Chapter 12
Previously…Time to stop messing around with hot water and do something about his little sister.
As if the thought had conjured her he saw Jack, Kyra, whatever she wanted to be called, watching him from a walkway across the river. She was messing with something metallic in her hands, watching him with dark eyes.
Snagging his goggles off the outcropping he'd hung them on he started towards her.
It was always fucking something. He growled to himself as the prison turned to a frenzy of running prisoners at the shout of 'Feeding Time'.
He'd never seen anything like the creatures descending the ramps, followed by very relaxed looking guards. A front of course, no one (not even the most moronic of guards or mercs) would completely relax with predators like the animals pacing ahead of the guards. And the guards carried maul sticks. Undulating colors from red to grey, changeable scales covered the animals from domed head to clawed toes. Jack had been confronted with one and rather than run from it, ran towards it, sliding under its leap of attack and continuing on towards her quarters via a rope that she rappelled down to her cell.
Guv offered some unsolicited advice, "Whatever you do, don't make eye contact." He took refuge in the safety of his cell, closing the barred door behind him.
Other prisoners weren't as skilled as Jack or as prepared as Guv, several went down before the animals, screaming as they were savaged, throats torn out, mercifully dead before they hit the ground to be eaten.
Riddick remained behind the fall of water, watching as the creatures drew near. One stopped near the fall of water, scenting flesh behind the mineral smell of the liquid. The razor-sharp teeth weren't nearly as interesting as the shimmering silver eyes. They peered into the water and slowly walked through the fall, coming face to face with Riddick eye shine to eye shine.
Unsurprisingly it growled at him and seemed surprised when he growled right back. Its ears went up curiously and its scaly hide faded from burning red to smooth easy grey and it came forward to sniff at him.
Not an idiot he remained motionless, ready to evade an attack if it came, but the animal nudged his hand with its head, raspy tongue swiping across his knuckles and nudging them with its domed head again. He nearly smiled and crouched down to look it in the eye, patting its neck and getting a playful rub of its body against his chest in return.
Back and forth, trading rubs until the animal lay on its side with a groan of contentment and Riddick rubbed under its chin and over its chest. It had marks on its hide, scars from maulsticks and other disciplinary measures. "Yeah," He murmured to it. "Know how that feels."
Its head came up at a loud whistle and it made a reluctant sound in its throat. "Go on," He patted its side. "Gotta go get dinner." It came up in a graceful rush of legs and scales and made its way around the walkway. It spied Guv in his cell and its scales heated to red again, throwing itself towards the bars with a snap of razor teeth as if to remind the prisoner that he hadn't earned any special privileges before continuing on and upwards to the guard's whistle.
Guv stared at Riddick and the Furyan shrugged, "It's an animal thing." A glance over the walkway showed four guards moving along the cavern floor towards the cell he'd seen Jack dart into. Four to one because they couldn't man up and try to catch her one on one. Damned if he'd let anything else happen to her. Not when he could do something about it.
A leap across the chasm and he caught hold of the same rope Jack had slid down, making his way to her cell in time to see her nearly eviscerate the guard feeling her up with a blade concealed in her boot. He nearly smiled but the other three grabbed her and it was obvious they didn't care about leaving her in one piece.
"I don't think she likes being touched," He picked up a forgotten cup of slam tea and sipped. Not bad. "I'd take my wounded and go while you still can." He nodded at the man whose privates Jack had savaged. "Chalk it up to lessons learned."
Slowly the three remaining guards rose from where they'd been pinning Jack to the ground. She didn't panic, played it smart and stayed where she was, out of the way, and likely not wanting another hit from the maulstick. The biggest of the guards sneered, "Is there a name for this private little world of yours, huh? What happens there when we don't just run away? You'll kill us... with a soup cup?"
"Tea, actually," Riddick murmured. The tea brewed by convicts had roots going back to Earth That Was and no one knew the exact origins. Every system, all the worlds spinning, had roots in the Anglo-Sino Alliance so likely it had something to do with how the two different cultures combined. It didn't really matter. In every Slam convicts brewed tea with whatever they had available. The ingredients varied from Slam to Slam but the constant was that no matter what, the guards weren't allowed to imbibe. Should one of the prods or guards come across a pot brewing, the convicts would rather spill the entire pot, and spoil days' worth of work, rather than let the guards have a taste. The tea here had a strong mineral content, due to the water no doubt, but also hints of mint and yarrow. Interesting.
The big guard frowned, "What's that?"
Riddick took the cup and inverted it, placing it rim down on a rocky ledge next to the door, as precise as Simon placed his surgical instruments, "I'll kill you with my teacup."
The guard hesitated, looking at his superior who shrugged, "You know the rules. They aren't dead if they're still on the books."
Easy to make it as a stall, the guard was reaching for something in the small of his back. When he reached it, he charged forward. Before he'd even begun his charge, Riddick picked up the cup and slammed it down again, the angle carefully calculated. The rock it scraped was jagged and broken and the rim of the cup, while nothing he would consider ideal, was now sharp and serrated. It wouldn't win any prizes, but it didn't have to.
