I woke up early the following morning, wanting to rush through the final steps of the Jurassic tech tree. Most of what I wanted to explore had already been completed, which left nearly a dozen handheld tools that I could whip up in an hour or so, and several smaller machines, all of which were mostly exposed on the tech tree already. The entire branch of genetic manipulation and creation of life had blossomed with each step I made, and now that I was at the end, an incredible amount of knowledge had been uncovered and downloaded into my head.
If there was any doubt that my power had enhanced my brain in more than just my connection to the Tinker of Fiction, that was long gone now. I held the equivalent of nearly a dozen Master's degrees in biotech, genetics, and several other areas of expertise that hadn't even been categorized in this world, or my original one. I was this world's absolute premier expert on genetic manipulation, reading, and a handful of other categories.
When I finally had everything completed, I took a break, saying goodbye to the crew as they went off to continue clearing out Maelstrom. The list of places they had left to hit was very short, and I expected them to be finished sometime that day. After I finished with a quick snack and a drink, I invited David down to help me in the biolab.
The first step, now that the tech tree was complete, was to test and explore the basics of our machines. This was achieved by feeding our scanners fragments of partially destroyed bacteria. The machines gathered up and extracted the DNA from the broken cells, which we then took and fed to our DNA sequencers. By using several in tandem, we were able to complete the scan in under an hour and a half, a mind-bogglingly short time to analyze an entire genome. Just the fact that the machine could work in tandem was awe-inspiring, the time itself was beyond anything the cyberpunk world could even dream of. Hell, it was crazy compared to any world I had access to, including Titanfall and Fallout.
With the test DNA gathered and mapped, we fed that to a massive computer bank, which used an advanced scanning algorithm, something akin to the AI algorithms from my home, to "dissect" and categorize the genome. It deftly organized hundreds of different expressions of DNA, feeding that information to another predictive bit of software from an equally powerful computer system. This then decoded the protein structures created by the separated expression of DNA.
The process continued, moving from one machine to the next, with each step bringing the data closer to being usable for recreating the original bacteria. The process was shorter than it would be if the bacteria had been multi-cellular, and even longer if it had been complicated enough to qualify as an animal, or a plant, which would require creating an embryo, a seed, or an egg.
For three hours, David and I confirmed that the machines were calibrated, working, and ready for a larger challenge. Once everything was clean and sterilized again, it was then that I brought out our true first test. It was a biological sample of a golden retriever, just as I had told David we would create not too long ago, purchased from a repository for a steep price. It was one of many items we purchased from them, along with several other sources.
We separated a small sample from our specimen, feeding it into the first of many machines, then sat back and watched them work. I could see David was nearly bouncing on his feet, looking so excited that I didn't have he heart to tell them that, while I could accelerate the gestation process, I definitely couldn't make it zero. It would be at least two weeks until the puppy was ready to be born, and that was probably a slight overestimation.
As time passed, each stage was completed smoothly, including the genome scanning process. When that process was complete, I transferred a copy of the data, after double and triple-checking for corruption, to a series of specially designed, extremely resilient hard drives I had taken to calling Arks. It was over the top and likely not strictly necessary to treat the information so carefully, but I liked the idea of having every animal we managed to recreate stored safely for the future. The genome data was enough for us to recreate the animal without a sample, meaning that in the future, these Arks would contain all the data needed to rebuild or re-create Earth's Biomes.
Again, probably a bit dramatic, but I liked the idea.
Once our first test was over, Frank and his assistants would be tasked with slowly completing this project for as many animals as we could, before moving on to reconstructing animals from partial samples. We would never be able to rebuild the Earth's biomes completely, as there was simply too much that had been destroyed. That said, with some hard work, luck, and a fair bit of automation, I was hopeful we would be able to restore a semblance of them.
It was nearly noon when we completed the final stage, injecting two newly constructed partial DNA sequences, thirty-nine chromosomes in each, into an artificially made ovum. A zygote was formed, the seventy-eight chromosomes became thirty-nine pairs, and cell division began. Well, it took two hours for the first split to occur, then another hour for those two to become four.
