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Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.34
🕑 Added 2024-06-04 08:05:01 +0000 UTCChapter 34
What a difference a week makes.
Crush grunted as he swung the hammer with everything he had, already knowing he had lost.
“Yeah, that isn’t going to do it, Boss,” Cara offered helpfully.
“You think you can do any better?” Crush huffed as he took aim at the next pin and readied another swing.
“No, but then I’m not trying to actually race a machine,” Cara grinned far too smugly in Crush’s opinion.
“I am not racing the machine,” Crush blatantly lied. The sledgehammer hit the bolt dead on, driving it home with a single hit. Now he only needed to do the next five before—
“It’s done,” Cara pronounced.
“Fuck!” Crush laughed. It had been a losing proposition to start with, but he had hoped to be at least close.
“And it will keep that speed up for every hour, of every day until the suns burn out.” Cara shook her head and sighed. “I’ve never really seen it before, you know?”
“I know,” Crush said, wiping the sweat off his brow.
They had all grown up in a world that ran on machines. Robotics and mechanization weren’t just a part of the civilization they both came from; they were the absolute basis of it. The jobs people did and did not do had obviously been a set deal before he or Cara was even born.
Everyone knew they were faster. It was just different to actually see it.
“It’s not a construction unit,” Cara said thoughtfully. “Can you imagine what one of them would be like?”
The gleaming metal of the Centrum units caught the light as they moved in perfect coordination. Two of them held a compartment section in place while another placed a pin and swung the sledgehammer in one movement.
“Think they fight well?” Cara asked despondently.
“They probably fight well enough, considering their armored,” Crush assessed. “Why?”
“Just worried we might be obsolete,” Cara shook her head and walked away.
Nanites. Crush thought about their new allies as he walked around the settlement. It was a settlement now, no denying that.
It would be a week tomorrow—a single week.
He remembered putting up that communication tower and worrying about how long it would take to actually have a place to sleep comfortably and relatively safely.
The comm tower took almost a day of painstaking work to erect. Ten people had worked for hours in the hot sun to raise it, and it had still ended up a little more wobbly and unstable than he would have liked.
Crush had looked around at the bare ground after the call to the main colony and thought they were looking at the best part of two months sleeping rough before even half of them had a place to stay. The worst part was the idea that it was all on him. Even Brix was just looking to him to make the decisions and lead them all.
Crush was not a natural officer or a leader. Not in his own mind, anyway.
Somehow, he just always ended up in that role.
He looked up at the third tower; someone was working on the fourth story, painting all the different colored panels the same color as they hung from an improvised rig.
It had only been a week.
A single conversation had changed the course of their colony.
Crush had been watching the progress the second morning there, or rather, the lack of it. His people were hard workers, but that was simply not enough—not out here. So, he looked over the landscape and decided to walk over to the Embassy and try to get a little extra construction help.
During the entire walk, Crush tried to figure out the best deal he could offer. A month of help in exchange for something they would really want. That shouldn’t be too much to ask. The offer was simple but one he had wanted to avoid until later. A month of help with construction, in exchange for him teaching a squad of their people for a month. His training had made his own squad into something special; it could do the same for the nanites.
It was a good offer. A reasonable offer, and one he needed to make now. A lot of people underestimated the importance of a good start when you set up camp. That initial setup would affect the trajectory and speed of development of the entire place.
It was that important.
Okay, so he was basing this off his training in setting up a military camp for a campaign behind enemy lines, but founding a settlement had to follow at least most of the same rules, right?
The longer he walked and the closer he got to the Embassy, the more sure he had been that this was the right choice. Play his trump card early and get a head start.
The Centrum sentry units had been a surprise; he hadn’t expected that. Nellie seemed to have learned a lot while she was running that junkyard. It might have presented a problem, except they scanned him, nodded, and gestured for him to continue.
They had been programmed to allow him, and possibly others, to enter whenever they wanted. That was good to know.
So, when Crush arrived at the Embassy to find Banjo waiting out front, the speech and the offer were all laid out and ready to go in his mind.
