Chapter 25

Jacob awoke to Genesis telling him his points for the day.

"You have gained 3116 points, you now have 4886."

Rubbing his eyes and giving out another pained stretch from his not so comfortable concrete floor. Jacob got up. The attack from last night had got him thinking.

"Thanks Genesis."

7! They were attacked by seven this time. Jacob was afraid the numbers would keep growing. Eventually, they would be overrun. Even a single Swiftstalker could kill hundreds of humans, if not all of them, if faced with a hand to tail battle.

Guns were their only option. Again, Jacob hated it, but he had to purchase more. This time, he also would purchase more bullets.

However, he couldn't help but think about the story he had heard from Dr. Amrit that night. About a guard named Kelly who killed 3 on her own and saved someone's life while she did it.

"… Genesis, is it possible for you to access Kelly's AI orb data from that night? I want to see what happened."

"Yes, Sir."

A holo screen appeared with a video clip. Jacob tapped play and couldn't hold back his surprise at what he saw. "Ill have to remember her. She might be good at some extreme situations…" Jacob rubbed his chin as he looked at the recording of her fight with the swiftstalkers.

In 10 seconds, she had killed 3 of them, and how she could somehow know when to pull the trigger was beyond amazing. On earth, she would be famous if this clip got out.

Shaking his head at his future plans. Jacob got back to what he needed to do today.

"Send out a message to the woodcutting team. Make sure they dedicate some people to cutting a path towards the ore deposits we found. The concrete will be extremely important to us. Explain to them what the path is for."

"Yes, Sir."

After stretching, Jacob walked from his bland home to the storage facility. This morning there was not too much traffic. Many people were lined up on the street next to the facility. While many were likely still resting. They had not created a start time, having hoped people would just get going. But it appears today that was not happening too fast.

Jacob shrugged, figuring he would talk to Akiko about it later. See what they can do to encourage some more effort. She was currently going over some things with her guards for the new colonist initiative. Jacob called it that, since they were attempting to help new colonists have a safe transition from earth to new Eden.

The first batch proved it could be highly dangerous if emotions get out of hand and people panic. Therefore, the colony was taking the initiative to help them. Jacob believed heavily in supporting those in need. On earth, he had little power to make a difference. He wasn't a billionaire or influencer etc. but here Jacob felt he could start humans off at a place of equality rather than fight to achieve it in an established system. Well, in earth's case, many established systems.

This made Jacob think back to his need to encourage people. Humans needed a reason to live, if he provided basic needs and furniture and anything else with the technology they had in the store. Humans wouldn't need to work, there were even androids for sale and android printers which could replace all labour. The AI orbs replaced much of the daily tasks that a manager or human would do as well.

Jacob realized he had an issue once they gained things like this. How could he get people to work and make progress? Once he solved food and shelter. How could he get people to keep working?

"This is hard…" He suddenly realized that he was dealing with an issue that had not been solved on earth, either. What type of system does one have if everyone's needs are met? How do people live fulfilling lives? This would take him a while, he thought.

He walked into the storage facility to see Sophia dancing like a maniac. She was going in a circle around a storage crate. A few of the workers in charge of printing daily items were watching with surprised looks. But not at Sophia's weird dancing. They were staring at a red rock which was floating while attached to some wires.

"It WORKS! Look at the efficiency! This amount of lift changes everything!" Sophia explained to nobody in particular.

Jacob walked up. "Is that the stone from yesterday? What did you do? What's happening?"

Sophia looked at Jacob with fanatical eyes. "JACOB! THIS IS INCREDIBLE! Look!" She pointed to the rock. "I'm using a small electrical charge, and it turns the electricity into propulsion, which I can only assume is a form of directed gravitons!"

She continued. "But that's not all! It appears that the force can be changed based on the angle and alignment of the crystals. See!" She grabbed the rock and turned it on its side. Immediately it shot forward, however it angled downward as well. Gravity doing its normal job again. "This means it's not countering the gravity emitted by the planet, it's creating its own force! The charge I'm using is barely 20 watts!" She was jumping up and down in excitement.

"That's amazing Sophia! This means we can make hovercraft that is actually feasible. And this will make flying even safer!"

Sophia nodded. "You're only scratching the surface, Jacob. Imagine having a cart that you push with zero friction aside from that of the air. Imagine flying into space with a ground vehicle. This discovery is world shattering! On earth, countries would have gone to war for control of this material."

"Well, you would know best! Let me know how research goes. I'm prioritizing making a path for the ores. Which means you should have plenty to play with!"

Her eyes lit up. "I can't wait!"

Jacob laughed. "Well, I know you're excited, but there are still a lot of things to do. I wanted to talk with you about setting up a power grid. Now, we have access to such powerful battery technology, it will be workable to have power in local homes that is shared by the grid. This will help during outages and high demand, or am I crazy?"

"No, you are correct! However, this is not something I can do in a day. We need heavy machinery. Period. For digging of the power cables and also creating the substations. Even with graphene, they will still be too heavy and dangerous without it. Right now, I suggest we create local grids for use, then combine it all into a grand system once we have the proper tools. I never cared much for power grids, and none of my experiments took me down that route. We might even find someone who can design it better than I can as we get colonists." Sophia said, while suddenly being very professional.

Jacob couldn't help but think she was acting like a science advisor. As he thought about it, Diego, Adewale, Akiko, and the others did the same for him in their respective fields.

This is something he always cared about on earth. While he wouldn't jump off a cliff because a professional said so, he would always take their advice to heart. He believed he didn't have the experiences or education needed to tell everyone else they were wrong. His best chance at making a great colony is to listen to those who knew best about what they did best.

"Sir, 65 colonists have arrived."

"I will let Akiko do her thing." Jacob said to Sophia as he heard the message.

At that moment, Diego walked in again, carrying their food. "You two sure are lucky getting special treatment." He said jokingly, while he placed the food down on a crate near them.

"Hey, how's the food situation? Anything I should be more worried about?"

"So far it's good. We cannot seem to find any negative reactions to the fish and even the meat from the swiftstalkers. Although the testers said it tastes like bland chicken."

"Fantastic! Let's hope we can find some more food supplies before we get too many colonists. I know each day we end up using more than the last."

"How has the fishing been going?"

"So far, they have not found a suitable spot. You have asked the AI to not allow people to disturb the beach and reef beside the colony. So they have to explore down the shoreline. And fishing on the shore will never be as good as using a boat. I recommend we make a few when we can." He said while looking at the printers.

"Yes yes… another blueprint! Ill get right on that. Let's just make basic rowboats for shallow fishing. It will be too hard to make a larger boat right now."

Diego nodded. "This will work. That way we can make it until harvest. Otherwise, I am not sure what we will do about food." He said while shaking his head.

"Remember, in emergencies we can purchase food from the store. But our points shouldn't be spent on things we can make ourselves, anyway." Jacob said, reminding Diego that the store had virtually everything. "But my guess is everyone has access to this system. If I understood the aliens right, we are competing against others as well. This means we can't just spend all our points because it's easy. We have to use them to the best of our ability."

"Your smart Jacob. I'm glad we have you thinking about these details. I have a hard time with things like this." Diego said, smiling. "Anyway, ill get back to work. We are finding a place near the wall to build a cookhouse." With that, he turned around and walked out.

"Well, we should buy more alloy printers. Time for a shopping spree!" Jacob laughed at himself as he said this, realizing he had just lectured them about spending wisely.

Sophia's AI silver chimed in, "Someone from the new group of colonists has applied to your science team, ma'am."

Jacob and Sophia looked at each other, surprised. It has only been 10 minutes?! Who the hell would apply so soon?