The Furyan's Return: Chapter Twenty-four
AN: I still don't any part of COR, just my own characters. Enjoy! The end is coming soon!
She had to escape. She had to get herself away from Vaako, or she jeopardized the baby and Riddick. A check on Lady Vaako showed she was busy at work on a new piece of meat.
Sunara's raw wrists were still shackled, so to get free she used her blood to lubricate the metal. She worked her right hand first, slowly but persistently tugging it through the ring, twisting to get a better angle. She got stuck halfway through, however.
She knew what she had to do. Using the shackle itself as leverage, she twisted her hand and flexed her muscles in her hand until she felt the pop of her thumb dislocating. She bit back the explosion of pain and panted for a moment before trying to continue sliding her hand out. This time she was able to work her hand free.
Again, she checked on Lady Vaako. Then she repeated the painful process with her left hand, careful not to let the empty chains clang against the floor. It took another few moments for her to painfully reset her joints. Where she had been biting her lip was now bloody and her hands were already turning purple. A single tear stole down her cheek, but she impatiently brushed it away and looked around the room for anything she could use as a weapon.
On a nearby pedestal stood one of those horrible Necromonger statues, a naked male figure, back arched and mouth screaming in pain as he drove a huge spike into his forearm. Sunara willed her ruined hands to grip it and crept along as quietly as she could making sure she kept herself to Lady Vaako's back.
She was almost on top of the lady when the gnawing stopped, head cocked to one side as if listening for something. Sunara froze and stopped breathing. Lady Vaako began to turn her head just as Sunara swung the statue like a bat. The lady was surprisingly fast and dodged the worst of the blow, hissing in anger. She quickly recovered and turned her full attention on Sunara. Then Lady Vaako lunged forward, but Sunara slammed her in the gut with the base and then yelped in pain as her hands got the brunt of the blow. The lady bent in half exhaling a foul breath just as Sunara lifted the base hard into her chin. The vile woman's body slumped to the ground in a heap.
The noise inside the room had alerted the guard outside and the door slid open. Sunara had just enough time to close the distance and catch him by surprise. She plowed the guard in the face with the statue. He slumped to the floor, thick dark blood oozed from the hole where his face used to be. Sunara threw down the statue and kicked the guard inside in time to slip past the closing door.
She shook from the adrenalin running through her veins and took a breath trying to get oriented. Her hands screamed in agony and she clutched them to her chest, but she had no time to worry about the damage she had done to them. She listened carefully and decided to flee down the right corridor. She just prayed she could find an unguarded shuttle bay and get to Riddick before he got to her. If all else failed, she needed to find an airlock and make sure Vaako wouldn't have a chance to complete his plan for revenge. She felt a double flutter in her belly at that thought. I'm sorry, little one; it may be the only way to protect your father.
She continued down corridors trying to remember the basic layout of the Necro flagship, Necropolis. A few times small groups of people walked down the hallway, but she was able to evade them in and hide in the shadows. No Lensers were with them, thankfully. It looked like she just might get out of here before anyone was the wiser. She was sure this was the correct way to the landing bays. Now she just had to remember the rudimentary piloting lessons Riddick had insisted upon and hope her hands could hold a steering wheel.
"Requesting emergency dock, cargo ship Eras Fortis," a voice crackled through the communication band.
The Necro commander in charge of the bridge scanned the ship requesting assistance and received scrambled readings. "Eras Fortis, we have no emergency systems here. I suggest you get to the nearest planet."
The voice crackled again. "That's the problem. We have a coolant leak wrecking havoc on our systems. I just need a corner of your landing bay. If I can patch it, I can limp to the next planet."
The ship was not unfamiliar to the comm officer, so he spoke up. "That's Baron Dubay's ship we hired for Furya, Commander. But that's not Captain Raine's voice." He frowned.
The commander spoke back into the comm unit. "Put Captain Raine on," he demanded.
The voice crackled again, laughing. "Captain Raine got a big payday and is on a long vacation. I am acting Captain Logan." She emphasized big and long.
