Notafraidofthedark … thanks babe for suggesting the names *hug*

Jhalya … well earned … hope it helps! Cake is on its way.

Still don't own anything; names, people, places .... everything's just borrowed.

IV.

They had barely closed the door behind them when Riddick had her already pressed against it, his full weight nailing her to the wooden surface. His mouth crashed down on hers and his tongue forced her mouth open, parting her lips and stealing her breath away. Five minutes didn't give him much time but he didn't need more than five minutes to show her to whom she belonged. His thigh nudged her legs apart and his groin grinded against her center … he could smell her fast growing arousal. His hands roamed her body, touched her in all the right places and left her panting and aching for more; he had her melting in his arms within seconds and she was kissing him back fervently. He caressed her waist, her hips, cupped her ass and lifted her up until she was straddling him. He could feel her erect nipples through the fabric of her shirt and he ached to bury himself deep inside her … his dick twitched in his trousers as if it wanted to break free to get to the place it longed to be. Maybe he should have said 15 minutes. Hope's arms encircled his neck, her whole body arched into him, her cheeks were flushed and her lips swollen … she was so beautiful. And all his. He didn't break the kiss until he heard the others approaching.

He already sat at the table with her by his side, their thighs and shoulders touching, when the door got opened. It took a minute until everybody was seated; he smiled inwardly as he watched their faces … the Furyans at the table looked self-confident, concentrated … he hadn't expected anything else, Aereon and the old man showed a mix of desperation und determination, Sara looked slightly out of place, Murrey like a love struck puppy and Hope … his Hope looked at him with that hungry glimmer in her eyes he loved so much on her. And he wouldn't disappoint her; he would satisfy that hunger as soon as that vermin had left the planet.

"Aereon, there are 45 minutes left of your hour. Go ahead." he nodded his permission.

Aereon took a second to concentrate before looking up and starting with her story, her eyes holding Riddick's.

"Well, then I won't waste any more time.

As I said most of the records were destroyed but the legends and the ancient stories are still there. They have many names, but we call them Draugar. The name has its origin on Earth. There, in the Norse mythology, the Draugar were undead creatures and the name originally meant 'ghost'. They took the bodies of dead Vikings and then sought victims, slew them, devoured their flesh and drank their blood. That's mythology but you'll see the resemblance.

No one knows what they are or where they are coming from but wherever they appear they cause fear, desperation and death. Converting people who a second before were laughing, living and breathing into lifeless, emotionless creatures, unable to feel pain, love or life. Some races believe that they are the result of hate and war, that they are part of every breathing creature who ever had to feel pain. Like a manifestation of all the negative feelings. But we don't know that.

What we know is that they come through a wormhole in the Manoso nebula. It's a spiral nebula with a little solar system in it. About every 100 years, when the planets are rounded up in a perfect circle around their sun, a wormhole opens. Fortunately it's small and not exactly stable … they have to wait for a stable cycle and then only one ship at a time can enter it … it takes them quite some time to get the whole armada through.

We don't know from where or for how long they already come here to take bodies and life but the last time they came a Furyan ship detected them and what they were doing and they embattled an army to fight them. It turned out, that they cannot infiltrate and absorb Furyan bodies and their mind control techniques don't work with Furyans either."

"Why didn't the Furyans then take guard against them coming back?" Hope interrupted her.

"The Furyans took it on them to watch over that system but you know what happened 30 years ago and nobody took their place. There was no weapon 100 years ago that was powerful enough to destroy a whole planet and we weren't sure when and if it would happen again."

"So if we blow up one of those planets the problem is solved?" Taylor wanted to know.

"Yes it would ... if they weren't already here. We weren't able to extrapolate their exact time of arrival and I'm afraid they are not only here, news is that they already have taken a planet and made it to their base. The mining planet they choose was a good choice … it's near the wormhole and it's not frequented very often so nobody would miss the miners or detect too early what's happening there; we wouldn't know either if we hadn't especially looked for signs of their arrival."

"Why are they here anyways? Why are they taking people and what are they doing with them? And what have Sara and Murrey to do with everything?" More good questions.

