“Okay Minerva just what have you bought for me and how much?”
“Taking in your physiological profile and the need to be completely secure in your environment, I found this fifty acres property listed for sale. The house and shed are small, the house 1500 sq feet and the shed 5,000 sq feet but that is not the real value of the property. It has extensive underground bunkers that total 20,000 sq feet. The last owner of this property was part owners of a safety bunker construction company and from the records, kept adding premade bunkers that were either overstock, returned, or recovered form demolished buildings that were redeveloped.”
Fraya was stunned to hear such extensive underground protection.
“As for the cost, the owner wanted to move quickly to a new location so sold this off for 350,000. I estimate that given the improvement it is worth at least four times that amount.”
Fraya grinned at the news of the deal. “That’s great! Good job Minerva!” Fraya praised the AI.
Opening the door Fraya pushed the pod into the living room, kitchen combo area, with a short hallway to the left and a door in the middle of the wall on the right. Quickly checking the left side hallway she saw the hallway ended in a bathroom with two bedrooms on either side. Returning to the living room she checked the door on the right. It lead into a spacious master bedroom with and attached bathroom.
After using the bathroom, Fraya made her way to the living room again.
“Okay where is the underground bunker?” Fraya asked Minerva. Following her directions Fraya pushed the pod into the kitchen and opened a door that lead into the pantry.
When she and the pod where inside she asked Minerva. “So where is the opening? Is it hidden behind the wall?” Without answering the whole floor started to descend.
“Wholly shit! They were not fucking around when they hid the entrance.”
“Yes there is also a hidden entrance in the metal shed, and three escape tunnels with hatches buried under a foot of dirt.” Minerva acknowledged.
“I’m loving this place more and more.”
The floor settled and Fraya found herself staring at a long cement tunnel with power cables and pipes running along the wall. Walking down the tunnel she continued to push the pod and came to an open door, she looked into a safety bunker made for two people with minimal furnishings, continuing on Fraya walked passed a verity of deferent styled bunkers. Some were simple and bare bone, some were extensive and lavish, Fraya could see all these were form different companies.
Walking along, still pushing the pod, Fraya took several turns and finally arrived at her destination. She did not need Minerva to confirm because the door leading into the safety bunker was a foot thick and six feet wide. Going inside Fraya stopped to take in the room.
Marble white floors stretched outward at least thirty feet. There were deep pile rugs that separated the areas. On her left was an entertainment area with three black leather coaches sounding a screen that had to be over 130 inches. In the middle of the room was a pool table with black felt. Beyond that on the right was a bar with stools and liquor on shelves that reached the ceiling. On the back wall in the middle was an industrial kitchen with a door one the left side and a walk in cooler on the other. Two large hallways were on the far left and far right of the back wall bracketing the kitchen and leading deeper into the bunker.
“The left hallway goes to the staterooms and the right hallway goes toward the pool, gym, medical bay and attentional supply rooms.” Minerva helpfully supplied the details of the bunker.
“So were should I set up the pod?”
“There is a safety shelter inside the master bedroom.”
Fraya was astounded. “Are you telling me there is a fucking bunker within a bunker!”
“Yes.”
The short one word answer had Fraya doubling over in laughter. Part it of was the stress of the day and part of it was relief she was alive. Gathering herself Fraya started pushing the pod towards the left hallway. As she maneuvered down the spacious hallway, she passed a dozen doors spaced twenty feet from each other before finely arriving at the end of the hallway and arriving at a door leading deeper into the bunker.
Opening the double doors, Fraya found a large bedroom living room combo with doors on the right side wall. Minerva directed her to the right hand door and opening it Fraya found herself inside a walk in closet. On the left were double doors leading into the bathroom. Looking around she asked Minerva where the safety room was. Directed to walk straight form the door to the built in dresser, Minerva had her pull out the third drawer form the bottom and feel under the lip of wood that stopped the dresser drawer form being shoved too far in.