Lord Marshal Vaako stepped from the shadows. "Put them in bay one and keep a close eye on them. One hour maximum," he said.
The commander nodded and relayed the information to the captain.
"Plenty of time. Appreciate it," Logan responded.
By the time Eve set the cargo ship down, vapor was hissing from several places along its belly. She and her four man crew disembarked and were greeted by six Necro guards holding guns on them. The crew raised their hands.
One of the guards stepped in front of the rest. "Captain Logan, we must search your ship. Stow all your weapons."
Eve smiled. "Already done. You're welcome to search the ship, but just dropped my load, so we're empty."
The five remaining soldiers swarmed the ship and quickly reported back to their lieutenant. When nothing suspicious was found, Eve ordered the lanky young kid to break out the tools while she went back to inspect the damage careful not to get too close to the leaking vapor. The Necro lieutenant followed her.
"Thanks for letting us dock. I would have never made it to the next watering hole. Must have caught some stray space debris or something," Eve said as she made a show of inspecting the scrapes on the hull. From the corner of her eye, she saw the ventilation grate in the wall was ajar and was careful to keep the Necro's attention away from it.
"Well, just make sure you are out of here in an hour," he replied gruffly.
"Sure, no prob."
Just then a loud crash came from the inside of the ship, and Eve hustled over. The tall lanky kid had managed to up-end the entire toolbox.
"Sorry, Cap'n." He smiled a toothy apologetic grin up at her.
"Dammit, Greenhorn. Get this crap picked up. We're in a hurry," she barked.
The kid ducked his head and began scrambling to pick up the tools spread out in front of him. He long arms and legs gave him an ungainly look, but Eve knew he had the fastest draw she had ever seen. That's why she had hired him.
The lieutenant seemed satisfied and retreated with his guards a distance away from their ship. Eve and her crew quickly set to work.
Riddick, Toal, Ayden, Aereon and six others dragged themselves along the ventilation shaft, Riddick in the lead, Ayden in the rear. Aereon had insisted on coming with them determined to find Malenka and do whatever was necessary. He was sure Aereon had never done any kind of stealth work before but being an Air Elemental gave her a distinct advantage since she hovered over the surface of things.
Having memorized the ship's schematic, at a split in the duct Toal signaled to Riddick he would go right, toward the main deck. He flashed a thumbs-up at Riddick's nod and broke off. Three others followed Toal, packs of bombs strapped to their backs.
Riddick's group moved left, inching closer to the ship's brig hoping to find Sunara and Malenka there. They found their way to a storage room and Riddick kicked out the grate. He crawled through first and immediately crouched. His silver eyes scanned the gloom as he listened carefully before signaling the others to come out.
Riddick listened intently at the door which led directly into the brig. He heard two voices but couldn't make out what they said. He motioned to Lieutenant Ayden who took out a small pad and held it up to the door control panel. It scrolled through a series of icons before the pad on the door frame turned from red to green. Ayden stepped back and withdrew a dagger as did the others except for Aereon who hovered in the farthest corner. At a nod from Riddick, everyone but he pulled down night-vision glasses and Ayden tapped a button.
Simultaneously the lights went out and the storeroom's doors slid open. The brig guards had only enough time to shout in curiosity at the lights going out. And, then their shouts turned to wet gargles as knives sliced deep into their throats. Re-animated or not, cutting through the jugular and windpipe causes a body to bleed quickly and makes yelling for help impossible.
Riddick dropped the body in his arms and let it slump to the ground. Ayden stepped up to the console and tapped up the display of occupied cells. An image showed only three cells were occupied and only one was a woman. Ayden focused in on the one image, and it expanded into a larger view.
Aereon gasped; slumped into a corner in a tattered red gown was Malenka. Aereon looked up at Riddick and he nodded. She dashed off with two soldiers in tow to retrieve the jailed Elemental.
But, Riddick was intent on the screen as Ayden was already tapping in directions. Riddick's ground his teeth trying to be patient. He knew if Sunara was not here, it would take a bit longer than he wanted to to find where she was being kept. Other than that, everything was going according to plan.
Then the alarm sounded.