After a grueling weekend of training, work, and meetings, Monday brought yet more stress. The empty lot they were using for their construction efforts had become crowded with their gear and needed to be cleaned up. Which led Cassandane to the conclusion that everything in a completed state should be moved North. Mike argued that they could find somewhere else to stage their equipment, but Cassandane had already decided that they were taking too long starting their move. Which, quite frankly, was ridiculous. She had been in charge of the EDA for just twenty-six days. He knew that number well because the day she had taken over had been the same day that an immortal psychopath gave him a one month grace period.
Because both of them were going, that left Sam in charge. As she was leading instruction of the outside students, that effectively left Erica in charge of the operations team. Mike took Erica aside and instructed her that the team was on guard duty. Maintain a tight perimeter, only two soldiers on break at any given time, be prepared to abandon base and regroup at the parking garage designated as their emergency rally point. Then, without any fanfare, they took off for the construction site. Each of them lofted ten of the arctic shelters and one of the spare containers being used for storage. Mike didn't comment that the load wasn't heavy enough to justify both of them making the trip. Instead he followed along as Cassandane shot up and northward at a forty-five degree angle.
Their ascent continued for longer than he thought wise, though it did slow as the air began to chill. Mike had already been creating a kinetic windbreak and he began to warm himself as well.
"You are going to need to compress the air around your body to avoid asphyxiation," Cassandane shouted. "Let me know when you have done that."
His initial effort of just squeezing air closer to him proved ineffective as the increased air pressure caused leaks to form in his barriers. Mike instead whipped the air around him into an invisible cyclone, which proved to have better results, funneling a steady stream of air to raise the local atmospheric pressure. He signaled his success with a thumbs-up.
"Now try to hold your bubble of air without drawing any more in."
This test took Mike about an hour to pass. Every time he stopped his cyclone to erect his kinetic barrier, it would rapidly thin. He eventually managed to increase his fine-grained control enough that the leaks shrank to minor annoyances instead of instant decompressions. Their altitude continued to increase all the while, making it challening for him to scrape back lost air when he failed.
"Good. At this point, you will need to use the teleotic talent to get rid of the carbon dioxide. It's a matter of patterning elemental carbon pricipitate. That will release oxygen and prevent carbon dioxide buildup. Stay close in case I need to bring you into my air bubble." Cassandane waited for his nod before accelarating up and northward at a rapid pace.
Mike blasted foward. The thin air provided little resistance in comparison to his usual flights, so they were soon traveling at ridiculous speeds. The distant land below them moved at a stately pace even as wisps of clouds off to each side soared past them. He kept his bubble of air mostly intact, purifying the gases from time to time, until they descended towards the wintery landscape below. He struggled to match the coastal outlines to the maps they had printed off, but it wasn't until they were below mountain height that a particular wiggle of the coast triggered his recognition.
They set down in the valley Cassandane had chosen for their future base. They set down among a collection of tarped pallets. Mike poked at the nearest one. "What's in here?"
"Rice, beans, topsoil, seeds." Cassandane's lips twitched into a momentary smile. "Deliveries that failed to reach the Angmari Fleet."
"This is more rice and beans than I think the soldiers would be willing to put up with," Mike said.
"It's intended as an emergency cache. I don't have faith that the governments of the world will honor their agreements with the EDA once the external threats are handled. Our ultimate goal is to gain a presence in space. Until then, we need the ability to be self sufficient."
Mike grunted what he hoped sounded like agreement and turned to look at the valley. Tall pale cliffs rose to each side while the snow-covered ground between them slanted down towards the sea. "Do you care where I drop the gear?"
"Not particularly. We can move it later. For the moment, I want to begin excavations into the north cliff. One of my reasons for bringing you here is to double the speed of creating our crop cavern."
"That's one of your reasons? What were the other ones?"
Cassandane gestured to the valley around them. "Someone besides myself needed to be able to find the location. I also thought it made sense to give the other leaders time in command. They haven't had enough opportunities to become confident in their capabilities."
"Is that a criticism of me?"
"Not a criticism. An observation that you are developing a superhuman mythos. In order to grow, the EDA needs to move beyond being a cult of personality. In the recent past, I have removed myself from the daily running of the organization to allow others to step up. You did so, but Sam hasn't become comfortable with her role yet."
"So my reward for doing a good job is physical labor on a frozen island?"
"I prefer to think of it as a field trip. You got to be the second person to see EDA Valley in person." Cassandane gestured towards the cliff. "Let's get started."
