Chapter 29 Part 5

Sal and the men listened carefully to the chanting. It would build as was its habit then dissipate. They waited for the current round of chanting to cease, and the men including Sal hoisted the pole into place, and made sure the end was planted firmly in the ground. They finished this task just in time because as soon as the end had been placed in the hole another volley hit. To Sal's delight, the pole turned a low shade of red, and one could see what looked like electricity moving around it to the bottom. The theory was sound. It appeared that psionic energy shared some properties of electricity. Sal thought back to his time period and how people found hacks for the holonosphere--where the holonosphere bent reality just enough that physical reality allowed for the change. You never fully knew what the bounds were of what you could get away with, and this would have been another example. Sal didn't want to waste much more time thinking of his time period though. It was time to try to "charge the barrier" with the pole, and that required fast moving.

At the same time the men had dug a hole, they had used much of the metal twine to form what amounted to a braided rope--only of metal. There were several spokes of these braids that attached to a circular hub that was approximately the size of the pole. The hub was designed to be unfastened and refastened around the pole, while the spokes were made long enough to be placed near the ends of the barrier. Hopefully, the incoming energy would travel down the pole, down the spokes, and into the barrier. Attaching this piece was another matter of quickness. The men timed it out, and ran the metal hub around the pole. Slightly after the hub was around the pole, another round of attack struck, and one of the men was standing closer to a nearby spoke than he should have been. As the energy moved down the pole, it also moved down the spokes. The man who stood too near the spoke was knocked down. He began to cry out as the energy moved across his body in the same way. Nobody could help him, however, until the charge made it to the end of the spokes.

When the charge made it to the end of the spokes, something unexpected happened. Instead of simply boosting the shield, the energy actually electrified it instead. Sal and Prilock were more interested in whether this made chanting easier or harder as opposed to the benefits of it being electrified. The chanters reported that it was somewhat easier, but maybe only by a factor of around ten percent. Sal was disheartened by this result, but still, ten percent was more than they had before he had concocted his strange idea. If this was to become a battle of attrition, then ten percent might just be enough to keep them all alive for a little longer.

Sal wasn't betting on that though, and per the conversation he had with Prilock before, he had something else up his sleeve.