Once we settled into work, the day turned into a blur. I was dead set on finishing the teleportation tech as soon as possible. As fantastic as the opportunity was, I had now been spending almost three days on it and I needed to get past it before it started to seriously cut into other fields. There was a lot of tech I wanted from Fallout that I wanted, and only a week and three days remaining to work with it. With biotech and medicine looking like it would be a big chunk of time by itself, I needed to get going quickly.

  I studied the tech tree for a few minutes before beginning to design the next piece of tech in the teleportation branch. This seemed to be the first, real, functional teleportation system recognizable as what would eventually become the system I knew from the games. Basically, at an incredibly boiled-down level, the system was made of two parts. One was a large hexagonal that would contain one of the entangled photons, while the other, contained the second photon and was where most of the actual sciencey magic was happening.

  See, the next big revolution in the entangled teleportation tech was the ability to use the tunnel between charged entangled photons like a knife, slicing through reality to create an actual hole large enough for large objects to pass through. By manipulating the movement of the entangled photons, literally spinning them around at incredible speeds, you could drag the tunnel fast enough to cut between the two entangled photons. Of course, reality would reassert itself almost immediately, sealing the cut in seconds. However, the process of the cut in reality healing actually gave it a sort of momentum, allowing the tear to scoop up an object and pull it through to the other side. It was sort of how cutting compressed rubber would release its contained energy, pulling and pushing whatever it was attached to or pressed against.

  It was mind-boggling to consider that I was building a device to slice through reality, but thankfully, all the data I had access to said that this was only reality, not Reality. The first one was just the concept of space in our local setting, with no real risk beyond the physical mechanics breaking down or material failure releasing dangerous exotic energies. The other, Reality, was a much more serious concept, and with its potentially eldritch connotations, much more concerning. Thankfully, it very clearly stated that we were working with the minor, relatively safe version.

  It was so clear, in fact, that I wondered if one of the entities that sent me here had added that little addendum for my own sanity.

  Once the two-part pallet and catcher system was complete, we tested it a single time. A basic MRVN unit was ordered to stand on the pallet, the system was activated, and the unit was teleported a total of ten feet, from one side of the workshop to the other. The resulting sound nearly deafened me, even with the safety equipment I was wearing. It was a clattering, tearing, and grinding sound that echoed like thunder despite happening in a closed, small room. Samwise also noticed that the teleportation released some worrying energy yet also dropped the temperature in the room by ten degrees.

  Luckily, all sensors said we were fine, and the energies wouldn't cause any real damage unless I was continually blasted with them. Even better, all of the sensors that we loaded the test dummy MRVN up with said that the journey lasted a fraction of a second, wasn't even really detectable by cameras or anything else, and did not expose the MRVN to anything horrible or lethal.

  Technically speaking, I could hop onto the pallet and experience the teleport myself. In fact, the temptation was rather hard to resist, as everything I could see was telling me that this was one hundred percent safe for me to ride, as long as I only did it a few times.

  Thankfully, or perhaps unfortunately, depending on your outlook, my paranoia won out, and I kept with my own promise that I wanted to get the full breadth of available knowledge before I started shipping people back and forth. That meant I had one last build to create, and this was one I actually recognized since it involved a familiar handheld device, the. The Big Mountain teleportation system was the final permutation of the system I just built. According to my data, this new system had improved accuracy, lower power consumption, more precision, and a level of flexibility that I did not expect.

  Basically, using a greater understanding of the systems and the quantum physics involved, though it was still far from complete, they were able to remove the need for both photons to be moving while also drastically reducing the motion required by "Catchers" entangled photon. This resulted in a single cut in reality, rather than the looping, scooping action that the previous model generated. Not only did this reduce the amount of energy required to perform the teleportation, but it also drastically reduced the amount of exotic energies released.

  Even better, the designs came with a sort of protective energy field projector already in place. It was a simple energy-absorbing system that was installed just under the user's landing location, but with it, the number of trips a person could safely take in a year went from a few thousand to eight or nine times that.

