by Simon Archer
“As always, you are wise beyond measure, master.” Queenie dropped into a low bow. “I will do as you say.”
“Thanks,” I said as before I took another deep non-breath. Man, how I wished we could just skip to having an atmosphere. “Now, if you will excuse me, I think break time is over.”
“As you wish,” she said, and as she bowed again, I smiled at her.
“And Queenie?”
“Yes, master?”
“Thanks for coming to check on me. I appreciate it.” I smiled at her. “Can you make a point of doing it from time to time, just in case I forget and work myself into oblivion?”
“It would be my pleasure,” she said with a nod, and with that, both of us went back to work.
22
Queenie
I have to say, I was quite impressed with my master since he was very nearly done digging his cavern and it had been barely a hundred hours, which was really saying something because the estimates had called for a much longer time. I hadn’t thought it was possible for him to ascend to even higher levels of impressiveness. I should have known better.
Apologies, I’m still new to this whole thing.
You see, I vaguely remember the time before master in a sort of hazy, distant way, like staring at a picture through a cube of gelatinous ooze. The big things were there if a bit distorted, and the details were quite fuzzy.
Still, I knew from the moment he had summoned me that my master would be a good master.
I knew that because he had pulled me back from the endless void of emptiness that had been my world during that cursed in-between time. It was strange because I knew I had only been dead for a few moments, a mere eye blink in the span of time, and yet, when I thought of my time in that endless void, it felt like forever and a day.
And my master had freed me from that.
I shook my head and dismissed the memory as I stared at him. He had nearly finished his journey to the center of the planet, and now, a vast cavern nearly twenty-five yards in diameter plunged all the way down into the planet’s core.
Not that there was much difference between the core and the rest of the planet since it was all just rock.
“Hello,” I said as I came up to my master as he sat beside the deep cavern and rested. He had told me earlier to come to check on him from time to time, though he had never quite come close enough to exhaustion for me to worry.
Part of me hoped it was because he liked having me visit him, though I could scarcely imagine giving that thought any real credence. If it were true, the honor would be too much to bear, and if it were false, the shame too great. No, it was simply better to do as was asked as efficiently as possible. The difference between my master and me was so vast and unknowable as to be unquantifiable in normal terms, and I knew that the best that I could ever hope for was to be able to serve him to the best of my abilities. It would be enough. More than enough, really.
“Hello,” my master replied, and when he looked at me and smiled, I couldn’t help but be pleased beyond all measure.
“Hello,” I replied, even though I had just said that. I was so dumb, and yet? He didn’t seem to mind.
“Hello,” he said back. Then he grinned, and I felt myself grow even happier. “How are things?”
“Going well,” I said with a nod. “The scouts have located a large pocket of iridium on a moon orbiting the tiny planetoid on the far end of the galaxy, and we believe that two of the gas giants actually have large clusters of crystalized CO2 that rain from their clouds like hail.” I shut my eyes and instantly communed with all the scouts. “The rest are finding small pockets here and there on asteroids and are marking them, but I have decreased the scouts down to less than a third of their original numbers so I could create more soldiers to actually mine the ore on those asteroids.” As I said the words, I realized I had not told him that and I instantly grew scared. “I hope that is okay. If it is not, I will quickly rectify--”
“It’s fine,” he said with a laugh, and then he looked into my soul with his glittering eyes. “I trust you, Queenie.”
“Thank you, master.” Those words didn’t quite seem like enough to explain rightly what his trust meant to me. It was my everything, my reason for being, and the idea that he was both pleased with our progress and trusted me… I did a little shimmy of delight even though I tried very hard to keep it in, and thankfully he did not seem to notice because he didn’t say anything, though he did smile very slightly.
“How much ore have you found thus far?” he asked as he rubbed his face and then ran a hand through his blond hair.
“We have found approximately one quintillion kilograms of both platinum and osmium, and one sextillion kilograms of gold.” I reached out to my scouts and quickly confirmed the rest of my numbers. “One point five sextillion kilograms of tungsten and about five hundred quadrillion kilograms of iridium, though we are hoping that number increases once we fully explore the moon I spoke about earlier.” I did a quick mental calculation even though it was unnecessary because my master probably already knew the answer. He was smart that way. “That means we still need approximately one point four nine sextillion kilograms of metal to complete the core.” I frowned. “I do not think we will find that much without going deep into the planets…” I let my words hang in the air.
“I thought you were looking at the planets?” my master asked curiously.
“We are not going more than a mile or so deep on any given planet, as it will take a long time to dig deeper than that, and even then, we have only visited half the non-gas giants and the moons.” I was displeased with the progress though it did not show. The problem was that every time I had to use ants to mine, it meant fewer scouts that could look for resources, and now a vast portion of the ants was devoted to mining out the surface of several planets. “But I shall redouble our efforts. There is still more to search.” Even as I said the words, I could taste the failure in them on my lips. I bowed my head, expecting the admonishment I so rightly deserved.
