Proximity

by M. A. George

CHAPTER 26

  The four of us convened on the bridge—undeniably reluctant to take flight, considering our purpose. I realized as I felt the need to sit down that there were only three seats. Aeron apologized profusely that he would need to take the center one. I tugged gently on his shirt sleeve to usher him into the seat, assuring him that he really would not want me attempting to fly this thing. I insisted that Ewenami and Sabela take the remaining seats, positioning myself behind Aeron with my hands resting on his shoulders.

  He took a few minutes to enter settings into the computer, pressing all kinds of random buttons and carrying on a conversation with the ship’s computer. I tried to pay attention to his unfamiliar words, acutely aware of the fact that English would not get me anywhere on Onontí. I couldn’t even pick out one word that seemed remotely familiar. I kicked myself for failing to ask my father to teach me Onontian languages. Rather than having a century to brush up on my skills, now I had three short months to learn an entire language from scratch. I hoped Aeron would be as adept at teaching as he is at absorbing new information.

  In the process of finalizing his flight plan, Aeron turned to ask Sabela if she had yet determined a specific location of the enemy ship. Apparently seeing Aeron’s ship firsthand had afforded her an even clearer view of our opponent—she confirmed the exact location for him. Aeron explained he would plot a course to land a distance of about twenty miles away. Though the stealth technology would hide us from the rebel ship’s detection, he didn’t want to take a chance of being visually identified.

  His entries complete, he reached up to pat my hand on his right shoulder. “Hold on,” he advised me, “this part will be a little rough.” I gripped a little tighter as the floor began to vibrate beneath me, a low muffled rumbling sound emanating from somewhere below us. Aeron pressed another sequence of buttons, and slowly we began to levitate.

  I could tell the moment we had cleared the ground. The floor turned still again, and the background noise trailed to an almost imperceptible hum. Gradually, we rose upward. There was just enough moonlight for me to see the tops of the trees shrinking into the distance. Once he was sure we were clear of the hills and treetops, Aeron directed the ship to rotate to the right about ninety degrees. Without further ado, we were suddenly accelerating forward.

  It was a bizarre sensation. I was vaguely aware we were moving, but between the gravitational pull toward the floor and the darkness outside the windshield, it was impossible to perceive how fast—or in which direction—we were traveling. Aeron kept his eyes on the controls, but it appeared there was little need to actually press any buttons or vocalize any new commands after the first few minutes.

  Once it was clear we were having an uneventful flight, Aeron suggested that the remainder of us go take a little time to rest. We would be arriving in about an hour. The three of us agreed that we were nowhere near sleep. Apparently, we would all be going into this operation poorly rested—hopefully the adrenaline would carry us through.

  Aeron took his eyes off the controls for a moment to take hold of my hand, leading me around to sit on his lap. “If you’re going to stubbornly refuse to go lay down, at least you can have a seat for a while,” he ribbed me.

  “Careful,” I teased back. “You’re just encouraging me to be stubborn more often.” I wrapped my arm across his shoulders, kissing his temple. He took a brief second to steal a kiss from my lips, then redirected his attention back to the windshield screen—now especially vivid against the night sky backdrop.

  Despite the lack of any outside scenery or decipherable information on the screen in front of me, the time passed remarkably quickly. That tends to happen when you dread the coming dawn.

  As anticipated, we approached our destination just under an hour from our original departure. Aeron slowed the ship’s speed, working together with Sabela to locate a discreet landing spot. I moved out of his lap to give him room to operate the controls, returning to my standing position behind his seat.

  The view from the window was shrouded in darkness, but I could just make out a rim of surrounding low mountains and trees. I wondered if we would even be able to drive Dominick’s vehicle out of here, but ultimately decided to trust Sabela and Aeron’s judgment.

  As we lowered slowly toward the ground, the vibrations and muted rumbling returned. They persisted only for a brief minute, then abruptly vanished when Aeron cut the engines. The four of us collectively heaved a sigh—not of relief—but of resignation that the dreaded hour was approaching.

