Saving Runt Read online

  Humming under her breath, she soon lost herself in RITA2 and DAR’s code. Fascinated by what she was seeing, she pushed the rest of her meal to the side, oblivious to everything else. Her eyes widened as she realized what was happening. There was some seriously messed up code going on between them!

  “And I thought I had issues!” she muttered.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Amelia, you may want to see this,” Derik announced over the intercom system.

  She quickly finished pulling on the T-shirt that she had grabbed from her backpack. Old habits were hard to break. Despite everything that had happened, she still wasn’t used to putting her clothes in a drawer.

  After reviewing the issues RITA2 was having, she had cleaned up her mess in the galley before heading back to their cabin to take a quick shower. Her mind was still racing with what she had discovered about RITA2 and DAR as she hurried back to the bridge nearly an hour later.

  Stepping through the doorway, all thoughts of RITA2 vanished as she stared in awe at the huge orange planet. The view through the front glass made her feel like she was in a virtual game. Swirling bands of color, ranging from bright yellow to dark red and all the hues in between, covered the entire planet. She tightened her grip on the edge of the door frame when the ship rocked.

  “Is it safe to go down through that?” she asked.

  Derik looked over his shoulder. “Yes, but you might want to strap in. It can be bumpy. The planet has a sustainable atmosphere. The cloud covering looks thick, but it isn’t. Most of the color is a reflection from the surface. The dark red lines are a vast mountain range that circles most of the planet. The orange is a shallow ocean. The yellow is primarily forests or sand dunes,” he explained.

  She walked over to the seat next to Derik and sat down. Reaching for the harness, she snapped the buckles into place. A dark, billowing line rising up through the clouds caught her attention.

  “What is that?” she asked.

  “It looks like smoke,” he commented.

  “Look to the right. It looked like something just exploded,” she said.

  “Something is wrong,” he muttered.

  “What do you think it is?” she asked, watching in morbid fascination as another explosion lit up the swirling clouds.

  “I don’t know, but we are going to find out,” he grimly replied.

  She shot him a wary look. “Uh, you know, usually when there are explosions, people tend to go in the opposite direction,” she pointed out.

  He flashed a grin at her. “Maybe a human does. Prime warriors tend to charge in,” he replied.

  “We’d call that competing for the Darwin Award,” she muttered.

  “Awards are good,” he responded.

  Runt shook her head. “Not this one. You only win it for dying in the most stupid way,” she commented.

  “I guess that we won’t try to compete for this award, then,” he decided with a sheepish expression.

  She curled her fingers into the arms of the chair when the spaceship tilted and accelerated. She ground her teeth together. Her first thought was that instead of going faster, they should be decelerating as they approached the ground.

  A harsh gasp slipped from her lips when she saw a dark shape emerge out of the clouds heading toward them. Derik veered to the left with a low curse. The two ships passed each other with less than twenty feet to spare.

  She turned her head with a jerk, trying to get a good look at the smaller spaceship. There were markings on the side that she didn’t recognize. She turned to ask Derik if he knew what they meant. The question died on her lips when she saw his expression.

  “This is Prime 521 to Baade Command,” he said.

  Static greeted them. His lips tightened. Runt gripped the arms again when he suddenly pulled up.

  “They must have taken out the communications systems,” he said.

  “Who?” she asked.

  “The Juangans,” he replied just as the alarms came on.

  “Shields full, defensive measures have been engaged,” RITA2 said.

  “RITA2?” Runt called out.

  “Yes, dear, though I’m afraid I am only a fraction of my full program. Derik, there are ten fighters locking in on your location,” RITA2 stated.

  “Have you alerted Baade Command?” he demanded.

  “The electromagnetic field of the planet is blocking all outgoing communications. Once you break out of the atmosphere, I’ll be able to use the ship’s internal radars to link up with the nearest relay satellites and send a distress signal,” RITA2 answered.

  “Um, the Juangans are the species everyone hates ‘cause they eat people, right?” Runt demanded.

  “Yes, they are a nasty, murderous reptilian species—and they aren’t above eating their victims even if it is one of their own. We’ve been at war with them for centuries,” he explained in a tense voice.

  “Great! Looks like humans aren’t the only bloodsuckers out there—no offense. What are they—Look out! There’s another one,” she warned.

  “I see him,” Derik muttered.

  Several red energy balls struck the Juangan fighters. Derik’s ship soared through the exploding fireball. She winced when she heard debris from the wreckage bounce off the shields as they passed through the fragments. She didn’t want to think what else was mixed with the bits of metal that were bouncing around them.

  She was thankful for the harness holding her safely to her seat after she was thrown forward when several bursts hit them from behind. Derik turned the ship at a sharp angle and headed for a dark red band. They broke through the clouds. The scream on Runt’s lips froze when she saw a cliff in front of them.

  “Let’s see how good they are,” Derik muttered.

  Runt sat with her mouth hanging open and her eyes glued to the scene in front of them. Her stomach dropped when the ship suddenly lunged down and twisted to the right. They barely managed to pass through a narrow gap between two canyon walls before straightening out on the other side.

  “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to learn how to fly. This is worse than driving in rush hour traffic during a major event,” she muttered.

