THE MOTHER LODE BY ABRAXIS
Chapter 43 – Caught
When the trouble came, if it wasn't at the worst time possible, it was pretty fucking close.
The Hole had made her first round of picking up families successfully. The new crew assignments had worked out well, not even the usual settling in problems that Riddick had expected. Syrus and Archer continued to share Syrus' original quarters. Riddick moved in with Jenna and turned a blind eye when Jack and Jeeter did the same. David retained his bachelor quarters and Teddy Bear was assigned his own apartment as well. Archer's security men were bunked in the double apartment. All the other permanent crew bunked four to an apartment with the exception of the six women who divided up three and three. By the end of it, there were also four newly certified doctors, who had decided that what the colony offered beat the shit out of anything they were going to get on their home worlds, bunking in one of the apartments.
During the pick-up of the first wave, every inch of the common areas with the exception of the kitchen, which was run cafeteria style, had been modified. The lower level was outfitted with convertible furniture; tables and benches by day, cots by night. Much of the gym and recreation area had been converted into two giant shower rooms and rows of toilet cubicles. Jenna had had the bunkroom off of the bridge refitted into a weight and practice room for the crew. By the end of the family pick-ups, these facilities were massively over-crowded including any open areas available; Jeff's now deserted lab, what had been Jenna's and Max's office suites and finally even two of the bays; with the growing population of the second wave.
Because of space limitations, the colonists had been required to pod their personal possessions and come onboard with little more than the clothing on their backs, one favorite toy each for the children and any musical instruments they had. All the rest was provided on a daily basis with the laundry being the recycling bin of the tailoring pod. The crew trained the first pick-ups to run the kitchen and the tailoring machine and then let them train subsequent arrivals unless some special problem came up. The colonists were also given open access to the ship's reading and vid libraries and the educational programming.
By the time they were halfway through the five month trek, Riddick was rubbing his scalp several times a day and wondering why the whole thing wasn't driving him nuts, especially the herd of young and not so young kids that seemed intent on following his every step, wide-eyed and worshipful, whenever they got the chance. 'Course he couldn't really bitch about it since Captain Djin ah had her own herd, Teddy Bear was absolutely mobbed, Jeeter and Jack had their following among the older ones interested in computers and the blade-jewelry and even Syrus had a few brave ones scurrying around corners to keep an eye on him. Riddick had the thought that they were probably waiting to see if the snarky doctor grew fangs during the night shift.
The only ripples were two babies being born, which Syrus handled with his usual deft efficiency, mothers and babies doing fine, thank you very much. But it was a relief for Riddick when all of them, their personal possessions pods, the load of housing pods and more pods of proscribed weapons and other supplies had been off loaded. In a little more than four weeks after arrival, everyone was settled in and the colony was holding its official founding celebration.
That's when the trouble came. Every lander, including the yacht, was on the ground and only two people were manning the Hole when the three heavy troop transports barreled out of hyper and closed on Sanctuary at top speed.
As the alarm came in from the Hole, people began to run in every direction. It could have been taken for chaos if you didn't notice that most of the adults and older children were headed for the official building pods and the arsenals while the few remaining colonist in that age group were gathering up the younger children and herding them toward the underground shelters that had been dug as bunkrooms for the initial arrivals.
Riddick ran for the landers in the closest to a panic that he had ever felt. Jenna was riding the bridge with only Jeeter to help her. The little man hadn't felt up to partying after his last therapy session and Jenna had insisted on staying because she wouldn't leave the Hole without a pilot and she could also handle it if Jeeter had a bad reaction to that latest therapy. She had all but ordered Riddick down and assigned him the task of seeing to it that no one lifted off a lander until they were stone cold sober. Jack had gone down because Jeeter wouldn't have her missing the party just because of him.
As Riddick blasted the BC out of the atmosphere, he could see the Hole far out ahead, running at top speed toward the transports. Jenna must have been moving while she sent the alert. And she wasn't running invisible! She was trying to make the transports concentrate on the Hole and keep them away from the colony as long as possible.
The lead ship took her challenge but, even though the Hole was more than twice the size of the transport, the other two transports left the one to deal with her and kept coming. It was the hardest thing that Riddick had ever done when he called the other three landers into formation behind him and headed toward a second transport rather than going after the Hole and Jenna.
The next fucking awful surprise came as Riddick arranged his fighters for attack. All were fully crewed which was a relief. He was solo, not having waited for anyone else to catch up to him before lifting off, but didn't want anyone else being that stupid. He had no problem that Teddy Bear was piloting one, and not much with Syrus flying the second but, Fucking Hell, Jack was riding the controls of the third.
