Chapter 32 - Post Haste
Leaving the planet turned out to be a bit more difficult than Riddick had anticipated. Apparently Carson had enjoyed himself for a while before Riddick had gotten back to his ship. The main computer was almost completely closed out to him now, so that meant flight procedures would either have to be on manual or he'd have to wait until he could get in and fix what Carson had screwed up. Logically, if time permitted, it would be better to have complete control of the main computer before he tried to make it off planet since he wouldn't be able to do a jump until it was online. But, in the end, it was the local law that made the decision for him.
Riddick heard someone outside the hatch a second before the computer alerted him to someone accessing his codes. *Well, at least that part works,* he thought sourly as he ran down the corridor to punch override codes directly into the airlock door's locking mechanism. It didn't take much thinking to figure out that Carson had transmitted the access codes to the local law enforcement, he just wondered what else the pain in the ass had done to fuck him over. Running back up to the flight deck, Riddick strapped himself in and hoped against hope that Carson hadn't had enough time to lock out the manual overrides on the power up and flight procedures.
Reaching over his head, Riddick winced, his shoulder painfully reminding him that Carson had gotten a good shot off before the lights went out. Well, there wasn't a lot of blood and his arm was still functioning, so that was a good sign. Any other assessments would just have to wait until he got off the planet. Flipping the necessary switches, he locked in the manual overrides and held his breath while the old ship awakened. He let his breath out slowly as the flight deck flickered to life with small lights and beeps and the sounds that told Riddick he was still in business.
The comm unit crackled to life. "Richard B. Riddick. This is Captain Paul Montgomery of the New Sydney Free Governmental Police. You are hereby ordered by Law 992. 184. NSFG4 to surrender yourself and your vehicle. Give yourself up quietly and no one has to get hurt."
*Nobody has to get hurt? Oh, somebody's going to fuckin' get hurt, I guaran-damn-tee ya that!* And he knew just who it was going to be. Anger burned in his chest as he thought of Carson down in the hold. Toggling on the switch, a sarcastic smile curled the corners of his lips. "You don't want anybody to get hurt, I'd suggest moving the fuck away from my ship before I fire this bitch up."
"Don't try it, son." Captain Montgomery's voice sounded almost apologetic. "My ships are already in orbit. You won't make it out of the sector alive."
Throwing a few more switches, Riddick breathed a sigh of relief when the weapons system came online. The weapons on the old Zephyr were well hidden and, unless you were looking for them, you wouldn't even know they were there. That gave him a small advantage. Having to man the flight systems and the weapons at the same time wasn't going to be easy, especially with just one fully functioning arm, but it was certainly better than the alternative. He was just thankful that the all the manual overrides seemed to be working. Obviously Carson hadn't thought past keeping Riddick out of the main computer, and for that he was thoroughly grateful. One of the reasons Riddick had chosen to purchase the old ship was for the fact that the main computer didn't run everything. It could, if you wanted it to, but it didn't have to. And while it wasn't fun to have to fly the ship without the main computer, it could be done.
His voice was low, deadly serious, when he spoke again. "Captain, unless you want to have to send condolence letters to the family of all those fighter pilots, you might want to think about keeping them the hell away from me and my ship." A flashing red light told him that the engines were ready to go. "Because I ain't got nothin' to lose, and if I have to go out I ain't goin' out alone." He shut down the comm and hit the button warning anyone within a hundred feet to get back to a safe distance. Waiting just long enough to give them a chance to get out of the way, he fired the engines and braced himself for takeoff.
It was hard to keep the ship level while he was still in atmosphere, but once he was free of the planet's gravitational pull, the stick felt light as a feather. Truth was, he enjoyed flying on manual. It gave him the same feeling driving the hovercycle did, a sense of total freedom. That was worth a lot to a man who'd spent a good portion of his life restrained by one measure or another. Riddick didn't have long to enjoy the ride, though, before the fighter ships were bearing down on him. "Ok. Here we go."
The Bellerophon didn't have the maneuverability that the smaller fighters had, but it had the advantage of a paranoid captain and a lot of shielding. In addition to the shielding, none of the crew areas or vital systems were housed next to the outer hull. That way, if there was a hull breach he could close off that area until he could get planetside to fix it. Riddick might not have been the best pilot or engineer in the galaxy, but there was something to be said for paranoia. It would just about take a direct hit to the flight deck to take the ship out, and if that happened, well he was fucked anyway. So he'd do whatever he could to make sure that didn't happen.
Calling on all the training he'd received while he was with The Company, he banked starboard and caught one of the fighters in his ion wash. It wouldn't do anything to the other ship, but it would confuse his sensors for a while, and that would give Riddick enough time to come around for the attack. Bringing his weapons to bear, he targeted the engines and fired. "Bullseye." A smile spread over his face. The ship was dead in space, but, though it would have been easy, he didn't kill the pilot. The kid hadn't even gotten a shot off.
