00035

Bright lights flashed on, the shrill buzzers sounded (louder than the constant thump, thump of that stirring, always thumping music), and the four hours of wasted sleeping time finally ended, and a whole new shift lay ahead of the devoted peons, another opportunity for them to dig more fuel ore- for the Governor! for the beloved leader! Ah, how lucky to be a miner! Life didn't get any better than that!

Almost all of them practically leaped off their cots and yanked on their uniforms, heading for the Inspirational Room.

On most days, after the early Inspirational and breakfast, then the miners would split up into units, rush to their designated assignments, and enjoy another fourteen hours of hard work. The harder the better! Robot guards helped herd them and point them the right way in case any were slow or confused. Mostly, as it was, the miners didn't need the robots to help them. If anything, the robots got in the way and slowed them down. But the miners held their tongues, for after all, this is the way Gov. Bright wanted it!

Today, No. 317 tried to keep in step, although he wished they had more time to really think about all that they were doing, instead of always jumping into work without even considering what they were doing? Why must everything be rush-rush-rush? Even the rectime was busy. It was spent talking of the Governor-and always happened on a high-adrenaline level, everybody competing to show how much more they appreciated the Governor and worked so much harder for him than the other.

They had four hours sleep time for their enhanced bodies, which proved more than enough physically, and then a half hour to rush through breakfast and the Inspirational, with the another three hours after the shift for rectime- but a high-intensity rectime- Why not let their minds rest a bit more, allow more time for them to reason things through, to reflect and truly think their own thoughts, not always the thoughts they were told to think?

He usually sat in the back rows during the Inspirationals, as No. 248 had advised. He shouted with the rest of the gang, but honestly, this dedication which the others felt for Gov. Bright, 317 still didn't get it.

The Peptalker held up Gov. Xavier Bright's picture. The crowd went wild. Whistles, applause, the works, to show their appreciation. Grinning, the Peptalker held up a hand for some quiet. And after five minutes he finally got it. He asked, waving the picture, "Miners, who loves you?"

"Gov. Bright!" they shouted.

"I said, Who loves ya, miners?"

"Gov. Bright!" they screamed back, louder this time.

"Gov. Bright... I guess..." No. 317 mumbled, unable to convince himself.

Sitting in the chair next to him, No. 316 jammed his elbow into No. 317's side. "Jerk! Get with the program! No wonder the supervisors always find fault with your production. If you had even an ounce of devotion, it'd be no problem for you to dig a ton of fuel ore!-" He interrupted his chastisement of his fellow miner to jump to his feet with all the rest and shout a deafening "Gov. Bright loves us!"

In the dining hall, No. 317 got in line, taking a plate and filing past the food(?) servers. The gruel-guy gave 317 only half as much as everyone else. No. 317 stopped moving along, and he pointed out, "Excuse me, but you failed to supply  me my full allotment of nutrition for the day. How do you expect me to work properly if I am not fed enough? I realize our bodies are wonderfully made, better than before, thanks to Gov. Bright, but we still need food to keep our bodies running. You have been shortchanging me now for the past three days, and I am beginning to get hungry."

Hands on hips, the gruel-guy sneered at him. "Are you, now? Well, ain't that a shame! Look who's talking about short-changing who. I was watching you again at the Inspirational. Never have I seen such a tepid response! You're not worthy of a full meal that is provided for miners by the Governor. If you can't appreciate the whole meal- and the Governor- maybe you will get so hungry that at least you will be thankful for the half meal that you get. Ha, you'll be thankful to Gov. Bright for anything soon!"

317 protested, "How can I meet my quotas, if you don't-"

No. 85 remained unmoving, keeping his hands on his hips, obviously not intending to give 317 any more food. The people behind No. 317 became impatient. "Hurry up!” “Move it, buddy!" "Keep the line flowing!" "Today!" "Hey, I want to get digging!"

The miner directly behind 317 gave him a push. "Let's go, 317. Quit holding us back! It's bad enough you don't want to give Gov. Bright your all, but don't hold us back as well!"

317 shrugged and took his tray. He went looking for a welcoming table, but everywhere he went,the many other miners already seated there refused to allow him to sit with them. Finally, he sat alone in the corner, on the rocky dirt floor. Too bad No. 248 didn’t share his meal schedule today. At least he would have let 317 join him for breakfast.

During the first twelve hours of his workday, No. 317's team leader harassed and upbraided him at least three times an hour, every hour. Occasionally, the robot guards echoed the complaints, and once in awhile a patrolling human guard (the miners no longer considered themselves human, if they ever had been, since their transformation) also stopped to give 317 some grief.

These current human guards were new people to 317; the older human guards were gone, but then that was to be expected.

The human guards rotated their duty that they served here at the mines on a regular schedule, since prolonged exposure to the slightly radioactive fuel ore dust led to health problems for them if their human bodies were unable to expel the dust in a timely manner. (The radioactivity didn't seem to cause any ill effects for the miners, however. In fact, as No. 25 had told them in training, the dust made the glow brighter and better., and he encouraged them to make as much dust as they could, by digging out the ore as hard as they could.)

Today, 317 felt a little hungry his entire shift. He wondered how long he could continue like this, not getting enough food. He knew he could continue at his usual vigorous pace, trying to make his quota, for a long, long time, until burn-out from lack of food  occurred. And as for trying to make his quota, he didn't think he did any less work than any of the others. He decided to point this out to the Team Leader of his mining group.

He set aside his shovel and walked over to voice his thoughts. This enraged the supervisor.

"Why aren't you digging?! And you say you dig as much as anybody else? Look at you- You are not even digging- and even if you are, you still are under your quota, just like I already told you! Or are you contradicting me? Gov. Bright won't like that- Oh, but that's okay with you- Why would you care what the Governor likes, since you don't seem to like Gov. Bright!"

