by Ella Young
Ayla looked thoughtful. "Like the research facility?"
Ji glanced over her shoulder, back at the prison. "There could be a hidden entrance that even Kanu doesn't know about."
Knight was suddenly on her feet. The humans all looked up at her. "If it's outside the prison wall then it will be easy to see from where we are. Let's go find out." Without waiting to see if they were following, Knight turned and began walking clockwise around the hexagonal prison complex. Ji, Ayla, and Nero all exchanged a glance before standing and trotting after her.
The outside of Arryna was very nondescript. There was no wind to whip dust onto the walls, so they were fairly clean, a stark white that almost glowed in the dark. The dim light from the stars and the distant glow of the immune lamps above Arryna's mirror field guided them around the complex. At every corner around its base were more drainage pipes. They sat dry and crumbling, a reminder that Arryna was not at all that it appeared to be on the inside.
It didn't take the group long to happen upon the proof they were looking for. Knight turned a corner and came to a sudden halt. Ayla almost bumped into her from behind. Nero and Ji came to stand beside the avian. They all stopped and stared at the massive structure before them.
It was twice the length of Arryna, a long tube with several smaller corridors branching off of it. Each of these corridors ended in a pod-like room. Light emanated from windows at the tops of the pods. The main structure, the tube, extended well beyond the glittering edge of the artificial atmosphere. Ji let out a low whistle.
"So there's that," she said. Based on its position outside the compound, it looked like it might very well fall behind the barracks.
"The entrance must be hidden behind a holofield," Knight said. She stepped closer to the structure, as if she could somehow see around Arryna's cement wall to know for sure. "How else could it have remained a secret for so long?"
"You could ask Kanu to investigate," Ji suggested.
Knight nodded. "Definitely."
"We should head back," Ayla said. "It's getting late. Really late."
The others voiced their approval. They set off the way they'd come in silence, each thinking hard about the implications of what they'd learned that night. Ji was stunned at how easy the Rock had been to locate. All this time and it was only minutes from where she and Ayla had been meeting for over a year. There was no doubt in Ji's mind that Toshi lay behind those walls. She felt antsy, eager to storm the Rock and take her friend back.
They soon reached the drainpipe. Knight paused before it, an odd expression on her face.
"There is something I have to tell you," she said. She shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortable. "I should have told you sooner."
"Yeah?" Ji wondered. Ayla and Nero looked at the avian expectantly. Knight took a breath.
"Ferrao gave me explicit instructions before I left. I'm only here for Toshi. No one else."
The humans stared at her in shock. Nero looked absolutely murderous.
"I'm not even supposed to help the other Remnant here," Knight said in a rush, as if that made it any better. You just didn't tell prisoners, "Thanks for the help, but you're staying behind." They had every right to be mad, Ji thought. She remembered Nero's misgivings about the Remnant, and now she understood them. It wasn't completely Knight's fault. She was just a soldier doing as she was told. But it was frustrating, nonetheless.
"Figures," Nero said, lip curling. Ji was also glaring. Ayla just looked…sad.
"You can't get into the Rock without us," Ayla argued. "Even with Kanu's help. And once you get in there, there's no telling what resistance you'll meet. It's not a one-person job."
Knight sighed. "I don't know what to tell you. I can only do as I'm ordered."
"And you're here for Toshi."
"Yes."
"What if, in getting Toshi, you just happened to spring the entire prison as well?"
Knight tilted her head. "You're talking another jail break."
Ayla nodded, and tripped over her words in an effort to get them out. "We have a whole prison full of inmates. We don't need Remnant soldiers. We just need Kanu's help to take Arryna down."
Knight seemed to consider this. It made sense, Ji thought. The whole idea hinged on whether or not Kanu was willing to stretch the ultimate goal of the mission. They were still there for Toshi, but if they just so happened to free everyone else in the meantime? It was no quiet extraction like Ferrao and the rest had ultimately planned, Ji assumed, but it was war. Things very rarely went as planned.
"I'll talk to Kanu," Knight said. "We might be able to get away with this."
It was not the most hopeful note on which to end the night, but they'd spent enough time beneath the stars. Together the four slipped back into the compound and returned to their respective dorms. Ji could only hope Knight would be able to get through to Kanu.
-~-~-~-
"This isn't what we agreed." Kanu said the next morning. Knight had found him during passing time, indicating that she wanted to talk. He'd pulled her off her station again to hear her out. And he was undoubtedly unhappy. Knight could appreciate that. She'd already changed the plan once. They had a lot on the line—namely, her life, and possibly Kanu’s if caught—but Knight rather thought that the benefits, should they succeed, far outweighed the risks.
"No, but it's our best bet for getting at Toshi. Breaking into the Rock isn't a one-person job. We'd need a distraction to keep the guards away, and there's probably guards within the Rock itself. I can't fight them all off on my own. I'm lousy with a gun. If we want Toshi back, we need the humans' help," Knight explained. Kanu exhaled through his nose. He flicked one ear in irritation.
"Ferrao won't agree to the plan."
"So then don't tell him."
