KETTY'S SUBDIVISION Wattys2017

Chapter 14-Part II

Purline let out a squeal when the ship launched like a torpedo, but Georgian's second time seemed worse than before. Skin peeled back, layer by layer until her soul was exposed to boiling oil, or so it seemed.

"Free at last, my little missile is a blast," came the nursery rhyme voice of Purline, which snapped her back to reality while the figment of pain faded. She knew it was only the effect of time dilation on her nerves, but that was little comfort when it happened.

"Good to have you back, Miss Georgiana. We're having a bit of a malfunction, it seems." The small ship was shaking badly and her body was heavy against the restraint harness.

"Status report."

"The inertial dampers are off line, we're in a nose dive, and it's raining," he informed her cheerfully. She prodded the flight AI but it was unresponsive. A telltale blinked red on the dash that meant nothing to her so she relaxed and tried to see outside.

"Please be a sweetheart and land this thing."

"My pleasure, since you are my new master, but it seems we're being drawn towards a strong magnetic flux coming from the planet's surface."

"You could have said something sooner."

"I didn't want to hurt John-marks feelings, but now the cat is out of the bag. It's you I have been waiting for."

"I meant you could have told me we are plummeting to our death sooner."

"No need to worry about that, I have seen us together in the future, on Sigon Six." She had to pray he wasn't crazy, and his words were little comfort with her stomach in her throat.

"The source of magnetism should be visible in a few seconds." As an afterthought Purline added, "did I fail to mention it is saturated with plasma and other deadly radiation?" She was hanging straight down which meant looking up should be towards the ground. Would she ever get a straight answer from him? They broke free of the clouds into a grey sky pierced by the violet haze of a plasma jet. At the planet's surface the white hot plasma turned purple then blue as it jettisoned into space with untamed fury. Nothing could survive down there and now they were heading straight towards it.

"Shields up," Purline droned in a monotone that said he was talking to himself. "Gamma radiation level spiking. It appears the Fault-line has been ruptured. Planetside Fault-lines are quite rare, like this one, which would explain the massive energy leak. What's that? Oh my. Initiating manual override." She felt her link to the flight AI snap closed and Purline took the small joy stick, flipping them right side up. She almost passed out.

"I have a message from Rayjack, he needs help."

"Who the heck is Rayjack?" She could feel the heat from the intense energy even as they turned and skimmed the ground

"Boondock's brother."

"Our mission is to reconnoiter the enemy's presence and report through the deep space network." She had a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Were not here to save anyone."

"I re-routed my sensor array directly to the transmitter. What I see, the military sees, so technically we are on target with the mission objective. But I already told you we would have to deviate from protocol. We have to save Boondock." How could she argue with his logical thinking. "Besides, Boondock is Ketty's bot, and Ketty is John-marks sister. Don't you think we should at least see if she is still alive?" Then a shadow crossed behind them even as Purline brought the nose up for a rapid landing. The ship seemed on a collision course with ground

"Rayjack is dead ahead." Purline pushed the stick forward and brought the tiny cylinder down perfectly in a radiation soaked wasteland. Finally she was able to look behind them but she wished she hadn't.

"Enemy ship closing fast," she screamed in Purline's ear. Then it hit her, no one could survive out here and how were they going to carry an extra bot?

"Make that two to rescue," Purline said as if reading her mind. Intent on rescuing Rayjack, he seemed oblivious of the alien cruiser about to destroy them. The Flight AI bit into her senses hard, flooding her brain with an overload of information. Her stomach went back in her throat, indicating the inertial dampers were on line and she mind clicked the rear shields up just as the first shot pounded their tail.

"Were taking fire!" But Purline was in his own world.

"Just hold them off a second or two more. There they are." Now she could see Rayjack, or what looked like a zombie bot, his skin burned and hanging in ragged strips from the hardened metal skeleton. In his arms was a blanket wrapped body, unmoving, possibly charred beyond recognition.

"I will be riding outside the ship while you fly us to safety," Purline continued." He nosed the ship into the dirt and they stopped within inches of their target. The cruiser overshot their position and now she was able to get a good look at the spaceship.

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