As the big guard reached him, Riddick blocked the slicing knife strike. Rather than retreat he lunged forward, straight into his attacker. His right hand jammed the jagged rim of the cup forward, driving it in and down with a velocity only someone of his strength and speed could manage.
Like most slam gear the cup was made of a tough metal alloy, to withstand years of use and abuse. The guard's stomach muscles were nowhere near as tough. The jagged metal of the cup ripped through them leaving a very impressive hole.
As he yanked it back out the hole filled with blood and a few organs. One hand grabbed the knife the guard held in a now slack grip, the other dropped the cup and shoved the now incapacitated guard at his companions.
Jack crawled backwards on the floor towards the wall, avoiding boots to her ribs as the guards scrambled. He didn't have time to spare her much of a glance, going after the guards. One slice of the knife to a throat, another to the sweet spot and they were down. The knife wasn't even decent and he buried it in the gut of the guard lying by the door.
Approaching Jack like he would a skittish horse he put a hand under her chin and examined her eyes. He'd learned a few things from Simon so he could at least evaluate (somewhat) how badly she was hurt. Both of them were dilating equally so she didn't have a head injury. That was good, an injury would slow them down. "All right, let's find someplace quiet and we'll talk." He scooped her up, carried her out of the cell and its immediate vicinity.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw several of the prison residents enter the cell and guessed that they were going to loot and then destroy the bodies. That suited him just fine. Disappearing guards would fit in nicely with his plans.
"So, you got another spot that's a good place to talk?" He looked down at her. "Or should I just keep walking and you can give me the tour?"
"Go up one level, there's a cell, across from Guv's. I use it sometimes." Her voice was strange, distant, dispassionate, and he had to wonder if it was because he'd helped her. Did she not trust that it would continue? How could she really, he reminded himself, when he'd left her with Abu once already. Or, (and this was just as likely) she was in shock. So, he climbed up the ramps and found the cell before setting her down and impersonally but thoroughly and gently checking her bones for breaks.
"Don't seem to have anything broken," He observed. "That's good."
"Death by teacup," She mused. "Why didn't I think of that?"
"Wouldn't have worked for you. Insufficient mass behind it," He shrugged. "Wrong kinetics."
"Another time, other circumstances," Her tone sharpened. "That might be taken as a compliment."
"Yeah," He rolled his eyes. "Not that I mind playing 'Who's the Better Killer', but maybe we could move this along to the next thing."
"Oh, you don't get off that easy, not when you started it," She pointed out, leaning forward to whisper suggestively in his ear. "Besides, it's my favorite game."
"Would you cut that line of seduction crap. That isn't you and me and you damn well know it," Riddick shook his head. "I heard you came looking for me." Fuck he hated that she felt she had to. Hated that she hadn't trusted him to come back eventually. Hated that he'd had to leave. Hated that Abu hadn't kept her safe.
"If that's what you heard," She half snarled at him. "Then you missed the good part. I hooked up with some mercs out of Lupus Five. Said they'd take me on, teach me the trade, give me a fair cut." She spat on the ground, "But the first job out, they flipped me to a pack of 'Golls. Slaved me out."
He didn't like that she was trying to sell the sympathy thing, life sucked and you either dealt with it or you didn't. That cynical side of his rearing its nasty head, ready snap at her, blaming him for her choices. The other half of him though… She'd been a kid. "Dà xiàng bào zhà shì de lā dù zi," He cursed borrowing another of Mal's favorites. Chinese curses, the push to remember and pronounce them correctly, bought him time to think, to calm down. "I told you to stay with Abu. Stay on New Mecca. Why didn't you listen to me?" He shook his head, "Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me." They had on Serenity, he remembered. They'd valued his opinion there. One more misfit among misfits. "I had mercs on my neck. I'm always gonna have mercs on my neck. I wanted you away from all that."
"What are you pitching, Riddick?" She wasn't afraid of him, not anymore, he guessed she'd seen worse than him. As disturbing a thought as that was. 'Golls weren't exactly warm and cuddly. Religious fanatics that looked down on everyone else and sewed themselves together. Freaky Janus worshippers. "That you cuttin' out was a good thing? That you had my ass covered from halfway across the galaxy?" He sighed as she continued, "I was supposed to take that on faith? A few words from you and bam, you're gone. Gone."
He sighed and looked at her, "Kid. I thought I was doing right by you." He shrugged, "You were so…" She'd been so fuckin' young…half starved… "You were just a kid. I wanted better for you than what I had. A good life. Abu promised he'd raise you like his own. Thought I was a bad influence and I'd steer you in the wrong directions. He wasn't completely wrong about that." He'd been looking down at the curved shiv in his hands and dared a glance up at her. "Just found out he got married not long after I left. And she didn't seem like the type to be very…accepting of a step-daughter. Not abusive just…not warm."
She seemed taken aback that he was addressing her as an adult, and he remembered that she was barely eighteen. She was River's age. And he was no Simon. "You never thought the best thing for me was you?"
