The Fifth Column Boxed Set

by J. N. Chaney

  I made sure to leave out the parts where Dolph, the Void operative, was involved. The last thing we needed was for the highly specialized cyber-enhanced super soldiers to come after us.

  “Did you honestly think I tried to murder a kid?” I asked when the story was done.

  She opened her mouth then closed it again, clearly unable to find the words. Her silence was all the answer I needed.

  Calliope was a virtual stranger to me but the thought of anyone thinking me capable of such an act filled me with disgust. “If you thought that, why the hell would you get on this ship?”

  “Desperate times,” she replied in a small voice, not looking me in the eye.

  We’d come to a stop at the intersection that led to the kitchen.

  “You don’t believe me,” I said, more of a statement than a question.

  “I didn’t say that.” The girl looked nervous, as though I might attempt her assassination next.

  “It’s fairly obvious.” With a deep sigh, I veered away from the kitchen and headed for the bridge instead. “I can prove it to you.”

  “You were telling the truth,” Calliope said when I shut off the suitcam footage, a note of wonder evident in her voice.

  “Don’t sound so surprised,” I replied, not hiding the irritation.

  I called Farah to the bridge and explained what Cal had told me, and she whistled low. “We knew they were trying to pin the scientists on us, but man they really made us out to be some serious villains.”

  “All the government does is lie,” Calliope agreed, brown eyes flashing with discontent.

  Not really in the mood to talk to the girl anymore, I made for the door, motioning for her to join me. “I’ll take you to grab some food now. We’ll be docking before you know it.”

  “Actually, I was hoping to talk to both of you.”

  I stopped and turned around to see the girl hadn’t moved. The conversation had done nothing to improve my mood and I opened my mouth to tell her no when Farah spoke.

  “About what?”

  Resigned to hearing Calliope out, I joined my friend as we waited for her to answer.

  “Look, I…” she trailed off, then tried to start again. “I don’t really have anywhere to go. All my accounts are frozen, so I have no money to even buy a fare out of the station.”

  Farah shot me an alarmed look, though I couldn’t tell if it was due to Calliope’s situation or what she seemed to be asking. “What is it you expect us to do?” she asked, using her mothering tone.

  Calliope looked from Farah to me, then back to Farah again.

  “We already gave you a free ride out of prison,” I added, a little incensed.

  “I know that,” she said quickly. “And I’m grateful, really I am. But it’s just me. You guys have each other, this ship, money.”

  I looked at my friend suspiciously. That was almost the same thing she’d said the night before. She shrugged as if to say, “I have no idea what to do.”

  “So you want money for transpo or something?” I asked hopefully.

  “No,” Calliope said. “I’d like to stay on the ship with you.”

  Now I turned to cast a beady eye at Farah.

  “Hey, don’t look at me, I didn’t suggest it,” she said, bringing her hands up defensively.

  “You already know I can fight,” the girl said fiercely. “But I’ll do anything. Clean up, cook, navigate, you name it. And there are only two of you. With an extra body you could take on bigger jobs.”

  I had to look away from the wide-eyed gaze of hope she was directing at us, but my heart sank at Farah’s calculating expression.

  “Go find the kitchen and get some food so we can talk about it,” I instructed.

  “Thank you for even considering it.”

  I waved her off.

  She was gone a minute later, and I threw my hands up. “I know that look,” I told Farah, pointing an accusing finger at her face. “You’re thinking about it.”

  She lifted both shoulders and did this kind of apologetic grimace. “A little. She’s not wrong. Another person to add to our little crew might not be bad.”

  I paced the bridge trying to think of a good argument. There were plenty to choose from, but it had to be done right. “We’d be bringing her into our mess,” I started, stopping midpace.

  Farah considered that with a brisk nod. “That’s a fair point. “There’s also the matter of the rebellion. It would be really hard to have conversations on the ship with her around.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “What about Mack? Isn’t her identity kind of a secret?”

  It went like that for a little while, each of us going back and forth with pros and cons. We decided to talk to Mack. If she was okay with it and the girl could pass one of her in depth checks, we’d at least let her try. If things didn’t work out, she’d be on her own, though we planned to give her enough funds to at least get transpo off Neblinar.

  My first instinct was a big hell no. It was all too soon, too fast. If this all went terribly sideways, we’d be fucked. I could tell just how much Farah wanted to help the girl though. In some ways, I could understand.

  Her story wasn’t that much different from ours, if I was being honest. I examined my reasons for balking and couldn’t come up with much more than my original reasons for not wanting to let her out of the brig.

  I still didn’t completely trust her, for one. For two, it felt like things fell into place a little too easily. Farah told me I was being paranoid on that count, but that wasn’t anything new.

  By the time we reached Taurus station, Mack had completed her check.

  “The girl’s clean,” she said, her face taking up the holo display again.

  “Too clean?” I wondered, pulling up the holo doc and minimizing Mack a little to get a better look.

  “No,” she replied, getting my meaning. “Everything in there points to a normal life. And I dug deep. Calliope Walker is her given name, and she was born on Acre. Stayed there too, until she turned seventeen and opted to join the military. Parents deceased.”

