1) intro
A novel idea where “children yearn for the mines” is employed by a society for economic gain. The kids WANT to mine, adults don’t. Each child is assigned a humanoid guardian robot who’s sole job is to keep the kids safe. The kids are naturally risk-taking, the robots hold them back for their own good.
The general public is fine with it, because everyone benefits. The children gladly work in the mines, the country’s GDP goes up, the adults get to continue their fantasy tech jobs, and everybody’s happy.
Until one day, mythical creatures emerge from the fiery depths of the Earth’s mantle. When news first breaks, people brush it off as parody. “Haha, miners[^1] say the darndest things.” The videos, dismissed as AI generated. Life goes on as normal, with only the children workers really affected by the monster’s presence.
The miners continue working, as there is no perceived threat. Historically, there never has been any threats, because the Guardians have always protected the children with absolute certainty.
Gas leak? The guardians sense it before anything else, and evacuate everyone until it’s safe. Collapse due to unstable ceiling? Unheard of, because the crystal clarity of exotic X-Ray (XX-Ray) surveying technology, continuously performed by the fleet of sensor packages carried by the well-equipped guardians.
The surveying and planning is so meticulously carried out by AI, that all that’s left for the children to do is dig where their guardians point and call. It’s a symbiotic relationship between child and Guardian, each Guardian configured with the child’s ideal partner personality. The children enjoy working with their Guardian, and Guardian effortlessly simulates enthusiasm and mirrors it back.
Mining equipment, methods? The classic drill and blast technique— same as was used during the Hoover dam excavation. Nowadays, lightweight carbon nano rods make the power tools so lightweight that a child could use them. It also helps that most kids are eating a healthy dose of enriched food which makes them grow tall and strong.
The process goes like this. Send in a group of miners with handheld power tools. Drill deep holes, then pack the holes with explosives. Evacuate the area, detonate the TNT, then once the smoke has cleared, get back in there with shovels and buckets. Pick up the debris, carry it away, chisel away any jagged edges, then repeat ad infinuum until the desired area is excavated.
Using this technique, minors can create vast chambers, or long tunnels. It all depends on the patterned placement of drill and explosive.
Back to the creatures. They start out just lurking and observing the miner’s activities. Rarely noticed, they peer from the shadows with emotionless, watchful eyes.
Eventually, a creature crawls out towards a group of 3 minors. It has six long limbs, dark, and hairy, covered in a greasy film. It’s got four eyes, a deep amber color. It’s mouth has a wide smile with sharp grey teeth.
The Guardians are the first to realize the creature’s presence. Their heads turn on a pin, facing completely backwards, before their whole body leaps and lunges to place itself between the children and the unknown creature. The Guardian spreads it’s arms wide in a gesture urging the creature to go no further.
Caution! Unknown entity in the mine: State your intentions.
The creature takes a step back, anticipating an attack, before realizing the robot has stopped. The creature makes no verbal response, and only tilts it’s head to one side.
The children, captivated by the creature, put down their tools and run closer. The guardians outstretch their arms to shield the children. The sheltered children peek from the sides, looking in awe.
The robot’s cameras adjust it’s focus to get the best view of the creature.
Unknown entity: state your intentions.
The creature’s eyes shift between each extremity of the robot’s limbs. It backs away slowly, while tilting it’s head in the opposite direction.
The children are enthralled and look with awe.
It’s a spider-man! Cool! Can we keep him?
The creature turns and runs.
The robot analyzes the creature as it ducks into the shadows. It submits an incident report to the board of directors, who sweep it under the rug. The story gets leaked on Twitter, which ends up being mocked and ridiculed as fake news.
The children know the real story, but they’re a class of human that doesn’t get much respect. Their stories are rationalized by the general public as fantasy. Children’s games played to pass the time.
[1]: Miners is used, when minors could have been. The children are minor miners, after all. In this society, it’s normalized that all miners are minors, so the two words are used interchangeably.
2) The Council
This section is unfinished
Synopsis: the group of people in charge of making the laws has an argument. The subject? Child workers should earn as much money as adult workers. A long debate ensues, where one advocating side says that children should earn as much as adults because they are doing the work for society.
