The first set of mining equipnt went up within the hour. The Whalers didn’t bring much gear, and much of what they acquired must have been third-hand equipnt at best.
As predicted, the machines quickly broke down.
"Ves!" Soone called out over the local channel. "Co over and help us fix this piece of junk!"
With quiet resignation, Ves stopped his inspection of a ch that hadn’t been able to start up and jogged over with his bulky hazard suit. The mining gear in question consisted of an anchored drill ant to dig its way into the ground in a slanted angle. It didn’t cost very much due to its low-tech principles, but the drill bits often wore out quickly.
"What’s the problem?"
"The machine crashed right as it was about to get past the top layer!" The techie in charge of the gear complained. "I kicked the control box a couple of tis but it isn’t doing anything!"
"Maybe it will help if you refrain from kicking the control circuits." Ves grumbled to the man. "Let take a look at this rusted junk. My guess is this thing is already at its limit."
The amount of people who still believed they could fix a broken machine by slapping it around could form an entire first-rate superstate. Even ch technicians fell into this belief sotis.
Contrary to his belief, the mining drill had been acquired relatively recently. Whoever sold it to the Whalers did a decent job at patching it up. Its endurance should have been sufficient to operate at these conditions.
"The machine is sound." Ves carefully scoured the exterior of the drill. "Nothing seems out of place. It’s worn, but not broken. Maybe it’s just run out of power."
"That’s impossible! It just received a fresh energy cell!"
Ves called for a scanner while continuing to inspect the drill. It hadn’t hit anything hard and it didn’t look like it had been tampered with. Nothing had jamd the chanisms eithers.
He wanted to check the programming of the machine as well, but the lack of power prevented him from doing so. He’d have to pull the processors from the mining gear in order to inspect the software, and that was a lot of hassle for a single broken drill.
Once soone brought over a man-sized scanner, Ves used it to inspect the innards of the machine. Even though he didn’t specialize in designing mining equipnt, the simple drill in front of him didn’t pose any challenge to him. He easily identified most components and reasonably surmised they didn’t look broken.
"I found nothing strange so far." Ves concluded after he finished scanning the entire drill. "The hardware looks okay. I’m inclined to say it’s either the software or the power supply that’s at fault."
"Maybe the Glowing Planet did sothing to the drill. You know, like overload its processors and stuff."
"There’s no sign of any damage to the processors, but perhaps it’s programming has been tampered with. I’ll have to extract the chips and bring them back to the temporary workshop that’s being set up right now."
Still, Ves had a suspicion that the power supply might be at fault. The drill did shut down completely as if its power had disappeared. Ves carefully called for so tools and began to expose the energy cell powering the drill. He carefully inspected the amount of energy.
"This doesn’t make any sense. The energy cell is at two-hundred-and-thirteen percent capacity. That’s impossible!"
Ves carefully placed the energy cell back into its slot and backed away quickly. An overloaded energy cell could easily blow up in his face. Even his hazard suit and strengthened body wouldn’t survive the sheer amount of power released by the explosion.
"When did you last put this energy cell into the drill?"
"Just a couple of hours ago when the transport shipped the mining gear onto the surface! I swear the energy cell looked normal! The drill even said its cell had been charged up to seventy-three percent!"
Energy cells deteriorated over ti and when people used them. It wouldn’t be surprising for an energy cell as old as this to charge up to seventy-three percent.
"So how did it suddenly end up with more than triple its maximum charge?"
No one could answer that question. All of the technicians around Ves appeared clueless. They would have scratched their heads if their hazards suits weren’t in the way.
"Okay, just set this energy cell aside and put another one in it. Better yet, just hook it up to sothing else and drain it. Just do it sowhere quiet."
No one wanted to deal with a potential bomb, so Ves assigned a random technician to deal with the problem.
Everyone thought that should have been the end of it, until two different mining equipnt shut down at the sa ti. The Whalers placed more importance on their mining gear than their chs at this point, so Ves had to pull away from a broken ch again to inspect the disabled machines.
Once might have been a coincidence, but twice and thrice should be a deliberate occurrence. "I’m going to make a guess and say that these diggers are suffering from the sa problem."
Different from the drill, the diggers excelled at burrowing into terrain. They also strengthened the tunnels they carved out, allowing chs to tread inside without risking a collapse.
Ves didn’t approach the machines himself this ti. He called for a couple of bots and carefully controlled them through his comm. They carefully exposed the energy cell and carried so tools to test their charge.
Both cells possessed way more charges than they should. "This cell is two-and-a-half tis overcharged, while that other cell holds more than five tis the amount of energy it should!"
Everyone backed off even further from the digging machine that held that remarkable energy cell. Not one of them possessed the courage to do sothing about it. Ves had to tackle the problem himself by using bots to extract the energy cells and throwing them far away.
Panic had a way of spreading quickly. Word of the faulty energy cells had reached the entire makeshift camp. No one wanted to operate the mining equipnt in person. They all stepped away from the machines and tentatively controlled them by remote, which lowered their efficiency by half.
