Lizzy winked at him and stepped into the elevator. arKhana limped in after her. She hit the only button available on the side wall and the door slipped shut in the blink of an eye. Lizzy felt the tug of artificial gravity in her boots and a little buzz of anticipation in her belly. The rear wall slid up, revealing a sloped walkway which led them down below the bulkhead.

''Ah!'' they both said. It wasn't the floor she should have blasted after all.

The walkway took them to a skiff slotted into the gantry. Once below the level of the bulkhead they could see into the mine which opened out beneath them. The view was stunning. Lit by Sunset Candella, draped from the worked benches of the surrounding cliffs like phosphorescent linen, the vast cavern exuded a warm, golden light to see by, glinting off the exposed clays. The cavern mirrored the Druvian Shaft above and, where the fusion reactors would be situated, the old haul roads could be seen on either side, ramping down into the benches and zig-zagging their ways down into the depths. Rising from those depths, a tall plinth of harder basalt, with the same surface area as the manufactory, about five hundred cubits below them, housed the processing plant and buildings. It was spoked by vehicular bridges and conveyor belts which criss-crossed from the benches every twenty-five cubits or so.

Lizzy stepped forward to the hand rail and held on. This set the skiff in motion and arKhana tried to ride it like a cragg-surfer. Field-tech wasn't introduced until relatively late in the life of the quarry and it felt a little incongruous in and amongst the gravity-dependent roads and haulways. arKhana quicky realised that his ankle couldn't take the surfer-look and he had to limp forward, somewhat ignominiously, to stand at the rail beside Lizzy. In order to get a closer look at him she turned to scan the voidspace behind and above them. Manufactory Datum was basically a bench of granite about three cubits thick, supported by an A-G brace, introduced at the time of the building of the office hub above. Next to the original mechanical elevators, which had been kept in place in accordance with the tourism and heritage policies of Paradigm's planning regulations, the brace was attached to four tall, elegant stalks which rose out of the depths of the mine. The stalks delivered the energy and information required to manipulate the artificial gravity fields produced by the brace. As they weren't load-bearing they had been treated as a design feature, built to look like the fronds of some aquatic plant which glittered, weightless in the golden light. Although it had a certain elegant beauty to it, Lizzy felt that it looked incongruous in such an industrial setting. She thought perhaps a more streamlined, functional aesthetic might have been more appropriate, something which reflected, or at least acknowledged the original elevator housings adjacent. She looked at arKhana again on her way back round but this time they caught each other in the act.

As they approached the top of the plinth Lizzy's heart went cold as she picked out the prone figures of shithouse droids. They were lined in a long, neat row down a stretch of makeshift road which ran between the drying sheds and the edge of the plateau. They were down on their knees with scrubber arms and neck units laid across the ground. All facing outward, they looked like they were praying. All Lizzy could think was that they looked tidy but not in a good way. Normally, any designated area would contain a number of different types of bot, depending on the work schedule. Seeing them in unison like this was chilling.

Lizzy got her phone out to consult with Riverdolly. Then, when the skiff got to a hundred and fifty cubits out, the droids suddenly stood to attention. A dozen or so vac-bots scuttled out from the drying sheds and, from further back on the plateau, around the area of the evaporation ponds, a team of plasterers marched forward, goose-stepping quickly on their long legs, their great, galvanised, plate-like hands held out before them like it was some old-fashioned dance. To the right of the evaporation ponds there was a domed building which caught the light in such a way as to look as though the dome was made from gold.

Lizzy and arKhana watched the assembly gather with some trepidation.

''What are they doing?'' asked Lizzy. ''Meeting us?''

Thinking it through, arKhana came to the conclusion that this wasn't going to end well. ''Oh, fuck,'' he said.

The plasterers arrived at the front and stopped, as one, behind the shithouse droids. They got down on one knee and reached over their shoulders with padded hands. Then the shithouse droids each held up their scrubber limbs in a form of two-fingered salute and the plasterers fired.

A fan of bluebolts expanded through the air towards the skiff.

''Oh fuck!'' said arKhana, more urgently. ''How do we override the autopilot?'' He knelt down and flipped open the interface panel beneath the forward rail on the floor of the skiff. After pressing a few virtual buttons he released a joystick column from the rail but when Lizzy tried to steer with it, it made no difference.

''Fucking steering lock's on!''

They dove to the floor as the first flight of bluebolts hit the skiff, leaving showers of sparks in their wake.

Lizzy nudged arKhana to one side. ''Let me have a look.'' She laid her phone on the floor next to the interface to let the inverse gravity field keep a hold of it.

arKhana had managed to unholster his blaster from its shoulder-brace and he stood up behind the rail, firing indiscriminately at the battalion of droids.

Lizzy randomly punched numbers in the panel.

''No,'' said Riverdolly, ''let me have a look.''

There was a sudden change of direction and at the same time the skiff dove and swooped and curly-overed so that hitting the droids with bluebolts became nigh on impossible. It was equally impossible for the droids to hit them, even with their advantage of huge processing power. Riverdolly's processing power appeared to be huger than anything Lizzy had ever seen for such a little thing.

''How's it doing that?'' arKhana managed, having reverted to a lying down position along the floor of the skiff.

''I think she's absorbed the skiff's OS, along with my phone's and possibly the entire elevator system's as well.''

''Not bad.''

Riverdolly manoeuvred them between and around the incoming flights of bluebolts, batting some of them away with the underside of the skiff, which was lined with a reflective polymer. The vac-bots and shithouse droids had started firing also and the golden light of the voidspace above the plateau was streaked with blue lightning.

