Saving Runt

by S. E. Smith

  Derik saw the flash from Afon’s weapon. The General’s head jerked in Afon’s direction at the same time. The shot cut a deep slice through the scaly skin near the General’s neck instead of striking him through the temple.

  General Tusk’s loud roar of rage filled the air. Derik took that as a signal to begin firing. Marcelo and Afon did the same. He moved along the wall that he was using for cover, picking off the Juangan soldiers.

  “Make sure you aim for their heads. Their skin is too thick and it will only slow them down!” he snapped into the comlink.

  “I only shoot to kill,” Afon growled back.

  Three of the Juangans’ heads snapped back as Afon, Marcelo, and Derik simultaneously fired. Out of the corner of his eye, Derik saw Amelia come around the corner of the enclosure, grab the bar across the front gates, and pull it free. The men in the front rushed to push open the doors.

  Derik fired on a Juangan who had noticed what was happening at the gates. Pieces of rock flew up as a barrage of laser fire riddled the wall he was standing behind. He ducked and sprinted for a hollowed-out building, only to be thrown back when it suddenly exploded.

  He rolled and shook it off. Pushing up from the ground, he stayed low as he darted for another building. He had barely cleared the area when the wall behind him exploded as well. Twisting around to an opening in the mortar, he aimed the rifle and fired.

  The Juangan’s head snapped back, and he fell backwards. The laser cannon in his hands fired as his fingers tightened in death. One of the fireballs streaked through the open door of one of the transports.

  Terrified screams combined with the deafening sounds of the spacecraft exploding into a fiery ball. Derik darted to another section to see if he could locate Amelia. He frantically glanced around, trying to find her slender form among the chaotic mass of bodies fleeing into the ruins of the city.

  “Shit! I’m hit,” Marcelo’s pain-filled curse sounded in his ear.

  “How bad?” Derik demanded.

  Marcelo huffed out a harsh laugh. “I won’t be running any marathons for a while,” he grunted.

  “Afon, do you see Amelia?” he asked.

  “Negative. I’m taking heavy fire. This piece-of-shit hole I’m hiding in is about to collapse,” he tersely replied.

  “The Juangans caught about a dozen women and children. They’re herding them onto the transport that is powering up. I was trying to stop them,” Marcelo said.

  “Keep firing,” Derik ordered.

  “I’m out,” Afon said.

  Derik heard a spate of shots. “I’m on empty as well,” Marcelo groaned.

  Derik looked down at his weapon. The charge was low. He had one more power pack. He peered through the smoke. Without reinforcements, it wouldn’t take long before the transport was able to notify the Command ship in orbit to send more fighters. They would hunt them down and round up the residents again.

  “Did someone call for reinforcements?” Amelia asked.

  “What the hell…?” Afon’s stunned voice hissed in his ear.

  Derik watched in wonder as hundreds of small attack bots flew over the ruins like a swarm of angry wasps and began firing, limiting its targets to the remaining Juangans. He chuckled. Lifting his rifle, he aimed at the Juangan General’s head. He slowly squeezed the trigger.

  The General turned in his direction just as he fired. A dark hole appeared in the center of the creature’s forehead. The glowing sword in his hand slowly lowered before he fell forward—dead.

  Brock’s attack bots quickly eliminated the rest of the Juangans in the center of town. The only ones that remained were the Juangans on the transport that was now soaring over the town. Derik turned his rifle to fire at the engine but slowly lowered it when he realized that if the transport crashed, no one would survive. That brief hesitation cost him the only chance he had of stopping the vessel.

  “Check in,” he ordered.

  He released the spent power pack and replaced it with the last one he had. He held the rifle to his shoulder as he stepped out from behind the wall. Out of the ruins, he saw small clusters of residents emerging. Among one group, he saw Afon helping a bloody Marcelo.

  He lowered his rifle and walked over to them. “Where’s Amelia?” he asked.

  Afon frowned and looked around. “I haven’t seen her,” he said as he helped Marcelo lie down on a section of rock.

