Finding Balance

With no brilliant ideas at hand I had resorted to checking all the properties of the materials I had gathered. Almost all of them were new to me and so each one took some time to analyze. Every minute spent with a different material revealed lots of useful information, these materials would do wonders in technology if used properly, though no one would get a chance to find out about these properties in about an hour. Despite my best efforts the heat continued to rise, though at a much slower rate than what I had been experiencing outside the shell. All the heat made me tired and it was hard to focus, but I forced myself to keep working, I knew that if I gave up now I would never wake up again. After about forty minutes or so, as the heat became unbearable, I found one particularly interesting property in one of the ores I had found. The property didn't come up in the data that was showing on the screen. Rather, the information came as I was analyzing it. The device I was holding became colder to the touch, I thought at first it was my imagination and wishful thinking, but those thoughts were quickly squashed as frost started to build up on the edges. A few presses on the controls analyzed the shell I was in and showed that the temperature was dropping. I went back to the analysis screen and made some adjustments, changing the depth of the search and the power going in to the stored material, as hoped the frost started to disappear and the temperature started to rise again. This material responded to electrical currents by getting colder. I knew this wasn't a normal reaction for any material, and it told me why the hills didn't become molten. I wasted little time in constructing a device to attach to one of the heat dispersing arms of my shell, the device would convert the heat to electrical current and with a few controls I would be able to set a comfortable temperature in my temporary sanctuary.

I don't think I had slept so well in a very long time. Once the temperature was normalized I had quickly fallen asleep, exhausted from the ordeal. When I woke up again my device told me that the temperature was back to a comfortable range outside, though that must mean that it was quite dark outside. I couldn't stay here though, I had to get to a safer area where I could conduct some more research on the multitude of materials I had gathered. Opening the shell showed that the sun had gone down a couple of hours ago, the outside was illuminated only by the stars. I marveled that there were still plants on the ground, I knew that these plants would have some interesting properties and so I took some samples of them to study as well. In the distance I heard the creatures of the night, I wouldn't be able to leave without having something to protect myself with. I took a few moments to survey my surroundings for more of the resources I knew would serve me best and was happy to find the display showing several large deposits. I quickly pulled up as much as I could, constantly looking around for the predators of the night. When I had enough for my purposes I closed my shell up again and got to work designing my next piece of technology.

I couldn't tell how much time had passed, I did hear a few creatures venture in to the area, they sniffed at the strange thing sitting in the clearing but didn't dare disturb it. The design I had in the device was growing more and more complex, each additional piece of technology I could dream of changed the shape in a different spot and required some re-balancing and tuning to make sure it would work with the rest. Then once I had the first design of the technology I would begin working on the second generation, optimizing it using the next material I had just learned something new about. Though I hadn't planned on taking this long, I soon became aware of the rising temperature again and realized I had been working through the night. Wasting no more time in this location I used the device to decommission the shell, extracting all the raw materials I could, but having to leave at least one large block on the ground which I would have to carry. In all my workings I had realized that the tubes I had constructed still contained all the heat they had absorbed, meaning I had a very powerful battery that I didn't intend to give up just yet. I had it currently in the plans to use this battery in my design, but until it was done I needed to keep the power it already had. It was heavy to carry, but it was necessary as I wasn't sure the refiner could handle the heat it had inside of it, and with the reaction that some of the other materials had to heat and energy I couldn't risk it leaking into the storage. The walk back to the house was slow, I had to stop a few times to gather my strength again, it wasn't until I reached a spring and took some time resting and re-hydrating that I actually recovered by any degree from the trial I had just gone through. When I did reach the house the first thing I noticed was the note still in place but with some words scrawled on it. Reading the message I realized I needed to get myself cleaned up and head to town, there were important things going on and I needed to see them.