  The new design also was a significantly smaller system, both because the pallet had been replaced by a unit as small as a pistol and because the catcher didn't look anything like a teleportation unit anymore. With the movement required to cut a slice in reality now adjusted, there was no reason to spin the catcher photon around at high speeds. All you needed was a single swiping motion. This drastically reduced the moving parts and made the system much more simple and smaller.

  On top of that, while the catcher was where the second entangled photon was contained, it was not where the items were teleported to. The cut in reality could be moved several feet out and around the catcher, meaning the device could be buried in the floor or wall.

  Altogether, the construction process for the next version of the teleportation system took five hours to put together. This was cut down from a much higher number because I temporarily halted all other work in the production room to produce all the parts. By five PM, I had a safe, effective, and reliable method of human teleportation.

  This, of course, meant it was time to try it out.

  Rather than gather everyone together, I made my way to the Shack, where I knew Riggs, Murtaugh, Jackie, and Kayt would be, the latter two enjoying an early dinner. They were all surprised to see me since I had explicitly said I would most likely be busy for most of the day. Jackie happily served me a portion of steak stir fry, which was unsurprisingly fantastic.

  "So, what happened?" Kayt asked. "You seemed hellbent on getting your teleporter done. Something came up?"

  "What, a guy can't take a break?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'll get it done, don't you worry."

  "Alright, I believe you," She said, holding her hands up. "Learned my lesson when you showed off that stuff yesterday. Still can't believe you managed to do that, even if it was just a bunch of gas."

  "Yeah, I got a lot of work ahead of me," I admitted, shaking my head. "I… damn, I really don't have time for breaks, I guess."

  I stood up from the table, pushing my chair in and grabbing my bowl. Jackie gave Kayt an annoyed look, and the blue-haired woman looked guilty.

  "Hey, no, taking breaks is a good thing, gonk," Kayt said. "You need to eat and unwind."

  "I'll finish next door," I said, now struggling to keep a smile off my face, reaching down to grab the bowl. "I'll be back at the workshop if you need me."

  Rather than turn towards the door, I reached into my pocket, pulled out the completed transportalponder, pointed it at the ground, and pulled the trigger.

  From my perspective, it was a blast of sensations. First, a flash of light, near-instant, stunned my eyes. It was strange, like a single flick of a strobe light, so fast it confused your eyes as to where it was coming from. Then, almost like it followed the light, there was an extreme level of coldness, but again, only for a split second. It was so intense that it made me think of how water would skip and float above an extremely hot pan, but only in reverse. Like my residual heat was just enough to keep the absolute freezing temps away, but only for the split moment I was in contact with them. Finally, almost buried under the extreme cold was a complete lack of… anything. For just a single moment, besides the clothes that I was wearing, there was nothing around me. No air, no gravity, pressure. Just… nothing. I could only imagine it was what a deep space vacuum felt like, and only the extreme brevity of the experience kept the water from boiling from my eyes.

  All of that happened in a moment, in the space between moments. It was so fast that I could only examine the sensations by looking back because there was no time to contemplate the sensations during the actual event.

  For a moment, I stood, stunned by the experience. Then I heard Jackie and Kaytlyn calling out for me, so I quickly sat down in my chair, doing my best to act innocent as I ate Jackie's stirfry.

  Jackie burst into the workshop first, coming in from the side door, nearly tripping over nothing as his eyes darted around the room before eventually locking on to me.

  "Jackson! No mames! Son unas mamadas?!" he shouted when he saw me, getting shoved forward when Kaytlyn, Riggs, and Murtaugh pushed in as well. "You did it? No fucking way, choom! You fucking Genio!"

  With cheers and celebration, I gave a brief overview of how the device worked while assuring everyone that it was safe. Within an hour, everyone had experienced the teleport at least once, usually from the back of the production addition, getting teleported back to the workshop. Each jump was accompanied by more shouts of amazement as well as baffled expressions about the experience of being, for a single split second, between reality.

  Once the excitement and congratulations settled down, we all made our way back to Shack, where Jackie poured shots for us, toasting me and my achievement. I felt a bit weird at first, a bit of imposter syndrome leaking into my mind before I brushed it aside. While the tech wasn't mine, what I had achieved with it was, and that was worth celebrating.

