"I don't know how you want me to do it, then," replied Omega.
"The heck you don't. You only want me to do it so you don't have to."
"You got me there."
I sighed and moved Omega away from the digger controls. "I am showing you this one, and only one, more time."
I maneuvered the digging claw into position on the canyon wall and took out a large section. I then dropped it on top of the wall in a neat pile so it didn't spill back down into the canyon.
The current project was an exploratory one. We were fifteen miles north of Arcadia Station, and still fifty miles south of Apollo Station, which was the first one established on this planet, officially dubbed Solan III, but colloquially called Silverhold due to the rich silver deposits found everywhere. The Arcadian council got word there were some iron deposits in this canyon, something we were running out of as the colonies were still new to this planet. Arcadia Station is the most recent outpost, after Apollo and Chronos Stations had been established. All three were equidistant from the original settlement of Prometheus Base, population well over half a million at this point.
The construction of those four settlements, along with the vehicles and other industries had depleted what iron had originally been found. Further construction was halted until sufficient replacement quantities could be found.
The surveyors had marked this canyon as one of the best possible locations for iron, so we started here.
Omega took over the controls of the digger, made two acceptable passes with it, so I patted him on the shoulder and moved to check on Beta.
Beta was scouting the area with a magnetometer, trying to pinpoint more precise areas to dig so we didn't have to raze the entire canyon. Strip mining was something we had left behind long ago.
I waited at the tent we had dubbed "HQ" for Beta to return from his latest run. It never took him more than ten minutes to run out, scan a spot, mark it, then run back and mark it on 3-D topographical hologram. We'd found two iron-rich veins in just as many days. One more day of this and we could pack it in and head to the next location.
Beta almost knocked me over as he came into the tent. "Sorry, Alice," he said in his low, raspy voice. "Didn't know you'd be in here."
"And I didn't know you'd be coming from that direction," I said. "Have you scouted the other side already?"
"Only this side. Other side finished before end of day." Beta was a robot of very few words.
"Anything interesting?" I asked.
"Two silver veins, one big iron vein."
I watched him punch the information into the map and saw the metals he discovered pop up in the hologram. "Wow. That one alone is worth the trip." He grunted in response. "Okay, carry on."
Without another word, he ran off. I wondered if I shouldn't have programmed a little humor into him. At least I made him fast enough. Top speed around 120 mph, normal running speed about half that, with full maneuverability. The other two are no slouches when it comes to speed, but nothing like Beta.
I took the equipment lift to the canyon floor to check on my last Wolfdroid, Alpha. Riding the lift down, I looked up to where Omega was digging chunks out of the opposite wall. As I turned away from the growing excavation, a reflection caught my eye. But when I looked back, I didn't see it anymore. I made a mental note to take a look once I got back topside.
"Alpha?" I said as I stepped off the lift. "How's it going down here?" I walked towards the right, where Alpha had a small testing lab set up. It was far easier for him to have a small one set up down here than carry core samples topside every hour or so.
"I prefer the solitude, Alice," Alpha's deep, gravelly voice rumbled. "But the occasional visit is most welcome."
"Glad to hear it." I came around a small rock outcropping and Alpha's camp came into view. He stood to his full height under the canopy, testing the latest core sample from canyon wall. His eyes followed the lines on the spectrometer far too fast for me to follow.
"When are you going to allow me to upgrade our internal sensors, Alice? I'd prefer to ingest the sample and acquire the data without the middle man. This is time-consuming labor that could be spent otherwise."
"Because the other processes are slow, Alpha, we've been over this." I picked up one of the core samples he'd already tested and looked at the results on the matching data sheet. "If I keep the three of you working at the same pace, Omega will keep working. If he sees either you or Beta not doing anything, even if you've already finished your tasks, he won't finish his."
"Can he even see me from up there?"
"Probably not, but that doesn't mean..." My communicator badge beeped, indicating an incoming message. I tapped it and said, "Go for Action."
"You take too much enjoyment uttering that phrase," Alpha whispered.
"Alice! Come quick! You gotta see this! Alpha too!" Omega often got excited at the simplest of things, but there were times when his enthusiasm was warranted, and I could hear it in his voice now.
"On my way." I tapped my badge to close the communication. "Alpha."
Until Alpha's personality formed on his AI matrix, I had never dreamed I would hear a robot sigh in exasperation. Yet now I hear it almost daily from him. "Must I?"
"You know Omega. He'll keep pestering until you cave."
Alpha sighed again, scribbled a note on his current data sheet, and set it down. "Fine."
As we walked to the lift, and I wondered if this had something to do with the glint I had spotted on my way down. As we reached the halfway point, Omega shouted down at us. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" he said. "Hurry up!"
"We can only go as fast as the lift!" I yelled back.
"Uuuggh!" Omega said and bounced away.
"Ugh is right," Alpha muttered.
"Behave," I said.
We reached the top, Omega grabbed my hand and practically dragged me to the digger. "Oh my god, you gotta gotta gotta see!"
Beta stood next to the digger, looking towards the excavation. I had never seen him so still for so long. "Beta?" I said. "Are you okay?"
As I stepped next to him, I saw what had entranced him, and why Omega had pushed so hard to get me and Alpha to the top of the canyon. Omega had uncovered a cavern, man-made, about a third of the way down the canyon wall. Even from here we could see a green glow emanating from somewhere deeper in the cave. "What in the..." I said.
"I know!" Omega said. "I found something! I don't know what, but I found it! Can I keep it?" He turned pleading eyes to me.
"I don't know," I said. "We'll need to see what it is first."
"Carved out cavern with no discernible entrance," Alpha said. I could almost hear the "gears turning" in his head as he did calculations and examined historical texts in his memory. "This could be quite interesting."
"See? Even Alpha likes it!" Omega said. "Let's go!"
He made it about three strides away before I stopped him. "Hang on, Omega. Everything is set up over here."
"We can climb... No wait, too much work. We can move... Nope, even more work..." He turned pleading eyes back to me. "Alice... What do we do?"
"Get out your glider packs, boys. We'll fly across."