While the eggheads skipped around on an alien planet, Mi-Cha stood guard at the shuttle. From the inside. Mostly by pacing around the cockpit.

  Mi-Cha had already checked and double checked the ship’s systems. She found a few issues, but those were the expected issues. The problems with the flickering light in the cockpit or the shaky air filters didn’t mean a fuck to Mi-Cha. The engines ran. When she pushed buttons and yanked the control stick, the ship responded. That’s all anyone needed from a shuttle.

  I also need those scientists to get their asses back here.

  Acid rain pounded against the shuttle’s roof. The damage reports said the ship was fine, but Mi-Cha knew the hull was gonna have some burns in it. That was fine, of course. Nobody was displaying the shuttle in a showroom. But if the ship sat outside too long, got too much rain on it, the acid could burn through to something that actually mattered.

  Mi-Cha climbed into the cockpit and powered the engines. They wheezed and coughed, but came to life.

  Mi-Cha wasn’t supposed to leave Tartarus until the scientists were safely aboard the ship, but if the acid got too bad, she’d have no trouble ditching them. Sure she’d get yelled at and maybe lose her job, but she’d rather be a bum than dead on some shithole planet.

  “Mi-Cha, this is Luther. Are you there?” A voice crackled over the radio.

  “Where the flying fuck are you?” Mi-Cha demanded. “You’re supposed to be back here, y’know, before the planet pissed stomach acid onto my shuttle!”

  “We had a delay.”

  “Get back here now, or I’m leaving your asses behind!” Mi-Cha shouted.

  “We’ll be there, promise.”

  Mi-Cha huffed.

  The rain hammered faster against the hull.

  Mi-Cha ran her hand over the ship controls, gently, so she didn’t accidentally trigger something. As soon as an alarm went off, though, Mi-Cha was out. Fuck the scientists and fuck their alien.

  ? ? ?

  Erika saw the others carrying the Carnifex as nothing but smeared colors as rain raced down her helmet. Erika was exempt from Carnifex carrying duty thanks to her shoulder, which throbbed in pain and creaked when moved. But hey, Erika had been hit with the flat of the Carnifex’s tail. If it had been ready for her, if it swung with its blade, Erika would have been cut in half. She was very aware of how lucky she’d been.

  Erika’s foot caught something on the forest floor. She stumbled forward and onto the ground.

  “Erika!” Petra shouted.

  “I’m fine!” She scrambled back to her feet. Alien mud clung to her gloved hands.

  The figures carrying the Carnifex stopped. Their enviro-suits lost color in streaks, or at least that’s what Erika thought she saw.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  If we had a little more time, we wouldn’t be dealing with this.

  And, naturally, Mi-Cha wanted to be obstinate and threaten to leave everyone without a ride.

  Erika knew exactly what would happen then. The acid wouldn’t let up. It would eat through everyone’s suits, through their helmets, and kill them. When the rain stopped, there wouldn’t be bodies to recover, just a mass of red sludge that had once been a science team.

  Erika pushed that thought out of mind.

  “The shuttle’s right in front of us!” Luther shouted.

  The tree analogues parted away to a large clearing, like the one the shuttle landed on. Erika couldn’t see the shuttle. She wiped an arm across her helmet, and yes, there was the shuttle. Its thrusters glowed an ominous blue.

  “Hurry the fuck up!” Mi-Cha shouted.

  What do you think we’re doing?

  Erika pushed her legs as fast as she could in an enviro-suit. There was a stitch in her side. It had been there for a while, she thought, but Erika hadn’t had time to register it until now.

  I’m going to be too slow. I won’t reach the shuttle, and everyone will leave without me.

  Erika reached the shuttle’s hull. She wiped away the acid rain again, and looked over the ship’s side. She found the console, and pressed the button.

  The airlock doors hissed open.

  Luther, Petra, and Aymeric hauled the Carnifex in. Erika stumbled after them, then shut the door. The ground rumbled under Erika’s feet.

  “Let’s set it down,” Luther said.

  The crew lowered the Carnifex to the floor.

  “Aymeric, Petra, I want you to keep an eye on it.” Luther moved to the side of the wall. There was a button somewhere that would start the decontamination protocol. It would wash away the acid, then pressurize the air. The Carnifex was supposed to be in a storage unit at the back of the shuttle, but there wasn’t time for that. The creature would just have to survive–

  The engines roared. The ship bucked. Erika leaned against a wall for balance.

  “Mi-Cha, what’s going on?” Aymeric asked.

  ? ? ?

  “I’m getting off this planet; that’s what!” Mi-Cha snapped.

  The shuttle hadn’t beeped out any alarms, but Mi-Cha felt them coming. The ship spent too long in the rain, and unless it got above the clouds right then, something important would get trashed.

  A pilot was supposed to wait for their passengers to buckle up before breaking atmo, but Mi-Cha didn’t give a shit. The scientists made her fly to a shit-ass planet; it was their fault they were getting thrown around.

  Mi-Cha lifted the shuttle above the trees.

  “Mi-Cha, give us a moment to strap in!” Luther called.

  A gust of wind rammed the shuttle. Mi-Cha yanked the controls in the opposite direction to right the ship.

  “Hold on to something!” Mi-Cha shouted.

  Four pissed off voices tried to say something at the same time.

  Mi-Cha aimed the shuttle skyward, then cranked power to the engines.

  The ship rocketed into the clouds.

  The shouting got louder.

  The clouds took up the shuttle’s vision. Moisture smacked against the window then darted away. Winds slapped the shuttle around.

  Mi-Cha maneuvered the ship for all it was worth. She was not gonna let some ugly cloud knock her out of the sky.

  The shuttle broke through. The dusty sky stretched into the distance. The winds slapped at the ship, but they didn’t have the same energy as before.

  Mi-Cha relaxed her grip. Her palms were sweaty and slick on the controls, but she wasn’t gonna let go until the shuttle reached home.

  She pulled up the comms.

  “How’s everyone doing?” Mi-Cha asked.

  “We still need to run the decontamination procedure, and take the Carnifex to an enclosure,” Luther answered.

  “We’re all a little banged up, too,” Erika added.

  “Aw, well, maybe you shouldn’t make a bitch wait so long.” Mi-Cha grinned.

  The shuttle pierced Tartarus’s atmosphere. Unfamiliar stars glittered on a black background. One of the dots didn’t shine brilliantly like a star. That dot was a ship waiting on the edge of Tartarus’s gravity well. That’s where Mi-Cha was flying.