I have to say I am tickled pink by the reviews I have been getting as of late. They really make the effort I put into this story worthwhile, and they make me want to continue. So to all of you reading/reviewing, you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing this story will not be ending any time soon. =) But, like I said last time, please be patient with my updates. Writing an MA thesis is hard work and does take priority right now.
Thank you: EternityInYourArms, Julian Carax, Moody-Muse, NightStar28, DarkDreamer1982, ArtLightLove, serenitie1, CeruleanKitten, Chibiboku, Rianeliza, White-Dragon-of-Hope, and Elliesmeow for the great reviews. They put a huge feral grin on my face ;) And thanks to my amazing beta divine_one for all the help and effort proofreading my story.
Unfortunately I don't own the characters, verses, songs, etc in this story, it's all for fun, so please don't sue me.
…Reality Shifts…
She's standing in her old house, not home, because she never felt loved or welcome there. Its twelve years ago, and she watches as Simon, fifteen years old, works diligently on his homework at the coffee table.
The girl sees her younger self pop her head up over the couch. "We're in trouble." And then duck her head down again. Simon does not respond to the seven year old girl.
Again she pops her head up over the couch. "We got cut off!" And again ducks back down.
Simon realizing he will not be allowed to finish his work in piece decides to answer her. "Cut off from what?" he says as he rolls his eyes.
The girl now jumps over the couch to sit and face her brother. "Our platoon, Simon. We got outflanked by the independent squad, and we're never going to make it back to our platoon…" Simon just rolls his eyes again and returns to his work, not wanting to listen to his sister's insistent ramblings.
"We need to resort to cannibalism." She says trying to shock her brother into paying attention to her.
"That was fast; don't we have rations or something of the sort?" He asks without looking up.
"They got lost. We're going to have to eat the men."
Now Simon is becoming more annoyed at his sister's interruption and quickly moves to a different topic. "Aren't you supposed to be practicing for your dance recital?"
"I learned it all," she says as she begins to study what her brother was working on. "That's wrong," she says as she points to his portable cortex.
"It's from the book River," he says to defend his answer.
"No, the book is wrong. This whole conclusion is fallacious."
Simon just continues to work. The girl stands there, watching her younger self look dejectedly at her brother, before getting up and walking out of the room.
…Reality Shifts Again…
River's POV
The girl wakes from her sleep feeling the weight of the sadness her memory carried with it. It has been 36.2 hours since the survivors left Hell, as they had come to call it, and they were now drifting along the shipping lanes.
She looks around the hold and sees that Shazza, Paris, who the girl had taken to calling Narcissus to annoy him, were leaning against each other as they slept; or rather Paris was leaning on Shazza.
Riddick sat in the chair next to the girl, soundly asleep. She had felt him move there a few hours ago after Book had relieved him from his turn at the controls.
The group had decided that Book, Riddick, and River should take turns watching for a passing ships as they were the only ones who could pilot. It was now her turn to relieve Book. The girl moves slowly up to the controls and sits in the co-pilot's seat.
They sit there in companionable silence for a few moments, and then the girl begins to speak.
"Twas noontide of summer,
And mid-time of night;
And stars, in their orbits,
Shone pale, thro' the light."
She takes a breath and before she can continue the Book starts at where she left off.
"Of the brighter, cold moon,
'Mid planets her slaves,
Herself in the Heavens,
Her beam on the waves."
The girl cannot help but smile at his knowledge of Earth-that-was poetry as she continues the poem.
"I gazed awhile
On her cold smile;
Too cold- too cold for me-
There pass'd, as a shroud,
A fleecy cloud,
And I turned away to thee…"
Book now turns to face the girl as he finishes the poem.
"Proud Evening Star,
In thy glory afar,
And dearer thy beam shall be;
For joy to my heart
Is the proud part
Thou bearest in Heaven at night,
And more I admire
Thy distant fire,
Than that colder, lowly light."
"Did you sleep well?" Book asks the girl.
"Negative. Memories invade the girl's REM cycles frequently."
"Would you like to…" but before he can finish his question the girl cuts him off.
"It's irrelevant."
"If you would ever like to talk about it, please know that I would be willing to listen." He says with a soft smile.
"Thank you, Hermes. The offer is appreciated." The girl says as she swings her legs off the side of the chair to sit up and begin checking the course settings on the small shuttle.
She had programmed the auto-pilot to set a course for New Mecca, but had calculated that the likelihood of making the trip without being picked up by another vessel was only seventeen percent likely.
Book just sat back and regarded the girl before him while she worked. She was something of a mystery to him, and she knew eventually that they would need to discuss the links between and the Riddick. Now, however, was not that time as the Riddick was sleeping and repetition is irksome.
"Soon all shall be discussed. But first we must deliver the others to New Mecca." The girl says to his unanswered question. He simply nods his head in the affirmative understanding what she means.
They sit in silence for a few more minutes until the girl stops checking coordinates and reprogramming the auto-pilot to conserve energy in the fuel cells.