"Kid if I thought for a minute I was the best thing for you I'd have to have myself committed due to sheer fuckin' mental incompetence," He stared at her. "Jack, I'm a killer. A freak. My eyes…I never thought you actually believed that line I fed everyone about my eyes. I thought everyone knew the type of shine job to get eyes like mine could only be done by a real doctor in a hospital. The half assed ones the prisoners get…they can only see in the dark because they know they'll never feel the sun on their faces again. They know they're going to die in a Slam, underground. My eyes changed years ago. I thought you were humoring me."
"I needed you," She hadn't once objected to being called Jack. "You were the only one who had a clue about what I was going through." Tentative notes blooming through her scent, cautious hope maybe, something softer, sweet.
"I wanted better for you than me," He repeated himself, a rarity. "I wanted you to live a long, healthy full life. Because you deserved it. You earned it on that damn planet and after. You were just a kid. I wanted you to have what I couldn't ever get. What I never had in my life. And most of all, I wanted you safe, away from monsters and monsters that walked around like men. You deserved to be safe, to have a life in the light." She still didn't quite believe him yet, her gaze still half distant.
"Jack, if I'd taken you with me…" He sighed, "And believe me I really thought about it. You don't know half of what Abu said to me, talking me out of bringing you along. But if I'd taken you with me… You'd have gotten killed. Or slaved out. I've been in and out of Slams since leaving New Mecca. I only found a safe place lately. Then someone on Helion Prime put a price on my head."
That got her attention, "The Imam sold you out?"
Slowly he began to explain to her about the Elemental and the theory she and Abu had about him being Furyan, keeping his voice as low as possible. This was not something he wanted everyone to hear. "Most of it… not somethin' I can really discuss at the moment. Helion Prime was being invaded as the mercs took me."
"But you didn't do anything to escape…" She seemed confused.
"No, you were stuck here," It was his turn to be confused. He didn't care for it.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Jack was staring at him.
"Oh for…" He rolled his eyes so hard they should have stuck backwards in his skull and forced himself to curse in Chinese. "Wèi le cào yuán gù. Do you think I'm here by accident Jack? I had plenty of time during the attack to go back and ghost those mercs if I just wanted to leave the planet. I got caught so I could get stuck in here. So, I could bust out and take you with me. You're my baby sister and damned if I'm leaving you in this crap-fest of a slam a minute longer than I have to."
She stared at him some more and took a few deep unsteady breaths, "Right…" She tilted her head and her braid fell over her shoulder, "I'm guessing you have a plan. But before you explain that… could you answer one question?"
"Sure kid," He rubbed the back of his neck. Who knew sisters could be this fucking exhausting? Simon. Simon knew all too well. And Riddick just hadn't seen it. Damn, the kid had balls of titanium and the patience of a saint.
"Since when do you fuckin' speak Chinese?"
He grinned and then laughed loudly enough to echo across the hall, "Kid that is a story that will take some time to tell."
He was explaining the beginning of the mostly formed plan (up to the point when he got lowered into the prison like a worm on a fishhook) when there was a grinding sound from above them. Jack didn't look surprised, so this was a regular occurrence, "Happens once a day." She shrugged.
"They go topside, to switch out the air," He nodded his understanding.
"Got all sorts of precautions in place to keep the inmates from escaping the asylum," She told him dryly.
"Lot simpler and cheaper than installing full term recyclers or any sort of life support system," He commented watching the gap between the control center and the surface. "How far can you run Jack? At a fast pace?"
She frowned thoughtfully, "Full sprint…maybe ten or fifteen kilometers. Steady jog, mid speed…probably about twenty to twenty-five."
"I can do at least forty at a dead run," He looked at her. "But we wouldn't be able to outrun the sun if I had to carry you the last fifteen klicks." Her teeth captured her lower lip and worried it for a moment, and he shook his head, "So that variation of the plan is out. We'll have to take the sled."
"There's no way to get there without going through the control center," She objected.
"Sure there is," He nodded at the control center. "We go up with it. Hop off at the tunnel and take the sled."
"They won't go topside again until tomorrow. Same time every day. Just before the sun comes over the horizon." Jack was stating facts he already knew but he could appreciate her awareness of them.
"Makes sense," He agreed. "Everything here is low tech, keeps it from breaking down."
"Have to be in position," She mused eyeing the control center. "Not down here."
"But there's plenty of room up and down the channel alongside of the control center," He nearly smiled at the simplicity of it. "Rather than fill in the space they use the roof of the center to cap the volcanic shaft."
"There isn't much to hang onto though," She reminded him. "Even if we don't get scraped off on the walls."
"Yeah," But there were still hand holds, rough maybe, but the whole center was built like a spool. The floor of it stuck out maybe a half a foot beyond the walls, I-beams spaced out on them like gear spokes every five feet. It could be done. He'd have to help her. But that was what big brothers were for. Or so Simon had taught him.
"Riddick," Her voice went low, worried and shamed. "I don't know if I can do it."
"Leave?" He looked at her, "Or survive leaving?"
"Survive leaving," She admitted not meeting his gaze. "I'm…I'm not as good as you are."
