Chapter 24 - A Friend In Need
They made it to the system in exactly three days. Jack's fever hadn't spiked again, but she was starting to look much paler than she should, and she was so weak. Riddick was anxious to get her down to D2 and let Doc have a look at her. Unfortunately, the landing site was still on the daylight side of the planet. He could set them up in an orbit around the planet, but they couldn't land until the site was on the dark side. The daylight on D2 was deadly to mammalian life forms due to a type of solar flare that mixed with the atmosphere to create radiation that was lethal during the day but dissipated completely at night. Most of the inhabitants jokingly called it 'killer sunburn', but it was more than that, it was a slow and painful death.
The Areiadne System consisted of four planets. One dead one that no longer had an atmosphere of any sort, two gas giants that were roughly the size of Jupiter and were in orbit around each other as well as the red star sun, and one that seemed inhabitable. Oxygen atmosphere, grav .72 earth norm, plenty of plant life, no large predators, it seemed like a pretty nice place. In fact, it was the former home of the Daedalus Colony, a farming colony that had been one of the first in this part of the galaxy. It had done pretty well until the star began to emit solar flares that irradiated the surface of the planet, killing all mammalian life forms but leaving equipment, buildings, plant life, and cold blooded animals unharmed. Even people inside buildings were affected, though their radiation symptoms took longer to manifest before they died. As the planet had no significant minable resources, it had been deemed uninhabitable and worthless and the humans that had first invaded the Areiadne System abandoned it without looking back.
Several years later, the planet was discovered by space pirates. The planetary markers told them of the surface dangers, but they also found the planet had a rather impressive labyrinthine cave system. The caves afforded them safety from the solar radiation during the day and they could come and go as they pleased at night. Taking a page from the pirates on old earth, they began setting up a hideout of sorts on the otherwise abandoned planet, claiming the planet for their own.
More than four decades later, a type of 'underground' society (in all senses of the word) lived in secret on what the inhabitants began to call Dionysus 2, in homage to the Greek god of food, drink and merriment. There was no law there beyond policing themselves. Anyone who was running from society, wanted to disappear, or just didn't fit anywhere could make a place for themselves on D2. It became a home for all the throwaways of society and they developed their own society of sorts. Mercs and hunters were not welcome there, too many of the people living there had prices on their heads. It was the perfect place to get lost for a while. Perfect for everyone but Riddick. Even among the outcasts he was an outcast. There were too many people looking for him and that made the people who lived there nervous. But he knew Doc would let him stay a little while at least, and he knew he'd help Jack.
Toggling on the comm-unit, Riddick punched in the code and waited to hear the familiar, gravelly voice. He heard the click that meant he had connection, but no answer came through. "Doc?"
"Who is this?" The voice was impatient.
Riddick had to smile, that was just Doc. He could picture the man standing there, cigarette in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, scowling down at the speaker and wondering who the hell was calling him. Nicotine and caffeine the only drugs he still allowed himself. "Just an old friend that needs a little help."
The silence was deafening for a moment, and Riddick was half afraid that Doc would turn them away, but after a moment he heard the man laughing. "Rick you old son-of-a-bitch. How the hell are you doin', boy?" Doc's Texas accent was thicker than it had been before and Riddick was glad to hear the welcome in the man's voice.
"I'm doing ok, old man. I got a friend that needs some help though. Can you meet us at the set down site with a vehicle?" He checked his systems and the position of the planet. "It looks like we can set down in about four and a half hours."
"I'll be there with bells on," he drawled. "Do I need to bring an emergency kit?" the teasing tone of his voice had vanished, replaced by concern. Even if he didn't have a license to practice anymore, he was still and forever would be a doctor.
"No," Riddick thought of Jack, lying pale against the white sheets of his bunk. "We just need to get her back to your place, she needs a little patching up."
"Her?" the amused tone was back in Doc's voice.
"Don't start, old man." He wasn't in the mood just now to discuss his relationship with Jack and he knew that's where Doc would lead next. "We'll be there in 4.5. Persephone out." Toggling off the switch, he double-checked the autopilot and their orbit then left the flight deck to check on Jack one more time.
