To open up a center I will need something that can pass as vaguely scientific, a spot to put it and a source of trash. Its almost midnight now, so I don't think I will be able to do two of those, But I can start on the "machine". With everything I've fed Nola I can get started making something convincing. And if we run out, I have just the place to go next.
I ordered Nola to transmute all the remaining matter to stainless steel and place it in the garage. That would give me an idea of what sort of volume I am working with. Then we can focus on shaping and detailing the thing.
It was not as much as I was hoping for. A waist high cube maybe 3ft on each side. Doesn't seem like much compared to everything I've fed her today. Until I attempt to re position the thing into a more central position.
It is not hollow.
I guess it is enough material to make something impressive. Also its deforming the floor. That looks expensive.
Taking advantage of Nola's nature affinity I ask her to form an arrangement that can open and close like a flower petal. The end product ended up looking like a Dahlia Flower in silver. After adjusting the design to be wider at the base I had Nola cut a hole in the side for intake. I would need some sort of ramp to move stuff in and out on the full size version, but this is just a design session. We can scale up later and make it functional. Maybe I can feed Nola a ramp to make that a part of her brand new 'plant'.
Reading my mind, two ramps formed on either side of flower at a gentle slope. She even made them run for a moment. Excellent
For the base I made a nice platter for the bulb to sit on. From that base I attached vines in the form of wires and tubing to the bulb above. Miscellaneous numbers and dials were kitbashed on everywhere. After a few more flourishes it looked less like a flower and more like a mad scientists hallucinations about a flower. But Nola could fit inside without being seen. If I can figure out some way to hide the doors from the outside, no one will be able to see how the magic trick works.
Time for a quick test run, then we get the materials to scale up to full size.
I grab all the silverware I have left from the kitchen and bound back to the garage. I want to see the brand new processing plant in action. Its still just Nola underneath, but this feels like a big step.
Like a line of marching army ants the silverware goes into the hole on one side of the flower, there is a brief buzzing sound amplified by the metal walls of the plant, and then tiny perfect ingots come out the other side.
As long as no one looks to closely, I can sell this as a real thing. Enough arts and crafts. Time for a trash run.
"Alright Nola, ready for an adventure?"
She returned to the pouch as a response, radiating anticipation.
----------------------------------------
There is an unofficial public dump in between my town and the next. Starting several years ago an unscrupulous driver dumped a load or two at the abandoned dairy farm in between police jurisdictions. Over time the blight attracted others, until finally you are left with the sight before us. 3 acres of hazardous waste. Most of the big pieces of metal, copper wire and aluminum cans had been stripped out by scrappers long ago. What was left was either to difficult to get to or not worth recycling for cash. But that didn't bother us. Matter was matter. And we were gonna take it all.
A quick look around in the dark showed that we were alone here.
"Start at the back, take everything you can. I will stay at the front on guard." But Nola didn't move more than a few feet away. "You scared? I am right here.. oh yeah we're tied together aren't we." I can feel the mental head nod come back at me.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
I guess no one is standing guard tonight.
I suppose that what we are doing isn't really illegal. Taking pieces from the dump has always been allowed. I'm just taking more of it. As long as no one sees the absorbing, I just need to walk out like i own the place.
I have a bad feeling about this.
I walk to the back edge of the property with Nola, the neighbors high fence gives some comfort from my paranoid fantasies of spies.
Nola begins zipping around like a kid at Christmas. A very fat kid. Its hard to gauge how much she is taking in, but truckloads would be a good starting point.
As the area directly around me clears I see the dirty contaminated ground revealing itself. The few struggling plants poking through the oily dirt are a testament to the power of nature.
...
"Nola, using the plants you know I want you to repair the ground once you are done with an area."
Leave it better than you found it.
The feeling that came back was definitely happy. I'm glad the two of us had some symmetry in our goals
----------------------------------------
After half an hour of slowly pacing the dump Nola began to slow before finally stopping in a half eaten chest freezer. I didn't get the feeling that something was wrong, but I knew that she had reached her limits, for now. Too much matter, not enough uses for it. This shouldn't be a problem when we make our processing plant, she'll be spitting out a lot of the stuff she takes in. But for now I had a choice to make.
I could call it good with what we had. There had clearly been more than enough absorbed to make a 2 story tall flower for my dungeon. But if we're here, we might as well make the most of it. We should take it all. And I think I had a way.
Taking in more matter was out, but energy wasn't. We had another third of the dump to go by my estimation.
"Nola, Convert half of your matter to energy. Use it to make yourself stronger" The feeling that came back was definitely excitement that time. And then I felt a buzz of static all around me.
Nola, previously a thumb sized cylinder crystal had ballooned out into a sphere half the size of a baseball.
Great. The pouch is useless.
She could also get a little further away from me. That's good. A little more mobility can't hurt to have. It gives us more options.
And it gives me an idea.
Next door beyond the fence there is a storage yard. That one is guarded. RV's, boats, tractors, and other large equipment people don't need at all times are stored there. Including material processing equipment.
Rather than recreate the wheel, I could just have Nola eat and learn about the equipment over there. It wouldn't even be stealing because I can have her put it right back after.
I see no good reason not to.
It wouldn't be long till we are done with this project. We can purge the extra matter again, then go learn about large equipment.
----------------------------------------
I watch from the safe side of the fence as Nola heads to the 3rd chain bucket elevator in line. The angry dogs on the property didn't notice or didn't care as dozens of tons of machinery vanished into thin air. Nola had no sent and no body to detect. I also had her stop the buzzing. It slowed her down, but this felt like the time for stealth.
If there was someone in the guard shack on the opposite end from me, they weren't awake. It would be hard to miss all your inventory going away. Even silently.
As the last tire finally disappears I let out a breath I had been holding. The slow part was over. Now we just needed to put everything back.
I'm sure Nola wishes she could convert all that matter to energy for a third time tonight, but I wasn't interested in a criminal record. It was time to put everything back and go home.
Putting things back started well enough. The small equipment like forklifts and telehandlers went back into their spaces without a fuss. The worry started when she skipped over a parking space where a dump truck used to be. I really hope she was just doing the stuff that was easy first.
But that hope quickly died as more spots that used to hold large machines were skipped, one after another. There's a size limit. I'm not fully sure what that number is, but clearly there is one. And even being a bit larger and a bit stronger, the machines I just had her eat are too big to rebuild.
I guess this really is a heist now.
I remove my head and hands from the fence with a start. I need to wipe this down for fingerprints. And we need to get out of here.
Oh no, I drove here!
Were there any cameras? No, not on this side. This dump doesn't even technically exist, so there's no cameras. Definitely gotta go the long way home. Avoid everywhere that has a camera. Crap crap crap crap. This was supposed to be a victimless crime.
Deep breath. We establish a dungeon, earn lots of money, pay back all the people we just robbed -with interest- and it will all be ok. And then we never speak of this again.
Nola was back. Everything that could be rebuilt had been.
Hunching my shoulders and staying low in the shadows to make myself smaller I crept back to my car, Nola floating invisibly behind me. As I slipped around the corner I swear I could feel the walls and grass judging me.
It was time to go home