A/N: Why 'Rich' for Riddick you wonder?
Various people have different reasons. Johns calls him Richie once, then reverts to 'Rich' to mock the others. Riddick calls Johns 'Billy', too but does not use the more adult 'Bill'
(short for William). This is indicative of their history. The Doctor
calls Riddick "Richard" as a way to humanize him to the others
(He's got a first name, why help Johns in keeping the man down?).
It is one way to show which survivors are not as scared of him.
River has two reasons for using 'Rich'. She isn't frightened of
him, and she sees him as the element of Earth. He is to her -- rich, golden, metallic, and a grounding point for the storm. Fry uses Rich because
she's too lazy to call him Richard. I've tried to limit the use
of 'Rich' to those who do feel comfortable with him, and Johns,
who is an arse.
Imam's
full name is Abu al'Walid. Imam is a religious title like "Father"
and is not his name (The info comes from the Pitch Black Website).
Time
for another 'What if' question. What if those fleeing from Sol-3
did so because of an invasion that they couldn't fight? Not every
human, mind you, just those that settled in Blue Sun, Kova, Furya,
Helion… What would happen to these humans in the depths of space if
a Time Lord, in his various incarnations, had an inadvertent hand in
shaping the development of the resultant societies either directly or
indirectly?
Thanks
for the questions and reviews, My Reflection and ck16.
It's 2517. Something in the past has prompted humanity to explode out from their home world. Could the events of 2164 be responsible? Was Earth a myth or was it real? In fleeing Earth-that-Was, humanity scattered to the stars across the galactic arm. Initial survey teams targeted likely planets and systems for habitation and not all of them ended up on the same side of the sector. Blue Sun exists on one side, separated by a patch of 'wild space' filled with exotic binary and triple star systems, from the rest of civilized space. Few ships brave the route. But luck has it that one ship is. It's a ghost run, the only contact that the two sides have. Port of Departure: Eavesdown Docks, Persephone. Mixed Sino-Anglo culture. Port of Call: Tangiers-5. Darkside. Mixed Islamic-Anglo culture. Crew complement: Four. Passengers: Forty. Living 'Cargo': Two.
So what happens when a passenger by the name of Dr. Simon Tam and his cargo get on the wrong ship? And just how is this related to the TimeWar?
Doctor Who / Firefly / Riddick X-over.
Features Doctor 9, Pre-"Rose"; Simon and River Tam, Pre-"Serenity" Firefly episode 1 and the cast of Pitch Black…
Doctor Who and the Great Eclipse
Part Twenty
Trepidation
They can see, through the open Hanger doors, the position of the blue sun as it traces its path down toward twilight. The Vectran was brought back from the crash ship, a bolt of it that hopefully is enough to patch the wings of the skiff with. The holy man, robes flapping in the hot breeze filtering in through the open door, scales the small craft and begins by stripping off the old torn fabric. As he works, he and his pilgrims sing in Arabic about doing God's work and reaping the rewards of their service. First it's a voice above then it's a chorus below. Hassan and Suleiman hold the heavy bolt of cloth as Richard sets up a worktable.
Inside, Fry and the Doctor are replacing the computer's parts with more advanced ones off the Hunter-Gratzner. The job is not an easy one and they struggle with it, trying to get the parts to connect and communicate.
Once the worktable is set up, Riddick signals to the pilgrims and they drop the weight off with him. He flips open the bolt until he's got enough width to span the wing struts. He's got a feeling in his gut that he needs to be very precise about the sizes of the trim. Because of that Richard eyes the struts carefully and makes accurate cuts.
Suleiman is called away by Paris to assist with something inside the hanger, leaving Hassan to carry the pieces up to the waiting Imam. Rich knows that in a couple of hours he'll have to return to the filter the Doctor has set up to view the planets with and take an hour's worth of measurements. In spite the assurance that he's gotten that they have at least a week's worth of double sunrises left, the con feels like they are nearly out of time already.