Then, everything went completely off-script.
“Marshall Crush,” Banjo had drawled, the accent common amongst the colonists on the Hub. “What can we do for you?”
“Ambassador,” Crush nodded respectfully. It was the office he was addressing, not just the strange-looking young man with the metal arms and legs. “I hope I haven’t come at a bad time?”
“Not at all, Marshall,” Banjo smiled then, “And call me Banjo, will ya?”
“Banjo,” Crush had decided to start his pitch immediately. “I’d like to ask the Captain for some help with construction.”
“Well, the Q—” Banjo coughed suddenly, “The Captain is out of contact at the moment, but I am happy enough to help out.”
“That’s great,” Crush had been thrown by the comment a little. Where the hell was Nellie that her own people couldn’t contact her? There was so much more going on that he knew about. Frankly, Crush was not used to being outside of the flow of information. Not a pleasant feeling. Still, he pressed on. “We need to try and get things built in a hurry. Any help would be apprec—”
“No problem, Marshal,” Banjo had replied and whistled.
Six large metal figures marched out of the Embassy immediately.
“All right, you lot, head off with the Marshall here and do what they ask to build the settlement, okay?” Banjo had called to them, getting six instant nods in return. “Try and have fun, okay? Oh, and make us look good, yeah?”
What happened next, Crush still did not believe. He had been there, he had seen it, and he still did not believe it.
The Centrum units laughed.
That had been five days ago.
Banjo never asked for anything in return, and when Crush broached the subject?
“Don’t worry about it. Helping people is kind of what we do, yeah?” The ambassador had said, and that was that.
Four more units arrived the next day.
Now, they had three towers built, each five stories tall, housing their entire population—not that there were many of them. Still, it was impressive. The fourth tower, the village storehouse, would be completed today.
Tomorrow, they would work on the walls, and a week after they started, the village would be mostly complete.
“We Should have the fields complete sometime in the next couple of days,” And-Aran came up, wiping his hands on a rag. “Might be time to make that run you talked about.”
“Let’s just hope the stuff survived the crash. A farm tower, unattended like that….” Crush shrugged.
“They’re hardier than you think,” And smiled. “Don’t worry so much.”
“And if they aren’t?” Crush asked. “Do you have a backup plan? I don’t.”
“Ask the Captain for some seeds? I’ll bet she has some,” And smiled.
“And we offer what in exchange?” Crush replied hotly. “We can’t just take things; we should do something to earn them.”
“They seem happy to help,” And replied with a raised eyebrow.
“Trust me on this,” Crush told the young man. “When someone is happy to help, offer things in return. No one keeps a one-sided relationship around for long.”
And-Aran nodded.
===<<<>>>===
Crush and the squad were loading the shuttle, readying it to head out for what they hoped was a partially intact farming tower, when he got word that a group was approaching the walls from the direction of the Embassy.
“What do you think they want?” Bil-Tor asked as he strapped down a box of seed trays.
“Obviously, it’s time to pay the bill,” Crush said simply. “They basically built the place. You didn’t really think they did that for free, did you?”
“Well, they said it was free.” Bil-Tor shrugged.
“Yeah, I never did quite believe that,” Crush said, turning with a smile as he heard the group approaching. Damn, they moved fast. “Ambassador! What can we do for you?”
“Marshall Crush,” Banjo nodded and then bowed stiffly. “I bring a message from the Captain and a request.”
Here we go, Crush thought to himself. To be honest, he was kind of disappointed that Nellie and her people were playing games. It wasn’t what he expected of her.
“Anything we can do to help,” Crush said with his practiced, lazy smile.
“First, the message.” Banjo cleared his throat and then spoke in a perfect copy of the Captain’s voice. “Crush, I’m sorry to say that things are a lot less safe for us here than I had hoped. As of now, my people and I are working on building a powerbase as fast as possible. While this won’t affect you or your people, we are likely to be busy pretty much constantly. If you need help, we will do our best to help, but it might take a little longer than usual. Banjo, if you copy my voice again, I will personally use your balls as earrings—” Banjo cut off and paled slightly with a nervous laugh. “Any chance we can not mention the voice thing?”
