XVII.
He had finally given up running futile scans; it wasn't a space anomaly causing the transmission failure … the cause of the problem laid on Furya. A failure in the com station? Not likely; Hope would have repaired that by now. And there was only one other explanation he could think of: sabotage … the guy Ronson mentioned. He could only hope that Furya hadn't gotten overrun by mercs; they were still so few and with only Hope, Tyr and Carlos as noteworthy warriors they'd never be able to stand against them.
He shouldn't have left like that.
But he would make up for his leaving her again.
Yes, it's been a fucking mistake leaving her behind on Furya. He didn't make mistakes often but he wasn't above admitting it when he did.
He would not repeat that mistake.
He'd had no other choice when he hid her from the mercs back on that planet but this time … she had all rights to be pissed with him. He should have made it clear that he had only done it to keep her out of harms way and not to get his way; he had done it because his feelings for her wouldn't allow anything less than keep her safe and happy.
If he'd have a saying in it they'd never part again.
He leaned back in the pilot's chair and tried to relax. There was nothing to do on the ship and you can workout only so often. And apart from that hitting the gym without her was just a matter of staying in shape anyways; there was absolutely no fun in it.
He had to occupy his mind; and how to do that in a better way than letting his mind wander back again … to the first fight they had to pass as a team …
They were running out of the pergium (**) they needed for the environmental systems; they had to look for a mine selling it and found one on a little planet at the frontier to the next quadrant.
It was that unimportant and that far away you should assume that nobody had ever heard about them there. But you shouldn't assume anything … thanks very much to Murphy 's Law.
It was hot as hell on that jerkwater planet with its small resources of pergium. The mining village consisted of a couple dozen houses, a bar, a store and surprisingly a church; not very common in the average mining village. After the fiasco on Orkas landing on a planet had palled on Hope; she had been to mines before looking for what she needed and apart from that she was much more confident in her abilities to defend herself and so she insisted on going straight to the mine while he took care to stock up everything else they would need. She would have ordered the pergium online if that would have been possible but she had to make sure that it was pure enough for their purpose.
He didn't like her going there on her own but they used the headsets; he would hear everything and he'd be able to watch over her the whole time.
The office of the charge hand was covered in pergium dusk, the desk total chaos; flexis and dirty cups fought for a place with cigar ends and family photos. The charge hand himself was heavily built, his hands big and calloused, his voice booming, a mess of short white curls crowned a big, furrowed face.
"Sorry." he said and cleared the table in one swift move, shoving everything except of the photos into a wastebasket. "We don't have a lot of female visitors here." His attitude was candid and reminded Hope a bit of a much younger Gramps; she liked him instantly.
"Now let's see what you need." He took the flexi with the specifications Hope handed him.
"Mhm. We've got that. May I ask for what purposes you'll need it?"
There was something in the man's eyes and voice that alarmed her, his meaningful glance to the corner of the room convinced her that something was wrong. "Ah, I don't know, we are just middlemen?" she tried to think of a story.
""Well, then let's see what we can do for you."
As soon as they were outside the man grabbed her shoulder. "I know who you are, your mug shot is hung out in each pergium mine. We are instructed to ask each customer about the intended use and to tell on everybody that is asking for especially what you need. You and your boyfriend have quite a bounty on your head." He had sensed her tensing up and quickly continued "Calm down, I won't turn you in. I'm no fucking snitch for those blues and I don't like getting bullied around by the company in my own office. If they want you so badly they should fucking go themselves for you."
They had reached the huge storage room. "I've searched the net about you; you made me curious. Scientist and stuff teaming up with a murderer. Made me wonder. What the hell did you think by helping a convict and stealing a space ship anyways? You've got Compsyn AND the Company on your necks. … My, my, you love that convict … that's it, isn't it?" He shook his head and sighed.
Hope felt like a kid getting reprimanded by her father. She wanted to defend her decision, tell him that he was wrong about Riddick but he cut her off.
