“Fast I can do, especially now. What about the bends or compression sickness?”
“You have Nth, remember? We can monitor the pressure of the inner bubble and the outer sphere will be managing most of the compression, significantly lessening the effect on the inner sphere. We will also track blood and tissue gasses and guide the ascent and descent, and display everything as a timer so you can have a representation you can see and use to plan.”
“I’m coming too,” Aurora broke in, hearing their internal conversation.
“It’s too dangerous, plus it would cut oxygen reserves in half,” Nick replied, not even considering the argument.
“How are you going to see down there? It’ll be pitch black,” she said.
“Gus’ perception is high enough that he has filters he can use, plus the hybrid-Nth can sense the other Kroutonium, and I’m sure can update the display. Besides, he needs you to monitor surface conditions in case those supers come back.”
Aurora finally relented and stood, brushing the sand off herself.
“You’re sure, Nick?” Gus asked, seeing Aurora’s disappointment.
“I don’t think your skill in shielding is adequate to create a sphere big enough for the both of you. In addition, the amount of energy to pull a sphere that size down to the ocean floor will expend all of your MP before you get there. You have to actively Ether Leash down to counteract the sphere’s buoyancy.”
Gus shrugged apologetically.
“Logistics made the decision for us. Alright, I’ll be the lookout. What if someone attacks while you’re submerged? Send a message through our Nth if there are any complications?”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but that sounds like a good plan.” Aurora kicked sand into a little pile without looking at him. “Hey, I’m not looking forward to this, if that’s your concern. I’m slightly claustrophobic as it is. But lately, life is a bunch of have-tos and not a lot of get-tos. If I don’t upgrade my Nth, I can’t power up like I need to, in order to do what I must to keep the manor out of Basileus’ hands. I promise I’ll be careful.”
“Okay, just do it. The less time this takes the better.” She hugged herself and refused to meet his eyes.
Gus put on a brave face and tried the ability for the first time. He made a sphere around himself, making it just big enough to not trigger his claustrophobia. With Nick’s guidance, he made another larger sphere, pushing the range of his concentration and ability.
“We’ll have to make some changes when we get above the pod, but this should work for now. Now just ether lash and go,” Nick advised.
Gus waved to Aurora and walked the ball to the water. He had always wanted to try zorbing, and now he had one of his own design! Currently, the inner sphere was resting on the bottom of the outer sphere and he could feel the bobbing of the waves as the water lifted him up and down inside the construct. He made two tethers and launched himself like a slingshot, flying out over the waves.
Gus crashed forward as he hit a wave, tumbling ass over teakettle until he settled on the bottom of the sphere, looking upward.
Nick guffawed. “Classic!”
Gus got back to his feet, happy that the soft membrane of the sphere didn’t hurt as he collided with it. He turned and gave Aurora a sheepish wave.
“You suck, you know that?” Gus griped.
When the laughing finally calmed down. Nick showed Gus where to put internal supports between the two spheres.
“You need practice stabilizing these supports, before they’re stressed, which is why you’re using MP to create them now. One of the advantages of ether is that you can make frictionless surfaces. Now if the outer sphere encounters something, the supports will absorb it and not transfer that to the inner sphere.”
Gus made the changes as shown. “And you couldn’t show me that before?”
“I could have, but where’s the fun in that?”
With a growl, Gus started pulling in the direction of the blue diamond on his display. There was still more jostling than he liked with the herky-jerky movement of the waves hitting the sphere and trying to gauge their movement. He soon found that he could avoid the water altogether and start swinging the spheres through the air.
From there, Gus got into a rhythm and even found that he could launch himself again before touching down and losing momentum. He felt like Tarzan, swinging on ether vines, swooping and feeling the exhilaration of the brief moments of weightlessness at each arc’s apex. All too soon, he was at the designated spot. This far out from the island the water didn’t seem to have perceptible waves.
“Okay, after your MP recharges, you are going to want to compress that outer sphere and make it selectively permeable to nitrogen. Your brain is going to fight against this a bit because it’s hard to conceptualize but… There. I’ve temporarily highlighted the different gases in different colors. As you compress the outer sphere, let the black particles filter out and keep the light green ones.”
Gus started compressing and had difficulty separating the two, so both gases were escaping. Struggling, an idea came to him and he imagined the black particles as being square shaped and the green as circular ones, much like the baby toys designed to teach shapes. Subconsciously the adjustment was just what he needed and the large sphere began to shrink, concentrating the space between the spheres with purer and purer oxygen.
His MP drained
