🦇 Chapter 15: The Bat Cave
🌍 Earth Date: January 13, 99 BCE – Late Winter
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🗺️ Finding the Cave
The wind howled over the broken slopes, scattering loose snow and bits of gravel as Junjie climbed the steep incline. Nano had been oddly insistent that morning, speaking with the sort of precision that meant he had already decided this was important. Elevation, mineral shielding, natural obscurity, and a near-zero probability of foot traffic. This location meets optimal conditions for an auxiliary facility.
Junjie eyed the spot with skepticism. "You mean a hole in the rock?"
The "hole" turned out to be a collapsed lava tube, partially hidden by boulders and overgrown brush. He might have missed it if Nano hadn't flashed a subtle map overlay onto his vision, guiding him toward the entrance. Ducking inside, he caught the stale air—damp earth, and something far less pleasant.
Geothermal scarring patterns suggest this was once a subsurface vent. Collapsed in three places. Structural integrity acceptable.
"It's also full of bats," Junjie muttered. Hundreds clung to the ceiling in a writhing, chittering carpet of wings and fur, twitching under his torchlight like a living skin.
We will evict them, Nano said flatly.
Junjie stared up in disbelief. "This is your perfect base location? This bat-infested stinkhole?"
Affirmative. I propose the designation, "The Bat Cave." The cultural reference is statistically relevant and moderately humorous.
"You mean it's easier to remember because it used to be full of bats?"
Precisely. The label is contextually accurate and neurologically efficient.
"You are the worst kind of genius."
🚪 Eviction
Brushing at his coat as though something had crawled on him, Junjie backed toward the entrance. "Fine. You want a Batcave, we'll have a Batcave—but those things have got to go."
The bracer warmed on his wrist, a strange vibration humming in his bones. A moment later, the bats erupted in a storm of wings, shrieking and flapping into the fading daylight. Junjie ducked, swatting the air.
Ultrasonic dispersal complete. Behavioral imprint suggests low probability of return.
"You could've warned me!"
Apologies. I calculated your startle threshold incorrectly.
"I'm going to raise your startle threshold when I throw you down a ravine."
Threat noted.
💩 Overwhelming Stink
Junjie stepped inside again, one hand over his nose. "Oh gods... what died in here?"
Pathogen vector concentration: elevated. Olfactory signature indicates decades of accumulated guano.
"I figured out the bat droppings part myself," he grumbled, slipping slightly on the damp floor. "Wait—is it wet?!"
Moisture content: thirty-seven percent. You are standing in the shallow end.
"That is deeply horrifying. And you didn't warn me?"
I did. Approximately fourteen seconds ago. Retroactive warning systems are still under development.
"This is a violation of natural law," Junjie muttered.
The stench is likely neurotoxic over prolonged exposure. Shall I prepare a filtration mask?
"Why didn't we start with that?!"
You walked in too fast. I assumed you were eager.
"You assumed wrong."
Moments later, the bracer clicked and produced a thin, flexible mask. The instant he pulled it over his face, the reek became bearable.
"Oh, thank the stars. Still awful, but now just emotionally offensive."
Progress.
🔒 Securing Entrances
After a full day of fuming, Junjie came back with chisels, brick molds, and mortar. Nano revealed that rear tunnels extended deeper into the hillside, one ending in a second exit seventy-four meters away. That had to be sealed.
They reinforced the front with carefully mortared stone, camouflaged under rubble, and walled off the back entirely. Nano helped install a locking mechanism keyed to Junjie's bio-signature.
Climate isolation complete. Humidity reduced. Mold risk—neutralized.
"Great. Now it's just a dry, locked-up crap cave."
Progress.
🧹 Cleaning Up
Bat guano contains potassium nitrate—one of the key ingredients in early gunpowder, Nano explained. With proper refinement, we can make combustible compounds. The only thing missing is elemental sulfur.
"Sounds like something that smells worse than bat poop."
Less pleasant in odor, but useful.
Junjie groaned. "So we dig through stink to make more stink."
He scraped, shoveled, and gagged for days, while Nano sorted piles for fertilizer, extraction, and fuel pellets. Microbe sprays ate away at the worst of it, ventilation improved, and soon the central chamber looked less like a midden and more like a workshop.
When Junjie finally collapsed on a slab of stone, he muttered, "Next time you find a 'perfect' hideout, maybe we start with not sharing it with a thousand bats."
Noted. But statistically, this is still an exceptional improvement.
"You're lucky I like you."
Affirmation accepted.
🏗️ Foundation Work
Stone was more valuable than gold in the valley. Harder to come by, harder to steal. Junjie scavenged the scree for pieces with flat faces, building with the old principles—weight, friction, balance—while Nano fabricated clamps, hinges, and fastenings from iron-rich deposits hidden in the walls.
"You're laying them out inefficiently," Nano observed.
"You want to build it? Be my guest."
I lack hands.
"Exactly."
By dusk, Junjie had benches, a hearth, and even shelves anchored with Nano's thermal-lock pins. In a dry corner, a low timber cot with a rope lattice waited—primitive, but enough to keep a man off the cold stone when exhaustion finally claimed him. The cavern was turning from a hole in the earth into something more—a hidden stronghold.
"It's going to work," Junjie said.
It already is.
🕳️ Exploring Deeper
Past the main chamber, narrow tunnels led to a small pocket lined in goldish-yellow crust. Junjie tapped it with his spade, flakes tumbling into his hand.
Elemental sulfur. Ninety-one percent purity. Collection is advised.
"Oh, this is huge. Gunpowder huge."
He chipped away, sack after sack, while Nano cataloged each load into the bracer.
"Why is digging always involved with you?"
Because you are the only available labor.
"There it is."
When the chamber was stripped, Junjie carved a crude flame glyph at the entrance.
"Let's head back. If I stay here any longer, I'm going to start hallucinating fire spirits."
Acknowledged.
They left the sulfur chamber behind, Nano's quiet hum following Junjie through the narrow corridor. The cave had started as a pit of filth—but step by step, it was becoming a fortress.