Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

tables you saw in castles, that could seat fifty to seventy people. Gus could pull in different directions and the sheet would slide by, pulling him in that direction by degrees depending on how hard he tugged. Gus was starting to get the hang of it when the song ended and the playlist was done. Gus sank to the ground like he was standing on a deflating balloon.

Gus almost began compiling a song-chain with the word fly, but then realized that he had a half-day cooldown before he could use it again. What other song chains could he make? Combat? Training? The thought gave him more hope that he could reach level ten before the deadline. A little over nine days, so that would give him twenty-seven, no, twenty-six more chances to level. The ability did say that the multiplier would change after level ten; hopefully he wouldn’t lose too much of his power-leveling ability.

He attempted to float again, but without the boost of the multiplier, he only accomplished a jump similar to his second-song height levels. Gus tried to recreate the playlist again, but Wreck-ord only worked on original songs apparently, and the songs he had used were grayed out on his display. After it had been used, it wouldn’t activate again. That was good to know. While it would be best to save that ability for when he was past the easier early levels, Gus feared he wouldn’t have the luxury of waiting. He now had something to practice in his down time. He could only imagine how this would help him in his fighting ability as well.

Gus made his way to the control center to check out infirmary plans and costs. He could’ve asked Nick, but that felt lazy to him now, since he was already heading to the control center. Plus, he could check the logs and see if there was any more movement from the Dark Nth.

Entering the control room, Gus checked the facilities management interface. After selecting the Foundry and defensive specializations to unlock he saw the effect this would have on available energy. The yellow power bar shrunk by quite a bit.

Gus saw that available energy points for manor facilities were getting fairly low. He probably would only have enough to unlock the Foundry and maybe the Infirmary, then would need to increase power to unlock more of the facility. Since the facilities were already built, he only needed to power them. They must also have stores of materials to use, so he wouldn’t have to manage that aspect of the facilities.

He focused on the Infirmary description. To his surprise, it was only 100 FP to activate. It comprised a smaller offshoot of a larger facility, Hospital. Gus was amazed the manor could support an entire hospital, but he had no idea how many individuals would be at the facility when it was fully operational. No doubt it would be substantial, if the size was any indicator.

Clicking on facility info, Gus saw from the description that the infirmary was similar to an ER, that it was mainly an automated triage station to stabilize people, but was limited in the scope of ailments it could manage. He spent the points and unlocked the infirmary. “Nick, is there a way to turn off the bio-stasis field and use the energy that sustains that for facility development?” Gus asked.

“There are some functions listed under Alpha Protocol that are DNA locked. Since I do not find any of the controls under the menus in facility management, it is presumed that managing the bio-stasis field falls under the aegis of Alpha Protocols. Regulation of protective barriers and magma shields also should be under this menu, as they are conspicuously absent from the main facility control options.”

“DNA locked to whom? The original Methiochos?”

“That would be the most likely supposition.”

“That doesn’t make much sense to me, that the manor and facilities can be unlocked by anyone with first generation Nth, but that some control functions are locked to DNA control. Wouldn’t it be better to make all access DNA controlled? That would prevent someone from stealing the location in a battle. Besides, if the manor has access to the quantum server, why doesn’t it recognize that I’m not Methiochos?”

“The manor is not an Nth structure, and has only limited access to certain types of data. Just like the Dark Nth are limited in how they interact with the quantum server, the manor is limited in a similar manner. The bio-stasis field interrupts any communication with the outside world, so it is frozen and cannot perform any updates.

“The restriction is partially a lack of capacity of humanity’s inferior technology interface, the other is enforced by the manor’s security protocols. Thus, the manor cannot access anything that relates to supers or their files, or personal information for anyone not uploaded into the memory. You were probably accepted because first generation Nth was a qualifier that the system latched onto, and voila, you get control. In the manor’s database, your current scan and information is linked under Methiochos’ profile for basic commands as a default, but his original DNA print must have been programmed in as a safeguard before he came to the island for higher level controls. He was most likely a cautious and paranoid individual.”

Gus shook his head and growled. “Nothing’s ever easy. So if I get this right, I need a DNA sample from Methiochos if I want to unlock this Alpha Protocol and stop the volcano?”

“Unfortunately, yes. But if the bio-stasis field is still in place, his body is already on the island; we just need to find it and take a sample. As long as we have a sufficient sample, even if it is decomposed, we can scan it. Once that is done, we can change all administrative controls to you,” Nick said.

Gus’ mind flitted back to the way the Dark Nth decomposed so quickly. If he were dead, what would he do then? What if one of