Suddenly, all the banging and shoveling came to a halt. The rest of the miners in the tunnel gaped in disgust at 317.

317 stammered, "I- I never said I don't like Gov. Bright! I don't even know Gov. Bright... do I?"

The supervisor grunted. "Ha, that's a good one! As if he would want to know a slacker like you!”

The other miners nodded their heads in agreement and returned to work. Then, as No. 316 swung his pickaxe at the wall at the very end of the tunnel, a small flash and boom caught everyone by surprise. The detonation vaporized 316 and knocked the other nearby miners to the floor. The force cracked the nearest of the rock column supports, causing the ceiling to sway for a few seconds. Despite his enhanced miner’s physique and recuperative  abilities, No. 316 couldn't recover from being blasted to tiny bits and pieces. There was only so much the rapid regeneration powers of the miner physique could do.

The other miners gasped. Carefully, they stood up again and slowly backed away from the end of the tunnel, where the mini-explosion had happened.

The supervisor peered at the few splotches of No. 316, all that was left of him, here and there on the walls and on the miners. "Oops. Looks like he must have hit a small pocket of pure fuel. Luckily he didn't connect with a bigger patch, or all of us would be wiped out. Even with all the dust in the air, and the impurities floating about which smother the occasional accidental explosions, a large nugget of pure fuel can wipe out a whole miner group. Huh, and where there's one nugget of pure fuel, there's gotta be more. But now we'll fall behind our quota for sure!"

One digger touched a reddish splotch on his own uniform. He stared at it with happiness and envy. "Lucky 316. What a great way to go- blowing up on the job for the Governor."

The Team Leader said, "Any more pure fuel, if there is any more embedded in that wall, needs to be dug out so we can get back to work. And dug with great caution, so as not to strike it too hard, so there’s no sparks from the shovels hitting stone. Without any ore impurities, the pure fuel nuggets are too volatile. Any misstep will assure the guy who did the misstep that he won't have a chance to make any more mistakes. Good thing this blast took the path of least resistance- outwards, instead of blowing up backwards, into the wall, causing more nuggets of pure fuel to explode, if there are some there in the wall, and there are. If that had happened, the blast blowing backwards, we'd all be as lucky as No. 316."

The supervisor moved his team down to the opening of the tunnel, as far away as possible from the other end, where 316 had been, to where the tunnel branched off from a larger major tunnel. They moved away from even standing in front of the entrance of their assigned smaller work tunnel, and into the larger shaft.

Some other miners from other tunnels hurried over to see what had happened, and the team waved them back.

"Okay," said the Team Leader to his crew, "one of us has to go back in and dig out all the pure fuel nuggets and package them securely. It's probably a suicide mission, and it might take several of us before we get all the pure fuel extricated. Well, who wants to be first to blow up for the Governor?”

As expected, most of the miners volunteered eagerly for the job, fervently shouting, "Me!" "Me!" "No, me!" "Pick me!"

To the disappointment of one and all, the supervisor selected No. 317, who, actually, never even had volunteered.

A jealous miner demanded to know, "Why him? He doesn't even like the Governor!"

"Who says?" 317 wanted to know, but in reality he really didn't, since he didn't even know him.

The supervisor explained, "Team, let's give 317 a chance to prove his love for Gov. Bright. If he has an accident- well, with his lousy attitude, I think it is best that, if something happens, it happens to him, and not one of us. It will hurt our team less, I think, if it is only 317 who gets blown up."

The others agreed with this reasoning. Of course, they had to agree. It was well-known that Gov. Bright hated when the underlings argued with their Team Leaders.

No. 317 resigned himself to the suicide mission. Maybe it was a good thing if he blew up, since he never got the hang of loving the Governor...

Alone, 317 walked back into his work tunnel while the others watched from the safety of the larger tunnel beyond. He carried his shovel and pickaxe and didn't look back.

"Be careful!" the supervisor called after him. "One slip, and you'll set us back a month if the tunnel caves in! If you clear out all the nuggets and don't blow up, which I doubt, we will send in the cart for you to pack them safely- I already sent for the packing gel.”

Trying to look brave, trying to hide how tense he was, No. 317 took his shovel and started to cautiously scrape the dirt off the end-wall with it, looking for brilliantly sparkling deposits of pure fuel. He carried away one small shovelful of dirt and stone, emptying it on the floor. He brought up the shovel again to gently, carefully remove more of the rock wall, sifting and searching for the pure fuel nuggets, when suddenly-

"Bang!"

No. 317 jumped in surprise, almost scratching his shovel hard against a pure nugget that he had uncovered. He turned and glared back at the practical joker in the tunnel beyond who had yelled the unnerving exclamation.

All the miners (except No. 317) laughed, and then the Team Leader scolded the joker. "Okay, stop that. We need to get the situation under control as quickly as possible, so that we can resume work. We are losing time, and we will have to work extra-hard as it is, to do No. 316's share of digging. So don’t distract 317.”

So, after that, the wiseguy kept quiet, letting 317 concentrate on his task, but still No. 317 could hear the other one, even from this distance, giggling to himself over his joke on 317. No. 317 figured he could do the job without blowing up, as long as that jerk kept his mouth shut. At least he had no mad zeal like a regular miner would have in a situation like this, pushing himself to recklessly dig and dig for the pure fuel, without enough concern for his own welfare.

Well, No. 317 supposed, his own  lack of crazy, unthinking earnestness, while making him a misfit among the rest of the miners, also worked at times like this in his favor... Ooops- careful, careful... Pay attention to what you're doing, don't mess up!

Could he finish the job without setting off the pure fuel?... “We’ll see how careful I can be...”

(c) 2011 drk