CYBER-LIFE

CHAPTER ONE: NO CHOICE

Bailey toiled as she ran throughout the mine prepping up all the machinery for another day's work.

As the smell of gasoline and dust reached her, she wiped off a oil stain on her face. Lifting up another drill, she headed back deeper down into the mine shaft past the already working machinery.

She sighed in relief as the oxygen pumps finally started up and filtered out all the bad gases swirling in the cave.

Drilling through the deep earth, Bailey made her way deeper into the mine shaft as she carried and dropped off even more metals for factories.

Yes, Bailey was one of the miners who helped to hand in more usable metals for the factories to produce their machines and to the android to produce more of their own kind.

She grumbled as she bumped into something. She refocused her drill and struggled to break through the material. She sighed as she pulled up the holo-phone to examine the material.

She pulled out a chunk stuck in the dirt and pocketed it.

"Al, what in  tarnation is this?" She asked as the camera snapped a shot and loaded.

"Unknown material discovered. Image has been sent to Meta-Corp for examining. You will be briefed in a few hours about this." Her phone said as she grumbled and cursed before carrying her drill back up above ground.

Lugging the rather small amount of mineral she had managed to mine, she checked with the machinery and gasped in surprise at how the material had messed up her gear.

"What in Sam fucking Hill are you?!" Bailey shouted almost breaking the holo-pad before her. She attached the cargo to her tractor as she drove back to her farmhouse.

Arriving outside the small house, she could smell her mother cooking in the kitchen.
Despite being just on barely outside the reign of Nightfall, the Throne family had not gotten too much into the tech fad affecting their neighbors.

"Hiya, mommas!" Bailey said hugging her from behind as she saw her mother smile weakly.

"Hey honey. Why are you back so soon? Already filled today's order?" She asked before going into a coughing fit.

Helping her mother to a chair, Bailey sighed as she looked at her. Elderly and sick didnt mix as shown by how her mother's condition was getting worse and worse as the days went by. With the meager salary she earned with most her earnings going to paying home expenses or fuel for the machines, Bailey could just barely afford enough to keep her mother's medication coming.

Searching through the cabinet, she almost burst a vein when saw the pill bottles empty. She sighed as she sat down facing her mother.

"Ma?"

"Why does it seem like this place we have is going downhill? Since that new guy took the presidency, those businesses have robbed us blind."

"Bailey, there is nothing to do about it. We just have to do the best we can and hope it gets better." Her mother said as she got to her feet and wiped the oil stains and soot on Bailey's face.

"Ma, it doesn't look like that will matter-

Bailey stopped as she saw the letters peeking out from her mother's dress pocket.

Snatching them out, Bailey lifted them to her eyes watching her mother try to pull them away. As she tore out the letter and read it out her heart crashed and burnt up like a piece of wood.

Miss Martha Throne and Bailey Throne. Your payments for the last month haven't been payed yet and the second month is almost over.