After his nap, Milo woke to find he was feeling better and noticed he had several email ssages. The first was from Williamson Plumbing and Supply, routed through a shell company:
Dear Sir,
We wanted to thank you again for your most recent order and hope you are happy with the work we did on your new designs. If there are any flaws we need to correct or any changes that need to be made, please let us know.
Sincerely, Joe and Pete Williamson
Milo was quite happy with the work they had done and happy to have connections to a factory that could take his designs and produce the specialized machines he needed. And it looked like they were selling to more people than just him. That was good. A profitable and competent company that owed him favors was a good asset to have. According to two articles in trade publications, the company was having a renaissance, expanding and rehiring older workers with the skills needed to produce their innovative machines.
He was certain he'd need to place more orders and send them more designs. And not just orders for himself. Steven and his crew were dealing with all the problems that ca with revamping the sections that Genesis would be occupying. Problems Milo was very familiar with. The engineer and construction firms hired by Steven and Wally had funneled a constant stream of questions up to Steven, who forwarded most of them to Milo for consultation. Upon hearing about the new model Clog Eaters and Duct Drones, Steven had placed an imdiate order. It would be at least two months for delivery, owing to an even larger order placed two days before by another custor.
His own Clog Eaters and Duct Drones were already at work, confirming his maps of section E and constantly looking for problem areas. The controller he was using was more complex than the basic model he'd designed for Williamson. Milo wanted more flexibility, more security, and the ability to reprogram them on the fly. The drones would make good scouts in case of another invasion of his section. They could operate within the corridors of the habitat as easily as the ducts, and in the event soone tried to disable his security caras, they would give him an alternative to his Roomba Brigade. Those machines were much more complex and he hated the idea of losing any of them.
Even in areas or situations where he couldn't communicate by simple WIFI, he could send orders to the Drones and Clog Eaters. The machines passed information from one to another, chaining back to sub-controllers that communicated with his system. The version sold by Williamson didn't need the advanced security modules he'd upgraded his machines with. Another upgrade was programming and recognition protocols to deal with the Clog Eaters and Drones that Genesis would be using. When a Genesis Drone t a Milo Drone, they would talk naturally and exchange data, but not equally. Milo didn't want a map of Section E available to the people working for Genesis. So were friends, but he didn't know the other 99% or the people hired by them. Information only flowed one way when the drones talked: Milo gave up nothing but was happy to accept all the data from the neighboring system. This made sense to him. It made it easier for him to recomnd fixes for the broken systems Genesis was dealing with, but Milo would never ask for help in section E, so he saw no reason to give anyone a blueprint of his area. And his machines would confirm the boundaries of each Section into the other machines, if they happened to stray, or were sent, into his area. Overall he was quite pleased with the upgrade.
The next ssage was from soone nad Terrence that he hadn't yet t.
Greetings Sir,
Miss Sidney asked to send you a summary of the actions we are taking with your new ga: Run, Run Ramona. She is currently asleep after she passed out trying to finish the Disney World section of the ga, on the plane ride ho from Geneva. We pried her phone out of her hand and will be hiding it until she recovers. Her actions in Geneva were very good advertising. An independent film crew began to follow her and film as she played the ga continuously while attending the convention and touring coffee shops, which made for so interesting footage.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Initial reviews are extrely good, and footage from the beta testers has been stread world-wide. The individual evolution of each person's ga depending on their actions is creating quite a bit of talk, and pre-orders for the ga are doing very well. Initial plans to release it on the top three consoles have been expanded to include seven more platforms, including a full VR version that will be offered by Genesis Corporation for players using pods. Vidflix has optioned a 16 part first season for a retro-video, filming everything in an abandoned habitat in xico City. Your proceeds from the ga will begin flowing to you today. Please contact Miss Sidney, (Or myself if she is busy for so reason.) if you have any questions.
Terrence Mantaco, Head of Accounting, Clawmaster Inc.
Milo once again wondered about the programming he had put into that ga. But he was happy people liked it, and it was always fun to have money to spend.
The last email was confusing, it seed to be coming to him from the ga.
System ssage:
Greetings Tallsqueak,
You must be terribly busy 'Out There', my condolences on having to deal with boring, mundane problems. In Genesis, exciting things are happening. Your friend Larry needs your help with an important quest. He's being very insistent, so pardon for reaching out to you this way. (And you have no idea at all how hard it was to get Hecate's attention and ask her to pass this on to you. Please try to be more considerate in the future.)
As odd as it was for the System to track him down, his main concerned was about Larry. The System's antics could wait for another day. Everyone else was still in school, so he sent a ssage to Mama that he was taking a little break and logged into the ga imdiately. If Larry needed his help, he'd be there to help. It was probably a quest to chase down the Pickle Gang or find a lost badger. Just the little thing he needed to take his mind off the real world. Of course, he needed to find Larry. It wasn't like he was going to be standing around Shadowport waiting for him.
As Milo entered the ga, he was struck by how different Shadowport looked. The docks were a tangled ss of ships, like soone had tried to put to many into a tight space. So had sails, others huge sternwheels and smokestacks, a few were subrsibles. And so? Well, so defied any definition, looking like they were combinations of anything else that moved across the seas. One even looked like a chanical shark. To make matters worse, one ship had been partially burned and two others were sunk with their masts leaning over, their rigging tangled with adjacent ship. Nowhere on the docks did Milo see the fishing and rchant vessels that were normally in port. More worrying, a section of hos in the poorer part of town had been torn down and replaced by bars and tattoo parlors. A few old buildings remained, marked by fire. Everywhere he went he saw inebriated female dwarves from the ships drinking beer, wresting, or passed out in the streets. Bonfires were roaring in two places with dozens of voices raised in incoherent singing.
He moved into the shadows to avoid a large group walking his way, and bumped into sothing large and furry. A deep, growly voice said, "Good job, Tallsqueak! You found Larry! Larry thought he had hid so well no one could see him. I am lucky to have such a good squire."
Milo could barely see Larry, even right in front of him. "Squire?"
"Yes, Larry has a quest to be a Knight and he needs a Squire and a faithful Hound. Larry is lucky to have good friends."
Larry has a quest to do a good deed and help an injured knight finish his last request. Will you aid Larry in becoming a knight and help him fulfill his quest?
"Of course I'll help Larry."
"Good, then we go now. Brinka has a Tunnel ready to take us to the Fae Lands." Larry picked up Milo and put him under his arm, and jumped into the large black hole made by his friend the Tunnel Muggle.
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