***ANAD won’t let you down, Base…verifying config six-one alpha…bond breakers optimized for solid phase disassembly…effectors are primed and enabled…Base, ANAD estimating fifteen to twenty hours transit time but I’ll get there…ANAD will coordinate with other swarms to locate Trooper Hiroshi…don’t worry, we’ll make it--***
“Time’s critical, ANAD…Lucy may be hurt or unconscious. Her suit may be breached. Get going and report back any problems.”
The nanoscale assembler began its descent on max propulsor toward the canyon opening, slamming loose atoms together in an exponential frenzy. The intense blue-white glare soon drifted down and slowly merged with the other swarms, forming a miniature sunburst in the black mouth of the Chasm of Asgard. The effect resembled some kind of weird sunset, slowly being swallowed up by the Chasm. Dust that still hung thick in the asteroid’s microgravity added streaks of red, yellow and green to the spectacle.
“Anything else we can do now, Skipper?” asked Taj Singh. “There must be something we can do.”
Winger checked swarm status on his wristpad; already ANAD was returning acoustic soundings from the chasm walls. Config six-one alpha—good; on course---that’s good; max propulsor engaged and bond breakers in primed position—all good. The warning flag had disappeared.
“Now we wait,” he answered. “Anything else we could do might make the situation worse. Taj, keep trying to get Lucy…try all bands. Maybe we can get a signal through all that rock, give ANAD something to home on.”
Singh tapped out comm codes on his own wristpad. “Trooper Hiroshi, this is Charlie Team, do you copy? Lucy, comm check, can you read me, over? Trooper Singh, broadcasting in the clear…all troopers report back immediately—“
Nothing came back. Only static. A growing sense of unease descended on the detail as they hung helplessly by the edge of the chasm, watching ANAD, waiting. Hoping. Wondering.
The glow of ANAD operations filled the upper banks of the Chasm for nearly twenty hours. In that time, the swarms penetrated some twenty-five meters into the rock fall and debris that had collapsed on Hiroshi. A narrow tunnel, less than two meters in diameter was bored out of the slide and Winger directed additional ANAD work be done at the top of the Chasm to shore up the walls and the tunnel, to keep it from collapsing again.
“This ditch is pretty unstable,” agreed Al Glance. “The sooner we can get to Lucy, the better.”
“I’m betting this won’t be the last slide either,” Winger added. “I’d better make sure the other dig sites take the same precautions.”
There was little for the rescue detail to do while ANAD continued boring into the fallen rubble pile.
Taj Singh stood off to one side, quietly seeking assurances from his esteemed ancestors, muttering imprecations under his breath every so often. Chris Calderon ran scans of the ground along the chasm banks, trying to find any more faults or seams, trying to reassure himself that another collapse wasn’t coming. “This whole ledge could give way any moment,” he announced, to no one in particular.
Al Glance was mildly annoyed. “Sergeant, save the good news for later…just keep that scan going.”
For his part, Johnny Winger occasionally linked in to watch ANAD work from nanoscale range. It was always the same: row after endless row of crystalline lattice, sizzling with staccato pops as the assemblers twisted and broke carbon bonds and worked their way ever deeper into the hole. It was like hacking your way through dense jungle vine and underbrush, only this was a jungle that featured tetrahedral trees made of carbons and hydrogens and phosphate and silicon groups in dizzying profusion.
Winger had nodded off to a light doze when the first alert came from ANAD over the quantum coupler link.