Rebellion in the Shadows

I needed help and there was one person in mind. The problem was, he was pretending I didn’t exist. My comm’s to him went unanswered and when I tried to speak to him during his shift as a guard, he ignored me. Creativity was never my strong suit, but I had to try something new. During his next shift, I wrote a note and dropped it on the ground in front of him. It read, ‘we need a plan.’ Instead of reading it, he crinkled it up and tossed it over his shoulder. That was the final straw. If Kirtis thought he could get away with pouting, he had another thing coming.

“You stubborn ass.” I stopped walking to first retrieve the note and then shove it into his chest. Rotowey laughed and raised his shock-prod.

“It’s fine. I’ll deal with it,” Kirtis said.

“You don’t think she could use a lesson in respect?” he asked. Kirtis shoved the shock-prod away from Rotowey. It clanged on the ground, sliding to a stop several feet away.

“Actually, I think you could. Piss off, I said I’d deal with it.” If Kirtis hadn’t outranked him, who knows how it would have ended. Rotowey stomped away fuming as his fingers yanked the weapon off the ground and left down the hall.

“What the hell are you thinking? Are you trying to get us both killed?” he asked as soon as we were alone.

“Kirtis we need a plan,”

“Really?” he said, the word dripping with sarcasm.

“There’s a man and his family. We need to get him somewhere safe,” I said.

“You promised someone that we would help them, when we are stuck here like this? Are you stupid?” he asked.

“You’re the one that told me to do this.”

“I told you to lead, not make dumb promises that we can’t keep.”

“Kirtis, I know we can do something. We can hack a drone or fly him somewhere far away and give him some money. I don’t know, but we have to do something. How did Tesser do it?” I was begging and he knew it. The wheels were turning in his head, there was a distant look in his eyes that always accompanied concentration.

“I have no clue but I do know someone in Admin that might help. They are no Tesser, but they could hack a flight plan, maybe redirect a supply run and make a civilian drop.” I was so relieved, my anger ebbed away at his solution. I could have hugged him.

“Can we meet with them now? I promised Kaynotee days ago.”

“No, I will take care of it, just give me his comm information and I’ll do it,” he answered. He looked very tired all the sudden. “For now, we need to talk logistics. There’re still dozens of people here that need to get out, but Rotowey will probably come sniffing around soon. We can talk tonight when I am your guard, Su’jee won’t mind,” he said.

“What about the camera? Isn’t my room bugged?”

“Let me worry about that, I can take care of it,” he said.

The day passed slowly. All I could think about were ideas, things that might help us. Problem was, since the last escape, the building itself was much more secure. They had even gone around and put locks on the windows as well as added more code panels at every classroom and exit.

Trying to work out a plan with Kirtis that night was difficult. All my suggestions were met with more questions. I grew more frustrated as he inspected the lock in my room.

“They really don’t think much of our common-sense skills. I could get this off,” he said.

“That’s not really a concern right now. Can you focus for even five seconds?” I had asked him the same question three times.

“I told you, Kaynotee is already on his way.” He played with the new bolts on the window, trying to untighten them with his fingers.

“Did you give him that money?”

“Yes and added some to it. People were eager to help. Notawa was a wonderful person.” I sighed thinking about her, confused by the way it felt. Deep down, I should have been angry, but there was only pity for how she had been used and killed.

“She was,” I finally managed to say. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke up again.

“We need more of a plan though, we can’t give everyone some cash and fly them to the middle of nowhere.”

“Our T-550 can fit eight people, maybe ten if we are lucky,” I said.

“Twelve if it’s an emergency.” I stared at him, irritated at his game of one upping. It was like that with everything. He had to say the final word, never allowing me to finish a single thought without his two cents.

“How did Arwago and Tesser do this without arguing constantly?”

“She just did everything he told her to.” I pursed my lips, that was absolutely not going to happen here.

“Just a suggestion,” he said with a shrug. “We can do it. Just need to get in sync a little more.”

“We can do it.” I said back.

Kirtis knew a lot about the World Flying Force. As a member of Sidarc’s personal division of the military police, he had access to information that was way above my rank. The biggest issue now, was trying to get in contact with Tesser and Arwago. Kirtis was certain they hadn’t been captured, but none of our comms went through. The rumor was that they were on a classified mission, but that shows how much the other Flying Force members trusted their leadership. People literally disappeared from under their noses, and they just waved it off. By the end of the night, we were both tired of arguing and hadn’t made much headway at all.

