The two avian women weren't very happy about being kept asleep for four days and force fed their food. I explained that I broke it up and didn't just shove it all in there. They weren't trying to digest solid chunks of food and I didn't choke them with it, either. Val on the other hand was perfectly fine with it, because I had taken care of them and they didn't have to be awake while in the cells. The other two were a bit mollified when she made that point, because they agreed it was good that they had slept through their isolation.

I took them out of the isolation cells and brought them out of the administration section. “Would you like to ride back to the mine?”

“I think we need to walk for a bit to stretch our legs.” Val said and wrapped her arm around mine. “Are we in a rush to get back?”

“It's supposed to be our work shift in about an hour.” I said.

“You're in charge and we still have to work?” The second avian woman exclaimed.

I laughed. “As usual, you see the downside.”

She squinted her eyes at me.

“Since I've been on your crew, have you worked much?”

“No.” She admitted reluctantly.

“I only meant that we need to keep up the pretense. You see, I know why they make us all mine.”

“It's to harvest focusing crystals.” Val said.

I chuckled and pat her hand. “That's the result, not the why. It's to keep us busy and stop us from being restless and fighting each other.”

The three avian women blinked their eyes at me.

“What else would we do down here?” I asked. “This place is actually a prison that's also a mine and not a mine that's also a prison.”

“What do you mean?” The first avian woman asked.

“There wasn't a mine here until prisoners were sent here. It became fully functional not long after that and then it became a valuable resource. A very valuable resource. Once it did, a lot of credits were poured into it to make it self sufficient and self sustaining. It could easily be converted over into a partially or even a fully automated mine if they wanted. They haven't done that, because then what would they have the prisoners do while they were here?”

“They would sit on their asses and rot.” Val said and I nodded.

“Especially big aliens like the big guy.” I said and we reached the entrance to the mine and went down the stairs. “It's just too bad the restraints were too small for him and they didn't think to chain them together and give him more movement.”

“Why doesn't he just take them off?” Val asked.

“He tried. Only his arms are still fully functional, since he moved them all the time. His legs?” I shook my head and came to a stop in the middle of the area. “His muscles have adjusted to the tiny movements and he'd seriously hurt himself if he tried to take a normal step.”

“That's horrible.” Val said. “The poor guy.”

“Yeah, and I can't offer to heal him, because his body doesn't think anything's wrong, since there isn't really anything wrong. It's just restricted. I'd suggest physical therapy and slowly work him up to a normal movement; but, he's so strong that even a tiny movement would rip his constricted muscles apart and possibly cripple him.”

“False Tiercel, why have we stopped here?” The first avian woman asked.

“I promised you a much better ride than on the back of a crate.” I said and took out the ten foot wide and ten foot long platform with the half console on the front.

“By the Great Goddess' Wings!” She exclaimed.

“It's just something I cobbled together.” I said, even though I had painstakingly took my time to assemble everything and made it look fantastic. I bowed slightly and waved her on. “The middle of the bench seat is yours, Honored Matron.”

She gave it a glance and looked at me and held a hand out to me.

I took it and she stepped up the eight inches to get onto the platform and then sat like she was taking a throne. “I haven't raided... I mean... procured proper cushions for you to sit on yet.”

She smiled. “This is fine.”

“I don't need a hand.” The second avian woman said and I held a hand out to her anyway. She grimaced at me and took it, and I helped her on. She sat down on the right side and wouldn't look at me.

Val was next and she hopped up onto it excitedly and sat down on the left. “You can haul something this big with a cargo handle?”

“Nope. It took twelve of them.”

“Wh-what?!?” The three of them exclaimed.

“Pulled apart and reconfigured, of course. The normal handle can only create a field large enough for a single five foot by five foot crate.”

I stepped on and made seat belts to secure the three of them, then sat down myself behind the half-console and turned it on, then pushed a lever to add power to all of the components at once. The field snapped into place and the platform rose up almost instantly to four feet into the air. The three avian women let out startled squawks.

“Oops! Sorry about that.” I said and I didn't have to turn around to see the faces of indignation on the first and second avian women. I reduced the lever down to half and the platform lowered down to two feet. “Maiden flight and all that.”

“You haven't even tested it yet?!?” The second avian woman asked, her voice full of accusation.

“How are we going to move if you're riding it, too?” Val asked, confused.

