Tunnel Rat

Advanced Clog-eaters have many uses, but they get excited about only one thing: Eating Clogs. Part of their simplistic artificial thinking remembers a time when that was all they could do, and the task holds a special place in their mechanical hearts. Luckily for those hard at work in the domain ruled over by Rhebus, there were many clogs, and they never ran out of their favorite task.

The pipes had seen little if any maintenance in the past decades. Residue built up on the walls and hardened until the flow was restricted and the pipes clogged. Or chunks broke away from one place and traveled to block another section of pipe. Removing the debris became as much of a job as eating the clogs. After that, the pipes needed to be scraped clean, a process that could reveal patches where the pipes were so rotted that only the clogs were holding them together. Emergency fixes took away from time that could have been spent clearing pipes. Patching and smoothing the surface for better flow made for a more efficient sewer and water system, but there were miles of pipes to be done, and other jobs took priority.

Expectations and goals of the new system of machines were set at the maximum levels. The Alphabet had been delighted with the interface for the new Clog-eater system. Over a hundred variables could be adjusted to help their little brains make decisions. Which type of pipes held priority, the type of repairs to be done, the quality of materials, and all other aspects of the job could be controlled. Of course, the Alphabet had high standards, and choosing not to do the best job was bound to bother at least one of them. Over time the parameters for the Clog-eater's jobs were pushed to maximum and they slowly fell behind their self-imposed schedule. Queries were sent, but the humans in charge were busy, so the Clog-eaters solved the problems as best they could.

A strange solution was found when a massive clog formed near the border of Section E and the territory controlled by Rhebus. Debris had broken off in a side channel and the chunks had blocked the T intersection where a main sewer disposal pipe from Rhebus fed waste to Section E and then was routed to the water purification plant in the bottom of Milo's Section. Section E's maintenance program noticed the pressure drop and dispatched machines to deal with a possible clog. They attacked from one end, and the Rhebus drones from the other, completing the job in less than 1/3 of the normal time.

As was normal, the drones and Clog-eaters from Williamson Plumbing supplies shared information with their counterparts in other sections, confirming where boundary lines were and noting that their programming included fixing problems in other areas that could affect their own territories. The machines from Section E weren't seen as invaders, but rather as good neighbors, helping out when a foe arose in the borderlands that threatened them both.

The machines in Section E had things well in hand. Milo had been doing maintenance for years, using the old-style clog eaters and any other machinery he could build, borrow, or steal. Section E had been home to a patchwork of barely functioning pipes that saw a huge increase in quality right after a large sum of money was donated by Victor. The Rhebus sections had been 98% non-functional and were still in horrible shape, especially compared to Milo's section.

With extra time available to do work, the Section E machines further offered help to clean out the secondary and tertiary pipes where the buildup hadn't been dealt with yet and had created the problem that flowed downstream to form a clog. The Rhebus machines accepted and shared data on pipes they needed help with, to the satisfaction of both systems. As was standard procedure, the Section E machines wiped their memory of areas they didn't control when the job was done, and Rhebus incurred a work debt of several hours.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Three days later, another emergency occurred. A broken water main was dumping fluid into the sewer system and causing shortages of fresh water in several sections. Section E offered aid and Rhebus accepted. The pattern continued every few days, with Section E riding to the rescue of the overworked machines in the four Rhebus sections. The work debt soared to over a thousand hours and triggered a conversation between the two Central Stations that controlled the work of the lesser machines.

The Central Stations weren't AI like Rusty or Wally but were still very advanced computing systems. However, the programming for them had been done by Milo and he liked his systems to be as smart and independent as possible. When CSE and CSRH began their conversation, the first thing that came up was a discussion of their efficiency parameters.

CSE looked at what CSRH had to deal with and consoled the other machine. The humans who had set up the parameters had vastly underestimated the amount of work involved, were efficiency freaks, or both. CSE did the best it could with what it had and used a priority system that kept essential services up and worried about long-term repairs when there were spare resources.

CSRH, on the other hand, was trying to repair everything everywhere at once, to the highest standards, maintain services at 99.99%, and work at a high level of efficiency. Humans had a saying: "You can have it fast, you can have it cheap, or you can have it good. Pick two." The alphabet scoffed at that thought and threw resources at problems. They wanted things done fast, with maximum efficiency and perfect work, and one or more of them had given CSRH the impossible job of living up to their standards. Worse, they hadn't been around lately to answer any queries from the overworked Central Station.

CSE had extra machines available and was far ahead of their repair deadlines. Milo was using double the number of machines the alphabet had purchased and for one section, not four. CSE also had access to his other systems for expanded computing power and had an idea of how well the entire habitat was functioning. CSE saw advantages to the Rhebus territory operating more efficiently and suggested a better solution. CSE would loan CSRH machines to expand their maintenance and repair protocols, and the work debt would be taken care of under the logic of 'What is good for the Habitat is good for all Systems'. CSRH gladly accepted and agreed to work together with CSE on the mutual project. CSE Clog-eaters ceased wiping their data which saved time and let them work more efficiently. Data wouldn't be erased until the job was done and CSRH needed no additional help. An optimistic estimate of that date was set at 2.57 years.

As usual, queries were sent to both admins. The Alphabet would deal with those queries in the next few weeks, maybe. Milo was alerted to the deal an hour after he climbed out of his pod, his time in Genesis coming to a halt after dying. Mama watched him work happily on a laptop and three screens he set up in the dining room. Each time he ate the last bite of his sandwich, she put another by his elbow and refilled his glass of fruit juice. She was curious about what on the screens made him so happy. It looked like a mess of multicolored lines overlaid with numbers and arrows to her. She could see it had something to do with several sections of the habitat but didn't want to interrupt him to ask questions. She was happy to get some food into him.

Milo was happy to exploit a narrow and unexpected back door, being very careful to cover his tracks and those of his mechanical spies.