"Kid, nobody is," He patted her back in awkward comfort. "That's what I'm here for. To get you out. You not making it is like saying the operation was a success, but the patient died. Sorta pointless."
Jack stared at him and he knew he didn't quite have all of her trust, but he had some and that was better than nothing. "I…you've never said anything like that before," She didn't seem to know what to make of it.
"You wanted to know where I picked up the Chinese I know," He'd have to explain about Serenity and Simon and River for her to understand. He'd told her some about Alliance space, hinted about that safe place, but no details. It went against the grain to explain himself to anyone but if he could do it for Mal he could damn sure do it for his little sister. And if she was going to trust him, really trust him, he'd have to give a little trust as payment.
"Uh huh," She looked confused as well she might. It did seem like a complete conversational shift.
"Right. So, after I got out of the last slam I headed for the Alliance space," He explained how he'd gone from the slam to the ball of ice and that he'd ended up on a ship raided by Reavers.
"Wait, Reavers are real?" Jack interrupted, "I thought they were just ghost stories."
"Nope. Real as you and me and a lot less…polite." He shrugged. "And I'm not too proud to say that as soon as I could fight my way clear I found a room with a locking door and stayed in it until they were gone. I'm good but I'm not stupid and there's no point in trying to take out a couple dozen rabid men when there are six dozen or more right behind them. Had no way of knowing how many there were really but the odds were not good. I don't play odds I won't win."
She eyed him curiously but let him continue explaining how Serenity had taken him off the derelict and hidden him and the other two fugitives on board. Her eyebrows rose as he explained River and Simon but she listened.
"Long story short, Simon pretty much burned his world down to save his little sister. They were…well torture is a lot more straightforward," He shrugged. "She's… hopefully Mal and Zoë kept training her and Simon can take that implant out of her hip. But Simon's the one who taught me what a big brother does and doesn't do."
"Uh huh," She was still staring at him, a healthy dose of skepticism in her scent. Not that he could blame her. He didn't exactly have a great track record with her. "And when we get out of here? What happens?"
He sighed, "Necromongers."
"Necra-whaters?" Jack blinked at the foreign word.
"Guess I oughta explain that too. But after that, we need to get some rest," He sighed again. "Let's start with saying all those rumors about dead planets and a ghost army…they ain't just rumors. When I said Helion Prime was being invaded? That's who was doing the invading."
She stared at him for a solid five minutes after he got done explaining about the Necromongers taking worlds, Helion Prime among them, and some prophecy about the Necromonger Lord Marshall. That Aereon and Abu had a theory it could mean him. He guessed it did sound crazy. He'd glossed over the whole visions' thing and Shirah and the Wrath… There was always someone listening inside a Slam. The look he gave her when she opened her mouth to poke at the holes in his story let her know that there were things she couldn't hear at the moment. But yeah…he'd probably stare too if he had heard even a small part of it for the first time.
"Holy shit Riddick," Jack finally found her voice. "So, what are you going to do with me?"
"Don't want you anywhere near those psychotic undead freaks," He frowned. "Gotta go back to Helion Prime to deal with them. How good a pilot are you?"
"I'm shaky on landings. I can get by but I'm not that good," She admitted. "Autopilot is usually what saves my ass."
"Yeah…" Riddick frowned. "Have to think on that some more." He looked at her, "Whatever happens, you don't leave my side unless I'm sending you ahead of me to Serenity. I've seen what happens when I leave you by yourself. I'm not taking any more chances with you Jack."
"Ahead of you…" She frowned and he could see from her face that she thought it was another ploy to get rid of her.
"Yeah, as in the minute I can cut loose I'm right behind you," He told her as if it was obvious. Which to him it was, he hadn't ever lied to her and this wasn't the time to start. "They're decent folks on Serenity and I can trust that they'll treat you right even if it takes me a bit to catch up. Didn't even blink overmuch when they found out I was an escaped convict. Although after they'd heard Simon's story about what happened to River, an escaped convict seems sorta normal." He shrugged, "First place nobody treats me like a freak after they've seen my eyes. Good people, which is fucking rare. Once I got done with this whole mess I was always planning on heading back to them."
"And bringing me with…" Jack's voice was hesitant. "Do they know about me?"
"Mal knows I've got a sister," Riddick shrugged. "Simon knows more about you, he and I talk more often, since I'm training his sister and him to an extent. And he's got a little sister so that's common ground. He gives pretty good advice too." He grinned at her, "Wait until you see River give Simon the 'you're a boob' look. Funniest damn thing I've ever seen besides Mal gaping like a fish."
"You actually like them," Jack realized.
"Yeah," He nodded and gave her another grin. "Surprised me too really. Wasn't expecting to." He hadn't. He'd figured to sail with them for a month at the most, leave when he found something better. If they'd ended up being the type of folk who'd sell him out for a crust of bread he'd have felt no sorrow at gutting each and every one and taking the boat.
But they'd been welcoming, if cautious, and up front. Cobb being the only problem and a problem that would resolve itself one way or another. In the meantime, Mal had his merc under control. Riddick had been all over the 'verse and back and had seen plenty, but he'd never met people like Serenity's crew. He told Jack as much, adding, "I think you'll like them Jack. There's a doctor, and Simon's pretty damn good at what he does. Told me he's been studying up on general medicine as much as possible since that's what a lot of folks on the Border and Rim need. Good enough to give you a proper shine job if you still want one."