Reaching under the lip and feeling the roof of the drawer cabinet she felt a button and pressed it firmly. With a soft click the latch unlocked and the whole dresser swung out towards the left. Backing up to let it open fully Fraya was staring at anther metal security door.
A flat panel was beside the door and following Minerva continued directions placed her hand flat on the panel. A line of purple light started at the top of the panel and swiftly made its way downward, scanning Fraya fingerprints and palm print.
With a hiss the door unlocked with several thunks. The door swung heavily opened and Fraya saw this to was almost foot thick. Inside was a small room. The left side ended with a dozen monitors on the wall, the other had a door that was opened and she could see a small bathroom inside. Next to the steel door was a twin mattress and across form that was a coach. Beside the coach directly across form Fraya the wall was covered in shelfs supporting a wide verity of survival gear and food.
“Okay so this is our new home.” Fraya flipped the mattress and leaned it and the platform it was on towards the wall. Fraya maneuvered the pod in its place.
“So how are we doing on supplies?”
“Having accessed the available data, we have enough supplies to last you over a decade but a full inventory is needed.”
Fraya grinned relived. “Okay. Can you order some robot drones to help inventory the place and have you locked down the building and bunkers? Also form the monitors over there I guess there are security cameras?”
“I will order the needed support robots. Yes there are dozens of cameras hidden throughout the property. There are also ground vibration sensors, sensors that detect heartbeats, thermal sensors, and broad spectrum sensors.”
“Wholly shit! We got a fucken steal for this place!” The more Fraya learned about her new house the more she loved it.
“Okay lock down everything and monitor everything. If a fly farts in this direction I want to know about it!”
“Do you really want..”
“It’s a fucken metaphor! Jeez!”
Opening the cover of the pod Fraya retrieved her rifle, gun and knife. Placing both on the side of the pod, Fraya climb in and shut the top.
In a blink she was back in the immersive worlds in her condo on Earth 2.
Looking around she knew she needed to change the dull white of everything. “Okay Minerva change the walls a deep purple and change the carpet, and ceiling black! Like my hart! Just kidding Minerva! Change the coach velvet in deep purple too, along with my comforter on the bed, and change the sheets…You guessed it Minerva! Black!”
As Fraya spoke Minerva changed the condo, even changing the kitchen to purple wooden cabinets and black marble counters that had flakes of purple in them, it was awesome!
“Thanks Minerva! It looks great!” Fraya enthused as she spun around taking in the new dark gothic look of the place.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Happy to help.”
“Well you helped me a lot!” Fraya threw herself down on the new plush purple coach. “Also I have not heard much about the world outside! What’s been happening the year I’ve been surviving the hell hole that is los angles.”
Minerva paused gathering data. “I am not sure what information you have so I will give you a broad overview and some information you will already know.” Minerva warned.
“Great! I need to learn more anyway! Hey now I can afford college! Ya!”
“Yes you have more than enough to pay for college. If you place the money in a high return savings account the interest will pay for any school you wish to attend.”
“I’ll think on it! Thanks! Now what’s going on in the world!”
“As I assume you know the war and the nuclear strikes form it exacerbated the global warming crisis and affected the world’s weather system. The Middle East and most of Africa are uninhabitable for the populations there..”
“Ya they burned to death!” Fraya interrupted.
“Essentially correct.” Minerva continued. “Almost all the island nations are underwater..”
“Ya they drowned! Except Japan! What actually happened there?” Fraya had heard stories but never found out the full truth.
“As sea level rose Japan diverted all their power production to power the crude nanos of the time and constructed a wall around the island. Moving five miles in, the nanos excavated a five mile by 1 mile deep trench and used the excavated materials to build a wall a mile deep, two hundred feet high, and fifty foot thick. It took the nanos eight months to construct. Now depending on the time of day up to a hundred feet of water reaches the top section with only a hundred feet out of the water. There is talk on the news channels of Japan either building anther wall behind this wall, extending the wall anther two hundred feet, or both.”
