“Albedo! Watch yourself, Bro!”

Anna jumped over to move her brother out of the way, just as the massive robot, swung down it’s drill-arm at him. The two had been trying their best to keep out of reach of the slow moving machine, by suddenly jerking and stepping in random directions, thus making sure that it couldn’t predict where to strike next. The pair pulled back further, their breathing now laboured and panicked, and found themselves running out of space to maneuver as they backed into the asteroid’s cavern wall.

“We can’t… we can’t keep this up… Anna.” Albedo panted, he held on to his sister as they struggled to walk. “The robot isn’t likely to stop. Damn it! Where is Chaz? Why can’t he stop this thing, man?” He glanced down onto his spacesuit’s arm pad, giving it multiple taps on the communication button. “What’s going on, Chaz? Come on, man! You’re the goddamn expert here!”

“I trying my best, Captain!” Chaz responded over the crackling static filled airwaves. “The fucking thing doesn’t want to shutdown. I’ve sent the kill-code repeatedly. I don’t know why it’s not responding. It’s like Roberto has been hacked or something. What the fuck Greg! Let go of the controls!"

"Anna! I'm going to whatever I can to get you..." Greg stated, struggling with Chaz on the live channel. The two men were heard calling each other names, thumping the microphone as they fought.

“Chaz! Greg! Cut the shit! Do something ya assholes!” Anna added. “Greg, your girlfriend is about to die out here! Let the man do his damn job!”

Albedo glanced over at her with puzzled scowl.

“Girlfriend? What? What do you mean, girlfriend?”

“Not the time big brother…” She nervously replied, noticing the robot getting within reach of them again.

“Protect! Protect! Protect!” Roberto repeatedly stated as it swung at them.

The pair split apart as it swung down, barely missing them as they quickly dove away. Albedo struggled to recoup, his oxygen getting low from all the heavy breathing, and sweating from all the exertion. He noticed the robot swirling its head to each of them, looking as if it wasn’t sure who to take on first. Albedo regained his footing and motioned to his sister.

“Let’s keep him guessing. Anna, move to the opposite side, he probably can’t decided which of us needs to be eliminated.”

Anna nodded while giving a coy glance. “Some strategy, do you think that’s really going to phase this big lug?”

“It’s better than nothing…”

“How about a damn gun?”

“You got one on you?” He mockingly stated.

Roberto stood erect, continuing to swivel its head to each of them on either side. Albedo and Anna cautiously moved about as it eyed them both. The confusion was temporary as it decided on taking a target—right for Albedo.

“Aw shit…” He grimaced as the metallic giant started heading in his direction.

“Run!” Anna shouted at him.

The robot rushed at him, thrusting its drilling arm out and aimed for his head. Albedo tried to be quick, dodging the spinning implement of doom, and fell backwards just as it grazed his helmet. The sound nearly deafened him as it made contact, but as the robot pivoted to make another attempt to strike, Albedo rolled out of the way, scurried to his feet, and hightailed it down the cavern as fast as he could. Anna didn’t stick around to become a secondary target either. She joined her brother and tried to keep up the pace.

“Chaz!” She screamed. “Will you hurry the fuck up and save our fucking hides!”

* * *

On board the Callista, Chaz was frantically punching keyboards, tapping holographic projection displays, and swiping at other LED screens close by. The visuals all had code scrolling along, with various parts of the robot flashing red and yellow to indicate a malefaction. The rest of the crew were encircled around him and watching in panic. Greg was sticking close by Chaz, biting his nails nervously.

“Come on, dude! They’re gonna get killed!” Gimpy shouted as he reached for a screen to help.

“I know! I know!” Chaz slapped his hand away. “I’m trying to locate the problem.”

"Don't let my girl die, man!" Greg shouted at him.

“Never mind locating it.” Gloria stated. “Just hit the off button for god’s sake!”

“Maybe I should strap in to one of the pods and ram the thing.” Tam added as she paced about impatiently. "Greg, you can get your spacesuit on and...

"Good idea!" He clapped his hands.

“Guys! Please!” Chaz hollered to them all. “Give me a goddamn second to think!”

They could hear Albedo and Anna over the speakers, grunting and gasping for air as they ran. This only fuelled Chaz more to find the problem and dove deep into the schematics of the robot and pinpointed the circuit that needed to be switched off. When he found it, he let out a howl of joy, flipped the holographic screen around, tapped in the command, and hit the “ok” button flashing before him.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Nighty-night Roberto!”

* * *

Anna and Albedo were starting to slow down. Their air was starting to decrease rapidly from all the exertion and damage to their suits. The constant falls onto the rocky surface, the scrapes from the drill on their head gear, it was all leaking the oxygen out slowly and lowering their supply rapidly. The two couldn’t compete with a robot. It never got tired. The pace was constant and steady. Albedo collapsed from exhaustion, he was having the worst time keeping a breath. Anna tried to pull him up, but was too weak herself.

“Come on… bro… ya can’t sleep here.”

“Leave… leave me Anna… I… I can’t…”

“The fuck I will…” She growled at him. “Get up you sack of shit!”

The robot was within range of them just as she glanced up. The menacing glowing red eyes peered at them as it approached. Anna tugged on her brother’s arm on more time, but soon dropped to the gourd herself. She was spent. Anna thought her time had come. The robot’s drilling arm reached out to her and was about to strike her. But suddenly, the arm dropped down, the eyes stopped glowing red, and the robot remained paused in its stance.