  Once we had all gathered up, including Frank, who had been working to set up his lab, Kaytlyn eventually spoke up, like she couldn't hold herself back anymore.

  "So... what's next?" She asked, wired with eager, nervous energy. "I can't believe you got a working teleporter, this is fucking nova."

  "Well, first off, we build a second teleporter and send out half of it to wherever Samwise and Noah have picked for our vault," I explained, leaning back in my chair. "Once it's set up, we ship everything we prepared to the location, and the two of them get started building our home away from home. That's going to be a pretty long project, all things considered, but the first goal is a teleport network station, so I can start handing out emergency beacons to everyone. After that, the focus will be on living quarters and basic living requirements. Then Noah goes really wild and starts… well, I hesitate to say a whole underground city… but maybe town? I want to make this place as absolutely self-sufficient as possible."

  "That kinda just sounds like what Noah and his guys will be doing," Jackie pointed out. "What will we be doing?"

  "Right, well, I'll still be working on my inspiration, but until we have a certain amount of build-up at the bunker, it's basically just business as usual," I explained with a shrug. "We can take jobs and keep hunting Wraiths and scavs, too. Eventually, I'm moving my workshop to the vault, but that's just the details. When the vault is ready for us to live in, and emergency beacons have been spread around to anyone who might be in danger, then we will be prepared to start stirring up some trouble. That's when things will kick into high gear. For now, we wait, keep going, doing what we do."

  "Huh… well, in that case, I'll start looking for our next Gig," Jackie said, leaning back in his chair. "Been holding off on accepting any since we've been busy with the Wraiths and with your stuff."

  "And I'll get looking for another Wraith base to hit," Kayt volunteered happily. "I know there is a party base somewhere around the outskirts. It might be a good target. Not gonna be a lot worth stealing there, but should do nice to send a message."

  "Those both sound great, and should give me time to get back to work. Frank?" I said, turning to the doctor. "Once you get your lab open, Let me know. Assuming it all works out, I want to start making some medical and working on biotech as well. This... inspiration has a whole lot to work on, and I'm really trying to get everything I can out of it."

  After about an hour of discussing what was next and what our plans were, as well as sitting down and eating Jackie's food in peace, it was time for me to get back to work. Time was ticking already, and I didn't have any to waste.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  When I returned to the workshop, Samwise was already deconstructing the teleporter so we could move it and make some modifications. Noah was already mostly done building the teleporting room beneath the garage, basically just a ten by twenty-foot room with a trio of fusion reactors and the catcher device buried under the floor. It would also have a locator for the second teleporter, which would allow people to bounce back and forth between this place and the teleport hub that would eventually exist at our bunker.

  Once the modifications to the teleporter were complete and the second pair was being built, Samwise would start developing a transport drone. Nothing complicated, just something to carry Noah, a pair of MRVNs, a fusion reactor, and the teleporter equipment. Once that was set up at the new location, we could start sending stuff over as quickly as possible.

  According to Samwise and Noah, I only had to wait twenty to twenty-five hours before I could teleport off to the new bunker. Both of them had been working incredibly hard on this process, even as Samwise was helping me put the teleporters together. This included coming up with a list of available locations for us to build the vault.

  "The first option we considered was any area with solid bedrock, safe for digging," Noah explained. "Then Samwise realized that was already a requirement for most stable mines."

  "Not only would that satisfy the question of stability, but an intact mine would give us a significant bonus in the speed of creation," Samwise pointed out. "Yes, our particle bore makes our drilling speed already incredible, but being able to maneuver around the rooms we are making via already mined-out sections would make the process significantly easier."

  "And it wouldn't weaken the structure either, as long as we were careful," I agreed with a nod. "Smart."

  "Indeed. Unfortunately, neither Noah nor I enjoyed the idea of settling somewhere that already exists on corporation records," Samwise admitted. "As unlikely as it would be for any corporation to connect the dots, it is not impossible. Therefore, we concluded that our best bet was to find a natural cave system."