Zero-four-thirty was a ridiculous time. I was leaning against the building near the track like every other day this week. It was becoming more and more difficult to talk to each other without an audience. My guards were with me, but they wouldn’t run laps with us. Kirtis strode into view with a very familiar two-tailed burla at his feet.

“You brought Tomma? Is that why your late? That’s a terrible idea.” Almost on cue the burla glared at me with his one eye and took off into the bushes on the side of the track.

“I also brought coffee so maybe be nice to me or it ends up in the dirt. Besides I miss Cacao,” he said, then added, “and if you don’t want me in your room, don’t give me the code.”

“Don’t be surprised if I change it now,” I said. He gave a mock salute to Rotowey and Su’jee.

“Morning lacky’s,” he said. We traded. He handed me a small cup and I gave him one of the scratchy old workout towels. Half the coffee was gone in the first gulp and I felt it’s energy pulse through my body.

“Eight laps?” Rotowey asked. We started jogging without answering. As soon as they were out of earshot Kirtis said, “I have four for extraction tonight.”

“Tonight? Is that possible?”

“I still have Tesser’s hangar bay loop, we can—”

“That’s crazy. I don’t have access to anything other than a T-550 and I have no idea how to scrub logs.”

“Su’jee does,” he said, looking where she sat relaxing in the grass. Rotowey stood, eyes trained on us and stiff necked with his shock-prod at the ready.

“She has been nice to me lately, but I don’t exactly trust her.”

“Do we have a choice?” he asked. We weren’t jogging anymore, it was too hard for me to run and talk at the same time. After the first half lap, we slowed to a walk watching Tomma stalk us from the outside of the track.

“You said it was a gut thing. She was about as gung-ho for the Flying Force as a person could be before… you know, everything.”

We were coming up to the guards again, so we started to jog. They could see us around the whole track but if we were walking when we passed them, it could result in a shock. Su’jee gave me a smile.

“I say we trust her,” I whispered to Kirtis.

“I say it’s a bad idea. What about Prelle? She’s not in the MP and is Admin.” He stopped jogging to face me. One bead of sweat dripped down his temple. I watched it fall over his scars and resisted the urge to wipe it away with my towel.

“Notawa’s friend?” I asked. She was nice enough, and better yet, didn’t seem to buy into the bullshit they fed us in reconnaissance class.

“I’ll talk to her today,” he said and picked up the pace again.

I watched the clock change to 2630 and jumped out of bed. Kirtis had promised the surveillance would be looped by then. My uniform was in a pile of dirty clothes in the corner. There were wrinkles all over it, but I put it on and left the room anyway. Kirtis was waiting by the hangar bay door when I got there, looking as fresh as if he had come straight from the cleaners. His face had been freshly shaved, and I could smell the light sent of whatever he had washed with. My own appearance was a new source of embarrassment, though I couldn’t say exactly why it mattered to look nice. One thing was for sure, showing up in a three-day old uniform covered in wrinkles wasn’t going to happen again.

“We’ll see if it works.” He punched in a code and the panel flashed green. Prelle had done her job well, but my worry wouldn’t leave until we were back in bed and our small excursion was over. We crept towards the T-550. The tie downs were already undone, so I threw open the door and we both jumped in. My fingers fumbled with the buttons on my helmet before I took the tablet to check off all of the preflight list. Kirtis put his own helmet on and started flipping switches to start it up. No one else should be here at this hour; night operations were few and far between. It was pitch black in the hangar bay, except a few red lights that showed the way to the exits. The air was still, it was eerie to have so little noise in there.

As soon as the props started moving above our heads, two MP officers came running. The first one waved his arms above his head.

“Whoa, where do you think you are taking that?”

“Night ops,” Kirtis said and shut the side door. The MP guard pounded on it. When we still didn’t open it, he got on his calcumat.

“He’s calling more of them,” I said.

“Don’t worry about it. They won’t hurt us.” He was still starting up the drone but the look on the guard’s face left me unconvinced.

“Forget it Kirtis. I don’t feel like getting shot tonight,” I said, pointing to the four extra guards coming towards us. Each one of them had a shiny new rifle. The taller MP guard started replacing the tie downs. We weren’t going anywhere.

With all rifles trained on Kirtis, the taller guard said, “You can’t take a drone out on a joy ride, I don’t care what rank you are.” Kirtis let out a frustrated growl but started to unbuckle his harness.

“What are we supposed to do now?” I asked. There were people that needed us, they expected a drone at a rendezvous in one hour.

