Gina was not so sure on what happened after that. By some miracle the Hunter-Grartzner came to a lurching stop, the force of it sending Gina slamming into the wall again, knocking her wind out. After that she slowly lost consciousness. The last thing she saw was Riddick's empty cryo-tube...

It took what seemed like an eternity to wake up. She opened her eyes slowly, greeted by the welcome sight of Shazza, alive and well, gazing down at her. Gina blinked, covered in dust and aching in every part of her body. Hell, even her hair hurt. Smiling weakly, Gina sat up with some help from Shazza. "I take it we are seriously fucked?" Gina asked, her voice hoarse.

Shazza nodded, quickly checking Gina for serious wounds. Luckily Gina only suffered from cuts and a lot of bruises. "Your head's bleedn, luv." Shazza said, handing Gina a strip of cloth.

Gina groaned as she got to her feet, her vision swimming for a moment. Wincing, Gina toke the cloth and pressed it against the cut on her forehead, nodding her thanks. Gina closed her eyes, waiting for her vision to return to normal. "Where the fuck are we?" Gina growled as she followed Shazza through the demolished ship, slowly heading for Nav Bay.

Shazza shrugged. "I have no idea, luv. There ain't that many survivors." she said solemnly.

Gina said nothing, quietly following the bushwhacker. As they came close to Nav Bay Gina saw a crumpled form chained to a broken steel pillar and inwardly groaned in recognition. Riddick. So he lived. Figures. And by the looks of it Riddick and Johns had tussled already.

"The convict tried getting away but Johns, or whateva his name is, stopped him. Hit him pretty hard too." Shazza said, not turning to see Gina but knew she was frowning.

Gina mentally cursed to herself but made her voice sound as impersonal as possible. "Really? Pity I missed the fight." Yeah, a real pity, Gina thought to herself as she gazed down at Riddick's shaved head, 'cause I would have liked to nail your ass too.

Recognizing her voice Riddick looked up, still blindfolded, his face ghostly unconcerned, as though he had expected her to survive the crash. Gina scowled, suddenly wanting to land a punch square on his bald head. Still scowling and muttering dark curses concerning Riddick's mother, Gina stepped into Nav Bay.

Inside was a grisly scene.

Inside Nav Bay were the remaining passengers. Gina recognized Zeke and Johns, and went to stand next to them. All of them were staring at Fry, who was looking down at her fellow pilot, Owens. Owens was not a pretty sight. Somehow he got run straight through the chest with a metal rod of some sort. At the moment he was screaming, pain racked as her died slowly.

"Ohmygod..." Shazza whispered.

"Pull it out of him!" snapped someone behind Gina, some stuffy man with glasses. "Pull it out of him now!"

"No, it's to close to the heart." Johns said next to her, his voice devoid of any emotion.

Gina shook her head. As much as she hated agreeing with the jerk, she knew he was right. This dude was good as dead. Even if they pulled him off that rod, he would die from blood loss in a minute or two.

"You gotta do it, just do it really fast..." the man with the specs insisted.

Fry, her hand shaking in horror and revulsion, carefully tough the rod.

"Don't touch it!" Owens suddenly shrieked, his eyes wild with pain. "Don't touch the switch!"

There was a moment of stunned silence and Zeke spoke up, his voice hard. "You'll kill him I tell you!"

"Shit, just leave him alone."

Gina shook her head sadly. "Man's delirious." she muttered.

"Don't tough that switch!" Owens rasped and then began to scream incoherently.

"Doncha got any drugs for dis poor man?" Zeke demanded.

"Don't bother." Gina said gravely. "He's good as dead already. There is nothing we can do for him."

Fry looked up at them, her lips trembling and her eyes two gleaming pool of gray and blue as tears began to well up. "All right... all right... Okay, somebody... there's some Anestaphine in the med locker at the end of the cabi..." Fry began as she turned and paled, seeing that the cabin was no longer there. Seeing this, Fry closed her eyes as tears began to well up. "Get out of here." she whispered, her voice tortured.

"What? But the man is..." Shazza began.

"Get out everybody!" Fry snapped, her harshness of her tone drowning out all arguments. Fry glared up at them, the hopelessness in her eyes almost tangible. "Please..."

Johns nodded and sullenly pushed everyone out of the Nav Bay. "You heard the lady people. Lets go."

Gina dropped her eyes, numbly following Shazza and Zeke as Owens continues to scream. Gina shook her head remorseful. She felt bad for Fry, remembering how much it had hurt when all of the members of her unit died, eight years ago when she was still in the Galaxy Marines on Saltoss Six. God, this was such a bitch! Could things get any worse?

Behind her the screaming suddenly stopped.

LATER...

