Page 85 of Mazorium Buys a Human

I smashed my fingers down on the sequence to lift off. The shuttle shook and nothing happened. For a moment I thoughtthat was it, my escape attempt was over. Then the entire thing lifted up!

“Yes!” I screamed.

My elation didn’t last long. The shuttle listed badly to one side. I had to grab the side of the seat to keep myself from falling to the floor.

“Oh shit!” I cried, scrambling to get my feet braced against the seat next to mine. As I flailed I realized the shuttle hatch was still open and the ramp was deployed.

Normally the safety protocols wouldn’t allow a launch with that, but this thing probably had all kinds of disabled safety systems.

With the hatch wide open I could hear the lack of weapon fire. They were shouting, and at least one of them tried to jump for the ramp. The shuttle shifted more to the listing side for a few seconds, then I heard a scream slowly disappear.

I hoped it was the leader. I wanted him to die in the worst way!

The shuttle kept moving up, as if heading off-planet. That wasn’t what I wanted! Frantically I tapped around until I brought up the field for manual maneuvering inputs. The display hanging in front of me lit up to show me a 360 degree view around the shuttle. Finally!

When I saw Maz’s flier riddled with holes, I couldn’t hold back my gasp.

“Please be alive,” I whispered.

Nadia had stopped screaming but was still crying and hiccupping even as her attention was captured by the large display in front of us.

“Na-na,” she said, waving her fist in the air. I wasn’t sure what she was looking at, but I moved the shuttle around until I was hovering on the far side of the flier. I wasn’t worried about them firing at me. Not only was I the reason they were here, but I wasinside their only means of getting off that stump. Damaging the shuttle would ruin their escape.

“Maz!” I screamed, seeing him hanging off the edge of the stump.

He looked back and up and let out a loud, startled rattle. “Mika?”

“Na-na!” Nadia said again, this time more insistent. She was staring at Maz on the display. Was that her word for Maz?

“We’re going to save Na-na,” I agreed, moving the shuttle around and down, trying to get the ramp under Maz’s dangling feet. It didn’t go smoothly, and I banged the ramp against the stump.

I tried to correct, but before I could input any instructions, something landed hard on the shuttle. The display showed Maz laying halfway up the badly damaged ramp.

“You can make it, Maz!” I shouted and put the shuttle in stability mode. At least I thought it was stability mode.

It wasn’t.

The thing suddenly jerked up, dragging the ramp up the side of the stump and tumbling Maz into the cabin.

“Well shit, that didn’t go as planned… but it still worked!” I shouted with a hysterical laugh.

Amazingly, Maz looked like he didn’t have a single wound. He scrambled to the empty seat next to me. The shuttle was slowly circling at a severe angle and scraping the ramp against the stump with every rotation.

I could smell smoke, and at first I thought the shuttle was on fire. Then I realized the bottom thruster had set the stump on fire.

Good, I hoped all the men burned to death. Unfortunately the wet stump smoldered and went out. Damn it!

“This shuttle isn’t within specs,” Maz said as he took control and leveled us out.

Another hysterical laugh came out of me, and I wrapped my newly freed arm around Nadia.

“I don’t think they cared. Are you hurt?” I asked, looking him over to make sure I didn’t miss any wounds.

“No, but I can smell blood,” he said, glancing over at me as he piloted the shuttle higher.

I gave him a reassuring smile. “I’m fine. Just scraped my legs up a little.”

That might be a lie. When I looked down I could see some of the cuts were pretty deep. I was probably going to need medical intervention later.