Her Royal Madness

Her Royal Madness Part 25

"Maddie," Juna said. "Can you hold on for a few more minutes? The rescue ships will intercept us in eight more minutes. Just a little longer." 

"Wha - wha - what? Rescue ships. Oh that's nice. Can I have a little nap then?"  

"Yes, Maddie, as soon as we're aboard the rescue ship, you can sleep as long as you want. But you have to keep pushing until then. You've done a fantastic job." 

"Oh, okay, is that you, Juna?" 

Somehow I managed to keep pushing those last few minutes.  

The rescue ship was barely in sight. It was huge, at least ten times the size of our ship and armed to the teeth. I started to relax, feeling safe. I should know better than to do that. 

Blammo! The sound was deafening. The massive engines in the back of the ship had taken a direct hit. That was the small explosion. The engines themselves blew up seconds later. That was the big explosion. The ship was strong but not that strong. I could feel it wrenching apart. I was swinging violently in the copilot seat. The sound of ripping metal told me the seat was no longer attached to the ceiling of the bridge. The floor or a wall or something was coming at me really fast. 

The next few seconds were a little fuzzy. 

I must have blacked out for a bit. 

I hurt everywhere. I was bleeding from several small cuts. Whatever wasn't bleeding was bruised. My left eye was swollen shut. There were at least a few broken bones and something heavy was pinning my legs down.  

Juna wasn't as lucky. Compared to me she was a mess. She was unconscious but her T'Pauch was pulsing feebly. There was nothing I could do for her. She had just enough consciousness to keep her body alive until she received proper medical attention. 

My head cleared enough to look around and assess the situation. The place was a shambles. Broken bits of equipment were flying around everywhere. There were a dozen small fires burning. It sure was windy in here. The stars certainly did look pretty though. I could see them clear as anything through that big tear in the hull. 

Wait a minute. A hole in the hull. I had a nagging feeling that wasn't quite right. Wasn't the hull supposed to keep the air in the ship? I liked having air to breathe. This wasn't good. 

The whole thing was so surreal that I didn't panic. I thought things through (helped along, of course, by the fact that everything was in slow motion again). The air was leaving the ship. I needed the air in the ship to breathe. Conclusion: I needed to keep the air in the ship. 

Air was matter, wasn't it? I should be able to control it with psychokinesis, just like anything else. Except that air is slippery. You can't push it. Maybe I could contain it though. I imagined a big bubble around us, holding in the remaining air from the ship. It worked! That bought me a little more time. But we still needed to get rescued. 

I slowed my time sense back down to normal. I don't know if it was because I was so scared or because I was so exhausted, but my stomach just forgot about being weightless again. Whatever the reason, I could talk out loud again. "Henry!" I called out. "Are you all okay?" 

"I'm okay. Did you get the license number of that truck that hit us? What happened anyway?" 

"Good. We need to get out of here fast. How are Nicholas and Martin?" 

"I'm fine Maddie. Or at least I will be. That was worse than the time I had to do tackling drills with Mash. Remember that Mash?" 

"Yeah, I remember, Nick. That was fun. But it'll be awhile before I'm ready to play football again. I broke my arm. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be any serious damage." 

"If you're all in one piece, give me a couple of minutes to get us out of here. Juna's out of action for now. Hang on everybody!" 

Nicholas and Henry were more or less still strapped into their seats. The seats had almost ripped away from the wall but were still hanging on. I didn't have time for finesse. I didn't try to fool around with the buckles. The straps themselves were stressed to their limits and parted easily. Henry and Nicholas floated free. Martin had already untangled himself with his good arm. 

"Henry, there's some blankets floating behind your head. Can you use them to put out the fires while I get myself out of here?" 

That was easier said than done. A couple of beams had twisted themselves around my seat and trapped me. One of the beams was pushed up against my legs, under a lot of pressure. I ripped the straps off and cleared away the minor debris. Only that one beam remained. I couldn't move either end of it. I had to bend it. Straining as hard as I could, I pushed up on the beam. Slowly it started bending, giving me just enough clearance to wriggle out. But I couldn't wriggle. I couldn't move. Holding that beam in place and the air bubble around us took all my concentration. There was nothing left. 

I felt a hand grasping my arm. It was Martin. He had seen my trouble and pulled me out. I was free. My stomach picked just then to remember that I was free from gravity too. I swallowed hard and told myself to forget about it. It would all be over soon. Just a little longer. 

Nicholas and Henry were examining Juna, figuring out how to get her out. 

"Well, Nick, there is a pulse there. Not very strong, but it is a pulse. She's still alive. I can lift that piece there and you could undo that buckle and she'd be free. But I don't really want to move her. The way she's twisted up, her back's probably broken." 

"Oh, Henry, don't worry about it. We don't have time. If we don't get out of here, a broken back won't matter. If we get her to the other ship still alive, they'll be able to fix anything that's broken." There was an edge of panic in my voice. I was stressed out beyond belief and was totally exhausted. Even my T'Pauch seemed to be fading. 

Henry and Nicholas did as they were told and freed Juna quickly. We were all free. The only thing left to do was get ourselves to the rescue ship. 

The ship we were in didn't seem very stable. It was time to abandon it. The tear in the hull was widening. I decided to help it along so it was wide enough for us all to get through. 

"We're going to leave the ship now everybody. Hook up your arms and legs together and hand on to me." 

I contracted the air bubble until it was barely bigger than our ball of people knotted together. We floated up and out through the hole in the ship. 

Once we were clear of the ship, everyone gasped. We were sitting out in space, practically naked with nothing to protect us but a tiny invisible bubble of air, held together by a exhausted, inexperienced twelve and a half year old girl. The stars were brighter than anything you can see from Earth. The spaces between them were blacker than black. 

Our rescue ship loomed in front of us, firing from several cannons at the two remaining enemy ships. I hurried us towards it as best I could. 

Somebody on board must have seen us because a cargo door opened up in the middle of the ship. I steered towards the opening. 

We sat down on the floor of the cargo bay and the door closed. I hoped they would hurry up and pressurize this part of the ship. Our limited air supply was getting stuffy. I was shaking from the effort of holding everything together.  

Finally an interior door opened into the cargo bay and I saw a woman's face. Maybe there were more. I don't know. I didn't care. We were rescued. My job was done.  

I passed out. 

We were taken back to my home planet where we all lived happy, long and uneventful lives. 

As Henry would say, yeah, right. As if.