Running Red - Viola Grace Page 0,1
She said she had done it once, and it had cost her.”
“Ah, yes. I had forgotten. You also listened to your mother.” She smiled. “My son could have learned a lot from you.”
“I am no judge of what his highness does or doesn’t do.”
The queen sat back and sighed. “You are no fun anymore.”
Solari nodded. “Yes, my queen. I hear that a lot.”
The queen sighed again and got back to her work.
It took less than two hours before Altha ran in and bowed low. “Your Majesty, I have news.”
The queen had been reading a romance with her feet up on the desk. “What?”
“The prince.”
The queen got to her feet. “What? Is he hurt?”
Altha blurted out, “He’s escaped!”
Solari was startled into laughing. The queen looked at her with narrowed eyes. “Solari, go and get him.”
Altha bowed again. “He has sabotaged all the shuttles. The technicians say it will be days before they can take off.”
“Solari, you have studied interstellar engine mechanics. Go help them.”
Solari blinked. “I studied for two years, my queen. I am sure that the techs are better at it than I am.”
“Go. I don’t want to see your moping face around here until you have my son in custody. Take what you need. Bring him home.”
Solari blinked. “What I need?”
“Yes. Anything from the armoury or the royal fleet is yours.”
Solari nodded and walked off. She paced calmly through the halls, and when she was out of the palace, she broke into a light jog. She already had her preferred weapons on her, so there was nothing to do except hang out at the port until a shuttle was fixed.
She was approaching the port when a member of the red guard stepped into her path. She snapped out her batons and jumped, bringing them down with her body weight. He grunted and dropped to one side.
She kept the batons out and kept running. The port gates opened to her, and she was attacked inside. She used her batons until necessity made her pop her claws. It was the only part of her beast that she could manifest.
Solari got to the shuttles, and half were missing. The other half had open hatches and a lot of exposed wiring. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
She whistled sharply, and a mechanic stuck his head out of one of the shuttles. “Which one has the least amount of damage?”
He blinked. “The one they didn’t get to. It’s old but intact.”
“Will it fly?”
“It will fly, but the systems have a problem navigating the jump portals, and that is where you are heading, isn’t it?”
“Apparently. I need to do some scans.”
“The scanners are functioning in the second from the left, calculations are in the fourth, and a decent power system for a jump is in the one I am working on. You are the one they call Little Wolf, right?”
She snarled. “Only the Red Guard call me that. Usually, it is right before their nose explodes with blood.”
The mechanic held his hands up. “Right, miss. I will stay out of your way.”
“That is usually for the best.”
She went to the hangar and looked at the shuttle that was squatting in place. Of course. The king’s shuttle. It hadn’t been used in years, and she was going to break a dozen taboos by taking it out. But it was going to fly again.
Solari went to the first shuttle and used the systems to ping the satellite near the gate. She got a response that made her groan. Of course. He ran to his grandmother’s house.
She went to the mechanic. “Can any of these newer ships be prepped within a day?”
“No, miss. They are all three- to four-day repairs.”
“Of course, they are. Right, I am going to get the pilot hauler. Don’t get in my way.”
The mechanic held his hands up, and he nodded. “I will stay right here.”
“Wait, why is it just you? Aren’t there usually six techs on duty?”
“Yes, miss. The prince gave the rest the week off. I was on call.”
“Of course, he did.” She stalked away from the mechanic before she screamed epithets in five languages.
The pilot rig backed into the hangar easily, and she hooked the link into the rig’s extension. Being careful, she drove the shuttle out and into the sunlight. When it was out on the tarmac, she released the tow and put the pilot rig back. Now it was time for the serious stuff—oxygen, food, and making sure that the damned thing would fire up.
She had to lay in the essentials