Uncommon Loyalty

by Toby Neighbors

  “If they can,” Jules said. “Gunny is covering the surveillance. We’re supposed to leave our helmets off until they get back.”

  “Why?”

  Jules shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me.”

  Ty got up from where his tall frame had been stretched across the hilltop as he manipulated the long-distance viewer. He joined the girls, putting a powerful arm around each of them as he leaned in close.

  “Why didn’t they tell us?” Ty shouted.

  “They should have,” Ember said, feeling a flash of anger that joined the fear she felt for her friends.

  “Maybe,” Jules said. “I’d have insisted on going if they had told me.”

  “Me too,” Ty agreed.

  “I guess that’s why they didn’t tell us,” Ember said. “Too many people increase the risks.”

  “Better than them getting caught,” Ty said. “I don’t like watching and waiting.”

  “Me neither, but we can’t go shooting up the city,” Ember said. “The only way this works is if they get in and out without being discovered.”

  “I don’t get it,” Ty said.

  “They need to steal the plans of that FTL drive,” Ember said, “without the Proxy knowing.”

  “Why?” Jules asked. “It doesn’t make any sense to hide it from the Proxy.”

  “Do you think they would trust us with that information?” Ember said. “We’d be too much of a liability if the Proxy thought we had those plans.”

  “You think they’d kill us?” Ty asked.

  “I think they would send us on an impossible mission,” Ember said.

  “It’s not much better if they get caught,” Jules said. “The Proxy will consider us all traitors.”

  “True, but we could live on this planet if we had to,” Ember said.

  “You don’t think they would send people after us?” Ty asked.

  “No, it’s too big of a risk,” Ember argued. “They can never admit to the Issip that they were here in the first place.”

  “But they could send another Dragon Team to kill us,” Jules said. “Team Thirteen would probably volunteer.”

  “No, they can’t,” Ember insisted. “They can’t take a chance that we might have the plans. Anyone they sent to kill us could then get those plans and pass them on to humanity.”

  “So, what, we’re just screwed?” Ty asked. “This is crazy. I mean, even if they get the plans, how are they going to get them back home?”

  “I don’t know,” Ember said.

  It was hard to see, but she thought Nick and Kal had just slipped over the wall. She felt a knot in her stomach. She was tired, hungry, and afraid, but sleep would be impossible. There was nothing they could do but wait.

  Inside the city, Nick and Kal were moving like ghosts in the darkness. The tall buildings cast deep shadows that were easy to hide in. Not that the two young Recon specialists saw many Issip out and about. From the edge of the city to the building where the propulsion lab was housed, they saw two transports. Both times the young men hid in the shadows and waited patiently for the vehicles to trundle along until they were out of sight.

  “You get the feeling this is too easy?” Kal said at one point when they were close enough to be heard through their helmets.

  “A little,” Nick said. “We have the element of surprise. They don’t even know we’re on the planet.”

  “I’m not complaining, but I can’t help but worry.”

  “Just find a way into the building,” Nick said. “Leave the worrying to me.”

  If there was any doubt the pair were on an alien world, the buildings of the Issip city made it abundantly clear. Human structures were built with large windows and clearly marked entrances. The Issip buildings had no windows on ground level, and the only door they found was short and made of metal with no window.

  “They aren’t expecting company,” Kal said.

  “You sure this is the entrance?”

  “It’s the only way in from out here,” Kal said. “Maybe there’s something underground.”

  “Check the door, but no more talking.”

  “Roger that,” Kal said.

  Nick gave the area another look before they moved to the door. He couldn’t tell much about his own armor, but whenever they stopped, Kal seemed to blend into his surroundings. It was an uncanny feeling. More than once, Nick had taken his eyes off his friend in search for any sign of the Issip, only to have trouble finding Kal again. They were never more than a few meters apart, but the armor worked so well to hide them that Nick felt confident they wouldn’t get caught.

  Kal got to the door and tried the handle. The small door opened easily, and he peeked inside. It was the biggest risk of the mission. Anyone could have been waiting inside the building, even a guard with a weapon. Nick saw dull light from the open door, but Kal was unfazed as he gazed inside. He looked at Nick and gave a thumbs up sign, then slipped inside.

  Nick followed his friend. The interior of the building was like a funhouse. The ceiling was low, forcing the two young warriors to stay bent at the waist. The Issip, Nick reminded himself, were only a meter in height. The building was constructed to their specifications, which only made the intrusions of two average-height humans all the more jarring.

  They were in a hallway with several unmarked doors. Kal made his way down the hall and into a stairwell. If there was an elevator, Nick didn’t see it. From their work spying on the Issip, they knew the work on the FTL drives was taking place several stories up inside the building. They took the short, narrow steps two at a time and did their best to move silently.

  The door to the third floor had a small window. Kal looked through the window but stayed back from the door so he wouldn’t be seen. Beyond the door was what looked like an administrative office in miniature. Nick looked over his friend’s shoulder and saw several of the small beings working diligently at tiny desks.

