Riddick: Bloodhounds 3

Chapter 3: The Tech Guy

Story- Toombs holds a certain individual hostage, and he is ill beyond using her as captive to get what he wants. And what he wants is revenge, revenge against a man who stuffed him into a crate and left him as a plaything for Hell Hounds on Crematoria. If it hadn't been for Eve Logan, and a few others from the prison on that world, he would have likely died in that cell from starvation, or worse, as meal- chop for the beasts that were caged on either side of him.

Toombs may be a man of simple intuition, but he is by no means a person beyond ill regret. He cusses himself every day for not putting a bullet into the brain of a man who has cost him so much…..Riddick.

Riddick is a man that may seem as a god to some, but in this regard….. The bounty hunter Toombs is here to stake claim that Riddick is no god, only a mere mortal, a mortal with extreme abilities for sure, but a mortal just the same. And Toombs' plans are to collected bounty on Riddick. He wants to deliver the man's body to the nearest collective point where he can gather his reward (be Riddick alive or carcass). And also, he wants to show the universe that Riddick is not immortal, that he can be tamed, subdued, or even ghosted.

As stated, Toombs has a score to settle….and if he can make good on this delivery, his fortune will rank among the stars….and he will be known throughout the cosmos as "The Guy that got Richard B. Riddick".

******************** The Tech Guy ********************

Luna was in the cock-pit of a vessel that had become his new home. As he lay on his back (fidgeting with a bunch of wires that hung down like snakes from trees on some tropical planet), he entertained a feeling, a feeling that he was lucky, lucky to have survived the last adventure posted on Santana's vessel, that adventure could have easily gone the other way.

He also began talking to himself, in an attempted to address a problem with one of Johns' vessel's control systems.

"….the yellow wire attaches to the blue, or was it the brown…..damn-it, why can't I figure this thing out," he voiced, almost as a whisper to himself?

More or less Luna had been adopted by Johns, and had seemingly acquired the chore duties of maintaining the technical aspects of the ship. Not a bad deal considering that he could have been shot in the back like he'd seen done (to the woman) by his old boss, Santana, or left on that mud-planet to be torn apart and eaten by Mud Demons. However, his new boss wasn't like his old, and the young Luna was a bit more appreciative that Johns seemly had more scruples in his little finger than Santana had had in his whole body.

Luna was mulling over the problem he was having with the connectors under the cock-pit console when he thought that he heard a voice call from outside.

"Hey tech guy, you in there!"

Luna began to ponder the idea if he was hearing things, or if someone was actually trying to get his attention?

"Hey, nerd-hole, I'm talking to you!"

Luna eased himself from under the console and stood looking out of the window, what he saw stunned him into reality. There, in the illumination of a spotlight that seemed to be totally focused upon them, stood Dahl, with a man standing behind her, his arm wrapped around her throat and with a firearm placed to the side of her head.

"That's better," the guy spoke, "…..now look here I.N. Stein (what he had likely meant was Einstein) you're gonna open that door and let me and my friend here in, comprende? We are gonna come aboard and have a little chat, you ducky with that?"

Luna could see that Dahl's eyes were wide open, yet he was aware of no fear in them. Hell, he'd have craped his pants by now!

Luna didn't speak, but he did acknowledge that he had heard, and understood. In two minutes the ramp to the ship was down, and the man, with his captive, stood waiting outside.

"Very intelligent decision by you Tech Guy," Toombs said.

Luna had noticed then that there were several others in faction with this renegade, six in total not including Mr. Smartmouth. They began marching up the ramp and entered the ship.

******************** Worms in the Bulkhead ********************

Once inside, Luna became privy to what these bloodhounds were after.

"So Tech Guy….."

Johns' newest recruit was becoming a little tired of being called that.

"It's Luna, my name is Luna," he voiced, with a little irritation.

Toombs laughed….

"….so Luna, it's to my understanding that you've met up with Riddick, and stared him down, kinda ballzy for a kid so puny. Tell me, what's the secret to putting fear into the "shines" of that killer?"

Luna could see that maybe he'd yanked his own chain a bit too zealously (folk overhearing him boast in the marketplace) and it might be a better route for him to come clean at this point, explain himself more thoroughly.

