Night Vision

A Riddick: Rule the Dark Alternate Universe

Chapter Ten

"I have a heading." Marcus poked his head into the modest-sized cabin. His pale friend looked up from the tablet he held, stylus in hand, and nodded.

"I can feel the urgency," Niklas agreed. "Did you want my assistance?"

"No, but the company would be quite welcome." The big Beta smiled, then indicated the implements that the other Furyan had been using. "More of our lore?"

Transferring his incredible store of knowledge about their race from memory to data archives had become a passion bordering on obsession for the blond. Marcus understood that, though; they didn't know how many others had managed to hide from or escape the Necromongers, let alone whether any of them were Omegas. Having accessible records was now crucial in case they found orphans who, like the Alphas, knew nothing of their heritage.

"Yes," came the chuckled reply. "Listing the Packs today. There are times when I am surprised to remember just how numerous we were."

~So very true,~ Marcus thought as they walked forward to the bridge. He recalled the population of Furya being somewhere around a billion, and that had been deemed the limit of what the planet could sustain without damage to its biosphere.

Now they only knew of a handful for sure. There were some potential Furyans that James was helping to track and confirm or disprove through hard data, but he refused to count them until their origins were known.

James being himself, he had invested in his pseudo-sister's business from the start, banking the money until he had saved enough for a second ship from the same builder. Wayfarer's Eyrie, unlike the original Wanderer's Den, was no cargo vessel; she had been designed as a mobile base for seeking out the scattered Furyan survivors once it was less dangerous to do so. Hullplate to hullplate living quarters, some cabins sized for singles, others for couples. Only Marcus' room had been given more than sparse decoration.

He wasn't bothered by the implication that he had a mission, he was comforted.

"Deep thoughts?" Startled, he blinked, slowly realizing that Niklas had pulled him from a phenomenon that he blamed on Chillingsworth's cryo brew. The Beta sometimes found himself sucked into his own musings, to the point where he couldn't get back out on his own. So he nodded his thanks and finished the walk to the Eyrie's cockpit.

As Marcus adjusted the ship's course, the blond chattered on about small bits of Furyan lore, some of which the larger male had never heard. It was a facet of Omegas that he found curious; the slight man sometimes seemed to know how to calm him and when he needed it. Well, Niklas was likely to use the ability frequently.

With the glow of the power nodes gone, my vision sharpened, the secondary irises dilating. I couldn't let Rick fall over, so I pressed my torso against his right side.

"You're sure he'll come back?" he asked me, the rumble of his voice not as strong as usual.

"He's as much a man of his word as you, love." I stretched up and kissed the big man's cheek. "We need t' get you over near th' grenade."

"Thinkin'…" He gasped slightly in pain as he tried to get from his knees to his feet. "Thinkin' we can cauterize this shit?"

"Yup." I braced myself against his weight to act as a crutch. "Be hell gettin' it fixed up properly later, but it'd be that way if we left it as is. Need t' stop th' bleedin' now." Rick hummed his agreement as he straightened.

With his broken weapon bracing his other side, we made our way toward the blast zone and managed fifty meters before my mate got too wobbly to continue. I helped him sit, rather than fall, and then began unwrapping the upper part of one of his boots. Cutting off a piece of the rough leather provided a protective layer between my hand and a fist-sized, white-hot ember.

After collecting a thin coating of mud to prevent the white phosphorus from directly contacting his flesh, I crouched next to the former convict. He nodded, grasping the end of the spike and leaning back slightly to give me better access. Then he removed the object in a flash of movement, and I pressed the coal against the gaping wound. Rick allowed himself an agonized bellow as the stench of burning flesh rose briefly.

I discarded the ember after a couple of seconds, slathering on a bit more of the runny mud to cool the injury. My lover gasped for a moment, pulling in oxygen, then tried to brace his damaged blade and get up again. He didn't lean on me quite as heavily as he had before.

Only as we got into the large boulders near the mountain's base did the mudbugs dare attack again. I met the first screeching beast's charge with my own scream of rage.

~I am sick and tired of bein' in these fucked-up situations,~ I ranted internally. ~Even five years apart is too damned often.~ Behind me, Rick carefully backed up along the rocks, his switchblade handle occasionally whipping out to brain a creature.

Gaining altitude served to concentrate our foes, however, and we soon shifted to guard each other's backs.

~Come on, Boss,~ I thought to myself. ~Where the fuck are you?~ We wouldn't last much longer, hemmed in like this. My mate was now taking the creatures on with his bare hands, the remains of his weapon embedded in a corpse several meters away.