  “Where’s Acre?” Farah asked, joining me at the display.

  Calliope was off helping the group we’d rescued from Boltin find their families at the coordinates. I liked the idea because it limited exposure for me and Farah. Technically, our job was complete. We’d gotten the rest of our payment after giving the families proof of life, but Farah liked to make sure they got all the way there. Taurus station was well known and smack dab in the middle of Union territory.

  With what we’d learned about the updated bulletins, I thought it best to stay on the ship this time. Taurus might not be crawling with government, but if someone recognized our faces it was a good bet it would be.

  “The Osiris system,” Mack answered. “It’s a farm planet. Not quite obscure, but not as big or important as a capital planet.”

  “Never heard of it,” I murmured. Calliope’s file had more pictures now, and I was going through them.

  They all looked completely normal. There were images from her life on Acre, from childhood to recruitment.

  I got caught up for moment looking at Calliope’s home world. There were wide-open expanses of sky and flat land. A study of the planet’s topography showed that was the norm.

  “Walker has never changed her name, never lived anywhere else. All the data supports her story,” Mack said.

  Farah turned to me, her eyes wary. “I know you don’t really trust her. But sometimes things just fall into place. We could use another person.”

  “Farah’s right,” Mack agreed. “I turn down a lot of jobs for you guys because there’s no way two people can pull them off. If you had someone else, you could do more.”

  It was hard to let someone into our circle, but I knew they were right. “If you say she’s good, I trust you. I just don’t want her to have access to more than is necessary on the ship for now.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Farah said, relief evident in the way her shoulders re
laxed.

  “Miss Walker is almost back to the ship,” Vega informed us.

  “You guys talk to her. I don’t know what you plan on explaining about the rebellion, but don’t go into specifics.” Mack’s lips tightened and something dark flashed in her eyes.

  “Mack, is everything okay?” I asked, suddenly concerned.

  She hesitated. “Yes and no. Something big is brewing and there’s a lot of grumbling. It can wait until you get back though.”

  “Alright. Call us if you need anything. Otherwise we’ll be back in a couple days,” Farah said, glancing at me for confirmation.

  “Yeah. We have enough fuel and resources to get back without stopping again,” I affirmed.

  “Great. See you then.” Mack’s image blinked off.

  “V, make sure Cal has enough clearance to get around and access the gal-net, but nothing else,” I instructed, clearing the documents from the display.

  “Bridge access?” the AI asked.

  I paused, looked at Farah. “What do you think?”

  “That’s up to you, Captain,” she winked.

  Rolling my eyes in return, I replied, “You’re just as much a part of this.”

  “Okay. Why don’t we run a probationary period. Once we get through a mission or two with her, then she can have more access.”

  “That should work,” I agreed thoughtfully. Then to Vega I said, “Keep the bridge off limits unless one of us specifically calls for her. She doesn’t need to be here when we aren’t.”

  “Acknowledged. Miss Walker now has basic crewman accessibility, with a few tweaks.”

  “Thanks, V.” Most people didn’t thank their computers, but I always had with Vega, even when she’d been Z9-77, her default model name.

  In the past I’d noticed that the ship’s AI suffered malfunctions at odd intervals. That usually happened at the hands of Navari or Haas.

  Unbeknownst to any of us, the Sarkonian scientists tasked with programming the ship had messed up. Where they’d intended to restrict Z9’s empathy learning, they’d only hampered her ability to express it.

  After our defection from the government, Mack had fixed her up, and now she didn’t suffer malfunctions anymore. The result had been a more human-like rendering of her voice, one that Farah and I connected with more. Sometimes I forgot she wasn’t a person sitting in a control room somewhere.

  “Of course, Captain. Miss Walker has returned and is requesting access to the bridge now,” she replied pleasantly.

  Farah glanced at me.

  I nodded. “Let her in.”

  The door slid open and Calliope entered dressed in a borrowed jumpsuit instead of the dirty prison garb. She looked at me, a question in her eyes.

  I let her sweat, just for a second. “Your story checked out.”

  The girl exhaled as though she’d been holding it in. “That’s great. What do we do now?”

  “Take a seat and strap in. We’re going to Neblinar to meet up with a friend,” I told her. “Once we’re back in slipspace we’re going to debrief you.”

  The girl smiled brightly, almost beaming, as she took the indicated crew chair. Her excitement spoke volumes and made Calliope look even younger. Once again, I felt a stab of uncertainty.

  As the captain, I needed to be able to make judgement calls. Right ones, I thought, annoyed.

  “What’s up?” whispered Farah from the co-captain’s seat next to mine.

  I realized I was frowning and worked to relax my face. “Nothing,” I lied. “Just ready to get back and hear what Mack has to say about the rebellion.”

  The ploy worked and my friend nodded her head. “Right. It didn’t sound great, whatever it was.”

  “Dock master has cleared the ship for takeoff,” Vega reported.

  “Take us to Neblinar,” I ordered.