  We returned to the lower deck, breaking to our individual quarters to ready ourselves for the task at hand. I changed into the standard issue camouflage uniform and boots that had been Dominick’s parting gift to each of us. He, of all people, had thought to stop at the military surplus store on his trip to pick up the moving trailer.

  Of all the careers I had tried on for size before settling on medicine, service in the armed forces was never among them. I greatly respected those who offered their lives in service of their country, but I was admittedly a little too squeamish in the face of violence—hence the failure of my law enforcement career before it even got past the planning stages. I was reminded of the handgun stowed in its case, and I rummaged through the moving box to locate it. I made sure the safety was engaged before slipping it, along with an extra clip, into the cargo pocket on the side of my pants.

  We reassembled in the central dining area, reviewing our plans once more. We would drive to within about two miles of the rebel camp, then hike the remainder of the way to a forested hillside overlooking the site. Hopefully, this would bring Ewenami close enough to gain access to their thoughts. She would have to be cautious to avoid arousing suspicion. Some people could recognize—just as I had on our first acquaintance—that someone was tampering with their mind.

  She would search quickly for several key details: the location of the weapon, how many individuals constituted their team, what particular gifts they possessed, and what their current mission entailed. We would fall back in the direction of the vehicle to formulate our final strategy, then strike just as the sun was coming up. We didn’t have night vision equipment, and we didn’t want to take any chances of firing at Aeron as he entered or emerged from the rebel ship.

  Before departing, we loaded the weapons crates into the back of the SUV, along with the backpack containing the antiviral agent. Sabela did the driving once again—she was the most capable of navigating unfamiliar territory without the need for headlights. It was an agonizingly slow drive. We were miles from the nearest road, and it wasn’t exactly smooth terrain.

  As much as I was dreading the fight, this slow trudge into battle was excruciating. The only saving grace was that I sat next to Aeron, his arm around me as I rested my head on his shoulder. After an eternity of bouncing and bobbling along, we finally came to a stop. Sabela cut the engine as we stepped out of the vehicle, proceeding around to the back to unpack the weapons.

  Aeron handed me the gun I had practiced with to strap across my back, then gave me a smaller version to carry in my hands. He similarly armed himself, adding grenades in each of several of his pockets. Once Ewenami and Sabela were likewise prepared, we set out on our hike.

  Though it was equally slow going, the hike was more bearable than the drive had been. At least I could channel my nerves into physically propelling myself forward. We climbed upward through the thick trees, eventually reaching the summit of a high hill. Though I couldn’t see much of anything in the darkness, I took Sabela’s word for it that we should stop here.

  We crouched down and remained quiet as Ewenami dedicated her full mental focus to the unseen ship at the foot of the slope in front of us. She was remarkably efficient—three or four minutes at most passed before she whispered that we could draw back. We withdrew in the direction of our vehicle, deciding we had time to return the full distance to allow us to brainstorm without fear of being overheard. As we climbed back
into the car, Ewenami began the briefing.

  “There are six of them in total, but two are still in other parts of the globe,” she explained, “apparently gathering data in anticipation of colonizing the planet. One of them has similar navigational abilities to Sabela. The other is the scientist who developed the biological weapon. The four remaining behind are the commanding officer and his grunts…two with exceptional strength and athletic prowess—one of them was responsible for Aeron’s assault. The third can control the movement of objects from a distance; but his reach only extends to about fifty feet.

  “The fourth is the leader. He is the most intelligent, and will probably be our greatest challenge. He can confuse our senses—most importantly, vision and hearing. He has to at least have some idea of his target’s physical location…So it will be very important that we stay in motion.”

  The rest of us listened intently as she gave substance to our previously nebulous opponents. She concluded by explaining to Aeron the location of the weapon—fortunately, it was in the ship’s cargo hold. Hopefully, he could be in and out quickly, while the rest of us created a diversion.