We had absolutely nowhere to go.

Then engines became just barely audible over the thunder and screeching. The sound warned us with only enough time to close our eyes, the lids squeezed tight. Rocks shook from explosive shells and echoed with the keening of dying mudbugs. Twice, rounds came so close to me that I felt the heat through my jacket before they struck beasts that were almost on top of me. Rick had been quite literally holding one off until a shot blew its body away, leaving only the head in his hands.

A bright spotlight flicked on to illuminate us, and I sighed in relief. The mostly-forgotten earpiece crackled to life.

"Extraction, thirty seconds or less," Boss declared briskly. "Let's go, people!" Then Dahl seemed to float down, harnessed to the winch cable with a couple of meters dangling below her. As she touched down, the blonde held out a second set of safety webbing, helping me secure my lover in it.

"Set of holds under me," she shouted. That explained the extra cable. The sniper looked skyward and gave a thumbs-up signal to whoever was operating the hoist. As they were reeled up, I grabbed a handle attached to the heavy line, then slid one foot into the loop at the very end.

"Let me ask ya somethin'," Dahl commented on the way up. "Sweet-like." I had to chuckle at her reference to Rick's earlier teasing.

"So what's our story gonna be?" Moss leaned back in his jump seat, visibly pondering the possibilities.

"Damn near impossible t' convince people that Rick's dead," her sister groused. She had draped herself over the saddle of her Hog. "We've tried it."

"What if Santana's ship could be brought back here once we're picked up?" Luna had frowned slightly in thought. "If we could make it look like it never left, maybe do something to the mechanics…" A long pause followed as all seven of them—Dog being passed out at Jack's feet—mulled over the idea.

"Between strippin' all th' cryo shit out of it an' fraggin' an engine, we might be able t' make it look convincin' enough." The brunette smiled slightly at the young man, then focused on the trio across from her. "Be up t' you t' sell it, though. Tell a good enough story."

"I think we can handle that part," Boss agreed, shadows in his eyes even as one side of his mouth flicked upwards. "The equipment damage will help, as will our reduction in strength."

"Shit, I'll be glad t' recover th' Hogs at all," Dahl blurted. She managed the finances of Boss' crew. "I'd hate havin' t' buy new ones."

"Sounds like a plan," Rick rumbled. "Our pickup's not too far away." He leaned back against Eileen's hover-bike and crossed his arms over his chest, then became very still, other than the steady rhythm of his breathing. Jack couldn't tell for sure, since he was wearing his goggles, but she suspected that he was taking a catnap.

"I wonder how long the rain will last."

"Radar works, now that we've got full power," she informed Luna. "Satellite uplink, too. We could go check." He smiled at the suggestion, his fair complexion going slightly pink as he motioned for her to lead the way. Her inner animal—unlike her adoptive siblings, the brunette felt that hers was more of a bird-like creature—roused with an intense skin-hunger as they moved into the somewhat secluded nook for the secondary systems controls, giving her a sense that it was mantling as she tried to keep it from taking control.

So instead of grabbing the blond the way the animal wanted to, Jack planted her ass in the seat and dove into the auxiliary programs Boss had acquired for his vessel. The weather system came up quickly.

"Damn, that's a big-ass storm," she muttered. Data from the satellite installed to boost any signal from the station showed angry, moisture-laden clouds covering at least a third of the planet and moving slowly.

"No breaks until… tomorrow afternoon, it looks like." Luna put an arm on the chair's back so that he could read the screen over her shoulder. "That's quite the wait."

The young woman nodded and tried not to squirm.

~How th' fuck did Rick an' Eileen keep from goin' at it on T-2?~ She remembered them behaving themselves in front of everyone, even when Chillingsworth had been trying to push every button she could find. ~This is nuts!~

The unexpected sensation of someone gently tugging her ponytail almost made Jack jump out of her skin. Nobody had played with her hair in years, not since it had gotten long enough to be pulled back again. A glance up at the youth behind her showed that he was staring off into the distance, apparently thinking hard about something. She couldn't help the little shiver that ran through her body as he absently wound a dark ringlet around his finger.

The spell snapped just as suddenly as it had begun, Luna snatching his hand away as if burned. Stammering an apology of some sort, he fled back to the main bay, leaving the brunette behind. She thumped her head against the console, frustrated.

~This sucks.~

When the kid reappeared wearing a panicked expression, it was all I could do not to laugh aloud. I didn't quite know what had happened in the secondary systems alcove, but it must have been something pretty innocent—Jack certainly hadn't kissed him.

