As the grind of the machine’s humongous drill ground on, as it always did, X292837401 (given the nickname X2928 by his crewmates) idly stared out of the window, as he usually did when it was his shift to pilot the machine. Also, as always, all that could be seen out of the front window of heavily, heavily reinforced glass was dirt and stone. Sometimes the colour of the stone would change. It was red right now. Before that, it was blue. Before blue, it was grey for a very long time, but even before the grey, it was bright, luminescent green and pink for a bit. During that time, the whole crew had crowded into the cockpit of the machine just to catch a glimpse.
There wasn’t all that much to do for fun on the machine. The machine itself was built for one purpose: to drill through the crust and find a way to the fabled land of Surface. The design of the machine was made with power and efficiency in mind. The engineers of Under built it to those specifications, exactly. There wasn’t any heed paid to notions of fun or relaxation. The people of Under didn’t have much of that to go around, in any case. The results were 100,000 extremely bored Underlings back down in Under, and 10 even more bored Underlings on the machine. The 10 crewmates experienced boredom, the likes of which had never been seen by Underlingkind. None had considered that the boredom could actually increase in such a wonderous contraption as the machine.
The machine itself had a cockpit, crew’s quarters, mess hall, and lavatory system. It had not been outfitted with a kitchen, as all food had been reduced to nutritional paste for maximum storage efficiency. They had packed enough food to last a lifetime in this way, so quantity was never an issue. An unfortunate side effect of the nutrification process was that it removed all taste from the paste. Every bit of edible substance aboard the machine was completely tasteless, no matter what the label on the nutritional paste dispenser said.
X2928 heard a ding from behind him. He turned to see P1938 entering the cockpit. He had never liked P1938, but they insisted on coming up to the cockpit daily to see if the rocks had changed colour since yesterday.
“Damnit, P1938! They are still red! I’ll ring the bloody bell if anything changes!”
“Can’t be too careful. They look like a different shade. Wouldn’t you say it's more of a magenta now?”
“What the hell are you talking about? That is definitely more of a maroon.”
“You’re a maroon,” he said as he left X2928 to seethe.
Although X2928 would hate to admit it, his little battles with P1938 were one of the only things keeping him sane at this point. It had been alright in the beginning. The first year or so had been a lot of fun, actually. Although the nutritional paste had no taste, the crew was able to convince themselves that it tasted somewhere between water and qubo cakes. Even the rocks had changed colour constantly back then. There was nothing quite as interesting as the luminescent green and pink rocks, but the variety of purples, yellows, browns, whites, oranges, blacks, and teals kept things interesting. Back then, the crewmates had been mere new acquaintances on an exciting adventure. Now, on day 3088, all that was behind them. The crewmates had accepted their fates a long time ago. The panic and terror of being trapped so far above the place they called home was replaced by the boredom they had become so familiar with. After all, what could they do but accept it? There was no way in or out of the machine; the engineers had set the main door mechanism to only unlock once the land of Surface was reached.
Day in and day out, the crewmates would sit at the small table in the mess hall and stare blankly. Every so often, one of the crew would attempt to start a conversation. Invariably, these would always circle back to the same few topics: life back in Under, the colour of the rocks today, or the colour of the rocks some time ago. Around day 2095, even the mention of their favourite luminescent green-pink had failed to inspire any other feeling than boredom. Since then, each time one of the crew attempted to bring up one of these topics, they would get a swift slap in the back of the head by the two members next to them. The only fortunate one in the group would be the one selected to pilot that day, a luxury afforded to them once on a 10-day cycle.
X2928 was just about to go out for a bathroom break when he noticed the sound of the drill changed. This in itself was nothing to be worried about. After all, different rocks have different densities, thickness, and other things that X2928 was not all the well versed if he was honest. Two things separated this time from the rest, though. The first was the pitch of the sound. No longer could he hear the dull and deep grind of the mighty drill as it pulverised the crust of the earth before it. In its place was a rather effortless whir. What was in front of the machine was not being pulverised, so much as it was being flung to the side. The second difference was that the deep red of before was now a brown colour, much like the mudstone furniture commonly used back in Under. The colour itself was nothing to write home about--brown had come up at least three times since setting off, not even worth ringing the bell for in of itself. Clearly not being in of itself, and with X2928 utterly baffled he rang the colour bell to summon the others. They quickly appeared, eager and then disappointed, to see the same shade of brown as before.
