We began building Anna’s new body, but it would take a few days to complete. We had just started the first print job, as Arina noticed she was already late for her duties as logistics specialist with HANAF. She left in my old van in a hurry.
Seconds later, B.S.O.D. called. “There is a problem with the food supply, and we might need to step up the production of the AutoChefs in whatever way possible. I expect you at an emergency meeting at SHOCKS an hour from now!”
I figured that might be a good opportunity to introduce Anna, so I replied “Sure, I’ll be there. There is one unrelated thing, we have a new former Mack MG among us. Perhaps that would be an opportunity to introduce her.”
As I completed the sentence, I realized that I had not interrogated Anna nearly enough. About things like her background, how long she was enslaved by the Macks and what exactly her duties in their services were. Sloppy, Caitlin.
B.S.O.D. promptly hit that weak spot. “Yes, but after the main part of the meeting. We will want to know all about her background and her time under Mack control. Expect this to take a few hours.”
“Ehehe, I may have somehow neglected doing my own interrogation about these topics. But let me speak to her for a moment.”
I called “Hey Anna, would you be OK with meeting SHOCKS and answering a few questions about your past? Or many questions?”
“Sure. I’ve always admired Magical Girls and wanted to be one of them. Maybe I can meet some of them today!”
Satisfied with that answer, I turned back to the telephone call and told B.S.O.D. “We will be there.”
Arriving at SHOCKS headquarters, we were greeted by Team Battle Bug. Longhorn immediately tensed at the sight of Anna and asked me “Have you hacked this one too to obey you?”
“I have, but only to free her. Once Elya had removed the enslavement software that made Anna loyal to the Macks, she turned out to be a pretty nice person.”
Team Battle Bug escorted us to the meeting room. Inside, I found people with expressions somewhere between worried and grim. The usual suspects were here, including B.S.O.D and Major Allen. Arina had also been roped into the meeting, which made sense as she was the liaison between HANAF and Vanguard Industries now. What was unusual was the presence of Palace Athena and the Mayor of Victoria. Things appeared to be serious.
Palace called the meeting to order and started it with an overview of the situation.
“Forty-four hours ago, food deliveries from Sanctuary started to become unreliable, and we are unable to find out why. The Sanctuary AI is even less forthcoming with information than usual. Mayor Ambrose, could you please give us the details?”
I was disappointed that the guy was still in office after how he had fumbled the response to last June’s emergence. But he had successfully managed to shift the blame onto a hapless employee at the city council.
Mayor Ambrose cleared his throat and began “Saturday shortly after noon, the food supply from Sanctuary had dwindled a lot both in quantity and variety. Since then, we get only half as much and only the pseudo-oatmeal-variety. We still have some food reserves though, that gives us a few weeks to come up with a solution.”
Some people around me let out audible groans. Even the Magical Girls, who had the privilege of getting real food from the SHOCKS cantina, looked unhappy.
Ambrose pointed to an elderly woman in a formal business suit. “Mrs. Miller from the Office of Health And Nutrition will tell you more about our projections.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Said lady opened a presentation that showed half a dozen possible outcomes depending on the future food supply from Sanctuary, next year’s conventional agriculture and the influx from the AutoChefs. Overall, the situation looked pretty grim. If Sanctuary kept delivering only half the food, we would mostly survive but with serious rationing. If Sanctuary completely stopped food deliveries, we could expect a massive famine. The productivity graph of the potential saviour, our AutoChefs, was rising over time but not fast enough.
Suddenly, everybody was looking at me. Fortunately, I had already done the math and come to a conclusion. “My calculations show that our only way of increasing AutoChef output fast enough is to further increase the number of assemblers that are making AutoChefs. We can achieve this by publishing the blueprints for the assembler and encouraging current assembler owners to make a few more assemblers before returning to making AutoChefs. Think of it as adding another tier to our production pyramid scheme.”
Major Allen immediately understood. After making some calculations on a napkin he announced “This might allow us to avoid starvation if the people who already have an assembler get on board. There is, however, one danger.”
He looked straight at me. “How can you guarantee that the spread of Vanguard manufacturing technology remains controlled?”
After a moment of hesitation, I chose to double down. “I don’t. Let people build up as much manufacturing capacity as they want. With a few weeks‘ delay and once an adequate food supply is secured, I intend to make my industrial blueprints free as well. We have our backs to the wall, and we need every advantage over the Macks we can get. I might have been scared of rocking the boat, but perhaps I should have started this little industrial revolution earlier.”
Looking around, I saw a lot of uncertainty, but also one determined supporter. To my surprise, it was Mayor Ambrose.
“She is right, and I support her plan. My contacts in industry keep telling me that they are plagued by all kinds of supply chain problems, and they could produce a lot more if those shortages were eliminated.”
With a mix of hesitation and support, the others in the meeting finally agreed that risking some economic upheaval would be worth the potential gains. Thus we were done planning how to address the impending food shortage, and B.S.O.D.’s focus turned to Anna.
“So you are the latest young lady Caitlin rescued? Nice to meet you, and as you can imagine we hope to get some intel on the Macks from you. But first, tell me about yourself!”
“I’m Anna Hastings and I was your ordinary girl next door, until I failed to reach a shelter in time during the emergence last June. A group of Macks cornered me and I thought it was over, but instead of ripping me to shreds, they injected me with something.”
Mayor Ambrose looked rather guilty at that. Apparently he had not lost all sense of responsibility, where his past failures were concerned.
Anna continued “When I came to, I found myself in a body that was not mine. Not made of flesh and blood, but metal under human-looking plastic skin. I should have panicked, but somehow my mind was paralyzed and could not turn to anything besides the demands of my captors. Which turned out to be pretty mundane after all. They used me to guard a facility full of robots and machinery.
“Time passed like in a dream. Sometimes I remembered glimpses of my former life and felt like I was close to awakening. But each time, the machine in me pulled me under and made me a loyal puppet again. Until the day Caitlin captured me and lifted the mental shackles.”
“That is horrific,” B.S.O.D. sympathized. “But others have overcome that ordeal, and with appropriate therapy, you might be able to do so as well.”
“Oh, when I could think for myself again, I found that my new existence was not all that disgusting to myself. I even had some brief thoughts of switching sides and fighting for Haven.”
“Really?” Arina questioned.
“That is one reason why I was not in so much of a hurry to give up my current body. It can at least do some of what a real Magical Girl can do!”
B.S.O.D. interrupted. “But you will give up the Mack body? Like Arina did? Maybe we could use it for some research?”
That was not what Anna and I had agreed to. “Don’t you already have the old Mack body of Alice in your labs? Besides, Arina and I promised we would keep Anna’s Mack body in storage for her in case the new shell does not work out.”
B.S.O.D. reluctantly agreed. Two more hours of boring interrogation followed, but I tuned most of it out. The SHOCKS people kept going back over details we’d already covered. Of more interest to me was Anna’s backstory, about which I had neglected to question her very thoroughly. Apparently she came from an old merchant family and, being loyal to the family tradition, had been studying business administration. That made her job of inventory keeping at a Mack base strangely appropriate.