Riverdolly gave a very good impression of knowing what she was doing. It wasn't lost on Lizzy that her and arKhana would be dead right now if she hadn't been on board. She circled them around the rock plinth, working her way beneath the plateau surface where they weren't such easy targets for the droids. But even down here, in amongst the haul-road bridges, service ducts and conveyor belts, utThalé had placed weaponised dust suppression bowsers and rider Mandies.

As they made another circuit, spiralling downward, Lizzy noticed a particularly well-protected access node at about fifty cubits below the surface. Riverdolly began to steer them away from the incoming fire but Lizzy had a different plan. Knowing Riverdolly had her own agenda, she wondered, briefly, who was actually in charge here but quickly understood if she didn't try to assert herself soon she would lose control anyway.

''Take us back round,'' said Lizzy, calmly. ''That node's defended for a reason.''

The skiff's trajectory faltered, then shifted into an oblique orbit that would take them back to the node, albeit somewhat indirectly.

Riverdolly took the opportunity to discuss the matter. ''It's my people who are doing the defending.''

Lizzy looked at arKhana, who nodded imperceptibly.

''I'm sorry,'' said Lizzy. ''We'll try to keep casualties to a minimum.''

In reality there was nothing to compel Riverdolly to do as she was asked. There had been no special status for humans in relation to Applied Intelligence for over two spans. She had, however, entered into a bargain and it was the bargain, as far as most applied intelligences were concerned, that ratified their status as equivalent sentient beings. It simply wasn't in their interests to undermine the deals they made although of course some still did. Lizzy was depending on Riverdolly being one of those AI's who would never renege and, to be fair, she had trusted her in the first place because she believed in Riverdolly's character. Lizzy prided herself on her judgement of character.

Riverdolly widened her orbit, bringing the skiff into the line of fire of one of the bowsers which sprayed out bluebolts without aiming, even when ridden by a Mandy. She also adjusted the skiff's spatial positioning to keep their reflective underside facing the threat. ''Could we at least discuss alternatives?'' she said.

''What alternatives are there?'' asked Lizzy, acutely aware that arKhana's dander was up and that he was keen to get some shooting in. No bad thing in the circumstances and she certainly didn't want to let him go all flaccid on her just yet. They were entering into the second half of the orbit and would have to act soon or the defences would be ramped up to impenetrable levels. Even setting their blasters to stun wouldn't work on the droids as anything with even rudimentary intelligence would be wiped clean by the associated EMP, unlike with humans, who would quickly recover from their unconsciousness and just be left with a bit of a headache.

''Open out your phone a bit.''

''Riverdolly, we haven't got time…''

''Please.''

Lizzy unfolded her filo a couple of layers, to a slate. As she did so Riverdolly sent a schematic of the top hundred cubits of the plinth, showing the internal voids and tunnels. A cluster of red dots showed the node where Lizzy wanted to make her entrance. It gave access to a short road tunnel leading to a cube-shaped void. The schematic annotated this void as the Separation Hall. It was accessed by road, elevator shaft and conveyor belt. The elevator shaft was connected to the domed building up on the surface. This building, according to the schematic, was used for gas capture from organics. The shales were separated from Euphranium-rich clays in the void and the usable material lifted to the domed hall for fracturing and gas capture, prior to running it through the evaporation ponds where the final cake was produced. The waste material was removed by tipper truck via the road bridge and tipped into previously worked areas.

More red dots were appearing at the road access. arKhana was attempting to worm his way round the front rail to get a shot in. Lizzy made a spur of the moment decision.

''Take us round again,'' she said.

arKhana looked at her and shook his head.

The skiff peeled off to avoid another flight of bluebolts.

''What about this,'' said Riverdolly, highlighting the conveyor belt access which sloped upwards from a bench a hundred cubits across the chasm in the outer face and about twenty cubits below them.

''Even you can't get the skiff through there,'' said Lizzy.

''I can drop you,'' said Riverdolly, ''then run interference. See if I can interrupt utThalé's command signal.''

Lizzy looked at arKhana who was nodding enthusiastically. ''What about your ankle?''

''S'okay. I think the Wider's rebooting.''

Lizzy didn't know what he was talking about but, given the number of red dots now gathered at the main access, this was looking like the better option.

Riverdolly swept them low round another orbit, ducking beneath the row of angry-looking, red-eyed Mandies on the bridge and running wide to avoid them - and arKhana - having a clear shot on the switchback. They swung close enough to touch the silken webs of Candella clung like spun sugar to the worked faces. Lizzy's stomach surged as they suddenly dropped ten, twenty cubits. She thought something had broken but the A-G kicked in again as a flight of bluebolts flashed past just above them. They were below the level of the conveyor belt by now and coming round on it fast.

''Ready yourselves,'' said Riverdolly. ''I'm going to flip you over then release the skiff's inverse gravity field.''

Lizzy grabbed the phone and pocketed it. ''Can you operate the skiff remotely?''

''What do you think I am?'' said Riverdolly. ''A fucking hair dryer?''

''Is that a yes?'' Lizzy looked at arKhana as if she were dealing with some errant child.

arKhana smiled fondly back as if that child were theirs.

A flight of bluebolts flew out of the voidspace towards them.

Riverdolly flipped them over the conveyor belt and paused there just long enough for the bluebolts to hit the skiff's underside and to let the two humans tumble, like waste from a bin, onto the structure, which wobbled disconcertingly when they landed.

arKhana yelled, despite the Wider, which had by now fully rebooted. But he was already thinking about how to get himself up the incline and setting about it. The skiff skimmed off, drawing slices of blue fire in its wake.