NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6 (It’s alive)
Flying lazily above the elevator, the drone drifted above the large metal plate almost listlessly as I waited for B1 to arrive at the platform. Growing impatient as it slowly walked along the long metal hallway I started to amuse myself by switching my camera view to b1's camera, as I waited for it to get on the elevator. I found it kind of funny how I could swap my vison so easily, its low heavy pace as it carried the fuel cell it had, as it made its way to my location, making the camera wobble, I could even see my own "body" hovering above the elevator. Having amused myself for long enough, B1 finally arrived and started the elevator per my orders. With the familiar grinding noise, the elevator slid down its guide, though this time with considerably less hassle, actually quite smooth considering the circumstances of its upkeep.
Reaching the base floor of the bunker again, I happily accompanied B1 back to the door at the power room, doing my best to make small talk with the robot, but sadly, once more, I was forced to realize that B1 was not very conversational. Opening the power room, I had a decision to make: I could hopefully use the cell I had to restore power to a third of the facility, but the question was which third.
Reviewing the plans I had in my database, the three generators were marked as A, B, and C, with each one restoring power to a specific section. A restored power to the living quarters, armory, and main room, B to the factory and foundry, and C to the defensive network and long-range communication. Those were the main items I’d be getting in each one, and the problem was I wanted them all! But I had to choose. Ahh, why is life so unfair?
Pumping my fist in the air angrily—well, doing no such thing, but luckily no one was here to correct me—I buzzed around B1’s head as I considered the options. From what I knew about the power generators, if I put the cell in, I wouldn’t be able to take it out again without damaging the fuel cell. Luckily, it could be ejected in an emergency, but the cell itself wouldn’t be usable again.
After some time considering, the benefits of each choice were clear. All the options seemed appealing, but after working through what they offered, I realized there was only one good choice. Restarting the place I woke up in could be good, after all, there seemed to be a lot of important equipment down there—things like air purification and food production, access to the sleeping quarters, but considering my current state these weren’t of much use to me. The only really interesting thing it seemed to do was power back on the armory. Thinking back on the uncharged state of the other unit, and the quad pedal tank, (though I doubted that would work even if it had a charge). I was a bit tempted.
Still, none of that was needed now as I had a plan at least to get the B2 operational, and the tank could wait for now. The second item of consideration was the top floor of the bunker, powering the surveillance and defense network. I wasn’t sure what the surveillance network was, but based on what I could find in the bunker database; it comprised a network of high-powered radars, and sensors that made up the bunker's early warning system. It also supplemented the current local communications. In addition to the surveillance equipment, the bunker defenses sound almost too good to be true. At its peak, the place was guarded by rows of turrets and barriers that could be activated on the surface, and gas and other traps inside I supposed to kill anyone who could make it past a storm of bullets. As much as I wanted to activate this for a bit of peace of mind, but my database hadn’t been updated in more than two hundred years meaning I had no way of knowing if any of it worked, besides I never had the intention of being holed up in the bunker for the rest of my time, so that was also sadly out of the equation.
The last choice was the most appealing: diverting the power to the factory location and the foundry. Unlike the defense network, the factory’s location made it ideal to fix if anything were to go wrong. It also solved the most pressing need I had now: my total lack of manpower.
If I could restart the foundry and factory and use the remaining resources to finish the run of robots in production, even if they were inferior products to B1 or B2—well, assuming B2 worked—then I’d have quite the force. I suspected even without powering on the factory I could maybe complete a bot or two(given enough time), But I was a manager; what am I supposed to work? Impossible! Maybe a little overly excited about what was coming, I waited, buzzing around as B1 carefully lined the fuel cell up with the opening on the generator, pushing down heavily. With a loud gachunk, it fell into place into the generator. The instant it made contact, the entire room was filled with the noise of grinding dust and metal scraping as the fuel cell sunk deeper and deeper. I looked on a little worried about what was going to happen; the entire generator seemed like it was going to fall apart before it even powered on. But just as I was about to give up hope, the generator's rapid spinning started to slow down, and with a rhythmic thumping, the entire place came to life. The darkness was illuminated instantly by a flash of light, blinding my camera sensors for a moment. Stunning me for a moment as it adjusted to the light. While Complaining that even as a robot I still had to deal with light sensitivity. I panned over to the screen which was now illuminated with a flickering glow. Surprisingly, all the electrical wiring to the generator seemed to hold up fine, as none of the lights started to burn out.
On the panel was displayed the information I was wondering about: the generators had stopped functioning some 400 years ago when a command was received. However, the command was corrupted, and I could neither see who the sender was, nor the reason for the order. Even without the information I had been hoping for. I was happy enough to have gotten the power function to work. I mean, that was a big achievement in the grand scale of things, right? This is one great step forward for me! And uh, one powered bunker for uh, me as well, I guess. As my thoughts whirled around my head I flew back and active the elevator back to the second floor without waiting for B1. As it reached the second floor I could hear the sounds of the factory starting ahead. My excitement reached new heights as I listened to the noise of the machines going to work already. However, as I listed I realized the sounds weren’t what I had expected; they weren’t the peaceful and harmonious clanking of a well-oiled machine, but instead the sound of metal grinding against itself, and loud metallic thuds which filled me with a sense of dread.