Four more fighters came down on his position and the Bellerophon took some damage, but Riddick managed to take out the other ships with only two casualties. He figured that was pretty good considering the other pilots had been shooting to kill and when it came down to a me or thee situation, he knew who he was picking. Leaving New Sydney behind, Riddick manually plotted a course out of the system. He wouldn't be able to do a starjump until he could get the main computer back online, and he wouldn't be able to go back to D2 until he made sure he wasn't being followed. Who knew how long that was going to take? His thoughts drifted once again to Jack and he thought about what he'd said to Montgomery about having nothing to lose. Well, that wasn't entirely true. He just hoped she would understand that it was going to take a little longer than he'd planned to get back to her.
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No sooner had Riddick gotten the main computer back online, than the warning system began to go off. Checking the view screen he saw there were two heavy A-class cruisers coming up his ass. Major firepower. "How the fuck did they find me so soon?" he asked aloud to no one in particular as he dropped back down into the pilot's seat. He'd only been orbiting the small moon for about three hours, just long enough to get the pulse wound cleaned and bandaged and get the computer up and running again. Either the people on those cruisers were very damned lucky, or, more likely, there was a homing device on the ship somewhere. It was possible that one of the fighters had managed to tag him with something, but those weren't as reliable as a homer planted inside a ship. Space debris or starjumps could tear off an external tag. But an internal one, well, that was another matter entirely.
Strapping himself in once more, he pulled the ship away from the moon and started punching in coordinates. He hoped he'd be able to make a few more jumps before the cruisers followed, buy himself some time to find the device and neutralize it. The ship shuddered as it took a pulse blast from one of the ships and Riddick held tightly onto the flight stick. "Just hold together, baby, we're takin' the shortcut." Pressing the button that would take them into the starjump, Riddick closed his eyes and waited.
Damaged and limping, the ship made the starjump and two others, but Riddick hesitated taking it through anymore. It would take some time now for the cruisers to pick up on the homing device's signature, hopefully long enough for him to get out of Carson where he'd planted it. It could be anywhere, and without knowing where to start looking it could take forever to find it. Riddick didn't have forever. The ship had taken some pretty bad damage and he needed to get her somewhere for repairs. He couldn't do that until he got that damned tag off his ship. Unstrapping himself, he set the ship for autopilot. It was time to go have a talk with Mr. Carson.
Leaving the planet turned out to be a bit more difficult than Riddick had anticipated. Apparently Carson had enjoyed himself for a while before Riddick had gotten back to his ship. The main computer was almost completely closed out to him now, so that meant flight procedures would either have to be on manual or he'd have to wait until he could get in and fix what Carson had screwed up. Logically, if time permitted, it would be better to have complete control of the main computer before he tried to make it off planet since he wouldn't be able to do a jump until it was online. But, in the end, it was the local law that made the decision for him.
Riddick heard someone outside the hatch a second before the computer alerted him to someone accessing his codes. *Well, at least that part works,* he thought sourly as he ran down the corridor to punch override codes directly into the airlock door's locking mechanism. It didn't take much thinking to figure out that Carson had transmitted the access codes to the local law enforcement, he just wondered what else the pain in the ass had done to fuck him over. Running back up to the flight deck, Riddick strapped himself in and hoped against hope that Carson hadn't had enough time to lock out the manual overrides on the power up and flight procedures.
Reaching over his head, Riddick winced, his shoulder painfully reminding him that Carson had gotten a good shot off before the lights went out. Well, there wasn't a lot of blood and his arm was still functioning, so that was a good sign. Any other assessments would just have to wait until he got off the planet. Flipping the necessary switches, he locked in the manual overrides and held his breath while the old ship awakened. He let his breath out slowly as the flight deck flickered to life with small lights and beeps and the sounds that told Riddick he was still in business.
The comm unit crackled to life. "Richard B. Riddick. This is Captain Paul Montgomery of the New Sydney Free Governmental Police. You are hereby ordered by Law 992. 184. NSFG4 to surrender yourself and your vehicle. Give yourself up quietly and no one has to get hurt."
*Nobody has to get hurt? Oh, somebody's going to fuckin' get hurt, I guaran-damn-tee ya that!* And he knew just who it was going to be. Anger burned in his chest as he thought of Carson down in the hold. Toggling on the switch, a sarcastic smile curled the corners of his lips. "You don't want anybody to get hurt, I'd suggest moving the fuck away from my ship before I fire this bitch up."
"Don't try it, son." Captain Montgomery's voice sounded almost apologetic. "My ships are already in orbit. You won't make it out of the sector alive."
