Chapter 11
‘The Hole’ teemed with Robots ministering to all kind of machinery, be it fuel hoses and hydraulic lines or telecom cables all snaking perilously to the surface, now nearly a kilometer and a half above us. Because our Earth Removers were very slow, it was common for these Robots to stand in or stroll across our path only the newer ones stopping to look up in awe. We rarely set our oculars on a human.
One day as I was driving my machine closest to the vertical wall at a neck-breaking five miles an hour, my consciousness elsewhere, out near Pluto I think, dreaming of The Breakout Ship, I was brought back to reality by a deep rumbling noise.
The Robots in our path looked up and I followed their gaze. Up near the surface a dust cloud had appeared and began to slowly descend. The