"Are you familiar with the works of Shan Yu?" Book says to break the silence.
"Psychotic dictator of Earth-that-was, fancied himself a warrior poet; wrote approximately fifty-seven volumes on war, torture, and the limits of human endurance. The girl is familiar with several volumes, why do you ask?"
"He said "live with a man 40 years, share his house, his meals, and speak on every subject. Then tie him up and hold him over the volcano's edge. And on that day you will finally meet the man."
The girl cannot help but let out a small huff at this. "Sadism legitimized by florid prose."
"It makes you think though, about what we have just lived through. Do you think that we have truly met one another yet?" Book says as he drums his fingers lightly on the arm of the chair.
"Negative. While the girl is privy to more information than most due to natural abilities, the people on this ship have yet to truly meet one another. The stimuli were not as powerful as say a volcano, as Shan Yu would put it."
"If that wasn't enough then do you believe we will ever meet each other then?" Book says pensively.
"Despite what Shan Yu and others like him think, people continually wear masks."
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women in it merely players."
"Affirmative." The girl replies, and again they sit in silence regarding the stars in front of them for a few more minutes before Book excuses himself to get some sleep.
Riddick's POV
I wake up a few hours after the preacher relieved me from my watch. The hull of the ship is dark and only the faint light of the control panel lights the small space. I get up and stretch after sleeping in an uncomfortable position for too long and walk towards the pilot's seat. I rest my arm on the back and look over the edge. River is curled up like a cat in the seat and playing with her long dark brown locks with her fingers.
"Anybody pass us?" I say as I continue to watch her.
"Negative. We have also stopped our forward trajectory. Power from fuel cells needs to be conserved to maintain life support; therefore we are at a standstill."
"How long we got left?"
"At current consumption levels, the shuttle will maintain life support for another seventy two hours."
Great, just great I think as I sit in the other chair. We make it off the damn rock only to end up as objects in space. There must be some poetic irony somewhere. "Don't let the others know for a while, dong-ma? Don't need Paris panicking and trying to open the gorram shuttle door and run outside like he did back there."
The girl giggles at this and nods her head in the affirmative. "There is a sixty six percent chance of being discovered within the next twelve hours. After that time the percentage drops to forty five."
"Had worse odds before." I say as I shrug my shoulders.
"True."
We don't say anything more for awhile, with both of us preferring the quiet and each other's company. River begins humming a song I am not familiar with as she closes her eyes and nods off.
…Reality Shifts…
The girl is again standing in her parental home on Osiris looking back into her memories. The girl's parental units are throwing some kind of function; lots of fancy people fill the foyer, the den, and other rooms.
All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
After a minute walking through the crowd she sees a dressed up seventeen year old Simon talking with some of their parents friends. They are discussing his future career medicine, how important he will be, how much he can accomplish. She remembers envying Simon at this age. He was the brilliant child, the one easily accepted.
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I wanna drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
That's when she looks up towards the second level and sees her ten year old self. She is sitting in the shadows of the darkened balcony looking out over the party. Her hair is pulled away from her face, and she is dressed in some ridiculous party dress her mother insisted on that makes her look like the doll she is supposed to be. But her face is far from the perfect porcelain doll's face with a smile painted on. All she sees in the little girl's face is emptiness.
And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very, very
Mad world, mad world
…Reality Shifts Again…
River's POV
The girl awakens to the sound of the proximity alert going off. Just when it seems that the fates wanted to play a cruel joke on them, they run into some good luck. Shazza, Paris, Book, and Riddick are all near the controls, trying to see what kind of ship is going to be their saving grace.
"It's a mid-bulk transport ship." Book says looking at the screen. "Not from the Alliance fleet." The girl releases a breath she did not know she was holding when he says this.
"Could it be a merc ship?" Shazza asks.
"Negative. A merc ship would be smaller, that way it would be easier to maneuver and cover ground faster." Riddick says. The girl wonders if he realizes he is picking up her speech patterns.
"Well it's burning at full containment so it isn't a Reaver ship," Shazza says. The girl picked up on the vestiges of the others conversation before she had been woken by the alarm. They had been discussing what would happen if they came across a Reaver ship, and Shazza, Paris, and Book had voted for bullets to the brainpans, squish.
The girl's thoughts are interrupted when static over the cortex starts. "They are trying to wave us! We are saved!" Paris says excitedly as he and Shazza begin to hug each other in excitement.
"…this is…captain of…do you read…."
"Ri shao gou shi bing," the girl says as she begins to fiddle with the controls to reduce the static, After a few moments adjusting the dials, she crawls underneath the control panel on her knees and begins pulling wires.
"Hey watch it feng-le girl! Don't ruin the damn com link so we can't talk to them!" Paris stupidly says.
"The girl is attempting to improve the gorram link ben dan!" She says from underneath the panel. Shazza just smacks Paris lightly on the back of the head for his stupid remark.
"…repeat, this…of the….. ship….you read?"
"Come on girly, they ain't going to wait all day." Riddick says teasingly.
