It took them no time at all for Albedo and Anna get their spacesuits on and head out of the ship’s airlock. They floated towards the giant asteroid with relative ease and speed after giant leap from the ship. They slowed their approach with the directional air jets attached to their life support packs. Albedo motioned his hand at his sister for her to not use too much, if she didn’t let go of the button (attached to her glove next to her left thumb), she’d end up over-shooting the target below, or drift off into space. She acknowledged his non-verbal advice with a nod. Slowly they created a rhythm and were paced equally as they finally touched down onto the surface of the forbidding grey rock.

“Well, that was fun.” Anna stated as she plopped onto the asteroid surface.

“You need more practice.” Albedo grunted while firmly stepping on as well. “When was your last EVA refresher course?”

“It’s been awhile,” She shrugged comically. “I don’t think I’ve done this since we set off from Jupiter.”

“Huh… that was… about ten months ago…” Albedo calculated in his head. “Wait, you mean that you didn’t do it there? Shit, Anna! You know I could lose my license if all my crew aren’t up to code on EVA basic training.”

“Look, I was busy, okay? Besides, we shouldn’t worry about that now.” She walked past him and headed for the opened hole the robot made. “Come on, we’ve got to find the boys…”

“Busy my ass…” Albedo grumbled. “You just didn’t want to do it.”

“Enough, bro!” She turned to him bitterly. “Can we just stick to why we’re here, please?”

Albedo didn’t say another word. He was too mad at her from missing that training session. He knew there was an audit into his mining operation, they’d see the infraction of her missing the training. But she was right, it would have to wait, for now. He just prayed that the ECU inspectors wouldn’t look into it upon their return to Jupiter. He switched don his suit’s head light and approached the deep, dark gaping hole with caution. Anna switched on hers as well, she pointed down and searched just as he did.

“You think we could jump into it?” Anna said, motioning her hand.

“No way,” Albedo grimaced. “Remember, this thing has some sort of gravity pocket down there, like Milo said. I”m betting we’d hit the floor like someone would after jumping off of a skyscraper.”

“I still don’t understand how that’s possible….”

“Yeah, I know.” Albedo nodded back. “Strange shit is going on down there. We’ll just have to take it slow and steady.”

“How?” She glared over to him. “You’re not suggesting we climb down? That’s just as dangerous…”

Albedo contemplated on the situation. He could get winch and lower themselves down, but that would take too much time to set up. Who knows how much air the boys had left to survive. Time was running out and he had to think of some other alternative. It didn’t take him long to think of one, he switched on his suit’s thruster pack and hovered over to the hole. Gracefully, he lowered himself downward and gave his sister a wry wink.

“Tell me you’re joking…” Anna glared at him.

“We’re still in space kiddo, let’s go down the easy way and then jack it up full on retro-thrust when the gravity hits.”

“That’s insane!” She gestured wildly. “We don’t know how long it might take to touch the bottom. We don’t even know if the thrusters will have enough to keep us steady till then.”

“You wanna live forever?”

“Well, duh!” She snarked back. “Didn’t you just say it would be like falling off of a skyscraper?”

“Sure,’ He nodded, still lowering down out of sight. “But at a slower rate of decent. If you can think of something better…”

“Aye-Estás pero si bien pendejo!” She cursed at him. “Fine, guess this is the perfect time for more practice, isn’t it?”

All she could hear back was his giggling. Without saying another word back to him, she activated her thrusters and lowered down into the hole after him. They could hear the short hisses and pops of their thrusters firing as it resonated inside their helmets. Anna had to make sure she wasn’t going to slam into Albedo by accident, and looked diligently to be certain. Albedo kept watch for her and gazed below to see when the asteroid floor would show up. The lights on their suits barely uncovered most of the darkness. All they could see was some of the rock wall and a few layers of mineral as they passed by.

Albedo took note of those layers and whistled softly at the sight of them.

“Wow, this is defiantly a good prospect.”

“How dod you mean?”

He stretched out his free hand and motioned to the vast ribbons of darkened rock, as if he wanted to feel it.

“That’s a thick layer of iron ore. But, there’s something else compressed within it.” He concentrated his glare and studied it. “It’s not gold or platinum… something else, I think. Flash your head light on it, see what I mean…”

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Anna tried to stay focused on floating downward, but managed to turn her head to where he was pointing his light. Her eyes lit up in wonder.

“Oh, my goodness…” She said with a slack jaw. “Dude! I know what this is…”

“Titanium? You think?

“Nuh uh…’ She dismissed. “This is Quantarium! The biggest deposit of it I’ve ever seen!”

“Quan... what?”

“Quantarium! It’s like the rarest metal out there bro!”

“How the fuck would you know what that shit is? You’re making this up to sound smart, aren’t you?”

She lowered down slightly to give his helmet a tap with her foot. It was enough to jar him and make the man swing his fist up in anger.

“Quantarium, you numbskull, that’s what most of the ship have for their QMDs. Those egg-heads back on Earth, the Omega Group, they use this stuff for making those engines possible. They’re the ones that named it. It’s the most valuable and rarest type of metal in the entire solar system. Oh, oh, my god… we just hit the motherload!”