  “That took care of another two of them, Derik. I have DAR on the weapons system,” RITA2 said.

  “I’m bringing up the targets on screen now,” DAR said.

  “Do—do—do—you want me to take over… navigation?” RITA2 asked in a stuttering voice as she began to glitch.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Derik demanded.

  “It looks like her duplication code is speeding up,” Runt replied.

  “Shut her down,” Derik ordered.

  Runt nodded. “Sorry, RITA2,” she said, pulling up her micro-computer.

  She worked as fast as she could. As much as she hated the idea of shutting DAR down as well, he was infected with the same code as RITA2. She initiated the shutdown program that she had used on RITA. Hopefully, the slight modification she’d made to it would be enough to keep RITA2 from stopping her.

  “Hold on,” Derik growled.

  Her stomach rolled when he tilted the ship to the side. She watched as he fired at a rock ledge a short distance ahead of them. They passed under the cliff as the ledge began to collapse. She winced when she heard rocks raining down just behind them, and then heard them hit the Juangan fighters.

  She looked at the screen. Three brilliant flashes of light appeared before the shapes of the Juangans’ fighters vanished. She wanted to whoop with excitement, but there were still five more fighters.

  “Faster—no, slower—no up, I mean down. Oh hell, I’m closing my eyes,” she muttered.

  She lifted her hands to cover her eyes, but never quite made it. Her heart was in her throat as Derik maneuvered through the narrow canyons, trying to shake the last fighters.

  “Weapon systems damaged. Manual override necessary,” the ship’s computer said.

  “What does that mean?” she demanded.

  “That means we have no a
uto weapons. I can’t fly the ship and operate the rear cannons,” he answered through clenched teeth.

  “I can do it. I mean, I can shoot things. I’m a gamer,” she said.

  Derik shook his head. “It is too dangerous,” he tersely replied.

  She waved her hand at the front screen. “And this isn’t?” she retorted. “Where are the weapons?”

  He started to protest when another alarm sounded. “Shields at forty percent,” the computer stated.

  “There are three. Use the top one. There is a lift up to it in the center of the ship,” he said.

  “Oh, that’s what that thing is,” she said.

  She fumbled with the release on her harness. As she stood up, she fell against Derik’s seat when he had to swerve around a large rock formation. He briefly looked up at her with a troubled expression on his face.

  “Be careful,” he instructed.

  She wiggled her nose at him. “I’ve got this. You focus on not smashing us into a million pieces,” she urged as she pushed off toward the door.

  “I’ve got this,” he replied, mimicking her response.

  “You better or I’m really going to be pissed. I finally met a guy I like so I’m not about to let some alien lizards screw it up,” she retorted as she stomped down the corridor.

  Her mutterings turned to curses when she was knocked off balance. She grabbed the conduit running along the left bulkhead to keep from falling. She looked at the small lift down the corridor. It looked like one of those hand truck carts the delivery guys use. Seeing it from a different perspective, she now recognized how it worked—stand on the flat section, hold onto the hand grips, and the two bars lifted you up to a hatch that, she assumed, opened before you ran into it.

  “It better, or I’m going to have one hell of a headache,” she muttered.

  She took a deep breath and lunged for the vertical bar. Of course, that was when Derik did one of his rolling turns. A cry of alarm slipped from her lips as she felt her body leave the floor. For a brief second, she was weightless before the ship righted itself and gravity made its ugly appearance.

  Her body instinctively stiffened in preparation for what was bound to be a bone-jarring impact with the metal floor. Runt released a short, sharp scream when a pair of arms suddenly encircled her waist, catching her in mid-descent. Her arms and legs swung around like a rag doll in a puppy’s mouth.

  “You shouldn’t be moving around without the right equipment,” a voice murmured in her ear.

  Runt turned her head and looked over her shoulder in disbelief at Afon. The sound of footsteps on metal pulled her attention to Marcelo coming down the corridor. Looking back and forth, she felt her body sag for a moment.

  “What in the hell are you guys doing here?” she demanded.

  Marcelo grinned at Afon. “I told you that computer thing didn’t tell her about us,” he said.

  “Not now, Marcelo. What the hell is going on?” Afon demanded as the ship tilted again and the lights flickered.

  “Some evil lizards are trying to kill us. I have to get to the weapons because the auto-shooter thing died,” she said, grasping hold of his arm when the ship rocked back and forth.

  “Where is it?” Marcelo grimly asked.

  Runt pointed to the lift almost directly across from them. “There are two more at the end of the corridor. I’ll take this one if you two can take the others. Do you know how to shoot—of course you two know how to shoot! It has been a crazy day,” she groaned.

  “We’ll find them,” Afon said with a nod to Marcelo.

  Marcelo nodded in response and retraced his footsteps. Afon carried her over to the lift and placed her feet on the floor. Once she had a good grip on the handles, he released her.

  She turned and looked at him. “Don’t get killed. I want to know how you two got here,” she ordered.

  Afon chuckled. “I’m still trying to figure that out myself,” he replied before stepping back.

