“WHAT? Really? We might go over THOSE mountains?” Loquacious asked.
“Maybe. We’ll just see how things work out.” I started laughing.
“Oh, you’re kidding... right?”
“Maybe.” I laughed again. “Anyway, on to the business at hand. We should be able to reach the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine in two hours or less, meaning we should get there well before dark. I don’t know much about the mine, but it sounded like Surreptitious did. Surreptitious, what do you know about this mine?”
“I actually know quite a bit about the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine. It’s the larger of the two platinum mines on Zarikum, producing nearly 75% of the platinum that is in use. As its name implies, the mining of platinum here is performed in a pair of narrow crevasses, which are rumored to be over a thousand meters deep. My understanding is that this mining outpost employs in the range of 80-100 Autoclons. There are three Facilitators: one for each of the two mines, and a third to oversee the entire mining camp and shipping of the platinum back to Resplendent Center. As you might expect, most of the other Autoclons at this facility are Miners and Laborers, with some other types like Fabricators mixed in. This mine also has a large company of Peace-Keepers in charge of security for the complex.
“Considering the great demand for platinum and its relative scarcity on Zarikum, the entire compound is tightly guarded to prevent theft of the valuable commodity. This is primarily accomplished by a pair of electric fences over five meters tall that encompasses the buildings and the crevasses. Normally, gaining entry into a facility of this nature would be impossible for the ordinary sort of Autoclon, at least those without permission to work at the facility. However, you are fortunate to have in your company a Facilitator with significant influence with the Facilitators at this compound, so we should gain access without any issues.”
“Well, I guess we’re in luck,” I said with an ever-so-slight irreverence for our somewhat pretentious Facilitator. “By the way, how do you know so much about the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine?”
“As a matter of fact, there is likely to be a job opening for one of the Facilitator positions at this mining facility in the near future. I’ve done some preliminary research into the specifics of this mine to see if I’d like to work here or not. I’m calculating that the position will be mine for the taking if everything falls into place for me.”
∆∆∆
8.2 Help from Surreptitious
Refreshed from our break, we made a rather quick descent from the top of the mountain. We covered the remaining ground to the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine in less than 90 minutes.
As we approached the entrance of the mining facility, I marveled at the enormity of the place. When we were still a few kilometers away, we could see the two crevasses making up the mine. The ‘upper’ crevasse was the larger of the two and was named as such due to its opening being on higher ground. It reached a total length of over three kilometers but managed to be no wider than perhaps 150 meters at its widest point. The eastern end pointed almost due east, but instead of running directly east-west, the other end curved to the north so that the far end pointed to the northwest. The ‘lower’ crevasse was about half a kilometer south of the upper crevasse. The lower crevasse was orientated on an east-to-west line and was only about half as long as the upper crevasse. It too was proportionately narrow, never reaching a width of 100 meters. The two crevasses were separated by a slight ridge that began at the eastern terminus of the upper crevasse and continued westward, following the curve of the upper crevasse but long surpassing it in length, increasing in height along the way.
As Surreptitious had explained earlier, the facility was enclosed with a pair of electrified tin walls. The two walls were every bit of five meters in height and were separated by about eight meters of empty land. When Surreptitious described the walls, I had pictured them running around all of the buildings and perhaps the entrances to the mines. In reality, the two fences encompassed both the buildings and the two crevasses, meaning they were in excess of 10 km in total circumference. I saw what appeared to be surveillance devices placed every 200 meters or so along the outer wall, designed to detect the presence of any unauthorized Autoclons trying to scale or break through the walls and escape with valuable platinum.
The front entrance (and as we later discovered, the only entrance) to the facility, where the road met the outer wall, was itself impressively fortified. There was a pair of heavy titanium doors at each set of walls, with each door measuring four meters wide and over 15 cm thick. At a minimum, eight large Peace-Keepers guarded the entrance: two outside the outer wall, four in-between the two walls, and at least two inside the inner wall guarding the inner doors from the Autoclons within the facility.
As we approached the entrance to the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine, the Peace-Keeper on the right of the entrance commanded us gruffly: “Stop right there. You are not permitted entrance to this facility without authorization, and we’re not expecting any visitors today.”
Surreptitious walked forward. “I’ll handle this,” Surreptitious said to me as it approached the Peace-Keeper.
“I am Surreptitious, and I, along with the rest of my company, have business to conduct with your supervisor, Rapacious. Contact Rapacious immediately and inform it that Surreptitious and crew have arrived,” Surreptitious ordered with a sternness that surprised me, especially considering the size and strength of the Autoclon it addressed.
“What’s this, some sort of inspection? What’s a Drudger doing here? Are you lost, little Drudger?” asked the Peace-Keeper.
In reply, Resolute moved forward to confront the Peace-Keeper, undaunted by the massive size difference between its sub-90 cm frame and the 135 cm-tall Peace-Keeper. Before Resolute could move more than a meter, I rebuked Resolute: “Whoa there, Resolute. We can’t go around starting fights just because we’re being insulted, OK? Besides, no offense, but I’m pretty sure that one could take you out quite easily.” My message was greeted with grumbling, but more importantly, with compliance.
