By David C. Daoust
Ratchet, Harper, Dicey, and Grace… along with a comatose bunny, were all piled into a hidden alcove above the engine. The steel oily smell invaded Ratchet’s nostrils. He’d always liked the smell. The girls, upon their arrival, however, made faces that suggested otherwise. They had hidden themselves away for quite a while before there was so much as a suggestion of roaming thugs out to find them, the small group was extra silent when they thought they might have heard someone directly below them. There was never much of a visual to confirm their suspicions.
The girls, however, suddenly reported action outside of the Rover…
Ratchet, once again, found himself outside of the battle waiting on updates from the two tiny little girls, Dicey and Grace, as they faced perils unknown. At this point, this seemed to be his lot in life.
No sooner had the massive freighter’s hold been infiltrated by the enemy wave, than the two young girls hopped into action. The duo being the only defense the many, many humans, thugs or no, had against the Battle Drone’s sudden deadly assault.
Ratchet suspected they were thrilled at the prospect of a new battle. The sudden drop off of wave attacks had left the two little girls bored. Ratchet was not sure what that implied.
The mottled boy trusted that the girls knew what they were doing, though was suddenly wishing he had thought to bring more visors with them into hiding. Lucky for the thugs under fire, the girls pretty much dragged their gear around with them —no matter what.
The fact that they had been hiding from the invading thugs, that the two little girls were now defending, was lost behind the immediate objectives as the two ace pilots rallied all their gumption to their aid.
Grace’s steady stream of strategic instructions were peppered by Dicey’s sudden victorious ‘woots’ as she downed another enemy. Really, Ratchet wasn’t sure Dicey even understood, considering half of the instructions ended with Grace wryly muttering, ‘or that, just do that instead…’ or some variation to that affect.
“Should we really just sit and wait?” Harper spoke up, comatose bunny still in her lap.
“I think we’re better off just letting them do their thing,” Ratchet dare speak, breaking his imposed silence to Harper.
“I don’t know,” Harper argued. “Those thugs are pretty well distracted at this point, we could sneak back to the family room, get our rigs… try to reinforce them with spiders of our own.”
Of course she would want to do the opposite.
“Just leave the girls here?” Ratchet wasn’t sure if that was what she was saying, though it did reinforce his hunch that Harper didn’t care for anyone other than herself. So, he was willing to entertain the possibility.
“They’ll be okay,” Harper reaffirmed, Ratchet was not surprised. “Look, it’s hard for an adult to even squeeze up here… those men are clearly distracted to boot, so I doubt they are still searching.”
“They’re your kid sisters, let’s go if you wanna go,” Ratchet didn’t bother arguing as he pushed himself up off the ground, crouched low in the tight quarters as he listened for anyone outside.
“I know they’re my sisters,” Harper snapped. “I don’t need to be told that. What is wrong with you?”
“Wrong with me?” Ratchet deflected; he felt the heat rise up his neck.
“You been a real jerk since I woke up,” Harper pressed. “What is your problem?”
Ratchet boiled down a lot of what he wanted to say, didn’t have a good starting point; the shadow passed his brow as he decided she wasn’t worth the words, “Just a lot on my mind, I guess.”
“Whatever.” Harper muttered to Ratchet before she turned and explained the plan to her sisters.
Lost in their own world, the two little girls pretty much just brushed her off. Grace looked up from her screen only for a moment, told Harper it was a good idea, then ignored them both. Harper dropped the sleeping bunny onto Dicey’s lap, who looked momentarily startled from under her visor, then realized what it was and shifted around to support it better, all without actually relinquishing the controls in her hands.
Ratchet watched as Harper squeezed out of the very small opening that led out of the alcove. He could hear her climbing down as he explained briefly to the girls that they should try to remain as silent as possible. The girls pretty much just grunted in his direction, still mesmerized by their actions depicted on their screens. He knew that was the best response he would get from them as he quickly caught up to Harper.
It was a pretty short trip from the engine room to the family room. The two young teens were fairly weary of being caught however, so crept about pretty slowly, only hastening their steps through the longer corridors… then waiting silently for some clue of movement… or someone else’s presence.
It was not until they were at the very corridor they were trying to reach, that they suddenly heard foot falls approaching. The sound was coming from behind them, so they hurried forward; they pressed for their destination, rather than retreat.
Ratchet thought once they were within the family room, they could duck in– hide behind something and hope whoever or whatever was incoming did not notice their presence to begin with. This was all a solid plan, yet as they scurried through the corridor… got to where the door should be, it simply was not there. The door was missing! Just wall, seamless wall, not so much as a trace of the door.
“Are we on the right floor?” Ratchet asked in a whisper.
“Of course, we’re on the right floor!” Harper stressed silently as if he was absurd.
“So, where’s the door?” Ratchet gestured at the proof that he was not the absurd one. How else could this be?
The steps grew louder and louder. Frantically they searched for the door. All to no avail!
The footsteps were almost upon them when the wall seemed to ripple and what could only be described as a small ‘porthole’ suddenly appeared. A cartoony face appeared within.
“Oh, it’s you guys,” Hamlin announced as he peered out. “I could feel you patting at the wall! Get in here quick!”
The seamless wall glowed and suddenly parted, revealing the expected open doorway at long last.
“I used the sun particles to hide the family room!” Hamlin briefly explained as the door suddenly clogged back up with glowing particles.
Ratchet could only puzzle about what he had just experienced.
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