Mining Strovon

It’s very hard living on Strovon. Especially if you are a miner trying to live there.

What you are about to read is true. That's Not all, though. After all, this has already been translated into a language that we all know and understand - English (German, French, Italian, Russian, etc.).

Mining Strovon

A Short Story

Written By

SpaceFaction

     Khacim isn’t the only one to stagger out of this mine looking weak and tired. About two thousand other Strovons also leave this mine. Some of them are also staggering out of there. All look weak and tired as they start walking across this endless-looking desert.

     As Khacim and the other Strovons are walking across this desert, several square-shaped metal boxes are following them from above. Some of the time, most of these boxes are too far up to be seen by these Strovons, but sometimes they do fly somewhat closer to them. When this happens, some of these Strovons stop walking and react to them.

     One of these Strovons is usually Khacim. He stops and looks up at these metal boxes. That’s not all that he does. Khacim also places one of his thumbs to his nose and wiggles his straight-up fingers and hand at this metal box. He’s not saying hello to this box. After all, he’s smiling sheepishly while he does it.

     “Why do you keep doing this? We know you are watching us from your spaceship in orbit around our planet. You don’t need to keep doing this twenty-five/eight/forty.”

#

     Just as Khacim gets to the front door of his house, it opens to reveal his spouse and three kids. Like him, his family, and the rest of Strovon, his house looks like it’s about to fall apart. There are holes everywhere, just like their clothing. It barely covers this small two-story house.

     Khacim staggers into his living room, limping with his spouse and kids helping him. He stumbles as he falls into the nearest chair. “Another hard day in the mines,” says his spouse, Homimea.

     “What do you think?” answers Khacim, somewhat loud and accusingly. “It’s always a hard day on Strovon now.”

     “I didn’t mean it the way it sounds.” Homimea starts walking out of their living room. Their two sons and their daughter are removing most of his clothes and shoes. “What little we have to eat will be ready in a few minutes.”

     Homimea stops just before leaving their living room to look at Khacim and their kids, who are now looking at her. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounds, either. You aren’t to blame for us having enough food to eat.”

#

     Once again, Khacim is back working at one of the mines on Strovon. He’s helping the other Strovon there to collect multi-colored minerals and gems from the walls there. After they chip these minerals and gems from the walls with their picks, they place them into the top of one of the open metal containers there.

     Four Strovons push the heavy containers down this mine after they are full. When it reaches the end of this mine, the container tips over, emptying its contents into two large holes there. One hole is for the minerals. The other one is for the gems.

     Pushing the full containers isn’t too hard because they are going down. The hardest part is keeping hold of them so they don’t go down too fast. It’s even harder to push them back up these mines. Usually, nothing happens, but sometimes it does.

     The four Strovons push these containers back up by getting behind them and physically pushing them. Two of them are in the middle, and the other two are on the sides of them. Suddenly, these four Strovons lose control of their container. Only one doesn’t get hurt by it.

#

     One of the Strovons in the middle of this container stays with it after they lose control of it. It’s hard for him to fall under it like the Strovon next to him, but he does stay on his scrapping backward feet most of the time. The two Strovons on the sides of this container get out of the way only to be partially trapped under its wheels.

     The Strovon that doesn’t get hurt almost does. He almost falls into the gem hole at the bottom of this cave. Just before he falls, he grabs hold of the out-of-control container. Not only does he stop his fall, but he also stops this container.

     “What are we going to do about this?” One of a group of Comnons watching what has been happening to the Strovons in one of the mines on Strovon asks.

     Another one of the Comnons, watching what has been happening on a large viewscreen in front of about twenty other Comnons, taps one of the buttons on his chair. The images that a metal box has been showing them disappear. “We aren’t going to do anything. After all, we aren’t the reason why this has happened there.”

#

     A Strovon uses his tattered, hole-filled, gloved hands to place a large amount of some minerals into a half-full container. He gestures for three other Strovons to help him. “This part of the mine is useless to use now. After we send this amount to our owners, we will need to create another part of this mine to mine.”

     “That container isn’t full yet,” says a voice coming from out of a metal box hovering above them. “You need to fill it up before you give it to us.”

     All the Strovons in that part of the mine look up at the hovering box. “We can’t do that,” says another Strovon. “There aren’t any more minerals and gems in this part of this mine.”

     “That’s not a problem,” says the voice coming from the box above them. “We will create a new part of this mine for you.” Suddenly, a large green beam comes out of the center of this box and opens up another part of this mine for the Strovons. This new part is too close to these Strovons. It also creates an opening that may kill all these Strovons.

