Choosing Riley

Chapter 8-1

Chapter Eight

Riley shot two guards the minute she exited the medical unit. The leathery, red-skinned healer had been coming down the corridor from the control room. The second he saw her shooting, he turned his wacky self around so fast he actually fell down.

Riley took off as fast as she could, pulling her big, pink suitcase, and shot his ass as he was entering the control room. She had quickly disposed of him and the three guards inside. Normally she would have had second thoughts about killing anything. Hell, she was known for rescuing and nursing the injured lizards back home before releasing them back into the wild.

Since she had never had to save a praying mantis before, she decided those miserable creatures didn’t count, and the healer was just too freaky to let live. Those thoughts helped ease her conscience so she could concentrate on trying to figure out what in the hell to do next.

“One of these days, girl,” she muttered out loud to herself. “You are going to have an actual plan before you start shooting.”

Riley’s nose turned up in disgust as she shoved the last of the dead bodies outside the door. There were some things she could handle; being in a room with dead guys was not one of them. She cursed again when she couldn’t figure out how to close the door to the room, so she stood back and shot the panel out. Her loud moans filled the air when instead of closing, it remained frozen open.

“Oh, for crying out loud!” she groaned in frustration. “It worked in the movies, damn it all to hell!” There was nothing she could do about the door except shoot anything that tried to come through it now.

She turned and looked at all the lights flashing on the console with a confused frown. Glancing out the huge section of windows that overlooked two separate landing bays divided by a huge wall of rock, she figured she could at least watch as her guys took off. Since she couldn’t see them down there yet, she figured they might need a little help. She had absolutely no idea what to do, but figured if she started pushing enough buttons something was bound to work sooner or later.

“Well, I told them I was great at causing a distraction,” she muttered darkly as she began pushing as many buttons as fast as she could. “Oops, maybe I shouldn’t have pushed that one,” she whispered under her breath when the lights flashed on and off in the landing bay.

Riley pushed another button and realized she could hear herself breathing over the PA system. She could warn the guys they needed to get their asses up here tout suite if they wanted a spaceship. At the rate the other prisoners were leaving, they were going fast.

“Hello. Can everyone hear me? Hell-lo! Vox, Tor, Lodar?” she called out, hoping they could hear her over the stupid alarms that had gone off when she was pushing buttons. Unfortunately, she couldn’t figure out how to turn them off. “Damn it! How do you turn the alarms off? The damn things are giving me a headache,” she muttered before she turned to see one of the Antrox guards trying to sneak up behind her. “Oh no, you don’t, you nasty little insect!”

Riley let loose with several shots, adding to the growing pile of dead bodies. “Take that, you son of a b***h! Who’s your momma now, asshole?” Riley crowed before she realized she still had the communication system open. “Fred, Bob, honey, if you can hear me, I have all the doors open. I have to tell you, you’d better hurry. Those spaceship thingies are really flying out of here fast. I don’t know if there are going to be any left if you don’t get your asses up here now. Uh-oh, I don’t think those two know how to drive one. Oops, nope. They didn’t,” she croaked out as she watched the dark night of space light up when two departing ships exploded.

* * * *

Several Antrox guards turned, startled, and looked up at the control room as the lights in the landing bay flashed on and off. Antrox 785 looked up in disbelief when he saw the strange female standing at the controls instead of his men. Riley glanced down at him at the same time as he turned all the way around to stare in disbelief. Antrox 785 watched as if in slow motion as she gave him a huge smile and raised her hand, her middle finger pointing straight up, before blowing him a kiss. He could feel the deep flush of shock and outrage that his mining operation was no longer under his control.

“Get me the guards on Level Five,” he growled out at the same time the alarms sounded, stating all systems had been deactivated. “Wait!” he ordered sharply. “On second thought, get my personal ship ready immediately. It is time I retired,” he muttered to his personal guards.

“Antrox 785, what of the others?” his guard asked stiffly.

“The prisoners have been released,” Antrox 785 stated coolly, looking at the guard. “Do you wish to search for the others?”

The guard looked back up at the female in the control room who was currently firing a laser pistol at someone. He looked back at Antrox 785 and bowed his head. Turning, the small group hurried to one of the tubes leading up to Antrox 785’s personal space craft.

Antrox 785 turned before he walked up to the tube to look one last time at the strange female who had brought an end to his sixty years of profit. Luckily, he had always known that something like this could happen and had prepared for it. He shook his head as he turned to follow his guards. Before he retired, he first would have liked to have killed the trader who brought her here. A small smile curved his thin lips as he thought about how much Antrox 157 wanted to be promoted. He hoped he enjoyed his new position.