“Let me handle this,” he said. He opened the door with his hands up, and jumped onto the concrete. “Yeah, I know. You caught me.”

“What the hell Kirt? Why did you think this was OK?” The tall one asked. Kirtis walked right up to him and punched him in the face. Two other guards were on him in an instant. He flailed while they yanked his hands behind his back.

“Quit calling me Kirt.”

“You little prick. I’ll have your MP badge for that,” he said. One quick wave of his hand and the men with the rifles moved forward.

“It’s my fault.” I stumbled from the T-550 with my hands up. “I begged him to take me out, I wanted to see the snow in Attle” The words had formed and left my mouth in the same instant. There was no thinking about it. Kirtis clearly didn’t have a handle on the situation.

“In the middle of the night?” Kirtis stopped trying to free himself but continued to glare at the man that had called him Kirt.

“It was stupid.” I tried to give my most pathetic look, hoping the pity would be enough to get us out of any trouble. The leader gave a nod to the guards and they let him go. Kirtis gave him a smirk before walking over with his hand out.

“We good Etulay?” The tall guard considered it for a moment, then held out his hand for Kirtis to shake. When Kirtis reached over, Etulay punched him in the gut with a huff. Kirtis doubled over for a second, then shot back up and started towards him. The guards grabbed him again before he could kill Etulay.

“No, we aren’t good Kirt. Keep hanging with this bitch and see where it gets you. MP’s don’t pull shit like this.” Another guard kicked the back of his knees and he thudded to the ground. Etulay punched him again, this time across his cheek. I started towards him, but another MP guard raised his rifle and shook his head.

“See how Master Guardian likes this news,” he said. The fingers on his right hand typed out a quick message and it took exactly one second for a video-comm to come in.

“You got a lot of nerve calling me in the middle of night. This better be good.” Master Guardian was shirtless, and his hair was a mess.

“Master Guardian, sir. Kirtis and Talaya were caught trying to take a drone out.”

“And?” he asked.

“And we want to know how to proceed,” Etulay said. Bloody and on the floor, Kirtis let out a quiet laugh.

“Let him,” Master Guardian said, then clicked off the line. Kirtis stood up, a long and satisfied smirk on his face.

“Are we really letting them go?” One of the other guards asked.

Kirtis answered before Etulay could. “She is your Select Master Guardian and I’m an MP Chief. You’re lucky I don’t have your badge.”

“Yes sir, sorry sir.” The guard didn’t look convinced but with one final huff, they all started to walk away. Etualy was the last to leave and checked over his shoulder every few steps. When they were gone, I stepped closer to him to check the cut on his face but he shoved my hand aside.

“I’m fine, let’s go.”

“You’re kidding? No way. That thing is bugged, or tracked, or going to explode as soon as we are in the air.” The whole thing reeked of danger. If Master Guardian was letting us leave, we should run back to our rooms as soon as possible.

“I think it’s more likely to be bugged. He wants Arwago and probably thinks you will lead us to him,” he said.

“Then we can’t go anywhere.” I said.

“There are four civilians that are counting on us, one of them is a kid. We can’t leave them high and dry.” He was in the pilot’s chair, buckling into his harness. “Besides, we have no clue where Arwago is. You really think he will go to the middle of the forest, 600 miles away to grab a couple of civilian defectors?”

“I do.” His head slumped and he closed his eyes. I reached over him and killed the power from the door. “We will figure out another way, let’s go to bed.”

***

It shouldn’t have surprised me to see Master Guardian in my first class the next morning, but he had never come to any of my regular training classes before.

“Good morning Reconist,” he said to me with a smile. Rotowey and Su’jee were outside the room. They hadn’t let me run this morning with Kirtis. Instead, I was led to a treadmill with an extra guard and a water bottle.

I sat in my seat and the new instructor began. The little suck up stopped every few minutes to confirm everything with Master Guardian.

“Don’t worry about the computer’s misalignment issues. There is a correction patch in the works,” he said then raised his head to Sidarc, “Isn’t that right Master Guardian?” He didn’t look up from his calcumat, he mumbled a yes and we continued. My wrist buzzed.

‘Routine patrol tomorrow at 0-6 over Durok?’ Kirtis wasn’t in class with me, but it was easy to understand what he meant. He wanted a routine patrol drone to take the people from last night to the mountains. I sent back a ‘yes’ just as Master Guardian called my name.

“Talaya? You know the answer?” I looked over my shoulder at him and then to the instructor, who gave me a reassuring smile.

“I apologize, I do not.”

“Stand up.” Master Guardian said. “Ask the question again,” he said to the instructor.

