Again, sorry that this is a bit short. They're getting longer, though…slowly…maybe. Okay, I'll try harder next chapter to get more out.

I really enjoyed writing this one. As you probably know if you've read my bio I am a sucker for sci-fi, especially Star Wars. Anything with a space ship in it and I'm gone. I really liked the beginning of Pitch Black, the whole crash scene. Brilliant. I looove space ships! So, I wanted to get a similar type of feel with this chap. Hopefully it worked…perhaps…

Anywho, thankies to everyone for continuing to review.

Happy Reading.

Gem

Xxx

Chapter 2: Welcome To Helion Prime.

"Jack?"

She knew that she was staring but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the spectacle before her, couldn't make her hands move and comply with the demands that Riddick was making for their descent to the desert planet that hung like a luminous golden bauble in the black velvet of space before them.

"Jack?"

Thousands upon thousands of sleek, silver, teardrop shaped ships swarmed around the planet of Helion Prime like little globes of water suspended in anti-gravity. They twinkled in the light reflected from the planet's surface, so many different sizes.

"Jack?"

On some of the larger ships she could actually see the firepower that they were packing. Not an encouraging prospect in the least. So what where they? An invasion force?

"Jack!" Riddick shouted impatiently, kicking out at the sole of her booted foot nearest to him with his as she rested her feet on her toes, bouncing them up and down slightly in a nervous, jerky gesture. She snapped her attention back to him, looking up into his black-goggled gaze.

"Yeah?" she replied and he thrust her goggles towards her, silently telling her to put them on. It was going to be bright when they entered the atmosphere and by the looks of the welcoming committee that they had to greet them, it was highly likely that they were going to have to do some pretty fancy assed flying to get them down onto 'terra firma'. Riddick needed her at her best and that meant shielding her eyes from the glare of burning atmosphere as they went in. As they went down.

Jack pulled her eye protection over her head, not caring that it caught her ponytail at the back of her head and she turned back to the task at hand, not even bothering to ask the questions that she was dieing to know the answers to. She knew Riddick was concentrating too hard to give her any reply beyond a grunt and she didn't want to distract him. He was the only one who could save their backsides and she needed him at his best so that he could do just that.

"Fuel injection, maximum. Hull and wing integrity, 93 percent. Routing all excess power to main driver." Jack reeled off, flipping switches and pressing buttons as she spoke. "We gonna make a run for the surface?" she asked after a slight pause, her attention still focused upon her controls.

"Give me the stats for the landing legs. Not used 'em in a hell of a long time." he barked, disregarding her question entirely and clicking his fingers at her as he frantically prepared the ship for her first "emergency" landing in the three years that they had owned her.

Jack complied in silence. Any other time and his clicking at her would have earned him a shit-load of grief. He'd whistled at her once, trying to gain her attention and she had gone ballistic. She wasn't a fucking dog, after all…she may be a bitch but she wasn't a dog! She'd told him to sleep in the spare cabin that night. Said she hadn't wanted him anywhere near her, she was so infuriated. Riddick, however, was never one to take kindly to orders and there had been no possible way that she could have stopped him from forcing himself down onto the bed beside her. Oh, sure, she'd screamed bloody murder. She'd punched and kicked, and bit and scratched…but then the punching had become grasping…and the biting had become kissing…and the scratching, well, scratching!

"Anytime this week, Your Majesty!" Riddick snarled in annoyance, interrupting her wandering thoughts and bringing her slamming right back into the present.

"Yeah…right…landing legs, landing legs, landing legs…" she muttered, fighting to keep her mind focused upon her task. She scrolled down through the information on her com-screen, the index finger of her free hand lightly travelling down the monitor as she scanned over it.

"Need that info, Jack!" Riddick's voice became more insistent as their ship slipped closer and closer to the fleet stationed around Helion Prime. They were starting to draw attention to themselves.

"Patience is a virtue, you know…" Jack mumbled in reply, scowling behind her black goggle-lenses that reflected the bright white lettering from the black com-screen pristinely.

Suddenly the entire ship rocked and warning lights and alarms flashed amber about the dark cockpit. Jack held her breath, both her actions and Riddick's stilled for an extended heartbeat.

"What the hell was that!" she had to shout to make herself heard over the incessant wailing of the alarms and sirens desperate to get their attention, announcing all the discrepancies that were affecting the skiff all at once.

Riddick glanced at her, motionless save for the flaring of his nostrils as he waited, hoping that it wouldn't happen again. Pleading that it wasn't what he had thought it had been…

"Riddick, what-" Jack was cut off as the skiff shuddered a second time, throwing her forwards into her com-controls, the monitor shaking dangerously where it was bolted to the co-pilot's seat and the blaring noise became louder.

"Fuckers are shooting at us!" Riddick roared over the din, fumbling underneath his own com-station through the assortment of wires while manoeuvring the ship from the line of fire that was lancing it's way towards them. His hand clasped around a clump of several cables held together by duck-tape, his hand coming away sticky as the heat from the skiff's computers had caused the adhesive to melt. He muttered under his breath, cursing Jack and her obsession with the temporary bonding agent. According to her, duck-tape was the answer to everything!

He yanked out the clustered power cables that had been linked to the alarm system and the ship was filled with silence though a ringing had taken up residence in both his and Jack's ears. She raised an amused eyebrow at him but Riddick's grim frown sobered her and sent her attention back to her own com as he began evading the attacks sent towards them, looking for a window through which they could slip into the planet's atmosphere.

"Hull and wing intensity is down to 86 percent. Bastards hit us!" she hissed, hands flirting with the controls in their own dance. Riddick would have stopped to admire the way she moved when she was working if they hadn't been up to their eyeballs in shit. "Still nothing on the landing legs…wait…" she paused, leaning in closer to the screen and squinting her eyes behind her goggles in scrutiny. "Shit!" she growled and she was suddenly fumbling with her harness, limbs flailing desperately as she fought to release herself.

"Talk to me, Jack!" Riddick yelled, swinging the skiff around another volley of shots that rocketed their way and causing her un-strapped body to slam into the wall. "Jack, why are you outta your seat? You're gonna get fucking hurt!"

Jack was moving again, rubbing at where her soft body had been forced painfully up against the jutting metal wall of the cockpit. She was out in the corridor before she replied to him, her legs pelting out a furious run clanging out metallically as she yelled back over her shoulder, her voice echoing in the unnerving silence.

"The landing legs are fucking offline!"

-00000-

Sorry, I know, I know. Cliff-hangers are bad! Who's shooting at them, I wonder…well, actually I don't, coz I know exactly who is shooting at them but…there you go. Hope you liked!