Naecia was already onto the next thing, which was to concentrate the amount of conductive wiring coming from the cables into a size that could connect with the drive. There were many problems with this, but the main two were potentially fatal. One, the reduction in wire diameter could create too much resistance and fail to provide enough power for the drive to work, or second, the sheer amount of current coming through would simply overload, discharge, and bake them all at temperatures rivaling the surface of Effelox. The only saving grace was that the drive pulled the power quickly. Hopefully it could eat as fast as it was fed.

The strands of conductive media were finger-thick and Naecia was using all of the suit’s augments to bend and twist it. Still, it was taking too long. Her mind replayed an image of the many-headed Scythin snaking back toward them. “Fuck!”

“What?”

“Izairis, this is taking too long.” She looked up from a bouquet of golden wires. “Even if we had twice as much time, we couldn’t finish this. There’s no way this will be done right. We’re talking about running one percent of the power in this place through that.” She gestured derisively at her machine. “Ideally, you’d build models and mockups and run simulations.”

“Naecia, I get it, but–”

Naecia sprang up. “The fucking thing is homemade! I built it out of stolen scrap!”

“We have no other choice!” screamed Izairis, leaping up in kind and sending her robes billowing. “We get power to it and fire the thing! Sometimes you get killed when you do crazy stuff trying to save the world!”

Naecia looked over the parts and equipment laid out before her and took a deep breath. “Okay, new idea.” She went to the base of the drive; a heavy, brushed ring of metal, and clinked it with a driver. “In here is where the main power is divided and capacitated. There’s a good bit of resistance provided, which means that if we get rid of it, I won’t have to run as much of Aszerat’s power into the machine. It’ll be unprocessed and unstable, going straight into the works. The power usage is still immense, but the switch is instantaneous. I’ll just have to time it right.”

“I don’t know what any of that means,” said Patton.

“It means that you two need to remove the base plate. Inside the collar, you’ll find four large resistors. Pull those out. I’ll do the rest.”

“Aaaaaaaand, what does a resistor look like?” asked Patton.

Naecia glared at Izairis.

“I got him.”