Mnemosyne
I take my cue from Riddick. When he drops prone to the deck, so do I, tucking beneath the control console to protect myself. Vaako scrambles to his feet, and starts to run. The Necromongers that can, have all started to run. Riddick crawls across the floor to me, using his bulk to shelter me further.
"Boom." I hear him whisper in my ear, moments before the entire Basilica shudders. Power fails. We're plunged into darkness. A second shudder buffets the giant mothership even further. Flashes of scarlet and golden from outside highlight the damage that's being wrecked among the armada. Ships exploding; the smaller ones disintegrating, the larger ones experiencing explosive decompression as the hulls are breached. The Conquest Icons are doing their job: wiping out every trace of life within their detonation radius.
The Basilica is so large, so armored, that the massive explosions feel like quakes through the hull. Sirens begin wailing as auxiliary power picks up, adding to the noise of screaming rending metal and screaming bodies. The lights come up half strength, enough for me to see by, but just barely. The bridge isn't empty, though I heard everyone try to escape. One of the giant statues, metal body spiked with protrusions, had fallen. Bodies of Necromongers are crushed beneath it.
And then there's Vaako. As Riddick is taking stock of the situation, I kneel beside the once and future Lord Marshal. One of the spikes from the statue has pinned him in place, perforating his armor, and his torso. Blood bubbles at his lips, and he still tries to raise a hand to harm me. I bat his hand away.
"Tell us how to find Furya." I'm not surprised at the dispassionate tone of my voice. The Necromonger army is crumbling around us. The Basilica is twisting in space in a slow death spiral. The view ports display the destruction my action has wrought. "There's nothing left for you. Just do one decent thing with your life."
Vaako coughs. "Fuck. You." His words are labored. One blood-slicked hand clutches at the spike penetrating his body. "Just let me die."
Something clicks in my head with his statement. I look up to see Riddick coming to kneel beside me. The Basilica shudders again; this time, from within, as a secondary explosion rocks the bowels of the huge ship.
"Oh, fuck no. You're going to live, Vaako. There's no way I'm letting you skip off into your holy paradise. Unless..."
Riddick catches onto my idea. I figure there's no such thing as a medical lab around here, or even a first aid kit when it comes to people who worship death, but he's off to scrounge for supplies. He knows how well I can handle wounds, from first hand experience.
"Tell us where Furya is, and we'll let you die. Otherwise," I shrug. "I'm gonna save your half-dead ass, over, and over, and over again."
"I'd listen to the lady, Vaako." Riddick chimes in. I can hear the amusement in his voice even if he's not smiling. "She puts her mind to something..."
His amusement is replaced by something else at the end, as he trails off. I'm not sure if he's proud of me or not. This whole thing could have gone badly. If Vaako had gotten away.. what am I thinking? Riddick would have pursued him to the ends of the universe for the location of Furya.
Vaako's breath bubbles in his chest. I know if I pull the spike out of his body; he'll be dead in minutes. A part of me is terrified that Vaako will spout off random coordinates just to appease us. There's no honor among the Necromongers that I can see.
His right hand reaches out, and begins to draw in the smear of his own blood on the decking. I've studied enough star charts lately to know what he's doing. It's a rough map. A basic vectored lead I'm staring at it, memorizing the curves and angles. He doesn't finish it, his hand falling limp and lax as he passes out, but he gives me enough.
Vaako's breathing is shallow and wet. His lungs are filling with blood. He'll drown himself shortly. Riddick stands over me, looking down at the map.
"Well?"
"I... I think I know where that is." I want a star chart to double check, but as I start to stand up, the deck beneath us pitches at an awkward angle. Somewhere below us is the sound of tearing metal. Flames bloom in the darkness beneath our feet, gleaming dangerously between the plates.
"Outta time!" Riddick barks, grabbing my hand and yanking me to my feet. He boosts me up to climb over the fallen statue, clambering together over the uneven surface. I squeeze my way through a gap between the statue and the doors. Riddick is forced to break the doors, kicking one side until it dents and falls away, giving him enough space to get through.
The bridge was relatively unscathed compared to the rest of the Basilica. Other statues had been toppled. Entire balconies and mezzanines had shorn off the walls, splitting metal and plastic and wires all over the main atrium. Blast doors were lowered, here and there, illuminated by angry red lights that warned anyone away from that area. Necromongers lay, wounded, dead or dying, strewn all about the debris.
Riddick takes a grip on my hand, pulling me through the rubble. He's focused. He has a goal. I'm just desperately trying to keep up at this point. None of them are worth saving, I remind myself. Every last one is a murderer. But then again... so am I.
