304 Sealed

As night fell, Tang Yin needed to take a break.

"Just a few more hours. Just a bit more." He said, as they sat down for dinner that night.

"It was 'just a few hours' from the very start!" Mindy gritted her teeth, trying her best to put up with the pain from her leg.

At least she still had both legs, though one had been badly injured. Wulfgar had flat out lost both of his in the battle against the Tier 5. Mindy had cauterized the remaining stumps, but he still looked to be in extremely bad condition and might not survive the night.

They could try to bring him back… but the mission was too important. The Rift had to be sealed, no matter the cost.

Even if it meant locking Remian out.

"Hurry back, Remian!" Mindy whispered into the night. "Hurry back!"

***

But Remian was too caught up in studying to hurry anywhere. He was dabbling into architecture now and learning about structural support, stress and tension.

Afterward, he started drawing up designs for an underground arcology, with the hills of Kara-Goth in mind. This took him several hours. In accelerated time, he'd been working on it for months.

Kara-Goth was already pretty much an underground town. Remians plans were to enlarge it almost tenfold, going far deeper underground while using mirrors and lenses to bring sunlight to even the lowest floors. Using sunlight for solar thermal heating, and bring in water through underground pipes from the river, put them together into man-made hot springs at the very bottom of the city… rising steam could be directed to nurture aeroponic gardens stretching up in glass colums at the sides of the central open area…

Would any of it even work? Remian didn't know, but he figured it was worth a try.

It should be possible. All of these were within the means of a Class-3 civilization. Even if they didn't have the technology to accomplish it now, they should be able to do so within a century, especially with Remian's imported knowledge.

Later that day (real time, not accelerated) he asked about Xiao Yan.

"Oh, she's fine. She's been studying formations at one hundred times acceleration." The corpoman answered. "She's already completed Grade 1 in formations studies."

"That's great." Remian said, with relief.

Then, he felt a bit perturbed. Xiao Yan was going to get a good deal more powerful with this. What about himself?

"I'm going to study Psionics!" Remian decided and went back into time acceleration.

That evening he spent more of his dwindling funds.

"Vitality treatment?" the corpoman blinked. "Organ rejuvenation? Can you even afford that?"

"Only the most basic treatments." Remian admitted. His finances were at an all-time low, and the costs of medical treatments from the Conglomerate were cringingly high. Still, he set aside 10,000 Black to pay for his medical treatments. While not enough to cure him completely surely they could extend his life by a decade at least!

Remian picked up a combo deal priced at 9,300 that used the combination of consumables and a mobile service that actually visited him in jail and set up their equipment in his holding cell. He took that time to sleep as the treatment went on, and by the time he awoke, it was all done.

Thus ended his first day in his sentence. In virtual acceleration, more than nine months had passed.

***

In the morning, Tang Yin went straight back to work. Mindy, Joshu, Jans and Denise had to clear the area of unsuspecting Spectres while Wulfgar moped at the campsite over the loss of both his legs.

"It's fine. We'll get you a specialized Frame like Loh's. You'll be able to walk with that." Denise assured him. "You just have to hang in there and survive long enough to make it back."

So he hung, and so they fought, and Tang Yin worked on the Seal.

Finally, he was ready. By that time, Mindy was already done limping around and was basically sitting on a rock scroll-casting every which way. Joshu and the others had used and broken at least ten branches and spent every arrow they had. Joshu himself almost lost a hand. Jans nearly died thrice, and Denise twice. Even Wulfgar almost got eaten before he realized he was under attack at one point.

Tang Yin didn't wait for anything or anyone. As soon as the formations were ready, he activated them. "We're done! Let's get out of here!"

"How long will that seal last?" Mindy asked.

"Two years, at least! I'll come back a year from now to maintain it."

Mindy didn't even have the chance to ask him to wait for Remian, wait just a little longer…

It was already too late. The Rift was sealed. There would be no one coming in through it now, no Tier 9 Spectres, no Remian, nothing.

"Let's go." Mindy said tightly, and offered a little prayer for Remian, wherever he was.

***

At the time, Remian was still in his second day of the Sentence.

"Congratulations on qualifying as a Class 2 Psionic." The corpoman greeted him at dinner time that evening.

"It's only Class 2 and only according to Conglomerate Standards." Remian brushed it off.

"That's already as good as most Conglomerate school students can manage, even after training and studying for years."

But it wasn't that big a deal to Remian, compared to Lenisu Bulbs.

The next day, he qualified as a Class 3 Psionic, then took a break and studied early computation.

Then he went back to training Psionics, and took the qualifying test for a Class 4 Psionic before he went to sleep that night.

He passed.

***

Mindy called for a pick-up on the way back.

There simply wasn't any choice. Wulfgar couldn't hang on any longer and Mindy herself was suffering every other step of the way. Everyone was exhausted and injured and they were not likely to make it back alive at the rate they were going.

"I'm coming." Darian promised, and cut the link.

Two words, but it was enough for Mindy. It didn't matter where they were, or what condition they were in, or what hostiles and problems might be in between them. If Darian said it, he would be there; end of story. If Mindy were to pray, her prayer would merely go like this; Darian was coming and God help whatever got in his way.

There were in fact quite a few Spectres and obstacles…

It didn't matter. Darian stopped for no one and nothing. There was thunder and there were screams, and then he was there and Spectres were raining from the sky, often in several pieces.

"Let's go." Darian said, and his Silhouette appeared in the form of a dragon the size of Ha'res-dras. They got on 'his' back, and he brought them home without saying a single word more.

There, they found Phoebe up to her arms in blood after a lengthy operation, and gave her even more work to do.

Phoebe washed her hands, threw away her gloves, then took off her surgical mask to vent some rage and give them a piece of her mind.

In the thirty seconds in which she had taken off her mask, nineteen accidents occurred around base camp. Men walked into walls, doors, pillars, Wilds, each other and even women. One particular nurse was surprisingly kissed lip-to-lip by sheer accident. Six heavy items, a goldfish bowl, and the captain's dinner were dropped by younger people stunned by her beauty. Three machine operators nearly blew themselves up.

Anyway.

"Any sign of Remian?" Phoebe asked at last, as she put a fresh surgical mask on.

"I'm sorry." Mindy said, her head lowered. "We couldn't wait."

Phoebe sighed. "I'm sure he'll turn up soon. Don't worry."

So she said, but the crease in her forehead never left all night, not even when she slept.