His screams kept me laughing the entire way to the border between the convict's area and the mining guilds. I think he would take a break between my insane speed and jumping into quick time so he could calm down because there was no reason for the gaps between his screaming, he didn’t need to breathe.

While we were moving I carefully looked up Ash and gave him a call.

“Hey, Ash! How are things going?” I asked when I felt the connection take hold.

“Very funny Kevin. Who is that screaming in the background?”

“Wait? No one has told you yet?” I asked, surprised that no one had notified Ash that their debt was paid.

“Told me what? Oh, you mean that my debt balance to the Core was wiped clean? Yeah, that made my day. I am still stuck here though, I don’t have any cr to pay the debt to the miners.”

“You have got to be kidding me!” I nearly shouted into the space around me. “So what? You got caught in their space and they locked you up even if you didn’t take anything?” I asked.

“Well, I did manage to find a few raw cr, they took that when they captured me. The deal with being held and not being able to pay it back is their way of deterring any other convict who would try it again. It is all just a timed thing, they know that they won't get what they claim to be owed. No one pays other’s debts here. Well, besides whatever just happened with the Core. That is still blowing everyone's minds. It was nearly 4 million CR!” Ash said in awe.

“Look, I was coming to get you to make sure that you were free since everyone got their debt to society paid all at the same time. I don’t have any raw cr on me though.” I said as I considered how best to do this. “Do they take normal cr currency? I have some in the system now.” I said as we reached the border to the two areas.

“Yes, I am sure that they would. You would just need to speak to someone in charge like Telf to make it happen. Look, I don’t know why you would want to do this for me but I will take whatever I can get. I am not above begging anymore. I just want my freedom. I promise I will pay you back if I have to work hard shifts on the outside.” Ash replied.

“Meh, you won't need to do that,” I said as we crossed the border at a high speed.

“So, I guess I will see you in a couple of weeks,” Ash said with a bit of cheer in his voice.

“What? Why?”

“What do you mean why? That is how long it takes to get from the south to here…” Ash replied.

“Ha! I will see you in a few moments, oh, and that crazy screaming is Magus the 15th. I am giving him a ride. See you soon Ash!” I said before I disconnected.

I slowed down when I knew that I was getting close to the carrier that I had first visited back when this had all started.

“Oh, thank goodness. I thought it would never end.” I heard Magus say over my shoulder as I dropped out of the sky towards the carrier. Two enforcers spotted us and rose slowly up to meet me. I was back in the octagon robot shape, and I had been the entire trip with Magus on my back, seeing as it was easier to carry him with a flat surface to strap him to. “Keep quiet Magus, I don’t want to have to remove your ability to speak now do I?” I asked over my shoulder as the two enforcers drew closer.

“Look at the size of him! He must have gotten ahold of some cr someplace. He is three times the normal size!” I heard one of the enforcers whisper to the other. “Yeah, I bet he keeps the raw cr inside that case that he has strapped to his back.”

“You are going to have to come with us.” The enforcer on the left said while I noticed the one on the right start to make loops out of cr between his arms.

“And why is that?” I asked, already knowing the reason they were going to offer up. I already figured that they were going to try to scalp me for all that I was worth even before I could get to the surface of the carrier to settle my debt.

“Because we logged you entering into non-convict territory 7 odd hours ago. We are enforcers of the Mining Guild and in charge of capturing and enforcing the rules within these parts. Please come with us to pay your fine with either raw cr or actual cr or we will be forced to subdue you until your fine time is paid off.”

“And how much do I owe you?” Here it comes - I thought.

“1 cr for every hour for each of us enforcers tasked with finding you.” He replied.

“1 cr cr? As in, lower case cr?” I asked, nearly choking.

He didn’t even hesitate before replying “Yes sir.”

“So… 14 cr total? 7 to each of you?” I asked again, just not understanding that he wasn’t going to try to rip me off.

“Yes, look, I get it. I really do. I know why you convicts come up here. It is all because of that bastard down there who takes what little you get for himself. I know because I have had a few distant family members who were locked up down there for a while. They never would have gotten free if I hadn’t helped them out. We miners know this and we don’t hold it against you lot, we just can’t have you messing up our ability to earn money too.” He said as I started to descend with them.

His buddy didn’t try to wrap me up or grab me at all. He even started to reabsorb the cr when he saw that I was willingly coming with them. This behavior was simply blowing my mind. I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop and these guys to turn into crooks like I was getting used to experiencing.

When we arrived at the carrier and landed on the deck I found Telf coming over to look at me.

“Well look at who we have here. Freeman Kevin. And look at how huge you are! What is going on with that?” He asked as he crawled up.

“Oh, so you heard about the convicts' bills being paid?” I asked as I watched him.

“Indeed, some crazy wealthy benefactor canceled out every last debt that they owed. I never thought I would live to see the day that my uncle got free. He just messaged me that he was home and with his family. This is the greatest day ever!” He said as his robot legs drummed a rhythm on the deck.

“That is wonderful news! Just one second, I need to pay these guys for their time.” I said as I crawled over towards one of the nearby platforms.

“Oh, Telf, can you tell me what the rest of these convicts owe that are held in the Mining Guild territory?” I asked offhand as I neared the disk.

“All of them? 72,311 cr. The number is so high because we have so many who keep coming over here.” He said in a solemn voice.

