Chapter 46 – Plans for conquest part 2

--- 3 days later, on the third floor ---

Erik and Inky had made a platform and put the pieces of the engine there, some were indeed damaged, Rose had scanned it and was already absorbing the technology and trying to recreate an improved version, a 'fun project' according to her, but the truth is that many pieces had been damaged and others had been rusted through as it was delicate technology, others had water inside and the activators got damaged, there were thousands of things to fix and he didn't even remember how it went anymore the entire thing, and only had a general idea.

This was only natural, a simile would be that everyone can use a phone, but not many would know all its pieces and how to mount them, much less create them themselves.

Erik sighed and thought 'well, there's no hurry'.

That day he at least had cleaned the parts and did some maintenance at least, so it would be good there for now, as some nanobots had already latched on it from the walls so it wouldn't deteriorate further at least, this was really important, as he had to at least ensure the deposit was always powered as in contained antimatter enough to equal a 120 megaton bomb, it was impossible to use as a weapon though as it reacted explosively to any kind of matter, so it needed to remain contained, luckily the spaceship had used up a lot decelerating, a full deposit, as just 1 gram of antimatter could cause a nuclear explosion.

Dark energy on the other hand just gave off a harmful radiation that bent space, relatively harmless compared to antimatter, but equally dangerous and hard to contain. He would make a separate room to move the engine inside when he had some time.

He could always look for the missing landing ship, and copy its engine if needed for an orbital short distance spaceship, or to create good quality rockets, he knew how rockets worked and with the documentation in the computers and Rose's help, he should be able to at least make some 2 phase rockets.

Anyways, he would be able to at least make some launch rockets to put some satellites on orbit and try asking for help once he had the base above the water ready, so the primary engine wouldn't be needed in a really long time anyways.

It would be a good idea to search for the spaceship anyways though, the problem is he didn't know where it landed, it broke off earlier so it should have fallen way south, 'hmm more things on the to-do list…' he thought.

"Rose, make a 3D model of the insides of this mountain, I need to check something"

[...]

"...Rose, can you make a 3D model of the insides of this mountain please?"

[yes, I can, hehe you are hopeless without me ~~~ (0ω0*) ]

"... I won't deny that, but I doubt other humans could have done any better anyways" he shrugged.

[Well, who knows, they could have gone exploring and battled the unknown! ヽ(^o^)/]

"oh yes, an early death, how delightful! (he rolled his eyes 🙄), the unknown is what kills the unprepared"

[well, that's true too, loneliness also drives some keepers crazy... won't be a problem for you as I see though...]

"yeah, I first did it for survival but... the octopeople are like family now... I wonder if they have marriage ceremonies, if Inky really ends up pregnant maybe I should marry her..." he seriously pondered.

[what if you got pregnant?]

" ...don't put weird thoughts in my head"

[yeah, your biology is too different, and also genitalia, it would take thousands of mutations to make it happen as a hybrid and even then, it would be dangerous for you, you could also try chimera technology to implant their organs, your immunological system would have to be suppressed though and that could kill you so-]

"stop it already, it's much easier to just modify my sperm to be able to impregnate her, and that's it"

[sigh... if I could at least move the physical organic part of my body...]

"wouldn't that be like a small version of yourself walking over your own body"

[more or less, yes]

"sounds fun then, well, gotta get things ready now, the model please"

[right away]

He saw a transparent model of the mountain and saw the octopeoples living area, and some other areas that were almost finished, with their superior strength, futuristic tools, hundreds of workers, and nutritious food available, they were working quickly.

Then he checked the available space, there was still a lot, so if he made a tunnel to the side, he could probably create an underground field for his bees and maybe also growing wheat for bread, but what he needed right now was a big underwater submarine bay, he planned it in his mind. First a tunnel down from a different path from the first floor, and then up so air pressure would keep the water at bay in case of a flood, and then a big technological room to build submarines for now.

*(https://i.ibb.co/5Bx7vZt/Submarine-Bay-Ch46.jpg)

"what about this in my head? can it be done, Rose?"

[once you retake the metal processing plant yes, but not for now]

"sigh, war huh... guess there's no avoiding it, without a big submarine though it will be hard to endure those pressures... oh, got an idea, can you print this on my head then?"

[seems like a... drill? a circular drill?]

"yep, with this, I could install it on the sand plains and then just wait for it to extract column after column of stone, might even be able to build something cool with them too, like an underwater temple with those columns"

[ i could try... be aware this will significantly deplete the resource reserves that I need for waterproofing the base, also creating weapons and going there would be better]

"... well, that's bad but being exposed down a dark cliff with innumerable colossal predators looking us go down and waiting for the moment to eat us..., yeah, it's not wise"

[...fine, I will make your probe first, but you will probably need to bring metal, with the metal refinery disconnected, it's hard to extract metals from the water]

"Thanks, so much left to do in the end, dealing with the snake mama and now this... sigh"

The probe was quickly finished, it was a metallic sphere with a camera and holes with propulsors inside to move around.

He also made a more basic surface version to explore the kelp forest and the surroundings.