The Other Side

Chapter 2: RAPIER

Activity in the outpost was at an all-time high as scientists and technicians tried to find a way to activate the dormant drone. At the main computer console, Lilly was sorting through all the data with the Captain.

"Thank you for helping me with this Captain," she said.

"No problem, and call me Eric. The captain is just a title," he said.

"Well, Eric, did you find anything new?"

He shook his head. "Even with the adjustments you made, I can't read all this stuff. There are small words that I can make out like 'laser' and 'tree' but other than that, nothing."

"Wait," she said. "I think I found it." She scrolled through the information and came upon a paragraph that was in an alien language. "It says here that to activate the Cartographer, we need an activation key. Like an actual key. But it doesn't say where it's located."

As they continued looking, Drake suddenly shouted out, "I think I found it!"

Lilly walked over to the soldier and asked, "Where is it?"

"Well, it says that it's located in the...Laboratory? But we didn't find a lab here."

Lilly walked back to the console and typed out several symbols. "Well, you're right there isn't a lab in here but there is one out there. It's close to El Capitan."

"That's not too far from here," said Eric.

"We could go and get it," said Drake. "It's like a ten-minute drive from our current location."

"I'll radio Dr. Livian. Maybe she could drive us there," said Lilly.

As the trio walked out of the outpost, they noticed that there was an unusually high amount of security guards. They weren't wearing military uniforms, but black vests and body armor. They were also wearing black helmets and a mask covers their mouth so that only their eyes could be seen. Drake looked at the guards with suspicion.

"I don't trust these guys," he said.

The others nodded their heads. "It's just weird," said Lilly. "They aren't wearing any badges that indicate that they're part of an agency or any organization for that matter."

"Look again," Eric said. "Their badges are also black. You just have to look closely."

He inconspicuously pointed to one of the guard's arms were a black round badge glinted in the artificial light. They could make out a curved triangle and the word RAPIER.

"RAPIER?" Lilly asked in a hushed whisper. "Who the hell is RAPIER?"

"More like, what is RAPIER," said Drake.

After a few minutes of walking, they emerged from the opening and boarded one of the elevators headed back to the base camp. Eric leaned on the railing as they descended.

"Something just doesn't feel right with those guys," he said. "Maybe we should talk to the General about this before we search for the Laboratory."

His colleagues nodded in agreement as the elevator touched the ground. Stepping off, they walked into the camp. Again, they saw heavily armed black cladded men diligently watch the camp, as if it were a prison.

"Look at them," said Drake. "They're scanning the camp as if they're picking out targets."

"That doesn't sound good at all," said Lilly.

The trio made eye contact with one of the guards, and he stared back in a steely cold gaze. Chills ran down their spines as they averted their gaze from the guard.