“It has a secret mode of transportation.” I said and hit the button for the orphaned wrist shackle buried underneath us. The platform jerked about six inches to the side.

“What are you doing?” The first avian woman said, almost angrily.

“Please accept my apologies. I should have adjusted the platform onto the proper path before allowing you to board.” I said and turned around to bow my head. “I was a bit too eager to please you.”

She gave me a glare and then sighed. “You may continue.”

“Be more careful!” The second avian woman spat.

“Don't worry. I used the regulator out of a Light sword for the main part and it's not salvaged or anything.” I said and the three of them stared at me. “What?”

“You... you had a Light sword... and you... you used...” The second avian woman shook her head. “You are truly an idiot.”

I chuckled. “I didn't like having to do it any more than you do. However, I've seen the inventory list the administrator has and there are none like it here.”

“You had a powerful weapon and you ruined it for a stupid transport!”

I smiled. “I probably shouldn't tell you I had to cannibalize it almost completely to reconstruct this console, then.”

“NO!” The second avian woman yelled. “You IDIOT!”

I laughed at her reaction. “You've got a lot of indignation over something you didn't know existed a minute ago.”

“You could have just taken the regulator back out and repaired the weapon, now it's nothing but scrap.”

“I'm sorry that you think your life would change if I only had a Light sword.”

“You could have ruled the mine!” She exclaimed.

“I already am.” I said and she took in a sharp breath. “I didn't have to fight for it, either.”

“You think that you don't.” She said. “As soon as you show your face in the living area, you'll be attacked.”

“You think a Light sword will stop that?” I asked and she nodded. “All it will do is make them angry that I have it and they'll try to steal it for the same reason you just gave. They think having it will give them control of the mine.” I turned back to the console. “Power is not that fleeting.”

“You'll see.”

“Yes, we will.” I said and put my hand on the dial and hit the button to turn on the orphaned shackle at the living area. The platform didn't jerk this time and I smiled. “Do you remember how long it took to walk to the living area?” I asked. “Well, forget that.” I said and slowly turned the dial.

It increased the pull of the living area shackle and reduced the pull on the one at the mine entrance. The platform jumped forward as the resistances and attractions worked on the shackle pairs and we moved through the distance in only a few seconds. I was careful to ease us to a stop, though. I wasn't going to make that mistake again. I also turned off the shackle back at the mine entrance.

Everyone there was completely shocked at our sudden appearance. They were so shocked that none of them rushed me like the second avian woman had said was going to happen. They would have, so I gave her a slight nod. She didn't react, because she was just as shocked as everyone else.

“THAT WAS WONDERFUL!” Val yelled. “Let's do it again! Do it again!”

I chuckled. “I'm just checking in with the supervisor to make sure he knows we're here to work today.” I said and turned off the platform and it floated down to the ground. I hopped off and walked over to him and snapped my fingers in front of his face. “Hey, we're working section six again.”

“You... you...” He took a breath and let it out. “You're a week behind.”

“Not a problem.” I said and walked back to the platform. “Are the empty crates there waiting for us?”

“No.”

“Okay. I'll grab some for myself.” I said and turned on the platform. “See you all at supper.” I waved to everyone, turned on the orphaned shackle at the supervisor's spot, switched the living area shackle to the rear, then used the dial again.

Val had her arms waving in the air as we travelled all the way down into the mine and not one bump or waver happened. We came to a stop and all three women's feathers had fluffed out. Val did hers intentionally and enjoyed the ride. The other two had been automatic reactions, because they were too stunned at the sheer speed that a pure anti-gravity platform could achieve.

“I just have to grab some crates.” I said and hopped off the platform and walked over to the wall across from the supervisor's spot and used the electronic key to open the personnel door to the automated crate factory. The three avian women let out chirps of surprise as I went inside and retrieved seven empty crates and the packing material for them. I closed the door and went back to the platform.

“What... what was that?” The first avian woman asked.

“It's the automated crate making factory.” I said and went over to the supervisors spot and opened the equipment rack and took three of the laser drills. I left him a note and then I hopped on the platform and changed the shackle at the supervisor's spot to the back. I turned on the shackle at the end of the left shaft and the platform turned that way, then I used the dial to bring us to only part way down the shaft and stopped at section six.