"Well, I'm coming to that.

Now, what are they doing with the people … some of them they take as hosts, but most of them they use as slaves. The few Draugar that were able to escape the Furyans 100 years ago and flee back to their home planet weren't able to take anybody with them and now they are not only taking bodies, they are up for revenge ... they'll kill every single Furyan they can get their hands on."

"So, basically, what you want us to do is destroy a planet so they won't be able to come back again and then kill all the Draugar that are already here. How do we tell them apart from real people?"

"That's where Murrey and Sara come into play. They are able to see auras … they can tell you who's Draugr or not."

"As I see it the whole quadrant waits for us to save their dicks … why should we get ourselves in danger for them? Did they only once do something for us? We can install a planetary defense system and fight them when they are coming. They'll give up and go home when they've enough and realize that they aren't getting anywhere with us and that we are not interfering." Riddick didn't like sacrificing a single Furyan for the rest of the universe. What for?

Gramps and Aereon exchanged a quick glance … there was something they didn't tell them yet.

"This time they are coming with a superiority." Gramps rose to speak. "I've seen it in a vision. And that's not everything … their queen is with them. I can feel her presence … dark, hungry. Even if we are able to blow up the planet without your help they'll be able to reproduce and spread across this universe like a disease. We have to fight them now."

"'We' have to fight them? Whom do you mean with 'we'? You mean the Furyans should stand up and fight to keep your sorry asses safe. Nobody minds if some dumb Furyans get killed in that event; well, I have some bad news for you … we are NOT the hoodlums of the universe. I didn't hear anything about another planet's participation in this fight." Riddick was short of breaking off the discussion and kicking them out before their time was up.

Aereon knew she was running short of time and hurried to continue. "For years we've tried to convince the governments of a lot of planets to help but they never believed in the danger. They always thought that they'd be able to fight them as soon as they come. If they come. We have again sent delegates to each planet we could reach and most of them are willing to help now that it's inevitable; they are sending ships, troops, but most of them are too far away. We have to fight them as long as they are only few, otherwise we stand no chance against them. And not even Furya will be able to endure a decade long siege. Maybe in ten years, but not yet."

"Is there anything else you are hiding from us?"

"No, Riddick, I swear to the elements, there is absolutely nothing else I can tell you."

Silence spread over the room; all of them had to think about the just heard.

"We'll talk it over. But Aereon, I swear if that's one of your sick games your death will be more cruel than anybody else has ever heard of before ... it will take you days to die. And that's not a threat, that's a promise." With that he dismissed Aereon, Gramps, Sara and Murrey.

As soon as the four had left the room they looked up star charts to find the system with the wormhole and the mining planet and a vivid discussion under the remaining Furyans started but Riddick was it who summed it up:

"We don't have much choice here. I won't wait until they come and skull-fuck me in my sleep. We'll blow that planet to pieces and get rid of them and maybe being at it we should get rid of that Elemental too. Hope, what about that planet killer … can you knock something together?"

"With Taylor's help I have no doubt … but the Defiant is the only ship that can carry and launch a weapon like that … we'll have to split."

Riddick shook his head. "There is no way we'll split, babe. The whole universe can go to hell in a hand basket but we'll never ever split again; no more solo missions."

"But, Riddick, you have to lead them! They need you!"

"Carlos will do that until we catch up with them. He'll take the Freedom and Tyr takes the Pride. They'll be fine. And we'll be at the mining planet not long after them." he assured her.

Hope knew it was useless discussing his decision with him so she went on. "The mining planet is almost on our way to the Manoso nebula … we can make some scans of the planet and the surrounding area and transmit the results. As long as we know where the Freedom and the Pride are we can send a tight beam subspace signal to deliver our sensor readings; I don't know how smart the Draugar are but we shouldn't take any chances that they catch our message."

Riddick stood and ended the meeting, there were a lot of errands to run. "Yeah, that would be good. Tyr, you take Murrey with you, Sara will stay here. Aereon and the old man on the Freedom … they can risk their necks as well. Anything else? No? Well then, let's get started."