Leila of the Rogue [Book Four]

Well Damn

  "We stay on course."

  "But-"

  "What did I say?"

  "I know what you said, but that's a human signal in the middle of fucking space. Our technology can't even get out of our own solar system."

  "You think you're the first human to leave your planet?"

  "No, but it's definitely not a common occurrence. We have to find out how and why it's out here, Ro." I pushed his arm out of the way and pointed out of the window. "Seriously, it's right fucking there, Ro." He grunted, and I rolled my eyes. "Okay, look, we just check it out, raid anything useful, then leave. If there's people....well, we'll deal with that when we get to that."

  Ro looked me dead in the eye, and I raised my eyebrows at him. He took in a deep breath and slowly sighed.

  "I'll scan the ship. If there's anything alive, we're not boarding."

  "Thaaanks." I smirked, and Ro pulled up the scanner. Glancing at the ship visible in the distance, it wasn't anything like what we had on Earth, but it also wasn't anything like Ro's ship. Nothing about the ship was familiar, and yet it still was giving off a human distress signal.

  Tapping my foot, I waited as patiently as possible for the scan to complete, and once it was done, Ro swatted my hands away from the control panel and started quickly changing course.

  "What is it? Why are you changing course?"

  "Raiders."

  "Ra-" Ro quickly took control of the ship and sent us down sharply as a shot fired from the foreign ship. The blast barely missed, but my gut made a sharp impact with the control panel, nearly knocking the wind from my lungs.

  "Next time I say we stay on course, are you going to listen?"

  "Yeah." I grunted, pushing myself up and quickly strapped in as Ro piloted the ship into a spiral to dodge enemy fire. Well, at least now I knew why they had a human distress signal- they had stolen it.

  Fucking raiders.

  The stars outside of the window turned into streaking blurs as the ship dove and barreled, and the raiders chasing us kept firing while trying to catch up.

  "Prepare a jump!"

  "On it!" Pulling up a display, I set in random coordinates along the route Ro had set and charged up the jump. "We have 5 seconds to shake them, Ro!"

  "I've got it." He growled, pulling the ship straight up before spiraling to the left

  "Four! Three! Two! O- Fucking Hell!" I clung to the seat as the ship rumbled from a shot grazing the side of the ship, but Ro got us through the jump, and the raiders were hot on our tail- Until the jump portal closed and cut the raiders' ship in half. The explosion shook the ship, however, on the bright side, we were no longer being shot at.

  Ro let out a slew of curses in both human and Yautja phrases, and I understood why- the shot that had grazed the ship had fractured the outer paneling and there was a leak- We'd have to land or die. Alarms blared as the ship rattled, and Ro veered towards the nearest ball of rock we could land on.

~

  "But it's human!" The big alien was mocking me, tearing out the fried wires from the huge hole in the side of the ship.

  "Oh, shut up." I grumbled, setting down the toolbox on a dusty rock.

  "We have to check it out."

  "Ro, I swear I will punch you."

  "But how did it get all the way out here?" He picked me up so that I could reach into the hole and clip the wires and strip the ends. I found a section of melted bar on the edge- that'd have to be replaced as well.

  "Just get me the damn cutters." Ro shifted to reach for the toolbox. "And how the Hell was I supposed to know raiders were an actual thing to worry about out here? Aliens, I get. Acid rain, I get. Hell, even an atmosphere of ice, I get. But space raiders? Didn't think that was real."

  "They are very real."

  "Also, it looks like we're gonna be stuck here for a while." Sighing, I took the cutters from Ro and started carving out the melted section of bar. "What kind of life are we lookin' at on this planet?"

  "Not a planet. We're on a moon." Ro replied. "But the natives are a docile species, the fauna is mostly herbivores."

  "Mostly? How bad are the predators?"

  "Nocturnal, large, and stealthy."

  "So no working on the ship at night. Got it." Popping out the damaged metal, I passed it and the cutters to Ro.

  "Shields will also be up at night." He added, and the tone in his voice made me actually worry. To have Ro even concerned....what the Hell exactly were the predators on this moon?