Howdy!

Today I make a grand return to the BlogBattles which I have missed for the last two weeks! This week’s word is Rage and Frankie and Fyrn got selected to challenge. As an added bonus I have decided to work in the words from the weeks I missed: Rope and Frog.

Slight warning – this selection involves flying a futuristic spaceship that may or may not be in the process of crashing. Since I have no real life experience with these things and didn’t want to do research on how futuristic spaceships are built and function, I made a few things up. Hopefully it all sounds plausible. Please inform me otherwise if you know things about futuristic spaceships.

As always, if you’ve missed previous installments with these characters, catch up at the Crossroads! 

~~~

“Start talking,” the pilot said. Instead Fyrn turned on her heel and walked from the room missing Frankie’s contorted expression that bordered on rage as he stalked after her. She righted one of the kitchen chairs and began picking up dishes that were scattered all over the floor. He glared at her for almost a minute before beginning to help straighten his ship.

“Years ago, Grellin rebels overthrew the ruling family of the Shining Galaxy. If deposition wasn’t enough, they began hunting down any survivors and slaughtering them. A few escaped and began a new rebellion of which I am a part,” she broke the silence. It was old news, almost history, but it seemed a good place to start. “Now Grellin troops are on almost every planet of the galaxy and where they go, goes law and order. But so does fear and oppression. Have you seen the planets under their control?” she saw by his look that he had and that no further description was necessary. “So, judge me if you will, but we will do everything to remove them from the control of this galaxy.”

Frankie shrugged. He had served in the military back home. There had been plenty of wars and uncomfortable decisions that had to be made. Some of which had led to his discharge and eventually ending up in space.

“But we’re nearing the end of our rope, so to speak. That’s why I need to get to Selina 49. Its people have proven friendly to our cause before and I’m going to try and recruit them,” Fyrn continued.

Frankie stuffed the cushions back onto the couch. He wondered just how much trouble he would get for harboring this specific fugitive. Sure he’d gotten into trouble before but that was for trivial stuff like smuggling imperial gold, or transporting the Prime Minister of Grindon’s private gun stash without his knowledge, and not to forget the time the Seamstresses of Sheef needed some silk worms transported which was apparently a crime in three galaxies. How was he supposed to know? Fyrn’s story was exactly why he didn’t like taking life forms. The silk worms had been an exception and they had promptly turned up their own trouble. She was stuck here now. He wasn’t in range of anyone he trusted in order to transport her off his ship.

She had the kitchen straightened up by the time he finished checking all the vents and light fixtures for listening devices. The police were rather particular about their surveillance. They were rudely interrupted by a blaring alarm from the cockpit. Frankie led the way at a run, bounding and cutting around the ship’s parts intricately spliced and lumped together. Fyrn followed more slowly, still not comfortable with the organized chaos of the ship that needed just “one more job” to see it fixed.

Frankie found the alarm and proceeded to curse the chief police officer with such vigor that Fyrn’s oversized eyes widened even more.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Oh that officer checked the navigation all right but he also cut some wires in the primary nav system and rerouted some of the power cables to the starboard engine. Just enough of a power surge to fry the engine. Never trust the really pale ones. They get those weird sunken eyes.”

“What can we do?”

“These controls are shot. Hopefully…” he hurried over to the secondary navigation controls and bent under the hub. “Ha! Wasn’t smart enough!” he came back up after whacking his head on the bottom of the hub. “Confounded thing!” he switched on the power to the controls. “Well, good news is the ship will be dead in roughly an hour unless we can land somewhere…” he checked the screen by the two handled joystick. “Seriously? Of course Cristol is the only place close enough. That means I’ll have to ask the F.R.O.G.s for help and I hate asking them for help!”

“Frogs?” Fyrn repeated in confusion.

“F.R.O.G.,” Frankie repeated. “Forest Recon and Observation Gendarmes. It’s an Earthen colony. If you’re from Earth like me it’s actually a pretty funny acronym, but they leave something to be desired.”

“Sounds charming,” Fyrn caught his seat as the ship lurched sideways.

“Less than an hour then. That’ll make landing interesting if we make it there.”

“Interesting how?”

“How do you feel about possible explosions accompanying us?”

“Possible? Can you land this thing safely?”

“Sure. Crash landings were all the rage back in flight school.”

“Seriously?”

“Well, if you were me they were. Buckle up,” he warned as the ship lurched again and the distinct smell of burning crept into the ship.

“I’m regretting this choice!” Fyrn muttered as she strapped in to the pilot’s seat.

“Way ahead of you, sister. I regretted this the moment you stepped on board. I’m going to have some strong words with Radar once we stop exploding,” Frankie grumbled right back. He pushed the ship as fast as it could go with a failing engine and headed toward a glowing green planet in the distance.

~

Fyrn wrapped the arm rests in a death grip as they hit atmosphere. As the engine power failed, so did the stabilizers on the right side and the ship listed crazily. Fyrn was looking decidedly green, a color which clashed with her purple hair. The captain got the landing gear to disengage before that failed too and aimed for a wide clearing that parted the forest below.

The impact jarred every bone in Frankie’s body and a mighty groan ran through his ship as it finally settled. He disengaged the restraining belts and ran back to the engine room where he shut off both engines as fast as he could. Seconds later, they idled into silence.

“Well,” he muttered. “That was exciting.”

~~~

Don’t forget that you can vote on your favorite story even if you don’t participate in the Battles. The poll will be up tomorrow with links to all the participants. Go vote! (Use the link up top or click on the BlogBattle button in the sidebar to the right to be taken to the main page.)

Also, kudos to you if you caught the Firefly reference. OK, if you’re a fan, it was kind of obvious… Extra points if you can get the quote correct in the comments! 😉