Crush couldn’t help but smile.
“Nice,” Banjo said with visible relief.
“I’m telling,” One of the four smaller centrum units added happily.
“Prim!” Banjo rounded on it. “Don’t you dare!”
“I’m telling,” It repeated simply.
“Come on!” Banjo glared at it before remembering he was there for another reason, “Prim, I’m talking to you about this later. No tattling until then, okay?”
“Still telling,” Prim muttered but nodded.
“Right, onto the favor thing,” Banjo tried his best to recover what little dignity he had left, much to Crush’s amusement. “The training stuff you agreed to?”
“What about it?” Crush asked, expecting it was going to be a lot more than they had agreed to.
“Can we get that started soon? The more skills we have, the better.” Banjo ruffled his violently colored hair. “Stuff to do, you know how it is.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Crush said, relieved that was all this was about. “We can actually start some of it today if you like.”
“Brilliant!” Banjo beamed. “The first up was the hydroponic specialty, right?”
“I think so,” Crush said, honestly having forgotten the exact details. “Brix was handling all of that.”
“Lovely,” Banjo grinned. “Prim, Sec, go find Mister Brix and start learning!”
“Wait a second!” Prim hissed. “You are just trying to stop me from reporting back!”
“Me?” Banjo acted hurt. “Prim, how could you suspect such a thing?”
“Marshall Crush, I request access to your communications array immediately!” Prim said suddenly.
“Denied!” Banjo squeaked.
“It’s not your array!” Prim replied smugly.
“You can’t use unsecured transmitters!” Banjo said, sounding uncertain.
“You made that up!” Prim protested.
“He’s not wrong, though,” another of the cents piped up. “It is probably not something they want over—ow.” The cent rubbed its arm where Prim had slapped it. “No hitting. We said.”
“Sorry,” Prim huffed.
“See, totally a real rule,” Banjo beamed.
“Still gonna tell,” Prim grumbled. “Just gonna take longer.”
“Uh, if there is nothing else?” Crush interrupted. “We are about to leave on a mission, you see.”
“Oh, shit. Sorry, Marshall.” Banjo flushed slightly. “We’ll get out of your scales. Have a good run!”
“Thanks,” Crush watched them head off, arguing constantly. Banjo was clearly in charge, but only in the way the oldest sibling was in charge of the younger ones. It was difficult to look away; a horrified fascination kept him watching until they vanished around the corner of one of the towers.
“What the fuck was that?” Cara said from the flight deck. “Are they for real?”
“It appears so,” Crush felt himself grinning.
“They didn’t ask anything extra despite the help they gave us,” And-Aran noted.
“No, they didn’t,” Crush grinned wider. “Just occasionally, it’s nice to be surprised in a good way.”
“Well, if you're done with the traveling comedy show, we’re ready to go,” Cara called.
“Marshall One, lifting off,” Cara called as she powered up the engines.
“Roger that, One,” Their one and only Radio operator responded. “Safe flight.”
Crush sat back into the co-pilot’s seat and watched their progress on the map. The distance they needed to travel was almost precisely the radius of their new territory. It was the entire reason he had responded to the bloody Council in the first place.
“Scanners are showing clear,” Cara told him. “No sign of the area being disturbed.”
“Perfect,” Crush grinned. “With a little luck, we can harvest what we need before dark.”
The terrain was as varied as he remembered from the trip to their new home. Stretches of sand and yellow and red rocks separated patches of grass in shifting colors. One second, it would be virtually a desert; the next, you would find yourself in a small stretch of forest.
Not that the forest was actually a forest. The trees simply housed the strange moss that seemed to hide behind every rock or plant on the planet. He had a rule posted to never, ever sniff anything.
“Uh, Boss?” Cara sounded unsure suddenly. “What do we do here?”
Crush looked up to see their target was not as alone as he had hoped.
