[ WP ] Space is inverted . Civilization exists within a small bubble while the ground extends outward infinitely . One day , miners discover another bubble

After our third week digging, we got a strange feeling. Something was pushing us backward. This was the tiny piece of evidence that excited us, and while it sounds like it was just more resistance applied to an already difficult job, for us it was the dream. 
 
 The first thing you learn as a miner is that unlike the dome, the ground has no preference. There is no up or down. Its an alien concept, but eventually you get used to just floating there like you're levitating. 
 
 You can imagine how confused I felt now as I was pushed backwards along the tunnel I had just helped excavate. We were paralyzed with uncertainty until someone came up with the theory that we must be getting somewhere. 
 
 Millions of years in the dome, digging outwards towards a dream, had finally given us some hope. I wondered why we should be the lucky ones to find it. 
 
 There was another bubble out there. We were too far our to feel the gravity of our own dome, so it had to be another one. As our excitement grew, our path became exponentially more difficult. The tunnel had started as a long distance dig, downward into the soil. 
 
 Now it evolved from a journey forward to a journey upwards. Most of our equipment was left tethered at the edge of the gravity, and the rest of the rope was used to assist our climb upward. 
 
 It was darker than I was used to. Not much of the lights made it up with us, other than the headlamps. Tunnels were dug by hand, thinner and more claustrophobic than they would have been with mining equipment. A few of the younger workers turned back. 
 
 Blinding daylight erupted into the tunnel as I pulled my drill away. Sand poured through the crevice, descending into the tunnel to its eventual stop at the edge of the dome's gravity. 
 
 It was a gracious gift that I was allowed to be the first one in the new dome. I was n't sure what to expect. As I hauled others, smiling and laughing, out of the tunnel, I looked out at this unfamiliar biome. 
 
 The ground stretched into infinity, curving up at the edge before disappearing into the brilliant blue sky. Strange flora poked out of the all-encompassing desert. Gracefully, the sand was thin enough not to flood our little tunnel. Canyons in the distance looked more like massive spikes emerging from the wall. A valley descended God-knows how far down into the underground like a reminder of how far we'd come. 
 
 In the middle of nowhere, as the first witnesses in an unfamiliar location, we stood staring. 
 
 I was the first to notice the console. It was a blemish, dark as pitch a few hundred yards away, easily mistaken for an unfamiliar plant. The group walked over collectively to examine the foreign technology in what was otherwise a barren wasteland. 
 
 A message flashed across a dim screen, hard to make out in the glare: `` Keep digging. There is a surface.''