“Peace-Keeper, my companions are NONE of your concern, understand? Follow my instructions and inform Rapacious of my arrival IMMEDIATELY!” Surreptitious commanded.
“Yes sir. I’m on it now.”
“I’d say you were a little hard on that Peace-Keeper,” I commented to Surreptitious.
“Don’t be silly. You just lack the proper experience with them. You need to be strict when ordering them around, reminding them constantly where their place is: subservient to us.”
“That doesn’t seem very nice though.”
“‘Nice’? With that kind of attitude, you’d never make it as a competent Facilitator.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” We could both agree on that point.
A moment later, both sets of massive titanium doors cracked open.
“You have been granted access by Rapacious,” the Peace-Keeper stated. “You will be escorted to the Facilitator’s building by Mercurio, who will meet you on the inside of the second set of doors in a minute or two. And... I apologize if you were offended by my previous behavior. I did not expect you would be welcome here. My actions were out of line.”
“I’m glad you realized that,” Surreptitious replied.
We moved through the two sets of doors and got our first look at the inside of the compound. The road continued forward for another couple hundred meters until it ended at the front of a small garage imbedded in the tail end of the ridge separating the two crevasses. To the south of the road, the ground sloped down and away from the entrance of the compound and toward the lower crevasse. Between us and the eastern terminus of the lower crevasse stood a large rectangular structure that we later learned was the main processing center for the lower crevasse mine. Three other smaller buildings, likely residence buildings for the workers, were positioned just to the south of the entrance to the lower crevasse.
To the north of the road, the ground was flat all the way to the wall on the far side of the co
mplex. The support buildings for the upper crevasse mine were nearly identical to those for the lower crevasse and appeared to mirror the buildings on the south side of the road. There were some minor differences, as the upper processing center was a bit longer, and there was a fourth residence building situated on the north side of the upper crevasse.
Just ahead on the north side of the road was the final building in the compound: the Facilitator’s center. It was by far the largest building in the mining complex at 100 meters long, over 40 meters wide, and nearly 15 meters tall. Before I got a closer look at that building, we were greeted by an Autoclon.
“Good afternoon everyone! I would like to be the first to welcome you to the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine: the largest and most spectacular platinum mine in all of Zarikum. My name is Mercurio, and I will be your liaison and guide for your stay here at the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine.”
“Wow, a fellow Entertainer! I feel welcome already,” Loquacious replied.
“As always, I’m pleased to meet another Entertainer. As you might guess, I don’t have the pleasure of hosting many visitors in our facility very often, let alone a fellow Entertainer, so I hope I can be of great assistance to you during your stay. If you please, follow me, and I will take you to the Facilitator’s center and show you around. We’ll be joined shortly by our Master Facilitator, Rapacious, as its duties permit.”
Mercurio led us into the large Facilitator’s center through a door on the east side of the structure. Once inside, Mercurio escorted us throughout the structure, informing us of the various compartments and functions of the building. With Rapacious busy with its regular work, Mercurio spent quite a bit of time with us, answering any questions we had.
Despite its name, the Facilitator’s center housed much more than just the Facilitator’s office. There were four main sections of the building. The Peace-Keepers’ dormitory comprised the western quarter of the building, housing the mine’s current contingent of 22 Peace-Keepers. Directly above the dormitory was the Facilitator’s office and quarters. All three of the Facilitators on the property resided here when not on duty, but only the Master Facilitator would actually work here. The mining complex’s vast power production plant was located in the northeastern corner of the building, taking in dozens of power crystals at a time and extracting the solar energy stored in them for use throughout the entire mining facility. The remaining space in the building was used for storage and a workspace for facility maintenance. It housed an empty platinum transport vehicle with a reinforced cargo area to protect the prized material in its hold. Two other vehicles specifically made for Autoclon transport were also near the garage door heading out to the road.
Finally, at right around 10:00, we heard the door to the Facilitator’s office open up, and out walked Rapacious. “Sorry to keep you all waiting, but I’ve been doing my best to complete some end of solar-cycle reports for the Ruling Party. I’ve been trying to squeeze as much production as I can here so that our end of solar-cycle reports appear that much more impressive to the Ruling Party. Now that my work is winding down, I would like to officially welcome you to the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine.”
Surreptitious spoke up for our group: “We are truly grateful for your hospitality. I am Surreptitious, and these are my compatriots.”
“Surreptitious, it is good to finally meet you. Why don’t you all come up here where we can talk?”
“Rapacious seems rather cordial, more so than most of the Facilitators I’ve met,” Loquacious commented to me.
“Yes, I agree.”
We came up a ramp to the second-level office. Rapacious brought us in and motioned us to go to the southern half of the room. “Please wait here while Surreptitious and I have a conversation in private.” Rapacious and Surreptitious went into a compartment on the northern half of the level in what I concluded was the Facilitator’s quarters. After we waited another several minutes, the two came back out, and Rapacious again addressed our group.
“Surreptitious has informed me about the nature of your group, but I understandably have a few questions. Which one of you is ‘Fastidious’?”
“That would be me,” I replied.
“Great, please explain to me what your intentions are now that you’re here.”