Fraya eyes had kept widening at hearing the incredible feat of engineering. “Wholly shit! No wonder the Japanese are at the forefront of nanites.”
“Yes.” Minerva agreed and continued explaining. “The Japanese are the most technology advanced society today. Almost all their population live in pods secured in deep bunkers, and form the pods they control a vast automatic production industry. Almost all of the estimated 2 billion pods today were manufactured in japan.”
Fraya whistled. “Goddam that is impressive.”
“Even more impressive considering that at the start of the war the Earth’s population was estimated to be around 8 billion people and now the estimate is 5 billion meaning 40% of the current world’s population live in pods manufactured by Japan.”
Fraya was stunned again and not by the number of pods. “Are you fucking telling me 3 billion people have died in the past decade!”
“Yes through there is no final number. It is impressive that the number is not higher. Projections state that had the nanos and AI’s not been invented the human population would either be extinct or under a few million.” Minerva reported calmly.
“Well goddam! So why are not more people in pods?”
“A factor of reasons, form religious objection, to political maneuvering banning essential workers like soldiers from entering a pod, to the simple fact there is a shortage of pods. Japan manufactures 400 million pods a year and the rest of the world manufactures only 100 million. The wars in America, Europe, and China have the governments producing weapons more than new pods.”
“And the rest of the world is dying.” Fraya supplied the last bit.
“Correct. Also some of the remaining countries do have the manufacturing capability needed to produce nanos.”
“Will that seems fucking stupid! If everyone was in pods they could just kill each other over and over and over in the immersive worlds!” Fraya stated, the stupidity of her fellow human still amazing her.
“That is correct though at current production rates only anther six years will be needed for enough pods for everyone.” Minerva offered.
“About that, what about the new nanites?”
“The new nanos have the capability to reverse much of the damage done by the old and current nanos. If the new nanos are reported to be effective, Japan will start phasing the new nanos in.”
“Ya and be the first country to benefit.” Fraya added cynically.
At this even Minerva didn’t respond.
“Okay speaking of nanites just how is the current nano improvements going.”
If possible the AI seemed to brighten. “Extremely will! The data recorded form your fight with the fighter jets have helped immensely in creating a new development plan for you and a new nano!”
Fraya sat up and have Minerva her complete attention. “Tell me more!”
Minerva did not need further prompting. “The one thing that all the data pointed to was humans are built inefficient!” She lamented. “You used dozens of deferent muscle groups to fight, fast twitch muscle to shoot, slow twitch muscles, iliacus muscles, it all is an inefficient design! It is like a car with six engines! Two engines in the back and two in the front to propel the car, and two separate engines in the front to turn the car left or right!”
Fraya had never seen the AI so worked up, in fact this was the most emotional Minerva had ever been.
“And your solution to the problem?”
“I am currently using over 30% of my processing speed to design muscle fibers that combine all the muscle fibers in the human body into a single muscle fiber that even enhances the fibers performance.”
Fraya took a moment to think about that. “So I will only have one muscle group?”
“Yes! Much more clean and efficient.”
Fascinated but kinda dreading the answer Fraya asked. “And what else are you planning?”
Minerva seemed to return to her usual calm and collected self. “Your brittle bones will be replaced with the same crystalline structure that makes the nanos and is harder than steel, nano chains will be run throughout your body, and quantum chips will be manufactured in your brain to run the nanos.”
Fraya was shocked at the number of changes the AI envisioned. “Having bones stronger then steel is nice, and having a computer chip in my head already help be survive, but what about the nanite chains? Why not just manufacture superconducting wires?”
“I am glad you see the good the improvements will have. As for the nano chains it is because nano chains can separate, grow, or shrink, without delay. If someone cuts a superconducting wire time is needed for repairs, if you grow or shrink the wires will need to be adjusted again causing unneeded delay. Also if more nanos are needed for a job, like repairing an injury, there will be more on had to repurpose.”
