The Fifth Column Boxed Set

by J. N. Chaney

“Hold on a second, your paperwork says four, not five.”

  Shit, I thought.

  Decker was checking out the rest of the group and I could tell the moment he noticed Calliope, even though she’d been trying to blend in with the others. I was a little surprised he’d noticed her myself, since the girl was shorter than everyone else.

  “Pretty sure it was for all of them,” I told him with a frown, then pulled out the datapad and pretended to study it. “Huh. Looks like some kind of mess-up. We were definitely briefed on five.”

  I glanced back at Farah, who nodded back almost imperceptibly to say she understood. In instances such as these we had a certain procedure. She would get the package back to the ship and I would handle whatever problem had arisen.

  “Well, she’s going to have to stay then,” he said, a little snootily to my ears.

  “That’s not going to work,” I said, shaking my head and trying to think fast. “Walker’s fines have been paid and the government has already agreed to turn her over. It will be a breach of faith with the Union if she isn’t returned.”

  “C’mon Rhee,” he protested, checking the name on my suit, “you know better than that. If I let a prisoner go without the right papers, the commander will have my ass.”

  “Yeah, I understand. Let me see if I can get this sorted out.” I tapped a few more times on the pad and sighed in mock relief before moving to hand it back. “That’s my bad. Walker was on a different set.”

  When he reached for it, I grabbed his hand instead and squeezed twice.

  “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Decker objected, yanking his hand back.

  I let go because the pressure syringe in my glove had done its job. I’d picked up the little gem on one of our resupply jaunts and hoped it would come in handy. The soldier went down like a sack of rocks, though a little faster than expected.

  “Shit, we better move,” I told Farah. “V, how we lookin’?”

  “Your current course is clear; however, the two guards are beginning to rouse. I would advise returning to the ship with haste,” the AI returned.

  Farah was already moving out, the four on our original roster following close behind. Calliope slowed to get level with me, then spoke in that low voice of hers. “Sorry, that was my fault.”

  “Yeah, it was,” I agreed. “Now isn’t the time for a chat, Cal.”

  “Right. Look, I wanted to say thanks for not leaving me behind back there. It would have been easy to.”

  “I said we would take you, and I don’t go back on my word,” I told her. “Just don’t make me regret it.”

  “Deal. Now—”

  Alarms began to sound around the barracks, interrupting whatever she’d been about to say.

  “I believe your presence has been detected, Captain Cortez,” informed Vega.

  2

  “How far is your ship?” Calliope asked sharply, quickening her pace to meet mine and the rest of the group’s.

  “Not far.” I pointed into the inky dark past the walls of the camp.

  Since I wasn’t wearing a full exosuit with a Heads Up Display capable helmet, Farah and I had opted for tactical glasses and I slid mine into place as we moved forward. Pinpoints of red appeared around the edges, indicating the enemy wasn’t as close as I’d feared.

  “Alert! Alert! Alert! Intruder on the premises!” The camp’s intercom system blared the message on repeat.

  “Alyss,” Farah began.

  The red markers were growing brighter and bigger, and the shouts of incoming soldiers were audible as they drew closer.

  “Yeah, I see them. Stick to the plan. I’ll catch up if it comes to that.”

  “Affirmative,” came the reply.

  The first shot rang out, forcing us into an all-out run. This well-planned op had quickly turned to shit and was disintegrating further by the second.

  “Multiple hostiles converging on your position,” Vega informed us. “Shall I send backup?”

  “Not yet, I don’t want to use them unless they’re really needed.” I stepped behind a supply shed and sent out a covering spray of rounds. The red dots stopped momentarily in response, scattering as the guards dove for safety.

  It gave Farah and her charges a few precious seconds to get closer to the ship. I wouldn’t be able to handle this number of enemies on my own, but I didn’t plan on going head to head with the lot of them either.

  A little excited at the prospect of getting to play with the modified rifle I’d picked up on the station Leah a few months ago, I toggled the settings until the right one popped up. The first line of red dots closest to me now sported halos, marking them as targets.