“Do you have the Authority to release their bonds?” I asked as I stepped on the disk.

“Yes, why?” he asked as I sent him the entire amount in credits.

“Oh. Consider it done.” He said a moment later.

I turned and looked at the two enforcers, finding out that their names were Clevem and Brinip. I sent them each 100,000 CR which left my account balance sitting at 5,899,998 CR and some change.

“Keep the change guys. That is for being honest.” I said as I crawled over to the side and threw myself off.

“See! I knew he had a lot of riches in that bag of his!” I heard Brinip say to Clevem.

“I don’t think that was a bag.” Clevem replied outside of my hearing.

I righted myself as I fell towards the sun and turned in place, looking for Ash. Sure enough, the bonds had been taken away, causing him to fall a few feet before he and the rest of the captives had the mind to hold themselves up with their own thrust.

“Kevin! You didn’t lie to me! I am free!” He said as he spun in place. “Thank you so very much! Please contact me if you ever need anything! I promise I will work to pay this back!” He said as he steepled his robot hands in front of himself.

“Meh, don’t worry about it. Just get home, I bet you have plenty of family and friends waiting for you. Stay out of trouble!” I said as I started to descend slowly towards the sun.

“You didn’t lie to me.” I heard him repeat as I dropped lower.

“Wait for a second! You didn’t lie! Is that THE Magus the 15th on your back?” He shouted as he began moving, darting in the other direction, away from us.

Yeah, that was to be expected when faced with your worst fear.

I dropped like a stone into the sun while spinning in place and looking for the other tracker. I knew which one was mine, it was right where I had dropped it on my way to the Sunspots. The other one was more to the north. I didn’t want Magus the 2nd to find his brother and I was beginning to have just the idea of where to put him until I needed someone to find him. I spied the body of Regeth from a distance. Being able to see clearly through the sun’s layers was overwhelmingly useful. I would have had to drag the area with a net to find Regeth if I didn’t have it.

An interesting thought occurred to me, one which made me laugh a bit. Regeth’s body was very close to the surface. It appeared that Magus the 2nd had sabotaged his ability to move just like he had done for me. That meant that my heavily buried tracking module was probably never going to be able to be reached by his buyer, I found this irony to be really funny.

I was going to transfer the tracking module onto Magus the 15th so that I could direct someone to find him later to pay for his crimes. I was pretty positive that Magus the 2nd never intended to ever see Regeth again, which made for a perfect place to hide his younger brother.

Regeth’s harvester robot body appeared intact. I didn’t want anyone to see what I was doing so I decided to stay below the surface of the sun. This would block Magus the 15ths visibility as well. I reabsorbed the cr that I had used to create a bag for Magus to travel in, this released him to float freely while I went to work inspecting Regeth’s shell. I gently directed my cr to penetrate the body holding Regeth, being careful not to damage anything. Sure enough, he was now housed inside of a prison plate, just like I had been. I had my cr flow inside and turn off all of the chains, knowing that this would allow Regeth to see if he wasn’t already able to. All of the chains had been left on and the sight one had never been disabled like mine had been by the System. Magus must have thrown him out before the 10 minutes timer was up. Either that or damaged the module so that the System couldn’t intervene.

I connected to Regeth’s personal communication channel as fast as I could. “Hey Regeth, it is Kevin,” I said when I felt the connection happen.

“Regeth? Hello?” I said as I waited, it felt like something turned on or something woke up. I remembered someone telling me that the Tela race could sleep, maybe that was the case happening here.

“What? Kevin? How... how long has it been?” Came his voice after a few moments.

“How long? Since I got thrown in here? About 8 hours give or take.” I answered as I went to work extracting the tracking module embedded inside his frame. Magus had placed it in the exact same place as before, no points for originality there.

“8 hours? Really? Please don’t lie to me.” He said as hope filled his voice.

“Yup, I would have left you if it hadn't been for that last note you sent me,” I said as I got the module out and smoothed back over his mud cr. “That and your daughter asked me to come and find you.”

“Elaya? How is she? It has been… 336 years in VR time.” He said, sorrow filling his voice when he figured the numbers.

“True… but you gave her a Prime Speed Control key so I am sure she is ok. Was that what you were using when I unlocked your chain?” I asked as I positioned his robot body upside down onto mine, securing him in place.

I moved back over to Magus’s robot frame and attached the module to the side, just pushing his soft mud cr around to make it stay in place.

“No, Magus, he took away all of my keys and Authority. I had shut myself down… just waiting for the end of time.” He said softly.

“Ok, I am ready. My harvester robot says that we are just a little bit under the surface. Tell me when and I will start pushing with my cr propulsion to help get us out of here.” He said as I could feel him test his soft little jets.

“Just a moment, I need to get us lined up just right,” I said as I gave Magus the 15th a little push to move him back where Regeth had been from the start. I didn’t know how the trackers worked and I hoped that it wasn’t one of those ones that would track every tiny movement. I hoped that if anyone was watching it that they would just think that it was all just the molten swirling of the sun.

“Look, I am sorry. I have been horrible to you.”

That was all I needed to hear.

“Alright, let's get the heck out of here,” I said as I started moving us up and out of the fire.

“Ok, let me know when to add my thrust.” He said as he waited.

“No need. We will be home shortly.” I said as I jogged us upwards and towards the Core.

“What? Ahhhhhh!!! Kevin!!”

Ah, that sound made my day.