"Ok well it looks alright to me," Strand sat down on a chair in the tight area and began looking at the information of the reactor itself and the casing.
Brad was still marvelling at the glowing spherical hexagon shaped nuclear fission-reactor.
"Man they don't make these glow anymore…"
Brad looked like a kid who just got a new toy for christmas.
Strand looked amused and scoffed at his fun.
"I'm glad they don't glow anymore, otherwise my Behemoth would be a walking radiating hunk of metal."
Strand's Behemoth was equipped with a low-tier Azonade reactor with an average life-span of a year before needing to be replaced with a new one.
Helium Azonade was one of the few top energy sources. Native only to Mars, it rivals another great energy source, Halcion-3.
"Alright, I already took pictures of this place and downloaded the health status of the reactor, how about we head back?"
Strand was looking at the interface built-in his helmet and thought, "crap I'm going to be late to the conference!"
Last month, he had signed up for a weekly conference every Tuesday of some historians explaining interesting history.It was hosted by the city's propaganda team in an effort to instill a sense of belonging in the people of Mars. However, it was mostly the elderly that attend and as such, it was very boring, if history itself wasn't boring already.
To Strand, history was interesting because it keeps him from forgetting the details of his life in his home world.
His memories are after all, the accumulation of himself and the other 'him' combined. Having not developed psychosis was pretty lucky.
Looking up at Brad Strand spoke hurriedly, "Sure sure, I think we got the whole place checked out anyway."
Actually, Brad was also in a hurry, he suddenly remembered that he had a report that he forgot about.
As the two were leaving the compound, they passed the control room again. Strand wanted to install a new program replacing the original one so he could control and check the mining facility anywhere he goes.
Brad didn't have any other important matters at the mining facility so without wasting anymore time, he left Strand and drove off. Strand had to wait a bit more to wait for the new system to establish itself.
"Damn. I should've installed it earlier! Hurry up!"
The in the corner of his eye, he saw Airy the synth human still staring in the corner at the wall.
"What the…"
"You're back sir!" Airy turned his head 180 degrees as he spoke.
"Turn your head back you demon." Strand was the synth was very good at be a clown.
...
Airy obediently turned his head back to the wall.
"Alright, it's decided, you can come with me." While waiting for the system change to be done, he was thinking about what to do with the synth human. Synths weren't easy to produce as they were not only incredibly advanced, but also unique because they evolve into different personalities based on the environment they live in.
They belong to sort of a hive mind originally since their source code is the same but become separate entities as they experience the world.
Some get modifications like body part changes…
Others get upgrades for their hardware or body so they would stay in good condition when venturing out.
The source code has changed since it was first created, which means older synths simply couldn't compare itself to newer versions.
It seems that Airy is an old model synth. He could be sold for his A.I or be repaired.
"OK sir!" Airy turned his head 180 degrees and walked up to Strand.
…
As they stood quietly on the large platform ascending up to the surface, gusts of wind were sent down by a local dust storm.
"Crap, this is just what I need right now!" Strand braced himself against the heavy wind filled with millions of Mars dust.
Airy simply stood there rooted to the ground with his head spinning circles.
Wrrr.. Wrrr.. Wrrr..
Strand wanted to slap him in the face but was afraid of snapping his head off.
Soon they reached the surface but the wind and dust had gotten so bad that it obscured so much vision that the two couldn't see more than two feet in front of them.
"Should we stay inside a bit longer sir?"
"No we should be fine, this is just a small storm, we'll just walk carefully towards the sound of my vehicle."
Strand pressed something on his right arm, there was a large screen covering part of his forearm.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Behemoth was never turned off manually, but it switched to hibernation mode automatically after a while. From the command, Behemoth roared to life again, with its engine kicking and lights flashing.
They only got out of the underground compound on the mound of the crater, Strand's Behemoth was on the outskirts of the crater.
The distance wasn't much, but it felt like forever to Strand.
Strand tied a strong rope from his kit connecting Airy and him so they would stay together.
They walked bravely against the wind down the mound and out of the crater. It seemed that the storm had happened not long after Strand and Brad entered the underground compound because it should be signs of receding.
"Please be careful sir, watch out for dust worms!" Airy chattered in a slightly alarmed tone.
"Eh, don't worry about them. They don't come during these small storms anymore, I think we've driven them nearly extinct in the past decade haha!"
Strands take notes over the years and from the history of Mars, the death worm population has been declining since humans settled here.
The Solar Federation of humans (headquarters on Earth) wanted to expand their territory on Mars but they could only settle in a small area the size of a country like New Zealand.
Airy didn't look sure with a frowning face. He remembered that death worms were most commonly found on the surface during dust storms, "Sir death worms will definitely come out if they sense you."
"Uh stop worrying, you've been living under a literal rock for decades, let me tell you that small storms like these don't bring death worms out anymore."
Strand waved his hand as he trudged against the fierce winds.
"Is that so.." Air hummed in estrangement as he followed Strand. His head had stopped spinning.