Riddick had known Doc since his first year in prison. Once a well respected physician and surgeon on old earth, Doc had developed a rather nasty habit of relying on booze and drugs to get him through his days. One day he'd been high on one of a thousand drugs at his disposal when he'd done emergency surgery on a young boy. The boy had made it through surgery with flying colors, but Doc hadn't been coherent enough to read all the details. He didn't notice the drug allergies. Just one shot was all it had taken, just one slip up and a small life slipped away. When it had been discovered that Doc had been high at the time, the boy's family had pressed charges. He'd ended up in the minimum-security wing of the same prison that would soon house the infamous Richard B. Riddick.
After a time, Doc had picked up duties in the med wing. He helped patch the cons up after they'd been in a fight or after they'd been beaten by guards. *No need to have them die of their wounds,* he'd thought sourly as he stitched them back together, *not when they could be healed up to be beaten down again.* That's where he'd met Riddick for the first time.
The boy had come into the med wing, unconscious, carried by two guards who promptly chained him spread eagle to the bed, forcing a bit into his bloody mouth. He was beaten so badly that his eyes were already swelling shut, but Doc could tell from the ravaged look of his hands and the blood on his clothes that didn't seem to be his, that he'd given as good as he'd taken. He stopped one of the guards as they turned to leave, wondering if he was going to be getting another patient. "So, what happened to the other guy?"
The guard had sneered, "you mean guys. We threw the three that finished beating the shit out of him in the hole, but you don't have to worry about the other two, they'll be going to the morgue." He held up a bloody bit of pipe that had been ground into a sharp point. "He got one of them with this, made a bloody awful mess doing it too," the guard's face held a look of disgust, "the other one he tore his throat out with his teeth."
"Christ on a cracker." Well, that explained the bit. Doc whistled low under his breath. His first instinct was ask if the man was some kind of psycho, but then he realized there had been at least five on one, probably more. He was probably just doing what he had to to survive. "What the hell were they doing to him?"
The second guard shrugged. "He's a new one, they were probably testing to see if he'd be bitch or butch." He laughed, elbowing the first guard in the side. "I guess they won't be trying to find out what kind of head he gives, huh?"
*What fucking assholes.* He watched the guards as they started to leave, catching them before they got out the door. "Does this guy have a name?"
"Yeah. Riddick, Richard B."
Doc looked down at his new patient wondering what Riddick, Richard B. had done to deserve getting thrown into the max end of a hellhole like this one. He hated seeing someone chained down like that, but until he knew a little more about the boy he'd leave him as is. Pulling a cart over next to the bed, Doc put on a pair of gloves and poured some saline solution into a small basin. "Ok, kid," he said to his unconscious patient, "Let's try to get you cleaned up."
After a rough start on Riddick's awakening, Doc had managed to convince him that he was only there to help him. He'd taken the bit out of Riddick's mouth and had tried to get the warden to let him take off the chains, but that had been a no-go. Still, the man had tried. He was probably the closest thing to a friend Riddick had in slam. It had been Doc who had shined Riddick's eyes. And when Riddick escaped, he'd taken Doc with him.
They had gone their separate ways after Riddick dumped the transport, but Riddick had stumbled across D2 when he'd had to make his escape from Caspari eight years earlier and found that Doc had made a place for himself with the community there. The others had made it known that he was too dangerous to their secrecy to be allowed to stay for long, but Doc had told him if he ever needed a place he knew where to come. Well, he needed it now.
Jack was sleeping fitfully when Riddick entered the cabin. She'd been in and out of sleep most of the trip. Riddick figured it probably wasn't a bad thing for her to rest, she needed it. While she was awake, he'd tried to get her to eat and drink, but she hadn't eaten much. The combination of a lack of food and her loss of blood, along with the infection that had apparently set in had made her very weak and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. Riddick hated this, hated feeling helpless and useless. He sat down in the chair he kept by the bed and took her hand. She was cold again. "Just a few more hours, Jack. Hold on."
