The Dusty Maiden had been cruising smoothly over the jungle regions of the south near the sea for two days now without a single guardian sighting. Niles wondered if Jon was right when he had said he thought there would be patrols near the research facility.

“I’m starting to recognize the terrain,” Jon said. “We should be there within a few hours.”

Niles turned to Jon who looked older than he usually did. “What’s going to stop us from being seen by these patrols?”

“I’ll have Andrea divert The Dusty Maiden further south so we can approach the facility from an unlikely heading. That should keep us out of their paths.”

“But still,” Niles said, following Jon to the helm. “They could still spot us.”

“We need to fly low,” Emma said as she approached the trio.

“Only too true,” Jon said. “Andrea, could you please lower the barge to a few hundred or so feet?” Jon turned towards Niles, asking silent permission.

Niles nodded his ascent after Andrea had also turned to him for permission.

“You got it,” she said. Then she made her way out of site down the companionway.

It was starting to get dark, and if they were going to get close enough to the research complex The Dusty Maiden would have to be nearly invisible. “Walter,” Niles said. “Turn off the deck lights. We don’t want to be seen from higher altitudes.”

“All right, Cap,” Walter said, moving for the switch at the prow.

As Andrea came back onto the main deck, Niles could already feel the barge losing altitude. “Slip unseen by cover of darkness,” Niles said to Emma. “Good plan.”

“Thanks.”

Then he turned to Jon who seemed distracted as he gazed off to port, his hands clutching the railing. “Is everything alright, Jon?”

“Our next attempt will probably be the most dangerous task we undertake.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll pull through.”

“I certainly hope so.”

The next few hours were relatively uneventful as The Dusty Maiden cruised over the howling jungle.

Niles couldn’t help but think about what would happen if they were to fail. He pictured Jon and Emma rushing out the main doors to the landing platforms, screaming for him to hurry up and land as guardians pursued them. He pictured them falling to the ground, their faces hitting the hard cement, their bodies limp after being shot in the back. Then the war barges would appear from out of nowhere, firing a blaze of murder at The Dusty Maiden. Her gasbag would be riddled with holes from the oncoming projectiles. That was, if she hadn’t been punctured yet by energy weapons which would certainly cause the gasbag to explode.

The guardians would kill Andrea first. Without a pilot they wouldn’t be able to maneuver or escape. There would be no choice but to fight. Fight to the end, or surrender. If they chose to surrender, Niles and the rest of the surviving crew would be branded as pirates and most likely serve life sentences inside guardian prisons.

This isn’t any good, he thought, knowing he shouldn’t be thinking like that. Stay positive. If they were to pull off this mission they would have to...

“Look,” Jon said, pointing into the sky.

It wasn’t completely dark yet and the clouds were glowing a deep orange red. Niles could see the silhouetted outline of a large barge high above.

“A patrol?” Emma asked.

Niles moved to Andrea and said, “Turn off the props. We can’t risk them hearing us.”

The props were shut off, the buzzing of the engines died and the blades stopped spinning. The Dusty Maiden was drifting silently now.

“Is it a war barge?” Andrea said.

“Most likely,” Jon said in a hushed voice. “It’s too large to be a cargo hauler and we’re only minutes away from the research complex.”

“If they spot us,” Niles said. “We’re finished.”

The war barge started descending in a fast enough manner to be worried. “Uh-oh,” Walter said. “Did they spot us?”

Nobody answered the mechanic. They were fixated on the war barge. Niles didn’t doubt that their hearts felt as though they wear about to rip out of their chests. That was how he felt.

The war barge moved overhead, obscured from view by The Dusty Maiden’s gasbag. Niles and the others leapt to the other side of the deck so they could make visual contact with the descending craft where it came back into view. Niles hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath, much like the rest of the crew probably was at that moment. He was sure they’d been caught when he saw that war barge descending. But now it was ascending again.

“Must be low on burnable fuel,” Walter said. “That’s what you do, you know. You feed her and then you let her...”

“We know, Walter,” Andrea said as she put both her hands on her hips.

“So what do we do now?” Walter asked.

Andrea moved out from behind the helm. “We wait,” she said, “until we can’t see that barge anymore. Then we turn the props back on.”

“I’d prefer that we move very slowly,” Jon said.

“Agreed,” Niles said.

Jon scratched his temple. “We should be able to see the complex shortly.”

Andrea did exactly what Jon had suggested. She turned the props on and kept them on a very low throttle making sure to keep as quiet as humanly possible. They sailed at this crawling pace for about an hour when Jon, who was standing at the prow of the barge with his arm and forefinger outstretched said, “I can see the complex.”

Niles moved up beside Jon. He could see it too. The complex was walled, but not entirely. The edifice was seemingly built into the face of a steep mountain, the entrance kept safe by two-hundred foot walls with landing pads jutting out from the sides. “It’s a fortress carved into a mountain.”

“Precisely,” Jon said. “Which is why only Emma and myself will be entering the facility.”

Niles decided to concede and let Jon take the lead here. “Fine. But how do you intend to get over that wall?”

“We don’t,” Jon said. “There’s a drain pipe at the lower base of the mountain. Should be able to get in through there.”

“And where does The Dusty Maiden stay while you and Emma are inside?”

“She... needs to land,” Jon said. “There’s ample landing room near the drain pipe and the mountains should obscure the barge from patrols. It’s the perfect hiding place. A blind spot.”

Jon was right... he thought. This is dangerous. If the patrols didn’t catch them there was still Jon and Emma who needed to sneak inside the base and get out undetected with the location of the control room. If they got out okay, there was still The Dusty Maiden which had to land on the ground.

It would be lucky if the scorgs didn’t show up in massive slavering hordes, ready to rip and chew the meat off the entire crew.

Damn...

He knew it sounded too easy when Jon had told them the plan back in Norstrum. “Alright, Jon. Where’s this drain pipe?”