The crashed growing tower was right where they had expected, having gouged a deep rut into the ground as it landed. All around the crash site were the shattered shards of the strange crystals that seemed to be mere feet below the ground, everywhere on this moon.
That was all as expected.
The cluster of multi-legged aliens collecting them into baskets was not.
“Land, but a safe distance away,” Crush told Cara. “Let’s see if we can talk to them.”
Crush was waiting at the ramp the moment they touched down, riding it down to the ground as the cargo bay opened on the back of the shuttle.
He scanned the group, seeing only one of them seemed to have reacted to their landing. The rest were continuing to collect the crystals, uninterested and apparently unbothered. The one exception was a larger one, black and red coloring and wielding what appeared to be a simple spear.
Crush stepped from the shuttle; hands held out to his sides to show that he was unarmed, palms facing up to show he wasn’t hiding anything.
“Hello, my name is Crush, and I would like to talk!” Crush stopped a reasonable distance away and waited patiently, not wavering under the accessing gaze of the watcher.
“Name is not important,” The warrior strode forward, legs clattering against the thick alloys of the growing tower. “What you want might be. Speak.”
“We need plants from this tower for our village to grow.” Crush kept it simple and to the point. “Will we bother you if we do that?”
“No,” The watcher looked away. “But these are terrible crops. Would you not prefer things that grow well here?”
“We don’t know the plants here,” Crush shrugged. “These, we know.”
The watcher seemed to consider that for a while.
“Do not attack us, and we will not mind,” It walked away for a moment, then turned back. “This land, is it claimed by your people?”
“We did claim it, yes,” Crush replied carefully.
“I see. Do you claim the crystals as well?” There was no anger or challenge in the voice, just a question.
“No, we have no use for them,” Crush replied with a shrug.
“So, you would share this land? Allow our people on it if they want crystals, or other things?” The watcher was not looking at Crush, but he felt the attention on him anyway. It was a strange feeling.
“Of course,” Crush replied with a smile. “There is more than enough for everyone, is there not?”
“There is,” The watcher nodded. “This is a good start, Crush of the new colony. A good start for us both.”
“Glad to hear it,” Crush lowered his arms but noted the ‘Crush of the new colony’ name. They had scouts out at all times, watching for a trick or attack by the council. No one had seen a sign of the natives, yet they clearly knew what was happening. A good point to remember in future dealings. “We will not bother your people for long, just collecting some plants.”
The watcher nodded and turned away as Crush waved his people forward.
They worked for hours, saving what they could of the plants that remained inside. The animals, whatever was in here, were long gone. The entire time, the native people moved around, collecting and talking in a beautiful language of chirps and clicks. It was strangely soothing.
Eventually, And reported they had everything worth saving.
Crush looked over the two dozen full trays of seedlings. It really was not that much food. It would definitely be a tough few months while they waited for these to grow. Maybe they could take cuttings from them as they grew? Crush had never even seen a farm close up, and his knowledge of the subject mainly came from the odd overheard conversation. Mostly, Crush took his cue from the look of disappointment and worry on And’s face.
The kid had grown up on a farm, so he knew more than anyone else about it.
“Let’s get it loaded then,” Crush said with more confidence than he felt.
“I hoped for more,” And said sadly. “I really did.”
“It’s more than we had this morning,” Crush reminded them. “That’s something.”
“Crush of the new colony,” The watcher approached, carrying a basket. “A gift to help your people.”
Crush took the basket, saying thank you as he looked at the strange crystal shards in the bottom.
“Put one crystal shard in the center of each planting area and see the power of the Clutch,” the watcher said with a chirp. “May our people and yours be friends into the future.” They nodded once, let out a high-pitched whistle, and the group vanished into the nearby trees.
“What the fuck?” Cara squinted at the area. “Did they just fucking vanish, or what?”
“No idea,” Crush said thoughtfully. “But I think our friendly Captain was right about them.”
“Do we plant the crystals?” And-Aran asked, holding one up to the light.
“We plant one,” Crush said, “And keep a bloody close eye on it.”
