story_cement_1_1

Hey, Dad! I've modified your lamp for you!

Don't you all go on about how 'A Billy worker never sees the sun'? Well, this lamp can be your own little sun, look!

Isn't it way brighter than before? I got an engineer to change out one of the Originium circuits. It can go on standby mode for waaay longer now!

Here, I'll help you try it on!

...Alright then, put it on for me.

Oh, don't look so glum. You all have been at this vein for weeks. If anyone can solve this, it's you, Dad.

And don't forget the lamp! If you go mining with this baby, you'll get results tomorrow, guaranteed! You can then all get paid, and the crew will cheer up.

Yowch! Easy there, kiddo...

Shana remembers holding the headlamp high that day, chirping as she clumsily put it on for him and reminded him to wear it down to the mine the next day.

That lamp could shine brighter and farther. With it, he would surely see more clearly and finally crack the problem that had been bothering the miners for weeks.

But she doesn't recall his exact reaction. Was it a bittersweet smile on his face as he stared into the dark of night?

The next day, she was in the mine base looking over some blueprints when she heard news of an accident at her dad's project.

Soon after, her dad's crew disbanded.

*phew* I'm tuckered out. I don't know why the chief is so hellbent on taking this project nobody else wants. Ain't it bad enough that one Moleman had to take a fall for that?

Ol' Moleman worked his arse off his whole life, only to end up losing everything he made and his crew. And now the chief wants to follow in her dad's footsteps? What's the deal, here?

Same problem that stumped the old fella's now here to haunt the young'un. Whole mine says it can't be done, but those Molemans just won't listen.

Oh, hey, where'd you get those ciggies? Been a while since I had a smoke.

Picked up some butts, gathered the leaves myself, then rolled them in some newspaper. Here.

*cough* *cough* *cough*! Right bugger of a taste...

Mate, just be glad you've got something to smoke. If the chief wasn't covering meals, I couldn't even afford this helmet to go down the mine.

Then there's the safety specialist yapping about. Good thing the chief's got him handled. If he fines me again, my bed's about the only thing I can give as collateral.

And we don't even know if this job's gonna last. We've been trying to drill through the kilometer depth marker for ages, and the deadline's today, mate...

What'd we do if we lose this job... Forget it. We've been fired and hired more times than I can count. I'll do anything, so long as I don't go hungry.

Oh, right, did you hear that ruckus underground? Going all 'thwack, thwack thwack'. Whole mine knows we've got a ghost on our hands, that's why we're always—

Hey, shut it with that talk. It's the chief.

Everyone here?

Today's our last day down the mine. We haven't hit our targets so far, and if we don't strike the main vein, we can kiss our deal with the investors goodbye.

If we <i>do</i> find it, though, our prospecting says this might be the biggest vein in the area, which means our paychecks get a lot fatter.

I know whole lotta crews couldn't dig through that kilometer depth, but if we can, we'll be the first team in the region to make that breakthrough.

With that rep, we'll be swimming in opportunity. Our skills will get us more work, and more work means more cash. Not to mention, I'll be covering meals as usual!

No problem, chief! We've spent nearly a month rebuilding the protective layer. Drilling through the kilometer's just a matter of time.

But we need to get results today...

Shana joins her crew, patting them on the shoulders.

No need to think too much right now. Just gotta do what we can!

If we succeed, I'm gonna pull that nitpicky safety specialist over by the ear and let him take a good look!

Haha! Good one.

But first things first, drill through that kilometer today, find the main vein, and become the most efficient mine in the region.

Not exactly a piece of cake.

Oh, right, did you hear that noise everyone's been talking about, chief? What is that, really?

Isn't everyone saying it's some sorta underground ghost? I've also heard it's a big hunk of ore that can run about.

Since we're all so curious, why don't we dig our way to the truth?

Alright everyone, let's head down!

...Did you hear that, Shana?

Hear what? We've got earplugs in, Dad... Do you mean the drill?

No. Listen again...

There are sounds that don't belong here. Don't you hear them?

I don't hear anything. Just regular ol' mine noises. Don't scare me like that, Dad!

I'm not, Shana...

Ol' Moleman leans his back against the damp mine wall, slowly sitting down in the darkness. The lamp atop his head shakes and sways, its beam devoured by the endless dark.

Thwack, thwack, thwack...

Shana... Every time I reach a certain depth, I always feel like I'm alone in the entire mine, even if there's someone right next to me.

Then there's this sound I keep hearing, one I've never heard anywhere else. It rings in my ears all the time, even when I'm wearing ear plugs.

Maybe it's your heartbeat...?

If only, sweetheart. At times, Shana, I feel like this sound... is trying to tell me something...

'Turn back', 'turn back', 'turn back'...

Thwack, thwack, thwack...

A rock trapped between the wall and the descending mining cage clacks from the friction. This gets several miners whispering.

Listen, chief. Isn't this like the sound the ghost is supposed to be making?

I hear rumors that the ghost is what's stopping us from finding the main vein.

And you honestly believe that?

