Chapter 145 - Working Man

The two of them rapidly created a tunnel leading into the cliff face. Cassandane had sketched out a rough diagram onto the snow. She wanted to excavate so that there was enough support left behind to hold the ceiling. The whole cavern would need to slope towards the door to prevent flooding. And the final requirement placed a strict limit to their productivity: she wanted as much of the excavated stone to be in the form of blocks as possible so that they could be used to construct a wind break at both ends of their valley.

Mike quickly developed a method. He would heat up the area with his corona, use the teleotic talent to suggest crack lines where he wanted them, then rapidly cool those spots to cause smooth cleavage of the rock. He settled for making the blocks roughly the same size on the assumption that whoever build the walls would be able to resize them to fix more precisely. Time passed quickly as he cleared out his side of the cavern. The most time-consuming portion of the process was transporting the blocks outside through the door they had crafted.

He hardly saw Cassandane, and then only when one of them would impede the other in the process of leaving or re-entering. The crop cavern was shaped somewhat like a wide-toothed comb, with a wide main corridor parallel to the outer wall of the cliff and smaller paths leading deeper into the mountain, separated by thick support walls. He hadn't asked for the reason behind the design, but assumed the secondary branches would be set up to support different crops.

Several annoyances vied for his attention as he worked. First, if he stopped heating his body for more than a few minutes it became cold enough that his teeth would begin to chatter. Second, the excavation effort created rock dust that had him sneezing more frequently than he liked. And third, he hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning. He did his best to ignore the minor issues, but eventually another concern came to mind.

"Hey boss, how long did you plan on working? We're going to be late tucking the kids into bed even if we leave right now."

Cassandane continued levitating blocks out the door as she glanced in his direction. "You can leave now. I want to finish up here and then hide the pallets inside so that the polar bears don't find them."

"Polar bears," Mike deadpanned.

"I understand they frequent this island."

"Makes sense, this being the arctic."

"Thank you for your help today, Mike."

"Sure thing . . . Cassandane. I'll see you back at HQ." He lifted up into the air and drifted south, building up a bubble of dense air before soaring upwards and increasing his velocity. A couple hours passed before he descended once more, his eyes straining for landmarks in the dark. New York city stood out as a beacon of light. He shot west from there, moving until he found Lake Erie. Then it was south to Pittsburgh. Full night had fallen by the time he arrived in the city.

Another corona grasped for him as he approached the convention center and Mike pivoted through the loop dimension without thought to move upwise and pin the foreign corona. As he landed, Erica let out a low whistle. "You've gotten good at that maneuver."

"I certainly hope so after all the practicing I've being doing. How did things go back here?"

"Quiet and boring. Exactly like I was hoping it would go."

Mike let out a breath. "I am thrilled to hear that."

"Good trip?"

"It's a hike, that's for sure. The cold ain't too bad for a kinetic if you keep the heat on."

"Did Cassandane vanish on us again?"

"The boss lady wanted to finish up some site prep. She let me head home early because I was getting antsy about not being with the troops." Mike used his corona to map the location of everyone around him, noting that Erica was outside alone. He chose not to comment on that fact. If she or Sam had made the call to stand down from constant vigilance in favor of following the night watch procedures, that would be entirely reasonable. Questioning the decision now would only undermine any confidence they had gained running the show for a day.

"You should spend some time with Diego when you get a chance."

"Any particular reason?"

"He needs a morale boost."

Mike snorted. "I'm not inclined to hold handing kumbaya bullshit."

"You're the alpha male role model figure of the group. I think it might help him adapt to military life if he had someone to look up to."

"I don't have time for coddling, Spencer. Nallit gave me a month. If he meant a fully thirty days, I have four days left. If he's only counting to twenty-eight, then the nightmare starts in just two days. Soldier Diego Soto is going to have to straighten out his thoughts on his lonesome."

"Fine. I'll handle him," Erica said.

"That will be appreciated."

After a moment, she continued. "Friday is thirty days?"

"Graduation day for the first batch of EDA students could be memorable." Mike opened the door with his corona and stepped inside to find the majority of the soldiers lounging around the main hall. Sam jumped to her feet at his appearance.

"Hey Mike, can you come to my class for a few minutes tomorrow?"

"That shouldn't be a problem if it's just for a few minutes. What's the problem?"

Sam winced. "Some of the students ignited over the weekend and think they're better than me now. I'm not supposed to use any of the advanced corona wrestling secrets around them, which makes it hard for me to show them they're not as tough as they think."

"I would love to drop by your class tomorrow. I ever tell you I used to be the mat enforcer at my MMA gym in the days before I started teaching?"

"I don't know what a mat enforcer is."

"Basically if a new student showed up who was going too wild, the teacher would ask them to settle down. If they kept up with the problem behaviors, then I got the nod. I would pair up with the guy -- and it was always a guy -- and give him a rough time. Those guys thought they were invincible because they were more athletic or more aggressive than the other students in the room. Left unchecked, they would cause a lot of injuries. But a lot of the time their behavior could be corrected if a more experienced student absolutely wrecked them. After being crushed, their egos would either reset to a normal level or they wouldn't come back to the gym. Either way, the problem went away." Mike smirked at Sam. "I loved being a mat enforcer. When you become the teacher, everyone expects you to be able to beat them up. Delivering a beatdown doesn't deliver the same punch."

"By all means, punch my students tomorrow."

"I look forward to it." As Mike moved further into the room, the door opened to admit Cassandane. "Didn't take you long to finish up the cave?"

"I stayed another hour. I have a lot of experience navigating during flight from back on my Earth."

Mike stared at her. "Navigating in the dark?"

"The challenges Nallit set for his students often involved night attacks on military facilities. Those of us who survived became adept at navigation."

As Cassandane walked into the office area, Sam sighed. "I keep forgetting she used to be a terrorist."