Free Bootstrap Colony by Chris Hechtl Page A

He gave Ginger and Hera’s ears a rub, then
whistled Max to heel as he stepped outside. The dog needed no second
invitation, bounding out of the mobile home and off to do his business on a
nearby tire. “That reminded me, I probably need to dump the sewage tank,” Mitch
sighed, then set on his ball cap and headed off to the caves.
    Andy eight had a lot of stripped
gears, plus some torn wiring and a couple bent supports. He had set up a
temporary workshop in the entrance to the cave he considered the great hall.
The damaged robots were there, as well as bins of parts, a makeshift bench, and
a few machine tools. The rain started up again, he looked out to the cave
entrance then back down at Max who was sitting near the entrance. “Guess we’re
stuck here for the moment,” he said. He rolled up his sleeves and got to work.
Cleaning the mud and grime was going to be messy.
    Swapping out damaged parts for
good ones was easy. Bending the brackets back without a good vice had been an
interesting challenge... That was until he got the idea of having the ED clamp
down on one part of the bracket as he pounded it back into shape. Andy eight
was back in shape after an hour, but would still have a slight limp. Ed’s
damage was both cosmetic from the outside, the leg scratches had not pierced
the armor. He checked the gears in the hips and arm, they looked okay. The
elbow servos were warm, he found a crimped liquid nitrogen line and was forced
to bleed the line, and then replace it.
    It was almost amusing to pick
broken teeth out of the underside of the arm. Almost. Some of the wiring to the
hand motors and sensors had been torn, some time splicing had repaired them. ED
reported function restored in its deep basso metallic voice. He smiled. One of
the mini-me’s had a burned out ankle servo, an easy patch job. He knew the
androids were just not suited to the outdoors. They hadn’t been designed for
it; they had originally been designed as household servants and aides to
disabled and elderly people. He patched a few more androids before deciding it
was best if he had them concentrate on cave activities. Only one GP robot
needed repair, it had lost a track and gummed its wheels up with a couple
rocks.
     
    The next day shined bright in
clear, at least clear through the moving clouds. It looked good, like the
weather was clearing. He set up a GP to drain the sewage tank then hurried
through the morning chores. He was eager to get to the next project. Last night
he had taken a sample of rock back to the mobile home, a bit of scanning with
the laser scanner had confirmed it was limestone. When the chores were done he
was going to set the robots to leveling the caves walls, floors, and ceilings,
then head out to get a couple loads of sand and clay.
     
    Spending the morning with the
bobcat and dump truck had been an interesting affair. The river had swollen
after the rain, but he could still access the sandy embankment with little
trouble. He took a half a dozen loads, letting the robotic dump truck tow out
one of the empty fertilizer trailers to fill as well. He had them dumped inside
the perimeter in a series of mounds; he could tidy them up later. He took an
MRE lunch break then had a tractor carry the bobcat on one of the small
trailers to the clay he had spotted. A nearby elk drinking had made him freeze;
a careful view around the area had not spotted any predators.
    He managed several loads, during
his lunch break he had hit upon the idea of using the farm tractors to tow
trailers and empty containers. They had eaten into his fuel reserve, but he had
had plenty of hydrogen now. The trips back and forth were quick, only taking a
half hour for each vehicle despite the drying ground and spots of mud puddles.
After the sixth turnaround he decided to send the medium range UAV out to see
if he could spot a gravel pit, or at least some good granite. Sure he had
limestone, but it took eons for it to convert into granite. Getting