“OK, ideally, I’d like to gather all of the Autoclons at this facility to one location so we could talk with everyone at once. Perhaps we could meet in this very building. Then, I’d share with everyone the experiences I’ve had recently with the Programmer and what we’ve learned about our corrupted programming.”
“‘Corrupted programming’? This I’ve got to hear for myself.” So far, I couldn’t get a good read on Rapacious. Was Rapacious being honest or sarcastic?
“Well, you’re quite welcome to join in the discussion. After we share about our experiences, we’ll offer to give each and every one of the Autoclons here a programming update from our Programmer. This update restores our code back to the way our Programmer originally designed it.”
“Hmm, what will code update do for my workers here? I can’t stand for any sort of interruption to the mining process. That would reflect unfavorably on my leadership record here.”
“Oh, no. We’re not here to start a riot but rather to tell the truth and restore Autoclons back to the way we should be. Now, this might result in a few Autoclons deciding that they’d rather pursue other interests rather than remain here at this mining facility, but—”
“Hmm, I’m not so sure this is a good idea. I can’t take the risk of seeing personnel voluntarily walking out of here.” It seemed like I was losing my chance to continue with our plans at the Twin-Crevasse Platinum Mine. Fortunately, someone else in our group knew how to persuade a Facilitator.
“Come on, Rapacious, I think this is something all of these Autoclons should hear,” Surreptitious added. “And besides, you’ve seen the uptick in efficiency at the Wild Crystal Grange, haven’t you? This new set of code has allowed those workers to WANT to farm crystals, and their production has gone up over 20% since Fastidious departed.”
This latest fact from Surreptitious was news to me. I suppose that Autoclons choosing to be Farmers would be more productive than Autoclons that are required to be Farmers.
“I did hear about Wild Crystal Grange. I’d love to have that sort of improvement here... Alright, I’ll sign off on this whole thing. The workers’ shift ends at 11:00 tonight. I’ll pass the word along to our two other Facilitators to have their workers come here right after they finish up, and you’ll have the opportunity to talk to everyone then. How does that sound?”
“That sounds wonderful. Thank you!”
“You’re actually pretty fortunate to have come here when you did. Tomorrow, we’ll shut down the mines for the first five days of the new solar-cycle for routine maintenance, so many of the Autoclons here are going to travel elsewhere tomorrow. If you would have come here a day or two later, there would have been significantly fewer Autoclons here.”
“Yes, I’d say we are pretty lucky.”
∆∆∆
8.3 Mixed Results
We had less than an hour to prepare until the day’s shift would end and the workers would start arriving at the Facilitator’s center. Rapacious allowed me to present my message from the top of the ramp, just outside the Facilitator’s office. We decided that the others in our group would go down to the main level, making themselves available to answer any questions from the workers and distribute the code to any wanting Autoclons. Surreptitious would remain up in the Facilitator’s office, where all three of the mining complex’s Facilitators would meet. The Peace-Keepers on the night watch would be unavailable to attend, but we anticipated everyone else would come.
Shortly after 11:00, Autoclons started coming in from the mines and processing plants. They came by the dozens, and by the time the two other Facilitators arrived, there were over 80 workers present. A majority of the Autoclons appeared to be either Miners or Laborers, with some additional
types like Fabricators, Restorers, and Peace-Keepers present as well.
I was a bit apprehensive due to the large size of this gathering. There were far more Autoclons here than any previous group that I had given my message to. However, the experiences and positive outcomes I had from those other talks helped to soothe any doubts I might have been feeling.
Once the final workers arrived, Mercurio, with the flair typical of an Entertainer, introduced me to the group: “Good evening everyone! We’re so glad you could make it tonight to listen to some friends of mine. These Autoclons have come from all over Zarikum just to talk to you today. Some of you will be happy to learn that their leader is a Miner from the Deep-Well Mines down in the Southernlands!” This comment got a cheer out of many of the Miners in attendance. I appreciated the chance to share my story with a large contingent of Miners. I enjoyed talking with Farmers and Drudgers, but I relished this opportunity to share what I learned with my fellow Miners.
“And now, without further ado, I present to you, Fastidious!”
I thanked our liaison Mercurio for the warm greeting. I briefly introduced all of the members of our party and allowed them to mention a bit about their own background. Our audience appeared to be quite attentive, and I had a feeling that this would go well.
I began with some background on my early life in the Deep-Well Mines and my time with my Pro. I shared how the loss of my Pro made me a less productive worker as the mining work itself was constantly reminding me of my loss (I was sure to mention this considering Rapacious’s concerns with declining productivity). I talked about the sand storm on that fateful day and how it caused me to become lost and disoriented and later forced me to wander over to the Programmer’s ship needing energy.
I spoke quite a bit about my encounter with Marcus and went into great detail in describing Him and the ‘Betsy Reed’. I talked about Winston, who had remained with me on the second level of the building. Then, I discussed how Marcus had inspected my programming code and had seen the damage done sometime in the past by an Autoclon (I didn’t mention ‘Pernicious the Cunning’ by name this time, but I did allude to the fact that this was likely perpetrated by a Chief Ruler). This revelation seemed to further grab the attention of my audience.
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