Alpha Prime-ViTALiTY

Somewhere deep in space, hidden in the infinity of thernUniverse, there is a treasure trove just waiting to bernopened by the eager hands of a daring explorer. A merernasteroid, a piece of rock, a speck of dust lost in thernboundless void, yet priceless to humanity. For under itsrnfrozen crust there are rich veins of the most preciousrnsubstance known to man hubbardium. This liquid metalrnis a key ingredient in the fuel of interstellar ships,rnthus enabling mankind to spread across the Universe fromrnits base on Earth. Its importance is the reason why it isrnmonopolized by the State Business Federation, a hugernmultinational corporation which is given control overrnevery single step in production of hubbardium, fromrnexploration to distribution.rnrnAnd so, when this asteroid, subsequently named Alpha Primernand its fabulous riches were discovered, the Corporationrnquickly came, and a huge, sprawling base was promptlyrnbuilt on its surface as the giant mining machines begunrnits work.rnrnBut all was not well on Alpha Prime. While its hubbardiumrnveins might be plentiful, some of them were alsorndangerous. They slowly intoxicated the minds of humanrnworkers, and damaged the positron brains of the artificialrnones, including the central computer. Conditions on thernbase became highly unstable and the Corporation finallyrndecided to seal off the entire facility and leave. Onlyrnthe most basic maintenance and security, including weaponsrnsystems, were left turned on. To prevent the base fallingrninto ruin.... and to prevent illegal prospectors fromrnentering and resuming the mining operation.rnrnBut they came anyway. The lure of the unimaginable wealthrnof Alpha Prime was too strong. Moreover, some of thesernillegal visitors were naturally quite resistant to therneffects of bad hubbardium. So they arrived, theyrncircumvented security protocols and partially resumedrnmining. Their use of hubbardium was rather different,rnthough. They didnt want to produce fuel; they came tornmake hubbardium into a powerful drug, worth its weight inrngold on the black market. If the operation wentrnsuccessfully, they would become multimillionaires. Butrnthey miscalculated. Alpha Prime hubbardium was apparentlyrntoo strong and started to exert influence even over thernhardened minds of the miners. There was something very,rnvery weird about this asteroid. It didnt take long beforernthey started to become desperate and called for help. Onernof those on the team, Warren, called his old friend,rnArnold, a seasoned, hubbardium resistant explorer, andrnasked him to come and help them out of their direrncondition.rnrnAnd even though YOU, Arnold, already quit some time ago,rnyou were finally persuaded, less by the obviousrndesperation on Warrens face than by appeals to considerrnyour tight financial situation by Livia, your girlfriend.rnrnSo now its time to board your ship and head towards thernunknown...