“Sounds good,” my master said with a nod. “I think you’re doing a great job.” He paused a moment. “I’d like you to stop mining the asteroids though. Just mark them on the map for me and use the ants allocated to that to dig up the deeper veins and continue searching.” He gave me a wily grin. “I have an idea.”
“As you wish,” I said, and though I should have been pleased, I couldn’t help but think that he should not have to come up with a plan to dig us out of this problem. After all, I had been tasked with--
“And Queenie, you’re doing a really great job.”
“Thank you, master,” I said, and I swallowed back the negative thoughts that had entered my mind. If master was pleased, I could not doubt him even as I strove to do better because doubting his words meant I didn’t trust him, and I very truly did.
“You’re quite welcome,” he said before turning his attention back to his cavern. “Another hour or so and I’ll be done, I think.” He clapped his hands together. “So, I better get back to it.”
“Um…” I said as he started to turn away. “I brought you something.”
“You brought me something?” he said as he turned back to me with a strange look on his face. “If it’s a severed head, I’m going to be very upset.”
“It is not.” I thought over his words. I did not think he would enjoy such a thing as he seemed the type to ask for that if it was something he wanted. If he did so, I would happily oblige, but it would not be a good gift otherwise. After all, I would not like such a gift myself, even if given in earnest. I would want to crush my enemies myself, and my master struck me as someone similar.
“Okay.” He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, which was when I realized he was waiting for me to proceed.
Embarrassment filled me, and I hastened to produce my gift. It was not much. Merely a bowl I had shaped from a long crystal with my talons, and in it was some ice I had found. As I held it out to him, I smiled though I did not know why.
“I thought you might be thirsty,” I said though I knew he had no need of such things since he was so powerful. “And while I could not turn it to liquid because of our circumstances, I thought you might enjoy it anyway…” My voice trailed off, not sure what else to say because I realized this was a terrible idea. Stupid really, and I should have known better. Had master wanted water or ice, he would have asked, and here I was presuming to know him when he was so--
“Thank you, Queenie,” he said before taking the bowl from me and smiling at me. “This is just what the doctor ordered.” He reached in and took some of the snowy ice from the bowl before offering it back to me. “Would you share it with me?”
“I… would love that, master.”
23
Man, Queenie was a genius. I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought to suck on a chunk of ice before she’d given me the bowl, but after I’d done it, I wished I had because it instantly made me feel refreshed in a way I couldn’t accurately describe. I knew fundamentally that, while in the godly realm of my galaxy, I didn’t need to eat or drink, but at the same time, putting a piece of ice on my tongue had nearly been orgasmic. Yeah, I went there.
It had given me the strength I’d needed to push through to the inner core, and as I stared at the chunk of rock before me, I couldn’t help but smile. While it wasn’t any different looking than the outer core had been, it was different, and I could feel that difference in a way I couldn’t quite explain.
I’d definitely gotten a lot better at the whole ‘using my title’s powers’ thing, and when combined with my godly Sense ability, I found that I could actually discern the types of earth I was trying to pull apart. It went without saying that knowing how to approach the different rocks, metals, and everything else in the strata of the planet made it a lot easier to dig because instead of, say, digging through a two-foot chunk of lead, I just dug through the sediment around it and then flung the whole chunk outside.
So, yeah, there were a few giant mountains of dirt outside my caverns that were roughly sorted by types, but that was okay since I’d eventually have to terrascape the planet, anyway.
Now though? It was time to do the thing I was most worried about: Turning the nearly entirely solid core of rock in the center of the planet into metal.
I still wasn’t quite sure how I was going to manage that since my only idea so far had been to just dig it out and leave a hollow center in the planet, then I could fill it back up with metal, but something about that felt a bit off. I mean, I didn’t have to worry about the heat or pressure killing me or anything, but to do that, I’d have to dig out a sphere with a diameter of around fifteen hundred kilometers, and that would take a hell of a long time… unless...
As the lightbulb of an idea flashed through my brain, I focused on the core of the planet with my Overdrive ability, and as I did, I quickly knew what it was made of, and ‘nothing in particular’ was the obvious answer. Still, it was enough because I had a plan.
“Here goes nothing,” I murmured as I reached out with my earth powers and began to dig once more. Only this time, I focused on all the crap.
See, I didn’t necessarily need to remove everything from the core. I just had to ensure the new inner core would remain solid while the outer core was molten enough to restart the planet’s dynamo. That could be accomplished simply by pulling out what I didn’t want in the core and replacing it with materials I did want.
So yeah, the next day or so was spent turning the inner core of the planet into swiss cheese. I removed most of the rock that wasn’t expressly needed for stability, especially the stuff that had a low density while leaving most of the metals in place. Then I used as much iron and nickel as I had available to strengthen the matrix of the structure so that the whole thing wouldn’t just collapse under its own weight. I say that like it was some exacting process. No, I just shoved metal into the spots and used my magic to fuse it together, which was, basically, the opposite of what I’d been doing until then.