The problem had beco so severe that Walter showed in person. "What’s this nonsense about overcharged power cells?!"
"Sir, the energy cells aren’t sound. Any cell that’s put into a mining gear will randomly acquire several tis the energy it should have been able to hold at its best. I’ve inspected so of the cells and even disassembled one after I drained its charge. Nothing points to any foul play. I even checked their logs. They’ve all been charged up to their safest maximum capacity."
That didn’t say much to Ves, as the logs could have easily been tampered with by a malicious actor. Even lkor with his limited training could have accomplished such a job on outdated hardware such at this. If only the Whalers brought so actual security experts on the expedition. He could have left the puzzling to them instead of relying on his limited computer skills.
Walter grumbled a bit underneath his strengthened piloting helm. "Whatever it is, it’s affecting our earnings. We aren’t getting much of a share from the Blood Claws, so we have to do our own digging to make the expedition worth it. We can’t afford to let these machines go idle!"
"I really don’t know what’s going on. It could be sabotage or it could be the Glowing Planet acting up. I suggest you contact the Blood Claws and tell them about the problems we are having. Maybe they are dealing with sothing similar."
They briefly waited while Walter switched to another channel. All of the interference outputted by the Glowing Planet made wireless communications almost impossible, but the Blood Claws extended hardline connections to each peripheral group.
"The guy I spoke to wants us to send them all the relevant data." Walter gruffed after he switched back to the local channel. "He seems really pushy about it as well. Makes think they’re dealing with the sa problem."
That ruled out sabotage as a possible cause. His hunch that the Glowing Planet might be responsible for the faulty energy cells grew stronger.
Ves wordlessly passed the logs and other files he gathered to Walter, who sent them on to the Blood Claws.
"He shut the channel!"
"I don’t think the Blood Claws can give you answers at this ti."
If the problem turned out to be widespread, then that changed the entire equation. Both chs and mining equipnt had to be used with care. Ves specifically included chs into his consideration because they used the sa type of energy cells that powered the mining equipnt.
"What about fuel-based energy cells?" A tech suddenly spurted out. "They should still work fine, since they don’t contain any pure energy."
The idea had a lot of rit. Ves couldn’t believe a Whaler actually made such a keen observation before he ca up with it himself. "That’s a brilliant idea. Let check sothing out. Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone."
He left Walter and the clueless technicians behind and raced off towards where the fast-reaction squad had holed up. "Fadah!"
"Yeah, Ves?" The old man yawned as he tried to sleep inside his bulky reinforced piloting suit. "What’s the hurry?"
"Get inside the Blackbeak and do so exercises."
"Why the hell would I do that? My ch needs to be in tip-top shape in case any trouble arrives."
"We’re already in trouble! Haven’t you heard about the overcharged energy cells? It’s not only affecting us, but the Blood Claws as well! I need you to get inside the Blackbeak and expend its fuel. We need to test whether fuel-based energy cells are affected by this phenonon as well."
Even though Fadah grumbled about missing his routine afternoon nap, he knew that Walter would get on his back if he continued to refuse. He reluctantly climbed into the cockpit and activated the ch.
"Okay, just find a place where you won’t be disturbed and try to drain its fuel as fast as possible."
"Hah! I can do fast!"
Once he stepped inside his ch, it was as if Fadah turned into an entirely different pilot. He enthusiastically brought the Blackbeak forward and found a nearby empty valley to practice so advanced techniques.
While the complicated movents should cause the fuel cell to drain faster than usual, Ves designed the Blackbeak to last for an extrely long ti.
It’s low-burning power reactor and highly efficient engine didn’t give the Blackbeak any ans to drain its power quickly, unlike a cannonneer ch that could easily drain its energy reserves as long as it paid attention to its heat managent.
Ves didn’t expect a result, and even if nothing happened to the Blackbeak’s energy supply, it didn’t an that other fuel-based machines were immune. Ves tracked down several other fuel-based chs and harried their pilots into draining their reserves.
As Ves watched the chs go off on their jaunts, he sighed inside his helt. "Even if these fuel-based chs are immune, it won’t help our mining equipnt at all. They’re all powered by pure energy."
He guessed that even the more sophisticated mining equipnt in the hands of the Blood Claws and the ch Corps operated on energy as well. It was safer, more compact and easy to slot into a variety of machines.
Right now, the entire Whaler mining operation had ground to a virtual halt. Hardly any operator pushed their machines. They feared setting off the energy cells inside of them should they draw a lot of power.
Ves figured that the best miner in their camp should be Lucky. His gem cat behaved like connoisseur who sneaked into a top-class banquet. Trash exotics didn’t interest him anymore. Only the choicest of exotics deserved consumption.
Despite the massive power consumption of his energy claws, Lucky probably gained that back and more with each rare exotic broken down in his stomach. His energy reserves must be bulging with power.
"Wait a minute." Ves stood up in alarm. How could Lucky accumulate so much energy when he already reached the threshold of evolving to the next level? Only one thing could explain it. "Damn it! Lucky! Where are you?!"
User Comments
0 comments from readers