  My keyphone vibrated, and as I pulled it out, I revealed a map of the west coast of North America. It was divided up in ways I didn't recognize, most notably with a north and south California. A red star appeared and was quickly labeled "Night City." After a moment, a wide half-circle appeared, covering the land around Night City. Hundreds of smaller green dots appeared within the circle.

  "Within a hundred miles of Night City, there are more than a hundred and fifty known cave systems, many of which start with a river descending into the ground," Samwsie explained. "I designed a drone to travel to and scan likely locations of unknown cave systems. Eventually, we found a suitable location."

  Another image showed an aerial view of some large hills with rocky faces alongside several spots. In the center was a sort of sinking valley, a stream running through it before disappearing. The drone, because that was the only sort of thing that could be recording this type of footage, circled around the area, giving me a better idea of the scale. What I had thought was that the hills were actually quite large. They weren't exactly full-scale mountains, but they were still quite large and definitely what I would consider defensible positions.

  Once the drone was finished flying overhead, the footage turned into scans, showing off the data the drone collected. Apparently, the rover went deep into the Earth, following a cave river that sank downward. The river was just one part of a vast cave structure that, if the scans were correct, varied from thin, body-squeezing cracks to full-on theater-esque caverns, big enough to fit the entire garage inside. With the addition!

  "The scanning systems the drone had on board could only go down so far, but ecological data from the surrounding area suggests the system should go down even deeper," Noah explained. "Even if it doesn't, the cave system shown is more than enough space to start. I would like to preserve some of the caves for their natural beauty, but this medium-sized chamber would provide a sufficient starting point for further spreading. I suggest we temporarily set up the teleporter catcher there."

  Noah pointed out what he was referring to, and I nodded in agreement. Any time we could save digging was time well spent, and these caves did look interesting.

  "Alright, I'm glad you guys went above and beyond for this. I like this location, and I agree it should work for our needs. Well done," I said with a smile, patting each of them on the shoulder. "I want you guys to run with this. You know the schedule, and you know the plan. Just keep me updated on your progress, and expect me to stop around randomly because I won't be able to resist seeing your progress myself. While you guys are working on that, I'll focus on getting as much as possible from this tech tree."

  Both of the AIs agreed and, after a bit more talking, split off to continue their work. They promised another update when the teleporter was set up at our new base.

  As I watched them walk away, I had to forcibly turn to my seat in my workshop. I desperately wanted to be involved with making the vault, designing the look, and planning its overall shape and organization. Every aspect of it appealed to a baser instinct of mine to build shelter, build home. But I couldn't because only I could take the knowledge from my tech tree and bring it into this world. I was responsible for the tech we would use, and without me copying it down, who knows what we would lose out on.

  After all, this was exactly why I had created my AI companions, to expand what we could work on while I was still keeping up with my Tinker of Fiction tech. It kind of made me want to draw another dud tech tree. That way, I could have plenty of time to work on my own creations without wasting time with any valuable universe tech.

  I let out a long breath, shook my head, and finally turned to the screen. I had gotten through vault technology, energy generation, energy weapons tech, some more exotic energy and particle sciences, and now through teleportation.

  Technically, I could see another teleportation creation further on, connected to some Institute tech involving information and wave compression, but I was satisfied with my level of understanding for now. Not only that, but I could also see that the design for the Institute teleportation system, which was admittedly much more flexible than the Big Mountain version, was substantially larger, requiring significant setup and a facility around half the size of the garage. As it stood, it wasn't worth the effort or time it would take to make and assemble, not when what I had worked perfectly well already for what I needed.

  With everything that I had managed to make my way through up to this point, it was time to start a second, reorganized list of what I wanted from this tech tree. If I dedicated a solid five days to medicine, chemistry, and biology, I would have only four days left to build more generalized tech. This was not as much time as I wished I had since there were a lot of niche little things that I wanted from all corners of the tree.

  First up, I wanted the stealth systems. I could see several different instances of the tech emerging through the whole tree, and while a large part of me wanted to study all or at least a few of them, it was officially time to start cutting down on what I was working on. Ultimately, I decided to create both the Stealth Suit MkII and the Chinese Stealth Suit. The MkII was the pinnacle of stealth technology that Big Mountain could bring to bear, with several innovations that made it superior to the Chinese Stealth Suit in almost every way… except they couldn't quite get a grip on the long-term stealth field itself. Working with both of them would hopefully allow me to integrate the best aspects of both into our armor, giving us the stealth field, enhanced stealth capabilities, and some of the best armor on the planet.