"You remind me of my daughter. Stubborn girl. Could have had a captain and fell in love with a dirty miner. But she's happy with him and that's what counts in the end. I gave her a hard time and nearly lost her; I learned my lesson and that's why I help you. You, not him. There is a squad of those blues in town; they came along with the mugshots. Company knows what you need for your ship and you'll run into them at each mine you'll go. And now take your pergium and leave. And be careful, I don't think we have fooled them." He shoved her out of the door and went back to the office without another glance at her, murmuring something about stupid women the whole way back to his office.
Hope stashed the pergium into her bag. "Riddick, did you hear everything? What shall I do now?"
"Yeah, loud and clear. Go on as we had planned it. And babe … be careful!"
Riddick cursed. The Defiant had its advantages but to be in need of strange crystals and unusual materials made them vulnerable. He'd have to think of something.
It was amazing how she affected people. The miner could have made a fortune selling them out, instead he had decided to help her … but he shouldn't wonder … she'd had that effect on him from the first second.
He hurried through town, ghostlike, senses on high alert. They had appointed the time for their visit there wisely in the late hours of the afternoon and it was easy for him to blend in the shadows, becoming a shadow himself.
There had been no signs of the blues in town but they wouldn't hang out in the open anyways and there was no time to 'interrogate' one of the locals. The mine was situated a few miles out of town and he hurried to reach their meeting point.
Halfway between town and the mine laid an area with lots of boulders, most of them more than man-high and with small paths between them. And behind that field well hidden the Defiant. He closed up to Hope even before she reached the rocks. She had one of her shivs already in her hand, the other stabled the bag with the pergium in it.
"Babe, hand me that bag." It would be hard enough for her without the added weight; he would have left the pergium behind if they wouldn't have needed it that badly and apart from that with that stock of pergium they wouldn't have to land again anytime soon.
"Riddick, did you see those blues?" Her eyes were big and she was a bit out of puff but not afraid.
He shook his head no. "But that's no reason to celebrate, we haven't arrived at the ship yet so don't get your hopes up."
They sashayed the small paths between the rocks, stopping short of the periphery … between them and the Defiant stood a squad of blues, heavily armed and ready to kill them at first sight. One of them tried to open the hatch of the Defiant ... good luck with that.
Riddick turned to Hope and laid his hands on her shoulders, his thumbs caressed her neck.
"Babe, we'll have to fight our way through to the ship. There is no other way. You'll stay behind me, I'll crack their formation, you follow closely, watch my back. Don't let them separate you from me and follow my lead. Hope … I mean it. That are 12 heavily armed and trained soldiers, not three dumb mercs. No flying solo, understood? And if I say 'down' … you know what I mean." His brow was raised, his gaze inquisitory.
Hope just nodded wordlessly.
She had the shivs in her hands like he had taught her, her body was relaxed, her mind focused. He felt an irrepressible surge of pride … what a woman … his woman.
Her smile was just a bit shaken "Let's teach them to mess with a geek." She tried to joke.
From the expression on her face he could tell that she was thinking about her fight with the mercs on Orkas. "You've been great then and you'll do even better now, babe. Trust me. Everything will be all right, you'll see. We'll go right through them, no pity, babe, they don't have any on you. We'll have to kill them all or we won't make it off that planet. Just remember what I taught you".
He hadn't seen her fight with the mercs on Orkas, just the results and he was nearly looking forward to see her in action.
The blues had tricorders with them and knew that they were hiding between the rocks. They didn't attack coz they knew only too well that they stood no chance against them as long as they didn't come out and also knew that there was no other way to get to the ship than through them. It didn't take long until the sergeant called out, seemingly tired of the waiting.
"We know you are there, just come out and bow to the inevitable."
"I bow to no man and to no circumstances!" Riddick growled for the soldier not to hear.
The sergeant didn't like getting no answer. "You've gone totally around the bend if you think you can stand up against us, capitulate and you'll both live."
"Like hell we'll surrender; ready to rock'n'roll, babe?" he smiled at her, choosing his words carefully to take her thoughts away from the graveness of the situation, his smile cheering her up and calming her down.
Yes, she was ready; he couldn't sense any fear or hesitation, she held herself in readiness, waiting for his command to cut loose.
