Mountains of rock and ancient roots hung above the dusty desert landscape, as if frozen in a moment of cataclysmic upheaval. Each of these titanic monoliths was surrounded by smaller chunks, as well as orbiting clouds of dust and debris.

Far below them, small figures moved, dwarfed by the scale of the rocks that floated above their heads like Damocles sword cast in rock and stone…

“Okay, Exy, I give up,” Jess said, squinting against the desert sun, “What’s holding them up?”

“Actually, it was a trick question,” replied EX-7R4, wiping dust off the core sampler’s display with a jet of air from their right gripper. “We have no clue what’s keeping them up.”

Technically EX-7R4 didn’t need to use the portable sampler’s digital display. As a robot, they were perfectly capable of reading detailed diagnostic data from a wireless data interface located halfway up the 5-foot tall drilling machine.
However, Jess was human, and it was common practice when working with biologically limited colleagues to regularly verify that digital and visual displays matched. The readout indicated that the machine had finished drilling and was now extracting the core and performing preliminary analysis.

EX-7R4 paused.

“You’ve gone quiet, Jess. Previous data from our interactions suggest that silences exceeding two minutes in length are likely to indicate A) extreme mortal peril or B) that you’re annoyed with me. For the sake of preserving my current chassis in either case, could you tell me which it is?”

“No clue?!” Jess shouted in a tone that suggested that option C) for “Both of the above” was correct.

EX-7R4’s empathic programming was not the best, and the black sun-shielding on Jess’ helmet didn’t offer many hints, but they could somehow still visualise her expression.

“Broadly speaking, yes,” they said, “We have no clue. Ground-penetrating scans don’t show any kind of propulsion or levitation technology inside the rocks, and sensors don’t show any obvious external transmissions or forces acting upon them. We have no positive indications, or what you would call clues, as to why they stay up.”

Jess did not reply, and her expression remained unreadable.

“There have been some hypotheses made, so while we have no clue, you could say we have some ideas,” EX-7R4 said, in a tone they hoped was encouraging.

“So do you have any idea,” Jess said slowly, “what preventative measures are in place to stop me ending up wearing one of those million-ton monstrosities as a hat?”

“Well, because we don’t know what’s holding them up, we don’t have any way of physically keeping them up there,” EX-7R4 conceded, “but OreTek management does have early warning systems in place that should allow for the retrieval of all critical resources before impact.”

“Oh, well that is some relief, I guess,” said Jess, and helped EX-7R4 move the sampler to a new location, ten metres along from the first sampling spot.

The two of them had worked as a team for months now, and core sampling had become so routine that Jess barely had to think about what she was doing any more. EX-7R4 had said that her movements were practically robotic, but Jess was pretty sure that they’d meant it as a compliment.

The core sampler was positioned, and the grid reference was checked on the machine’s internal positioning system. Once the preliminary position was logged, the sampler’s support struts were extended and hammered into the ground. The position was then re-checked and confirmed, and a new drilling would begin.

The two colleagues stood silently watching the machine as dust and a few bits of stone were ejected from underneath it by the drill.

EX-7R4 didn’t turn to look at Jess, but said, “The two minute duration I mentioned earlier has been exceeded again. What is it this time?”

“How do the early warning systems work, if we don’t know what keeps those rocks up there?”

“A set of high-precision rangefinders have been set up across the area and will trigger the moment any of the larger rocks descend more than half a metre below their current position.”

“So the moment they start to drop.”

“Correct.”

“And how long would it take to remove all critical resources?”

“By using high speed wireless data links to servers outside of the estimated impact zone, all sample data and all robot memory and personality data can be extracted within roughly 7,340 microseconds.”

“I hate this job.”

“I know.”