Gateways by Aer-ki Jyr (world of reading txt) 📕

Greg sighed. “There’s a lot more I want to say, but there are some lessons you have to learn the hard way, and you’re going to encounter many of them here. So when things get bad, just remember this one thing,” the hologram said, leaning towards them slightly as if imparting a secret. “We had it way worse. So suck it up and grow into your potential. That’s the only way you’re getting through this. And no, you don’t get to opt out of it. You’re stuck here, and don’t try to walk out of it. You’ll see why later. Make your base camp near the obelisk…and build. And before you start thinking of tree houses and stick forts, take a closer look at the non-edible stuff in your packs. Oh, and winter in this part of the planet is permanent. You’ll get a few warm streaks occasionally, but expect snow to be a standard thing. You’ve got about 16 months until the bad winter weather hits. Be prepared.”

“And that’s the last tip you get. Now huddle up, figure out what to do, and good luck. You’re going to need it,” Greg said, giving them a two fingered salute before the hologram shut down except for a new interactive portal that glowed to life near the base.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Parsivir exclaimed, with many others offering similar sentiments of discontent. “We’re supposed to be here years?”

“Easy everyone,” Trevor said, waving his hands at them to calm down. “We knew this was going to be big, we just didn’t know how big. And look on the bright side…we finally get to do what we want, when we want, so let’s take a closer look at those mechanical components and see what we’ve got to work with.”

There wasn’t much complaining after that, and the buzz amongst their semi-telepathic group mojo was a ‘work the problem’ thing rather than a ‘stand still and bitch’ waste of time. They’d learned that lesson in the maturia, but it appeared they’d be teaching themselves from here on out.

Darren pulled out his component and set it down on the ground next to the others, with a few of the Furyans stepping in to assemble parts that fit together, eventually working them all down into three different machines…none of which looked familiar, until Kaen though to use the data in the obelisk to look them up.

“Mobile mining equipment,” he said, bringing up holographic diagrams to match each. “Molecular sifter. Alchemy pod. Basic fabricator.”

“We can use those to make other machines,” Darren said, suddenly realizing their potential as did some of the others.

“We can make every piece of Star Force equipment using those,” Nathan added. “If we don’t break them. If we do we’re back to sticks and rocks.”

“What do we need to make duplicates?” Trevor asked.

“A lot,” Kaen said, not even trying to look it up now. “But if the plans are in here, it’s possible. We have to harvest resources, though, to put into the sifter. The closer to what we need the better.”

“What powers them?” Ina said, getting to the next logical point ahead of the others.

Kaen frowned and did some searching. “These are special varieties fueled by…infrared radiation.”

“So we can power them with our Rensiek?” Darren asked, stepping up to and placing his hand on the sifter.

“In theory, but we don’t have the calories for a lot of that.”

“Sunlight?” Wennie wondered.

“There’s a battery unit inside,” Kaen said, doing the data digging for the group. “It…will hold a slow charge. So however we can get it, no matter how long, and we can use it.”

“But we have to be picky about what we use it for,” Trevor warned. “This is part of the test. We have to work real hard to power this, so our first choices are going to be damn important.”

“So no hot tub?” Neiva asked not so sarcastically as it sounded.

“Afraid not,” Trevor said with a sigh. “Unless you can build one the old fashioned way...” he said, having an epiphany. “Kaen, how hot can we get the equipment before it gets damaged?”

“Umm,” he said, looking it up.

“Specifically, can it stand up to a bonfire?”

Everyone turned to look at their fires, which they’d made extra big more for fun than heat, but now might be far more important than they realized.

“Easy,” Kaen said in astonishment. “You can dip these things in molten lava and it won’t damage them…just clog them, so let’s not do that.”

“Are there any thermal vents nearby?” Darren asked.

“Checking,” he said, searching for a map of the local area…only to pull up an empty hexagon 100 miles on each side. “Guys, I think I found what Greg was referring to. We’ve got boundaries, and on the other side of them are, I think, more zones where other Furyans are going through the same tests.”

“How far away?” Trevor asked.

“100 miles to the tips of a hexagon, so…” he said, doing the mental math and having to guess at the square roots until he came close, “86 or 87 mile straight shot to what is said to be a shield barrier. So we’re not making contact or getting help from them.”

“Does it say which bloodline they are?”

“It doesn’t say a damn thing other than draw our boundary lines, and inside it is no information other than the location of the obelisk. We’re going to have to make our own maps.”

“Ok, so we need scouting parties. Anything in there we can draw on, or are we using dirt and sticks?”

“Probably,” Kaen said, searching in a familiar way, for the data terminal was configured the same as the one they had in the maturia. “Yeah, there’s a drawing program, along with journals. There’s also video and holo caches, but we don’t have any tech for that.”

“Yet,” Orio added.

“Yet,”