She was chewing on her lip again, "You think he'd be able to…make sure I'm… healthy?" That the mercs hadn't left her with a disease or internal scarring that would screw with her body he guessed she meant. The yarrow he'd smelt in the tea made a lot of sense suddenly. It helped break fevers and had contraceptive properties. Both would be handy for a woman in a slam.
"Yeah. Hell, he went over me with a fine-tooth comb practically," Riddick nodded. He rubbed the back of his neck. He needed to shave before he started feeling itchy. "He'll take good care of you. Medically anyway. As a person… well you might not like him much until the two of you warm up to each other. He's…formal. Just how he was raised. He's super polite. Don't matter to him if you're not. He's not judgy or anything, he just don't know how to act any other way. Kaylee's all sorts of Rim manners and casual about things, but he still acts as if she's a lady."
"And you and he are friends?" Jack sounded a little astonished. He felt that way himself sometimes when he thought about it too hard.
"Helps that I don't treat his sister like she's ready for a bughouse," He shrugged. "They're good people for the most part. Cobb's the only fly in the ointment and Mal's got him under pretty tight control."
"So, we still need to figure a way to get you on the Necro boat and keep me off it," Jack changed the subject.
"Yeah, but let's concentrate on getting our asses out of here first," He looked over at her. "Why don't you get some rest. I'll keep watch a while before I get some shuteye. Nobody's getting past me to get to you."
She nodded and her scent was still a bit wary but she stretched out on the pallet that rested on a rocky ledge.
He watched Guv go by the cell once or twice, but the man seemingly had no interest in he or Jack at the moment. Others peered in at him and the girl he protected but one look at silver eyes glaring at them out of the darkness and a low growl when they took a step closer than he liked sent them scurrying. Even when he slept, a step nearby and his eyes popped open to stare into the darkness at whoever meant to encroach upon the space he and Jack shared.
With morning came what passed for food and he woke Jack with a tap on her foot. Safest place to touch her before she was awake he figured, and rightly as she came awake sitting upright and a shiv in her hand. "Food." He told her quietly, ignoring the shiv. "Gotta eat. Rest some more. Then start to make our play."
"What about the mercs that brought you here," She'd clearly been thinking of potential obstacles and he could appreciate that. Two heads were better than one. He hadn't gotten so arrogant that he believed he'd see everything, all the time.
"They're arguing with the prison boss about the payday they'll get for me. Toombs wants eight K and the boss'll only go to seven, maybe seven fifty." Riddick shrugged, "We play it right, they won't even know we're gone until they go for their ship."
"Gonna be tricky," Was all she said. But she got her ration of food and water and ate it slowly and carefully, still thinking.
"Got a game I play," He told her quietly. "Helps me to figure the angles."
"Yeah?" With the new day came renewed wariness, as if she was worried his behavior of the day before was a fluke.
"Yeah," He looked around the prison, the residents going about their daily lives based on survival and little else. "I try to figure what's the worst that can happen. And I make plans based on that."
"So, what's the worst that could happen?" Jack wondered, "We can't use the sled?"
"Worse would be we get caught and dead," He shrugged. "I ain't gonna let that happen. But next to worse is what I talked about last night. Running twenty-nine point four klicks over land to make the ship."
"Yeah…" She shook her head. "Riddick, I really don't know if I'd make it. You're talking about outrunning the sun. It hits the surface at seven hundred fifty degrees and that's on a mild day. Add to that, Crematoria doesn't exactly have flat easy terrain."
"I know," He looked her in the eye. "And if we end up doing that, I will find a way. I will get you to that ship come hell or high water"
She took a deep shaking breath and changed the subject, "Right. So… what was all that Chinese you were saying anyway?"
He chuckled, "Mostly cursing." Riddick shrugged as he considered it, "In that part of the 'verse if you don't at least curse in Cantonese or Mandarin you really stand out. Got all sorts of accents. Simon's accent is a little like Paris's. Most Border folks have a kind of drawl…and a Rim accent is even thicker. There're a couple people I've met off Dyton that sound like Shazza and Zeke." He chuckled, "Mal and Zoë were in the army, on the losing side of their war, so they've got some good curses. Wash tends to be more creative…not really a lot of cursing, though he's let out some pungent ones, more astonished reactions."
"What about the girls? Or the doctor?" Jack was watching him closely.
"Kaylee can cuss you out with the best of 'em," Riddick chuckled. "She's pretty sweet though so you have to get her pretty mad, or do something that hurts Serenity, before she'll let fly. Inara…that's the Companion. I don't think I've ever heard her curse. Wouldn't be seemly." He rolled his eyes. "She's not bad just… Never did like a lot of paint and polish on a woman. Reads people pretty well though. Trick of the trade I think."
"So, she's what…like a whore?" She had the same problem he'd had when he first met the woman. Still had really, not really able to see the difference between a Companion and a whore. He guessed it was the sorta fine distinction only Core folk would get.