  The Issip were humanoid, with short arms and oval-shaped heads. Their legs were the biggest difference. At the hips, their legs angled up sharply to either side and then bent at the knee before tapering down to large flat feet that reminded Nick of a chicken. None were seated in chairs; they seemed comfortable just squatting or standing, Nick wasn’t sure which it was.

  He tapped Kal and pointed up. They moved on, climbing the stairs even more quietly. Nick could hear his breathing inside the helmet, which made him nervous. He couldn’t help but fear that the Issip working in the building might hear him too, but there was nothing he could do about it. His heart was pounding in his chest, and he felt sure they would be caught at any moment. The stairwell was narrow, and they had to duck under the landings to keep from banging their heads.

  The fourth floor was another office space, but the fifth was more of a work space. There were several cubicles near the door, but beyond them, the room was one big work space with hard floors and cables hanging from the ceiling. When Nick looked through the door’s window, he saw what looked like an engine. He wasn’t much of a mechanic, but Nick had seen pictures of rocket engines and zero-gravity ship drives. The one in the Issip building looked strange, with concentric rings of a strange alloy, and a thick engine block or protective housing.

  As the two Recon specialists watched, an Issip technician opened the metal housing and tinkered inside. Kal shifted to the side and Nick craned his head for a better view. There was a glass-enclosed space where a team of Issip in little lab coats were working. Nick was fascinated by the way they moved, almost like their legs were stilts.

  They watched the technician finish making adjustments and then hobble back toward the glass room. Nick then looked up and down the stairwell. It was quiet and dark. Kal pointed to himself, then at the door. Nick nodded and slowly opened the door.

  The Issip were all preoccupied, and none even looked up when the door opened. It was far from the work being done in the glass room, and they didn’t make a sound. Nick watched as Kal went to the cubicles and looked for any sign of something the
y might take. There were strange-looking computer terminals. Each had a holographic display and small interface hubs. Nick followed his friend into the room and both kept the cubicles between themselves and the glass room.

  There were paper-thin display tablets, most with text that was completely foreign to Nick. He knew that if the data they needed was in the glass room, they would never get it. The night was wearing on, and the Issip seemed nowhere near stopping. The Recon specialists would just have to take their chances with what they found in the cubicles.

  Kal held up a small fob he picked up from the desk. It was the size of a paper clip, with visible circuits. Another was protruding from one of the computer hubs. He looked at Nick and shrugged his shoulders.

  Nick nodded. There were several more of the small objects. They gathered them all and dropped them into an empty ammo pocket on their armor. Nick considered taking a computer, but they were all connected via wires to either a power source, network center, or both. He also thought about taking one of the display readers, they were small and flexible, but he knew nothing about them and couldn’t begin to decipher the Issip language. Besides, it would have been much more difficult to hide.

  The two young men slipped back into the hallway without being seen just as the engine began to whir to life. They took the time to watch as it began to vibrate on the cradle where it was perched. There were lights inside it that came on, and a loud whine was coming from the room. Kal took the opportunity to voice his doubts.

  “There may not be anything on those chips,” he said.

  “I know, but it’s our best chance of getting something,” Nick said.

  “We don’t even have anything that will read them,” Kal went on. “Shouldn’t we do more?”

  “How can we?” Nick asked. “Even if we had something to hook them into, we can’t read their writing.”

  “Maybe there would be engineering sketches or something that looks like that engine.”

  “We’ve risked enough. Let’s get out of here.”

  Kal nodded. They both felt a little guilty for not taking a bigger risk, but they had done their best on short notice. Without a way to read the alien language, their heist was a shot in the dark at best.

  They were just past the third-floor landing when a door opened behind them. Both men froze. Nick knew if whoever was on the stairs was going up, they were in serious trouble. They held their breath, then a door opened below them again. They waited quietly, too afraid to move for several minutes. Nick glanced at the chrono on his wrist link. It showed they had been in the city almost four hours. Nights on the minor world only lasted seven hours. If they weren’t careful, they might get caught in the city without the shadows to hide in.

  “Let’s go,” Nick said.

  They went slowly down the stairs, past the second-floor landing. The stairwell was empty, and they both ducked back into the long nondescript hallway on the first floor. The lighting there was dim, and they moved quickly toward the door that led out of the building. They had almost reached the exit when another door on the hallway opened. Both men froze. Nick watched in horror, knowing they were just seconds away from being seen and reported.

  The door that opened led to a kitchen area, and the Issip worker who came out carried a big tray with a dome on top. He was short and moved in a stilted wobble, but he carried the big tray with one hand and perfect balance, like a server at a five-star restaurant. Nick’s mouth was dry, and his heart was pounding. He wanted his gun but had nothing except his Karambit and D-Garr knives if they were forced to fight.

  The server turned toward the stairs, never seeming to notice the big men in full armor near the door. The small being turned into the stairwell and disappeared from sight. Nick didn’t hesitate and pushed open the door and slipped out. They were in full armor and couldn’t feel the night air, but Nick felt better in the dark shadows. Maybe it was because he wasn’t forced to move hunched over, or maybe it was because the darkness made him feel more secure, but he breathed a little easier as they fled from the alien city.

