Francesca could not remember the last time she had been on a ship. She didn't really know what it was like to feel the power of engines lifting her up with the speed of 300, 400 kilometers. She hadn't realized that getting past the atmosphere of a planet was the hardest part, the scariest part, and after that it would be like riding on a cloud.
She looked at the ship Riddick had "borrowed" and wondered if it was capable of flying thousands of light years away, across galaxies, to wherever Riddick meant to take them.
"What do you think?" he asked Kyra as she circled around the small ship.
"Looks like it'll do quite nicely." She opened the entrance ramp by the side of the ship. "It looks spacey enough, three sleeping cots plus two pilot chairs." She turned to Riddick. "Not bad at all." She was impressed. But she knew that he wouldn't have gone through all the trouble of getting them a half decent ship if it hadn't been for Francesca. "What's with the wooden boxes?"
"Just some things we'll need."
The cargo space below the main level was larger than on most ships of the same size. Kyra realized it was a merchant ship. "Where'd you get it from?"
Riddick shrugged, watching Francesca as she carried a small bag and secured it inside, on the main level. "Someone I know."
Kyra raised her eyebrow. "Who would that be?"
"Remember Eve?"
"The merc?"
"She changed careers, deals with guns now. Not much of a change, but… she was helpful."
Kyra gave him a sly smile. "I'm sure she was."
"Kyra…"
"What, she gave you the ship, didn't she?" she smiled innocently.
Riddick turned away and picked up some of Francesca's heaviest luggage. Kyra went inside the cargo, where she found Francesca arranging boxes.
"Who's Eve?"
Kyra wondered how much Francesca had heard. "She was part of the last merc team who went after Riddick. He… sort of spared her life."
Francesca's interrogation was cut short when Riddick opened up the back ramp and brought in more boxes. She set about securing them, trying to make her head to stop buzzing with questions. There was so much she didn't know about Riddick, and he was always reluctant to answer anything about himself whenever she asked him.
Kyra couldn't help but look at Riddick while he kept his eyes on Francesca as she kept herself busy. She was far enough along in the pregnancy to show even through her larger shirts. Her belly was a small, perfect half moon. Kyra recognized the look on Riddick's face as he watched Francesca, because it was a look he had often given her when she was younger. His careful attention, the way his eyes followed Francesca's every movement as if he wanted to make sure she wasn't doing anything that was too much for her all indicated that deep need of his to protect.
Her breath caught when his eyes suddenly turned to her and she realized she had been caught staring. She wondered what he saw in her eyes; his right eyebrow twitched just a little. He moved away.
"I think this is all of it." Francesca said as soon as she was done securing the last of the boxes. "We should get going. Oh, where did you say we were going, Riddick?" she asked, not for the first time.
As usual, he remained impassive. "I didn't say."
"It was worth a try," she said and winked at Kyra. She walked past Riddick and used the back ramp to get out of the ship.
A tall and beautiful woman walked into the hangar, heading straight for Francesca. She wore jeans and a cotton t-shirt, an unusual attire for someone who carried a rifle by her side. Francesca noted that the gun didn't look hostile, so she managed to unclench the muscles on her jaw as the woman greeted her. "You must be Francesca," she held out her hand.
Francesca took it. "Yeah, I am. Who are you?"
"I'm Eve. I've heard quite a lot about you." Her eyes inevitably drifted down to Francesca's belly, and a strange look passed over her eyes. Was it… jealousy?
"Oh…" Francesca wondered when Eve had had the opportunity to hear things about her. A small spark of anger ignited inside of her. She didn't know how Riddick spent his time when he wasn't in her apartment, and she had never thought to ask. However, Eve's presence caused a whole new light to be shed on Riddick's character. Not for the first time, Francesca wondered if it was a mistake to trust him.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Riddick called out in a friendly voice, exiting the ship from the main level.
Francesca hated how Eve's face suddenly lit up at the sound of his voice. She was getting more and more uncomfortable by the minute.
"Just dropped by to say good bye."
Francesca turned away, almost disgusted with herself, with Eve, with Riddick… She had no reason to jump to conclusions like that. Whatever she should have or should have not been doing, she decided it was better for everyone if she spent as little time around Eve as possible. She went back into the ship and settled herself comfortably on one of the cots, waiting for Kyra and Riddick. Her nerves felt strained and her stomach twisted in knots of anxiety. She hated the fact that she didn't know where she was going, she hated the fact that she was leaving, and most of all she hated how she felt like she had no control over her own life anymore. In the past weeks it had been Riddick who had done all of the decisions. He had made her quit her job, he had almost isolated her from everyone she knew… She had stopped going to the pub because of him… She had left everything behind because he had insisted upon it.