No! If anything, I think we have a shot at making it today.

After all we've done, reworking the protective layer, gathering Originium data and all, we're just gonna let a ghost scare us? Assuming there even is one.

Sure, sure. Alright, we're at the bottom now. No more chit-chat, we got work to do. If we want to shut the doubters up, today's our last chance.

Let's get started. Follow the plans from before.

Margin of error confirmed... within three centimeters. Checking rock hardness next...

Drill bits fixed!

Alright people, let's get digging!

In an instant, endless rumbles and booms echo through the mine.

*pant*... *pant*...

Wait, chief! I think I got something here!

Let me turn my lamp on...

It's coming out in rods, and it's yellow...

A-Aren't these... explosives?

This is the first time we've been this deep, right?

Yeah.

They look like leftovers from previous excavation teams to you?

Yeah.

Leftover explosives shouldn't blow that easily, but they still might, right?

Heck yeah!

...Any of you lot got experience with excavation?

...I've been around long enough to know how excavators get rid of extra explosives.

It'll take too much time if we go up for help. That good-for-nothing safety specialist must have known about this and set us up! Can we...?

We all know how to get rid of them, chief, but it's too hot here! You gotta leave it to the pros. I hate to say it, but we have to let the excavators come down and take care of this.

We can argue for more time later. But now we have to go!

Alright, fine.

A hundred, two hundred, three hundred meters... The crew follows the narrow, winding mineshaft, making their way to the cage.

The miners keep their heads down in silence. Shana suddenly senses something and looks around to pinpoint its source.

Wait. I think I smell something...

What is it?

The corner we turned just now, it's a little... Hmm...

This is bad! Get down!

It's hot down here, and we drilled into the explosives earlier, so maybe—

EVERYONE, GET DOWN!

*cough*... *cough* *cough*...

The explosives?

*cough*... *cough*...

Drip, drop... Drip, drop...

At first, it was just a small trickle of water running through the wall, but upon the first boom of the explosion, the rocks were brought to their limit, and they crumbled away.

A several-meter-wide crack appears in the ground, releasing a rush of water that quickly pools around the crew's feet.

The odd sound that Shana's father heard, the one that told him to 'turn back', resounded through the underground with extreme clarity.

Thwack, thwack, thwack...!

Wh-What's that sound? D-Do you hear that?

Is it just me, or am I hearing the ghost? That 'thwack, thwack'...!

We must have hit an aquifer! I thought we had those checked...

It'll take ages to drain and depressurize all this. Look at how much water there is! Forget goaf water, it's probably an entire underground river!

Is it just me, or is that 'thwack, thwack' noise getting louder?

Thwack, thwack, thwack!

The weary crew quiet down in the face of the clamor.

Could it really be a ghost that's been stopping us?

Look chief, the whole reason no crew took this job is because it's too hard. It ain't our fault if we can't hack it today...

Ghost or no ghost, I don't reckon we can get anything done today. How about we go up and tell them we quit?

If we head up now, we might even make it in time for dinner. We'll rest up and find a new gig. What do you say, chief?

*sigh* Chief, we've put in so much and got jack in return. Why'd you take the job in the first place?

We've been mining our entire lives, and there're plenty of jobs out there. What's so special about this one?

*hearty laugh* So what do you think about this project? We'll get to learn some new tech and see how a big operation is run. It'll broaden our horizons a bit, yeah?

And before you ask, the pay's better, but the work will be tougher too. But you lot are hard workers and fast learners, so I'm confident we can pull this off.

*sigh* We've got it rough. Mining ain't easy, but once we finish this job, you'll find more opportunities coming your way, and with them, more cash and a better life.

Alright, no need to thank me all at once! Settle down, settle down...

*reassuring laugh* Go home for now, no worries! Just remember to get your arses here on time tomorrow!

Thanks for taking care of us, boss!

See you all later!

Take care on the way home!

We should head back too, Dad—

Eh? Dad?

Where'd he run off to all of a sudden?

Shana remembers searching the entire mine base before finding him standing before the seemingly bottomless mineshaft, staring into its gaping darkness with his hands behind his back.

Not too long ago, he had been surrounded by those who trusted him, their optimism about work and the future infectious. But now, he stood alone, gazing into the abyss.

She stood behind her father, not daring to approach. After what felt like an eternity, she saw him take a deep breath and exhale ever so slowly.

She remembers seeing her father bending down so low that he resembled one of those drills down the mine that had lost power.

It was a scene she had witnessed many, many times.

Dad... What's going on...?

You're right. We've been miners our whole lives, and every job's pretty much the same.

Doesn't matter if we strike gold or not, we'll still have to find some other work after.

Your dad wanted us to nail this project to make a name for ourselves. Then we could land tougher gigs and earn more. He meant well, chief.

But whatever extra we make won't mean much against the medical bills anyway. So it's really okay if we bail.

Do you lot really believe there's a ghost down here?

...Huh?

Do you <i>really</i> believe that there's a ghost stopping us from finding the vein?