His blade, returned to him by the Doctor after some secret threshold was passed, cuts cleanly through the heavy black fabric. He maintains a straight line as he pulls it across the dark expanse nice and steady. As the trim comes off, the young pilgrim chatters a thanks (that, he realizes, oddly enough, he can understand even though he's sure the kid only speaks Arabic) and scampers up the side of the craft. The ex-ranger ponders the mystery of that while Hassan nimbly crosses the struts to hand the first section of wing fabric off to Abu.
The holy man switches from his blade to a heavy needle and thread and proceeds to stitch the fabric into place. Hassan cannot leave until he calls for Ali and Jack to come up and stretch the cloth tight, "Ali, Jack! Come. We must all help!" Again the words are in Arabic but Richard's mind quickly assigns English to the cry. 'Fuckin' weird,' he thinks. Jack and Ali materialize out of one of the other buildings and scramble up the skiff. Once the two young boys are up with Imam, Hassan turns his attention to carrying the material up as it is needed.
River watches the process, stepping in to hold the end of the bolt as Rich finds himself at the end of it. "I hope this is enough," he mumbles. Like everything else it seems that there is barely what they need. This is cutting it close. He eyes the two triangular areas of the wing tips and looks at the last bit of trim.
"It will make her fly," River assures him.
"Father, I'm going to slice this last piece diagonal for the tips, otherwise you won't have enough," Riddick calls.
"It would seem that we are fortunate that you can cut straight, Mr. Riddick, " the holy man calls back. Yes, it does appear so, but the ex-ranger knows that his fortune never stays good for long. He's waiting for the other shoe to drop. It'll be any time now.
Once the part of the job he can do is done, the con switches his attention to giving himself a shave while he keeps a watch on the position of the blue star and wonders how long it's going to be before they take another trip to the crash site.
It takes an hour for Fry and the Time Lord to emerge from the skiff.
River tugs the bronze man to his feet and over to the filter for another set of readings. Imam and the boys also follow because it is unusual for anyone to tug the large muscular man anywhere. Paris walks out, "What is going on?"
"I do not know, Mr. Olgivie. Perhaps you should join us in finding out?" Abu answers. The art dealer makes a face and proceeds to tag along.
Everyone but the marshal gathers around the strange, pieced-together device, most back far enough away to not interfere with whatever is going to happen. Glancing at the setting blue sun reveals nothing unusual to the naked eye, but the filter can see the shadowy edge of the gas giant's rings hovering near the point of sunrise, just like it could the sunset before. The Doctor stares at the image with a frown.
"One hundred and fifty-three point eight-two degrees," Riddick says as the blue sun is not quite down yet. "Off-set by ought point one-nine-seven degrees from due sunrise."
Johns walks up from another direction, curious because everyone else is there. He hears Riddick babble off some numbers and then the strange girl reply.
"That is point ought-ought-seven closer than the last readings," River says without looking at the data.
"Twenty-eight sunrises, give or take. Fourteen days." The Doctor announces.
'So that's what this contraption is,' thinks the redhead, 'Ingenious, really.' But the news isn't all that welcome to him. They know exactly how much time they have. The others are blinking. The information makes the impending nightfall that much more real.
Fry rakes a hand through her hair, "You sure?"
"Or less, if it speeds up we could be looking at it happening in thirteen and a half days."
She takes a deep hit off her breather and gives the alien a 'curse you' look that is clearly not personal. "Better get back to work on the computer then, I need to run the sys-check on the nav program and see if it is malfunctioning or not."
"Do the hull integrity test first. If that is passed then well deal with the next issue."
Fry nods and walks back to the Hanger.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Johns finds himself, once again, at the crash site, or a little past it. It's twilight. Imam suggested nearly straight away that they take a trip out here while it was cooler. The marshal had agreed, feeling the sudden need to be doing something. The fact that the Doctor had given Paris some tools and asked them to locate, or at least look for, additional cargo bays was just another oddity in an already surreal situation.
