Sidekick by Carl Stubblefield (10 best novels of all time .txt) 📗

at a higher rate while doing the compression and he had to rest twice to allow the bar to slowly trickle full. He itched to grab some blue gels but Nick warned him to save them for an emergency. His current regeneration speed wasn’t quick enough to maintain both spheres but it was close. The drain was much slower when he wasn’t changing their dimensions, then it began creeping back up. When he was finished, the now much smaller outer sphere was easier to maintain and manage.

“Okay, now with that done, make the inner sphere permeable to allow only oxygen into the smaller sphere and carbon dioxide and nitrogen out to the larger sphere. The partial pressure of the gases should auto regulate. I will warn you when you are running low. If we’re in a pinch, we could do a little Wreck-It-Gus hydrolysis, but let’s try to avoid that.”

“Why?”

“Explodey reasons.”

Gus rolled his eyes at Nick’s explanation. He focused on the inner sphere, and imagined the shapes again, but as valves resembling a revolving door.

“Perfect, I think you got it,” Nick congratulated him. “Alright, Ether Lash yourself down and go for it.”

The resistance of pulling the twin spheres through the water was significantly more difficult, as he had to maintain the weaves constantly and with more force. This sensation was not pleasant at all, feeling like climbing a rope down into the murky depths. All while someone kept adding weight to you the higher or deeper you got.

This too became rhythmic after Gus got the hang of it, and he altered his display to night vision mode. There wasn’t much to see in this patch of water. He had expected to see more marine life, but this area was a watery desert with nothing to change the view. Gus pulled and realized that the action was purely a mental one. He had been tensing his back muscles, straining with each pull and was getting more fatigued than he needed to. Sitting down, he closed his eyes and focused on the motion.

The task became easier, although Gus saw that his MP was draining at a more prodigious rate the lower he descended. Finally Nick relented and allowed him to consume an occasional blue gel. It was all he needed to replenish his MP bar and give him a comfortable margin again. Peeking at times to see his display, the number representing proximity gradually shrank. Gus could feel a slight humming vibration accompanied by the sensation of pulling a cotton ball apart.

“The hybrid-Nth say we are getting close, and that they’re excited.”

Gus wasn’t a fan of the sensation. It wasn’t uncomfortable, per se, but it did give him the chills a little bit. Shaking his head, he turned back to the task of pulling. A chime sounded and Gus continued to pull. What felt like hours passed. Another chime sounded but Gus’ focus was on the task at hand—logs could wait. When Gus looked, he saw pale green below him.

The wreckage of the pod was visible, and it looked like a clamshell that had been ripped into the shape of Pac-Man. Silt and debris floated around, reminding Gus of vacuum lint. It coated the surface of the pod and the exposed beams and struts from where the pod was ripped apart. It looked like slimy algae. When Gus approached, the silt fluttered away, making things murky and difficult to resolve. The panel shone as a bright gold square in the murk, deep within the pod against one wall.

Gus was concerned the outer sphere would limit how close he could get but it had condensed significantly. Still, he could not go inside the pod with the current size of the spheres. Noticing that his MP was dropping below 10%, he quickly lashed the spheres to the pod wreckage and let go of his active pulling. The pod shifted and was lifted off the ocean floor as the spheres began to rise. The heavier weight of the wreckage anchored the sphere and Gus saw his MP jump to 11%, trending upwards again. He breathed a sigh; he only had two blue gels left.

His concern that he would run out of juice before reaching the bottom and having to start all over again was relieved. Without the focus required to pull the spheres down, he had time to take in the whole scene. The pod looked so small from this vantage point and he was surprised that he had survived reentry. The outer surface was crumpled and dented everywhere, black scoring along the base licking up around the sides of the pod.

“Gus, we’ll need to hurry. I know we came here for the Kroutonium, but there is a capsule of Nth in a cylinder right next to the plate. Could you grab that as well?”

“Hells, yes. That would be awesome if I could add them to my Nth pool.” Gus reached out with an ether lash and tugged on the glowing plate. It moved slightly but then Gus met heavy resistance.

“Careful, don’t crack the cylinder or the Nth will be lost,” Nick warned. “If you could, put it in a bubble of its own. I’m surprised the cylinder is intact.”

Instead of pulling, Gus used the ether leash like an extra hand, probing around to see if he could determine what was holding the plate up. The plastic receptacle holding the plate was still intact, and although Gus could see the plate as a bright blazing square in his display, he had been trying to pull it straight through the side of the plastic. Grasping the top edge, he gently pulled, sliding it out like a game of Operation. Once extracted, he pulled the plate towards him.

He sent another tendril of ether out and found the cylinder situated above the plastic receptacle. Two latches had to be pulled and then Gus dislodged the canister in a similar manner, enclosing it and bringing it slowly to the sphere.

Not wanting to compromise the integrity of his spheres, Gus