David, excited as he was, barely made it to the first division, and only because he fell asleep at one of the computer desks. I did set up a live feed so both of us could check up on it whenever we wanted, but it would likely take some time before it was even visible to the naked eye, never mind discernible as the first stages of life.
When the process was stabilized, the zygote slowly developing inside one of our artificial wombs, suspended inside a sapphire glass vessel, I turned to Frank, who had been working with us and had been patiently waiting with me, long after David had left.
"How are the scans reading?" I asked.
"The sensors are reading green across the board, Jackson," He responded, checking his tablet before looking back up at me. "No deviations, no unexpected errors, and the artificial womb is stable."
"Alright. Run a few hands-off test runs through the machines, same with the bulk producer systems," I said, still watching the only activated artificial womb in the new biolab. "Once you do that… you can start working on Project Clover."
One of the most significant issues in the badlands, and the destroyed ecosystems of the planet in general, at least in terms of growing anything beyond the scraggly desert bushes and cacti, was that the entire soil ecosystem has been destroyed. The ground was dead, drained of moisture, stability, and nutrients. The landscape around us had been reduced to sand and gravel, and there was no realistic way to restart the cycle naturally.
Not without a jumpstart.
The idea was to create a plant that would require a specific nutrient to survive, something we could control. We would spray that on a vast patch of earth, then seed it with the modified "clover." The plant would be specifically designed to thrive in sandy, gravelly soil, digging its roots deep into the ground and stabilizing the seeded area. Then, the plant would rapidly grow, sucking in sunshine, producing fruits, and then, within weeks, dying on its own. The patch would then be replanted with the second phase of "clover," a different version meant to achieve the same goal, but this time focusing on restocking a different nutrient. This pattern would continue in a sort of rapid-fire crop rotation, a chain of planting, growing, dying, rotting into dirt, then repeating.
The end goal was, after several months, maybe even half a year, to create a large swath of land with healthy, fertile, stable soil, rather than easily washed away gravel and sand. Then, the area could be seeded with more long-term plants, which would grow normally and independently.
Of course, this Project Clover was useless on its own. The final step, the long-term plants, was impossible in the current world, as they would simply serve as a contamination point for radioactive winds and rain, not to mention the much more common acid rain. In order to restart and clean the plant cycle, several other cycles would also need to be cleaned up and restarted.
This was a hilariously massive project, something that would require a gigantic autonomous effort on the same scale as a complete terraforming, and in all honesty, was likely out of my reach for now. With any luck, I would get a tech tree that would change that, but for now, all I could do was start working on the pieces and hope I could fit them together later.
After confirming that Frank would be fine on his own, I finally headed out and back up to the living quarters, arriving back just as the team returned from their missions. They had successfully cleared their final targets, meaning Maelstrom had been successfully pushed out of our land. While not the end of our crusade against them, it was a solid step in the right direction. Next, I would have Dakota Smit start leveraging her connections with other Fixers to gather information on any large Maelstrom gatherings or groups that are forming. We would then step in to stomp them out before they could even consider coming back for revenge.
The night passed as they usually do, with the added celebration of completely clearing our land and Jackie opening his restaurant. He only spent a few hours actually working on it, but he wasn't too upset, as this was mostly just a test to work the kinks out of his process.
We enjoyed a simple meal of chicken and salad before heading in for the night. The next morning, I woke up early and started to get ready. The press conference was scheduled for around noon, but since showing up late to your own conference was frowned upon, Sable wanted us there well before that time. I took control of one of my courser doppelgangers, before getting dressed in my usual, ultimate corpo look.
"Are you sure I shouldn't dress in something more… humble? Approachable?" I asked, straightening my tie, turning to face Sable, who was waiting for me by the front entrance to my room. "Just a simple outfit could still look professional, without looking so… ostentatious. I understand looking the part sometimes, but-"
"No, this is perfect," She responded confidently. "Let Jackie and Gloria look down to Earth. You're supposed to look like doing crazy things, changing the world with a wave of your hand is normal. Trust me, you look like an eccentric corpo, which perfectly matches what you're trying to do, at least at this level. It's perfect."