Francesca put her head in her hands and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She wouldn't have done any of those things if she wouldn't have agreed with him. He was right to make her leave. He was doing her a favor. It was actually something she had imagined she would do many times, but she had never taken any steps towards actually leaving.
"Ready for takeoff?" Kyra asked as she entered.
Francesca nodded weakly and settled in a sitting position, strapping herself to the cot which had now become a chair.
Riddick closed and locked the ramp, then settled next to Kyra in one of the pilot seats. He pressed a few buttons above his head and to his right, and the ship roared to life. Lights flickered, small bleeps went off once in a while. The hangar door opened to reveal bright sunlight and a clear terrain. He put on his goggles as Francesca squinted against the light. He pulled a lever and the engines roared louder. Kyra turned two knobs and the ship buckled slightly before it hovered above the ground, using nothing but it's bottom engines. They began to move slowly, until the ship exited the hangar completely. Riddick lead it to a space where he could see only clear concrete as far as his eyes could reach, and the ship began to zoom forward. It's nose began to lift and soon enough they went flying through the air. Francesca's heartbeat seemed to be one with the roar of the engines as they took her higher and higher from everything she had ever known. The sky was a shade of blue she hadn't seen on it before, and as they climbed higher and higher it got darker and darker, until she couldn't see blue anymore. Soon a starry sky appeared before her eyes and she almost gasped. She had never stars so bright, and they all looked so much smaller from the city.
"Secondary engines…on." Riddick muttered as the loud roar subsided, replaced by only a gentle hum. Francesca didn't realize that their speed had doubled, and it was going to triple soon as they traveled over the fabric of the universe, undisturbed by gravity or elements.
Riddick unstrapped himself and began to move around, pushing oddities of buttons.
"How long are we going to be in cryo?" Kyra asked.
"Probably a few days."
"I'll go first. I don't know about you guys, but I could definitely use the rest." She settles down in her cot and let the handles strap themselves around her ankles. She pressed some settings and as soon as she closed her eyes, she was gone into her dream world.
"She's out," Francesca chuckled and stood up to stretch.
Riddick was not far from her and she realized that for the first time since Kyra had come to her apartment, they were finally alone, without her observing their every movement.
There was nothing on Riddick's face that indicated that he had noted the difference in their company. He sat down in his pilot chair, looking over charts and courses.
"Is that… Pluto?" Francesca asked, looking over his shoulder. There was a picture of a small, bland planted on his screen.
"We might pass by it, and I'm trying to make sure we don't crash into it."
Francesca leaned against the back of his chair, her mouth close to the sensitive skin behind his ear. "Wanna tell me where we're going?" she whispered.
"No," he said, determined.
"Come on…" she put her mouth on his skin, enjoying the smell and the touch of him. "Please?" she said as she traveled over his jaw line, noting how his head turned ever so slowly to her convenience.
"You'll find out soon enough," he muttered before claiming her mouth.
He was as intoxicating as ever. Before she knew it he turned his chair around and she straddled his lap. Her breathing quickened as his hands went under her clothes, pausing over her rounded belly before they traveled upwards. He became the Riddick she knew as she reacquainted herself with his body.
His hand reached for something above his head, and two panels came together to form a wall between the pilot chairs and the passenger chairs. Francesca almost squealed in delight as she stripped him of his shirt.
She didn't care where their clothes landed as they settled back down on the chair, naked as the day. She was surprised to find how well Kama Sutra suited the seat.
She remained glued to him long after their lust abated, dozing off in the comfort of his arms. He made no objection, procuring a blanket out of nowhere and pulling it over their entwined bodies. He felt so warm and comfortable as she lay against him that in the deep crevices of her mind Francesca started to wonder how she had ever fallen asleep without him. "I love you," she whispered, half unconsciously. She didn't realize that his arms had tightened around her just a fraction.
Francesca woke up in her cot, with a blanket wrapped around her naked body. She turned her head and could see that Kyra was still fast asleep. Across from Francesca Riddick looked just as wiped out as Kyra, his lips parted slightly. Every light in the ship was off, except for the controls. The cuffs slid away as soon as she stirred, and Francesca began to look for her clothes. They were scattered around one of the pilot chairs. A small smile crept across Francesca's face as she sat in the chair after she was dressed. It still smelled like Riddick.
