The group decided to just stay in their pod since it was parked in a relatively remote parking zone. It would allow for a quick getaway, too, since they wouldn't have to move any of their things.

The downside to this was that as they waited for the time when their plan would begin, they had a space of about forty feet - many of those taken up by the control panel and chairs - to move around and coexist.

Tensions rose quickly.

"You just pulled my hair!" Adelifa accused Arkin as he passed behind her.

"I would never, it's too beautiful," he replied, attempting to diffuse the situation with a charming smile.

It barely worked. Adelifa returned to her chair grumbling under her breath.

"Leave Arkin alone," Niev commanded sternly. "He didn't do anything."

"You would take his side," Adelifa told him contemptuously.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

She just shook her head, snorting.

Niev sighed, running a hand over his face. The kidnapping couldn't come soon enough.

*

"Adelifa, copy."

"I copy."

He had no idea how Adelifa had managed to get to her watchpoint. She had only said, "Leave it to me," when he tried to detail a plan for her entry, and he had made the wise choice of trusting her. However the six-foot-tall Amazonian-like woman had managed it, he was proud of her.

"Adron, copy."

"I copy."

The robot was safely back in the pod, preparing it for takeoff as well as setting up his distraction. Niev knew that he could rely on him to be the most stable piece of the mission. Even a malfunctioning robot did one hell of a meticulous job.

"Arkin, copy."

"I copy."

He sounded just a little too excited about all of this. Niev didn't think the emotions would get to him, though - Arkin's whole career was centered around internally keeping his cool while externally displaying whatever emotions he wanted. Right now, the archer was seated on a rooftop across from the castle. He had a few arrows that would break into multiple blunt-headed pieces as they flew, meaning that they would puncture the window in so many places that the frame would completely collapse. As an added bonus, each arrow fragment had small volts of electricity, so if one happened to strike the prince, not only would he get a nasty bruise, but he would hopefully get stunned enough to make the whole thing easier.

Niev himself was standing on a balcony next to the prince's bedroom. Apparently, the royals of this castle didn't get their own balconies - assassination attempts were too common for them to risk being that open.

What a depressing world this is.

He was concealed with a camouflage robe, tech that wasn't yet on the market but that he had earned from a past mission. As soon as the arrow broke through the window, he would be forced to break his cover, though - when the wearer of the robe moved too quickly, the illusion was broken.

Everything would happen very quickly once Arkin's arrow was launched. Niev's blood was practically buzzing with anticipation, the familiar feeling of a mission about to begin washing over him. Sure, they had been planning and preparing and readying themselves for it - but this was the real stuff.

This was what kept him in this line of work, had kept him here for years as he acquired a crew, added to that crew, bought his own ship.

"About to fire." Arkin's remarkably voice came through the earpiece. "Everyone get ready. In three...two..."

Glass shattered in a magnificent spray and Niev moved.

He leaped from the balcony to the narrow window ledge across the way, not giving himself enough time to overthink the jump or be afraid. His feet barely made it, but luckily, Arkin's arrow had worked just as promised - the ledge had widened into the room, the lack of window making his entry easy.

Niev rolled into the room, guns at the ready. Luckily, he didn't need them - the prince was lying on his bed, shocked at the quickly transpiring events before him.

Niev didn't give him time to process anything. He strode forward and clocked the boy across the forehead, catching him as he slumped over.

"Adron, distraction now," he growled into his earpiece, tossing the prince over his shoulder like a sack of flower and heading to the bedroom door.

"Done," the robot said after a short, harrowing pause. "Your exit is clear."

"Awesome," Niev muttered, swinging open the door and handing the prince over to Adelifa. She swung him over one shoulder as well and readied her weapon.

"Just in case."

Niev pulled out his own gun. "Good call."

They jogged through the halls of the palace, the woman's progress hindered by the baggage across her shoulder. Niev would have preferred a flat-out sprint - the more distance between them and the crime scene, the better - but knew his friend was moving as fast as she could without exhausting herself.

They reached the exit and slipped outside. Arkin was there to meet them with a floating streetcar driven by a non-intelligent robot. The sight of the unblinking eyes still threw Niev off as he thought of Adron, so different from this creature and yet fundamentally the same.

Soon they were back at the pod, slipping inside with the prince in tow. He began to come to as they left the atmosphere, drifting back towards their own ship.

"Wha - what the hell is happening?" he asked, his hair beginning to lift off his head with the lack of gravity.

"You're being kidnapped," Niev told him flatly. "Really sorry about this, but you're worth a lot of money to some rich man back home."

"You're - no! You can't do this!"

"Actually, we are doing this," Arkin reminded the poor boy.

"No, you don't understand! I'm getting married in the morning!"

There was a long pause. "How did we miss that in our research?" Niev finally asked his crew members.

They all looked as confused as he felt. Adelifa stepped closer to the boy, eyeing him with confusion as Niev guided the pod into docking.

"So you don't want us to kidnap you because...?"

"Well, I would like to not be kidnapped on a fundamental level," the prince admitted angrily. "But you don't understand!"

"Then help us understand," Adron suggested.

"I'm getting married to the president's daughter. She's on another planet in Apoxia III - our marriage could end the war!"

"You're kidding." Niev glanced at his friends. "Why would we be hired to kidnap you, then?"

"To stop the wedding, maybe? Who hired you?" the prince demanded, some of that regal arrogance seeping into his voice even at a time like this.

"A driller. Why?"

"They're profiting off of our war," the prince snarled. "He doesn't want me to get married because he doesn't want our people to stop dying!"

Niev would have doubted the prince, but the doubt that anyone could lie like this on the fly overrode the doubt that the boy might not have been telling the truth. "Swear to me you're not lying," he ordered quietly.

"You can't seriously be considering - " Adelifa murmured.

"I promise. I swear on my life."

Niev thought for a long moment. Even though the pod was docked, everyone stayed where they were, not moving towards the doors leading to the spaceship.

"Fine," he finally said, trying not to feel too much pain at the thought of how much money he was about to lose. "We'll return you."

"Niev!"

He whirled on Adelifa. "If we don't, more people will die. Maybe thousands, maybe millions. And for what? So some businessman can make double the pay we're getting for this job? No. I won't do it."

"But the money - " Arkin tried weakly. He caved under only a second of stern gaze from his captain, though. "Oh, you're right. It's the right thing to do." He sounded incredibly sad about that.

"I know. Dammit, I hate having morals," Niev muttered. "You guys can get back inside the spaceship. I'll just take him back down, drop him off on the city limits."

"That's not safe for him," Adron reminded them. "He could get murdered by sympathizers with enemy forces."

"Your robot friend is right," the prince interjected.

"Oh, fine!" Niev growled. "We'll all go down, return the prince, and be penniless heroes. How does that sound to everyone?"

"This was your idea," Arkin reminded him.

"I know!"