  I fired with a single trigger squeeze that sent half a dozen bullets into the fracas behind my position. Little “x”s appeared over their positions, alerting me that the ammo had found their marks.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, I pushed off from my position to return to the ship.

  “Captain! Look out—” Vega’s slightly computerized voice came over the comms, but it was too late.

  Something stopped my forward movement, yanking me back and off my feet. I landed hard on my back. The breath whooshed out of me on impact. Dazed, I only had a second to recalibrate when I saw a rifle pointed at my face. The overly large soldier who held it smiled down broadly.

  “Got one—” he started to say into his comms when he was cut off by some unseen force colliding with his back. “What the fu—”

  His last words came out in a gurgle as the rifle was yanked from his grasp and pressed hard against his windpipe. Calliope appeared just over his shoulder, pulling the strap tight, and I realized that she must have jumped onto his back. When the tiny girl yanked back harder, the soldier’s breaths came out in strangled gasps and I was more than a little surprised when he staggered and nearly fell to his knees.

  The move confirmed her training. No one else of that size would have been able to deliver such a punishing blow, at least not in my book.

  Still, it didn’t bring the big man down for good. He reached up with one arm to grab her and toss her on the ground, same as he did with me. Both she and the rifle went flying, her landing with a thud and the weapon clattering a few meters away.

  “At the ship,” Farah said over the comm. “Where the hell are you?”

  “Working on it,” I muttered, echoing her earlier words.

  “Hurry up, the packages are secured.”

  I rolled over on my front, shot to my feet, and brought up my rifle, but Calliope was already moving. If she moved wrong, any shot could hit her instead. Dropping it with an exasperated snarl, I followed suit.

  The soldier tensed, readying for the attack. When Calliope got within striking distance, he swiped out with what would have been a devastating blow, but she ducked, twisting around him. In a blur of movement, she kicked the back of his knee and this time he went down.

  I caught him on the chin with the butt of my weapon and the man’s head snapped back. He shook it, trying to focus glazed over eyes. In a single fluid movement, I drove a foot into his chest and changed the round in my rifle to a non-lethal one laced with sedative. The kick flattened him, and he lay wheezing on the ground in front of me.

  “Take him out,” Calliope said coldly, a hard glint in her eye.

  “No, don’t!” he pleaded.

  Ignoring them both, I fired. It had to sting at such close range, but the downed man wouldn’t be dead nor coming after us. He fell limply back and his eyes rolled up into his skull.

  Calliope and I both panted heavily, but a beep in my ear and the flash of more red dots warned me now wasn’t the time for a break.

  “C’mon, we’ve got more coming.”

  The younger girl bent to grab the soldier’s fallen rifle and I jerked mine up, stepping into a shooting stance. “Sorry, but no.”

  She froze and said, “Seriously? I just saved your ass.”

  “While I appreciate it, that doesn’t mean I trust you with a weapon,” I replied. �
��If you wanna insist, then you can join our friend here and try your chances with the Sarkonians when you wake up.”

  “Okay, no problem.” Holding up her hands in a gesture of peace, Calliope backed away from the rifle until I relaxed a fraction.

  “Captain, more soldiers headed your way,” warned Vega. “Be advised, your previous route is no longer viable. Working on a new one.”

  “Can you get us out of here?” I asked Calliope, who nodded. “Lead the way, we’ve got more incoming.”

  The girl took off at a jog and I streamed behind her. True to her word, she navigated the labor camp with ease, ducking in and out of buildings and moving silently through the shadows to avoid surveillance with a skill that rivaled my own.

  Petty Officer First Class? I don’t think so. I had the distinct feeling that her soft-spoken plea for help had been a play, but to what end? I supposed she could be playing things close to the vest out of self-preservation. It was the smart thing to do. In any case, there was more to Calliope Walker than the teenage deserter she presented, and I intended to find out what she was hiding.

