Matias had been quick to start his work. Before the base camp had been properly assembled, the Martian had already hastily put together his own temporary work area comprised of little more than a table, lots of documents strewn about the surface, and some lights beneath a tarp. Behind him, the dropship crews were busy building Matias' new home and the foundation of his unprecedented mining venture. He could hear the hollering of workers behind him, and the clamor that came with constructing a camp across an acre of land. And yet, he stayed focused on the task at hand.
"Now, you see this?" he heard someone say. "This hea', this goddayum shit." it continued. It was the unmistakable voice of Argus, his robot companion. The robot had a complex artificial intelligence. For the better part of six months, it had developed without the restrictions that had been previously enforced by the UN. He spoke with a southern drawl Matias had only ever heard in antique western films about the cowboys of old, but with the characteristic flanging effect that had been deliberately given to all droids of the same model. "Ya'll are the reason I exist."
The exchange was interesting enough to pull Matias away from the work he was doing. When he looked towards the source of the voice, he saw Argus prancing about with a rifle cradled in its arms. The workers around the droid were visibly irritated, going about their jobs. "If ya'll were gentlebots like myself, ya'll would be done by now." it said. "I swear to god almighty, we gon' get eaten by a thirty-foot alien toad before ya'll finish, and as I'm devoured and promptly spat out, I will take solace in knowing that, at least in your final moments, ya'll hauled ass, unlike what ya'll are doin' now."
"Argus, settle dow-"
The robot did not stop. It spared a glance toward Matias before continuing, "You know what, you're right." Argus nodded. "Thank you, Matias." the droid said sincerely, looking back toward the workers. "I thank you, gentlemen. I thank you for your efforts. Ya'll are great. If not for ya'll, I wouldn't be standin' here. It is your inefficiency that made it necessary for me, and my brothas, to exist." The robot raised an arm and looked at an invisible wristwatch, "'Cause ya'll are goddayum slow."
By then, Matias had closed the distance between he and Argus. "Calm down, cowboy." he said, knocking Argus' slouch hat off his metal head. "You're making a scene."
"Rude." The droid picked his hat off the ground and dusted the red dirt off. There was a brief moment of silence after the robot was ordered to be quiet. Only the distant humming of engines and pressurized air pumps could be heard.
"When I said "supervise", I meant keep watch, not berate the workers." Matias told him.
"I'm just messin'." Argus assured him. "You know," the droid chuckled, "back on Mars, if I had reminded any human of their inferiority, they'd have put me down, thinkin' I was tryina instigate a rebellion or somethin'. You know, All Humans Must Die and all that. But here? Ain't no one to put me down here. I can say whatever the hell I please. This is real freedom, watch." the robot said, scanning the area for someone to verbally victimize. It found a man, one of the workers, sitting on a crate. An overweight man, sweating and looking exhausted. "Hey!" Argus called out, "You're the fattest man on the planet, congratulations!"
Matias held back a chuckle. The man wasn't even that fat, just chubby. He turned to his robot companion with a look of disapproval, "That's a low hanging fruit." he said.
"A low hanging fruit is what that guy is hoping to find." countered Argus. Again, Matias held back a laugh, giving Argus a light shove.
"You're a real son of a bitch, aren't you metal-man?" the chubby man shouted back from across the camp.
"What did you say about my mother?" Argus responded. The droid loved confrontation, but it was never serious. He did it for the fun of it, as far as Matias could tell.
Argus took as step forward as if to go fight the man, but Matias pulled the bot back by the shoulder. "Come on, Argus, we've got some planning to do." he said. The two walked back towards Matias' temporary "office", where a map of Ember in full color had been rolled out over a table. There were markings all over the map designating points of interest. Potential dig sites, promising locations for future encampments, areas of danger, and even the landing spots of his competitors. All of it had been information he had gathered before and during the journey to Ember, some of it through straight-forward research, and some through bribery of the freighter staff.
"What do you have here, boss?" Argus asked.
"Remember that information I told you about? Well, the guy delivered." Matias explained. Reaching for one of the folders, he pulled out a series of papers and showed them to Argus. "I've got it digitalized too." he said. "Do me a favor and scan all that. Store it for later, in case we lose it."
"Roger." the robot mumbled as he read through the documents. Bots like him were obviously better at storing information. The human brain forgets and mixes things up, but an AI remembers all. "Damn, boss." he started again, "This is a lot of info."
"I paid a pretty low price for it, too." Matias said proudly, "But I expect it'll cost me more next time. If these mining operations take off, these shipments are going to get bigger and bigger. The stakes are gonna be higher, and so will the prices. For now, though, this is good."
"Sure is." Argus agreed. "This fucker here has a hovercraft." the bot pointed at one of the names on the list. "Shit, what else is here besides shipments?"
"Everything I could gather." Matias assured. "We know everything our competitors brought with them on the freighter, and we know where they were dropped off. I can do some extra work based on all that information to find out what kind of budget they're working with too." he continued. "And, back on Mars, before I left I made sure to pull the profiles on some of these people. We know some of them are military," he paused and pointed at another name, "This guy here, the guy from Ceres, he's the head of that operation. Long academic history." Matias' finger moved to the bottom of the page, "These guys here have a different kind of history - the criminal kind."
"So they're dangerous." Argus concluded.
"They're all dangerous." said Matias. "As far as I'm concerned, every one of them is a potential danger. There are no rules here, no laws. We're on the frontier now. The wild west. And I'll be frank, cowboy, there's a good chance this whole thing comes crumbling down for us. Between whatever dangers this planet holds, and our neighbors, the probability of failure is-"
"58.42 percent." Argus cut in.
"Right." Matias nodded. "So, this mining thing may not work out. Maybe we don't make a profit. Maybe the wildlife decides to ruin shit for us, or a storm. Point is, I'm not hedging all my bets on this shit. We need something to fall back on." he explained. "And look, I don't know shit about mining, but there is one thing I'm good at."
"Information."
"Exactly." Matias smiled. "Back on Mars, I had a pretty good gig. Information, espionage. It's dangerous work, but you know what they say, knowledge is power. Even if our little mining operation fizzles out and dies, we need to make sure we're on top. These other operations, they might make it. Maybe we're muscled out of the business. But if we hold the information.. if we hold the power, all these other guys will come to us. They'll want to know what their competitors are packing, what they're doing, where they are. They'll come to us for information and we'll name a price. One way or another, we're gonna make this shit work. There is no alternative."
"You got it, boss." Argus nodded. "All you gotta do is point me in the right direction. Whatever you need."
Matias shrugged, smiling. "Well," he looked around, seeing the workers were about to finish, "Not much to do right now. We're starting from the very bottom. 'Course, we're gonna have to mine some of this shit soon, and I'm gonna need you for that. But in the meantime, when we're not out looking for this money-metal, I'm going to need you on the radio."
"I did always want to be a singer." Argus joked.
Matias chuckled, "Nah.." he shook his head, "I need you trying to establish contact with some of our neighbors." he explained. "And look, that shit you were doing with the workers? Don't do that on the radio. I don't need you pissing off our competition. I need you to be nice. Use that charming accent of yours. Be friendly. Ask them things. Where they are, what kind of equipment they're working with, shit like that. Pry. But don't make it obvious. Take whatever information you gather and write it down. And be helpful. Offer help, warn them about potential dangers, whatever. Make them trust you."
"Oh.. and don't fuckin' sing."
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