“Anna? Anna?” Chaz shouted over the comm-link. “I got it! You guys okay? Please, respond…”

She gazed at the robot, now lifeless and hunched over them. She gave long exhale in relief and dropped onto her back.

“Oh, my fucking god, Chaz!” She moaned. “If you ever leave me hanging on like that again…”

“Sorry Cuz,” He responded back. “I promise you it won’t happen again."

"Anna, it's Greg, I'm sorry as well. Listen, when you get back, we'll have the best make up sex ever, I swear baby."

“Jesus!” Albedo chimed in. “I don’t need to know any details of your love life.”

Anna sat back up and patted her brother on the shoulder. Together they helped one another up and tried not to bump into the immobile robot over hovering over them. Anna quickly checked Albedo’s air supply on his arm gauge, and then hers as well.

“We’re down to twenty percent.”

“That’s not good, we need to head back…” Albedo wheezed. “We’ve got roughly twenty minutes.”

“But we can’t leave yet…” Anna glared at him. “What about Milo and Mike?”

“We’ll have to try again once we recharge our air.”

“But…’

“No buts, Anna,” He glared at her. “I’m the captain, that’s an order.” She shook her head at him. He hoisted himself up, facing her, with both hands on either side of her helmet.”

“Anna… we can’t help them if we can’t help ourselves. I promise, we’ll come right back. But first, we need to re-suit, refresh our supply, and grab better equipment to locate them.”

“I’ll see if I can reboot Roberto and…” Chaz interrupted.

“No,” Anna cut him off. “We can’t trust that thing. Leave it off for now. We’ll find something else to dig them out… if they’re buried in here, that is.”

“I'm sending Tam, Gimpy and Chaz out with a pod to retrieve you guys.” Gloria spoke. “We’ll meet you at the landing bay.”

"What about Greg?" Anna inquired.

"No, loverboy is staying here."

“Copy that…” Albedo nodded. He glanced over to his sister and nodded to her as well. “Let’s go.”

Anna reluctantly agreed and assisted him. Albedo seemed too weak to stand, not that she was any better, but she allowed him to lean on her shoulder despite her own frailty. As they headed back towards the opening of the asteroid from where they entered, she gave a worried glance back into the cavern. She couldn’t believe they were leaving without saving those two idiots.

“How long have they got?” She wondered. “They must be running out of air as well. Shit, sorry guys… hang on, just, hang on…”

* * *

Back on the Calista, the crew raced to the pod bay and began prepping one of the ships to rescue them. Gloria acted like the second command again, giving everyone orders and assigning tasks, which everyone obeyed without question while they hustled to get the pod ready. Chaz and Gimpy jumped inside the vehicle from the back and instantly started flipping switches and pressing buttons. The pod came to life and its monitors started scrolling data and verifying its instrument functions were working. Gimpy quickly double checked the on-board computer as he brought up the holographic keyboard and worked his magic.

“Five-by-five boss!” He glanced back, giving a thumbs up to Chaz.

“Rock and roll, lil’ buddy.” He acknowledged with a thumb in return. “Time to set this thing in the water.”

“You mean space…”

“It’s just an expression, geez… you know what I meant.”

Gloria thumped on the rounded domed glass window outside of the pod, where she took note of Chaz plunking himself into the pilot’s chair. He took notice of her and shrugged with annoyance.

“Chaz!” She shouted loudly.

Although, with Chaz being inside, all he could see was her lips moving. The glass was too thick for sound to penetrate it. She carefully mouthed her words for him to understand.

“What about the robot?”

“He’s off for now.” He mouthed back at her. “Don’t worry.”

She said a few other words to him, but thankfully, he couldn’t hear or make out any of it. It might have been her saying, “Good luck, go save them,” or it might have been, “You better be right.”

In any case, he simply responded with a thumbs up to her, and a sarcastic wave of goodbye. That just made her shake her head with a wry smile. She signaled the others to launch the pod. They all stepped out of the zone where the floor retracted and the air shield sealed the room where they watched from a safe distance. Chaz mannered the craft as best he could, angling the departure downwards. Gimpy tapped on the holo-keyboard and designated the robot arm umbilical holding it place. Once they dropped through, the floor sealed up again, and the air shield dropped.

“Okay, we’re clear of the ship’s hull.” Gimpy stated, turning of the hologram and taking a seat behind Chaz.

“Hang on, cousins... we're coming to get ya.”

"Everyone but Greg..." Gimpy muttered.

"No room for that big man in here." Chaz chortled.

"Stop talking about my man, Cuz! Or I'm going to kick your ass when I get on board." Anna chimed in as she over heard them on the comm-channel.

Gimpy laughed hysterically at that zinger. Chaz on the other hand, he was gritting his teeth.

“Yes, sorry bout that…”

He manouvered the pod and headed for the asteroid. He gave it enough boost to increase the speed and switched on the outer floodlights of the craft. Gimpy was still chortling about her comment, but turned to the robot arm controls and unfolded them out of the side sections.

“Greg and Anna... man. Relationships…” He snorted. “That’s why I don’t do them.”

“Is that what you tell you’re dick when you slap it everyday?” Chaz glared back at him.

“At least it doesn’t talk back.”

“Right…” Chaz mocked. “How can it, when you’ve strangled it to death?”

Gimpy shook his head and concentrated on operating the robotic arms. He pushed his thin glasses up the bridge of his nose, and used the controls to orientate the pod’s robotic arms.

“Geez, Chaz… save the argumentative banter for cousin, will ya?”

Chaz wordlessly agreed, turning back around to the controls and continued focusing on piloting the pod over to the asteroid.