Collapse
Tags: Pre-Canon, FriendUnits, Alpha & Omega, AAA Murderbot
Published: 06 November 2021
Word Count: 1,768
Summary
“Emergency alert. Structural integrity in mineshaft A13 compromised. Further collapse imminent. Evacuate mineshaft A13 immediately.”
Working in a mine can be dangerous.
Ω
“Emergency alert. Structural integrity in mineshaft A13 compromised. Further collapse imminent. Evacuate mineshaft A13 immediately.”
The alert droned impassively over the loudspeakers and the feed on loop, but I’d already tuned it out to focus on what SecSystem and MedSystem were telling me. Part of the mineshaft tunnel had collapsed without warning (for reasons I neither knew nor cared about), and according to readings, the rest of the tunnel was likely to follow sooner rather than later. As a SecUnit, my job in this situation was to ensure the miners evacuated as efficiently and orderly as possible (which was a lot to expect from panicking humans, honestly) without damaging themselves or each other any more than necessary. This included retrieving any miners who’d gotten trapped but were still deemed recoverable by MedSystem, along with whatever equipment could be hauled out in a hurry.
I was already halfway down the tunnel, doing my best to direct the fleeing miners while continuing deeper, following the prompting of MedSystem. Alpha was all the way on the other side of the compound and hadn’t been tapped to respond to this, but another of the SecUnits, Epsilon, was close behind me. MedSystem was reporting that a few of the miners had been caught in the edge of the original collapse, but were still recoverable. So that’s where Epsilon and I were going.
I passed the last of the evacuating miners and was able to move a little more quickly. Rounding a bend in the tunnel, I could see a small cluster of miners up ahead frantically shifting fallen debris, presumably trying to free their trapped companions. They didn’t even notice my approach until I was right beside them, and one of them let out a startled yelp.
“Please remain calm, I am here to assist,” I let my buffer say as I swiftly analysed the situation. Three humans were pinned by fallen rocks and debris, though the other miners had made some progress in freeing the nearest one.
“We gotta get them out before more of the tunnel collapses!” one of the miners exclaimed, completely unnecessarily. I had already started clearing away larger chunks of debris that the humans couldn’t manage by themselves, and a moment later Epsilon joined me. Between us, we had the first miner freed quickly; I helped them to their feet and checked what MedSystem was telling me. The injuries weren’t serious, and the miner should be able to walk out with only minor assistance from the others.
“Please evacuate immediately,” I instructed the little cluster of miners over their various exclamations of relief as they clustered around their freed companion. For a moment it seemed like they were going to ignore me, but a spattering of debris suddenly flaked off the ceiling with an ominous groan, and they all decided that listening to me was a fantastic idea, actually. They began hurrying away down the tunnel, supporting the injured miner between them and leaving me and Epsilon to recover the last two trapped humans. That was fine by me. The sooner they made it to safety, the better.
Epsilon was already halfway through freeing the second miner, so I moved past it to get to the third. This one had been lucky, really - they’d managed to shelter beneath some of the mining equipment and avoided serious injury. There was a lot of debris to clear away before I could get them out though, so I began shifting it as quickly as possible without bringing any of it down on my own head.
Behind me, Epsilon managed to get the second miner free after a few minutes, though they had a leg injury that prevented them from walking. Epsilon would have to carry them out.
More fine debris flaked off the ceiling with a grating, grinding noise. [We should leave now,] Epsilon sent to me over the feed.
[I still need to get this one out. MedSystem won’t let me abandon them,] I replied shortly, not pausing in my efforts to clear the debris. I had no idea if MedSystem would actually punish me for attempting to abandon them, but I wasn’t about to test it. [Get going, I won’t be much longer.]
Epsilon hesitated briefly, then just sent a quick ping of acknowledgement before picking up its injured human and swiftly heading away. Another ominous groan echoed through the tunnel, the ground trembling slightly as more dust and grit showered down.
I worked faster.
Finally I’d cleared enough of the debris away to allow the human to wiggle out, though it was a tight fit. The warnings about imminent collapse were getting even more insistent, so as soon as they were half-way through I carefully grabbed their arms and pulled them all the way out in one swift movement. They let out a breathless exclamation, but I cut them off with a canned, “Please remain calm, I am here to assist.” Another tremor shivered the tunnel, showering us both with a fine scattering of debris, so I scooped them up and began running.
