“At the moment, there is no practical necessity,” Archie admitted. “I’m playing the long game. If the Project does have to pack up and move somewhere else, there’s no guarantee that we’ll have the easy access to firearms, or the traditional tooling required to make them. Machine shops represent a huge investment of resources. I’ve got easily $100,000 worth of tools down there in the basement, and that’s not counting the actual machines themselves. The lathe alone is worth close to $30,000 and weighs nearly a ton. The machine mill is more expensive, and also way heavier. Those figures can go up by an order of magnitude for a really good industrial CNC machine, and that’s not getting into things like laser cutters. If we have to leave in a hurry, what are the chances we’ll be able to pack all that up and take it with us?”

“Not good,” Harriet said. “Depending on time and destination, moving them is part of the plan, but pretty much any emergency relocation plan involves leaving your workshop behind. From the perspective of the Project, the scientific instruments, the data center, lab equipment, all of that is far more valuable.”

“And I don’t disagree with that assessment,” Archie said. “You guys are trying to save the world. It only makes sense that you’d take the most critical stuff with you, and leave everything else behind. That does put me in a tight spot, though. Greg and Thomas, they still have to protect you, and to do that, they need the right tools for the job. I don’t know much about this Abaddon Alliance, but something tells me that they don’t plan to play by the rules.”

“What gave it away?” Harriet asked dryly. 

“The murders, mostly,” Archie said. “And I’d rather not have to experience that firsthand if I could help it. Being a lowly trunk monkey won’t save me if they come after us hardcore.”

“Trunk monkey?”

“Tiny person you can stuff in a trunk with a really big gun,” Greg provided. “More of a meme than anything, though I reckon it would make for one hell of a surprise.”

“Nothing says ‘fuck you’ quite like 900 rounds a minute,” Archie said, grinning like a lunatic.

“Back to the topic at hand,” Harriet said. “You say you’ll need the tools. Fair enough. But why turn to 3D printing? Even if we have to move in a hurry, the Project has deep pockets. Surely we can replace all your tools.”

“Maybe you can, maybe you can’t,” Greg said. “You really wanna bet your life on a maybe?”

“What makes you think a printer will be any less of a maybe?” Harriet countered. 

“Because I can pack it up and carry it myself if I have to,” Archie said. “I can power it from a standard wall outlet basically anywhere in the world. Filament isn’t too hard to make. Hell, I can print with weedeater string if I really have to. Depending on the design I use, all the parts can be made with readily available tools, anywhere in the world, and for less than $200 a pop. Or at least, that’s the goal. I still need to get the hardware side sorted out, but we’re getting there.”

“That does make for a compelling argument,” Harriet said. “Okay. I think I can sell that to the research team. So, let’s say you can pull it off. Will those guns really be worth a damn? I seem to recall Greg saying something about them being a pain in the ass to get right.”

“How much do you know about Myanmar?” Greg asked. 

“Er. Formerly known as Burma, colony of Great Britain until just after World War II,” Harriet said. “After that, the details get a little fuzzy. Each timeline went a little differently.”

“In the world I remember, things got nasty around 2016 or so,” Greg said. “Bit of genocide, military coup, and then massive civil unrest. The people started fighting back against the junta running the place, and a lot of the fighting was done with 3D-printed guns. I’m sure the rebels would have preferred to get their hands on more traditional arms, but needs must when the devil drives.”

“More specifically, they used a design called the FGC-9,” Archie said. “Brilliant bit of work, though it should be noted that one of the designers died under suspicious circumstances involving an arrest and heart failure. At any rate, the FGC-9 is a 9mm pistol caliber carbine, takes Glock magazines, and crucially, can be made without any firearms parts whatsoever. Everything you need, you can either print or pick up from a hardware store. Hell, they even designed the barrel so that they could be easily rifled via electrochemical machining, which isn’t as precise, but it’s good enough for a PCC. You lose some durability, some range, and some accuracy, which is a downside, but it beats the hell out of nothing.”

“And this is what you plan to use for us?” Harriet asked. 

“Not really, no, but it’s a good example of what the technology is capable of,” Archie said. “We can argue back and forth over whether or not it’s ‘scary’, but at the end of the day, your scientist friends will be a lot safer if we can drum up some guns in the event of a true emergency.”

“Will you be releasing any of the plans you draw up to the public?” 

“Not at this time, no,” Archie said. “For starters, there wouldn’t be much point. Consumer 3D printing doesn’t exist. Hell, won’t exist, until some patents start expiring. Even if they expired tomorrow, it would take a decade for the technology to mature to the point where consumer printers could begin to handle most of this stuff, and that’s not even getting into the software side of things.”

“Fair enough. What about twenty years from now, once the market has matured enough to handle your work?”

“Still gonna go with no, unless something drastic happens. If our enemies take over the government, for instance, flooding the internet with effective homebrewed weapons will work to our advantage. Under less dire circumstances, though, releasing the plans would represent a security risk.”

“Good answer,” Harriet said. “I believe that concludes our interview, gentlemen. Thank you for your time.”