XI.
The huge ship looming behind them filled the screen with its frightening presence. It was monstrous and according to the scans she did on Enin it was indeed a Draugar ship. It was almost elegant in its alien design but a dark and menacing aura surrounded it. Its hull was a light grey that glistened in the light of the near sun like molten silver, it looked very fast judging by its slimness, but due to the sheer size Hope supposed it would be somewhat inert to pilot. She couldn't spot any portholes, no pointer where the bridge could be and she could only guess about the ship's armament and propulsion system … there was no sight of a weapons phalanx or warp nacelles which made the engineer in her itching to kill to get her hands on that kind of technology.
While Hope sat frozen by the deathly sight on her screen Riddick reacted immediately. The flash of the phaser beam dutifully sped away from the Defiant's weapons area but quickly got dispersed when it reached impenetrable shields.
"Fuck, Hope, bring that cloaking on again! They'll blow us out of space with their next blast). Did the bomb hit its mark?"
Hope tried to keep the panic out of her voice. "Their shot reached us the second we launched it and we missed. We have to try it again, I'll calculate …"
"Babe, in case you haven't noticed yet … we have bigger problems at the moment. Cloaking, now!"
Hope's voice was a mere whisper, the readings in front of her let her swallow dry. "No cloaking, not anymore. And all we still have are navigational and aft shields." She always had thought of the Defiant as the most indestructible ship in the whole universe but those aliens had taught her better.
The environmental system had problems clearing the air of the acrid smoke but at least the automatic fire extinguisher had made short shrift with the flames leaking out of the former sensor console but.
"I'll hail them." Hope suggested spontaneously. It wasn't a good plan, not at all, but still it WAS a plan. Riddick's amused grin followed her movements when she turned to reach the communications console and her brows furrowed in anger. "What?! It will buy us some time."
Riddick knew all to well talking to them would be a futile effort but didn't comment on it ... his expression perfectly well did that for him. "Well, go ahead! You have one try." It wouldn't cause any harm if she tried; in the meantime he'd follow his own plan anyways.
"Unidentified vessel! Stop your aggressive actions or we will be forced to strike back. This is your only warning!"
Riddick nearly doubled over with silent laughter … she never failed to amuse him.
The deck plates underneath their feet vibrated with the violent impact when they got hit again only a second after Hope's issued 'warning' but in Riddick's hands the Defiant held her course with the stubbornness of a pit-bull.
'Yeah, Babe, life ain't Star Trek.'
Well, she never had claimed it to be a good plan. "Aft shields down as well now, hull breach amid-ship … initiate emergency force field!" Hope coughed; the thick smoke the environmental system still hadn't filtered out burned in her lungs and panic was only a blink away.
"Hope, prepare the second bomb."
"What for? I thought we wouldn't have time to … how are you …" And then realization dawned. "No, Riddick, we need it to blow up the planet!
"Do as I say! Phasers are of no use with a ship of that size and their kind of deflector shields."
Riddick was still calm as a hurricane's eye, he hadn't lost countenance for a second yet but her behavior started to try his patience.
"Riddick …"
"Damnit, woman, follow orders!" Sometimes she needed a direct order to set her straight.
His bellowed command did the trick. Hope hesitated only for another split second before her fingers finally scurried across the panel in front of her. Her thoughts raced ... he always knew what to do, he never made any mistakes … she had to trust him. She DID trust him. A sudden evasive maneuver put the ship hard starboard, strained the artificial gravity to its boundaries, and what followed then let Hope nearly fall off her seat again; the Defiant was playing the mouse in the game with a Draugar ship having that much more firepower and being that much bigger than they were. Without Riddick's piloting skills they would have been blown to smithereens by now.
"Torpedo ready in 4..3..2..1..mark!"
Riddick released the torpedo carrying their last bomb the moment Hope had it prepared and missing another strike only by a hair's breadth he brought them to the relative safety behind the biggest planet in reach. It had been timed flawlessly … it took them only a second to turn around, dive underneath the belly of the Draugar ship and reach the safe place behind the planet. The heavy-handed Draugar ship though would need much more time to follow, but till then …
It took exactly three seconds until they were overtaken by the shockwave of the explosion … hadn't they been in safety behind the planet it would have torn them apart as well. The seconds ticked away as they waited and neither of them spoke a word, breathlessly they stared at the screen until Riddick finally broke the silence while the space around them remained quiet and calm, debris floating away from the place the Draugar ship had last been.
"Babe?" Meaning 'You okay?'
"Peachy. And what now? We are shy of a planet killer! And we have no clue when the next ship arrives, could even be in the next minute! We are no match for them and have nothing left to defend the ship." She sounded peeved and frightened at the same time.
"You're not afraid, are you? We just have to think of something very quickly. Now, didn't you say something about an energetic graviton emission?"
"Yes, but to create a graviton beam I'd have to build a graviton emitter and it's not possible to just knock up something like that." Her sigh was unfathomably deep but Riddick's aplomb mollified her somewhat and after a second of deep thinking she continued. "Maybe I've got enough dilithium to crop up an explosive device … but if it effectively destroys the matrix … well, I guess we'll see it firsthand."
She spoke with so much insecurity in her voice, Riddick couldn't help but take her in his arms and give her a tender kiss. "Babe, we … you … are writing scientific history here. If somebody is able to accomplish the task than it's you ... I have the utmost confidence in you. Now go on and do your engineer thing like you always do … there are some Draugar screaming for a payback." With a pat on her butt he shoved her in the direction of the engine room.
While Hope worked on … and cursed over… the explosive device Riddick cleared the cockpit of the biggest debris; the Defiant's computer still worked on the damage report and when a computer took that much time to finalize a report it never meant something good; he wondered how long it would take to get everything to function again. Sealing the hull breach was next on his list … he didn't like having only a force field between him and space. Everything else would have to wait until they had a complete damage report.
Two hours and a deferential space from the wormhole later Hope was ready to give the explosive device a try. Normally they would have covered a short distance like that in minutes but crippled as they were they had limped away from the wormhole, constantly watching it for another opening sequence that would spit out the next Draugar ship, but at least now luck was on their side and it kept still and closed.
Not aware of its significance the explosive device left the ship and sped toward its destination. Hope had a hand fisted in Riddick's shirt and didn't even dare breath; so much depended on their success. Seconds stretched to aeons while they waited for the explosion to happen and unable to watch any longer she closed her eyes when the gadget had nearly reached its mark.
"Babe, breath, it will work."
"But if it doesn't?"
"You worry way too much, come here." She sank willingly in his offered embrace and hid her face on his shoulder; she wasn't half as confident as he was.
Riddick was glad the Defiant recorded what happened when the missile vanished inside the wormhole, he knew she would kick herself for missing that spectacular sight; even he was a bit impressed. It looked as if the wormhole would know what the dilithium would cause and if it tried to fight its demise with violent convulsions that would press the intruder out again. For a second he saw a Draugar ship that had nearly reached the opening but before it was able to cross the threshold the wormhole erupted in an explosion of light and colors, that flailed around the dark middle like a rainbow on acid and finally it collapsed with the ship still in it; poor fucks.
Hope stayed with her face pressed against Riddick's shirt until he lifted her chin and covered her mouth in a searing kiss.
"It's gone, babe. It's gone."