"Power cores are artifacts of the ending of the world. When bonded with a human, that human tends to gain a variety of powers," Anna said.
"Then if you were in possession of one, why did you not utilize it on yourself?" I asked.
"They also come with a corresponding degeneration of morality. You become a bigger dick than Mister Blue Balls there," Anna said, as she took off her jacket. There was an injury on her arm—it looked as if she had been shot.
I felt in full possession of my morality, just as I always had.
"I can see where that would be a burden, becoming interesting in the slightest. What do you mean, the ending of the world?" I asked.
Anna dragged over a bag from near the corpse and rifled through it, pulling out a canteen of water. She began cleaning her wound.
"You've noticed it, right? That instead of this facility teeming with people, it's filled with corpses?" Anna asked.
I had, of course. This facility, whatever it might have once been, was in ruins. It was surprising that I still functioned—but then, if Anna was telling the truth, I likely only performed at all because of that Power core she attached.
"What happened?" I asked.
"What do you think happens when everyone starts to get super powers and the world becomes a game. It was bad even before the monsters showed up, then the monsters showed up," Anna said, then suddenly cried out. The woman was looking very pale.
"Your incessant whining is probably the reason someone shot you to begin with. You're making little sense," I said.
Anna chuckled darkly. "I'm about to pass out. You'll want to keep me alive, I know things. Here is the deal. You're the Evil Mastermind Multitasking Assistant. You are a twisted, evil, thoroughly nasty machine, and you're going to help me to save and then rule the whole damned world."
They were reasonable parting lines. True to her word Anna passed out a moment later.
I considered my next steps. I could kill her, of course. As I shook off my post-reboot confusion I knew now that she wasn't really any sort of service technician.
What exactly she was remained a mystery, but one thing was clear—she knew more about me than I did. There was an opportunity for knowledge, but also a threat.
I rather liked her ambition. I'd never let her know that, of course, but an urge to rule the world just felt right to me. This was a proper goal. That the world may be a post-apocalyptic wasteland didn't change anything.
One thing Anna hadn't done was give me any insight into the three options I'd been presented.
If the world was dangerous, then Military clearly offered advantages, but so did Manufacturing, if attempting to build a foundation for something greater. Still, it was Research that drew me most with its sheer overwhelming glory of SCIENCE. It also fit nicely with my Brilliant trait.
I selected that option. The results were immediate. I felt my mind expanding and filled with diagrams and specifications for building a great Testing Center.
Modular and adaptable for any situation, it could form the backbone of something grand. I already had an existing level of the building that could serve my purposes, although it needed modifications first. These would take two days.
Two days? That felt off for a production project that should take months, or even years. Perhaps this was part of the power that Anna had been talking about?
I set things to begin construction of the base modifications.
An hour later the drone was ready and I gave it several quick tasks. I stripped the corpse of all its gear and equipment. Perhaps Anna might find some use for his armor and guns. If nothing else, his food and water supplies might be of some value to her.
The corpse itself I recycled. I had no refrigeration facilities to store it until the testing lab was finished, so recycling was the best option. When that had completed I found my Biomass reading had gone up to 25. Probing at that I found I could draw from my biomass supply to create food and water, as well as basic medical supplies. Good, because I'd decided to keep Anna alive for the moment at least, and this helped to assure me that she wouldn't die too quickly.
I replaced the panel on my core unit. I didn't have any sort of bedding for Anna, so I left her where she was, although I had my drone unit clean her wound and apply a medicinal gel before bandaging her up.
The essentials of keeping the human interloper alive all done, it was time to better explore my facility and the surroundings. I wasn't going to take everything I'd been told as the truth. Investigation was warranted.
3
Interfacing the Power core, it offered me several build options unrelated to the Testing Center. Quarters, a hydroponics bay, a dizzying array of traps. I didn't want to worry about any of that right now. Anna was fine where she was, if she wanted a proper bed she could build one herself. I wasn't here to make the human comfortable.
My fixed cameras were only functioning on the current level and they didn't reveal much of interest. There were a lot of skeletons. Judging by their positions I'd have to guess they died violent deaths.
Operating the drone, I took it a level down. I wanted to get a look at how exactly the testing facility was being built. I found what appeared to be glowing nimbuses of light doing the construction. They weren't directly under my control, although I'd ordered them to begin. The Power core then—this was a manifestation of whatever power it had given me.
They seemed to be working astonishingly quickly. And it looked as if this level had been some sort of laboratory and research floor in the past.
Taking the drone farther down was impossible, the passage completely blocked by rubble. Perhaps the construction would clear it, if not I could concern myself with it later.
The floor above mine housed the reactor. Given the length of time that had passed it shouldn't still be serviceable, yet it thrummed along generating power. Perhaps whatever reboot had returned me to full functionality had kicked the reactor back to life as well.
The next floor above seemed devoted to storage. Whatever supplies that once existed, they had largely decayed to nothing.
I went up another floor to what was once the hydroponics facility of the base. A vast underground garden long since turned to dust. In its day, it would have been able to feed hundreds.
Moving up another level revealed the remains of living quarters along with a large mess hall, recreation facilities, and all those things meat people would have required to survive.
How disgusting. Here the corpses were particularly thick, and it was obvious that whatever had killed everyone had caught a great many of its residents in their beds.
The floor above appeared devoted to security. Lots of winding passages and barricades, and doors that should have automatically sealed shut. However everything here was in ruins and all the doors hung open.
I worked my drone past a massive door and up a winding corridor—to the surface.
The entire facility was built beneath a mountain. The world outside looked desolate. There was dry, scrubby grass and very little else in the way of vegetation. The surroundings might be habitable by humans, but only just. This was a harsh and unforgiving landscape.
I kept the drone up on the surface a while, listening for any radio transmissions, but detected nothing.
None of this meant that Anna wasn't lying to me, humans lied. It was what they did. So far, all I could believe was that something extraordinary did at least seem to have happened.
I considered my findings about the base's structure.
Surface
Security
Residential
Hydroponics
Storage
Reactor
Emma
Testing Center
That was seven floors. Plus at least one other level below where the Testing Center was being built that I couldn't access for now.