The opposite viewpoint is that children are mostly playing, the work done is a beneficial side-effect. Further, it’s the robots doing a lot of the work, and the children are merely supervising. They also argue that adults wouldn’t need as many robots— only 1 robot per 5 adults, whereas children require 1 robot per 1 child. Thus, children are paid less, because the child-robot pairing is considered a package deal. A chunk of the cost goes to the robot’s maintenance and upkeep.
No side is arguing that children should not work. Such an idea would be far-fetched in this society. Both sides agree that if children didn't work, the civilization would collapse.
The policy is always, “downplay, deny, distract.” The children miners are key part in the culture’s wellbeing. No rare earths means no weapons. No ores means no raw materials for the factories who export goods to the great consumers. No pase means no income.
The average tunnel is 5 feet tall, too short for the average adult. Having to excavate a 6 foot tunnel means having to remove 2 to the power of n sq feet more per hour. Pase is deep in the rocks. By every metric, the child + robot combo is 6X more efficient than the adult counterpart, and it’s not like adults didn’t try. They did, and fell ill at an alarming rate. The immune system of a child is seemingly invulnerable and protects against the molecular structure of Pase, whereas in adults, the compound builds up and crystalizes, causing severe pain in the joints and connective tissues. The mechanism is unclear, but child bodies don’t absorb the substance.
“Children are superhuman”, Chairman Peters was known for saying to the media. It had become a popular meme.
Eventually it was accepted that child labor was superior in every way. The children loved their spelunking adventures, the community thrived, the profits rolled in, the mining towns grew and expanded.
A network of mining industries was formed which communicated and collaborated in sharing techniques, mining maps, and insights. Association of Pase Enterprises (APME.) Some called it APE. (haters.)
APME shared knowledge and resources often sending workers to different mines where there is a big project or when the children simply get bored of their current mine. The change of scenery keeps things new and exciting which keeps the children engaged.
3) The Balloon-ballast delve
This section is unfinished
A vast, vertical mineshaft of unknown origin is discovered. It’s walls are flawlessly cut and polished, as if etched away using a rock-dissolving chemical. It is assumed that humans did not make this mineshaft.
A laser scan reveals a large deposit of rare, important resources near the bottom. To survey, a robot is sent down the borehole, with a child on it’s back. It is decided that a balloon/ballast will be used rather than cables, because the depth is too great and a cable would snap under it’s own weight.
A balloon is attached to the robot. Several heavy ballasts on the robot’s feet counteract the balloon’s lift, providing a quick descent speed. If anything goes wrong, all ballasts can be dropped and the robot and child would ascend back up to safety.
The robot and child descend in the vast darkness, lit by headlamps. The pressure in the child’s ears builds. The robot dispenses a stick of gum for the child to chew on.
When nearing the bottom of the borehole, ballasts are dropped one by one, reducing the descent speed, eventually slowing to a comfortable speed for touchdown.
The ballast and balloon combo are secured to the bottom, freeing them to explore.
4) Mr. Emerald
Pase is a rare, valuable ore found on the planet Auger5 where the story takes place.
It’s Monday the 3rd day of June and the children and their compybots descend into the mines via a large industrial elevator. They are chatting with eachother and laughing. Some are playing games with their friends.
“I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you!”
waving hands in front of the other’s face, eventualluy devolving into playful slapping in the face.
The evevator abruptly comes to a stop at the bottom of a cave KM. The doors receed and with a clunk and the occupants step out. They walk down a long tunnel in pairs of robot and child. The leaders rush out, sprinting down the tunnel. The more reserved workers walking slowly. The more lazy jump into the arms of their compybot and get carried to the jobsite.
The bots brief their companions on the way, uniquely setting a plan that will please their child.
“Today we’re gonna blast a whole lot of rocks! Are you excited for it?”
“Yeah! can I push the button today?”
“Of course.”
The compybots kept a secret among themselves. All TNT button presses that the children were responsible for was simulated, because the children always wanted to be the one to press the button. There would be an endless argument among them if someone who wanted to press the detonator button didn’t get the opportunity.
When it was time to detonate the charges, all robots would run their safety checks and ensure no one was in harm’s way. They would present a minigame on their touchscreen chest, which the children would play all simultaneously. This served a bonus purpose— it keeps the children engaged and in one place so there is no reason to run off into danger.
At just the right moment in what feels like a quick-time event, a big red button is presented which the child presses. A loading spinner appears while all the other children press their big red button.
Once all the button presses take place, the safety tests still pass, the network of robots send the actual instructions to the detonator to blow the TNT. But that happens later.