I let out a sigh and nodded, taking one last look at myself in a mirror before shaking my head.
"Right, let's get this over with," I responded. "The sooner we finish this thing, the sooner Noah and I can sit down and start planning out the buildings. He's already got some of the infrastructure planned, and if I force him to wait any longer, I think he might go rogue."
A step through my private teleporter later, and we were standing once again in the utterly gigantic underground production and staging facility. Unlike before, where Sawwise led us through the scenic tour to show off the entire space, we stepped out only a few dozen meters away from the staging area for our VTOLS. Of course, this time we were not going to be riding in a standard cargo shuttle, but rather a custom model designed for passengers. Jackie and Gloria were already waiting, as was Riggs in his power armor and Kaytlyn, standing right beside him.
"Alright, you guys sure you want to go with me?" I asked, half joking as I looked at everyone. "You're basically just going to be standing around while I talk."
"Don't try to dissuade them," Sable said, slapping my shoulder. "A united front is exactly what we need. They will look good standing behind you, and it will get them used to you working with a group, rather than just by yourself."
I shrugged, and after a few more minutes, we climbed onto the VTOL, the back hatch sealing up after we all sat down and strapped in. Riggs was the only one wearing power armor, so he stood by himself at the front of the shuttle, locked in so he wouldn't go flying in case we had to take evasive measures.
The wait for deployment was about five minutes, before we finally teleported from our base to the side of the large cliff, the same way we had during our first assault against Maelstrom. We were all prepared for it this time, but it was still more than a bit intense to plummet towards the ground so fast, even if I knew the VTOL could handle it.
As we leveled out, Sable leaned forward, talking just slightly louder than normal to be heard over the dull thrusters.
"We are looking at a full house, so don't be surprised by the crowd," She said, sounding calm and confident. "Just keep calm and remember what I taught you. And don't lean too heavily into that slider you have, it makes you look like a poorly designed Gemini."
While I didn't have many social anxiety issues, I was not overly happy with the idea of talking in front of a large crowd. I could handle it, but my nervousness would no doubt show, something that would ruin the image we were trying to cultivate of an eccentric, kind corpo, wanting to leave my mark by making Night City a better place, a Utopia of sorts.
Thankfully, I wasn't without options. While the machine interface implant allowed near-perfect, seamless control of my doppelgangers, that didn't mean I couldn't scale it back slightly. It wasn't quite as simple as turning down the sensitivity, but with some special programming and setting tweaking, I was essentially black listing several of my nervous habits from being activated subconsciously. The good news was that it made me seem a lot calmer, precise, and in control. The downside was that if I cranked the setting too high, I looked like I was made of wax, with no connection between my subconscious and my body at all.
Having seen a recording of it, I could agree that it looked very unsettling.
Not long after the teleport, we landed at the warehouse district, though honestly, it was due for a new name. Any sign of the original warehouses, or any of the other buildings, were long gone, replaced instead by several gravel roads that tentatively marked out where we would be building, though none of that was set in stone. Even the asphalt roads were gone, stripped and pulled from the ground and shipped back to the production yard for repurposing. The space was far from empty, however. There was still work being done, mostly in the form of MRVNs hauling dirt, stone, and gravel around to level off and fill in foundations, which had also been torn down.
Of course, the entire lot was not empty, though it was mostly cleared. A few sheds had been set up to hold equipment that wasn't in use, and we could see several hard points spread around the perimeter, each with shades manning them, usually with a pair of heavies standing close by as well.
What stood out the most, however, was the "temporary" setup that Sable had worked with Samwise to set up. It was built on top of a gravel patch, anchored to the ground, and, by normal conventions, looked like a permanent structure. Four large steel beams were buried in the ground, supporting a large roof. Under that were several dozen chairs, lined up and facing a central stage, on which was a podium. There was no backdrop; instead, my back would be framed by Night City, specifically one of the Megabuildings, Arasaka Tower, and a few other buildings, as well as other large buildings standing in the background.
