***ANAD estimates ten hours, sixteen minutes to reach the target***
Wilkins issued the final command string to ANAD’s processor and authorized the assembler master to begin operations.
The swarm sank toward light snow drifts as Wilkins warned the rescue squad away from the injection point. Soon enough, the snow blazed with a fierce blue-white radiance as the assembler swarm filtered into the snow bank and attacked the hard still-frozen ground below. In minutes, the entire ravine was bathed in a white hot incandescence, laced with tendrils of steam, as the globe of light gradually subsided into the earth, like a miniature sun setting beyond the shoreline.
Bit by bit, the snow bank melted and melt water ran in streams down the ravine’s gullies, revealing bare ground underneath. But the ground was no longer solid rock. Instead, it boiled and billowed like a mirage speckled with a billion tiny explosions going off all at once, as ANAD bots broke atomic bonds and burned their way into the molecular lattice of rock.
There was little the rescue squad could do now but wait. Wait and hope.
Ten hours and sixteen minutes seemed like an eternity.
It was Honore M’wale, Ferret’s geotech curled up in a fetal position on the command deck floor, who first sensed a presence around her. She sat up, felt the increase in heat, shook herself into a groggy sort of consciousness and spotted the faint aura of a shimmering smoke billowing out from behind the main console.
She smelled it too. Something was burning. An electrical fire?
“Lieutenant…Skipper!—“ she yelled. Staggering to her knees, she peered under the console. “Skipper...we got a fire! Get up here—“ She groped around in the failing light, breathing hard, sucking for air, feeling for a fire extinguisher. Any fire now could rapidly deplete their last remaining oxygen.
Johnny Winger stirred himself awake and saw M’wale frantically rummaging about the cabin. Lieutenant Gerhart was also struggling back to consciousness.
“What is it? What’s --?”
“There’s smoke…right there under the console! We must have an electrical fire!”
Before he could respond, a faint chime sounded in the back of Winger’s mind. It was ANAD…the tiny assembler had come for them!
“ANAD!” Winger swung himself down from the seat, coughing in the stale, stagnant air. His head pounded and his ears rang from the CO2 buildup. “It’s ANAD!”
M’wale sat down heavily as she realized Winger was right. Semi-conscious and exhausted, she had mistaken the faint blue mist for a fire.
***ANAD acknowledges…coming from the surface. I have brought a search and rescue squad. Test Director Wilkins re-configged my processor to optimize my effectors. I have widened the original borehole to thirty centimeters diameter. Surface rescue is sending extra hypersuits down the hole. My instructions are to assist you in any way possible***
Winger’s eyes widened. “You enlarged the hole? And hypersuits too? This is looking better all the time.”
***ANAD has config patterns for respirocyte bots. If you need additional oxygen boost, ANAD can replicate respirocytes***
Winger explained all that ANAD had told him. A huge wave of relief came over Gerhart’s face.
“Might be a good idea, Winger. At least until we get the tin cans on.”
Winger agreed. “ANAD, Wilkins gave you the config?”
There was a pause before the assembler responded.
Nanotroopers Episode 18: Geoplanes Page 15