Exactly four and a half hours later, Riddick landed the Persephone next to what had once been the colony. It was now little more than a scattering of broken down buildings and gardens grown out of control. As promised, Doc was waiting in a jeep-like vehicle as Riddick carried Jack down the gangplank.
Throwing his still smoldering cigarette away, he met Riddick more or less halfway. "So what have you brought me?" With a gentle hand, he brushed the hair back from Jack's face. "God, she's just a baby." Being nearly seventy himself, everyone seemed like a kid to Doc. "What happened to her?"
*Thanks, Doc. Make me feel even more like a fucking pedophile.* "She was shot. I cleaned it up and packed it best as I could, but she needs your help. There's probably an infection, she's been spiking a pretty high temp."
Doc was still studying her pale, pixie face. "How long ago was she shot?"
Riddick frowned. "Three days."
Turning on his heel, Doc headed back toward the jeep. "Well, c'mon, boy. Time's a wastin'." Carefully loading Jack into the back seat of the jeep, Riddick sat beside her, cradling her gently. Doc took the road back to the underground entrance as easily as he could, trying not to jostle his patient too much. Looking at his passengers in the rear view mirror, Doc saw how carefully Riddick held the girl. "So, who is she, Rick? A leftover from some one-night stand? Wild oat all grown up?"
Riddick winced inwardly. He already knew that Jack was young enough to be his daughter, he didn't need Doc continuing to bring up the fact. "Not exactly," he growled.
*Still as chatty as ever, I see.* "Nah, I can see she's too pretty to be any kid of yours." He was glad that the comment got at least a snort from his far too quiet friend. "Ok, she's not your kid. Girlfriend? Hostage? Stowaway?" He met Riddick's eyes in the mirror. "You gonna give me some kind of heads up as to who she might be?"
Riddick stared back at him, seeing the tired lines around his own eyes in the mirror. "She's Jack."
*Jack? The Jack?* "Oh." Doc was quiet the remainder of the trip.
They made it to the system in exactly three days. Jack's fever hadn't spiked again, but she was starting to look much paler than she should, and she was so weak. Riddick was anxious to get her down to D2 and let Doc have a look at her. Unfortunately, the landing site was still on the daylight side of the planet. He could set them up in an orbit around the planet, but they couldn't land until the site was on the dark side. The daylight on D2 was deadly to mammalian life forms due to a type of solar flare that mixed with the atmosphere to create radiation that was lethal during the day but dissipated completely at night. Most of the inhabitants jokingly called it 'killer sunburn', but it was more than that, it was a slow and painful death.
The Areiadne System consisted of four planets. One dead one that no longer had an atmosphere of any sort, two gas giants that were roughly the size of Jupiter and were in orbit around each other as well as the red star sun, and one that seemed inhabitable. Oxygen atmosphere, grav .72 earth norm, plenty of plant life, no large predators, it seemed like a pretty nice place. In fact, it was the former home of the Daedalus Colony, a farming colony that had been one of the first in this part of the galaxy. It had done pretty well until the star began to emit solar flares that irradiated the surface of the planet, killing all mammalian life forms but leaving equipment, buildings, plant life, and cold blooded animals unharmed. Even people inside buildings were affected, though their radiation symptoms took longer to manifest before they died. As the planet had no significant minable resources, it had been deemed uninhabitable and worthless and the humans that had first invaded the Areiadne System abandoned it without looking back.
Several years later, the planet was discovered by space pirates. The planetary markers told them of the surface dangers, but they also found the planet had a rather impressive labyrinthine cave system. The caves afforded them safety from the solar radiation during the day and they could come and go as they pleased at night. Taking a page from the pirates on old earth, they began setting up a hideout of sorts on the otherwise abandoned planet, claiming the planet for their own.