  Runt pressed the button on the handgrip and felt the lift glide up. She tilted her head as she neared the ceiling and held her breath. Sure enough, the hatch slid open. She easily passed through the opening. Once the bottom of the lift cleared the hatch, it shut again.

  She turned and gripped the arms of a chair that reminded her of a gamer’s seat. Sliding into it, she quickly pulled the harness over her shoulders and clicked it into place. Her fingers wrapped around the two toggles on the arm of the chair.

  A screen surrounded the chair, and Runt swiveled around, briefly in awe at being able to see 360 degrees around the ship. That wonder quickly changed when she saw one of the alien fighters closing in on them.

  Pursing her lips in determination, she aimed, and squeezing the firing control, she released a stream of powerful bursts on his ass. Either the bastard didn’t have his shields up or they were no match for the power of a Prime laser cannon. The shots she fired tore through one section of the wing and the fighter spiraled out of control before exploding in a fiery crash.

  “Wahoo! Take that, you ugly alien lizard!” she grinned.

  She swiveled when she saw additional laser fire. It looked like her uncle and his security man had found the other two weapon areas. Twin explosions proved they also knew what they were doing.

  Given what she remembered about how many fighters had been initially following them and how many were now down, she calculated that there should only be a couple of fighters left. She slowly rotated, looking for them. Her eyes scanned the shadows in the rocks even as her mind played out where she would attack if she were on the other side.

  “Derik, can you hear me?” she asked.

  “Yes, what the hell is going on? There were three coming up behind us and they just disappeared. I saw the one hit from your cannon. How did you get the other two systems online? The auto-weapon controls are still down,” he said.

  “I’ll explain later. There are still two fighters out there,” she replied.

  “The sensors aren’t showing anything,” he answered.

  “How likely are they to turn and run?” she asked.

  “Zero chance,” he said.

  “That’s what I was afraid of,” she muttered.

  She slowly rotated her seat. She had almost made a full circle when she caught a faint glimmer of light out of the corner of her eye. Turning her chair, she depressed the button on the control and opened fire.

  The fighter hiding in a crevice below them angled upward. Runt’s stomach twisted when she recognized the pilot’s intent. The son-of-a-bitch was pulling a kamikaze. She’d seen it on some of the World War II games she’d played.

  “Like hell,” she cursed.

  Afon and Marcelo must have seen the fighter at the same time as she did. Between the three laser cannons, he didn’t stand a chance. It wasn’t until the fighter exploded that she realized the guy was a sacrificial decoy.

  Up! she snapped to Derik.

  The ship suddenly climbed at a steep angle. The last fighter was weaving back and forth. This guy was more skilled than the last ones.

  The smaller fighter was gaining on their ship. Derik cleared the top of the cliff. For a moment, Runt lost sight of the Juangan following them. It didn’t take long to find him again. Her eyes widened in terror when she saw a ball of energy heading straight for her.

  She sagged and closed her eyes when it exploded before reaching her. Unfortunately, the explosion was still close enough to cause damage if the smoke suddenly pouring out of one engine was anything to go by.

  Shields are down, Derik informed her.

  I figured that. This bastard is pissing me off! How bad is the damage? she asked.

  Bad enough that I need to find a place to land, he replied.

  Runt could feel him pulling away from her. Her finger hovered over the button on her toggle. The crafty bastard behind them was weaving again. He was also staying just low enough that Marcelo and Afon’s weapons couldn’t get to him.

  “One, two, three—side. One, two—side. O
ne, two three—side. You’ve got a rhythm going there, dude,” she murmured, recognizing what the pilot was doing. “You—should—never—mess—with—a—gamer,” she slowly stated as she counted out the rhythm until he came back into view.

  She depressed the button, sending a stream of laser fire at the spaceship while swiveling in her seat to keep up the heat. The fighter’s left wing exploded. The ship spun out of control and hit the top of the plateau, rolling dozens of times before it disappeared in a cloud of dust.

  “Yes!” she hissed in triumph.

  “Got him!” she crowed into the comlink.

  “You are one amazing mate,” Derik responded with a chuckle.

  “Yeah, and don’t you forget it. I am the number one shooter on this ship,” she bragged.

  “I’ll second that. Once we land, you’ll have to share how you were able to operate all three weapon systems at once. Until then, I’m going to find a place to land in the valley south of the city so I can see how much damage there is. We are going to need to contact Baade Command and let them know what is happening,” Derik said.

  “I’ll stay here in case there are any more,” she said.

  He was silent for a second before he spoke again. “I’m glad you are safe,” he said.

  She felt a wave of warmth, and a pleased smile curved her lips. “We make a good team,” she teased.

  “Yes, we do,” he responded, not teasing.

  She sat back in her chair. Her gaze moved to the smoke coming from a section on the back of the ship. Behind them, she could see the faint outline of the crashed Juangan fighter.

  “Well, I’ve never been on a vacation before. If this is what they are like, I think it might be safer to just do a staycation on Earth.” She paused. “Except I can get shot there, too,” she sighed as the ship began to descend once again.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Derik looked up when Amelia came out of the ship. She had a bemused expression on her face. He wondered if she realized just how much of what she felt was reflected in her expressions. She raised an eyebrow at him when she caught him staring at her.