ALL NOVEL Loop 254 - Part 118
“I think I regret not going to Pluto,” Melissa said. They were gathered in the situation room to go over last year's event. Things had finally started to settle down again in the void house. Stan had called the meeting to both bring everyone up to speed and to discuss what he felt needed to be done to keep things functional for the rest of the loop. As always, the room was crowded during a general meeting.
Cal mentally noted that problem. It was probably time to build something more like a lecture hall for future meetings. He started jotting down some quick plans for the redesign alongside some other drawings he had been doing during the recap of their adventures. So far, he had ideas for a new mechanical engineering wing, a secondary farm, some expanded laboratories, and now the lecture hall. He added another note below the lecture hall sketch: special seats and desks for the non-human residents.
“So that brings us up to speed. The next big questions are how we want to spend the rest of the loop and how long we want to maintain it for. Cal, what do you think?” Stan asked his son, bringing Cal out of his distractions.
“I would like to end the loop as soon as we meet up with Andy on his return from the Under Library. I think I’m also going to risk a visit to the frog before we do since it will have been the decade he asked for, but with the shadow Gryalth and whatever his master was out there, I don’t want to maintain the loop beyond where we have to. Which brings up the next problem: we need supplies to really start rebuilding everything here, and everyone that was on Pluto cannot risk leaving the void house to get any of that. So human wise that’s going to put a lot on Melissa and Harold to get those supplies,” Harold interrupted Cal.
“Probably just me, but that’s fine; I have a lot of old connections. With the Agency, it’s too risky for Melissa to be out there making any big moves,” He said.
“Alright, just Harold then. Which brings me to my next point. We need more experts. Yes, we’ve learned to do a lot of things pretty well here, but imagine how much we could accomplish if we start seeking out some of the real experts in their fields, find ones we trust, and bring them into the loop. Obviously, we will need to further discuss this with the other members of our group next loop, but I wanted to get you all thinking about the idea of a master architect or a farming specialist, and frankly, unless we want to spend several more loops in higher education there are some very specialized areas we will eventually have to bring people on board for. I doubt Melissa and Andrew want to handle every single aspect of engineering,” Cal continued.
“Haven’t really thought any of this through yet, but yeah, I agree with Cal. We could learn this all ourselves, but it would cut into the adventuring time you all seem to love,” Melissa said as she twirled a wrench in her hand.
“I was going to suggest as much myself: we need more overlaps in skills, as well as people to fill out what we don’t have. Working with the squirrels in fortifying their grove gave me a lot of ideas about what we could accomplish,” Jen said
There was a brief moment of loud chatter from the capybara section before Albert quieted the rest and spoke up. “The boys and I have discussed it; we agree entirely and call dibs on picking the chef.”
“I’m not sure how important a chef will be…” Cal started before noticing the glares of several capybaras and decided not to press the issue at the moment. If they wanted to learn from a world-renowned chef, who was he to argue? There were worse things than having even more fantastic food in the void house.
“How long exactly will Exaclibur be stuck in our realm?” Gus asked.
“I don’t know, he isn’t sure but thinks for the rest of the loop at least. He is concerned the energies unleashed in putting it back together may have some ramifications on the root network’s standard operations at the start of a loop and wants to watch that,” Stan answered.
“How is he going to do that anyway? Isn’t he going to start the loop on Pluto?” Melissa asked.
“Excalibur has a plan to bleed off a lot of the access energy at the start of the next loop by using the root network to grab himself from Pluto. We’ve discussed it all in depth. Apologies for leaving you out of the info Gus, but I thought you had enough on your plate with getting all the animals settled here,” Ethel said.
“Yeah, boss, that has been a mess, couldn’ta done it without Many Legs and Many Eyes. I’m not sure either of them have slept in days. Also does that mean in the future we can use the root network to gather the rest of the guys?” Gus replied, nodding his head in the direction of the giant bugs.
“Maybe, but it will require a lot of testing and extra power, and first, the realm has to get back to where it was before we can do any of that,” Ethel answered.
“Alright, I think that’s the core of this meeting then. Harold, If you could initially focus on food, we are going to need that faster than everything else,” Stan said to the older man.
“Yes, that should be easy enough. We are basically an animal shelter, so that won’t raise any flags. The building materials we will need, though, might. I assume money isn’t a problem?” Harold asked.
“No, not at all,” Stan replied.
“Yeah, I doubted people in a time loop would have any issues making a fortune, but that can be a private conversation later. I doubt everyone here cares about the specifics of finance, money laundering, and, I’m guessing, precious metals,” Harold said.
“Don’t discount lost shipwrecks,” Cal said, smiling. The idea of finding a few more lost treasures sounded pretty relaxing and a pleasant diversion, likely something that could help keep his mind off the worst parts of this loop, and he decided to add that to a fun vacation in the next one. Bug always loved the sightseeing on those trips.