###

     Khacim is still asleep when Homimea wakes him up. “Get up. You’re going to be late for work.”

     “No, I’m not,” says Khacim groggily as he sits up in their bed. “I’m not going into work today, and I’m not the only one who won’t be doing it.”

     “You can’t do that. None of you can do that.” Homimea helps a weak and tired Khacim get out of their bed. “You know what will happen if you don’t go into work today.”

     Khacim pushes Homimea away from him as he staggers toward the door to their bedroom. “I know what will happen. We all know what will happen. There won’t be any minerals and gems collected today.”

     “That’s not what I mean, and you know it.” Homimea has almost fallen from Khacim’s push. She rushes to catch up to him. “It has nothing to do with the collection today. The owners of our planet, the Comnons, won’t let you and the others stop from working today.”

     “We know what may happen to us, but we don’t care.” Khacim stops just before he leaves their bedroom. “We’re not going back to work until a lot of things change on Strovon.”

#

     This time, there are about fifty Comnons watching the viewscreen in front of them. They are looking at one of the mines on Strovon. “No one showed up to work at this mine today,” says one of the Comnons. “We can’t let the rest of Strovon know about this. They may do the same thing.”

     The Comnon sitting behind the other Comnons stands up. She looks at the others while she speaks. “I don’t know what we are going to do about these Strovons yet, but we will do something about it.”

     “I think I know what we should do,” says one of the other Comnons there. “We need to let everyone on Strovon know what these Strovon have done. To show them what will happen to them if they do what these Strovons have done.”

     Smiling, the Leader of this group of Comnons keeps her eyes on this Comnon while he is speaking. “I agree with you. We need to tell everyone on Strovon about these Strovons. The big question isn’t what we tell everyone, but what we are going to do with these Strovons.”

#

     Everyone who has refused to return to work has been taken from their living situations by force. Four Comnons for each one have been used to take them. They have been taken to the center of this community. That is all that has happened to them so far.

     All the spouses, kids, friends, and neighbors can do is watch it happen. A lot of them complain about it happening, and some say it shouldn’t be happening, but most of them cry about it, especially the spouses and kids of these Strovons. They all stop crying and complaining when they see a space shuttle land near them.

     The first thing to come out of this space shuttle is about a million square metal boxes. Only one stays there. All the others fly off in different directions. The next ones to come out of these are about fifty Comnons, starting with the Leader of them.

     “Don’t panic, this Watcher and the others going around Strovon aren’t going to hurt anyone yet,” says the Leader of these Comnons. “These Watchers are only going to show what will happen if they are thinking about doing what these Strovons have done.”

#

     Suddenly, the Watcher with these Strovons, who have refused to return to work, starts showing them on the side of a small house near them. “These images you are looking at right now may not be appearing all over Strovon, but they will be soon. Once everyone on Strovon is watching these images, we will tell you what we are going to do to you.”

     “It’s not what you think,” continues the Leader of these Comnons. “We came to Strovon because you asked us to come here to help you. All we asked in return was for you to help us with our mining operation.”

     “That’s not completely true,” says one of the Strovons loudly, who has refused to return to work. “You haven’t done anything to help us. After all, you told us you would help us to advance our world. Instead of doing that, you kept the way we were. All you have done is take over our planet, and I’m not talking about just our mining operations.”

     Suddenly, the Leader taps her ear. “Everyone can see what we are seeing now. It’s time to tell everyone what we are going to do to you.”

#

     The Watcher isn’t going to be the one who kills the Strovons there. It will be the other Comnons with their Leader who will do it. After surrounding these Strovons, these Comnons pull hand weapons of some kind, and now they are pointing their weapons at them. “You have a choice,” says the Leader. “Either you can return to work, or we will kill you.”

     “Killing us won’t get you what you want,” says one of the Strovons who are about to die. “Wouldn’t it be better just to give us what we want? You won’t have to threaten to kill us, or worse, kill us.”

     “What is it that you want?” The Leader asks.

     Another Strovon answers the Leader’s question. “We want you to help us like you said you were going to do, and you can start by improving the mine conditions so that no one else needs to die from working there.”

     “We could do that, but we aren’t going to.” The Leader clicks her fingers, and the other Comnons there start to kill the Strovons who refuse to return to work. Almost everyone all over Strovon is going to see this happen.

Word Count = 1,942

Besides cyberpunk, some of the subgenres that I use in this Short Story include biopunk, nanopunk, desertpunk, oceanpunk, atompunk, dystopianpunk (probably not a Punk until now), and utopianpunk (Probably not a Punk until now).