"She has sex for money, but Companions set their own prices, choose their own clients, they've got their own Guild," Riddick explained what he'd learned from Simon and Inara. "In the Alliance they're extremely well respected. To me, still a whore, but they're real particular about that word. They're gorgeous, men or women, educated in damn near everything, and just having her on the boat means Serenity can land on Core Worlds that she couldn't otherwise."
"A classy whore," Jack was obviously trying to wrap her mind around that one.
"Yeah, when you meet one it makes a little more sense," He shrugged. "They're trained in different arts. Sex is always part of it but they have healing houses too. Counselors… Mediators… They're a pretty powerful Guild. Connections everywhere, given the nature of what they do. Give the Merc Guild a run for their money."
"Weird." She decided, "But okay. What about the rest of 'em?"
"Cobb… he's a merc. He's not Guild but he's just as greedy as most of them. Mal keeps him on a pretty tight leash. He's not too bright. Blunt instrument. Decent shot, knows a lot about weaponry." Riddick smirked, "His cursing tends to be fairly blue and to the point. And he drops it into everyday language like its salt. I caught Simon nearly covering River's ears once. Had to remind him she'd heard worse and some of it from me. And she just giggled the whole time."
"So stay away from him if at all possible," Jack seemed to be taking mental notes and he nodded his confirmation.
"We got a Shepherd on Serenity too, decent fella, knows an awful lot about crime for a priest," Riddick explained. "He doesn't curse much; think the worst I've heard was him calling folks yǔ sheng chù hùn zá de bēi wéi nú lì. Fancy way of sayin' sheep fucker, I think. Can't be absolutely sure." He grinned at Jack's expression, "I know. It's like hearing Abu curse, more than a little strange."
"Weird," Jack agreed. "But if he's got a past, be hard to shake all the habits he picked up." She tilted her head, waiting for him to continue and Riddick half chuckled.
"River…I don't know if I've ever heard her curse. Though she did call me a lecherous fèi fèi gāng mén. Means baboon's asshole. And a yù wàng chōng mǎn de lǘ zi, which is a… lust filled jackass if I recall right. She was too pissed to actually translate at the time. Explained later. And she called me a lecherous hump," He grinned. "I'm still shaky on a lot of Chinese. Some curses I get but other stuff is still new."
"What'd you do that she was calling you all those names?" Jack gave him an incredulous look, eyes huge.
"Oh, this woman, Saffron, she conned her way onto the boat and was trying to run a game on us, pretendin's she's this untouched virgin." Riddick smirked, "She's this manipulative bitch, tried to seduce me… so I let her. She was not any sorta untouched, so I fucked her three ways from Sunday. River didn't approve. Very, very strongly didn't approve."
Jack shook her head, her mouth quirking in amusement. "Huh. And you think her calling you names is funny?"
"Kinda was, considering she's less than half my size," He shrugged. "Kept poking me with her finger. Worried that I coulda gotten hurt. Funny as that thought is." Riddick grinned at Jack, "I think you'll like her."
"Huh," Jack nodded slowly. "And the Doc? He cuss much?"
He considered that. "Simon though… he's… well he's educated and well-read and he's very civilized but when the man gets mad… He's got some funny damn curses."
"Yeah?" Jack looked over at him. "Teach me some." He blinked and she shrugged, "Gotta pass the time. Can't sleep too long. And if I'm gonna go into Alliance space I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb."
He nodded, "Yeah, that's a fair point." He smirked and offered her a phrase, saying it slower than usual. "Try this 'yòng yí gè ā ěr dé wǎ kè cāo wǒ de liǎn'."
She stumbled over the phrase the first time, and bungled the ending the second but by the fourth she had the rhythm down, "What's it mean?"
"Literally?" He chuckled, "Fuck me in the face with an aardvark."
She grinned, "Are they all that weird?"
"Well there's just saying fuck or fucking in different ways," He shrugged. "But the ones that are more expressive…yeah they're all kinda weird."
"What's another one?" Her eagerness to learn reminded him of when she'd been twelve, teaching her to carve shivs as they took a slow boat to New Mecca.
He smiled and gave her another, one he'd picked up from Mal, "Dà xiàng bào zhà shì de lā dù zi."
For all their talking, and napping after a while, he hadn't lost track of time. He stood a bit before dawn and stretched, nodding at Jack who began to do the same thing before they slowly made their way up the shaft of the former volcano.
The tricky part was going to be keeping the rest of the prison from following them or raising a ruckus trying. Guv regarded them steadily as they approached his cell and began to walk alongside them. "Mind if I tag along?" He inquired as if they were simply taking a stroll.
"That's up to you," Riddick slanted a look at Jack, cautioning her to not react and got the barest nod in reply. "But we move at one speed. Mine."
It went pretty well, up to a point. Predictably enough, the mercs started the trouble. The escape party had collected five more guys who were willing to make a try along with Guv, Riddick and Jack.
The control center moved upwards, turning like a nut on a bolt, slow and sure.