  I would have preferred to land somewhere with the cloak on and let the clients sort out the rest, but there wasn’t anywhere on Taurus to do that. With it being a busy waystation there was also a pretty good chance at getting noticed, either by sensor or the security in place.

  The engines rumbled to life before smoothing out into a comfortable purr. A clunking sound announced our release from the docking clamps and then we were moving.

  I stole a glance at Farah out of the corner of my eye. She wasn’t exactly tense, but I noticed the tight grip she had on the armrest. This part was always a little harrowing for us.

  Everything we did was dangerous, from the moment we set out to retrieve clients, to now, when they were safe and we were anything but. There was the perpetual fear that before we could depart a drop off point, someone would try to stop us.

  It differed from the hundreds of covert operations we’d run. Escaping had always been a high-octane event, but one that left most of us getting amped up. Much as I despised my forced nationality, it made sense.

  Sarkon versus the Union. We did the job for our government and escaped to do it again and again. There was always a base to go back to. Another operation to run. If we got caught by the enemy, we could fight back.

  I’d never realized how cocky that was.

  Now, when every action had the potential to end our lives, I couldn’t help feeling trapped. This scenario had crossed my mind: running across the galaxy, always looking over my shoulder for some enemy to appear.

  A few minutes later we were at the S.G. Point and opening a tear that would take us home.

  We entered the swirling green lightning tunnel, but its usual thrall failed to transfix me.

  With all the chaos of the past weeks, I had to wonder.

  Was it all worth it?

  5

  “V, what’s our timetable?” I asked once we were safely inside the tunnel, unbuckling and moving to the command station at the center of the bridge.

  “There are four S.G. Points until we reach Neblinar. The first is four hours away. It will take—”

  “I meant how long until we get there,” I clarified, waving away the extra details.

  “71 standard hours,” she finished.

  “Great. Cal, you’re up. We have a lot to go over.”

  She and Farah joined me, and I started throwing up holo docs, careful to only show those with particulars on missions and rescues we’d already completed. Once the ex-Union grunt proved herself, I would consider sharing the more sensitive details. If we just went around giving that kind of information to anyone, we wouldn’t be free for long.

  “You already know most of the details surrounding our departure from the Sarkonian government’s employ,” I began. “But search and rescue are only one arm of current business.”

  Calliope nodded without looking at me, her eager eyes focused on the display. “So, you’re like Renegades?”

  “No,” I said, trying not to sound exasperated. Of all the things anyone could compare us too, Renegades were at the bottom. “We only take certain kinds of jobs. No killing. No kidnapping. No stealing.”

  “Well, the last one can get a little muddy,” Farah cut in, grinning at me. She loved stealing, if the situation called for it.

  That got Calliope’s attention. “What do you mean?”

  “We don’t deal in black market goods or trade,” I explained. “But if, say for instance, Uncle Bob is loaded and someone broke in and stole something worth a lot of money, we’ll step in and find it.”

  Those were my favorite jobs. They were fun and we got a chance to keep our stealth skills sharp. If I was being honest, I kind of enjoyed the thrill of stealing in the name of justice.

  “Ah, okay. That’s all you guys do? There was an awful lot of artillery on board for that kind of work.” The girl sounded almost disappointed, but I was both surprised and impressed with her keen observation.

  “No, it’s not. But the rest we don’t exactly get paid for,” Farah said, flicking her gaze to me.

  I smiled apologetically, remembering that I never told her about my showing Calliope the armory.

  “If you’re only interes
ted in helping with the paid jobs until you have enough credits to start a new life then we won’t get into that,” I said briskly, starting to swipe away the files.

  This was the part we had to be careful with. Sharing too much could have a greater impact on more than just Farah, Mack, and I. The rebellion and innocent lives were also at stake now.

  “Why do you work for free?” Calliope asked, an excited edge to her voice.

  “We discovered that attacks were being carried out on innocent people,” I said, picking my words carefully. “So, we do our best to prevent these attacks. That’s why we need to take on bigger jobs for more money. Without funds for fuel, ammunition, and resources, we wouldn’t be able to stop them.”

  “Stop who?” Calliope’s eyes had gone sharp and she watched me with laser focus.

  Was it just me or did the ex-Union soldier know more than she let on?

  “Whoever wants to hurt innocent people,” I said vaguely. “I—we—don’t know you well enough to just give up all the information. If you want in, we’ll start off with the basics. Once you build up some trust, then we can start discussing things in more detail.”

  Calliope seemed to consider this and chewed thoughtfully on her bottom lip. “May I?” she asked, gesturing at the holo docs floating above the table.

  I waved my hand in a “go ahead” gesture. The files had already been prepped and any sensitive information removed. It wouldn’t hurt for her to see them.

  She examined the mission dossiers one by one, sliding each away when she was finished. The girl paused at the last one. It concerned the toxin we’d removed from Karbine, our first anti-mission.

  “I recognize this.” She frowned, looking at us quizzically. “This is Union tech. You’re saying the Union planned to use this on innocent people?”

  I shook my head. “I can’t say what plans the Union had for it. We took it from Sarkonian hands.”

  “Where is it now?” Calliope’s tone was calm, but I heard the underlying sharpness.