Kanu looked frustrated. "I know you haven't been with the Remnant long, but that's not how this whole chain of command thing works. It's in place for a reason. You can't just go doing your own thing. That's how people get killed. If you make it out of this, you could be court martialed."
"I don't care about the consequences," Knight insisted. "I only care about Toshi. And, like, three humans."
Kanu pinched the bridge of his nose. Knight pressed on. "You've given me three days to think of a plan. I still have two days left. Let us think of something, we'll run it past you, and you can have the final say."
"You better mean that," Kanu said. "If I say it's a no-go, you are on the next flight out of here."
Knight swallowed. "I will leave if we don't settle on a plan," she agreed. Kanu appeared satisfied by this answer.
"Good," he said. Then he motioned with his gun back to the molding stations. "Now get back to work. We're drawing attention."
Knight listened and returned to her station. Ayla watched Kanu leave.
"And?"
"We still have two days to think of a plan. But Kanu has the final say."
Ayla looked unhappy.
"It was the only way I could get him to agree," Knight said. "We'll think of a plan, don't worry."
"Sure we will," she replied. She didn't look convinced.
The rest of the day passed slowly. The labor was tedious, hot, and unpleasant. Knight felt a bit better as she sabotaged the guns, knowing they'd fail the first time they were fired. She wouldn't be complicit in killing her fellow rebels. Ayla still frowned at her as she slammed her own molds shut but seemed to realize that Knight didn't particularly care about potentially fatal ramifications.
With the late nights she'd had on the prison, Knight's fatigue was starting to show. It didn't help that the work was ungodly boring. She was falling behind in her quota, despite the fact that she was cooling the metal faster than the others around her. She hadn't been prepared, she realized, for just how taxing this mission would be on her.
It was silly, but she had thought this would be an in-and-out assignment. Things were getting more and more complicated, and Knight was suddenly unsure about her ability to complete it successfully. Failure
had never been an option, in her mind. But she'd also imagined getting out of here. Going home. Seeing Taz again. The admiral's words rang in her ears.
"If you are caught, a death sentence is almost guaranteed." The more complex the mission became, the more likely this was to become true.
Now is not the time for second thoughts, she told herself. It was too late for any of that. Much, much too late. Her only way out was to keep moving forward and hope that everything somehow worked out in the end.
They visited the stars again that night. Knight relayed to her new human friends that Kanu would have the final say in the plan. Nero frowned.
"I don't like it," he said at last.
Knight expected him to be resistant to the idea. "Kanu will be the key to our whole plan. He needs to be one hundred percent on board. Without him, we've just got a rowdy bunch of prisoners."
Ji and Ayla accepted this. Nero still looked unhappy. They sat in a circle for a long while, throwing ideas out into the open. Some were good. Some were bad. Some were laughably bad. But they only had one more night to set everything into place. Every idea counted when they were down to the wire.
At last, hours into the night, they finalized their plan. It could very easily work, as long as the right pieces fell into place. And, better yet, Knight thought, it wouldn't be just her sneaking off the asteroid with Toshi. The humans would be coming with them.
"The only thing is," Ayla said, "we need bodies to make this happen. There just aren't enough humans to give us the coverage we need."
"There's going to have to be," Nero answered. "We're all we've got."
Knight rubbed her chin. "Maybe not. Ferrao mentioned there were other Remnant imprisoned on Arryna--"
"No," Nero cut her off. Knight glared.
"And why not?"
"The Remnant burned us once before. We aren't working with them again."
At first Knight didn't remember. Sixth Star had allowed them to save Caesyn; no human lives were lost. But then she thought back, back to before Caesyn was occupied by the Remnant. Back to when multiple rebel factions fought against the Hegemony alone. Back to the battles, the massacres, the intense loss of human life. The Remnant could have intervened sooner, Knight knew. Perhaps they could have prevented some of the bloodshed. Instead, they'd turned a blind eye. Nero had every right to distrust them.
"The Remnant just saved New Ithaca," Knight explained. "It's changed since then."
"Ralot and the rest of the Remnant here don't know that," Nero argued. "They'll never agree to work with us."
"They will," Knight pressed, sure that if she just talked to the other Remnant she could convince them to help. If need be, she had one very good reason why they should listen to her. "We just have to be the ones to go to them."
"No," Nero said again.
"If you don't trust them, then at least trust me," Knight pleaded. Nero raised his eyebrows.
"Trust you? Why would your word matter?"
Knight sucked in a breath. Yes, why did her word matter? She could get the other Remnant on board, no doubt, but Nero had no reason to believe she would. He'd only known her a short while. She had to tell him, fully, why she could make them listen. It was risky. It was stupid. Taz would likely hate it. But if this was going to succeed, Knight needed Nero on her side. He was, after all, the leader of the human faction known as the Tribe. Without them this escape plan had no hope of getting off the ground.
"I need to tell you something," Knight said, and then glanced at Ayla and Ji. "Just you, Nero."
The girls frowned as one. Nero glanced at his sister and her girlfriend.
"Anything you need to say to me you can say in front of Ayla."
Knight's eyes flicked to the girls. That was certainly not true. The less people who heard what she was going to say, the better.