Today, the drills have yet to drill and the holes have yet to be carved.
The children are collecting their supplies, which are stashed in large chests. A rat scurries out of a chest while a child pivots back it’s hinged lid.
“Ah!” the child jumped back.
“How did a rat get down here? It’s much too deep.” One robot queries, while the others analyze surveillance camera footage. They discover that one of the children smuggled it in the previous day in a lunchbox.
One robot carefully kneels on one leg ot reach down and capture the rat in it’s cupped hands.
“I’ll return this to the surface”
“No!” a shild speaks up. “Mr. Rat wants to live down here!”
The responsible child comes forward. The robot cupping the rat leans over to explain.
“He won’t survive down here. He lacks a source of nutrition.”
“But I’ll bring him his lunch every day!”
“I’m sorry. It’s against my policy.”
The robot said the phrase every child had heard many times before. The child knew robot policy was non-negotiable and arguing was futile. The child bowed his head in defeat.
“Can we find Emerald a good home on the surface?”
He bargained timidly.
“Is the rat’s name Emerald?”
“Yes. He’s named after the green gemstone, because his eyes are green and he’s a miner.”
“Rats can’t mine. Wouldn’t a name like Mr. Whiskers be a more suitable name?”
“NO! he wants to be a miner! It’s his dream, just like mine!”
“Okay. Let’s take Mister Emerald to the surface.”
The two went to the elevator, Emerald the rat in custody.
The robot ran it’s lockout/tagout procedure, notifying the fleet that it was dissmissing itself from the area of operations.
The remaining children and their robots got started on their drilling. The child would don sturdy work gloves and hold the drill with both hands, leaning into it with their bodyweight.
With a look of glee on their face as the long drillbit spun noisily, the drillbit plunged into the rock as the vibration and force feedback caused the child to laugh. The drill bit reached it’s depth and the robot stepped in with a new extension.
The child instinctivly backed off as the robot instantly released the drill’s clutch and attached the extension.
“Extension attached. Let ‘er rip!” The robot gestured by pumping it’s fist.
With eyes wide and an open grin so large, the child laughed as they spun up their drill. The dark tunnels were illuminated by the child’s emoting face, and the occasional headlamp beaming in their direction.
The child’s face was dirty and sweaty, but he was in his element, in the zone, thinking only of getting one step deeper.
The drillbit dug deep and the robot stepped in, swapping another heavy extension as quick as you could snap a finger.
“Last extension attached. Let ‘er rip!”
The child drilled, and a few seconds later, the drill was sunk deep in the rock.
“One more! One more!” The child wanted to keep going.
“I’m afraid that’s the last one for this hole.”
“New hole, new hole!”
“Let’s back out that drillbit first!”
The child excitedly switched the drill’s controls into reverse, ready to pull the long drillbit from the rock, With so many extensions, the robot would help, lifting the tool until the previous extension was visible.
Just like before, but in reverse, the robot releases the chuck, detaches the extension, and stores it in a long wooden box. The child lowers the empty drill reattach the lower extension, still held in place by one of the robot’s hands.
More spinning in reverse, more detaching, extension stowing, reattaching. More spnning in reverse.
“Here comes the bit!” the robot warned.
“Whoo hoo!” the child excitedly exclaimed.
“New hole, new hole!”
Pulling back on the drill, the sharp blade emerged. The robot guided the bit to it’s new position several meters away.
“This should do it.” The robot said to sound human. Technically it’s positioning was accurate to a micrometer, but it kept that fact to itself.
“Ready when you are”
“Send it!” the child pulled the trigger with his gloved hands. The sharp drill bit spun up to n RPM and carved its way into the rock.
Once all the hundreds of holes were drilled by the group, they were carefully packed with TNT and blasting gel. Long wires connected each charge, leading back to a remote detonator.
A safe distance away, the children played their explosive minigame on the robot’s touchscreen. The quick-time event happened simultaneously, the red buttons were pressed, and the distant TNT explodes, sending a percussive blast of air through the tunnels. The children brace, as the air sends dust flying and gravel tumbling along the floor. Some turn their black to take the brunt of the wind, others hold their heart hats and squint their eyes. The sturdy robots put a slight bend in their knees while look directly towards the blast.
5) Encounter
Z) Characters
- Chairman Peters. An authority figure. Head chairman of APME