“Here we are.” I said and saved the settings, so that they didn't snap back to the defaults, and turned off the platform. “I'm going to be a while, so you can sit there and keep looking pretty or you can work if you feel like it.” I said and put the three laser drills on the side of the platform, absorbed the Presence holding the women in place, and went to work.

Val decided to help and she gathered up the crystals that my outrageous drilling technique revealed. I took out each crate and we filled them up at a relatively fast pace, considering we had to do seven of them. I hadn't even protested how unfair it was to make us work that hard when we were only supposed to work every second day and would have only needed to make up three crates for missing five days of work.

Not surprisingly, it took us nearly the entire shift to fill seven crates of unrefined crystals, especially since I had to keep digging out the place we were working to reveal more crystals. Val kept working with me and we finished the last crate and I stored the remainder, then I put all seven crates into a bag of holding. I also stored the laser drills and then helped Val back onto the platform and secured the avian women with Presence.

I turned the platform on and it rose into the air, loaded the shackle settings and turned them on, then turned another small dial to rotate the platform. I switched the settings so that the shackles were now in reverse order, then used the main dial. I turned it very, very slowly, because there were people working in the shaft now. We moved at a running pace and went back up the shaft.

“Here they come.” One of the men said. They had been planning this all shift and when we were right beside them, two of the men lifted their laser drills and hit the 'melt rock' setting as they pointed them at me.

It was fortunate that they didn't remember that the anti-gravity field encompassed the lower half of crates when cargo handles were used, so that it couldn't bump into anything and gave it some clearance when pulling them. My platform had twelve of the handles, so the field around it extended up a lot farther than half of the platform's size. I could have stood up on the thing and still been safe from bumping into things.

The ends of the laser drills bounced off the protective fields and knocked the drills out of their hands. One man was lucky and it fell to the side and didn't have anything to melt and overheated with nothing to transfer the heat to. It shorted out and turned off on its own. The second guy wasn't lucky at all. His drill fell on the handle and flipped backwards onto his legs.

“ARRRGGGHHHH!” The man yelled as both of his legs below the knees were melted away instantly. Something designed to melt rock made very short work of flesh and bone. Unfortunately, the laser drill didn't turn off as he fell onto his face... right in front of it. His scream cut off as his face and then his entire head was melted in barely a moment.

I brought the platform to a stop and used Presence to turn the laser drill off. I took out an electronic key and pointed it at the attacker that was still alive and hit the button. His wrists and his ankles snapped together and he yelled in surprise and fell to the ground on his back.

“Attempted murder on another prisoner is five more years on your sentence.” I said. “Unfortunately for you, attempted murder on the administrator is an entirely different crime.” I looked at the remaining two men. “You two are lucky that you didn't participate.” I used a Presence Hand to pick up the attacker and another to pick up the body. “It looks like you're not going to be meeting your quota today, so bring all the drills and the unfinished crate to the supervisor. He'll assign you to new crews for next time.”

The two men stared at me as I hovered the man and the body behind the platform, then I turned the dial and the platform continued on.

“Help me! He attacked us! Help ME!” The man yelled and pleaded as we passed more prisoners.

“Oh, shut up!” Val spat at him. “They don't believe you, stupid! If Hunter attacked you, you'd be dead!”

The man quieted and I came to a stop at the supervisor's spot and he saw what I had behind me.

“Don't worry about that.” I said and turned off the platform. “They just tried to kill me and failed miserably.”

“How did you... ah...”

“It wasn't me. He fell on his own laser drill when it melted his legs.”

“Oh.” The supervisor said.

“The other two are bringing the drills, one of them burned out, and a partially finished crate. You'll need to assign them to another team. Split them up or whatever. Hopefully, they won't cause you any more trouble.”

He sighed and I handed over the three drills I had taken in case the avian women had wanted to work.

“I'll see if I can fix the burned out one.” I said.

“I still can't use it.” He said.

“I can.” I said and took out all seven crates that Val and I had filled with unrefined focusing crystals. “Here you go.”

“Wh-what... wait, you did it?” He looked at the seven crates and opened each one to see that they really were filled to the top.

“I would still be working if I didn't.” I said and stored them again, stepped onto the platform and turned it on, then changed the settings and it turned to face the living area. “See you tomorrow.”

He stared at the platform as I sped away without even a trace of any kind of propulsion.