The only thing that gave Riddick any hope as he brought the four small ships of his squadron against the huge transport was that it became obvious that this wasn't a Forces or Spec-Op operation and whoever it was, probably Company mercs, they hadn't done their homework or had underestimated the value of the small fighters. The transport was carrying no fighters of its own and except for a couple of warning shots basically ignored them until it was almost too late.
Making themselves electronically invisible, they had ripped huge chunks out of the transport and killed her main bridge before someone in the auxiliary bridge must have gotten smart and started laying down blanket fire from all its weapons ports. Teddy Bear was hit and sitting dead in space when Riddick called off the attack and pulled Syrus and Jack back with him. It was hopeless, there just wasn't anything that the remaining three small ships could do but sit and watch as the transport prepared to make its landing on Sanctuary as the third transport had already done.
Then, as it passed Teddy Bear's position, the little lander suddenly came to life. With that strange stretching of time that accompanies horrifying events, Riddick watched the small ship imbed itself in the engine section of the transport. Then, what could only have been the lander's self-destruct program engaging blew the whole aft end off of the transport and sent a shock wave of smaller explosions the length of the ship until all that remained was a useless husk. It wouldn't have worked that well except for the fact that Teddy Bear had been piloting the second hyper-capable lander and her self-destruct was rigged to her hyper engines.
Riddick was still trying to deal with this devastation when he was jerked away from all thoughts of Teddy Bear's heroic sacrifice by Jack's voice coming through the com.
"I'm hit Bro. Holed by a piece of the transport. I've got damaged controls and I'm losing air, bad. I'm going to try and take her planet-side. Love you, Bro."
He tried to answer her but either her com had died or she had cut it off. He watched her hit the atmosphere ugly but still with a chance of making it if her controls weren't too fucked. Then she just disappeared off of his screen. He could only hope, a very dim hope, that it was because of atmospheric interference or her failing systems.
But, there was nothing he could do about it. He called down to the colony to report the lander down and ask for a search, when possible. At least there was someone still manning the com there and she only sounded frightened not completely terrified as she took the message.
Then Riddick turned his scans away to look for the Hole. It took a few long anxious minutes. The battle with the transport must have been a running one because she was a long way from where they engaged. But … she was there! And she was alone! There was a wide field of debris behind her and she was limping slowly back toward them. She was wounded but alive. He opened the com and pinged her. Jenna answered him with one terse order.
"See if you can do something about that bastard that made it planet-side until I get there." Then, "Oh, shit, love, we're screwed. Check the gate."
Riddick focused his scans on the area of the hyper gate. A small armada of eight ships was appearing and grouping up there. They began to move in-system but at a more cautious speed than the transports had, scanning on all sides. Riddick could tell when they spotted the debris field and then the Hole. They altered course toward them and then began broadcasting their ID's loud and clear. The Forces had arrived.
Jenna, still moving toward Sanctuary, began to swing the huge bulk of the Hole around to face the new invaders. "What's going on, Rick? If these are Forces ships, who did we just dust?"
Riddick, with Syrus close on his tail, maneuvered to form up with her. "Probably Company mercs."
"Not Spec-Ops?"
"We're not that good, sweet thing. And we won't even get a shot off against these guys. Go invisible. Try to sneak around them and get to the gate. I'll be right behind you. Sorry Syrus. You and your crew will have to take your chances on the planet until we can come back for you."
"Just get her out of here. I will endeavor to survive."
Jenna broke in, "Syrus, do as Rick ordered. Rick, you're making this jump alone. Too much of my nav is gone to attempt the gate and I'm pretty sure that I've lost some of the hyper controls as well." Then when Riddick and Syrus stayed in formation heading for her, "I said get out of here. That's an order!"
"Then I'm committing mutiny, sweet thing."
"As am I, Captain, my Captain."
When Jenna continued to protest, Riddick cut his com. As he got close enough for a visual on the Hole, he couldn't suppress a shudder. She was a mess. The bridge was definitely holed. Jenna, bless her beautiful, not-quite-genius brain, must have moved to the auxiliary bridge immediately after setting course for the transports. Of the four bays only one, at the engineering end, had survived. The engine section had taken plenty of hits as well. More of the pods were damaged or completely missing than not. But they had done their job because it looked like her central core was intact. A desperate but maybe possible plan began to form in Riddick's mind. He opened his com again.
"Jenna, can you and Jeeter get to the surviving bay? Syrus and his crew can get on board and then jettison his lander and I can take you all on board the BC for a run for the gate."
"Not possible. I show pressure loss in the central corridor. We can't get to the bay and Syrus wouldn't have any safe place to be while jettisoning. Will you please just get yourself out of here!"
"No. Now, … "
Riddick was cut off by a new set of ship's ID's blaring through on all channels. His scans showed new arrivals just exiting the gate. But no silent running here. They were screaming their identities as they came and were coming fast. The end count was six lean fast heavy cruisers. This was becoming a fucking circus. These were Patrol.
