Renegade Runner Nicole Conway (christmas read aloud txt) 📖

He nodded. Apparently whatever word his ling-con translated Jupiter to was one he recognized. “I haven’t been there since I was a child, so don’t start asking for directions or restaurant recommendations.”

“They have restaurants on your planet, too?”

He barked a hoarse laugh, casting me a roguish smile that made my stupid heart start to race. Seriously, what was it with this guy? Why did he get under my skin like that? It had to stop. It wasn’t dignified at all. “I hear Earth is a green, lush world teeming with species.”

“I guess. So, what, Olset isn’t?”

Phox’s mouth skewed thoughtfully. “Not like yours. It’s covered mostly in ice. The temperatures are way below what a human could survive most of the time. But we’ve adapted to it.”

Well, that explained his durability when it came to temperature extremes. “Do you miss it?” I mean, sure, he’d been away for a long time, but home was home, right?

“No,” he answered quickly, his tone sharp.

Oh. Hmm. Not quite the reaction I’d been expecting. But it didn’t seem like something he was open to discussing. Besides, I had no right to pry into his personal life.

“Look, it’s just … complicated. And it all happened a long time ago, so it doesn’t matter now.” He let out a heavy breath and looked down, as though avoiding any chance of meeting my gaze. “Quit talking and go to sleep.”

“You’re not going to rest, too?”

“No. Someone has to keep watch.”

I lost the fight to keep my eyes open. God, slipping away into a groggy, drug-induced coma sounded amazing. “Fine. But … when I wake up … it’s your turn.”

I heard the smile in his voice without having to see even a glimpse of it. It made his tone sound warm. Welcoming. Safe. “Whatever you say, human.”

17

SECRETS

We reached the next checkpoint just as the sweltering sunrise began to dawn over the mountains behind us.

The ship’s computer beeped musically, announcing our arrival and bringing up a complex hologram of what lay ahead. Directly before us, two more obelisk-shaped structures loomed on the landscape, positioned on either side of a deep canyon with vertical walls that must have been a few hundred feet tall. A ribbon of glowing green light hummed between them, just like at the starting line. I gripped the armrests of my seat, glancing back at where Phox was stirring on the floor. He was too big for the seat where I’d managed to curl up and steal a few hours of sleep, so he’d resorted to stretching out with the rolled-up remains of my ruined survival suit under his head like a pillow.

My new suit didn’t fit as well, clearly cut for a male body with no extra room for boobs, but it would do. Phox insisted it was better than the last one anyway, with an impact-resistant micro-weave in the skin-tight black fabric that would supposedly keep me from being injured if I fell or was thrown by another explosion like before. The cooling function did seem more intricate and fancy, I’d give it that.

Unfortunately, Phox still didn’t have a fancy new suit to wear. Nothing even came close to fitting his massive frame. He wasn’t too down about it, though. Especially not after he found the cache of weaponry and armor stowed in the rear-floor compartments of the ship. Watching him lay the weapons out one at a time, a wicked grin stretched over his lips that made his pointed incisors gleam, was a little disturbing. Like cat-alien Satan unwrapping birthday presents or something. Oh, well. At least he’d found his bliss somewhere in all that.

“We there?” he called up groggily, yawning as he stretched those corded arms over his head. With his hair all fluffed out on one side, it was hard not to find that a little, teensy-bit cute.

But only a little. Not a lot. He was still big and weird and kind of an asshole at times.

We. Were. NOT. Friends.

“Yeah.” I swallowed that ridiculous thought and turned away. Seriously, get a grip, Brinna. This was getting out of hand. I really needed him to do something rude, disgusting, or annoying to offset everything else. Maybe he’d fart or scratch himself or something.

He made a long, theatrical series of groans and grunts as he got up, stretched some more, and finally shambled up to the cockpit to drop into the seat next to mine. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted him rubbing at his nose, yawning, and adjusting things down in the crotch-region while he settled in.

Theeere it was. Whew. Ugh. Close one.

As we dipped low, skirting the area around the gate, I dared to look down as the rising of the other suns glinted off the wreckage of more runner crafts down below. The remains of another big fight? Or a crash?

Not that it mattered, really. After what we’d just been through, crashes and wreckage were a welcome sight over other, fully-operational runner crafts.

True to his word, Phox had already used the new ship’s much more advanced mapping systems to track down a nice hidden spot in a deep crevice amidst the salt-encrusted canyons to park our ship and wait it out. We settled on the narrow ledge, sheltered in the shade beneath a glittering crystalline overhang. The engines whirred and hummed to a halt, gradually going silent as Phox shut everything down except for our shields and life-support systems.

“Good timing,” he mused as he stood and stretched. “We need to let the solar-catchers recharge our power cells.”

“All this fancy superior alien technology and our ship runs on solar power?” I teased as I stood, testing my injured leg. Beneath the clear bandaging, it actually looked a lot better already. Like it was well on its way to healing. It even felt better. Whatever he’d given me in that syringe still numbed the pain completely.

“Um, yeah? There’re four suns and finding a planet with an actual dark nighttime longer than a few hours