Already, people were starting to gather, claiming seats and setting up their camera equipment and microphones along the walls. Meanwhile, several groups of reporters simply sat down and waited. There were tables with water and simple snacks, and even several MRVNs walking around helping people carry their equipment.
Sable had done her best to think of everything, even going so far as to have the MRVNs lightly spray the majority of the lot down with water, to keep any dust from being kicked up and interrupting our presentation.
As we landed, Sable immediately led us into one of the sheds closest to the press conference set up, wanting us to stay clear of any journalist who thought they were smart by trying to catch a few words before the conference started. There we waited for about thirty minutes before finally exiting again and heading to the conference structure.
By then, the space was packed, with nearly a hundred people crammed into the space, with dozens of cameras focused on the stage, ranging from high production setups with what looked like trained professionals behind them, to small civilian models clipped to simple stands, all set to record while their owner sat in the journalists' seats.
As we climbed up to the stage, Gloria, Riggs, and Kaytlyn sat down along the left side, while Jackie and Sable stood behind me, Jackie on my left and Sable on my right. Shockingly, Jackie was just as calm as Sable, both of them looking cool as a cucumber, professional and relaxed as if they had both done this a hundred times before. With both of them standing at my back, I approached the podium, putting both hands on the side, feeling the fake wooden paneling. I could see from a small screen that the microphone was off, and as I watched the crowd focus on me, I tapped it on, a loud click echoing through the space.
A slow silence settled over the area, and I thanked god that I had included the inability to sweat in the blacklist settings.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for coming out to this event. As you have no doubt heard, and could see for yourself as you arrived, the makeup of Northside Watson has begun to drastically change," I explained, smiling confidently as I looked out over the crowd. "I can assure you that this is just the beginning."
I paused for a moment, taking the time to look into several people's eyes, holding their look for just a moment before moving on.
"Several days ago, in a joint effort with my friend and partner in business, Sable Arcturus, we personally purchased a large portion of Northside. This purchase was immediately followed by a rapid deployment of assets to clean and hunt down the dangerous gang known as Maelstrom. I am happy to announce that, as of yesterday afternoon, we have pushed all large Maelstrom groups from our newly purchased land. We are on our way to eradicating the gang entirely, and making Watson, and Night City as a whole, just a bit safer."
I could see that many people in the audience were taking notes, as well as how many were using small cameras or recorders, as the shine of their lenses caught the light. Thankfully, I could adjust my doppelganger's reaction lights.
"And that leads me to our announcement. You see, when I look at Night City, I see a lot of things. Corruption, death, economic struggle, and, perhaps worse than all of those, I see stagnation. But I also see potential. Unbridled, untapped potential. I hope to tap into that potential, using it as a catalyst to change the landscape of this city forever."
I paused for effect, taking a sip of water before continuing.
"It has been nearly a decade since Night City saw any attempt at major improvement," I revealed, a frown on my face. "It has been even longer since it was actually successfully improved. I plan on changing that."
With a smile, I gestured around us to the large open area that surrounded the conference structure.
"I plan on revitalizing Northside, starting with the Warehouse District and the Docks, turning them both into shining beacons that exemplify the potential I see in every face of Night City," I said, returning my hands to the podium. "While the final plans are still in the works, I can report that the current plan for the warehouse district is two large skyscrapers, surrounded by a sprawling business, shopping, and recreation center. One of the two major buildings will be dedicated to affordable housing. This structure will outsize a megabuilding by a considerable margin. Not only will these apartments be safe and affordable, but the building will also represent a sizable push to create stable jobs for the citizens of Night City."
I trailed off for a moment, letting the pause hang while I once again scanned the crowd. After a few seconds, I continued.