  Beyond the two stealth suits, which I was hoping to finish before the day was over, part of me wanted to take a crack at the auto-doc systems. I had, obviously, created a firmly superior doctor when I made Frank, but the idea of a non-AI emergency aid system… I would have to talk to Frank and discuss what he thought before officially adding it to the list.

  I worked for a few hours to finish my list, or at least the next version of my list, and immediately, finally, got back to work. I started by selecting which version of the stealth suit I would make, quickly settling on the most advanced version that China had developed before the Fallout universe burned their Earth. This armor was the version assigned to the, China's most elite stealth soldiers. Luckily, I had advanced far enough in my understanding of exotic energies and the behavior of photons that I could build it without diving into earlier bits of tech first.

  The two stealth suits I wanted to make functioned by mitigating the two primary aspects of stealth, visibility, and audibility. The Chinese suit created the infamous stealth field, creating a low energy field around the wearer that caused photons to weave around it like water around a streamlined stone pillar. It was not perfect, as some photons do not reintegrate into their proper angle, causing the slight scattering effect I remembered from the games. That scattering of light caused an almost mirage-like effect and became a lot less noticeable when the wearer stopped moving. Still, even when the wearer was running at full sprint, the most advanced version kept the image relatively clear.

  On the flip side, the MkII from Big Mountain primarily functioned by negating the sound made by the user. Not only did its materials absorb sound extremely well, especially the boots, but the was made of an advanced microphone and speaker system. It would, over time, listen and learn to the noises that the user made, everything from squeaking boots to cracking joints and even the user's heartbeat. It would then use to minimize or even erase the user's auditory presence. It could even negate things like creaking floorboards and squeaking doors if the learning system was trained enough.

  Which, interestingly, was why the suite required repeat testing under harsher and harsher conditions. In the game, each time you ran the simulations in Big Mountain, the armor would get better and better. This directly represented the armor system's ability to learn and predict sound before using its noise-canceling tech to silence it. A half-trained suit could turn something like shattering glass into a series of random soft clicks, while a fully trained suit would disguise it as a low hum, like a generator or light kicking on.

  Combining the two systems together would result in an incredible level of stealth, especially for someone like Kaytlyn, who was already skilled at sneaking around.

  Completing both pieces of armor took me into just barely the following day, the early morning air cool rolling in through the air vents and into the garage. While it was late, I couldn't help but want to try the suits on. With an MRVN's help, I carefully put the Chinese stealth suit on, feeling the suit actually contract slightly as it is pulled and settled on me. The suit had minimal armor, so little that I would hesitate to call it even stab-proof. As far as I could tell, however, there was no mechanical reason for it. The stealth field was not sensitive to metal or ceramic plating, nor was it restricted by being skintight or anything like that. As far as I could tell, the Chinese army simply thought that someone relying on stealth shouldn't lean on armor as a crutch.

  Activating the suit was as simple as activating a hidden button on the belt. Once pressed, it caused a rush of noise to resonate over me as the stealth field activated. It honestly sounded nearly identical to the sounds from the games, causing a wave of nostalgia to flow over me, just like the noise. I turned to the MRVN unit, the one that had helped me get dressed, and spread my arms out.

  "How do I look?"

  "The field is effective, sir. I am detecting a near ninety-two point four percent reduction in visibly, eight two point seven when you move," the young, undeformed AI responded. "User is still visible with thermal scans, though it is muted."

  "I bet I can get that beat when I redesign them," I said with a smirk, looking down at my barely detectable hands. "Okay, this is fantastic, I'm putting it in everyone's armor. It's way too useful not to have."

  I tested the flexibility and limitations of the stealth suit before finally taking it off and heading out. I still hadn't tried on the MkII, but that could wait. I had a long day tomorrow of building and designing, and I needed to get some sleep before it was too late.