  “Who sent the swarm of attack bots?” Marcelo asked before he groaned when he straightened his leg.

  RITA2 suddenly appeared next to him on the rock. She was dressed in a flowing white dress with a large white floppy hat. Dark sunglasses shielded her eyes.

  “I did, of course. Amelia asked me if we had anything on the ship that could help, and I remembered the boxes of training bots. It wasn’t hard to reprogram them as deadly attack bots. Brock sent a new, improved batch in case Derik struck out with Amelia, and needed to work off some frustration. It really is amazing how much better I function when I’m not suffering from glitches!” RITA2 said.

  “RITA2, where is Amelia?” Derik demanded with growing alarm when he couldn’t find her.

  “Oh, she and DAR are on the transport with the women and children,” RITA2 said with a grin.

  “She’s on the….,” Derik let loose a heated string of curses.

  He turned and looked in the direction he’d last seen the transport. His heart was in his throat as he thought of Amelia in the hands of the Juangans. If he had fired the shot….

  I’m fine. DAR is showing me how to fly. We dropped the women and children off in a small camp that DAR discovered. Looks like the beginning of a rebel camp. We are heading to your ship with the part you needed, she cheerfully reassured him.

  Derik swayed with relief. He glanced from the transport to the fighter. He looked at RITA2, then turned to Afon.

  “Here,” he said, slapping an injector into Afon’s hand. “Give Marcelo this. He’ll be healed in a few hours. Once he can travel, get to the skimmer and head back to the ship,” he ordered, turning away.

  “Where are you going?” Afon called out behind him.

  “To have a private conversation with my bond mate,” Derik yelled back.

  “Oh, dear,” RITA2 murmured with a delicate laugh.

  Afon watched with a frown as Derik jogged over to the Juangan fighter, shaking his head in disbelief when Derik lifted off, leaving him with RITA2 and an injured Marcelo. He turned his attention back to Marcelo when the other man softly moaned.

  “How the hell are we supposed to find our way back to the spaceship?” Marcelo groaned.

  RITA2 waved her hand. “Oh, no worries, I’ll guide you. Afon, love, be a dear and give your friend the injection. The nanobots will heal him in no time, just like Derik said,” she instructed in a distracted voice.

  He pulled the injector out of the pouch and studied it for a second before he pressed the tip of the injector against Marcelo’s leg through the torn section of his trousers. He pressed the button.

  Marcelo hoarsely uttered a string of curses before his eyes rolled back in his head, and he started to fall to the ground face first. Afon reached out and grabbed Marcelo. With the help of a couple of men who had hurried over carrying a modified stretcher, they lowered his friend to the ground.

  He looked up to ask RITA2 if that was normal, but stopped when he saw her eyes glowing red. She had removed her sunglasses and was staring intently at the Juangans transport. A shiver ran through him when he saw the satisfied smirk on her red lips.

  “What are you doing?” he quietly inquired.

  She looked at him. It took a few seconds before the red glow disappeared and was replaced with vivid green eyes, but once her irises were a more normal color, it was hard to tell that this was not a real woman.

  “I’m sending the Juangan Command ship a present,” she cheekily replied.

  Afon looked over his shoulder as the transport slowly lifted off the ground and turned. In seconds, it was heading out of the atmosphere.
He looked back at her.

  “What did you do?” he pressed.

  She snapped her sunglasses open and placed them on her pert nose. He gritted his teeth when she patted her hair and adjusted her hat. Only after she had checked her lipstick in a mirror, which had magically appeared in her hand, did she look at him with amusement.

  “I sent a message to Baade Command. Then I instructed the transport to dock with the Juangan Command ship—where an unfortunate programming issue will cause the engines to overheat, which will cause a spectacular explosion,” she calmly informed him.

  Afon looked up when he heard several gasps from the residents. Above them, the exploding ship looked like a brilliant display of fireworks. The debris changed colors as it entered the planet’s atmosphere, then disintegrated.