“When there is a flat spin, how would one counter act the centripetal force?” The whole room was looking at me, waiting for my answer.

“I have no clue,” I said. Master Guardian stood up and walked to my desk. He stepped in front of me, his scar pulsating in the harsh lights.

“You have managed to pull out of a flat spin, twice. Yet, you refuse to explain it to the class?”

“Of course not Master Guardian. I don’t really know what happened though.” He crossed his arms against his chest and raised an eyebrow.

“All I did was cut power to the craft, moved the cyclic opposite the direction of the spin, lowered the altitude gain to zero, and then increased power until I regained control,” I said.

“That worked for both the Condor-99 and the T-150?” the instructor asked.

“No.” He was going to make me talk about it. The day on the Condor-99 the first week in flight training. The whole reason they forced me into the Space Academy.

“Please, enlighten us mortals.” Master Guardian said. My cheeks flushed at his mockery, anyone else would have gotten a punch in the gut.

“For the Condor, the blades had gotten stuck half way between flying and hovering, I couldn’t lower the altitude gain to zero. Instead, I cut power to the engine on the wing outside of the spin and put full power to the inside one.” The scene came back to me. Screaming people, the pilot yelling out to brace for impact. Me jumping out of my seat to help.

“Saving about 90 people, ten of them children on a field trip I might add.” He got closer to my face. “One might say you have incredible luck.” Then leaned in all the way and whispered, “or that you are incredibly hard to kill.” He walked to the front of the room.

“She wasn’t even the pilot that day,” he said to the room. “She had run into the cockpit when the spin started. Our little hero.” Everyone was looking at me and their attention had me sweating. He wasn’t here to compliment me, this was a show for them. “We had to have her after that. I sat down with Geokee and demanded that she come to the Space Academy.” He stayed next to the instructor, who looked ready to pass out from the stress of having Master Guardian so close to him. “Time will tell if it was the right choice. Maybe it’s a matter of the crew around her, maybe we should reassign her partner like her mentor?” One side of his mouth twitched. He was threatening Kirtis, our stunt the night before wasn’t going to be forgotten.

“Her flying ability has earned her a special mission. You guys are the first to know, she will be piloting the Spaceship for our satellite launch,” he said and started to clap. The rest of the class joined in but when the clapping stopped, Master Guardian kept on staring at me. The instructor cleared his throat after it went on too long.“I think we have learned enough for today. Don’t you?” he asked the instructor. Without waiting for his answer, he said, “Dismissed!”

I stayed in the same spot. He didn’t come back over to me but watched as I tried to understand his announcement. Everyone else left the room until I was alone standing next to my desk, still trying to figure it out.

“Talaya?” Kirtis was next to me. I snapped my head, eyes focusing on him instead of staring off into nothing. “What’s going on? You weren’t at lunch.” I rubbed my shivering arms and looked at the time. I had been standing next to my desk for twenty minutes. When he saw how upset I was, he grabbed my forearm and guided me back into my chair then sat in the one next to me.

“Sidarc wants you dead,” I said. He huffed and waved his hand at me.

“That’s been true for years. You think that scares me anymore?” he said.

“It scares me! He said he was going to do to you what he did to Notawa.”

“He is just trying to shake you. If he could kill me, he would have a long time ago, trust me. I’m too valuable. Besides, why would it matter? The rebellion and you would be fine without me.” I pursed my lips but didn’t say anything to the contrary.

“Come eat, and we can figure out this patrol thing since its my turn to guard you.” When I didn’t stand up, he insisted, “It will be fine, and I am done babying you about this. He trusts me, end of story.” He dug into his uniform pocket. “I have something that will take your mind off all this. I found something. Here.” He thrust a small carving knife into my hand. The kind where the blade folded into the handle. When I saw the name etched into the wood, I stared at it in disbelief. It was a knife that had been in my family for generations. My father had often teased that it was from Earth and very valuable. That didn’t matter to me, anything of my fathers would be cherished forever.

“It was your dad’s, right?” he asked.

“How did you…?” I was too overcome with emotion to talk. Kirtis looked around the room.

“You aren’t going to cry right? Sorry, I just thought you would want it back.” His tone didn’t fool me, he was pleased that it meant so much to me.

“No,” I wiped a tear from my face with the palm of my hand and sniffed. “Thanks for this.” It went into my shirt pocket and we left the class. Kirtis was confident he was safe, but there was nothing that could convince me anymore. If Master Guardian had him in his sights, he was done for.