Jenna came on the com again. "Switch to the unsecured channel, listen in and follow my lead. We may have a chance here."
Riddick had no idea what she was planning but he sure as hell didn't have any way out. He opened the channel, his curiosity escalating as the Hole began broadcasting a completely new ship's ID that she had never used before.
"This is the colony ship White Cliffs of Dover calling Forces and Patrol Commanders. Repeat, this is the colony ship White Cliffs. Our colony is under attack by raiders. Two have been destroyed but one is on the ground. We are too damaged to continue. Can you assist us? Repeat, we have a raider transport on the ground. Can you assist us?"
Fuck! It was the ultimate in gutsy moves. Riddick held his breath then breathed a sigh of relief as the Patrol vessels accelerated to what must have been their maximum speed, bearing down on them and incidentally on the Forces ships as well, and a new voice came over the com.
"This is Commander Sikes of the Patrol Ship Excalibur calling Forces Commander. Will you take the raider or shall we?"
After a nerve-racking pause, another new voice answered. "This is Operations Commander Bates of the FS Breaker. Be advised that we are here to deal with a colony revolt and that said transport is the property of the legal owners of the colony."
There was no time lapse. Sikes answered Bates immediately. "Then your info is incorrect Operations Commander. The ownership of this colony is in dispute. We have been sent on orders of the Central Worlds Supreme Court to see that the matter is settled in the Court and not by belligerent action. This is a Patrol matter not Forces. I offer you the chance to test your command on the transport, which is part of a documented mercenary operation, only as a courtesy. Should you not wish to engage, I ask that you withdraw your forces immediately. I also advise you that a transcript of this exchange is being hyper transmitted to the Court as we speak."
As he was speaking, the Patrol Commander had taken further precautions in case his political threat wasn't enough. His cruisers were now in perfect positions, at the rear and both flanks, to cut the larger Forces command to pieces before they could maneuver to attack him. Riddick heard the anger in Bates voice as the Forces officer gave in.
"Since, as you say, this is a Patrol matter, we will leave you to it. End trans."
After the Forces vessels were on their way to the gate, Sikes dispatched two cruisers to deal with the transport, left another of his cruisers on outer guard and closed the other three around the Hole, now the White Cliffs of Dover, and Riddick's and Syrus' ships.
"Captain of the White Cliffs of Dover, do you require assistance in achieving planet orbit and disembarking your crew?"
That last part didn't sound good to Riddick. He listened very carefully to Jenna's answer.
"I can make orbit, Commander Sikes, but cannot disembark. My crew consists of my Third Officer and myself and we are trapped on the auxiliary bridge. It will require repairing my ship's central corridor before the remaining bay will be accessible. I will also require one of my remaining auxiliary ships to disembark and request that one of my pilots be allowed to replace me as my ship's controls are damaged and I do not trust the automatics to keep her in a stable orbit. But let me introduce myself properly, I am Captain Djin ah Blakeney."
"A pleasure, Captain Blakeney. I will have a repair crew sent over as soon as you achieve orbit. I will however, ask you to order your auxiliary ships to proceed to the planet's surface. I will provide my Captain's Yacht to disembark you and your officer. I have no objections to one of your pilots remaining on your ship as long as it is not a hyper capable one. If you will transmit your crew roster, I will locate one as quickly as possible. Be assured that, other than the repair crew, no members of the patrol shall board your vessel. I will respect your ship's privacy until such time as its proper ownership is established by the Court."
"That is acceptable, Commander Sikes. I had not known that our colony was being disputed. I understand your position and appreciate the courtesy you are extending." Then her voice changed to one of command, "First Officer Wade, Chief Medical Officer Black, please follow the Commander's orders and set down at the colony. I expect you to cooperate with the Patrol and to make sure that the colony leaders, Mr. Sen and Mr. Rafferty, both understand what has happened and our situation and do so as well. My compliments to you both for your actions today. I will see you on the ground, gentlemen. End trans."
There was nothing Riddick could do but follow orders. He had been too interested in the face-off between Sikes and Bates and then the conversation between Sikes and Jenna to take time to analyze where it left his side of things hanging. Now, he realized that while the bleeding and dying would be over, they were still caught. But he'd been caught before. He was still alive and Jenna was still alive and … maybe … just maybe … so was Jack. A lot of things could happen before the Patrol got anybody to slam.
He found that that thought was a little optimistic when he landed the BC and let down her ramp. An armed escort of eight Patrolmen was waiting for him and he was taken directly to one of the Patrol cruisers. After being strip searched and issued a pair of standard prison coveralls, he was locked in her brig. He didn't know if Syrus and his crew got the same treatment since Syrus had landed at the other end of the colony. However, it was a good bet that they had. Riddick checked out his cell for any possible weapons materials that the designers had over looked. Finding none, he settled into slam-mode, patiently waiting until someone made a mistake.