"Qing wa kao de liu mang," River says as she is shocked by the electrical cable she is stripping. "Would you like to come down here and repair this piece of gou shi then Richard?" The girl can feel the smirk form in his mind as she says this. Stupid male and his flirtatious teasing.
"No I am enjoying the view from where I am thanks." He says while staring at her ass sticking out.
The girl knows that Shazza and Book just roll their eyes at the banter, but Paris is becoming more annoyed. "Can you two psychos flirt with each other later, like after we get rescued?" The girl can hear a soft chuckle from the Riddick at this.
"Done!" River says as she backs out from underneath the control panel. She does so in a way as to rub up against Riddick's hips as she stands and hears a growl from him as she does this. She warned him though.
Book presses the com button down now and begins to speak to their yet unidentified savior. "This is Shepherd Book, passenger from the Hunter Gratzner crash. We request assistance for five passengers." There is no response for a minute, and they all wait on baited breath for a reply.
"Copy that Shepherd, eta at your position is one hour, y'all okay till then?"
"Affirmative. See you in one hour."
Over the next hour the survivors hammer out the details of what they would tell the approaching ship. They would stick to the truth for the most part, that they had crash landed on a hostile planet and that everyone else had died trying to escape the planet and the creatures that stalked it.
But that is all that was agreed on, because for the last forty minutes River and Riddick had been arguing about revealing their identities.
River's POV
"NO GORRAM WAY! You can't trust people you don't know with your real name girly!" Riddick and the girl are standing nose to nose arguing with each other. Shazza had been smart enough to keep out of the 'discussion' after Paris had received death glares when he attempted to quiet us earlier. Book was just standing there pinching the bridge of his nose has he watched the argument play out.
"There is no reason to hide behind false pretenses! It is not an Alliance ship, it is not mercs! And anyone foolish enough to attempt to turn in the girl deserves the punishment they would get." The girl says with a slight huff.
"Doesn't matter! It's like painting a huge sign on your head that says wanted fugitive."
At this Book begins to interject his opinion. "I have to agree with Riddick on that River, it would be smarter to create a cover identity."
"The girl sees no point in a charade when truth is inevitably revealed despite people's best efforts."
"Take it from someone who knows firsthand child, just humor us on this." Book says as he looks at the now petulant girl.
After a moment of glaring at both Book and Riddick, the girl relents. "FINE!" She says through clenched teeth. "But the girl refuses to appear younger than she is, do not make her into a helpless child."
"Well then quit talkin' in the gorram third person and you won't seem like one dong-ma?" Riddick deadpans.
The girl shoots him another death glare for this comment. "The girl cannot help her speech patterns when she is frustrated or stressed, so lay off and maybe she can, dong-ma?"
Shazza has had enough at this point and pipes up. "Oh would you two knock off the lover's quarrel already!"
Orpheus and Persephone just continue to glare at each other until Hermes speaks up again.
"Fine. Riddick will take over Johns identity and River will be…" he says turning to her so she can fill in the name.
"Elektra King."
Riddick snorts as she says this.
"What?" River challenges.
"You and your damn mythology references."
"If the shoe fits." The girl says smugly.
"What? You saying you killed your mother and have a thing for your father?"
"Yes I killed my mother; no I didn't have a thing for my father. But if I called you daddy would you spank me?" She says with a feral grin.
The docking alarm goes off as the girl finishes her question and she moves to engage the shuttle's locks. She cannot help but smirk at Riddick and Book's reactions. While Book's jaw hangs low by his knees, and his mind swims with questions about the veracity of her statements, Riddick looks as if he is about ready to throw her against the wall for a 'dance.' She just smiles more as she hears the click of the larger ship lock on to the shuttle and the music in Orpheus' mind.
Riddick's POV
That girl's going to be the death of me. It's not fair; she shouldn't say things like that when she knows I can't do anything about it, yet. It's not gorram fair. Special hell be damned, all I want to do is throw her over something and as she said 'spank' her.
The survivors line up at the back of the shuttle waiting for the doors to open. When they do open they walk forward into the outer portion of the other ship's hold. The main doors are still closed but they can see some movement on the other side of the door. Slowly the other door starts to open and Book, Shazza, Paris, River, and Riddick come face to face with their 'rescuers.'
"If ya'll wouldn't mind raising your hands real slowly, it'd be much appreciated." The man in the center of the room says evenly as he and everyone else raises a gun at the survivors.
It's obvious that he is the man in charge here, and they do as they are told and are promptly frisked by men that walk forward. "They're clear." A rather tall looking man tells the man in the center of the room, and he begins to walk forward. However, he stops half way. "Ke-wu de lao bao jun! Wo bu shin wo dah yan jing!" The man says rather loudly as he begins to laugh.
"Wo de ma he ta de fen kuang de wai sheng dou," Riddick says as he lowers his arms.
"You two know each other?" Book asks Riddick.
"You could say that." Both Riddick and the man in charge reply.
Author's Note: I had to leave it on a cliff hanger, because I am dying to see who you all think it is. ;) As always reviews are appreciated.