  For the first time since his capture, Afon felt the enormity of his situation. This wasn’t Earth. This wasn’t human technology. He gazed at the growing crowd around him. Without the protective covers over their faces, he could see that there were people of all different shapes, sizes, and species. None looked remotely human—except for RITA2.

  He looked down at Marcelo. The man he had hired as his Chief of Security had become so much more over the last few weeks. He considered the man a friend. Something he’d never had before.

  “You can have a life here, Afon. You wanted a fresh start. Why not give our world a chance?” RITA2 gently suggested.

  He scowled when his thoughts were so easily discerned, even by a super computer. “I have nothing here,” he said.

  RITA2 gave him a tender smile. “On the contrary, I think you have everything that is worth having,” she countered.

  He looked down when Marcelo moved, and placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder to keep him from trying to sit up. Marcelo opened his eyes, blinked, and gave him a half-drunken smile.

  “Are’s… we going… home? To the ship?” Marcelo slurred.

  Afon squeezed Marcelo’s shoulder. “Yes, my friend. We’re going back,” he quietly promised.

  Derik landed the Juangan fighter nearly a mile from where his ship was hidden. He felt it would be safer to walk the rest of the way and give himself time to cool down. Imagining the Juangans torturing her had driven him close to the breaking point. When he realized how close he had come to killing her himself, he felt physically ill.

  He jogged most of the way, slowing only when he reached the upper level of the canyon and needed to make his way down. By the time he reached the bottom, he was calm again. It was amazing what a little time—carefully trying not to kill yourself—could do to help put things into perspective.

  I’m glad you are feeling better, she observed with dry humor.

  How much of my thoughts did you listen to? he asked with a wince.

  Mm, pretty much all of them. I thought your plans to tie me up were particularly interesting. I have to warn you that there were a few who tried that in the past and it never worked out well for them, she teased.

  Yes, but did they bind you with love? he quipped in return.

  No, and that is why you are the most creative of them all, she laughed.

  Derik could see the ship under the overhang. The smile on his face grew when he saw Amelia sitting on a rock with her knees drawn up and her chin resting on her arms. She slowly stood up when she saw him.

  He opened his arms to her when he was ten feet away. She walked forward, speeding up when she was a couple feet from him. He caught her as she jumped, sliding one arm around her back while cupping her buttocks with the other. She wrapped her legs around his waist and hugged him, burying her face against his neck with a muffled sniff.

  They didn’t speak. After several minutes, he gently lowered her feet to the ground. He tenderly tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

  “How is Marcelo?” she asked, lifting her hand to touch his when he cupped her cheek.

  “He’ll be fine. I gave Afon a healing injector. Using the training bots was a smart idea,” he commented.

  She huffed out a short laugh. “It was RITA2’s idea to use the bots, but you know I’m a whiz at cyberwar. We did it together. I asked RITA2 to program the bots to attack only the Juangans. Then I saw a couple of the lizards loading some women and children into the transport, so I slipped into their midst and joined them. I couldn’t let those monsters take them, Derik, not after you told me what would happen to them.” She swallowed. “I shot the lizards,” she quietly said.

  She stared at his chest as she said the last words. He trailed his fingers down her cheek to her chin, and she looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears.

  “The Juangans do not deserve your tears, Amelia. They would have slaughtered the women and children without a second thought,” he comforted.

  She sniffed and nodded. “I know. DAR said the same thing. He helped me fly the transport. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be,” she said.

  He laughed when her eyes brightened in wonder. “I still plan on teaching you how to fly a shuttle. My idea of taking you away for a few days did not work out very well. We will need to return to Baade so that I can make proper repairs to our ship and brief the Council on what has happened here,” he said with a deep sigh.

  “The journey here was fun, and last night was pretty exciting,” she reminded him.

  He reached down and clasped her fingers where she was caressing his skin through the gap in his shirt. Lifting them to his lips, he pressed a kissed to the tips. He raised an eyebrow and gave her an inviting look.

  “We could still make it exciting,” he suggested.