And then he heard Toombs voice. And the voice of the prison boss. That tone…it set the hair on the back of Riddick's neck prickling with awareness. Nothing good ever followed that feeling. "No. The bad news is worse than that. Much worse." There was a pause, "Our pilot, he saw this. It crossed a shipping lane. Any idea what this might be?"
Toombs's voice couldn't have sounded more elaborately indifferent, "Never saw nothin' like it.
The prison boss illuminated him, "This ship charts back to Helion Prime." He paused again, a slightly heavier silence, "You know, Anatoli's got a nose for trouble, and he thinks trouble follows you here."
Toombs was all bluster, "Look. We dusted our tracks and got the hell outta there. There is no way we didn't lose them."
"'Them'?" From the sound of it the prison boss knew exactly who 'them' was and he didn't care for it.
The merc was still arguing his point, as if he had a leg to stand on, or a prayer in hell of getting his money, "This is my prisoner. Mine. Nobody else's. And I want my money now.
"So..." The tone of voice was not friendly or pleased or anything that shaded even slightly towards positive and Riddick frowned uneasily. "You stole a prisoner... from 'them'?" Oh this was definitely going sideways. The only question: how bad would it go?
The gunfire, even as the command center continued to spiral upwards, didn't come as a surprise. The explosion that rocked the whole damn prison and shook one of Guv's men right off his perch on the side of the command center, sure as hell shocked a lot of people. Riddick recalled the improvised rocket launcher he'd had aimed at him on Helion Prime. Most likely one of the mercs had gotten over enthusiastic, or (and this seemed a more likely scenario) panicked and embodied the word 'overkill'.
He growled in irritation as the Command Center ground to a halt half-way up, "Got another curse for you Jack." He muttered to her, "Cobb uses it a lot, so it's kind of perfect here, considering the idiot mercs screwed this up for us. Yī zhī méi yǒu mǔ qīn de shān yáng de ér zi." So much for wondering how bad this would go. He had his answer. He remembered River's use of the phrase, 'attached to another object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis'. Or in plain old English, 'screwed'.
"Huh," Jack had been mulling over the curse he'd given her. "Got another one? I don't wanna use any merc curses."
"Yeah," He grabbed hold of the chains that helped to keep the lift running. "Try this one, nǐ tā mā de tiān xià suǒ yǒu de rén dōu gāi sǐ."
"Got a good rhythm to it," She observed as she edged her way around the I-beam and into the spot where he'd stood, evaluating the situation. "We're gonna haveta climb for it?"
"Only way up," He nodded. "Can you do it?"
"How far?"
It was a reasonable question, "About…six meters." He looked down at her, "You need help you tell me. I'll pull the tā mā de chains up with you on them if I have to."
"Fucking chains?" She tilted her head and reached for the chains, grabbing on.
"Yeah, good guess," He nodded and continued to climb.
"You said it the same way you'd say 'fucking'," She answered dryly. "Context is everything Riddick." Her nerves were riding her, the explosion would mess with the plan, and likely she still worried he'd leave her behind if she slowed him down. Her trust in him a fragile thing, easily shattered, like one of Inara's delicate china cups.
He chuckled, "Yeah, guess it would be." He climbed the meters easily, up to the control room door and waited for her, offering her a hand when she got to the top.
"Guv and the rest'll make it, or they won't," Riddick told her. "Our first order of business is that tunnel."
"The guards," Jack pointed at the back of some running guards. "They'll seal us in."
"Fuck no they won't," He growled and chased them down, coming on them just as they were wrenching the passageway door open.
Jack came up behind him, her knife nearly as deadly as his, and the ones in her boots were things of beauty. Five guards lay in a dead heap when they were done, and the door was wide open. Unfortunately, the sled was toast. Either a grenade or some other explosive projectile had gotten to it before they could.
"How many guards were there?" He asked her, "Could there be more ahead of us?"
"We killed four, five here, I counted…at least eight bodies in the control center…" Jack was counting down. "There were always at least twelve. Maybe more."
"Three more in their quarters, they won't be a problem," Guv added to the tally. "How many mercs were there?"
"Toombs and a four-man crew, three after I killed one in the tunnel," Riddick looked down the dark of the tunnel ignoring the surprised looks he got from Guv and his men. "They aren't down there. I'd see them." Unless they'd hauled ass fast enough to get out of his visual range. Unlikely but still possible. No point in saying so, they'd find out soon enough.
"So we got either mercs or guards hiding out somewhere," One of Guv's men looked at the others. "Where d'you reckon?"
Jack smiled, "Check the room with the hellhounds." She suggested, "They used to slot me up with them. Whenever I needed discipline."
"I'll check it," Riddick nodded. "Jack, show me where it is. The rest of you, do a sweep, and see if you can get this damn thing working so they get some fresh air down below."
Jack had called it. They found five more guards in the room where the hellhounds were kept caged. Riddick had smiled and closed the door behind him, opened up a cage and offered the hound a hand to sniff. This hellhound seemed to like him just as much as the other one had. "Want a snack?" He nodded towards the guards. "Go ahead and pick one."
