Ben reached into his Black many pocketed uniform he had made and retrieved a small cylinder with a slit along its length. He held it up and said to it: “Camera access Sub level 3, apartment complex”

A holographic screen blinked into life from the slit showing the construction in progress, the walls were starting to rise from the floor. Paul looked it over for a few seconds and smiled, the timer said 22 hours 12 minutes. The corridor had finished its own formation last week, then Ben and a team he had drafted had gone through laying out power conducting cables and communication lines. The apartments were full of Nozaedi technology, a small but efficient synthesizer drew power from the main generator to create water for cooking and cleaning, the same synthesizer also acted as a waste management system by breaking waste down into its base molecules.

The synthezers were becoming the most useful gadget they had in their considerable arsenal, they would be perfect if they could get the consistency of food right. But you cant win them all, Paul had taken the massive box of assorted vegetable seeds from the gardening shed and had a greenhouse built underground and it was cared for by two men who had volunteered. The first crops wouldnt be fully grown till next year, but planning that far ahead was generally a good morale booster when aliens were trying to kill you.

Paul handed the screen back to Ben. “How many will that corridor hold?”

It was a question he had been thinking about for a long time, it was his hope that more survivors would find his broadcast and follow it to the Castle. Paul knew it was dangerous to put too many eggs into one basket, but the Nozaedi would have no way of knowing about the undergroud facilities since their sensors couldnt see it. And he had a few too many tunnels built for housing. Just in case they got some unannounced geusts.

“Its 55 meters wide 55 tall, and 300 meters long. Thats enough for 500 houses at the 1500 sqaure foot level you asked for. Each has already been outfitted with amenities that’ll grow in with the walls. And of course the ten meter corridor down the middle for the grav transport” he straightened up with a mischevious grin “that I designed.”

Paul opened his mouth to make a smart reply when he felt it. The almost forgotten pressure of a new freind somewhere nearby. The microbes had programmed each Demon to instincitvly create a mental bubble around themselves. It acts as a sheild protecting them from commands given from the Bio computer aboard the alien vessel. The sheild grew many times stronger and larger when survivors grouped together, and hence became more sensitive to other Demons.