Chained up. It was a familiar feeling. One Riddick knew well from his years in one slam or another. Like an animal to be peered at from behind cage bars. Laughing guards, trying to look brave for their friends as they stood outside his dingy cell.
They hadn't been laughing when he escaped. When he shot one guard in the chest with his own gauge, shoved his forefinger into another's ear, straight to the brain. The third, a broken neck his reward for bravery. Eighteen seconds later Riddick was traversing Ursa Luna's twisting corridors along the path he'd drawn out for the good doctor.
Now he was in the dim red light again. Same repeated nightmare. The bit in his mouth wasn't any fun. It banged against his teeth and pulled back his lips.
Riddick awoke with a start. It was the last day of the journey. The timer on his tube beeped and the doors swung open. He stepped out, his legs steady and watched the other passengers stumble out. One man, thin, fortyish, small glasses and thinning hair stumbled and fell. Riddick eyed him for a moment before turning back to his chamber.
He bent and picked up his duffel and headed for the air lock. It slid open and he stepped into the next cabin. The rest of their flight would be carried out in actual chairs and Riddick sank into one at the back. He closed his eyes, listening to the voices and footsteps around him. When someone dropped into the seat beside his he jerked around to face the person. It was some young kid. Female, trying to look like a boy.
"You a cop?" the girl questioned enthusiastically.
Riddick fingered the badge on his chest and then pulled it off, stuffing it into his bag.
"You a boy?" he replied, his voice mocking. The girl flinched and then nodded.
"Of course. What sort of question is that?" she demanded and he grinned at the front she threw up, her defenses firmly in place.
"You're no boy," he laughed and turned away.
"And you're no cop."
Riddick turned back to the kid. "No shit."
"Merc, maybe. You're not toting a prisoner, though. What happened? He get the better of you?" Her voice was mocking.
Riddick laughed harshly and pulled away his shades to reveal silver eyes. "No. I killed him. Want me to show you how?"
The girl leaned away from him, green eyes wide as she shook her head in the negative. Riddick laughed again. "Didn't think so."
The girl stood up and moved up a few rows. "Cute kid," Riddick murmured to himself and replaced his shades, resting his hand on the handle of his shiv where it protruded from the waistband of his pants.
#
The huge ship landed without mishap and Riddick headed for the off ramp with the rest of the passengers. He headed for the space port bar and nursed a beer, absently peeling the label from the bottle.
"What are you doing here?"
Riddick lifted his eyes from his beer to see Carolyn Fry standing near his stool. He lifted his beer in explanation and took a long swallow. It was warm and flat and he pondered the time he'd spent in the bar, allowing the cold to seep away from the once frosty drink.
Carolyn sat beside him and ordered a beer. She popped the top off on the edge of the counter and took a long draw from the open neck. "Strange," she said finally, breaking the easy silence and Riddick turned to face her, raising a brow.
"Turns out, if we'd left on time, the ship woulda been hit by a rogue comet. The scanners picked it up and logged it as abnormal activity. We would have been forced to land on some planet out there, only twenty-two weeks out."
"Nineteen left," Riddick murmured and called the bartender over to refresh his beer. He pulled off the cap and drank down half the bottle before working on the label. It came off in damp strips and he rolled them between his fingers to drop the little white spheres on the counter top.
"That's right," Carolyn confirmed and took another swallow from her bottle.
"What are you doing here?" Riddick questioned and smiled as Carolyn held up her almost empty beer. "Fair 'nough."
She smiled and finished off her beer. The bartender replaced it and she opened it. Instead of taking a drink she placed it on the counter before her and stared absently at the dark brown bottle.
"Two days earlier," she murmured. "We all could of been dead."
"That's no way to think," Riddick reprimanded and finished his own beer, waving the bartender away when he offered another.
"Doesn't mean I'm not going to think," she answered and Riddick nodded.
"Didn't say you wouldn't. Too much to worry about, though, if all you think about is 'could of,'" he replied and rolled his beer bottle between his palms.
That feeling of metal around his wrists and in his mouth flooded his senses and he rocked slightly on his stool, narrowing his eyes behind his shades.
When he recovered Carolyn was looking at him, concern on her pretty features. "You all right?" she asked, and placed a hand on his forearm.
He raised his eyes to hers and she pulled her hand away from his skin.
"Fine," he bit out and slipped off his stool, dropping a few creds on the bar counter. He left the bar and Carolyn to gaze at his receding back from her own bar stool.