Civilisation: Chapter 8

They had known that they would have to be careful and not allow their mission to become general knowledge, but they also needed to trust people and bring people into their inner circle and ultimately it was one of these that betrayed them.

Zolin had always been untrusting of everyone, he would not discriminate against any particular group of people, and he just did not trust anyone. When it had been decided that they would expand beyond the three of them and allow others to help with the decisions and manage tasks, Zolin had installed a set of programs on the computer system that would monitor all activity. The programs were designed to alert Zolin if anything suspicious occurred such as the downloading of sensitive files.

It was late into the night when his sense of mistrust proved true. Zolin was asleep after another late night trying to plan the departure of the ships when his little portable computer bleeped. At first he was not sure what the noise was, but after a few moments coming out of the deep sleep he was in, he realised what it was and picked up the little device.

Flicking through the menus, he saw that the file system in the laboratory had been accessed and someone was going through downloading and then deleting files. Someone was sabotaging their mission; someone did not want them to succeed. There were only several people that had access to the computers, but it was likely that whoever was betraying them would not want to expose themselves. So, Zolin knew they would have used someone else to access the sensitive files.

Zolin started panicking, not sure what to do or who to contact, his heart racing he made his way to the small panel on his desk that served as a communications hub. He was about to contact Aldon, but he knew that he would be working even at this late hour; besides, Aldon had enough on his shoulders without adding this.

The screen flashed for a few moments and then the tired face of Oluania appeared. He had clearly woken her and her eyes were red with fatigue and the stress that they were all under.

“Zolin, it’s late, what do you want?” It was difficult for her to be diplomatic after her sleep had been disturbed, so she was a little blunt with him.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t know who else to call. I didn’t want to put this stress on Aldon. There is someone in the lab accessing files and then deleting them. I am about to go now and see who it is.”

“I’ll meet you there. Whatever you do not go in without me, this could be dangerous and you were right not to tell Aldon. We will deal with this ourselves.” Oluania said, ending the call so she could get ready.

When Zolin arrived Oluania was already there and she had something in her hand. He wasn’t sure what it was, but immediately he knew he was not going to like it. By nature, the people of Algerian Prime were a peaceful people and they respected authority. No one had ever had a need for violence, but everyone’s nerves were frayed and Zolin was a little nervous.

“What do you have there?” he whispered to Oluania, but she put her finger to her lips and then crouched, motioning for him to follow.

The pair crept into the laboratory, the lights were out, but there was a dim glow from one of the computer stations and a shadow hunched over in front of it. Zolin looked to Oluania for a clue as to what to do, but as he looked at her, she was already moving.

He had not realised, but Oluania had a slender figure and moved with such agility, he could not help but admire her. Within seconds she was upon the shadow at the console and he could see the outline of her hand rising. In one swift motion, her hand came down and the shadow slumped and there was a thud as it fell off the chair and hit the floor.

“Quickly! Come and help me,” Oluania whispered.

“What have you done?” cried Zolin.

“I have done what is necessary to save our cause. We can ill afford to be stopped now at this point. We are almost finished and if everything came to an end now, we will have wasted time and resources. I am willing to protect everything we have achieved.”

Zolin was a little scared, to have witnessed an act of violence—he felt a little queasy, but at the same time his admiration for Oluania shone in his eyes.

“What are you staring at?” Oluania asked him frowning.

“I was… erm… I…” Zolin could not find the words and he was glad his face was in shadow, that way Oluania would not be able to see him blushing.

He was not sure if it was a mixture of adrenaline and the excitement and fear of what had just happened, but it seemed to be affecting the both of them. Oluania stepped forward and kissed Zolin on the lips. He put his arms around her waist, pulling her forward and returned the kiss.

“We need something to tie him up,” Oluania said stepping over the body. They had left the lights off, so they still did not know who was on the floor at their feet. In short time, they had the body tied up and they were trying to move it into another room.

As they maneuverer the body into an adjacent room, they noticed the lights in the laboratory turn on and heard someone walking around.

“Wait here until you hear me cough, that will be the sign that everything is ok and you can come out,” Zolin said, then he leaned in and kissed Oluania before leaving to see who was in the laboratory.

“I thought I would find you here Zolin, working late again?” Aldon asked him.

“Yes, there were a few things that I needed to check on. Why are you here so late?”

“I know that you are working on getting our ships through the wormhole, but I keep going over everything and I wanted to ask you for more information on exactly how you are going to them all through without being detected?

“I understand,” said Aldon, “I know you want to protect your contact and I know you promised you wouldn’t disclose their identity, but I need some confirmation that we can have access for thirty ships to the wormhole?”

***

Once Aldon had returned home to rest, Oluania stepped back into the laboratory, they both heaved a sigh of relief. For the moment they were safe, but they still had the problem of the unconscious body.

After a few minutes thought, Zolin had an idea. He was ashamed that he was the one to come up with it; he had never inflicted pain upon someone and now he had an idea how to solve their problem. Please me forgive me, he thought to himself.

“The outpost on Algerian Minor is no longer inhabited. If we take him there, the food stores will be enough to keep him alive until this is over and then we can go back and get him,” Zolin said.

“That’s perfect. I know you don’t want to do this, but you must understand the implications of letting him go?”

“I do and I will do what I must.”

“Don’t worry Zolin,” said Oluania, touching his cheek making him blush as before. “I will take him to the outpost. You go and get some rest and I will see you when I return.”

With that she kissed him again and together; they carried the body out of the laboratory and to a small shuttle that they had close to hand. The nature of their business and the fact that it was the only research complex on Algerian Prime, meant that they had a shuttle bay should they need to go and do research in the atmosphere or nearby planets.

Zolin had realised that he had been avoiding looking at the unconscious man he was carrying. What if it was some he knew? What if it was someone important from the Council? His stomach turned and he was nearly sick, but he managed to keep it down. They loaded the body onto the shuttle and still he refused to look. If it was someone important, then he would hear about it soon enough.

When he returned home, he allowed himself to be sick. The guilt had been building and was now threatening to take him. He sat down with a strong drink and took a long sip. His mind kept wondering to what he witnessed and sleep never came.

The drink did not have any effect on him, so he decided to get a shower and freshen up. The sun was above the horizon and he had things that needed to be finalised today. If all went well, then they could be launching the first of the ships tomorrow night.