"This project is a significant undertaking, one I am embarking on at a not insignificant cost to myself," I explained. "I do this because I believe in the people of Night City. I believe in the potential I see in this city. Though it may be far from perfect, with the right resources and a solid push in the right direction, I believe it can once again become something special, a jewel shining in the desert. This construction process is the first step in returning to that time."
I let my final words settle in, a confident smirk on my lips, before I nod.
"I will now take questions."
Rather than point out people myself, Sable stepped forward, pointing to a professional-looking blond woman sitting in the third row. Since I didn't know the muckrackers from the proper publications, Sable would be the one to pick who would be asking questions.
"Hello Jackson, Sally Ride from the Night City Maximum," She said. "Your purchase and campaign against Maelstrom was rather sudden, but now you claim the planning for your project isn't finished. Why make your move before you were prepared?"
"Well, to be frank, we saw an opportunity to purchase this land and didn't want to pass it up," I explained with a smile. "But I can assure you, we have a strong enough architectural team that I expect a short turnaround. I think this project will have a much shorter timeline than you may assume."
Sally nodded, and Sable pointed at a man sitting in the second row. He stood, showing off a complicated implant along the side of his head that projected a hologram around his face, showing what looked like a camera feed.
"Ted Mosby from Ted's Tech. Spotted your bots, pretty advanced. They Arasaka tech?"
"All of our tech, from our power armor to our robots, is made in-house," I responded confidently. "This venture and the company I own are in no way connected to Arasaka. Besides, my bots are a bit more sophisticated than what Arasaka is working on."
That sent a titter of words through the crowd, and I just made out Sable's fingers twitching at my comment. Thankfully, instead of visiting violence on my person like she was likely imagining, she simply pointed to another reporter, who stood up and asked their question. This continued, with questions about our plans for the rest of our land, questions about where our resources were coming from, as well as more general questions about who I was and where I came from. For most of them, I answered vaguely, playing up the mysterious corpo eccentric, looking to leave his mark.
As far as I could tell, they ate it up, though I suppose the real tell would be what they end up writing in their respective publications and media. Either way, when the questions began to spiral into less focused subjects, like if I planned on taking over the city with my robots, Sable called an end to the conference. We walked off the stage area, amid flashes of cameras and loud requests for interviews and more questions, heading into the awaiting VTOL.
All in all, the conference took a single hour, though it felt quite a bit longer. As the shuttle closed up, and we sat down, I resisted the urge to turn off my doppleganger, turning to look at Sable.
"So, how did I do?"
"Beyond calling out Arasaka's robotics division like they are a rival ripperdoc?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at me, causing me to wince. "You did pretty well. You managed to stick to the plan, you kept calm, and you didn't do anything stupid. You even managed to look like you actually knew what you were doing. I've seen much worse, especially for a first time."
"Yeah, well, I had a pretty good teacher," I pointed out, the white haired woman rolling her eyes in response.
She also tried to hide a smile, but I spotted it before she could school her features. I smirked in response, leaning back in my seat. Despite the fact that I hadn't done much for the day, besides getting ready and talking, I felt exhausted. Thankfully, I had already gotten what I wanted from the Jurassic tech tree, as that meant no more bum-rushing through dozens of designs in just a few hours.
Once we returned home, we settled in for a celebratory lunch, though it was more like a business lunch, as we sat down and started reading through the early responses to my press conference. My face was all over the news channels, playing short snippets of my speech. Several news channels were discussing how I was doomed to fail, turning Watson into the new Pacifica. Others pointed out that since I had bought it privately, I would have a much easier time keeping control over the district than the many people working and investing in the now Combat Zone.
I could only watch so much before I eventually begged off, leaving Sabel behind to get a feel for how people felt about what we were working on. She was not just watching news feed and blog posts, she was also reading social media and watching people react in real time.
Meanwhile, I spent about fifteen minutes hunting down Noah, eventually managing to drag him to my workshop, where we could finally spend some time designing our first major project inside the city limits. Ultimately, he had more say about what we planned on building, as this was his expertise, but I wanted to be able to guide him a bit from the sidelines.