More than four decades later, a type of 'underground' society (in all senses of the word) lived in secret on what the inhabitants began to call Dionysus 2, in homage to the Greek god of food, drink and merriment. There was no law there beyond policing themselves. Anyone who was running from society, wanted to disappear, or just didn't fit anywhere could make a place for themselves on D2. It became a home for all the throwaways of society and they developed their own society of sorts. Mercs and hunters were not welcome there, too many of the people living there had prices on their heads. It was the perfect place to get lost for a while. Perfect for everyone but Riddick. Even among the outcasts he was an outcast. There were too many people looking for him and that made the people who lived there nervous. But he knew Doc would let him stay a little while at least, and he knew he'd help Jack.
Toggling on the comm-unit, Riddick punched in the code and waited to hear the familiar, gravelly voice. He heard the click that meant he had connection, but no answer came through. "Doc?"
"Who is this?" The voice was impatient.
Riddick had to smile, that was just Doc. He could picture the man standing there, cigarette in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, scowling down at the speaker and wondering who the hell was calling him. Nicotine and caffeine the only drugs he still allowed himself. "Just an old friend that needs a little help."
The silence was deafening for a moment, and Riddick was half afraid that Doc would turn them away, but after a moment he heard the man laughing. "Rick you old son-of-a-bitch. How the hell are you doin', boy?" Doc's Texas accent was thicker than it had been before and Riddick was glad to hear the welcome in the man's voice.
"I'm doing ok, old man. I got a friend that needs some help though. Can you meet us at the set down site with a vehicle?" He checked his systems and the position of the planet. "It looks like we can set down in about four and a half hours."
"I'll be there with bells on," he drawled. "Do I need to bring an emergency kit?" the teasing tone of his voice had vanished, replaced by concern. Even if he didn't have a license to practice anymore, he was still and forever would be a doctor.
"No," Riddick thought of Jack, lying pale against the white sheets of his bunk. "We just need to get her back to your place, she needs a little patching up."
"Her?" the amused tone was back in Doc's voice.
"Don't start, old man." He wasn't in the mood just now to discuss his relationship with Jack and he knew that's where Doc would lead next. "We'll be there in 4.5. Persephone out." Toggling off the switch, he double-checked the autopilot and their orbit then left the flight deck to check on Jack one more time.
Riddick had known Doc since his first year in prison. Once a well respected physician and surgeon on old earth, Doc had developed a rather nasty habit of relying on booze and drugs to get him through his days. One day he'd been high on one of a thousand drugs at his disposal when he'd done emergency surgery on a young boy. The boy had made it through surgery with flying colors, but Doc hadn't been coherent enough to read all the details. He didn't notice the drug allergies. Just one shot was all it had taken, just one slip up and a small life slipped away. When it had been discovered that Doc had been high at the time, the boy's family had pressed charges. He'd ended up in the minimum-security wing of the same prison that would soon house the infamous Richard B. Riddick.
After a time, Doc had picked up duties in the med wing. He helped patch the cons up after they'd been in a fight or after they'd been beaten by guards. *No need to have them die of their wounds,* he'd thought sourly as he stitched them back together, *not when they could be healed up to be beaten down again.* That's where he'd met Riddick for the first time.
The boy had come into the med wing, unconscious, carried by two guards who promptly chained him spread eagle to the bed, forcing a bit into his bloody mouth. He was beaten so badly that his eyes were already swelling shut, but Doc could tell from the ravaged look of his hands and the blood on his clothes that didn't seem to be his, that he'd given as good as he'd taken. He stopped one of the guards as they turned to leave, wondering if he was going to be getting another patient. "So, what happened to the other guy?"
The guard had sneered, "you mean guys. We threw the three that finished beating the shit out of him in the hole, but you don't have to worry about the other two, they'll be going to the morgue." He held up a bloody bit of pipe that had been ground into a sharp point. "He got one of them with this, made a bloody awful mess doing it too," the guard's face held a look of disgust, "the other one he tore his throat out with his teeth."
"Christ on a cracker." Well, that explained the bit. Doc whistled low under his breath. His first instinct was ask if the man was some kind of psycho, but then he realized there had been at least five on one, probably more. He was probably just doing what he had to to survive. "What the hell were they doing to him?"