Albedo took a moment to think about it. He wasn’t up on the latest discoveries by science, let alone from the Omega Group, a bunch of child geniuses who tend to look down on the rest of humanity. Quantarium sounded like some made up buillshit word, and since smart-ass kids came up with it, he wasn’t too surprised. He was use to dealing with other types of everyday tradable metals; iron, silver, gold, platinum, and even the rarity of titanium. But this new metal, one that didn’t exist till a few decades ago, wasn’t even something he’d ever come across in his mining career.

He knew there were special ships within the corporation that only the Omega Group could over see, ones that were used for their own scientific endeavours or certain creative projects. Quantarium was beyond his understanding, even though his ship was fitted with one of these engines as well. He wasn’t much of an engineer, or a scientist for that matter, he was just a generational mining operator trying to make a living. His sister seemed more up to date on all the latest current events going on in the solar system. And while he wasn’t too keen on her lack of ship protocols and regular training practices, he was fairly confident in her knowledge of the current technology and resources being discovered.

He shook his head in disappointment. Maybe he’s the one that needs the refresher in what’s going on in the mining community of late. How he didn’t know about what the metal was called, especially in his own engine, was rather embarrassing. He conceded to her assessment and flashed his light up at her a few times.

“Okay, I get it. Thanks for the lesson. Let’s keep moving on to the bottom.”

“We’re going to be so amazingly fucking rich!” She squealed.

“Focus, Anna!” He shouted at her. “We’ll deal with that later. The gravity will hit us soon and…”

Suddenly, both of them started to fall at a record pace. The gravity kicked in before they could detect it and came to the ground fast. Albedo screamed for his sister to hit the retro-thrusters just as the rocky bottom appeared before their eyes. Luckily, both managed to hit the button with only seconds to spare, the thrusters activated and softened their landing enough to be only mildly injured.Albedo quickly checked his helmet and legs after he thud to the ground, giving his sister a quick glance as she hit the ground in the same fashion. The siblings helped each other up and continued to search for any damage to their suits or each other.

“Any broken bones?” He inquired in mid-wheeze, after having the wind knocked out of him.

Anna snuggled to breathe for a moment as well, but then nodded in assurance. “Uh-huh, yeah, I’m good. Just really, really bruised.”

Albedo gave her a quick brotherly hug, and tapped on her helmet visor.

“You’re one tough cookie, you know that?”

“Mom would disagree with you.” She smiled. “She said I was her delicate flower.”

“Nah,” He dismissively motioned. “Mom knew you could handle anything, she always made sure we never treated you like a poor helpless victim.”

“Oh really?” She glared at him, brushing the dust off. “So, when we were kids and you got in trouble, you kept telling mom and dad I was the one who started it.”

“Hey, that’s not being a helpless victim…” He grinned at her. “That’s just being our baby sister.”

“Jerk!” She snarled.

Albedo laughed. Those days of their youth were full of ups and downs, but always remained solid as a family. He flashed his light around to study the cavern they were in, and finally saw the pod wreckage where Pete still lay dead. They both walked over to it, gave slight prayer on his behalf, and tapped the damaged pod out of respect. Anna seemed to take it harder than Albedo did. Giving a slight quiver of the lip and holing back the tears. Albedo held her shoulder and did his best to console her. Pete hadn’t been with them for very long, but the loss of him was still just as disturbing. She quickly shook off the feeling and insisted they continue on.

“I don’t see the others.” She stated, flashing her helmet light around.

“Yep, I think they went down aways further.”

As they proceeded to stroll, Anna caught a glimpse of something glowing in the dark. She paused for a second, peering her eyes at it and tried to point her light onto it.

“Hey? What’s that? Is that them?”

Albedo joined her and shone his light over to it as well.

“Who’s there?” He shouted, forgetting that he had to switch on his communicator. He gave frustrated sigh at his own stupidity, and tried again, this time over the communications. “Milo? Mike? Show yourself! Come on guys, I ain’t got time for your horseplay.”

As it drew closer, they notice that it was big, bulky and mechanical. It was Roberto, the robot. They both let out a relieved sigh. The eyes of the robot glowed as it peered at them. Albedo started to walk over to the hulking sentinel and started giving it commands.

“Roberto, give me a report… where is Milo and Mike…” The robot said nothing. “Hello? Roberto? Give me a status report, please.” Again, the robot was silent. This frustrated Albedo and came closer to it. “Damn, it’s busted. Fucking robots… aye–ya valio madre—there goes the warranty on this one.”

The minute he came within reach, the robot sprung to life, and swung at him. The large arms (with the drills attached) narrowly missed the man’s head as he saw it swipe his way. Albedo shouted in anger. The robot swung at him again with the other massive arm, and Albedo dove out of the way. Anna commanded the robot to stop, but it wouldn’t acknowledge her instruction. The robot moved menacingly towards her brother as it tried to take him out again and again. Each time narrowly missing the man within mere inches. Albedo shot back towards Anna, who stood there in shock from the robot’s actions.

“Roberto! Halt! Stop, I say!” Albedo said as he transmitted it to his communication relay.

“Protect!” It stated. The robot swung its arms and spun the drill menacingly at the two. “Protect!”

Albedo and Anna back away as it approached them. The rocky ground shook from its heavy stomping feet. It was sinister and threatening as it came closer and closer. Scraping the rock around causing debris to shoot out across the area. Anna shielded herself from some fo the chunks that pelted her and her bother.

“Protect! Protect! Protect!” It repeated loudly over their suits intercom.

Albedo wasn’t sure where to go, or where to run, the robot continued to approach them, shoving its drilling arm in their direction.