As the metal door opened, I found myself facing the ruins of a village, a perfect match for a dramatic Japanese World War II film set. How could I give such a specific example? Because I'd been binge-watching Japanese movies in my free time. Especially the black-and-white ones... It felt like black and white was easier on the eyes. The recent eight-dimensional films were too exhausting. Especially when sitting on Velsil's lap and watching, with a bowl of popcorn in one hand, black-and-white films felt really good. I wondered if Velsil would also compare this place to a ruined village if he saw the excavation site. Did those semi-aliens possess personalities beyond two dimensions? Well, that was a topic I planned to research once I returned to base.
Anyway... What was I saying? With the door open, the old robot had brought his hand to his chest and stood sadly at attention. There was a large lift over the massive pit in the middle of the excavation site. That pulley-operated lift was the thing that carried the large metal platform into the pit. One could also descend into this pit using many metal stairs, but I had no desire to walk down for kilometers.
Around this colossal metal pit, there were many tents. I was surprised at first because there was no one who would stay in a tent. Robots wouldn't want to rest or sleep. Then I understood when one of the robots tried to dismantle and rebuild a tent: they were setting up and taking down tents just to feel busy. Many robots were lying around half-dazed or acting malfunctioning, which was probably a status they invented for themselves to think that they weren't unwilling to do anything, but unable. In truth, I had no idea what was going on here. So, I grabbed the old robot's chin and yanked off the fake beard he'd glued on. I tossed the plastic beard aside and said, "Hey, you!" giving him a familiar slap on the shoulder.
"I apologize for not recognizing you, Master..." the old robot said.
"Don't apologize for anything! Tell me what the hell is going on here."
"You want me to tell you?"
"You seem to be the only robot here who can talk."
"You choose me even after all the insults I hurled at you, Master? You... You truly are a very merciful Master. The rumors about you..."
"Forget the rumors for now," I interrupted. I could more or less guess what kind of rumors they were. "Tell me what's going on here."
"What's going on?"
"Ah..." I put my hand to my face, trying to calm down. "I mean, what happened to this place."
"Ah... You're asking about the state of this place? Well, I might have to tell you this: We... I apologize deeply, but we had forgotten about your existence."
"What do you mean?"
"No assignments came in for a very long time. Our tribe split into two: the Ancients and the Newbies. The Ancients kept working, believing their Master would return, even though they never saw him."
"So that's the crew that kept mining and collecting resources... Very good. That means they were the ones ensuring we sent anything at all. And what were the Newbies doing?"
"The Newbies..." He paused and froze in silence for a while. Then he suddenly fell to his knees. "The Newbies didn't believe you were real, humble Master Weisshafen! They thought you were a figment of their imagination. They thought you were a game concocted by the subconscious to trick itself. We shouldn't blame them, Master Weisshafen! They hadn't received any orders for a very long time. It was quite normal for them to question the reality of orders."
"Even without orders, they should have been working, shouldn't they?" I asked. "After all, weren't they given a mission?"
"Yes, but... But there was something preventing them from doing their job."
"Like what?"
"Please... Please allow me to show you."
The robot led us to the lift. As the metal platform—large enough for at least three World War II American tanks—began to descend, the robots who heard the lift working rose from where they were lying in surprise, dropping whatever they were doing.
"So there was an obstacle preventing the excavations?" I asked as we continued descending.
"Yes..."
"But not all the excavations, right?"
"No... The excavation extends in two directions, Master. North and South... The North direction is working, but there was an obstacle in the South direction. All the robots there became unemployed because they couldn't overcome that obstacle."
"Is it a very big obstacle?"
The robot, who used to look old because of his fake beard but now looked like a freak, swallowed. Of course, swallowing was not normal for him. The programming of these robots had completely gone off the rails. "I have never seen such an obstacle in my life."
The lift door opened, and we all stepped out. It was very strange that I didn't have a crowd of robots behind me. They probably chose not to follow us as they were busy with the path-clearing task I had assigned them.
"If excavations are continuing in the North, then why are we extracting resources at such a low rate?"
"What do you mean?" This robot seemed unaware of the resources being extracted and the rates.
"Where are you taking the resources? Normally, you should package them, put them in containers, and then leave them in the package transfer area. In short, you need to bring them up."
"Yes, we do that."
"You do? The lift looked like it hadn't been operated in a long time..."
"We are climbing the stairs..."
"The stairs? You're climbing kilometers of height with stairs?"
"Yes."
"And it doesn't take long?"
"It sometimes takes days."
The damned robots were going to push me over the edge. "Then why don't you use the fucking elevator?"
"The robots in the South were looking for something to do. That's why they prevented the Northerners from using the lift. If only you knew what wars broke out to take control of the lift..."
As we walked through the stone-covered caverns, the lack of air began to suffocate me. Since we turned South, the number of lights and ventilation systems had decreased. Fortunately, I had a mask in my jacket pocket that inserted tubes into my nose, and it slightly facilitated my breathing by drawing in what little oxygen was in the atmosphere. We continued walking past ruined pillars, broken excavation tools, ripped health and safety clothes, and excavation plans on an abandoned desk.
"Why did they want to prevent the use of the lift?"
"If the Northerners were digging, the Southerners wanted to carry what they dug. That way, the Northerners could also get a piece of the work."
"Damn it! If I understood correctly, the North is currently full of mined but untransported resources, is that right?"
"That is absolutely right..."
"We'll have to deal with that later."
Suddenly, the robot next to me stopped me. He was trembling violently at the sight before him. This obstacle was the entire reason for these robots' months-long captivity. "Here we are... This... This accursed thing!"
What stood before us was the accursed fossil of an alien creature. Alien butterfly would be a more accurate description, rather than just an alien creature. I had to get quite close to see that fossil. I pointed at the fossil with my hand and yelled, "The excavations stopped because of this piece of shit!"
"But Master!"
"Don't 'Master' me!" I shouted suddenly. "All this happened because of a crappy fossil!"
"Master... We were told to report it to our Master if we encountered a fossil. That's what was programmed into our codes. We couldn't do anything until we received an answer from our Master. We went on a pilgrimage countless times, but received no answer."
"What's a pilgrimage? Did you come to the base? Is that what you call a pilgrimage?" I thought for a moment. Could this fossil be something important? "Dig up this fucking fossil and bring it to the base without damaging it! Then continue working! Do you hear me? Gather all the robots, you're going to work! And load all the resources in the North onto the lift and send them up with the lift! If I hear that this excavation has stopped again for any reason, I'll pull the plug on every single one of you! Understood?"
"Understood!"
"Then I'm off! I'll come check again tomorrow!"
"Of course, Master!"
I sighed deeply. As I walked towards the lift, I muttered, "I came here for a 'strike' and look what the hell I found!"