Gina looked out at the planet, thoroughly disgusted. Of all planets they could have crashed on, they had to crash on this pathetic shithole. Gina snorted. Desolate and completely barren, the planet was completely devoid of life. Nothing. Just sand, rock and wind. The most bizarre aspect though where the two suns. Two of them hung above them, like two sentinels, scorching everything. If the intense heat wasn't bad enough there was also the low oxygen level to deal with. Just talking put on out of breath, gasping for breath.

Gina was seated on the top of the hulk of the Hunter-Gratzner, wearing her silver sunglasses that she had found in one of her pockets. Shazza and Zeke where standing behind her, looking as unhappy as she did, and gazing at the landscape. Next to Shazza was some kid they found, twelve or thirteen years old. He was a spunky kid, with short shaggy brown hair and large eyes that obviously knew too much then any kid is supposed to. The thin, stuffy man came up behind them, sweating heavily as he gazed up at the twin suns behind his glasses. "Well. Out little slice of heaven." he wheezed.

Gina rolled her eyes as she battled to conceal the distain she had for the man. Just looking at him made want to scowl. Name was Paris, a rich antique dealer who obviously though to highly of himself. Gina muttered a curse. She had to deal with self-righteous bastards like him far too many times in her business and immediately detested him.

"Shouldn't we be looking for others?" Paris asked, ignoring Gina, "Send out a search party or something?"

Gina snorted. "Good luck." she muttered.

Johns looked down at the gauged floor of the skid marks the ship made during the crash, bringing the death of forty passengers with it. "I think we found 'em. Unless some of you boys want to start digging for bodies." Johns asked, jerking his head at the other survivors.

Four males five feet away glanced up, their head wrapped in light cloth turbans and white desert robes, identifying them as Muslims. Three of them were young, kids really, no older then twenty, but one was older, dark-skinned and closer to forty-something. His name was Imam, or something like that. Gina hadn't dealt with that many Arabs; they where rather rare in the out-skirts. From what she had heard this group was headed for New Mecca.

Imam nodded to her in quiet greeting and looked up at the rest, his eyes glowing in a passive light of calm wisdom. "Please, which way to New Mecca? We must know in which direction in order to pray." Imam asked, him and his three protégés wishing to pray for the lost crewmen and passengers.

Johns whipped out his compass and blinked, staring as he watched the dial spin around in circles as though it had a life of it's own. Imam glanced down at the compass and nodded, walking up to his fellow Muslims and gave them quick instructions. In unison the four of them fell to their knees, each one back to back, facing all directions, and began to pray.

LATER...

Gina watched the survivors, rarely speaking. She knew they were fucked. It was that simple. The chances of the Company sending a search party were slim to none. The Company would see it as a waste of money. They were stuck on this rock, like it or not.

At the moment Fry, Shazza, Zeke and Paris where discussing the problem they were having breathing, something about the pressure in the atmosphere. That was when Zeke broke out a question that Gina had been waiting to be asked: What the FUCK happened up there?!

Fry paused to lick her dry lips, still uneasy from Owens's sudden, painful death. "Something knocked us off-lane. Maybe a rogue comet. Maybe we will never now."

"Well, that is the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard!" Gina snapped, getting to her feet ant glared at the pilot. "How the fuck can a comet hit us?!"

Fry said nothing but Shazza glared at Gina, surprised that the girl could be so rude. Granted, she did like the girl. Gina had a strong, defiant spirit but it was also obvious that the girl was a hard ass who rarely exhibited any emotions other than cold arrogance and animalistic viciousness. "Well I for one am thoroughly fuckin grateful! This beast wasn't made to land like this. But cripes, you rode it down," Shazza said, giving Fry a supportive smile. "Come on you lousy ingrates, the only reason we are alive is cuzza of her."

The others nodded and as the rest of them said their thanks Gina immediately noticed the guilty gleam in Fry's eyes and knew that Fry had nothing to do with their miraculous landing. Gina said nothing and turned away to face Johns. He gave her a questionable look and raised an eyebrow, as though asking her if she really bought Fry's story. Gina shook her head and jaunted her chin to the broken remains of Nav Bay, making it pretty clear whom she really thought saved their ass's today.

"Okay," Fry was saying, her voice thick. "Let's brake out the pressure suits."

Still frowning, Gina followed Johns inside. As they passed Riddick's still form Gina noticed the cutting torch from where Riddick was chained. Waiting until Johns and the others were a few feet ahead, Gina kicked the torch across the floor as inconspicuously as possible, sending it to lie a foot in front of where Riddick was chained.

Riddick looked up, his eyes covered behind the blindfold, his head cocked in a inquisitive angle. Gina glared at him, not caring that he couldn't see her. "Think you can handle that one Richie?" Gina whispered coldly, and then rushed to catch up with the others.