So out he went, with Hassan, Suleiman, the Imam, and Paris. The pilgrims are finishing up the salvage of the current cargo bay, removing the lights and any small storage containers that might be useful back at the Hanger. He's up top the hull with his scope trying to spot the other large pieces of the crash ship. Paris has set up some survey tools and is actually using them. Looks like the art dealer was given some professional training in a previous life. If they can find the next cargo bay then they are to pull lights from it and haul anything else they think is useful.
Below, Imam and his older pilgrims manage to get one of the storage crates out the door because they have rigged some axles and wheels to it. Once the noise of them congratulating themselves dies down, Johns turns his attention back to his scouting. It's past the horizon, at the very least, that next cargo bay. But off in the distance, down the crash scar, it looks like a sandstorm brewing. "Are we about done?" he calls down.
"See anything?" Olgivie asks by way of a response.
"No cargo bay. But there's a sandstorm off in the distance, and I don't fancy being caught out in it."
"Well, that will disappoint, I'm sure. But better to be safe than sorry. Let's head back to the settlement and I'll see if there's a surviving record of the flight data on the computer core. I might be able to triangulate the location of the other cargo bays from that easier anyhow."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Carolyn settles into the charcoal colored pilot's chair. The computer and various monitors have been fixed but there's still a great deal of open panels and wires about. Following the Doctor's suggestion, she flips the diagnostic program over to check the skiff's hull for holes. Behind her the hatch closes with a hydraulic hiss and the existing life support system kicks in. That's a good sign. It looks like the Frankensteined computer is working without errors, too. Of course, the Doctor had tinkered a bit with it and promised that it would be problem free.
She scans the screen off to her left where it reads, "HULL INTEGRITY TEST". The outline of the ship slowly turns from red to yellow to green as the sensors verify that there are no breaches. Fry turns and checks the rising pressure gauges. So far so good.
"Noticed that you've not argued for full power hookup…"
Carolyn jumps in her skin and whirls the seat back to look at the speaker. The goggled man is scanning the inside of the skiff with a very disgruntled air. "Don't want to overload the circuits," she replies as her body calms down. "There's still a lot to replace and the skiff is wired for one use."
"How many Cryo-lockers were you thinking would fit?"
"Ten."
The ex-ranger shakes his head, "As coffins, maybe. You gotta have space for the drug canisters, the extra power cells, and the monitoring system. Might fit eight, if you are lucky."
Fry reaches back to tuck a set of dangling wires out of the way. "Kinda afraid of that myself, actually. Looking at the lockers, I'm thinking seven might be a squeeze."
"And you're putting off a check on the main drive? Shouldn't that have been a necessary inspection near first thing?" Riddick leans against the sidewall, near the back of the skiff and eyes her over, "Unless -- Billy told you the particulars of my last escape."
"We have a few days yet, and the cryo should be hooked up before we try to channel power into the engines." The blonde turned away and looked at the readings, "But Johns did say somethin' about that. A quick-and-ugly somethin', actually."
Riddick is surprised by the fact that the docking pilot takes her eyes off him. He was sure that her lack of fear before was because he was chained up. But maybe not. He walks heavy as he approaches from behind her to deliberately let her know he's getting closer. She keeps working, acting like he's anyone else that might be trapped in here with her. It scatters his mind and shifts his perception. He's not sure how figure her out, "An' now you're worried about a repeat of history?"
"Johns is."
She feels the weight of his body tip her chair as he leans on it, "I asked what you thought."
She swallows, "Why don't you sit down, huh? So we can have this conversation while I'm working instead of me wonderin' if the badge is right about you the entire time."
Fry can feel him quirk an eyebrow at her back, as if that reply was not the one he was expecting. He glances over her shoulder at the readings and watches the cabin pressure gauge as the numbers climb. "I remember the look on your face, Carolyn. That sense of innocence and acceptance, of wonder, when you looked into my eyes. I ain't never had a woman look at me like that before."
She makes a face and glances back over her shoulder to find that she's nose to nose with him. There's a tension in the air that feels like an uncertain, wounded animal desperately looking for warmth and shelter. "Rich," She takes his hand and tugs him into the co-pilot's chair. "Has your entire life lacked any sense of majesty or amazement? Any kindness?" His befuddled expression speaks volumes. "What I saw in your eyes was beautiful. Not to say that I don't realize that you are what you are, any less than a wolf is a wolf or a tiger is a tiger or a shark is a shark. But there's a place in nature for such things and I know that. It's not you that scares me."
