After my big talk with Odin I warned Tech and moved on to work on the external shields. I recalled how I had formed the walls in our earlier fight, this time I just focused on making them larger, more complicated, then separating themselves from my mind so that they would continue to exist without my constant attention.
Over the next few weeks I began holding meetings, explaining to the colonists how important it was to improve our defenses. Thankfully everyone took well to it. Odin seemed a little irritated, but that was more from all the extra work he had been doing. Unfortunately the breakdown of our energies was such that he was our most useful tool right now. With very little help and effort he could construct heavily reinforced rooms out of just living stone; as well as control the toughness of the exterior, and create new paths and tunnels in a matter of hours.
The others saw some work as well, Leukos was eventually called in to be a main energy source, so we could have more constant lighting; something he was initially okay with, but eventually began to annoy him. Though I can't imagine having one end of a copper wire tied around one's arm is too comfortable.
Anatos was kept busy providing and cleaning the water, a task that kept him inside a tank almost all day. Which he was fine with, since it allowed him to hang around Lark in the garden. At first look she was not doing much of anything, but I highly suspected the rate of production would drop if she ever stopped looking after he plants.
Jato focused primarily on the trips outside of the base, he was one of our best fighters, and proved it on several occasions. Often he would return from a trip with injured people on his back. Those days we would have to shift the tunnels. He worked probably harder than any of us, and it showed. On the rare occasions we did any form of sparring or training he was always miles ahead.
Not to say the rest of us weren't capable; we all far exceeded normal human capabilities, but none of us managed to pin him once. He just wouldn't stay put.
As the weeks stretched on, I felt the numbers outside dwindle down to a handful; we had this one kid, Marcus, who was good with computers. He had managed to keep a hold of a laptop, and was using it to keep a census. We were at a little over fifty thousand; it was the best we could manage. Then I felt something, something much stronger than usual outside. I sent Jato out to check up, but I had already felt her presence.
I was curious how they would handle my little test; curious to see if they could really turn the tides.
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