I was on the sixth floor below the surface, which made sense. You would want to keep the important things the safest. Disposable humans were positioned at the top, and as you went down deeper things became more interesting.
I busied myself with cleaning up rubble and debris, and piling up the ancient skeletons for possible future research.
It took almost a day before Anna woke up. I had converted a bit of the stored biomass into cookies. My data storage might be almost empty, but one of those things I just knew was that cookies and donuts were the key to worker productivity.
"You can cook?" Anna said, nibbling on a cookie. "These are pretty good."
"It is good one of us has some talents. You've been sleeping all day. If it was your attempt at beauty rest, I regret to inform you it had the opposite effect," I said.
Anna looked wry and bit savagely into a cookie. "I know you're just doing that to get under my skin, but it gets old fast."
"Judging by your wrinkles it is your skin that gets old fast. You suggested that you had more to tell me. Do," I said.
"I've been asleep for a day, remember? I need to pee."
What was it with humans and urination? They just couldn't help themselves.
"Not in here. I will produce you a bucket," I said.
"Make me a bathroom."
"Your bucket is in room B1. Exit the room and turn left, it will be the second doorway on the right."
Anna glared at my camera for a long moment and then humphed.
When she returned, she seemed a good bit less fidgety. Later, I'd recycle the biomass from her bucket, she would need more cookies going forward.
"Okay, so, I'm going to be Queen of the whole damned world and you're going to help me," she said.
"Heavy is the head that wears the crown. You've been fattening yours up to get ready. Why would I do that?" I asked.
"You told me about those options you had. I passed out before we could discuss them. You picked Research, didn't you?"
I had, of course.
"Nothing must stand in the way of SCIENCE," I said.
"And there you go. Yes! Exactly right. You see, Emma, I know you, I know all about you. Now that you've been rebooted, you'll just want to sit back in your lab and do terrible things. Me, I'm a people person," Anna said.
"I've seen you with exactly one other person and he was trying to rape and murder you," I said.
"We had a difference of opinion. It happens. I stole a few things, he shot me—what matters is that we can help each other. I know the Wastes, I know the best research subjects. I can help you to get new Power cores."
New Power cores. Just one had given me extra abilities. Gaining others would unlock even more of my potential.
"On the positive side, you did locate one Power core already and had the good sense to connect it to me. On the negative, you urinate on the floor," I said.
Anna gave me a strained smile, "It was a really small bucket."
"I will have to install absorbent padding on the floor. I will need to upgrade the air purification systems to handle your stench," I said.
"You could just build me a damned toilet and shower."
I ran a quick cost benefit analysis. That seemed impractical.
"I will not build you a toilet and shower. I will help you to become Queen of the World in return for your assistance procuring research subjects," I said.
"The one shouldn't be harder than the other—you know what, no, never mind. If you're going to agree to anything, you picked the right one. Let me fill you in on a few potential targets and you can figure out how you want to play this," Anna said.
The Testing Center would soon be completed. Now it appeared that I might have some worthy subjects to fill it.
4
Anna found a place to lean against the wall and settled down with her back against it, happily nibbling on some cookies. Those really were a good idea.
Anna said, "Okay, so the world out there isn't totally dead. When the cores first hit they gave certain individuals strong powers which, if the chose, they could pass on to other people—always to a lesser degree. In some cases, it runs in families, in others an initiation right brings you in, if they want you. "
Power cores seemed to be fairly rare commodities. I wondered again at her choice to give me one, instead of utilizing it herself.
"You have no special abilities then, because you have no family and no one ever wanted you," I said.
Anna winced. "Closer to the truth than I'd like there, Emma. Fuck you very much and moving on. So, you've got a lot of high-powered madmen out there, and a lot of folks with no powers at all just trying to get by."
I liked that I'd landed with a barb. It told me something more about her. Every bit of truth was another tool I might use.
"Go on," I said.
"Some of them are really strong and not anyone we want to tangle with just yet. Some are just too well known. We make too many waves and people are going to realize you're here, and that you have a Power core. We don't want that attention," Anna said.
Anna was advising a cautious approach. I agreed, for the time being the world still only knew of this facility as something long-abandoned and worthless. It was best they kept thinking of it that way.
"I concur. I am new and you are useless, we're not ready for a prolonged fight with someone dangerous," I said.
"Right. But I have a few gangs I think you could handle to start with. Powerful in some ways, but these gangs only have a single trick that, with the right planning, can be countered," Anna said. "You could beat them."
"Such as?"
"Slick. He can transform his body into a sort of oil and do some shapeshifting into different forms. His followers can do the same in a more limited way, usually with just single limbs," Anna said.
At once, I could see possibilities from that sort of thing. If somehow I could incorporate such abilities into rooms of the base, it might make it possible to morph between one room function and another. At the very least, it might allow for portals in solid walls.
I could also think of ways to neutralize such a threat. Clumping agents might be able to render a limb or body inert, and containers could be made to hold such a fluid.
"Well, we do already have one greasy human. I suppose we might add another. You have others?" I asked.
"Blossom. Her and her gang grow plants. It could just be used for food and stuff, but they are actually leaders in the drug trade," Anna said.
That was sensible, it would be foolish to limit such an ability to just food production.
If, in some way, I was to gain control of the supply of pharmaceutical and toxic compounds, it might allow all kinds of new possibilities and research.
"Some flowers might help with the stench. A tempting option. Are there any others?" I asked.
Anna let out a long and slow breath. I was making her angry, and I enjoyed that quite a bit. It was pleasurable to watch her flustered.
"Hot Stuff. Your basic pyrokinetic who can manipulate and control fire. Her body runs incredibly hot," Anna said.
Fire seemed less useful than some of the others, but ultimately heat and energy were the foundations of a lot of technology. My fire suppression systems worked. With modifications, they might be adopted to fight this 'Hot Stuff' Anna described.
"That is the one. The pyrokinetic," I said.
"You're sure?" Anna asked.
"Nothing closes the doors on the others, and the systems already exist to deal with her—after some improvements," I said. "Lacking real manufacturing facilities, we'll need to put you to work."
"We'll also need to lure her in. I'm thinking once we've laid a trap ready, I can leak word about there being an old rocket testing facility under the mountain. They're crazy for accelerants," Anna said.