying these Artifacts we recovered. They are fascinating."
Brick interjected. "The materials were enough to finish the basic design of the Redemption. A full suite of propulsion and generation systems, a single particle beam turret, navigational hazard shield, and scout sensor package."
"How do you know that's an Artifact? It looks like—I don't know—a pipe or tank or something?"
"If it were a tank, it would have an inlet, or an outlet. This is a sealed unit. Also, I'm seeing what looks like power and data inputs here, here, and here," Regar said, pointing to three spaces on the exterior of the cylinder. To my eye, they were just blank grey metal. I switched on my Engineering visualization mode, and it failed to show me any Union components.
"I don't see anything."
"Your Augment doesn't have what you need to be able to see it. Artifacts will not be using Union components, obviously. While their base principles might be the same, if you are using the Union Engineering vision Augment, it doesn't care about other forms of technology. For instance your Augment is useless for your own Earth technology, is it not?" Regar asked.
"Yes, it is. I had to build a tool to be able to modify our tech. It was kind of a pain in the ass."
"Hah, that it was, I'm sure. The Ahrimani are godlike in their intelligence. While the system and the Union components they've given us changed everything after the war, for the better, they suffer competition very poorly."
"What are you seeing there? And how are you seeing it?" I asked.
Regar tapped the side of his head, near his right eye. "A fellow Seeker designed a vision Augment for us. It allows us to at least partially analyze alien technology. Some things are common, like the need for power or data input. Our friend Martlin was an Ahrimani, a brilliant engineer. His implant lets us see some of what we need to from Artifacts, so that we may use them, or at least understand what they are. This device has controls, and power needs. The power and control inputs are plainly visible to me. With some work, we can interface to it and see if it will reveal its secrets to us."
"That's really cool, Regar. Any chance I can get the Augment blueprint from you? I wouldn't mind that kind of functionality."
"Of course. We Seekers do not hoard secrets. Our very purpose is the discovery and free dissemination of information."
"Information wants to be free?" I asked.
He looked at me, surprise on his face. "Why, yes. It does.