No one did. For the next two weeks, Riddick's meals arrived through a sliding drawer without him even catching a glimpse of whoever delivered them. All dishes and utensils were flush-disposable and the drawer disappeared as soon as he had emptied it and didn't reappear until the next meal arrived. Fresh coveralls were delivered daily, with his evening meal, and the used ones disposed of the same way as the dishes. Bed linens were handled the same way but weekly instead of daily.
He was never removed from the cell. It contained a shower, with blow-dry and soap, etc, dispensers, and lavatory facilities. It was also large enough for him to have a reasonable amount of exercise. He could even manage pull-ups using the double-bunk bed frame. When he loudly requested reading materials, a section of wall immediately moved aside to reveal a sealed, fuck-proof screen and keyboard that only gave him access to a reading and vid library. He figured he was being watched as well as audio monitored. The lights waxed and waned on the usual sixteen hours on / eight hours off schedule but the library and vids were never unavailable. For a slam, it was a class operation.
But, Riddick wasn't finding it as easy to maintain his patience as he always had. He had too much to think about, too much to worry about. The worst were about Jack, not knowing if she had made it or not. His thoughts about Jenna ran a close second. He knew she was alive and Sikes had sounded like the kind who went by the book with no sick games or abuse allowed. But going by the book could have put Jenna into a cell just like Riddick's or speeding back to Central Worlds, if the Court ordered it. If that last happened before Riddick could find some way to escape, it might take him a long time to find her again.
Also, he didn't know how much support she had left except for possibly Syrus and Jeeter. The colony, what little he had been able to scan on the way down, didn't look as bad as he expected, no obvious damage to the buildings. The transport had grounded too far from the colony to use her ship's guns to any effect but he didn't have time to take a good look at her either.
But buildings weren't people. For all he knew, that one transport of mercs had been able to kill just about everybody. He had come to realize that most of Rafferty's people were not, had never been, mercs. They were Forces veterans but some of them a long time out. They were tough, they were trained, they were fighting for their own but they could have been just too outnumbered for that to matter.
At the end of that first week, Riddick was questioned. He still didn't see anyone. The questioner was a disembodied, male voice over the com in his cell. He was asked detailed questions about the merc attack, then about the formation and establishment of the colony and finally about his own personal history. That last one put him on alert. He had been fingerprinted and DNA swabbed with the strip search. There was no reason for the questions about his history unless they were onto the group and quite likely Richard B. Riddick as well. Fuck!
Riddick silently thanked Jenna for the long hours of grilling and the unexpected quizzes she had put him through on the details of the history that had been invented for him as well as the cover story invented for the group. He hadn't had to know much about that last, only what would be expected from a hired pilot who had then decided to stay with the colony. However, Jenna had had him memorize more of her own personal invented history, as much as lovers might discuss while occupying the same bed.
What he said seemed to satisfy the 'voice' since there were no repeat sessions but that didn't mean anything. He was still sitting in a cell. Nor did the 'voice' give him any information on what had happen to the colony. He didn't ask about Jack directly, only about the lost lander and her crew, because he didn't want to draw any attention to Jack if he was already in shit. But even on that subject the 'voice' gave the same "I'm not authorized to give any information." excuse. Fucker!
By the end of the second week, the thin veneer of Rick Wade was fast disappearing and Richard B. Riddick, your worst nightmare, was coming back with a vengeance and nothing but vengeance on his mind. He had tried to do it righteous. All it had gotten him was the same old fuck-over. But not only him. A whole bunch of good people had been fucked-over right along with him.
And it wasn't some omni-what-the-shit thing, twist of fate, god-wasn't-watching fuck-over. Somebody had done it to them. You didn't follow a ship through space, particularly hyperspace like you tail some goof in a ground car. You have to have a tracking signal to follow. But the Hole's security system would have reported that. Someone had to have given the bad guys the colony's location.
The list of people who knew those coordinates was a very short one. When you figured in the fact that the Central Worlds Supreme Court was involved in the mix, that list shortened down to one. Only Sen would have set up some crazy-assed plot to somehow twist the Company around by luring them into a legal battle over the ownership of the colony and bringing the Patrol into it against them.
Maybe it was a good plan as long as it was only the group involved. Still ok with the few that had been added at New Mecca. With that few people, they would have had no problem getting out of the way when it went to shit and the mercs showed up. But Sen had no right to have let Rafferty bring all his people in, no right to play god with their lives too.
If Riddick hated God, he hated fuckers who played god even worse. Oh, yeah, Riddick would escape and he would find Jenna, no matter how long it took. But, on the way, he would give Sen a one-way ticket to a face-to-face with the original.