Richard finds himself blinking rapidly, and extremely grateful for the dark goggles. He can feel her warm hand holding his, like a lifeline. He struggles to keep his face blank, but her slight smile makes him turn away. She is one in a million, an angel, for all her flaws. After a long pause he asks, "Think Johns is an do-right man? You think I can trust him to cut me loose?"
Her hand twitches. "No. No, I don't. But it's not his say, is it, Richard? It's mine. I made that deal, and I intend to keep it, one way or another."
"You do?" He surprised, in spite of himself. Fry nods. His hand squeezes hers then lets go, but her small palm doesn't move from his. "Well -- guess if it was trickeration he'd just 'x' me out, huh? Then again...I am worth twice as much alive." He glances back at her and can see the pieces falling into place in Carolyn's head. He confirms for her the truth of his relationship with the marshal, "Didn't you know? Johns ain't a cop. Oh, he's got that nickel-slick badge an' all, but nah -- he's just a merc and I'm just a payday. That's why he won't kill me, see. The creed is greed."
"He didn't say, other than Conga authorities were ordering him out of the system. I didn't actually speak with him, Merritt did. But he did let us all assume he was with Conga's law system." She glances over at the data streaming past. The hull check still has about half way to go, "So is he Company guild?" Riddick nods to confirm. Johns is worse kind of merc, she knows then, "He scares me, Rich. I admit that. I've told the Doctor as much. He pulled his gun on me, even. But we can't let him know that we see past his front, because soon as he realizes people are gonna start dying."
"True enough. He's got more secrets than I do, Carolyn. And in fourteen days, when the lights go out, the dyin' will start. Johns is gonna figure out that there's only room for seven on this little boat. And so will Paris. I don't truly know what's gonna happen when it all goes pitch black, but I do know this little psycho family of ours is gonna rip itself apart." He takes a breath, "So you better find out the truth about Johns. Come nightfall, you better know exactly who's standing behind you."
"And the Doctor? Don't you forget that he's got a killer's eyes too, Richard. You, Johns, Paris, you got nothing on that man for mystery. Yet you trust him. And oddly enough so do I. If anyone can see us through this, he can." She glanced at Riddick's face and noted the muscle working in his jaw. "What? You didn't think anyone else could see the shadows in his eyes or the rage and power that he barely keeps in check? The Doctor makes Johns look like a child throwing a fit in comparison."
Riddick takes his hand away from hers and lifts his goggles to rub his eyes. "Shit, Fry. How do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Fuckin' read my mind? Yeah, the Doctor is dangerous. Powerful. Genius. But he's one thing that Johns ain't. Good -- he's totally pure. So squeaky clean in his righteousness that he'd drown all of us in it, except for maybe Imam."
Carolyn laughs, "How the hell can someone be a killer and still qualify for sainthood?"
The ex-ranger snorts, "Got me there. But it's true. Watch how the Father greets him, sometime." Off to the side a monitor chirps the news "HULL INTEGRITY --100-PERCENT. NO BREACH DETECTED. EXHALING GASSES." The hatch unseals automatically with a sigh. Fry looks at Riddick as he stands up and heads for the exit. "Carolyn? Ask Billy about those shakes of his, huh? Ask why your crew-pal had to scream like that before he died."
She blinks and gives him a nod. The goggles come back down and he nods too before walking out into the post-dusk, pre-dawn, twilight. The pain of her last moments with Owens lances her heart.
If the redhead was around right then she'd let him have it, but as it is he's off at the crash site stripping the cargo bay. Carolyn squeezes her eyes closed and lays her head on the console. Despair threatens her soul for a moment. "Come, eat with us," says a soft voice. She looks up to see River, "You need to sleep. Let the storm work on the life support." The docking pilot smiles. She gets to her feet and follows the dark-headed girl out.