"So how's it lookin' outside?" I asked, breaking the tense silence. Luna ducked his head before he replied.

"It's a-a very big storm. W-won't clear at all until l-late tomorrow." His left hand flexed as he spoke, fingers and thumb rubbing against each other. Moss' shoulders shook very slightly as he suppressed a laugh—something I'd come to recognize as I learned to understand his warped sense of humor—and Boss shifted around in his crash couch, getting comfortable.

"That being the case, I'm gonna get some shut-eye." He glanced at Dahl, who nodded and sat up straighter, taking charge without saying a word. With a sigh, I opened one of my hover-bike's saddlebags to dig out a small handheld game; I wasn't going to sleep unless my mate was awake, not while we were effectively in someone else's territory.

Of course, teasing my sister in front of God and everybody wasn't going to happen.

Once the weather cleared, pulling the hibernation system from Santana's ship didn't take long, nor did collecting the damaged Hogs. Moss fretted horribly over their condition; he'd been the person most involved in maintenance and the most attached to his mechanical mount after me and Jack.

Then it came time to actually leave the planet, and I fretted right up until the moment when Luna boarded the ship he was used to and claimed the seat closest to the cockpit without a moment's hesitation. He caught my eyes and flushed when he realized I'd been watching. Tactfully, I managed not to chuckle.

Rick and I didn't bother sitting down right away, though, squeezing into the small pilot's area. Dog whined briefly, then curled up halfway under a couple of seats. The vessel rose beyond the cloud layer only to have the newer craft swing around and face us, as I'd expected.

"Some good men died here, Riddick," the former soldier said after a comm channel opened. "Not sure how I'm supposed to overlook that if there's a next time." My mate reached over to key our comm system.

"Yeah. Things might've been different if they hadn't been tryin' t' put my head in a box."

"True. So where to now?" I could just barely make out the figures in the other ship's bridge; Dahl and Moss had moved up behind their leader. "You know what? Fuck that. Don't tell me." Static nearly covered his wry chuckle. "I don't wanna know."

"Well, then." I grinned myself as I joined the conversation. "I'll give ya this much, Boss: sooner or later, we've all gotta head home."

"Tell Dahl t' keep it warm for me," Rick added with a chuckle of his own that deepened when she responded by flipping him off. "And Johns… you keep that strong spine." The newer transport banked away, allowing us to climb beyond the atmosphere as they went off in another direction.

"I can feel Uncle Marcus an' Niklas gettin' closer," my sister remarked. "Maybe a day out. I could park this tub in an orbit 'round that gas giant while we wait for 'em."

"Good idea." I squeezed the brunette's shoulder, then moved back to the main cabin and dropped into a crash couch. With an even more piteous whimper, Dog crept my way, his ears laid back in fear. He only relaxed once he'd put his head on my knee and I began stroking him soothingly. "Poor pup. You're not sure about this space stuff, huh?"

My lover soon joined me, his mere proximity easing the canid's stress further. I could feel Luna watching us intently, but he didn't say anything before Jack had finished with the simple piloting needed to get us headed in the right direction. Instead of sitting down, she went to check on her Hog, testing its temporary tie-downs.

"Enough stallin', Jackie," Rick rumbled. She heaved a huge sigh, then turned to face her young man.

"Thank you for choosin' t' come with us." The brunette blushed as she spoke.

"Well, Dahl was pretty firm about me not being cut out for bounty hunting," he replied quietly. "I'd rather be with folks who want me along. Rubio had started teaching me to fix electronics." A hopeful note entered his voice.

"It'll be good to have someone who does more than tinker," I assured him with a warm smile.

"An' if ya wanna get more formal education, that can be arranged." Luna turned astonished eyes on my mate. "Jack did most of her studies by correspondence; no reason you can't do th' same."

"Thank you," the youth sighed.

"Hey, Pack takes care of its own." The pragmatic reply seemed to surprise him.

"You'd consider me a part of your pack?" His posture relaxed subtly. "I… Thank you just isn't strong enough." He glanced over at my sister, who ducked her head and blushed. The sight caused a flush to creep across Luna's face as well.

"You did set our beacon, right?" Jack nodded at Rick's query, and the convict settle further into his seat. "Waitin' on Niklas an' Marcus, then." With that, he laced his fingers with mine, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

As the ship dropped out of hyper, the pack bonds grew stronger, and a new, thread-thin connection sprang into being. Niklas grinned as their trajectory was adjusted, aiming for the gas giant in the system. Then his pack-mate looked over at him, beaming as tears rolled down his cheeks.