Unfortunately, there was still a major issue with the inner core. While a planet like Earth had a core that was mostly iron and nickel, this planet’s core was mostly a mixture of quartz, feldspar, and biotite. And it probably goes without saying that was a suboptimal mixture for generating a dynamo because it was significantly less dense than iron.
That, however, was the ultimate problem and the one I’d wanted to solve with the denser metals. If I used things like rhenium and platinum, I’d need less of it, but at the same time, it wasn’t nearly as abundant. In fact, when I’d told Queenie to add rhenium to the list even though I knew it was rare, we’d ended up adding less than a few billion tons of the stuff to our existing stockpiles. While that was nice, it was nearly negligible when we needed nearly two billion times that much material overall to complete the core of this planet. Tantalum had been similar and yielded about twice as much material, but at the same time, it was significantly less dense at only 16,650 kg/m3. And Hafnium? Don’t even get me started. Still, more was better, and we were in those areas mining, anyway.
That was why I had made the executive decision to go a whole level lower on the periodic table. Previously, we’d been looking for the densest metals, which all lived on row six of the periodic table of elements, and initially, the ones only on the right half of the row. I’d further expanded it to include the entire row even though it was less good, but even still, we were barely at half of what we needed.
So, now Queenie and her ants were going after row five of the table which, while not as dense, were significantly more abundant. Well, mostly. Palladium and Rhodium were still rare as fuck, but cadmium, silver, molybdenum, and niobium were a lot less rare, and using those would solve one problem while leaving another.
Less density meant that the inner core needed more space, which was why I was now ripping apart the outer core of the planet, going through the same method I had with the inner core. And, honestly, I wasn’t sure it was going to work.
That’s when I realized another problem. The outer core, unsurprisingly, was made of pretty much the same stuff as the rest of the planet which was mostly useless rock, and it needed to be made of iron, nickel, and cobalt. Despite the entire fucking planet seeming to be made of iron oxide, there wasn’t actually that much metal in either the inner or outer core and most of what I found wasn’t actually available as big chunks of metal.
So, yeah… another fucking problem, and while part of me had wanted to tell Queenie to have ants straight up strip mine the place for iron and whatnot, that would take too long, so I just asked them to let me know where it was on the various asteroids and moons spread out across the galaxy.
After that, I’d begun separating out all the hematite (Fe2O3) and magnetite (Fe3O4) that I found in the planet’s core and inner core for usage while I built my ridiculous series of caves and tunnels within it. The whole while, I had to use not a small amount of energy and ingenuity to keep the whole thing from just collapsing in on itself in a massive implosion.
Yes, it was ridiculous and time-consuming, and by the end of a week of twenty-hour days, I thought it might be too much work because I was only half done hollowing the whole thing out.
Still, I had persevered, and why?
Well, because I wanted to win and defeat Zaxcs, sure, but mostly?
Mostly for this moment.
“What do you think, Queenie?” I said as I proudly showed the Ant Queen my work.
“There are a lot of tunnels, master,” she replied as we moved through my network of caves. “You must have worked exceedingly hard.”
“I did,” I said as I wiped my brow with the back of one hand. “And now, we can start adding metal.”
She didn’t say anything for a long moment. Rather, she focused on her surroundings, antennae twitching. Then she slowly turned to me and smiled. “That will be a sight to see.”
“Indeed,” I said as I smiled back. “Is the ore placed accordingly?”
“It is, master.” She n
odded at me. “As you specified, I have had all the ore moved here.” As she said the last word, a red X marked a spot on my mini-map relatively close to the star, and it blinked a couple of times.
“Thanks.” I took a deep breath. “Now comes the hard part.” I bit my lip as we made our way out of the tunnels. “Not blowing up.”
With that, I teleported the pair of us to the spot she’d indicated and immediately felt the heat of the star burning on my flesh. The huge burning orb loomed in front of me, and while I had seen it before, I hadn’t ever gotten this close. Sure, it couldn’t hurt me exactly, but that didn’t mean floating so close that I could see the glowing surface in all its infinite majesty was pleasant. Sure, it was an amazing sight, and if it hadn’t felt like I was going to combust any second, I might have enjoyed it more. Perhaps when I was at a higher level, I’d gaze upon it and be able to resist the urge to turn away.
And it was about to get a whole lot worse.
“Well, it looks like you’ve got everything as I asked,” I said as I looked around the area. There were huge stacks of floating ore, asteroids, and a giant dome of hollowed-out rock a few kilometers across.
“I did my best, master.” Not only did I believe her, but she actually looked pleased with herself, and honestly, she should have been.
“Well, I’ll take it from here,” I said before cracking my knuckles and getting to work.
The first thing I did was use my earth magic to pull apart the asteroids. It was similar to what I’d done on the planet and didn’t take much time at all. Well, comparatively, anyway. While I did that, Queenie and the ants moved the chunks of ore into the various piles around us.
Then I began the next phase. As it was the one I was most worried about, I decided to start small.
I took a fist-sized chunk of tungsten, hefted it in one hand, then I moved closer to the star. Why? Because the melting point of tungsten was just a hair under sixty-two-hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