I killed to get us off Cetarian One. I killed to free Riddick from the mercs. There's blood on my hands and I have to live with that. So I can live with him.
Riddick pulls up short, swearing under his breath. He turns and looks around; he's calm where I'm frantic. We're going to be trapped here, in this floating sarcophagus. There has to be another path, another way; Riddick directs us. He knows the labyrinthine paths through this colossal ship. We backtrack a little, take a left where we'd taken a right before. Riddick jogs, trying to seem unhurried.
I feel a vibration beneath our feet, and a noise that can hardly be heard accompanies it. Riddick glances back at me as he yanks open a maintenance hatch. His jaw is clenched, shoulders tense. Over his goggles his brows raise, focused on something behind me. I spare a look. Systematic depressurization protocols are underway. Blast doors drop down, segmenting the corridor we just ran through into partitions, pockets of air that just might mean survival for another ten or so minutes.
I'm yanked over to the hatch. "We're almost there." Riddick breathes into my ear as he gets me onto the ladder. "Go. All the way down."
Down is a long way. I swing onto the ladder and start climbing down as quickly as I can. I skip rungs, sometimes, I barely use my feet to steady myself, relying on my arms alone to lower me down. It's faster than checking to be sure of my footing. Riddick is only two runs above me, his own feet hanging free, as he lowers himself by hand, rung over rung. I'm urged to go faster.
Firelight blooms overhead, and the ladder sways suddenly, the upper anchor points unmoored. That rumbling grows louder. This time, I realize what the sound is. Air escaping into space. The Basilica is breaking up all around us.
Riddick shouts my name, and a glance below me tells me the honest truth. I let go. The drop hurts, knees and ankles stinging from the hard impact, but nothing breaks. I stagger off the landing, backwards, making room for Riddick to drop himself. He lands in the same place, but if hurt him, he makes no sign of it. Slamming his shoulder into a nearby blank wall, he breaks through the bulkhead and the quaking Basilica vomits us out into the shuttle bay.
There is a single, lone ship remaining in this shuttle bay. Without hesitating, we both sprint for it. It's small. The Necromonger shuttles aren't equipped for interstellar travel. After all, that's what the Basilica is for. Riddick throws himself into the pilot's seat, hands flying over the console as he gets the engines powered up.
I do what I can. I know how to seal the shuttle against the vacuum of space. I know that the decompression chain-reaction is getting ever closer to us. I know that we have spare seconds, perhaps, before the Necromonger mothership completely disintegrates around us. All external vents are closed, and Riddick punches the console.
"Open, damn you!" he snarles glaring at the bay doors, still sealed before us. The sequence he punches into the console does nothing a second time. He swears again, under his breath this time, and starts for a third try, but I stop him. All it takes is the touch of my hand on his forearm, and he pauses. Both of us stare at the bay doors.
A crack has appeared in the upper corner. Small objects in the shuttle bay are already careening towards the fissure, sucked out into space by the rush of air into the nothingness beyond. As the fissure grows, the doors begin to buckle unevenly. Even the shuttle begins to move, dragged across the floor by the strength of the decompression.
Riddick twists to grab the shoulder strap of the pilot's rig, prompting me to do the same. Over the course of a tense few seconds, he hauls back on the yoke, causing reverse thrusters to ignite. Our forward movement halts just long enough for us to watch the entire bay door buckle, crack and then shear in half. I'm throw back into my seat as he slams the yoke forward, and uses the suction of the decompression to slingshot us out into open space.
The destruction laid out before us is catastrophically beautiful. I had no idea this much damage would be caused. Debris from ships drifts listlessly, some pieces spinning in a final pirouette. There are bodies, weapons, pieces of ships and entire columns of the monoliths slowly being pulled into an orbital ring around Sheol V. As Riddick brings the shuttle about, explosions ripple through the remaining intact pieces of the Basilica. It cracks along the main beam, splintering like rotted wood.
The disjointed pieces of the Necromonger fleet break away from one another, some getting swept into the orbital current, while others, including the largest piece, fall into a degrading orbit, and begin spiralling towards the planet.
Suddenly, Riddick laughs. The sound is at once unexpected, and shocks me into joining him. The sound fills the shuttle, tension releasing from us both as the reality of the moment sinks in. The Necromonger army is done, gone and dusted. My own laughter gains an edge of hysteria as the small shuttle powers towards the red planet below. The hysteria morphs into sobs suddenly, as something in me snaps into place. That hateful animal thing no longer feels separate and identifiable. It's molded into me, part of me. And it's like an enormous crushing weight has been taken off my shoulders.
Riddick catches my hand, brings my knuckles to his lips. It's easy to smile at him despite the tears.
"We did it, Nim. We get to go home."