  “This is as far as I can take you without knowing the exact coordinates of the ship,” she whispered, coming to a stop at the corner of another barracks.

  “V, gimme the location.”

  The pulsing green marker denoting the ship popped up a few hundred meters to the northeast and I passed the glasses to Calliope.

  She took them, peered through them for a few seconds, nodded, and handed them back. “There’s not really much in the way of cover after this. Once we leave this building we’ll be exposed. Our best bet is to make a run for it.”

  “F, gonna need some cover,” I warned.

  “I’ve got you.”

  “Great. Just don’t hit me this time, ‘k?” I was only half joking.

  On a previous rescue op, one of her shots had gone wide and tagged me in the arm instead of the guy behind me. Thankfully, due to our desire to avoid killing unless it was absolutely necessary, the standard round hadn’t pierced my armor.

  “Are you ever going to let that go?” she groaned. “Never mind. Cargo bay is dark, opening hatch. Got the pair of you in my sights. Move your asses in three, two, one.”

  I went on her command, Calliope following suit, streaking across the rocky lunar ground. As predicted, our presence didn’t go unnoticed. A guard shouted from somewhere and a volley of shots erupted. They came from the Second Genesis though, not the tower behind us.

  I ignored the ensuing screams and pushed forward, keeping Calliope in front. She ran fearlessly, not looking back, apparently trusting Farah’s aim enough to keep her head from getting blown off.

  The open bay of the Genesis was hard to make out in the dark, but if the inner hull lights turned on, it would only give the guards a better target. We followed the muzzle fire from Farah’s rifle and clambered up the ramp in one piece.

  “Close it up and raise shields, V!” I shouted, clearing the last few meters. “With me, Cal.”

  She followed me out of the cargo bay and through the rest of the ship until we hit the bridge. I didn’t have to tell her to strap in. The Union deserter grabbed one of the crew’s chairs and deftly buckled her harness. Farah was in the co-captain’s chair, operating the ship’s small guns.

  The steady ping of enemy fire hitting the hull sounded, but the small caliber munitions didn’t worry me. Even if the shields were down, the most they could do was leave a dent.

  “Ready for departure on your command, Captain,” Vega announced.

  An explosion rocked the bridge, and the ship shuddered violently around us.

  “More missiles incoming!” Farah shouted.

  Another attack shook the Second Genesis and alarms began to alert that our shields were taking heavy damage.

  “Get us the hell out of here,” I barked.

  Vega shot us up into low orbit, the force pushing me down in my seat. I grimaced against the pressure, but it didn’t last long. Within a few seconds we were slowing and I could hold my head up again.

  “Apologies for the excessive trajectory,” Vega said. “I believe the labor camp possessed more artillery than we initially planned.”

  “Tell me about it,” I grumbled. “Did we take any substantial damage?”

  “Nothing that can’t be fixed. Preparing a report now.”

  I blew out a breath as we burned away from the moon and Boltin began to shrink on the holo display. “Everyone good?” I asked over the ship’s comm.

  One by one, each of our rescuees answered in the affirmative from their rooms.

  “Stay in your rooms until we hit the next slip tunnel. Then, we can go over basic rules and the plan to get you back to your loved ones.” Switching off the comms, I leaned back and swiveled the chair to eye Calliope. “Now, let’s the three of us have a little chat.”

  She met my gaze unflinchingly. “I already told you. Union deserter.”

  I waved her short answer away. “Yeah, got that part. Tell me the whole story, Petty Officer First Class Walker.”

  My use of her full rank didn’t evoke a response, confirming my suspicions about there being more to her.

  “Alright,” she said, inclining her head. “I was selected for advanced training for specialized operations right out of academy. I accepted, of course. Hazard pay and all that. Plus, it was exciting.”

  She looked from me to Farah, who had raised an eyebrow in slight disbelief.

  “No offense, but you don’t look…” Farah trailed off, and raised her hands in a “you know” gesture.

