00023

George McCleer kept up with the quick step of Security Leader Clyden and Gov. Xavier Bright down the large rocky shaft from the mining entrance to the below-ground level storage facilities. Crudely painted signs hung over the branches of the tunnels told the travelers whether they were at the right place. Twin rail tracks along the dirt floors of the tunnels provided paths for the mining carts to carry the sparkling red rocks from various places of the mine to the various storage rooms on these levels.

Gov. Xavier Bright was the first to enter the dump room, in which all the freshly dug sparkly ore was to be taken.

He told George McCleer, "When we have a full shipment, a group of large capacity open type cargo containers come over the dessert and park at the edge of the moat. With carts that don't need rails for mobility, the miners transfer the ore from here to the containers. Usually, it takes almost all our miners the whole day under the strictest guard to do the job."

"But how do you get the ore over the moat, if the only way over is the bridge?"

"We use the bridge. How else?”

George McCleer envisioned that in his mind. "The bridge is so narrow; it'd be hard for two miners to pass by each other. And the bridge is so flimsy..."

"Very sturdy," contradicted the Governor. "Made from a very strong alloy. The bridge may be a tight squeeze, but we seldom have accidents."

"You do have accidents, though." George shuddered, very concerned as he recalled his own narrow escape from an Eater. "By accidents, you mean..."

Sec. Ldr. Clyden finished the sentence. "The kind like you almost had.”

George coughed a bit. "It's so dusty in these tunnels! Between the dust and that blaring thrash trash metal music- Can't something be done to clean the air a little bit? Isn't it dangerous to have fuel ore dust floating about- I mean, isn't it flammable or explosive?"

Xavier Bright shook his head, dismissing George's worries. "Did you notice how the outside of the mountain is blue? While this mountain contains a huge deposit of fuel ore, it’s also mixed with that blue rock which, as the prisoners dig, naturally gets in the air as dust. Believe it or not, the blue impurities in the air cut down on the fuel ore dust's volatility, since there is, of course, also fuel ore dust floating about. These impurities are in the ore rocks also and make the ore stable and able to be mined. So, like I said, the dust cuts down on the accidental blasts that sometimes happen when a miner unknowingly hits some pure fuel rocks.”

A team of arriving miners caught George McCleer's attention. The miners pushed along a bunch of large, overflowing ore buggies, probably weighing hundreds of pounds each. When they saw Gov. Bright and Sec. Ldr. Clyden, the five immediately grinned and saluted.

Covered in red dust, they all wore uniforms which seemed to have been gray at one time. Each miner wore a number on his uniform. There wasn't a single miner under six and a half feet tall, and all of them huge and muscular, hulking figures. They had a greyish-green tint to their skins, but a few of them, while still looking greyish-green, glowed a bit, a red glow. And some of these glowed more than others.

"More ore!" Sec. Ldr. Clyden greeted the miners, and they responded in a chorus of "More ore! More ore!"

"Excellent job," Gov. Bright complimented the laborers. "Keep up the good work. Your Governor thanks you, and so does Sparkle City, and also Earth!”

The miners beamed and exchanged glad glances with each other, flattered by the notice and approval from Gov. Bright and Sec. Ldr. Clyden. The team leader thanked Gov. Bright for the opportunity to serve him and his fellow citizens of the World of Hope. Without wasting another moment, the five miners dumped out their ore on a pile. Then, hastily, almost running, they all pushed their empty carts back down the track, taking a side rail that disappeared down, down, deep down into the ground, no doubt rushing to a major ore vein, to mine ore, more ore, more ore! For Gov. Bright! For Sparkle City! For Earth!

“I notice some of them have a glow about them," George McCleer told his tour guides.

"I guess some like the job so much, it gives them a glow," said Sec. Ldr. Clyden.

Gov. Xavier Bright clarified, "Seriously, the longer a miner is here, the more of the dust he ingests and gets into his system. After awhile, the sparkling, glowing ore dust starts to make the miner glow. It's kind of a status symbol, really. The more the glow, the better. It shows who the hardest workers are.”

Two robot guards happened by, toting blaster pistols, on patrol. They greeted the Governor and the Security Leader and continued on their way.

George McCleer admitted, "I must say, Xavier, this attitude you have managed to instill into the miners- I find it amazing. I know they undergo an unbelievable transformation physically, but this new attitude you give them, this mental change- Why, I just can't believe it!”

Xavier Bright shined with glee. "Oh, believe it. Their new mindset really is incredible. Changing them physically is the easy part. We just make them strong as an ox, so they can dig faster and farther than an ordinary human being, and they can endure all kinds of extremes, including the cumulative effects of the radiation from the dust they swallow. But then, to enhance production even more, we made them actually want to work as hard as they can for us."

"Do all of them want to?" George McCleer asked. "There are certain rumors which claim some of the people who disagree with you and offend you end up here in the mines. Surely not all the prisoners become willing slaves for you now, with a new attitude?"

"Slaves?" Xavier Bright grunted. "Huh, I don't have to force any of them to dig. They dig because they want to! Why, if I were to deny these miners the chance to work so hard, I would be doing them a great disservice. You heard it right from the horse's mouth, how they want to mine more ore, more ore. Besides that, to deny them their chance to be useful citizens, I would be harming Earth, cutting off society's lifeblood, the fuel ore. So it is good this is their new attitude. Very becoming, don't you think?"

George McCleer said, "I guess they're even more loyal than robots. No wonder Earth prefers to use people to dig their ore."

"Correct," the Governor confirmed. "Also, today's typical robots are mostly stupid. Robots have no real intelligence- don't you agree? They have no imagination, no initiative. Simple machines incapable of problem-solving to any great extent. Too bad nobody ever took the time to develop smarter robots... Anyway, criminals-turned-miners are cheaper to use. And, unless they die too suddenly, these miners can regenerate when seriously injured, so they last a long time. Quite an improvement over the first human miners, and better, too- Why risk a law-abiding citizen for such work? But let's see a robot do everything that a miner can!"

"Fascinating." George McCleer acknowledged.

“Would you care to see us do an actual transformation, turning a man into a miner?" offered the Governor. "We scheduled one for today, for your benefit, George. A would-be assassin from days ago. That’s the prisoner who nearly got away from the Security Agents last night. You can see how people turn from puny weaklings into mighty digging miners in just a matter of minutes- like those miners you saw. The transformation is more interesting than watching a butterfly hatch from its cocoon."

George McCleer hesitated. "I don't know if I want to see that. I hear it is a very traumatic process."

"Excrutiating, too, if their screams are any indication.”

“What? You don't use any anesthetic?"

Xavier Bright urged, "Come see for yourself, George, how we do it. Your report to Earth will be incomplete if you refuse this invitation to actually witness the event."

"Um, okay, then, since you put it that way..." George McCleer reluctantly agreed. He had decided he should provide as much details and information as he could about what happens on the World of Hope. He figured it was best to see as much as he could, the good with the bad. And perhaps he could find out what he was really sent to find out, and then he could finish his job and return to Earth and be done with this world and Gov. Xavier Bright.

(c) 2011 drk