A peek into Brad’s mind at this moment would be met with an incomprehensible symphony (if one could call it that) of cursing. The voice he’d heard over that intercom was certainly not one he expected, and if Brad’s hunch was correct it sure as hell wasn’t one he wanted to hear. No, it had to be someone else. It absolutely had to be someone else. There’s no way he’d be on the same colony as Brad. He’d definitely be elsewhere. He had to.

Yes, that was it. Brad just thought he heard a voice that was familiar. Maybe the guy had a similar voice. Maybe Brad was just imagining things. He was tired, after all. The last few days had been a bit of a roller coaster. From hell. Brad was certainly planning on taking a vacation after all this was over. Preferably off-colony. New Busan in the Earth Orbital Zone sounded pretty nice. Decent food, good night life, relatively speaking. The artificial beaches weren’t anything special, but the real ones down on Earth weren’t that great either due to all the pollution.

At least, these were things Brad had heard about Earthbound beaches, not having been there himself.

In the midst of planning his vacation, he was snapped awake by Elaine. Crap. He’d spaced out again, not wanting to deal with this current predicament.

The hallway they were in led them to a rather lavish-looking seating area, with individual leather chairs surrounding an expensive-looking coffee table. Surely these weren’t real leather and wooden pieces of furniture?

The tall, graying man seated at what would be the head of the procession was the one person Brad was hoping he wouldn’t have to see here.

The others didn’t seem to notice how rattled he was. At this moment Brad was thanking every god, real, imaginary, discovered, invented, or even yet to be discovered for the amount of anonymity that was given to him because of his vacuum helmet and mask. The emotion that Brad was left to process at this moment was extremely heavy, and it would be all over his face at this point when they were still trying to keep a low profile. The urge to shout, to run, to assault the man at the head of the procession was almost too much to bear.

Did he know? Did he have any idea what was going on here? At this point at least two people had died to cover something here, and that wasn’t even counting all the deaths the first time this mine was opened up.

The man approached Rami for a handshake. “So good of you to come pay our little facility a visit. I do apologize for my secretary pulling the wool over your eyes. I’m a busy man, but since you’re here on an investment tour I thought it prudent to introduce myself along with our little operation here. My name is Mikhail Asher.”

He then moved to shake the hands of the others, finally arriving at Brad. Desperately trying to hide his failing composure, Brad offered the firmest, most professional handshake he could, though he felt it lingering. Was it Brad, or was it this man, his father, that was failing to release.

After what felt like years, the handshake finally released, when Mikhail said, “You’ve got a firm handshake. Well-practiced. Good.”

Sweat ran down Brad’s face. Don’t speak! he shouted at himself. Instead Brad nodded.

Rami, blessedly able to put two and two together, quickly butted in, “Oh, don’t worry about him. He likes to keep to himself. But he is dutifully focused on his job here. He may even be a bit anxious to prove himself.”

“Certainly…” Mikhail said in a flat, ambiguous tone. The tone that told Brad he wasn’t really listening or putting too much concern towards the topic of conversation but was attempting to be polite about it. “Please, do sit down.”

Rami took the first seat, followed by Elaine and Jolene. Brad stayed standing, praying someone would speak up, covering for him. Thankfully, Rami seemed to be good at this sort of improvisation, as he offered, “That one usually prefers to stay standing, covering the door, if that’s all right.”

“If that’s what he wishes to do. I’d like to think my own security is sufficient, but if he wishes to stand at attention throughout this initial meeting, it’s his business.” In other words, “It doesn’t affect me either way so I don’t care.” Brad’s father was nothing if not diplomatic in his apathy.

Mikhail continued, “Since you knew about this operation, I trust you know what it is we’re digging for here. Am I correct in this assumption?”

Rami’s expression didn’t really change, but he offered, “It is a continuation of the previous attempt, correct? Building materials or metals that happen to be deeper inside, I’d presume.”

“You see, that’s the impression I was under when I was approached for this project,” Mikhail said. “A former colleague of mine who had made his way out here on his own–Matsumoto, you already know him–suggested that there was a fortune that was just being ignored here. A gang had set up their hideout in the mine by, get this, casting a hologram over the entrance so it looked undisturbed as it was since the previous operation was abandoned. But, as it turns out, we’re not sitting on precious minerals or nuclear material or anything like that as the rumors would imply. No, they found something in here. Traces of something organic, something alive were found in the two survivors of the incident. You’re familiar with the story, I assume?”

Rami’s composure was rattled a bit from what Brad could see, but he saw the gears turning as he tried to play it off. “It sounds familiar, something about a gas that made everybody go crazy, yes?”

“That’s the ‘official’ story, and in truth the story presented by the survivors wasn’t entirely convincing to the scientists that examined them, so before the facility was closed off the location where the incident occurred was examined. Their discovery was supposed to be stricken from the official story, but, well, let’s just say that one of the scientists saw the big picture, that being the possibility of first contact with an alien lifeform.”

“There’s no way something still lives down here, though,” Rami said, attempting to appear unconvinced rather than frightened.

“That’s what I’d assumed as well, but the data suggests that the material was relatively recent. As in, within the last century recent, rather than the scientific definition which usually means within the last ten thousand years.” Mikhail chuckled. “And they were just going to let an opportunity like this slip away.”

Rami then responded, “So say we find alien life down here. What are the plans then?”

Mikhail laughed out loud. “That would be for the scientists to worry about. I am merely here to oversee my own investment, though anyone hoping to join on the project is fine by me. But I suppose before we do that, you’ll want to actually see the facility in its fullest. Thankfully, in the interest of safety, I’ve taken the liberty of mounting cameras to the autonomous workers throughout the facility so you can see through the eyes of one of our units a typical day at work here. After that, we can negotiate.”