Rami was not impressed with what the group had already armed themselves with, though he admitted that he wasn’t surprised. As a way of working around the difficulty of arming some complete strangers, he quickly put through paperwork legitimizing Brad, Elaine, and Jolene as private security operatives under his employ. It wasn’t anything spectacular, Brad finally found himself in possession of a simple 9mm handgun.

Only to immediately be shouted at by Elaine for his lack of proper trigger discipline, even when the clip wasn’t in the gun yet.

“Always treat a gun as if it’s loaded, Brad! I’ve taken you shooting before, we’ve talked about it endlessly!”

“Yeah, and that’s why I wanted to stop going because of your endless lecturing.”

“Well guess who was right?”

“Yeah yeah. Anyway I’m hoping I don’t actually have to use this because I’m a terrible shot,” Brad complained. Sure, the gun felt nice in his hands, but that was before it was loaded. Certainly before he’d actually have to fire it, and he never felt prepared for the recoil. Or the sound.

Elaine frowned, placing her hands on her hips. “You say that but look at what we’re doing right now.”

“We’re doing nothing. We’re driving up to the location to see if we can parley with those in charge of the mine. We’re going to be dressed for vacuum, and nobody’s going to see our faces.” What Brad described was technically true. The only person who would make their identity known was Rami, citing some writ of ownership of the land that the mine entrance was on. The three of them likely wouldn’t even have to speak, which was just as well in case they ran into someone who might recognize any of them.

While this was true, Brad secretly hoped that posturing was the only thing this mission would be about. He wasn’t exactly thrilled at the possibility of getting involved in a shootout, especially when he didn’t want to take this case in the first place. Judging from how deep this rabbit hole was starting to feel, he wondered if he would want to even stay on the colony after this case ended.

Not far outside the domed city of the colony, their vehicle was stopped at a security checkpoint. One that a drone was able to zip past quite easily, but a vehicle transporting a group of people would not be afforded the same luxury.

Elaine had asked Rami about the possibility of just flying their with a short range shuttle but Rami shot the possibility down with great prejudice. At this point, he just wanted to talk. How things would proceed would depend entirely on how well said talk went. Either way, flying in over their security gates would be a much more aggressive move than Rami intended.

Instead, he opted to just set up a meeting as an “investor” to tour the site. A surprise for the person he sent the communication off to, given the covert nature of the mine’s operation. But the prospect of an investor flashing some money towards the project would be seen as just intriguing enough to be worth the risk.

Naturally, here they were a few days later at the security checkpoint, providing “legitimate” identification and being allowed into a secure facility for the sake of an investment tour.

A bored female voice emerged from the speaker attached to the vehicle’s close-range radio.

“Okay, QUXQ One, go ahead and transmit your ID documents.”

“Roger,” Elaine responded from the driver’s seat, tapping the icons on the vehicle’s view screen following Rami’s direction. A green glow emanated from the screen indicating a successful transfer. Elaine tapped the button to mute the microphone, turning to Rami. “I still don’t understand why you can’t just push all the buttons and let me drive. I’m not planning on actually working for you once this is all over.”

“Sorry Elaine,” Rami said with a smirk, “Force of habit. I usually have my bodyguards drive me around, and I usually have the drivers take care of the transfer of documents.”

Elaine rolled her eyes at that response but continued waiting. Eventually the same bored voice echoed through the radio, “Everything checks out. Go ahead and pull through. Just follow the lights to the designated parking spot.”

Brad wasn’t sure how he felt about how oddly courteous everyone was. This felt like it was going a bit too smoothly. Surely if something sketchy was going on here they wouldn’t be so damn cordial, right?

The procession of blue lights leading the small buggy to its new home for the next few hours was surprisingly long, winding its way through the various buildings and other vehicles busily scattered about the complex. Brad was surprised that everything seemed to work around their haphazard navigation of the docking area, before taking a closer look at everything surrounding their buggy. The one thing that jumped out the most was just how much of it was automated. Sure, there were a handful of men or women out in spacesuits doing various tasks throughout the facility, but the vast majority of the work here was being done by autonomous vehicles, or at the very least remote-controlled vehicles.

The efficiency was a sight to behold, though it did leave Brad wondering just where everybody was and if they could look forward to actually speaking to another human being, especially considering how much of the facility seemed to be designed for function over comfort, practicality over personality. Very little of the roads twisting throughout the complex was made of actual pavement or steel. Rather the roads were hewn and smoothed out of the rock itself.

This came to an end as the lights directed them onto a large rectangular steel platform, and there was a definite bump as their buggy slipped off the rock and onto the platform. Shortly after stopping on the platform, clamps attached around the buggy’s wheels, securing it in place as the platform was lowered below the surface. Lights shown on the walls around their platform as it sank deeper and deeper as steel doors slid shut at the top of the hole. Whatever happened next, one thing was certain. They weren’t leaving unless their hosts allowed them to.