"Well, actually, I didn't stare-him-down, truth be told," Luna began, "when I first came in contact with Riddick, the light overhead may have been a little sensitive for his taste, he may have lowered his gaze just to avoid the aggravation it was causing his eyes…. rather than me actually staring him down, that part might have been a bit of an embellishment in my regard."

Luna was hoping that his admission would satisfy this crew of unsavorys and cause them to be on their way. Hopefully they could tell that he had actually had been no threat to the convict; he was hardly a match for Eve Logan. However, it didn't work, not a one of them made a move to exit the craft.

Toombs marched up to him….

"That's sweet; you confessing your truths to me, like I was some kind of Iman or something. But I could tell from first sight of you that…. had Riddick wanted, he could have eaten your liver for breakfast, and fed your soul to the locus. No, the real answer that I want from you now is, where to find him, and that my friend is something that I know you seem very capable of being able to do."

******************** Using the Tech Guy's Savvy ********************

Toombs knew very well…. that every ship (that had ever sailed the cosmos) had a Tech Guy …Excuse the obvious gender slant, let me rephrase, Tech Person.

A man or woman who were kind of book nerds or technical geeks, whatever title given to them, there was a person onboard who was able to dispel the common issues that plagued a vessels' control systems out in the deep void of space (kinda like a shade tree mechanic if you will). If a ship didn't have a specialist of this sort on board, then it was a sure bet that they would meet their demise at some future time out in the vacuum of nothingness. Therefore, every Captain that ever sailed the Dark Sea, had this kind of person at their call, and a really good tech was nearly worth his or her weight in gold.

Luna had been the tech support for Santana, but now… had become the tech person for Johns, and as such, he likely knew the beacon code that was embedded within Santana's old pirate vessel. A transponder source which would show the location of the ship Riddick had taken, once he and Johns had parted ways.

Toombs wasn't your smartest pirate or bounty hunter, yet he was a seasoned Captain, a man who was well versed in the protocol expressed by vessels flying out in the Deep.

Toombs knew that there was always a program somewhere that pinged transponder nodes. A way of finding a vessel that was marooned or on some destitute world, yet there were tens of thousands of these broadcasts every day, way out on the edge of space. The majority of distress calls or source beacons were ignored, the mindset behind this was that…. every ship that had a flat tire and pulled over to the nearest moon, better have someone on-board to fix it, if they didn't, then they were mostly likely, shit-outta-luck, metaphorically and figuratively speaking.

That was the reason that most vessels flying in the universe were seemingly like their own little community, they had their own tech person, med-doc, cook, captain and security team, some crew-members doubling up on their duty for extra pay.

And it was post knowledge known by pirates and bandits that frequented the cosmos….. if there was a distress signal received, that it was usually broadcast by some poor family of pilgrims marooned somewhere and in need of rescue. The pirates or bandits would mark the spot and return to it later, whenever the poor souls had run out of O2, or starved to death. This way the scoundrels weren't actually committing murder, the people they were stealing from were already deceased, therefore they were only plucking the booty from the dead, becoming grave robbers of a sort. Which was highly unethical….. but not totally against universal law.

Like was said, most transponder signals were ignored, but there were some that were viewed with interest.

Usually each pirate or bounty hunter Captain had their Tech person rig up a secret signal beacon, a code known only to themselves and their crew, as to find their own ship should it become lost or taken from them. Toombs knew that Santana had likely posted Luna to do this; therefore there must be a way of finding his old spacecraft, and this is what he would do to get back on Riddick's tail. However, Riddick was smart guy, intelligent enough to post under the radar. When he did send out a beacon, he knew that it would only be picked up by the most curious, the persons looking for it. He felt confident that only a handful of bloodhounds would receive his broadcast and know what it was.

He had also found Santana's secret transponder node and disabled it, but now, three months into his stay on this world, LC-236, he was ready to leave, the thing is, he wanted a new ride, and if one was going to be a car thief, be imaginative; steal a different make and model.

Riddick knew the bloodhounds were coming, he had told them to.

"Murderer, mercenary, bloodhound, escaped convict, soldier, bounty hunter, pirate and Lord Marshal of the Necromongers. My list of credits grows longer every day, I may have to start a new list…. and now add car thief to it. Maybe I shouldn't do that, steal someone else's spaceship, could get me in trouble with the law (laughs)."

Riddick's thoughts were amusing at points, he even humored himself sometimes.

END PART 3