“Remember by no means is the D.I.G.G.E.R capable of getting past multiple gas pockets. One or two is alright, it can handle it but anything beyond that is pure madness.”
“Miss Tanning?”
“Yes?”
“What happens though? What happens if we go further than two?”
Her face looked grim as she gazed back, “It will explode and take everyone down with it.”
…
“It will explode and take everyone down with it.”
The words echoed in my head as I looked on in fascinated horror at the scene around me.
Screams, banging, and crumbling rocks as the D.I.G.G.E.R seemed to shake and collapse upon itself while spewing smoke and fire.
“Get out of here! Everyone, get out! NOW!” The commander yelled as he tried to control it as best as he could from atop it.
“Revan! Come on! We have to leave, why are you still standing around?!” My friend yelled and pushed me towards the elevators.
We stumbled towards it with the help of what little light was left in the caves. People fell and died before us through the cracks caused by the drills of the D.I.G.G.E.R.
“God help us,” Kellan whispered as we just managed to squeeze into the remaining elevator.
“Hit the button! What are you waiting for?!” Someone yelled out.
“Wait! The commander is still there!” I yelled back.
“Are you mad lad? He ain’t coming back,” said Jensen, a fellow crew member.
We peered out the tiny window in the elevator, the commander was still atop the D.I.G.G.E.R, holding on for dear life as the floor underneath him crumbled.
“Revan. We have to go. Any longer, and none of us will make it.” Kellan said quietly, his face pale underneath all the soot.
I tightened my jaw as my eyes burned and nodded. I wrapped my hand around the lever and pulled it down firmly. We heard a dull boom as the elevator shot upwards to the ground, the heat oppressive.
“We are not gonna make it.” Someone sobbed.
“We will just fine. Shut up.” Another voice said.
The next few seconds passed painfully as we all held on for dear life. The elevator was heating worse with every passing second. I kept my eyes on the controls, the heat levels were spiking but I knew we could make it.
Finally, we made it above ground with a jarring stop. Hitting the controls, I opened the doors; they slid open with a clang. We had just managed to pile out when the entire ground shook underneath us.
“Commander,” I whispered.
All of us looked at one another grimly, we knew he was gone.
…
“Oxinophilicate. The essence of life. The only way we can exist.”
“But what is it, Miss Tanning? What does it do?”
She smiled distantly, “It lets us breathe.”
…
We walked for miles, with no end in sight. Large expanses of land were covered entirely in craters lined with gas pockets. It felt as though we were walking on land mines.
The dual suns shone dully through the blueish haze surrounding the alien planet.
“We are almost there! Look the beacon!” Kerin yelled, pointing at the inter-nav in her hands. I nodded in relief, if there was anyone who could get us off of this blasted planet with or without the inter-nav, it was her.
“Just some more jumps. We can make it.” Kellan panted.
Looking at the exploding craters, I wasn’t going to hold my breath.
…
It wasn’t always like this.
…
We didn’t have a planet, instead, we lived in a massive floating city double the size of Earth, supported by millions of gravity thrusters. It was a complex creation built by scientists and engineers when the Earth was on its last leg.
It started small, enough to inhabit the more important people of Earth but soon as in all things human greed grew, so did the size of the city.
Imagine a world where everyone is rich, someone must be poor. Balance. Soon enough poverty grew, then crimes, and voila, we have another Earth. Only this time, it’s much worse.
We had to keep it floating you see, and that is no easy task when the solar system is imploding around you. In the beginning, they had enough sources of power taken from the crumbling Earth to power the city for a few hundred years but that would run out soon enough. So, they spent the next few decades scouring the edges of the universe and bending the laws of God.
Mankind managed to bend space to its will and jumped from one end to the other in a matter of years. Turns out all they needed was the power and fear of death to accomplish it.
Soon, they discovered Annelissia; a rogue galaxy with millions of dying or dead planets. It was a galactic graveyard, but for the scientists and engineers, it was a goldmine. The potential of untapped energy was mind-boggling, but how do we get it?
We dig.
But crumbling planets are not easy you see, there are many complications. The crumbling part for one, as pieces and chunks of it are falling apart which makes it difficult to even walk. Then there are the gas pockets that spew hot air and a near-hostile breathing environment. But then the city needed to float and breathe, so someone has to do it.
But, who?
Surely not the rich, so that left us, the poor folks who were taught since birth to dig and keep on digging until we found the precious Oxinophilicate; a chunk of green luminescent rock that powered everything with its potent energy. It was a highly volatile substance and mishandling it always led to disaster. So, once we found it, we had to take care to store it properly without dying.
The scientists and engineers did the rest, and the city kept on breathing.
But how do we reach the Oxinophilicate, which is found tens of thousands of meters deep with little to no light?
That was how the scientists and engineers discovered the Dual Systemic Gargantuan Excavating Rig (D.I.G.G.E.R), a giant excavating machine attached with drills and powered by dual motors containing tiny ores housing enough power to cut through the surface like butter and retrieve the Oxinophilicate.
It isn’t easy to use it though, its size makes it hard to maneuver over the land, and should we hit multiple gas pockets we will end up destabilizing the ores in the motors which leads to a catastrophic implosion killing everyone on site. To avoid this, we always tunnel a cave and lower the D.I.G.G.E.R within it. A last chance of escape.
So, we keep digging. In the sweltering heat and poisonous air. We keep digging.
What do we get for all this?
A little money and the right to breathe.
…
Looking back at the crumbling planet and smoking excavation cave, I felt it wasn’t worth it.
“Rev! Come on! We have to leave.” Kellan called out to me.
Sighing, I followed him wondering how to explain this to the commander’s family.
“Sorry ma’am your husband boiled to death at the bottom of the never-ending pit of fire and acid.”
That’ll go over well.