"My niece found her mate," Marcus whispered in awe. The Omega squeezed his shoulder gently, then turned his attention to the Eyrie's communications suite. It was registering a beacon, a small jump-ship registered to someone named Santana Vagos. He snorted, knowing that person was no longer among the living.

"Wayfarer's Eyrie to jump-ship," Niklas said into the mike. "Your ride is here." A minute later, the speaker crackled.

"Good t' hear your voice," a mezzo-soprano replied. "Feel up to helpin' stage a scene?"

"Be happy to, milady." He got a chuckle in response to the honorific. "Lead the way." From the seat to his left, the Beta flashed him a mischievous grin.

~Should be interesting to hear their plan.~

They landed the ship he'd called 'home' for so long precisely where Santana had originally put it. The new ship—he liked its poetic name—was supposed to land a few kilometers away, where no one would be looking for evidence of a third vessel. Within twenty minutes, two men jogged up who could have been a study in opposites, a slender blond and a heavily-muscled brunet. The latter promptly climbed up the side of the jumper to examine the rear engines from above.

The next few hours were a mixture of intense work and moments when Luna couldn't help but stare. The larger newcomer moved very bulky, heavy objects around with muscle power only; a couple of them had so much mass that he'd only ever seen them shifted with forklifts or cranes.

"You probably have a lot of questions." The youth nearly jumped out of his skin when the blond appeared at his side without warning.

"I… yeah, tons." Taking a deep breath, he asked probably the most obvious thing. "Are- are you all the same sub-species?" There were such sharp differences in appearance.

"Oh, yes. But we're from three different castes, each with its own place in our society's structure." The lean man smiled. "Richard and Eileen are Alphas; the low-light shine in their eyes puts them in the Prime designation, which has produced our leaders almost from the time it first appeared. Marcus and Jack represent the two phenotypes of the Betas, and I am an Omega." Then he sighed, shoulders slumping marginally. "We are currently the only Furyan Pack we know of."

"Oh." That was so very not good. And from the way the blond spoke, there had been other 'castes' in their culture. "So why add me? I'm not Furyan, as far as I know."

"Anyone who becomes a Furyan's mate is considered one of us, regardless of genetics." A quick grin flashed across his face.

And the words brought Luna's thoughts to a sudden, screeching halt. Mates? Him and Jack? He could feel his face warm as he blushed.

~She is rather attractive.~ And ever since they'd checked the weather—since he had played with her chocolate curls without meaning to—he'd been resisting an urge to just touch the young woman. Given her reaction at the time, he had inferred that the physical contact was unwelcome. On the other hand, she kept glancing at him at the oddest times.

"Just so you know," the paler man added quietly, "her life before meeting Richard and Eileen was… bad." Luna met his eyes, hoping the older man could figure out the question he didn't want to voice. "She escaped it by herself at twelve and promptly ran into our Alphas."

~Dear Lord…~ The youth swallowed nervously. ~Lord, help me to go about courting her the right way.~ If his prayer would be heard, let alone answered, he didn't know.

"I'm not sure we should fuck around with th' Necros, babe." Rick frowned at me in worry. "I say we just track down an' retrieve th' Den, then be on our merry." Thinking furiously, I tried to find the words to describe the faint signals I was getting from my Foresight.

"It's… there's somethin' about Vaako that's important." My mate grunted. "You said it yourself; he was different from th' rest of 'em. I think we need t' find out why, if nothin' else."

"Assignments that took him away from the fleet for extended periods never bothered him the way they did others," Niklas threw in. "That's very unusual; Necromongers tend to be highly social. Plotting and backstabbing may be hostile, but they are still social behaviors."

"An' Vaako's a good guy." My sister rolled her eyes. "He's able t' hide it, mostly, but that's just self-preservation." A long pause ensued.

"Maybe he's one of you, but doesn't know it." The softly-spoken words drew my eyes to the newest member of our Pack. Luna had claimed a spot on the couch next to Jack, close enough to touch her without reaching but still giving her some personal space. The young man shrugged. "He's the only one of them who's been spared from your contempt."

That made an odd kind of sense.

"Fine," my lover conceded grouchily. "We get our ship, pay Vaako a quick an' quiet visit, then get th' hell away from 'em." He seemed to sink deeper into his seat—a well-padded armchair—as his arms folded across his chest. "Fuckin' Alpha instincts."