Hope took a deep breath; she had to reassure herself that it wouldn't be like her fight with the mercs on Orkas (***); this time she had Riddick at her side.
"Let's get nitty-gritty." Hope smiled as a response with grim determination in her eyes; she wouldn't let him down. She would make him proud of her. All of a sudden making him proud was the only important thing to her. Where there had been hesitation on Orkas there was nothing but the knowledge what to do and the certainty to be able to do it now.
The bag with the pergium shot across the place like a canon ball, taking out the blue that was trying to open the hatch. There was the sickening crunch of breaking bones to hear … the cervical vertebra giving way. One down, eleven left.
The soldiers didn't leave their positions, stood their ground but Riddick hadn't expected anything else. After throwing the bag he and Hope quickly moved to the left in the direction of the now nearly completely sunken sun, using the last shafts of sunlight to their advantage.
"Babe."
"Riddick."
Those two words said more than thousand words could have, tons of emotions none of them would talk about lying in them.
Riddick tore out of their cover, his shivs raised, his face a frightening mask of fury, their nemesis to come. He covered the distance to the remaining soldiers of the squad in a heartbeat.
At this close range the blues weren't able to use their riffles if they didn't want to kill one of their own and in a combat shiv to shiv, hand to hand they stood no chance against Riddick. He was everywhere at the same time, his shivs cutting and slicing a breach through them. He mowed them down with deadly efficiency.
Hope followed closely in Riddick's wake, close enough to not get separated from him but not too close to disable him to do what had to be done. The soldiers tried to get into their back, tried to attack from the rear but Hope was wary of that, used her shivs without any uncertainty, the soldiers Riddick didn't ghost fell from her shivs.
One by one the blues went down, dead or at least lethally wounded, no more threat to them.
To a casual bystander it might have looked like a choreographed dance. Both of them seemed to know what the other was going to do, where he would move to, which step she would take.
It didn't take more than ten minutes until the dreadful slaughter was over. The two of them stood in the middle of a battlefield, 12 dead or nearly dead bodies scattered around them. Riddick didn't even sweat, but his clothes and hands were soaked in blood, his face full of blood splatters. Hope didn't look any better … sweat mingled with the blood drops in her face, ran down her cheeks in little pink streams. She was breathing heavily and holding her arm where one of the soldiers had cut her.
"Babe, you OK?" Riddick looked her over but didn't see another wound than the one on her arm. "Babe!" he was a bit concerned when he didn't get an answer and took her chin into his hand to make her look at him. "Babe?"
She seemed kinda dazed, like she was awakening after a sleep haunted with nightmares. Hope blinked a few times and swallowed, the wings of her nose blew up at her attempt to suck air into her lungs. "It's over, isn't it? We have showed them not to mess with us, haven't we?" Her eyes suddenly went big when she saw a movement behind Riddick and without even thinking about it she threw her knife.
Riddick had turned around to see the last convulsions of the dying sergeant; he had his riffle in his hand, the muzzle pointing at them and Hope's knife buried deep in his forehead.
"I think I've created a monster" he grinned at her, pulling her close to him "and I couldn't be more proud of you." …
She had been right that they were a complementary team. They had fought hand in hand, the interplay of their movements flawless. If up to it the two of them could wrack havoc across the whole universe and back and nobody would ever be able to stop them.
He had to tell her that he left without her just because he wouldn't stand seeing her getting hurt. That he often wasn't able to see behind that fragile form of hers, couldn't see her strength. And she was a damn good warrior … she had proved it.
Fuck, he missed her so much; and maybe he would even tell her. He knew he should talk more to her anyways. But she had always seemed to be content with his being monosyllabic. He couldn't figure out why she was still so insecure about some things; especially him. But when she needed to hear it he would tell her how much he … felt for her. He had to grin a bit about himself. 'Infamous Richard B. Riddick afraid of a lousy little single word.' A word he hadn't used once in his whole life.
(**) Pergium is a radioactive element used for power … Hope needs it for the environmental control system
(***) Chapter XVIII of 'Defiant'