Monday evening, I met with Technica in her lair and she showed me where the various tools I had asked about were located. There were even a couple of tools similar enough to what I thought I would have to build for myself, allowing me to skip making them but could use what was there. We also talked about my time in class but the solution came from another source. Galatea reminded me of the legions of small work-bots she had controlled while we were living in the bunker above New Brunsburg, the bots that had dug new tunnels and cleaned the bunker. And, more importantly, the bots that had done the experiments in the biohazard laboratory. There was no reason we could not use something similar here, allowing us to work in our workshop from anywhere.

I suggested it to Technica and she accepted, as long as she was unable to hack into them, without resorting to her ability. She felt that was a necessary precaution. I had an idea for another one but did not tell her about it, so it would be part of the challenge in hacking into the bots.

Building the bots was quite simple, most of the parts were off-the-shelf with little customisation. In addition, I had taken one of the large microwave-transmitters from my workshop with me, allowing me to use nanites externally to do micro-construction. The security was another thing, it was made out of multiple parts, one part was normal security, made by me without design-help from Galatea, the next part was a complex maze that even I could only navigate with Galatea’s help, as she was the one who created it and afterwards came something I had cooked up.

The last barrier was simple and maddingly complex at the same time. I doubted that any normal hacker, no matter how brilliant, had the ability to command my nanites. Their base-code was simply too different from everything else. So, I had placed the hardest barrier to overcome for any hacker. Emptiness. There was no physical connection from the receiver to the main-processor, just a small gap and a number of nanites that allowed construction of a bridge to the processor, if they were placed in the right formation. But to do so, one needed to position the first layer to allow access to the second layer and so on. It added a geometric dimension into the problem, something rather unique when it came to hacking.

So, late in the evening, I challenged Technica to do her worst, to break into my work-bots and make them dance to her tune. Her answer was an almost maddingly confident grin and she went to work, at first on her computer-terminal which was just an input device as I soon learned. The real computer was a level down and the biggest electric-consumer on the whole Island. And what a computer it was, there were rooms full of processing grids, it was a supercomputer with enough power to put everything else to shame.

The first barrier, of which I had been quite proud, yielded to her within less than fifteen minutes, causing her grin to widen. The maze Galatea had created took her a lot longer, almost two hours passed while I watched her work, amazed at her skills. Part of what made her Technica was her power but even without her power, she was a brilliant computer-programmer and scientist. It made my respect towards her only grow.

But after those two hours, her progress ground to a full stop, she had not the slightest idea how to continue. After watching her beat her head against that particular wall for an hour, not even managing to understand what she was looking at, I wished her good luck and went home, grinning all the while.

Back at the dorm, Tanisha was bent over her desk, furiously studying. As I passed her, I gently placed a hand on her shoulder, telling her, “If you need help, tell me. Maybe I can help you.”

She turned, giving me a thankful smile, “Thanks, I will try on my own for now. But, I will probably ask at one point.”

“Good. Now, off to bed with you, young lady.” I grinned, gesturing to the clock.

“Mh? It’s this late? Damn!” she said, before scurrying off into the bathroom. Shaking my head, I changed in the room while she was gone. After I was done, Galatea tried something new, running a swarm of nanites over my body, cleaning away dead skin, dirt, dust and anything else, leaving me perfectly clean, even cleaning my teeth. According to Galatea, I was much cleaner compared to showering, but somehow, there was a psychological component to showering, of feeling clean, something her nanite-cleansing did not give me. But it was faster and did not need a bathroom, allowing me to get into bed before Tanisha came back out of the bathroom.

The next morning, I found a message from Technica, giving me the go ahead to use the bots in her lair as she had decided that they were secure enough, making me smile. For the rest of the day, I focused on building the different crucibles, forges and tools to mix up the ceramic-metal compound. That took me until shortly before the end of my classes, after which I went to the workshop, visiting with Technica beforehand.

She looked rather down when I got there. “Hello, Technica, what is wrong?” I asked, slightly concerned.

“You win. I even tried cheating and could not hack into your bots. I was able to move them, but only by directly controlling them with my power.” she grumbled.

I suppressed a happy grin, not wanting to gloat and briefly explained the last safeguard, making her groan again.

“Even knowing that, I don’t think I could hack into them. Maybe, if I exactly know where the nanites are, I might be able to fiddle around enough, linking them up. But that would need direct access and a lot of time. Okay, they are safe, I believe you.”

“Great. Say, do you have a shooting range down here?” I asked, allowing myself to grin now.

She nodded and gave me directions, something I planned to use later. The bots had already started to forge the parts I needed for both, the protective capsule and the rail-rifle.

It still took me over two hours to finish the rail-rifle, after I had first worked on the capsule and placed it into the microwave-projector so the nanites could finish the insides. The rifle looked incredibly strange, mostly because of the distinctive shock-absorbers around the barrel and the stock. If limited to a single shot per second, the absorbers allowed me to fire it without my armour however automatic fire, of which the weapon was easily capable, would instantly overwhelm the absorbers, transmitting the full recoil into my shoulder and most likely breaking it.

Once it was finished, I walked over to the shooting range and saw a long, empty chamber, with backstops at different distances, all placed on rails in the floor. There was even a blast-screen and a testing stand with a couple of different gauges, allowing for weapons-testing. Apparently, I was not the first one in the Guild who had made themself some sort of gun and judging by some of the holes ripped into the backstops, some of those guns had been pretty powerful.

I mounted my own rifle on the testing stand and stood back, when Technica entered, “So, what have you made for yourself?” she asked, looking curious.

I showed her the rifle and made her stand behind the blast-screen with me, before triggering the first shot, using the frangible ammo. The muzzle-velocity was low, for a rail-gun at least, but it had more than enough punch to obliterate the sound-barrier. The sound of the projectile breaking it was quite loud in the enclosed space. I looked at the gauges connected to the stand and they showed the force transmitted into the stand. The numbers seemed quite reasonable for the effect the weapon had. Each shot, fired with multiple shock-absorbers, would be equivalent to getting punched once, hard. Not pleasant but on the other side of the rifle, the effects would be much less pleasant.

While I focused on the gauges, Technica looked at a camera, showing the backstop, now peppered with a couple new holes.

“Frangible round?” she asked.

“Yes, for those times I do not want to overpenetrate. I also have a penetrator-version.” I explained, grinning like a madwoman. The rifle worked just as planned.

A small button changed feed to the other magazine and I went back behind the blast-shield, triggering the next shot. The gauges looked very similar, almost identical even, the change easily in the margin of error, so I was satisfied. Technica looked rather spooked when I looked at her and she pointed at the camera. The backstop simply had a new hole, small and unremarkable until she pointed at a second camera, showing the backside. The hole there was slightly larger, but not by much.

“Well, it was made to penetrate.” I grinned at her.

“Penetrate what? A tank? A battleship?!” she asked, her voice rising a little.

“Sure, if it comes to it. That rifle is my answer if Battlemaster tries again.” I answered, my smile now turning decidedly malignant. “But for the really fun part, there is the full-auto mode.” I declared and Technica turned a little pale.