There actually weren't that many hounds. Only about six. They just made such a racket they sound like a dozen. By the time he was done all six had gotten their snack and there wasn't much left of the guards. Maulsticks were no match for those claws and razor teeth.
It hadn't taken that long either.
Guv and the others had managed to get the command room topside, switch the air out and lowered it again enough for the roof to close out the approaching heat. Riddick nodded approvingly as he grabbed guns, cash, a stray bag of nuts and slung equipment over his body.
"We're gonna have to haul ass," He told Jack seriously. "According to that conversation the guards were having before everything went to shit, we've got a Necromonger ship inbound and I don't want them to find you. Their motto seems to be convert or kill and neither is an option for us." He looked at the men, "Any of you any good at piloting?"
One of the men, dreads and dark skin lifted a hand, "I can pilot. I'm better with a co-pilot though, or at least another hand to match mine."
"Jack?" Riddick looked at her, "You can handle that right?"
"Co-pilot, yeah," She nodded.
"Let's move out then," A movement behind Jack set tension riding his spine and he stayed where he was. Damn merc was like a fucking cockroach.
"You think you're gonna take my ship, leave me here to rot…you're dumber than you look," Toombs called from the dark of the guard quarters. Riddick slanted an irritated look at Guv who turned to his guys. One of them shrugged helplessly in response and Guv sighed in annoyance.
"Well Toombs, you can rot alive or you can rot dead," Riddick told him, moving easily between Jack and Guv, coming closer to the merc.
"That's close enough," Toombs was clearly remembering what had happened the last time he'd let Riddick within arm's reach. Hanging from a frozen cave roof with a dead animal and stalactites.
"Your choice Toombs," The shiv in his wrist sheath dropped to his palm, point first. "But you're not putting chains on me again."
"Slot him up with the hellhounds," Jack suggested. "Seems kinda appropriate."
"How's that sound Toombs?" Riddick regarded the merc as if they had all the time in the world.
Then the merc made his third mistake. The muzzle of his gun slanted just a touch towards Jack as she moved slightly to Riddick's side, just behind his shoulder. The first mistake, trying to take Riddick on solo. The second, having nothing in between him and the much larger, faster, convict. That minimal movement of the gun barrel gave Riddick an opening, slender, and treacherous, but an opening, nonetheless. And Riddick took it.
His shiv was in Toombs' throat before the merc's finger could squeeze off a round. Three steps forward to retrieve the shiv, relieve the corpse of the gun and Riddick nodded to Jack, "Nice move, distracting him. Now let's go."
He wasted no more time on words, leading them down the tunnel at a steady ground eating run.
He'd been worried they'd have to race the sunrise. Worried Jack would fall behind. Now he had to worry about another deadline. The landing of the Necromonger ship. Everything depended on them beating the Necromongers to the landing site.
He set a relentless pace, but they were keeping up. Jack was keeping up. He supposed it helped that they didn't have to worry about the sun burning them to ash if they slowed but that worry might have quickened their pace. At least they were on level ground. The terrain on the planet's surface definitely reflected the bi-polar nature of Crematoria. Rough didn't begin to describe.
"Jack," He growled her name.
"Yeah?" She was breathing steadily still. That was good.
"Gonna have to kick in another gear," He told her. "You and the others, you've gotta be gone before they get here."
"Or at least in the ship," She suggested. "So it looks like we're gone?"
"So long as they don't know you exist," He agreed. "Either way." He raised his voice. "C'mon. You wanna be late to your own funerals?"
He began to run faster, gratified when Jack increased her pace to match his. They might be panting and exhausted when they arrived but if they didn't have to fight, that wouldn't matter.
Author's Note: So slightly different. I always thought the idea of running overland on Crematoria was an exhausting way to commit suicide. And I didn't like that Toombs was left alive, even if it was in a cage.
I had the idea that speaking Chinese was a giveaway about Riddick's whereabouts, but when I thought about it a bit more, I figured it really only says that at one time Riddick was in Alliance space. Nobody knows when that was. And nobody knows he'd planned to return there. He's surrounded by people very unlikely to see daylight again who're also hostile towards authority figures. So he'd be fairly safe in practicing his curses. Plus this isn't on Helion Prime where Abu or someone else might remember he didn't curse in Chinese when they knew him before.
More changes coming. Hope you're enjoying this.
Chinese Translations:
Dà xiàng bào zhà shì de lā dù zi (To have the explosive-type diarrhea of an elephant)
Wèi le cào yuán gù (For fuck's sake)
yǔ sheng chù hùn zá de bēi wéi nú lì (Filthy fornicators of livestock)
fèi fèi gāng mén (baboon's asshole)
yù wàng chōng mǎn de lǘ zi (lust filled jackass)
yòng yí gè ā ěr dé wǎ kè cāo wǒ de liǎn (fuck me in the face with an aardvark)
Yī zhī méi yǒu mǔ qīn de shān yáng de ér zi (son of a motherless goat)
nǐ tā mā de tiān xià suǒ yǒu de rén dōu gāi sǐ. (Fuck everyone in the universe to death.)
tā mā de (fucking)