"Please. It's just one thing."
"What is this about?"
"You'll see." Knight stood and beckoned him out of earshot of Ji and Ayla. Reluctantly, he followed, tense. Ji and Ayla stayed put, arms crossed, eyeing the two of them suspiciously. Once Knight was satisfied that they would not be overheard, she spoke in a low voice. And for the first time in seven years she told the truth. The whole truth. Nero listened, face blank, until she was finished. Knight waited for a response, praying that she hadn't just made the biggest mistake of her life.
At first, she was worried he didn't believe her. It was a far-fetched tale, Knight knew, and she could be lying. Nero looked down, thinking. Knight hoped he would see that it didn't make sense for her to reveal who she was otherwise. Her age was right, her scales were right. Lying about such a fact could have her killed. Surely, he had to see that. And if the Remnant would listen to anyone, it would be her. Finally, Nero looked up. But he didn't respond to her, instead turning and marching back to where the girls waited.
"We will talk to the Remnant. Whether or not they will agree is something else entirely." Nero leveled his gaze back at Knight. "If this backfires, it's on you."
Knight pursed her lips and nodded.
Ayla was stunned. “You…you are willing to work with them?"
"Yes," Nero said simply.
"Why?" Ayla looked to Knight. "What did you tell him?"
Nero cut in before Knight could respond. "What she told me doesn't matter. What matters now is making sure everything falls into place. We only have a day left before Knight leaves. If we're going to convince the Remnant prisoners, it's got to be tomorrow."
-~-~-~-
Ji pointed Ralot out to Knight the next day at their morning meal. A typical levian: short, stocky. There was a chip in his left ear. Ji had never noticed, but the fur around his eyes was graying. It gave him a distinguished look for his species. Knight set her mouth into a determined line.
"I'm going to go talk to him,"
"Are you serious?" It was Keith who spoke. Since Knight's arrival, the rest of the humans had remained neutral on her presence among them. Not as brazen as Ji or Ayla, no, but not as suspicious as Nero. After the revelation that Knight was actually Knight, they seemed to accept her. They weren't friendly, by any means…merely minding their own business. But Nero had mentioned the beginnings of their plan early this morning as the prisoners were roused by the early siren. Not so surprisingly, many of them shared his distrust of the Remnant. They were just as shocked as Ji and Ayla that he was going along with the plan. Keith and Eli, in particular, were vocally opposed.
"Ralot'll cry starless sickness if you even breath in his direction," Eli said before they left their dorm that morning.
Nero sat on an unoccupied bed and studied a fingernail. "It will not be us approaching him. Maybe he'll listen to one of his own."
"You think Knight can convince him?"
"Yes," Nero said simply.
Eli scoffed. "I'm not going to be a part of any plan that involves them. They'll double cross us no doubt."
Nero leveled a look at the other human. "You'll do as I say."
Eli angrily swallowed his next words when Keith put an arm around his shoulder. Keith turned to Nero. "We'll think about it."
Murmurs of agreement rose from the rest of the humans in the dorm. Nero sighed and stood.
"Who here has any better ideas?" he asked. Silence fell over the humans. "That's what I thought." He paused, meeting the room with a fierce look.
"I didn't ask to be your leader. I never sought this role. It was you, you who decided to follow me. You put your trust in me and I have made a point to live up to that. I have only ever done what is best for us. Why do you doubt me now?"
"It's not you we don't trust," Keith said after a pause.
"But it is. Do you honestly think that I would make a decision that would ruin us? Me?" Nero glared. "I have faith in Knight, and that should say something to you. So shut up and fall in line. If we fall apart now, we aren't ever leaving this place."
No one else voiced their dissent after that. No one spoke. No one so much as whispered to the person beside them.
Ji had never heard the Tribe so quiet. The silence carried over to the cafeteria until Keith spoke.
"Yes, I'm serious," Knight looked miffed. Her eyes flicked to Nero. Ji could almost hear her thoughts: Did Nero not tell them about the plan?
"Not every Remnant soldier shares your ideals," Keith warned.
"We'll see," Knight said, making to stand. She was stopped by Eli.
"Here comes trouble," he muttered, and everyone was suddenly on alert. There, walking across no man's land, was Ralot. He favored his left side, a reminder of the time a human saved his life. But his walk was sure and his face was set.
"Nero!" he bellowed. Nero met the levian's gaze evenly.
"Ralot," he said in a much calmer tone. It was miraculous, really; just a month ago he might have responded with the same vitriol as Ralot showed him. How he'd changed.
The levian stopped beside their table. Ji looked up at him, confused, but she kept her mouth shut. This saved Knight the trouble of going to him, at least. There was an uncomfortable pause.
“You’re up to something,” Ralot said after a time. He looked at Knight, perhaps having pieced together what a new avian prisoner would want with the Tribe. The guards had taken notice of Ralot’s aberrant behavior. When Ralot spoke again, his voice was lowered. “And it’s nothing good. If you’re planning to escape, you know how we feel about that. You tried it, and in the end, it didn't work. There is no way off this asteroid."