  Chapter 13

  The city was just as deserted as before. There were no people out in the perfectly manicured streets as Nick and Kal made their way back toward the city wall. They were almost to the wall and away from the city when a security drone passed overhead unseen.

  Nick and Kal could see the wall from the shadowy alcove they were hidden in.

  “Should we just make a run for it?” Kal said.

  Nick was tempted, but something in the back of his mind urged caution. They had successfully infiltrated the alien city, made their way to the FTL propulsion testing lab, stolen what they hoped were copies of the Issip research, and gotten away unnoticed. Now, just a few hundred yards from the city wall, they both wanted to sprint for the freedom the wall offered. Just run that last little bit, launch themselves over the wall, and bask in the success of their mission. But there was still a chance they might run into something, or someone, and Nick wanted a clean escape.

  “Let’s not push our luck,” Nick replied.

  He led the way, moving slowly and staying in the shadows. The tall buildings offered cover, and there were only two gaps left between them and the wall. Just two open spaces where they might run into trouble.

  “What’s that noise?” Kal asked.

  Nick had heard it just as his friend spoke. It was a dull hum, like an engine of some type, or a propeller. Nick looked up and saw the drone hovering over the alley between the buildings.

  “Damn,” he whispered, knowing his friend couldn’t hear him. He pointed up, and Kal’s shoulders slumped as he looked up.

  They had a choice to make. Their armor hid them in the darkness, but they couldn’t stay hidden forever. Something had attracted the drone, but Nick didn’t know if it was searching for them or had already found them. They could wait and risk letting the Issip close on their location. Or they could run for it, but that would alert the drone for sure.

  They stayed put, backs pressed against the wall, waiting to see if more of the Issip security force would come. Neither dared speak, and neither dared move, even to signal the other. It was torture waiting, but Nick and Kal had been in similar situations. Nothing about the drone, other than its presence over the alley, indicated that it had discovered them. Nick was reminded of a night he and his friends had hidden in a storage room while a maintenance team worked just outside in the hallway. Rather than having fun, the group of friends had been forced to sit in silence, waiting and hoping the maintenance crew didn’t need anything from the storage room. Patience had won the day at school, and Nick was hoping it would win again in the alien city.

  With less than half an hour until dawn, the drone began to move. Nick wanted to cheer, but stayed still and quiet. The drone flew down the alley and around the corner. Both men exhaled in relief. It seemed they had succeeded in hiding from the security drone, but they still had to get over the wall.

  Nick held his hand up and motioned for them to move slowly. Then he began walking forward, one hand over the pocket with the stolen data chips. He couldn’t help but wonder if they were risking their lives for take-out menus or someone’s novel manuscript that would otherwise never see the light of day. The chips had been part of the work being done in the cubicles, but that didn’t mean they had anything to do with the interstellar drive engine the Issip were developing. Nick assuaged his fears by reminding himself that there was no way he could know if they had succeeded or failed without checking each data chip and translating the files stored on them.

  Kal grabbed his friend’s arm as they approached the final alley between them and the wall. They could hear the hum of the drone. Nick looked at Kal, who raised his hands as if to say what now?

  Nick looked around. There was nothing in the alley that seemed to be of any use. On Earth were always debris, or even a rock that they might throw to cause a diversion, but the Issip were too neat. Nick had a sneaking suspicion that drones did most of the outside work for the alie
ns, but that didn’t change the fact that they were in a precarious situation.

  Nick drew his D-Garr. It was a thick-bladed knife, with the letters PMC etched along the blade near the fuller. He slipped it back into the sheath and drew his karambit. It was a unique weapon, but there was nothing on it that explicitly pointed back to the Proxy. He took the knife and threw it up onto the rooftop of a three-story building across the alley. Both men held their breath as the small weapon clattered onto the rooftop.

  The drone hum immediately changed pitch. A second later, the drone passed over the alley where they were hidden in the shadow. The drone had a dim running light that gave away its position. Nick watched the drone pass over them, a dark, sinister shadow against the dark red sky above them. Nick felt his pace quicken, knowing that Issip Major would rise at any moment and send light flooding across the city.

  “Move!” Nick shouted, as soon as the drone passed out of sight over the building.

  They sprinted toward the wall, throwing caution to the wind. At the wall, they both jumped and levered their bodies over the barricade in one smooth motion. Their feet hit the ground on the far side just as the first rays of light came reflecting off the larger planet’s surface.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Nick said.

  “Roger that,” Kal agreed.

  They ran, keeping their heads low at first, but as the Issip Major rose, they chose speed over caution. They were almost back to their base when Nick saw Gunny Tveit stand up. She had a high-energy focused light weapon, fully assembled and held to her shoulder. Nick looked back and saw the drone following them. It was far enough behind them that he couldn’t be certain it had seen them, but why else would it have left the city? In all the time they had surveilled the Issip settlement, no drone had been seen outside the city other than agriculture bots and the occasional transport ship.

  The laser rifle showed no sign of being fired, but a pop sounded behind them. Nick looked back again and saw black smoke rising from the drone as it fell.