Not exactly... But look, chief. We somehow dug into an underground river and that spooky sound just won't stop. Nobody really knows what's going on, but we're all...

We'll just take whatever job comes our way. Scraping by is good enough for us.

So you don't believe in the ghost, but you still want to stop here...?

But don't you want to go and see what's outside Rim Billiton?

You were the only ones still mining after dad's crew disbanded. I've been down the mines with you plenty of times. The reason I brought you all back and took on this project again is to prove to everyone—

That we have the skills to do what others can't, and that we deserve to be treated and paid fairly.

And we deserve to see a better future, even if it's just a teeny bit better!

Haha... Chief...

That sounds good and all, but for us, we're just happy to get our paychecks and live to spend them.

As for our 'future'...

The miners look at one another, smiling bitterly while shaking their heads.

They take a deep breath, then exhale ever so slowly. They lean against the damp wall and slump down to the ground, heads buried so deep, like drills out of power.

Shana can almost see her father in them.

(Have they always thought this was impossible? That we'll never make our way out of Rim Billiton?)

(No wonder Dad seemed so gloomy and even set aside money to pay his crew in case the job went bust. He knew they wouldn't make it.)

(Did it ever cross his mind, too?)

('If I weren't working with this crew but had five or ten of me, maybe I'd have gotten the job done already')

(Maybe Dad never realized that deep down, he had considered his crew a burden.)

Thwack, thwack, thwack!

Oh, that noise's back again...

Let’s go back up, chief. We're wasting time here. It's not like we can keep drilling down.

Wait. I just want to try one last time.

Chief?

This isn't a problem that can be fixed in one try. We—

I know. It's just... If I leave now without giving it one last shot, I know I'll regret it.

Shana lifts her drill and shield, feeling their weight in her hands.

My drill's still got some juice left in it, and there's enough concrete in my shield to block a few leaks. As for me, maybe...

Maybe I only have enough strength to last another half an hour.

But even so, I want to give it one last try. Maybe if I take a different direction, I'll find the vein. Maybe if I push just a bit harder, we'll achieve what we couldn't.

I always believed that as long as we worked together, with our hands and our skills... We'd find ourselves a future.

The miners begin to scatter, many shuffling back to the cage to wait. Their headlamps form bobbing beads of light in the darkness.

They stop in their tracks and dip their heads to look at the young lady, their new foreman on the first job she took for them.

Shana slings her drill across her shoulder, stoops down a bit, then walks deeper into the bowels of Terra.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The sound continues: a ghost, as the miners claim, haunting the mine; the warning that urged her father to return. But to Shana, it felt like something else...

Are you telling me to go this way?

Well then, now or never!

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Down! Down! Down!

At this depth, Shana feels that she is alone. The odd clank grows clearer than ever. She musters up her depleting strength and keeps digging towards it.

To her surprise, a bright light can be seen from the cracks her drill made.

...Light?

Why's there light here?

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

As she digs deeper, the light grows stronger, almost blinding. Shana never imagined anything like this so deep underground.

With the last of her strength, she drives the drill downward. Suddenly, the rocks part like pages in a book, unveiling the glimmering ore that time itself had written.

The drill burns through the last of its fuel and ceases its rumbling cry. Shana gasps for breath as she stumbles to check if this is the vein they have been searching for.

A small face bearing a fuzzy beard and a damp nose suddenly pokes out of the crack. It squeezes its mouth though, sniffling as it takes in air.

Sniff sniff!

Sniff sniff!!

Eh?!

The sandbeast startles, squeezing its entire body out of the crack, a miner's lamp somehow firmly attached to its back.

It scarpers and clatters its way through the dark mine, lighting up the drill in Shana's hand, the bubbling underground river, and the faces of the miners that it passes.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! The headlamp on its back strikes against the rock walls, thwacking as it goes.

A sandbeast?! Here? How'd it even get down here? That's the source of our sound?

Look there! Those rocks look like they're part of the transition zone. I reckon the chief dug right past the aquifer and struck the vein!

That... Isn't that the headlamp I gave Dad...?

Why's it on the back of a sandbeast?

A few impatient miners rush over, lifting their lanterns to inspect the glimmering ore.

Chief! This is it! It's the vein!

It's at the right depth! We managed to break the kilometer bottleneck! We found the vein!

We... We did it?

We actually did it?!

Shana bends down to examine the passage the sandbeast has dug. Two, five, seven meters...

It dug a passage seven meters long, and in the process, somehow managed to get a left-behind headlamp stuck onto its back.

Seven meters...

Didn't Dad say we were within spitting distance of the vein?

*phew*

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The outer casing of the lamp can no longer hold against all these strikes, and it falls onto the ground.

Shana picks up the fallen casing and looks at her father's name, carved by her own hand. This is the lamp she made just for him, wishing him a successful project.

She told him that if he used it, success would surely come, and his crew would have a better future. Even if it was only a glimmer of hope.

The sandbeast continues to rush to the upper levels of the mine, its clanking gradually fading into the distance, but the light shines on.

Shana looks up and sees a sunrise deep within the mine.