“You might as well not have bothered to ring,” said Q0292, pointing her disappointment in X2928’s direction.
He started to reply, “The sound-” but was quickly cut off as all resistance in front of the machine gave way.
All 10 of the crew watched in stunned amazement and terror as they saw the clear blue of the morning Surface sky for the first time. They felt themselves become light as a feather as the machine reached the arc of its trajectory and began to fall downwards towards the ground they had just popped out from.
“Launch the parachu-” began to shout P1938, although he, too, did not have time to finish.
The machine crashed to the ground with a crack that split the earth beneath it. As quickly as their weightlessness had come, it had gone and been replaced by severe bruising and concussions.
Battered and bruised, X2928 took up his piloting duty one last time. He wobbled to his feet and staggered over to hit the “Big Red Button," the one that should only ever be pressed upon reaching Surface. He stopped, turned around, and looked at his crewmates, with whom he had spent the last 3088 days trapped. He thought of all the ups, downs, chats, rocks, and colours they had experienced together. Although they had all grown to form a mutual disgust for each other, he couldn’t help but feel some sense of comradery.
“Hey, P1938,” he said.
“... Yes?” replied P1938 weakly.
“Help me get the rest of this lot up. We’re going to push the button together.”
And so they did. In turn, they helped each other to their feet, checking for injuries along the way. They were all shaken, but thankfully none had been hurt in the fall. They were all crowded in the cockpit, just as they had been all those days ago when the luminescent green-pink rocks had appeared.
“On the count of three,” said O7283.
“1...” they started.
“2...” they continued.
“3...” they pushed.
The button went down easily, especially with 10 fingers doing the pushing. Immediately, they heard the sound of the drill die, which had been their constant companion for the last 3088 days. At the same time, the buzz of the door mechanism started up as its rusty gears started to move against each other. The last time they had heard that was when they stood at the entrance, waving goodbye to all their family and friends who had gathered to watch the 10 brave explorers set off.
The 10 crewmates bustled down the tight hallway to reach the airlock. Nervous, anxious, and excited, they waited patiently as the main door cracked open and slowly started swinging outward. A light met their eyes that was so blinding that it made the entire world look white.
X2928 put his hand in front of his face, just as the others did. While they were still getting their bearings and trying to take in all this light, he decided to take a step forward. Then another. Then another. He looked down and could see that his foot had crossed the threshold of the machine. He was no longer inside. He was on Surface, finally. They all were. He took his hand away from his face and let the pure whiteness wash over him. Slowly but surely, details came to focus. There were colours and shades they hadn’t ever seen before--not in Under and certainly not during their time in the machine. Not only that but there were shapes. Things that looked not to be made of mudstone but of entirely new substances as yet unknown.
X2928 did not move. He could not. He just stood and looked. P1938 came up behind him and touched him on the shoulder. X2928 did something he never thought he would ever do--at least not for the last 1500 days or so--he gave P1938, his annoyance and mini-nemesis, the biggest hug he’d given anyone before.
"We did it,” said X2928, as tears streamed down his cheeks.
“Yes, we did,” said P1938, as his tears did much of the same.
“We need to send word to the others,” said C2938.
“You’re right,” replied X2928 as he wiped his face. “The sooner, the better. Hey, R8291?”
“Yes?” answered the biggest crewmember on the team.
“If your arm is alright, go and grab the Beacon.”
“Gotcha,” said R8291 as he left to find the Beacon’s compartment down the hall.
“Alright,” said P1938, “it took us 3088 days to reach here with the machine. Once we drop the Beacon into the hole, it should take around 500 days to reach Under--assuming it falls at terminal velocity and doesn't get slowed down by any rough debris. Also, assuming they climb at a steady rate, the colonist team should be here in--" He stopped to do the calculations in his head. “--2000 days.”
“Well,” said R8291, returning with the large Beacon slung over his shoulder, “Let's drop this off and start unpacking."
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