  Calliope didn’t look bothered and she laughed lightly. “It’s okay. You’re not alone. But I’m agile and pretty good in hand to hand.”

  I nodded. “You handled yourself with that guard. But I’m not asking about your skill set. How did you come to be in that labor camp?”

  She sat calmly with her hands on her knees, not twisting them nervously or playing with the harness like I would have expected from someone in her position.

  “You want to know why I deserted.” At my acknowledgement, Calliope shifted in her seat, getting comfortable. “I joined the military because I wanted to make a difference. Help people, you know?”

  Neither I nor Farah could answer that honestly. Everyone in the Sarkonian government participated in a forced draft that spanned four to six years, depending on a citizen’s status. It was hard to know what choices we’d have made if they’d been available to us.

  Some of my academy mates had talked about life after the military, Farah included, but not me. While they’d discussed medical fields, entrepreneurship, and even careers in entertainment, I dreamed of escape.

  Stolen from my home world and parents at an early age, I was not considered a trueborn Sarkonian. As a result, I had struggled to fit in, even after leaving the academy with excellent marks.

  Farah—Sophie Singh back then—had been my closest friend and we’d served in the same unit together until our lives imploded a few months ago. Commander-Navari, our unit leader, had left one of our teammates behind for dead on a mission. Lieutenant-Kamal had been a close friend and lover.

  The action had set off a chain of events that resulted in Navari’s death at my hands after she ordered me to kill a child. Farah defected with me and we’d been on the run ever since, named traitors and terrorists.

  “Anyway,” Calliope continued at our blank looks, “I began to notice discrepancies in the missions’ follow up reports.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “Have you heard of whole colonies disappearing? There one day, all but gone the next? I think the planet Neblinar is an example of this.”

  Farah and I exchanged a knowing glance. This we were intimately familiar with. Considered Sarkonian territory, Neblinar’s population had diminished by half, seemingly overnight. By the time the government got wind of this, however, the planet had been taken over and turned into a kind of haven for criminals.

  Criminals like us. It had become a hom
e of sorts to us, and Mack lived there.

  “Yeah, we heard about that,” I said, making it clear to Farah I wasn’t ready to divulge that information to Calliope just yet.

  “Well, the Union isn’t telling the truth about what we’ve discovered,” she said matter of factly.

  “In what way?” Farah asked curiously.

  “They’re blaming it on Jace Hughes and his people. Saying he’s forcing people to join his cause against the government.” She paused as if recalling more data.

  “And?” I prompted, eager to hear more.

  By now, everyone in the known systems had heard stories of the Renegade Hughes. In the time that Farah and I had become enemies of the state, he had become an even bigger outlaw than us. Honestly, we might owe our current freedom to him because he’d taken some of the focus off of us.

  “Wait.” I held up a hand. “Are you saying Hughes isn’t responsible?”

  “Oh, he is. He just isn’t forcing people. They’re joining him because they want to.”

  Farah shot me a confused look, her brows creasing together. “How can you know that?”

  Calliope blinked. “I’ve been there. To one of the colonies. They aren’t scenes of chaos. And plenty of people chose not to go.”

  “Yeah,” I scoffed. “The old and weak.”

  But the Union deserter shook her head dismissing what I’d said. “No. Individuals that didn’t want to go. They reported that the ones who went with Hughes did so willingly. Then the order came down that anyone who had gone with him in search of a different-better-life was now a criminal. I couldn’t abide by that.”

  “We can understand that,” Farah murmured, watching the girl with empathetic eyes.

  I wasn’t entirely convinced. Her story made sense, but it all went together a little too perfectly for my taste. For all we knew, the girl was a plant.

  “That’s a great story,” I said, standing briskly. “But I still don’t know you well enough to let you run free on our ship. Besides, the only open bed right now is in the brig. It’s nothing personal.”

  Calliope regarded me with dark eyes, and I thought she might protest, but nodded instead. “I understand.”