Harry flipped through his catalogues. He tuned out the outside problems. He needed something that would blow the whole thing down. He needed something huge.

He found something. He checked the parameters. He could use this. He needed a hole in the roof.

He checked the range. He would have to have the giant bee to move out of the area as fast as possible when he dropped it on the problem.

He nodded to himself. He could do it.

He snapped out of it. He needed to move his bee into position. He would hate to lose the hives and long guns, but he had to do what he could to stop the xenos from coming back.

Maybe they would get lucky and the outer shell would keep the blast contained. That would allow the long guns to fire into the surrounding sands.

“We have to get to the top of the hive,” said Harry. “Take us up so we can drop this bomb. We need to wipe this place off the planet.”

“We’re bombing this hive?,” asked Guy.

“We have to do this,” said Harry. “The xenos will keep coming back until it’s gone.”

“We’re above the hive,” said Cat. “I don’t see a hole to drop the bomb through.”

“We’ll have to blow one open,” said Harry. “Can you hold us here? I think this is going to be a snap once we pop the shell open.”

“I’ve got it,” said Cat.

“We’re shooting up a lot of xenos on the ground,” said John.

“Hopefully this will take care of all of them,” said Harry. “Come on, Guy. I might need a hand.”

They went to back door. Guy opened it up and stood in the wind. He used his rifle on something trying to climb up to them.

“I need to throw a door opener,” said Harry. “Then we drop the big boy.”

“Got it,” said Guy. “Do what you got to do.”

Harry checked the roof and frowned that it wasn’t flat. A flat roof would make things easier for him. He had to create something with a spike to hold the explosive in place.

He summoned his first explosive. He looked down at the roof of the building. He had to punch through the roof, and create a hole big enough for the second bomb. He frowned at the distance he was going to have to drop the charge.

“Ready?,” said Guy.

“Yeah,” said Harry. “I’m trying to figure the angle.”

“Just throw it,” said Guy. “If it doesn’t do what you want, you can make another one.”

“All right,” said Harry. “Hold your manties.”

He dropped the charge off the end of the ramp. He watched it hit the stone and dig in. A bang and the roof had a hole in it. He nodded. That worked better than he thought it would.

“All right,” said Harry. “Nick, get ready to tell Cat to full power out of here.”

“I’m ready,” said Nick. “Are you sure you want to use the weapon you picked out?”

“I wouldn’t do it in the middle of a city, but we’re the only ones here,” said Harry. “You might want to warn Box so he’ll be ready in case the effects reach to where he is.”

“I told Bubba,” said Nick.

Harry summoned his super weapon on the ramp. He looked over the edge. He took a breath. He gestured for Guy to grab the other side while he bent down to grab his. They lifted the ball inside the cube frame of technology. A timer had already started on summoning. They threw the bomb off the ramp.

“Tell her to go,” said Harry. “Go fast.”

Cat picked a point above the atmosphere and shot up toward the stars. Guy closed the ramp as they climbed out of the atmosphere. John had the explosion site on his screen as they flew.

Harry rested against the airlock door. He could see why the Bernies didn’t just hand out all their technology to people like him. He hoped he had made the right choice.

The hive stood in the center of a flare. The building collapsed into an expanding blast of light that expanded a crater into the ground inside the light. Then the light sank into nothing, leaving nothing but a bite out of the sand.

Harry stood straight. He pushed into the crew compartment. He looked at the screen. The lack of mana signatures made him feel better about losing the long guns and bees he had created.

He tried to push the guilt away. He had wiped the enemy out but had lost most of his army too. He made a sound.

“That was a big boom,” said Guy. “I wish I had one.”

“The Bernies would say no to you just based on that,” said Harry. “I know I would.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“I would only use it on people who can’t drive,” said Guy.

“Again why you wouldn’t be allowed to have something like that,” said John.

“Where do we go from here?,” asked Cat. “Do we have to do anything else?”

“Let’s check on the docks, and then we can head back to Fort Honey,” said Harry. “Then you guys can head home. I need to check on the building army and make sure they are doing what they need to do.”

“You’re calling it Fort Honey?,” said Guy. “You need to move away from the bee motif.”

“It’s working for me,” said Harry. “I hate that we lost all the long guns and bee hives. We could have used them to finish clearing the xenos on the planet.”

Harry rubbed his face.

“We cleared that signature,” said John. “What was going on there?”

“I don’t know but it looked like every xeno that was being killed was coming back almost instantly,” said Harry. “I don’t know how that was happening, but there was some things built into the walls. And xenos were being built like the hives build bees.”

“Is that something?,” asked John. “I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“No one has,” said Harry. “Nick is flipping kittens.”

“I can imagine,” said John.

“There are the docks,” said Cat. “This is really easy to use. I could certainly use this at home.”

“It’s yours if you can get it home,” Harry said.

“That’s awesome,” said Cat. “How long would it take me to fly this home, Nick?”

“Six months,” said Nick from the speaker. “Most of that would be in the faster than light mode.”

“Six months seems like a long time,” said Cat.

“If you had a vehicle gate, you could teleport it home,” said Harry. “Too bad you only have one for people.”