"Bullshit," the brunette fired back. "You like bein' in charge an' leadin' people, as long as they're not tryin' t' kill you." The two older males chuckled, ignoring the mock glare they got from Rick.

"They're probably only now approaching the spatial anomaly they call the Threshold," Niklas offered. "I may not know where Furya is, but memorizing those coordinates is part of a Purifier's training."

With guidance from our Omega, Jackie an' Marcus dock with th' Basilica undetected. Th' damn 'Threshold' is a pretty spectacular formation, I gotta admit, but still…

My woman an' I creep through th' Necro flagship durin' its night cycle t' reduce chance encounters, makin' our way t' th' rooms we used before shit went down. They've been stripped of most of th' furniture, an' Krone's on his knees in front of th' viewport wearin' some weird shit.

"This is the day to end all days," he mutters. "See, here I am and here we are at the Threshold of the Underverse…" Eileen nods t' me as what I think is a concubine pours water into a goblet. Th' scarred bastard's th' one who actually marooned me; it's gonna feel good t' get some revenge by interrogatin' him.

Th' concubine gasps as we emerge from th' shadows, an' I press th' tip of a blade against Krone's unprotected spine. He goes silent an' very still.

"Vaako." Th' name is an' isn't a question.

"You are still alive." Idiot's surprised by that, obviously.

"All of us are," my mate murmurs.

"Tell me where." I'm gettin' sick of people underestimatin' me.

"He is no longer among us," th' bastard answers.

~What th' fuck is that supposed t' mean?~ I press harder, blood wellin' up as th' dagger pierces skin.

"Tell me, an' I'll kill him first."

"You misunderstand." Krone's startin' t' panic. "Vaako is a decent man who meant to honor his word. Even with you, strangely. I don't care about Furya. I don't care what the pact was between you and him." I feel my lip curl in a sneer as th' Necro admits his treachery. "This faith cannot have a misbeliever or a kind heart leading it, and I have done what I have done to ensure—"

A bit more pressure cuts him off for good. Fuckin' zealot.

"Too many words." Th' concubine makes an anxious sound, an' I turn toward her an' Eileen.

Th' woman's not wearin' much besides a strategically-draped piece of burnt velvet that barely qualifies as 'decent'. She's lookin' off t' her left, too, at nothin' at all. My lover reaches over, gently turnin' her head with a hand on her chin.

~Shoulda tortured him.~ Th' left side of th' concubine's face has been marred by archin' lines, th' scars new enough that they're still red an' irritated; Krone had marked her as his, permanently.

"Never lie to us, and we'll never hurt you," Eileen assures her, an' a spark lights in th' Necro woman's eyes.

"One-word answer." My growl draws her focus. "Is Vaako alive or dead?" She gives me a little shark-like smile.

"Both."

~What th' fuck is that supposed t' mean?~ I think again.

For some reason, th' memory of Vaako whisperin' hits me.

"Transcendence."

Jack breathed a sigh of relief when her sister and Rick returned to the Eyrie unharmed. Their thunderous expressions weren't encouraging, though. And as they explained what they'd learned, she understood their frustration.

"So what th' fuck is 'both' supposed t' mean?" Eileen directed the question at Niklas, of course.

"There are a few different situations that might fit." The blond sat forward, propping his elbows on his knees and resting his chin on his hands. "Becoming Lord Marshal by undergoing the pilgrimage over the Threshold comes to mind first, given our location. But that wouldn't be true if he was the one Krone called 'a kind heart.' Alternatively, he could have been subjected to the process which creates the Quasi-Dead."

Everyone but Luna shuddered; so far, he'd only learned a few general things about Necromongers.

"He would need to have unusual abilities to be a candidate for that transformation. And if he is Furyan, there's no telling what he would actually become. Certainly not what they intended."

"You can lead us t' wherever they'd keep him, if that's th' case, then?"

"Of course." Then the Omega cocked his head. "Congratulations, by the way."

"For what?" Rick asked cautiously. Marcus frowned, looking puzzled.

"You haven't noticed that Eileen's scent has changed?"

It took a moment for Jack to connect the dots as her sister began to swear. The convict only looked more confused.

"Rick…" The brunette waited until she knew she had his attention. "We haven't seen Dr. Ayres since before Helion."

Blood drained from her Alpha's face as the implications hit him. Without looking, he hooked an arm around Eileen's waist, pulling her onto his lap and wrapping himself around her. The blonde's string of invective didn't even hiccup.

"Oh, damn," he said, his voice faint. "Oh, damn."