She turned around in the chair to look out at the stars. Her breath caught in her throat as the ship approached the dark side of what looked like a large planet with a ring circling its circumference. The ring was the only illuminated object Francesca could see, and it became apparent as the planet got closer and closer that the ship was gliding across it. Slowly the ship managed to free itself from the shadow of the planet, and sunlight filled the cabin inside. Francesca couldn't see the source of the light, and the ship entered into the tundra of another large planet, disabling any kind of light to enter fall on the ship. Francesca sighed, wondering for the thousandth's time why she had agreed to follow Riddick so blindly. Why was he so sure that they wouldn't crash into the next planet that arrived in their path?
The ship turned a smooth curve, allowing Francesca to see a small part of the planet with the ring as it was illuminated by a sun she couldn't see. Her brain had a hard time adjusting to the immensity of the objects surrounding her. Bright sunlight reached her eyes yet again as the ship flew by the second planet, and soon the only objects Francesca could become aware of was the sun and the other stars surrounding the sun, though they were very, very far away. Francesca got up and went back to her cot, and tried to fall back asleep.
A few minutes went by, after which she heard a few rapid beeps come from the control panel. She heard the sound of cuffs being sliding away, and she saw Riddick leave his cot and head for his pilot chair. Francesca got up too, and when she looked outside she saw that a small, red planet lay directly in their part. Riddick pulled up a chart on the main screen and carefully redirected their route and the ship soundlessly glided away to the left. Francesca settled into the other chair.
He turned his head to look at her. "No worries. We're almost there."
The sun was eclipsed by the small planet, though it didn't seem so small as they passed by it, not too far from it. It momentarily blocked the sun, leaving the ship in darkness. Riddick's eyes shone brilliant in the darkness, and Francesca imagined a ghost of a smile touching them.
"Look," he said, pointing somewhere in front of them.
Besides the sun and the stars, all Francesca could see was a faint, illuminated curved line. She figured it as another planet, and the rest of it lay in darkness. "What's that?"
"Your new home."
Francesca gasped, a new kind of excitement settling in her stomach, a happy excitement. Unconsciously she put her hand over her belly, enjoying the firm roundness of it, knowing that a life was growing there. "Our new home," she whispered and watched as Riddick's features softened. She reached out and touched his hand with hers. He looked down at it, seeming to examine her fingers. He turned his hand so that their palms touched. His fingers went around hers and he lifted up her hand and pressed it to his mouth. Francesca got out her chair, almost chocked by emotion, and took his face in her hands. She kissed his softly and he let her. Time seemed to suspend itself, as if an unknown force wanted them to have this moment for as long as possible. His breath was soft against her cheek.
Someone cleared their throat behind them, and Francesca willed herself to move away. For the briefest of moments his eyes remained closed. "Look," he said again.
Francesca whirled around, noticing that they were now much closer to the planet she had seen earlier. She could clearly see its surface, as they approached it from the day side. Her heart skipped several beats. Sparse swirls of white covered it's surface, playing peek-a-boo with the royal blue of its surface. Patches of soft brown and olive green occasionally appeared as the swirls of white glided slowly. Francesca had never seen anything like it.
"What's it called?" she asked.
"Earth." Riddick muttered. She gasped.
"But Earth has been dead for almost 200 years!"
Riddick shook his head. "It's true that it died in '132, and it stayed dead for nearly 50 years. No one bothered to check afterwards, but life began to flourish on it again. The atmosphere managed to balance itself, since it's such a dynamic planet. In fact, it's the most dynamic planet human beings had ever inhabited. It's deserted now, save for the plants and animals."
"Nature regenerates itself," Francesca whispered, voicing something one of her high school teachers had once told her. "It always seeks balance, and it doesn't stop until it gains it. Nowhere else are the forces of nature stronger as on Earth." She paused. "I never thought I'd get to see it with my own eyes. Incredible."
Earth became bigger and bigger as they approached it. Kyra settled in her pilot seat, and strapped herself to it A big smile was plastered on her face. She looked as if she was as pleased as Francesca. "We're probably enter the atmosphere in less than 15 minutes."
Riddick nodded and pushed a few buttons as a few beeps went off. "Secure yourself," he told Francesca as he clicked a few belts in place around his torso.
Francesca turned her cot into a chair and pulled at the straps. Excitement bubbled inside of her. Suddenly she realized why Riddick had smelled like forest and dirt. "You've been here before, haven't you?" she asked Riddick.
"Had to make sure it was inhabitable. And it is, very much."
