The Archivist Read Online Free Page B

didn’t drift away with them.”
    I am not surprised that the mine was abandoned. After 3D materials printing came of age in the Twenties and robots became versatile enough to take over not only building robots but designing them, manual labor and skills pretty much vanished in all but the most impoverished nations. By the time of the Crash, the only humans with any crafting skills left were a handful of diehard anachronistic hobbyists, most of whom died in the Demon Days.
    “What were they mining?” I ask.
    “God knows what,” Doc shrugs. “I have no idea, nor how they processed the ore. That’s why I need those texts, so I can identify the symptoms of chemical poisoning, as well as find treatments. It can be a very insidious disease.”
    “Well, at least you can treat it,” I say, waving my spoon at him. “Much better than radiation sickness. I’ve seen what radiation can do to people. It’s about the nastiest way to die that I’ve ever seen.”
    “Is it really as bad as they say it is? Down south, in the Dead Zone?”
    I stare into my bowl before responding to Doc. That poor bastard we found floating in a canoe off the coast of what used to be California barely resembled a human being. His hair had fallen out, his entire body was covered with a sunburn from hell and the man was lying in a pool of diarrhea and vomit.
    “Whatever you’ve heard, it’s worse. It’ll be generations before anyone goes east of the Appalachians or almost anywhere in California. Or at least, anyone who’s going to come back to talk about it.” The canoeist was alive when we found him, but the sounds he made before the morphine put him out of his misery were not words.
    Danae emerges from the kitchen and loads up a bowl, then joins us at the multipurpose table. “I cleaned everything up, so we can leave as soon as we’re done eating,” Danae remarks as she digs in.
    “The hell you are!” I spit out. “This isn’t a sightseeing trip, and we’re not going out picking berries.” It is not just that having Danae with us would be awkward for me, to say the least. She has no idea of the thousand and one ways that a retrieval can go wrong, nor just how bad some of them can be. I know, I have seen most of them.
    “I’ll bring a bucket just in case you change your mind,” she replies sweetly, then turns to her father. “You said it’s just a few hours each way, and that you’ll be back tonight.”
    “True enough, child. But it’s a hard day’s hike and not for the faint of heart. You won’t enjoy it.” Doc does not sound very determined; I hear surrender forming in his voice.
    “Not for a faint heart!” Danae snorts. “That certainly rules you out. You know full well that I can hike to places you haven’t seen in years. Besides, I’m not coming for fun, I’m coming to make sure you get back.”
    “You don’t need to worry, I have the Archivist to look after me,” he protests.
    “You’re absolutely right, Doc.” I slap my bowl on the table. “Having her along won’t speed us up, but it could definitely slow us down. If we run into trouble, I don’t need someone else to watch over.”
    “Papa,” Danae pleads, “you know I’ll just follow behind. If you’re really worried about my safety, you might as well keep me with you. Unless you plan to tie me up.”
    I am about to ask where they keep the rope when Doc caves in to her plea. “Dee, you are just like your mother,” he responds with a sigh. After running his hands through his hair in resignation, he continues. “You are just as stubborn as she was. I guess I can’t say no to you any more than I could her.”
    Danae gives her father a hug and shoots me a smug, satisfied smile before she heads back into the kitchen. I suspect she is coming along just to annoy me, but I shrug and turn back to my breakfast. As long as I get what I came for, I truly do not care if Danae gets blisters.
    After breakfast, Doc and Danae waste little time preparing