“You’re not stopping me from taking this home,” said Cat. “I know you think there’s no way to do it, but I am sure there is.”

“I would like to see you try,” said Harry.

“Harry,” said John. “I don’t think you want to do that.”

“I’m not scared,” said Harry. “I just cut down the threat of an alien invasion with a portable black hole. I can do anything I want.”

“That’s what everyone says,” said John. He winced. “Did anybody check in on Box. We left him down at the fourth gate site. He might be dead by now.”

“I’m talking to Bubba now,” said Nick. “We’re filing reports on what happened.

Harry is being reviewed for the weapon he used. They are trying to decide if he should be allowed access despite his point total.”

“You can cut people off from certain stuff?,” asked Guy.

“It’s never been done before,” said Nick. “No one has ever been able to open all the catalogues either. Destroying that one black site was enough to be able to buy a whole terraforming kit from the stores. No one has ever been able to do that before either.”

“That’s cool,” said Harry. “What do we do about the Wallens’ planet? I can’t stay here if I want to work my way up the line. And I can’t protect it from incursions if I’m not here.”

“Will there even be incursions if there is no one here?,” asked John.

“We don’t know enough about how their gate system works,” said Nick. “They could still have the planet in their sights from wherever they launched from to get here. It didn’t take them much time to ruin this place.”

“We can hash out any strategy in the time it’s going to take me to clear this place out,” said Harry. “I just want to check on the dock, and then get you guys home. I might need to go by my apartment and get real clothes before I come back here to finish the job.”

“You might want to think about getting some food,” said Guy. “I doubt you will be able to just pop back and forth just because you want it. The PDO might want you to stay earthside while their guys farm this planet for the points.”

“I’ll still get the points through my bees and beetles,” said Harry. “The only thing they are going to farm are stragglers I haven’t got to yet. I wish I hadn’t had to destroy the hives I put in the regeneration building. They could have started keeping that part of the planet clear while I worked on the rest.”

“Dock is ahead,” said Cat. “It’s gotten bigger since we went down.”

The three fabricators had produced a spider’s web of arms orbiting the planet. Parts of machines appeared and fitted into place as the humans watched. Drones arrived with material and dumped the collected scrap into hoppers. They descended back to the moon to collect more as more of the ship hulls knitted themselves together.

“That’s going better than I thought,” said Harry. “I wonder when they will have one done.”

“They will have the first corvette ready in twenty minutes,” said Nick. “Programming has already pointed it at the other planet threatening Earth for the recon measures we need.”

“It will probably be destroyed,” said Harry. He leaned against the screen like it was a window. “If we could send support with it, that would be great.”

“There are other planets with space capacity close by,” said Nick. “They are aware that you are sending ships as soon as they can be rolled off the assembly line.”

“It’s the best I can do until I get done here,” said Harry. “I would like to clear that other planet out and let the other contractors have this one.”

“You can let Box have it now,” said Guy. “If you trusted Box to fight on his own.”

“I don’t really trust Box,” said Harry. “Maybe if there were a bunch of contractors that could be sent here to guard the planet, that would be good. Too bad we couldn’t just ask for people to set up here and start trying to improve things.”

“I can send a message to ask the lower tier contractors if they want to come here and guard this accessway,” said Nick. “They could use Earth as a transit point from wherever they are.”

“You are talking about setting up a school for contractors,” said Harry.

“I am not,” said Nick. “I am talking about letting a few contractors that have not had a chance to grow set up here to help clean out the planet and deal with incursions under the watchful eye of your machines.”

“There still might be some of those impervious snakes around,” said John.

“And that is something three normal humans dealt with easily,” said Nick.

“I wouldn’t say normal,” said Guy. “Extraordinary is the word that you are looking for.”

“Even so,” said Nick. “A contractor should be able to do what you did with the right tools at their fingertips.”

“You are hoping for a lot,” said John. “It’s far more likely if they don’t have the

points, they will get killed facing some of the things out here.”

“That’s also a real concern,” said Nick. “But it isn’t mine. All of my contractors have points to burn.”

“All of them?,” asked Guy.

“All of them,” said Nick. “The people I pick are good at what they do, and they turn things around when they have to enter the field. Harry is the first one to break the point barrier. All of the other agents will be jealous at my accepting my agent of the year award.”

“When will that happen?,” asked Cat.

“Next month, Terran local time,” said Nick. “We use the galactic center for time usually, but local time is also used when needed.”

“Good luck on that,” said Harry. “I doubt you will get it.”

Pieces of the corvette fitted together with precision as drones and boom arms moved things into place and welded them down. Harry smiled as the thing floated out of the arms of its maker, a saucer with gun turrets and missile batteries ready to go. The engines lit in earnest, and the thing sped toward the edge of the solar system and slid out of sight.

“She’s gone,” said Harry. “I hope she makes a difference.”

“You might want think about system defense if the enemy diverts an outside fleet here,” said Nick.

“That’s for tomorrow,” said Harry. “Right now I have to get my friends home, and make sure that the other person on this planet isn’t in trouble. Take us down, Cat. I think we have had enough adventure for one day.”

“There’s no such thing,” said Guy.

THE END