2041-02-14 Digging the Lab

Being underground has its advantages.

Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it.—Gertrude B. Elion

The smell of the jungle far over my head blended with the cut rock and dust of the ongoing excavation and construction. The rigidity of the bedrock underfoot was softened by the resilient soles of my jogging shoes. I stretched my gait to clear a small rivulet of groundwater trickling along its natural channel. The peak of the barrel vault centered above me was well above my reach, and the first strand of work lights pinned there gave me plenty of light to see where I was going. It was a relief to have cool fresh air, room to move, and security at the same time. My secret lair.

My excavating robots continued to work around my underground habitat. Once I had the excess energy of the monorail’s solar canopy, I put the excavators to work digging out the space for my research facility.

I went straight to bedrock and worked upwards from there. The robots built barrel vaults of dry-laid stone, chinked and fitted with a precision approximating the finest inlay. The walls were almost half a meter thick, against hard-packed alluvial soil, and proved resistant to earthquake and settling for the next forty years. Last time I checked, the tunnels were still there. Good robots.