From Nothing to Something

Chapter 13

Ash looked outside at the Solar Orb, he had dubbed it. The light was a little darker now. 

Ash saw that the living spaces of the building across from him ended only a few stories above him. There were large blue triangles angled at the Solar Orb. 

"MCP?" Ash called. "What's the triangle's purpose?"

"It is a solar panel used for power from the artificial sun."

"Also, how does the artificial sun shine?" 

"It uses high powered LED lights. The entire electric cycle is known as an Electric Loop. The sun shines, which powers the solar panels, which sends the power to the sun, repeat. At night, the lights from the city are used to power the solar panels. The power is used as the spark plug for the sun in the morning." 

"Okay." Ash stared downwards this time. There were long walkways sticking out of every skyscraper leading to a hexagonal courtyard suspended above the spring in the middle. Trees flowered, and there were large wheat fields. It seemed to be a humungous farm.

On the walkways, there were barns. Cows, sheep, and pigs roamed large fields of grass. 

As Ash watched, a truck pulled up to a large barn. The barn's doors opened, and a person piled a large batch of red... things onto the truck. The truck drove away. 

A little while later, another truck pulled onto another farm surrounded by sheep. The doors opened, and a farmer dragged wool onto it. The truck drove away.

"It is time for you to go." The MCP said. 

Ash grabbed a blue jacket that was hung in the closet where he left his bow, and hurried out the door. From there, he caught an elevator headed to Factory 54, which was where he was going. 

After 5 minutes, the Factory came into view. It was a large factory, with giant gears poking out of the sides digging into the floor. Smokestacks were belching smoke into long black tubes that extended into the ceiling. It seemed to be a mining facility. 

After the elevator "landed" on the roof, the other passengers go off and walked to a little door poking out of the roof.

After Ash and the other passengers walked to a large door, a slot fed us our "cards." They were tiny tubes that had a pointy end. You were supposed to poke it into your arm. 

Ash poked it in, and a light pain washed out from the spot. There was only a little blood. 

After they tossed the tubes into the trash can, Ash noticed a little green light in his arm. That meant that he was working. It would glow red when he was supposed to leave. 

Ash pushed open a large set of doors, and suddenly felt super tiny compared to the room that met him. 

The ceiling was hundreds of feet above him. Large lights were the only source of light in the large complex. 

In front of him, the opposite side of the room was hundreds of feet away, and all over the floor were pieces of rocks, coal, and iron. Little doors lead into the floor that said "Mining Center 5657." And "Mining Center 13." on them.

In the middle of the room there appeared to be an upside down rocket pointed into a large hole in the ground. Ash boarded a Airstriker and that carried him to the spot he needed to be. It could seat 12 people, but Ash and three other people were the only ones there. 

He was working with a Borehead, the upside down rocket. It was a mobile miner that was supposed to drill into the floor, but it wasn't working. 

As they landed, Ash noticed the sheer size of the hole. It was so big that the end of it disappeared in the darkness, but he wasn't sure if there was an end. 

"Hey, ya newbie." A guy said. "We need help getting to the control panel. Can ya help us build da scaffolding?" 

"Sure." Ash said, and scuffled over to where they were nailing together large planks of wood into a large structure.

Ash grabbed a nail gun, some nails, and some planks of wood. He climbed to the top and started helping build to the control panel, a large piece of metal sticking out. 

Ash had some several close calls when the tower threatened to topple over, but eventually, Ash nailed a board to the side of the Borehead, and the team was almost in reach. 

"Control, can you turn on the Gravity Stabilizer?" I heard someone say behind me into a radio.

Suddenly, a section of the floor around the hole lifted up and started spinning. A green light came from above them, and Ash felt his feet lift off the floor. 

He flailed, but then he realized that he wasn't going to fall. "Here!" A guy in a orange jumpsuit said, and tossed Ash something. Ash thought that it was a rope, but it was a tiny USB. Ash flailed and eventually caught it. 

He floated over to the control panel, where he pried off the metal wall. Inside was a mess of wires, but he found a motherboard amid the mess. He searched the motherboard for a USB port, but couldn't find any.

"Warning, electricity levels dropping." A voice said. Ash heard a rumbling which he had guessed was the smokestacks belching extra smoke. He also heard the gears turning faster now. 

The green light began to fade, and Ash found himself slowly dropping. He used his arms to propel himself up a little further. He finally found the USB port, and fumbled with the USB.

He dropped a little further, and almost lost the USB. He grabbed onto it, and plugged it in. 

Lights came on the Borehead as a section at the bottom disappeared, and was replaced with metal arms spinning at a high speed.

"Shutting off Gravity Stabilizer in ten seconds." 

Ash scrambled toward the scaffolding. He made it at the last second and climbed on as a rope above them snapped, and the Borehead disappeared down the hole. 

Unfortunately, with nothing to hang on to, the scaffolding was wildly out of balance. It toppled over across the wide hole, and Ash braced for impact. The ramp that he was holding onto slammed against the ground, and Ash came up on his feet.

But there was nothing he could do to save the scaffolding or the workers on it as the middle of it snapped in half, and it tumbled into the dark abyss.