  “Were you able to find out anything about their orders?” Aeron asked. “What are they sitting here waiting for?”

  “It wasn’t entirely clear…” She seemed puzzled. “The grunts don’t seem to know exactly what their task is. They’re just in a holding pattern. They spend most of their time in and around the ship, waiting for further orders. The commanding officer is the only one who knows, and his mind is very difficult to penetrate…I wasn’t able to access any pertinent information. Everything I learned about him came through the minds of his subordinates.” It was clear from her expression that she found this extremely annoying.

  Having imparted her full knowledge to the rest of us, Ewenami handed control of the meeting over to Aeron. I was at least relieved to see that his confidence had not been rattled. He calmly and decisively began to outline the plan of attack.

  He instructed the three of us to arrange ourselves in a large triangular formation looking down on the ship. We would stay as far up the hillside as possible, without compromising our line of sight to the ship through the trees. Aeron would position himself at the edge of the tree line near the cargo ramp. We would hold our positions and wait for the ship’s door to open. Whoever emerged first would be the unlucky recipient of a blast from Sabela’s weapon.

  If the rest of the rebel soldiers emerged, Ewenami and I would join in the gunfire. We would try to stay in motion as we kept shooting from the hillside, distracting their attention away from the cargo door. Aeron would ascend the ramp, disarm the weapon, and then disappear back into the trees—hopefully all without being noticed.

  If it appeared at any point that the ship was trying to take flight, Sabela would fire the bazooka into the rear engine. Apparently, it would create quite a blast. We would try to avoid it unless necessary, our aim being to keep this altercation discreet from human notice. If my family was to stay behind on Earth, they certainly didn’t need an outbreak of public hysteria at the discovery of an alien ship exploding into flames in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.

  Ewenami would do her best to confuse the rebel soldiers by interfering with their thoughts. Unfortunately, it appeared that at least one of them would be relatively immune to her intrusion. I would be at the position nearest the cargo ramp, providing cover fire as Aeron emerged. Then we would all run like hell back to the SUV.

  Once we all felt comfortable with the plan—or at least comfortable that we understood the plan—we stepped out of the car to grab a few more weapons from the boxes in the rear.

  Sabela strapped the bazooka to her back, and Aeron looped the backpack containing the antiviral agent around his shoulders. Sabela and Ewenami nonchalantly moved around to the front of the car to leave Aeron and me alone at the back.

  Once he had closed the rear hatch, he reached out in the darkness to take hold of my arms, pulling me in for a tender hug. “Promise me you’ll keep yourself safe,” he whispered pleadingly in my ear.

  “I will do my best…” I tried to sound convincing, “but I’m going to do everything in my power to get you out of there safely too.”

  “Don’t you dare do anything reckless.” His tone was hushed but commanding. “I don’t care what happens…You look out for yourself first.”

  “Please, Aeron,” I whispered with quiet desperation. “Please just let me be useful,” I begged him earnestly. “Everyone else here has a purpose…Ewenami is gathering intelligence and crippling their minds…and without Sabela, we would never have found this place,” I detailed. “And you are—”

  His fingertips pressed gently against my lips to silence me mid-sentence.

  “I am as aware tonight as I have been for weeks that—were it not for you—I would be dead,” he declared solemnly. “Without you, we definitely would not have made it to this point.” His voice softened as his fingertips delicately traced my lips. “So please don’t get yourself hurt trying to prove your worth…You’re already worth everything in the world to me.”

  I nestled into his arms as he pulled me in, hugging me tightly against his chest. After a moment’s pause, I lifted my head in an attempt to meet his eyes—I could barely make out his face in the darkness. I reached up to study the contour of his cheek with my fingertips, as he leaned in to meet my lips.

  There was desperation in his kiss. Although I was entranced by his lips on mine as we embraced, a thought nagged at the back of my mind. I couldn’t help but wonder which of us he feared wouldn’t be coming out of this mission alive.