Renegade Runner Nicole Conway (christmas read aloud txt) 📖

get the upper hand with those lousy, one-line zingers? Weak game, dude.

He didn’t retort, and I could’ve sworn I caught a fleeting glimpse of another bemused smirk ghosting over his lips as his face disappeared beneath that helmet. Facing the door again, he punched the open command onto the shimmering glass panel. The airlock seals released, hissing as the cool air rushed out. Together, Phox and I stepped out of the safety of our runner craft and into the early dawn.

18

SMOKE SIGNALS

The salt-encrusted dirt crunched under my boots as I followed Phox around to the back of the ship. The press of a few buttons on the gleaming screens inside the cockpit had already begun the recharging sequence, activating a pair of circular panels that unfolded from within the engine compartments like two huge, reflective inverted umbrellas. They didn’t look anything like the solar panels I’d seen on Earth, shining with a purplish hue like tinted glass.

“Don’t touch them,” Phox warned as he climbed on top of the ship to check things out. “In fact, just don’t go anywhere near them, okay? They get insanely hot while they’re recharging. Like, melt-your-arm-off hot. Got it?”

“What? All that fancy alien tech and they couldn’t find some way around that?” I teased.

His head snapped around to look at me from behind that shiny black helmet, and I didn’t have to see his face to know he was shooting me an unamused glare. “Right, well, all alien tech aside, it’s still the sun. And, guess what? The sun is hot. Shocking, I know.”

I grinned. “The sun is hot. I’ll have to remember that.”

He made an exasperated growling sound and went back to work.

The big dope. I was sorta starting to like our taunting back-and-forth. Not that I’d ever tell him that. His ego was already enormous, just like the rest of him—no need to stroke it and make it worse.

I stood, quietly watching from the ground, as he looked over both solar catchers for any signs of damage. A soft, almost indiscernible rumble off to my left made my whole body tense. Oh, no. What now?

I turned, glancing to find nothing but a steep wall bristling with those glittering crystals. I wasn’t losing it, right? I’d definitely heard something.

I studied my reflection in the smooth surfaces of the massive crystals, surprised to find I looked rather convincing in all this alien getup. Someone might even assume I had a clue what I was doing with all this stuff. Ha!

“Well, everything looks good,” Phox announced before hopping off the top of the ship. He landed right next to me in a crouch, then quickly stood with his shoulders thrown back and his chest puffed. “In fact, after a few modifications, I might be able to get the converters to do a full recharge even faster. Two hours, maybe less.”

He paused, standing in awkward silence next to me for a moment. His helmet swiveled again as he looked my way, as though expecting some kind of response from me.

I grinned and gave it a few more seconds, just for spite. “Oh, uh, did you want me to applaud or … ?”

“Rude,” he grumbled.

I laughed. “Hey, didn’t you say no unnecessary talking? I’m just following orders, sir.”

“Are all humans this obnoxious?”

“Nope,” I quipped. “Just me. Lucky you, huh?”

“Yeah. Lucky me.” He skulked on ahead, muttering under his breath. “Let’s just get back inside before the suns break the horizon, yeah?”

I turned, intending to follow.

Then I heard it again. A soft rumble and series of pops.

Phox froze mid-stride. He whipped around, looking in the direction of the sound with his hands clenched.

It wasn’t just me. He heard it, too.

“Is that … gunfire?” I just had to be sure.

“Yeah.” He growled low.

My heart went cold with a sudden rush of panic. Not again. “What do we do?” My voice came out in a squeaking whisper.

He tromped back to stand beside me. “Sounds far off. Come on. Let’s take a look.”

“And leave the ship?”

“It’ll be fine. Remember, it’s less of a target when we aren’t inside it.” He gave me a nudge on his way past.

I wanted to believe that. He knew more about all this than I did, after all. But leaving the ship felt like leaving our safe hideout spot. I mean, for crying out loud, we’d finally gotten a hold of one that actually worked. I spat a few curses under my breath and jogged to catch up as he forged ahead.

It seemed to take an eternity for us to navigate the sheer cliff face riddled with sharp crystal growths and slippery shards of rock. In actuality, it was probably more like half an hour. But still, the path Phox wound up the slab had us shimmying along narrow ledges, scaling jagged slopes, and using the crystals as grips to climb higher and higher. My forearms throbbed. My fingers ached. My injured leg still felt unsteady, and the more I pushed it, the more the pain began to set back in. I couldn’t keep this up for much longer.

I was sweaty and disgusting beneath my suit—even with the climate modifier going on full blast. After a few near-miss slips when my grip strength gave out and my feet slid off a slick crystal perch, Phox paused long enough to take out a thin retractable wire on a miniature winch from his belt of looted gear and clip it onto mine, effectively fastening us together. Great. I was like a puppy on one of those retractable leashes now. But in my defense, I hadn’t done a whole lot of climbing in my career as an athlete, and this was working muscle groups I hadn’t even known I had.

When we finally reached the crest of the cliff, I flopped onto my belly and lay, gasping and quietly dying, while he unclipped the wire and went to take a look.

“Rifle.” He barked the word like a command and held out a hand, waggling his big fingers.

I pushed up