Back inside, the first thing I did was to queue up several manufacturing jobs. The new Explorer, an Attoscale Architect to expand local manufacturing capabilities and some other stuff.
This done, I returned to Anna and asked her “Up for some reverse engineering?”
True to her stated intentions, Anna immediately agreed. Half an hour later we were in the lab, Anna wired up with various probes and data links. Hopefully I would manage to get a better grip on the nanite shield tech this time. “You should have an energy shield available that is projected from the left arm. Maybe you need to call out the activation somehow, that seems to be a thing with Magical Girls.”
Anna tried various commands, but with little effect. “Shield!... Deflector!...Cover!” Nothing happened.
I thought about it, then suggested “Maybe an involuntary reaction, a sort of mechanical reflex? May I try to actually attack you?” Of course I did not really want to hurt her, but perhaps the threat had to appear real.
With considerable hesitation, Anna agreed. “OK, but if you break this body I want one of those replacements you mentioned!”
“I promise, but now get ready!” Subvocalized, I instructed Elya to direct a Type Four to strike at Anna with one of its tentacles.
With a reflexive movement, Anna rotated her left forearm vertical, palm side towards the attacking Type Four. An orange shield popped into existence, a tall rectangle about one and a half meters high and half a meter wide. The spike from the tentacle bounced off in a shower of sparks. A second later, the orange field collapsed in on itself and seemed to retreat into the arm.
I subvocalized again “Elya, did you get any interesting data?”
Yes, but the rules don’t allow me to do all the work for you. I can give you all the raw data in a layout you’ll understand, but you have to do some deduction work yourself. Unless you are willing to invest points and tokens into pre-designed Protector tech.
Hrmpf. Apparently my poor little brain would be tortured further. However, I refused to back down. So I asked Anna “Ready for another one?”
“I’m not sure, something in my arm feels exhausted now. Probably whatever made this orange shield.”
But after half a minute, Anna told me the exhausted feeling had gone away. So I fetched one of the Mack Battlecats I had captured months ago and had it fire a single plasma shot at Anna. This time Anna seemed to have better control, as raising the shield looked more like an intentional move than like an involuntary reflex. From the Battlecat’s gun tail, a plasma ball erupted and smashed into Anna’s shield. It held, but some of the plasma splashed around the edges of the shield and gave Anna a blast of hot air. She recoiled in surprise and seemed a bit shaken by the ferocity of the attack.
I have quite a bit of data for you now. I suggest you stop trying to toast Anna and do some analysis work instead.
Smartass. But I was glad that I did not have to stress out Anna more than I already had. So I apologized for the scare and unhooked her from the probes. We both needed a break, so we made our way to the living area in the tower where I started munching my way through some Sanctuary-made rations. They still tasted like cardboard, and once the current print jobs were done I would have to build one of my AutoChef food synthesizers for Styx Base. And then another for the Colwood shelter.
Once sated, I started to analyze the collected data and tried to explain to Anna what I was doing. But I soon realized that the esoteric physics went over her head. Hell, I was barely understanding it myself. Fortunately Anna was happy to go outside for a bit and let me get engrossed in the problem without distractions.
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Eventually I reached what I believed to be a good enough understanding to make some practical experiments. But those would have to wait for the next day, as I was pretty tired. So I went outside, where Anna was still watching the night sky.
“Hey Anna, I think I’ll go to bed. It’s been a long day. I have a guest room for you, and is there something else I can get for you?”
“I don’t need much sleep in this body, so do you maybe have some books to pass the time? Or movies?”
A short consultation with Elya later I had something to offer. “I can get you an E-book reader with a rather large collection of books. Is there a particular genre you prefer?”
“Sci-Fi and fantasy!”
“Can do! One E-book reader coming up, print time ten minutes!”
That will cost you 50 points for the reader blueprint and 100 for the library. For over 40.000 books it is a real bargain!
Sunday, January 17th, 2050, way too early in the morning
As I dragged myself to the kitchen to make some insta-coffee, Anna appeared from her guest room and cheerfully announced “That library you gave me is awesome! But one thing is baffling me. There is a lot of newer novels that talk about plant monsters called Antithesis. Is that something like a shared story universe?”
“Sort of. It comes across as pretty realistic, doesn’t it?”
“Dunno. I mean, it is quite consistent. But walking plants that try to eat you? Come on!”
“Not more far fetched than killer robots that overrun your world.”
“Oh. You've got a point there. I guess someone could write a similar novel about our Earth.”
I figured it was too early to spill the beans. But I could not completely suppress a chuckle. Fortunately, Anna did not suspect the deeper truth. Instead she asked “Do we have more experiments planned for today?”
“I’d like to try and find out more about an ability another Mack Magical Girl has shown. Apparently she has pulled an axe out of thin air and used it to attack a SHOCKS team.”
“I don’t know if I have that at all. That magical bag of holding I mean.”
“Don’t worry. If you don’t have it, that’s not your fault. But let’s check.”
Back in the lab, we quickly found out that Anna had a mechanism meant for dimensional shunting, but could not get it to work despite two hours of experimenting. What I did manage to recover were recordings of the commands going to the device I suspected of being the “magical bag of holding”. There was clearly something going on, but once again I did not succeed in unraveling the mystery, yet. So I announced “I need a break.”
“Are we getting anywhere with the bag of holding thing?”
“I have enough data to theorize and make some experiments. Actually, I have the body of another Mack MG over there. Most of it is still functional, and it should work as a test bed so I don’t have to keep you in the lab all the time.”
Anna ran over to where I had deposited Arina’s old Mack body, now headless and somewhat cut up. With a horrified expression she turned around and accused me “What have you done to her? You, you... monster!”
“Remember the artificial body Wendy showed you? She has one of those now and does not need the Mack hardware any more.
“I promised you can get one of those too, and I’m keeping that promise. But in the meantime, will you help me figure out one last thing?”
“What thing?” came the answer, full of suspicion. Anna had calmed down a little, but I could still hear the distrust in her voice.
“The jumpjets in your legs. See these flaps?” I pointed to two barely visible flaps under the ankles of Arina’s old body.
“You have those too, and underneath there are thrusters for a few seconds of flight. I admit I’m a bit lazy here, it might be possible to figure it out by experimenting on that old body. But if you can use yours, an actual test flight would give me better data.”
Ten minutes later, we were on the helipad, Anna wearing only some lightweight and wireless instrumentation this time. She seemed to be in thought for a moment, then she said “Yes I think I can... WHEEEE!!”
Wobbling and waving her arms, Anna was circling with hissing thrusters over the helipad and drifting towards the pseudo-medieval tower with the living quarters. She barely reached the crenelations and got a hold on them before she ran out of fuel.
I ran to the tower and up the staircase to help Anna over the battlement. But she met me halfway down the stairs. I had forgotten how strong the Mack MGs were. Of course she could pull herself up.
With a big grin, Anna announced ”That was fun! I’m no longer sure if I want to switch bodies.”
In a more serious tone she added “But I still want to see if Miss I-have-a-new-body-now is OK!”