Fraya nodded along with Minerva’s explanation. It was logical and well thought out, something that shouldn’t surprise her form an AI.
“Well that sounds awesome! Through I don’t like the talk about me getting injured!”
Relaxing back into the coach, Fraya continued. “Let’s change the subject! You were saying something about making money?”
Minerva nodded. “Yes. The world bank offers very competitive rates, even though they have no current competitors. The world bank now runs the multiverses economies, which makes it the strongest bank in the world. Almost every nation has switched their national currency to virtual credits and the world bank is the only organization that issues them. They are responsible for every immersive world banking services and any game world company that refuses finds themselves frozen out of banking services in the immersive worlds and the real world. That is why I recommend you put most of your vertical credits into a savings account. If you put 5 million into it than your yearly payment well be 300,000 vertical credits or 25,000 vc a month.”
Fraya was surprised at how much she would get, never having considered before having so much money. “That should keep the lights on.” She joked.
“Indeed. I can set up automatic payment for support services and you will never have to worry about not having enough to pay.” Minerva pointed out.
Fraya was sold. “Okay set everything up. I want to be secured financial as I am physical.”
“Working. Everything should be set up in ten minutes.”
“Okay so you were explaining how fucked the world is?”
“Yes. Florida is underwater which considering most of it was irradiated form nuclear fallout from the strike on Tampa was not such a loss. New Orleans is also completely underwater and half of New York and parts of Huston and the coast of Georgia are also flooded.
The fighting between the states have become more a low level series of attacks. Fighting still continues but more of the manpower is diverted to safe guard a few cities, Chicago, Washington DC, Sacramento, Huston, Atlanta. These cities are where most of the current political power is concentrated.
As for the wider world, China civil war which has died down for years has started to intensify. Two of the competing groups have joined in an alliance against the others and have already conquered one of their enemies who weren’t expecting a concentrated effort by the formally enemy powers. The other groups have sense started gearing up for a new war.
Europe fighting has died down as Germany has overthrown the fascist regime that had taken power in France and started the war and dissolution of the European Union in the first place. The United Kingdom is no more and with great effort relocated the population to Switzerland.
Switzerland has become the dominate power of the regain by using their wealth to build underground bunkers under the Swiss Alps. They have charged everyone 1,000 vc a month for the pod rentals and there are now an estimated 200 million pods under the alps. That gives them an annual budget of over 2.4 trillion virtual credits which they are using to further their expansion.”
Fraya whistled at the number. The fractured America didn’t even come close to that anymore. The two wealthiest polities now were Washington DC and Union of Texas, everyone else was a distant second. The Northern Union would have been the third wealthiest but the heart of the area, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois, were still dealing with the fallout of the nuclear strike and sever weather. Had they been producing the amount of food they had been producing decades ago they would have seen a massive increase in funds.
“As for the rest of the world, it is a blood bath, with almost all other countries collapsed into anarchy. Most of the third world countries didn’t have stable governments at the best of times and the impact of the war, the fallout from it, and the extreme weather has seen them all collapse.”
Fraya wasn’t surprised given how half of California was left to anarchy she had barely survived and that was with a powerful central government. The corrupt banana republics would never have lasted anyway they just died more violently sooner.
“So the world has gone to shit except for a handful of places, we, the humans, are on the brink of self induced extinction because we are all fucking idiots, and the only way we have a chance in hell of surviving is hiding in pods and hope the world unfucks itself form our fuckups, does that summarize the situation?”
Minerva nodded in conformation. “A precise, if colorful, description but accurate.”
“Well goddam I’m happy I got this pod.” Fraya leveraged herself up off the coach. “Will this has been fucking educational but I think it’s time I head back into Starlight.” With that Fraya walked to Starlight portal behind the coach and walked into the game.