Throwing a few more switches, Riddick breathed a sigh of relief when the weapons system came online. The weapons on the old Zephyr were well hidden and, unless you were looking for them, you wouldn't even know they were there. That gave him a small advantage. Having to man the flight systems and the weapons at the same time wasn't going to be easy, especially with just one fully functioning arm, but it was certainly better than the alternative. He was just thankful that the all the manual overrides seemed to be working. Obviously Carson hadn't thought past keeping Riddick out of the main computer, and for that he was thoroughly grateful. One of the reasons Riddick had chosen to purchase the old ship was for the fact that the main computer didn't run everything. It could, if you wanted it to, but it didn't have to. And while it wasn't fun to have to fly the ship without the main computer, it could be done.
His voice was low, deadly serious, when he spoke again. "Captain, unless you want to have to send condolence letters to the family of all those fighter pilots, you might want to think about keeping them the hell away from me and my ship." A flashing red light told him that the engines were ready to go. "Because I ain't got nothin' to lose, and if I have to go out I ain't goin' out alone." He shut down the comm and hit the button warning anyone within a hundred feet to get back to a safe distance. Waiting just long enough to give them a chance to get out of the way, he fired the engines and braced himself for takeoff.
It was hard to keep the ship level while he was still in atmosphere, but once he was free of the planet's gravitational pull, the stick felt light as a feather. Truth was, he enjoyed flying on manual. It gave him the same feeling driving the hovercycle did, a sense of total freedom. That was worth a lot to a man who'd spent a good portion of his life restrained by one measure or another. Riddick didn't have long to enjoy the ride, though, before the fighter ships were bearing down on him. "Ok. Here we go."
The Bellerophon didn't have the maneuverability that the smaller fighters had, but it had the advantage of a paranoid captain and a lot of shielding. In addition to the shielding, none of the crew areas or vital systems were housed next to the outer hull. That way, if there was a hull breach he could close off that area until he could get planetside to fix it. Riddick might not have been the best pilot or engineer in the galaxy, but there was something to be said for paranoia. It would just about take a direct hit to the flight deck to take the ship out, and if that happened, well he was fucked anyway. So he'd do whatever he could to make sure that didn't happen.
Calling on all the training he'd received while he was with The Company, he banked starboard and caught one of the fighters in his ion wash. It wouldn't do anything to the other ship, but it would confuse his sensors for a while, and that would give Riddick enough time to come around for the attack. Bringing his weapons to bear, he targeted the engines and fired. "Bullseye." A smile spread over his face. The ship was dead in space, but, though it would have been easy, he didn't kill the pilot. The kid hadn't even gotten a shot off.
Four more fighters came down on his position and the Bellerophon took some damage, but Riddick managed to take out the other ships with only two casualties. He figured that was pretty good considering the other pilots had been shooting to kill and when it came down to a me or thee situation, he knew who he was picking. Leaving New Sydney behind, Riddick manually plotted a course out of the system. He wouldn't be able to do a starjump until he could get the main computer back online, and he wouldn't be able to go back to D2 until he made sure he wasn't being followed. Who knew how long that was going to take? His thoughts drifted once again to Jack and he thought about what he'd said to Montgomery about having nothing to lose. Well, that wasn't entirely true. He just hoped she would understand that it was going to take a little longer than he'd planned to get back to her.
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No sooner had Riddick gotten the main computer back online, than the warning system began to go off. Checking the view screen he saw there were two heavy A-class cruisers coming up his ass. Major firepower. "How the fuck did they find me so soon?" he asked aloud to no one in particular as he dropped back down into the pilot's seat. He'd only been orbiting the small moon for about three hours, just long enough to get the pulse wound cleaned and bandaged and get the computer up and running again. Either the people on those cruisers were very damned lucky, or, more likely, there was a homing device on the ship somewhere. It was possible that one of the fighters had managed to tag him with something, but those weren't as reliable as a homer planted inside a ship. Space debris or starjumps could tear off an external tag. But an internal one, well, that was another matter entirely.
Strapping himself in once more, he pulled the ship away from the moon and started punching in coordinates. He hoped he'd be able to make a few more jumps before the cruisers followed, buy himself some time to find the device and neutralize it. The ship shuddered as it took a pulse blast from one of the ships and Riddick held tightly onto the flight stick. "Just hold together, baby, we're takin' the shortcut." Pressing the button that would take them into the starjump, Riddick closed his eyes and waited.
Damaged and limping, the ship made the starjump and two others, but Riddick hesitated taking it through anymore. It would take some time now for the cruisers to pick up on the homing device's signature, hopefully long enough for him to get out of Carson where he'd planted it. It could be anywhere, and without knowing where to start looking it could take forever to find it. Riddick didn't have forever. The ship had taken some pretty bad damage and he needed to get her somewhere for repairs. He couldn't do that until he got that damned tag off his ship. Unstrapping himself, he set the ship for autopilot. It was time to go have a talk with Mr. Carson.