The second guard shrugged. "He's a new one, they were probably testing to see if he'd be bitch or butch." He laughed, elbowing the first guard in the side. "I guess they won't be trying to find out what kind of head he gives, huh?"
*What fucking assholes.* He watched the guards as they started to leave, catching them before they got out the door. "Does this guy have a name?"
"Yeah. Riddick, Richard B."
Doc looked down at his new patient wondering what Riddick, Richard B. had done to deserve getting thrown into the max end of a hellhole like this one. He hated seeing someone chained down like that, but until he knew a little more about the boy he'd leave him as is. Pulling a cart over next to the bed, Doc put on a pair of gloves and poured some saline solution into a small basin. "Ok, kid," he said to his unconscious patient, "Let's try to get you cleaned up."
After a rough start on Riddick's awakening, Doc had managed to convince him that he was only there to help him. He'd taken the bit out of Riddick's mouth and had tried to get the warden to let him take off the chains, but that had been a no-go. Still, the man had tried. He was probably the closest thing to a friend Riddick had in slam. It had been Doc who had shined Riddick's eyes. And when Riddick escaped, he'd taken Doc with him.
They had gone their separate ways after Riddick dumped the transport, but Riddick had stumbled across D2 when he'd had to make his escape from Caspari eight years earlier and found that Doc had made a place for himself with the community there. The others had made it known that he was too dangerous to their secrecy to be allowed to stay for long, but Doc had told him if he ever needed a place he knew where to come. Well, he needed it now.
Jack was sleeping fitfully when Riddick entered the cabin. She'd been in and out of sleep most of the trip. Riddick figured it probably wasn't a bad thing for her to rest, she needed it. While she was awake, he'd tried to get her to eat and drink, but she hadn't eaten much. The combination of a lack of food and her loss of blood, along with the infection that had apparently set in had made her very weak and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. Riddick hated this, hated feeling helpless and useless. He sat down in the chair he kept by the bed and took her hand. She was cold again. "Just a few more hours, Jack. Hold on."
Exactly four and a half hours later, Riddick landed the Persephone next to what had once been the colony. It was now little more than a scattering of broken down buildings and gardens grown out of control. As promised, Doc was waiting in a jeep-like vehicle as Riddick carried Jack down the gangplank.
Throwing his still smoldering cigarette away, he met Riddick more or less halfway. "So what have you brought me?" With a gentle hand, he brushed the hair back from Jack's face. "God, she's just a baby." Being nearly seventy himself, everyone seemed like a kid to Doc. "What happened to her?"
*Thanks, Doc. Make me feel even more like a fucking pedophile.* "She was shot. I cleaned it up and packed it best as I could, but she needs your help. There's probably an infection, she's been spiking a pretty high temp."
Doc was still studying her pale, pixie face. "How long ago was she shot?"
Riddick frowned. "Three days."
Turning on his heel, Doc headed back toward the jeep. "Well, c'mon, boy. Time's a wastin'." Carefully loading Jack into the back seat of the jeep, Riddick sat beside her, cradling her gently. Doc took the road back to the underground entrance as easily as he could, trying not to jostle his patient too much. Looking at his passengers in the rear view mirror, Doc saw how carefully Riddick held the girl. "So, who is she, Rick? A leftover from some one-night stand? Wild oat all grown up?"
Riddick winced inwardly. He already knew that Jack was young enough to be his daughter, he didn't need Doc continuing to bring up the fact. "Not exactly," he growled.
*Still as chatty as ever, I see.* "Nah, I can see she's too pretty to be any kid of yours." He was glad that the comment got at least a snort from his far too quiet friend. "Ok, she's not your kid. Girlfriend? Hostage? Stowaway?" He met Riddick's eyes in the mirror. "You gonna give me some kind of heads up as to who she might be?"
Riddick stared back at him, seeing the tired lines around his own eyes in the mirror. "She's Jack."
*Jack? The Jack?* "Oh." Doc was quiet the remainder of the trip.