  “Now you’re talking,” she breathed.

  She gave him a tender kiss. He closed his eyes, embracing the tidal wave of sensations that washed through him. He could see the shimmering delicate silver threads that tied them together, wrapping the two of them in their beauty.

  Fragmented memories swept through his mind. He wasn’t sure if they were his memories or hers. In the end, it didn’t matter. He remembered her beautiful, defiant eyes gazing back at him through the narrow opening through the wall the night they met, her quirky smile when she looked at him, her tender touch when he had been wounded, and her wonder when he had taken her the first time. These wonderful memories filled him with a sense of peace.

  He opened his eyes when she ended the kiss and touched his cheek. He could see the silver threads in her eyes and knew that she was remembering the same moments. She was defiant in the face of danger, and she was stubborn, strong, smart, and beautiful. He wouldn’t have her any other way.

  “I love you, Amelia,” he murmured, his voice raw with emotion.

  She gave him a watery smile and tilted her head. “I know,” she softly replied.

  “Today—I’ve almost lost you so many times. My heart hurts with the fear of never seeing your beautiful smile again, or never feeling the warm touch of your hands on me again. The two years that I waited….” He shook his head as raw emotion took his voice away.

  “I’m not the one who got shot,” she playfully reminded him before her expression became serious. “The timing wasn’t right. I wasn’t ready to accept you. Things always work out for the best, even when it doesn’t seem like it at the time. My mom told me that a long time ago. Sometimes it is hard to believe, but things happen for a reason. We have a lot to live for,” she quietly reflected.

  “Yes, we do,” he agreed.

  “If the guys aren’t going to be back for a while, I’d just like to spend time with you,” she said, biting her lip.

  “Are you asking me out on a date?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

  She tilted her head and studied his face for a second before she slowly nodded. “Yeah, I guess I am,” she said in a thoughtful voice.

  He bent his head down and brushed a kiss across her lips. “I would love to,” he murmured.

  She slipped her hand into his and turned around. He looked around the canyon. It might not have been what he planned, but did it really matter where they were a
s long as they were there together?

  “So, I’ve never actually asked anyone to go on a date before. What exactly are we supposed to do?” she suddenly asked.

  “I have no idea. I guess whatever we want,” he laughed.

  Walking backwards, she looked up at him and grinned. “Do you want to take a look at RITA2 and DAR’s programming? I found this thread of code that will blow your mind,” she suggested with a hopeful expression.

  “I can’t wait,” he chuckled.

  Studying the AIs’ computer code wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, though. He wrapped his arm around her and turned her back toward the ship. Her excited monologue about the code captured his attention and made him realize that one thing was for certain—life would never be boring with his little computer hacker.

  Nearly a mile away, a lone figure staggered to the Juangan fighter—a glowing sword gripped in his bloody claw. Colonel Tusk approached the fighter with care. He gazed out at the vast landscape, searching for the occupant who had abandoned the spacecraft.

  He knelt on one knee in the sand and ran a claw over the outline of a boot. He looked up and sneered in triumph. His rumbling snarl was swept away on the wind. He painfully ran his hand over his face to clear his blurred vision. His skin had been scrubbed raw by the blowing sand. Dark blue blood from the gash on his head dripped down his face, mixing with the sand and coating his hand with a sticky ooze.

  Rising to his feet, he ignored the pain pulsing through his body. He had survived the crash, only to come close to dying in the sandstorm. His thirst for revenge was what had kept him going. He gazed at the sky where the flashes of burning debris were still visible.

  It was time for a change. The Juangans needed a leader who would unite them against a common enemy. His rage hardened into cold determination. It was time for a new regime to control the galaxies. A war was coming, and he was going to lead it. It was time to show the Prime that they were no longer the strongest species in the galaxy.

  Staggering over to the fighter, he climbed inside. Sealing the door, he grabbed a medical kit on his way to the cockpit. Minutes later, he was leaving the atmosphere—his ship passing through the floating graveyard of his father’s Command ship.