It was difficult to reach my top speed though - the human in my arms hampered my movement, and the tunnel twisted and turned, slowing me down. I also had to dodge chunks of debris littering the floor - and then falling from the ceiling, as the tunnel collapse finally started in earnest. It was a gradual collapse at least, not sudden, and I briefly thought I’d be able to outrun it.
Then a chunk of the ceiling dropped directly in my path, and I had to swerve and bounce off the wall to avoid it without losing too much speed. My human let out a yelp, curling up even tighter in my hold. More debris and chunks of ceiling were coming down around us now, and I had to weave my way through the larger chunks as best I could.
I wasn’t going to make it in time.
The human in my arms whimpered, the soft sound barely audible above the echoing rumble of the tunnel slowly, inevitably collapsing around us. I gritted my teeth and pushed on, ignoring the rattle of debris clattering off my armour, my shoulders hunched over them in an attempt to protect them.
I rounded the final bend, and ahead of us, I could see that Epsilon had passed out of the mouth of the tunnel and made it to the safe zone. It had handed off the human it had been carrying to the others still lingering nearby, and was herding them all to a safer distance. I was still too far back to make it to the safe zone in time myself, but the human I was carrying was on the smaller side, so maybe...
[ε!] I called in the feed as I put on a burst of speed, trying to close the distance between us as much as possible. [Catch!]
Epsilon had just enough time to turn and ready itself as I hurled my human at it. I didn’t get a chance to see if I’d thrown them far enough, if Epsilon had caught them or not - a chunk of falling rock clipped my shoulder and sent me staggering to one side before I managed to right myself and keep going. Before I could pick up speed, another chunk followed, larger this time, and I felt something break beneath the impact with a sharp flare of pain. A third chunk hit, then a fourth, driving me to my knees even as I raised one arm in a vain attempt to protect my head, the rumble grew to a roar--
Performance reliability catastrophic drop.
Shutdown.
I woke up back in my cubicle, my performance reliability at 87% and climbing steadily. I was a little disoriented, and it took me a few moments to remember what had happened.
Ah. Right.
I absently tapped into SecSystem to catch up on status updates. Mineshaft A13 was closed until further notice, for obvious reasons. MedSystem was currently dormant - apparently my repairs were taking longer than whatever treatments the humans injured in the incident had needed. That was something of a relief, honestly. Everything else looked normal, as far as I could tell.
Wait, Alpha didn’t have a current deployment location. What?
I sent Alpha a ping, and got a reply immediately. [Ω! Are you all right?] Its concern flooded our private feed.
[I’m fine,] I sent back, a little taken aback. [87% and climbing. What about you? You’re not deployed right now?]
There was an awkward pause before Alpha replied. [ε told me what happened, and… uh. My performance reliability tanked like an entire sixteen percent for no reason. HubSys couldn’t figure out what was going on with the sudden drop, so it scheduled me for a full diagnostic.]
I rested the back of my head against the cubicle’s plastic backing. [α…]
[I was worried! ε sent me footage, and… you looked terrible. Your armour was trashed, all caved in and stuff, and there was… a lot of leaking.]
Ugh. I hate leaking. I really didn’t want to think about what I must’ve looked like. [You’re going to get the supervisors’ attention if you’re not careful,] I warned.
[I know, I know,] Alpha replied resignedly. [Diagnostic’s almost done though, and it should come up clear, especially now that I know you’re okay.]
[It had better.] The implied threat was completely empty, which Alpha knew, of course.
Finally my repairs finished and I exited the cubicle. Alpha was pulling the last of my armour out of its slots and laying it out on the bench, ready for me to don. It was already fully armoured, but its helmet was retracted. As soon as it realised I was out, it abandoned the armour and strode across the Security Room to gently grab me by my shoulders and look me over, its brow furrowed.
Okay, Alpha had been really worried.
It let out a breath and leaned forward to rest its forehead against mine, the furrow in its brow smoothing out as it relaxed. I closed my eyes and tilted my head forward to reciprocate, the contact brief but soothing. This was a private gesture of reassurance, one I would never even consider allowing with anyone else.
[I’m so glad you’re really all right,] Alpha sent through the feed as it stepped back, letting go of my shoulders and giving me a familiar, lopsided little half-smile.
I rolled my eyes, though I couldn’t quite suppress the corner of my mouth curving upwards in a tiny smile of my own. [Yeah, yeah. You and me both.]