Chester did not get the sleep he wanted. Vinay arrived with the chemicals shortly after Chester climbed into bed. Even though any of the drones could have mixed the neural gel, Chester was still the best at it and he wanted to make sure this batch was as good as possible. So, instead of going to sleep, he got back out of bed and set to work mixing up a new batch of neural gel.

It took him several hours to finish the neural gel, having put in some extra time to purify it as best he could and then make sure the container was sealed and ready to go. Then he turned his attention to the injectors. They’d worked well enough on Cosa and the other woman, but he could tell they weren’t providing enough pressure to fully saturate the brain. Part of the problem was that the tubing he had available to him wasn’t rated for a higher pressure. He could always risk it and set the injectors to the appropriate pressure, but if the tubing burst then he’d most certainly fail at creating a drone and would instead be left with just another corpse.

“Cosa,” Chester said over the neural connection, “I need you to requisition some high pressure tubing, about one meter should be enough. Have Pald deliver it to me.”

He felt Quartermaster Cosa receive and acknowledge the instructions. While he waited for the tubing, Chester set to work on refining the injectors themselves. The long syringes could curve and bend as needed to follow the subjects arteries all the way up from the neck and into the head. Ideally the tips of the syringes would separate into dozens of smaller ones once it reached the brain to ensure even saturation with the neural gel. Unfortunately, multi-point precision syringes weren’t very common and he doubted they would be available on the moon.

“Couldn’t hurt to ask, though,” he muttered before reaching back out to the quartermaster and asking if they had any.

A moment later, he heard Cosa’s voice in his head.

“Medical has a few,” she confirmed.

“Have Pald pick up a pair of them on his way over with the tubing.”

Again, Cosa acknowledged the command and Chester went back to his tinkering. By the time Pald arrived with the new tubing and syringes, Chester had stripped most of the device down into it’s basic components, refining everything and looking for more ways to improve upon the design.

“The meeting with the lunar leadership is set to begin in about ten hours,” Pald told him

“That should give me plenty of time to get all of this put back together. How’s the table coming along?”

“Lyon and the others have brought the panels over and are carving out the bottom of the table to make room for them.”

“Good,” Chester said as he briefly ran back through the plan. “I’ll need to work quickly when the time comes. If any of them stay dead for too long then they won’t reanimate properly.”

“One of us could be there with you to help,” Pald said.

“Cosa will already be with me,” Chester muttered as he turned his attention more fully towards upgrading the neural injectors. “I could make two injectors now,” he went on a bit distractedly, “if I used the original syringes for one set on the people I’m less likely to need as much from. In that case, having more than one helper would be useful.”

“I will already be in the administrative offices and could help you,” Pald offered.

It was odd for any drone to be so straightforward in this sort of situation. Under most circumstances, Chester’s drones would go about doing whatever they would normally do until he gave them a specific instruction. He hadn’t asked Pald to help him beyond having him deliver the replacement parts and yet, here he was.

“I think having your help would be good,” Chester finally agreed. “I’ll see you there.”

Pald nodded and then left. The day shift was nearing its end by the time Chester was finished putting together the new and improved neural injectors. They still weren’t as good as the ones he used back in the Solar King’s necrology lab, but that was hardly a fair comparison. The fact that he could make anything this good on the lunar colony was a testament to his own expertise and a few lucky finds.

It was almost time for him to leave for his work shift but he still hadn’t slept. If he went to work then he’d have no time to sleep either before he would need to be back in the administrative offices, making more drones. Would it matter if he missed his shift? In another day or two everyone on the lunar colony would be a drone anyway.

Chester picked up his comm. A moment later, the familiar voice of his supervisor answered.

“I’m not coming tonight,” Chester said. “Quartermaster Cosa had me working all day on the mouse problem and I haven’t gotten to sleep yet.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” the supervisor said. “I figured this would happen anyway. See you tomorrow.”

“See you.”

Chester put the comm away and lay down on his bed. Tomorrow would be a busy day indeed.