8. Endless to Absent

They found four sets of earplugs, for their ears and their noses. Riddick led the way again back to the front of the ship, stopping at the dark, and unused, quarters for a pair of his goggles. Zemma suddenly had an epiphany.

"You thought I ran away again, when I didn't move into this room." She kept her voice quiet. "That's why the respect and manipulation comments." Zemma shook her head, finally getting it. How could she be so slow? Sleeping in the pilot's seat? She shook her head, exasperated with herself.

Riddick didn't reply. She didn't expect him to. When he turned to hand her the goggles she caught him with a quick kiss, up on her toes, her hand against his chest for balance. His arm snaked around and caught her, pulling her in.

"I…"

"Shhh." He stopped her with another quick kiss. "I don't need you to say it." He turned her loose and pulled the goggles over her head so they were resting on her forehead. "Let's go."

Bastard. You did learn Furyan behind my back. Courtesy of Jaron, no doubt.

She followed him. He didn't head straight for the front of the ship, but to a storage locker.

"We need enviro suits. When the air goes, so will the heat."

Zemma's was way too big for her, Riddick's a little tight. "It wouldn't look like salvage if it was tailored," he joked.

Zemma didn't have anything witty to reply. She just smiled, and followed him to the flight deck, but took the navigator's chair instead of the co-pilots.

"How many steps to do this thing?" She asked, referring to the dump and re-pressurize.

"Doing it manually? About seven."

"Is there already going to be an auto-process?" She was strapped in now and turning on the computer terminal in front of her.

"Probably was before I burned it. It's got bare minimum programs now."

Zemma was starting to wonder about this salvage idea. She felt the engines power to full, and the anti-grav kick in. "How much time to the top?"

"I can get us there in about six minutes."

"Do we really need to rush?"

"It's not the plague I'm worried about. Can you write the program in six minutes?"

The screen she needed finally popped up. "Yup." The programs were simple code, nothing she hadn't seen before.

"Hang on to your breakfast. This might hurt a little."

Zemma was typing as fast as she could, not sure what the next six minutes would bring. All the information was already there, she just needed a quickie program that would run them all sequentially when they pushed either one of two buttons she'd picked off the instrument panel.

Gravity hit her like nothing she'd ever felt. She had to take a full minute to concentrate on just breathing, her hands sitting heavily in her lap. Counting heartbeats was a little scary so she had to stop. She turned her head -it took an eternity- to look at Riddick. His hands were still on the controls but she could see the tension through his whole body. It looked painful.

Five minutes more of this, and you need to finish the program, girlie.

Zemma lifted her hands back to the keyboard. It took just a little bit longer than forever, and was possibly the hardest thing she'd ever done.

Harder than sticking a knife in your own mother?

Damn voice.

She screwed up the last line of code when her fingers hit the keyboard like lumps.

Might as well type with your feet.

She gritted her teeth and tried again. She fixed what she had undone and moved on. Three minutes. She wasn't going to finish on time. She hoped Riddick's timetable was more precaution than necessity. She plugged along, trying to move carefully and ignore the pain in her forearms and shoulders; trying not to make more mistakes that would cost her time.

"Riddick." She didn't like the sound of her voice with her lungs clear down in her feet.

"Yah." He sounded strained too.

"I can't…" Gasp "…fin'sh this…" Gasp "…in time." Gasp "Izit crit?" Gasp "Can I…" Gasp "…'ave six…" Gasp "…min'ts…" Gasp "…at top?"

"Yah."

Zemma sat back in relief.

The last two minutes were still an eternity of painful pressure and intense nausea. She ran the lines she planned to type through her mind, till she was sure she could do it blindfolded in less than three minutes.

When they popped out of atmosphere, and gravity quit being their most immediate threat, it took Zemma a few seconds to realize it. They weren't in freefall, but for those first few seconds Zemma felt like it. She had to clench her jaw and order her stomach to behave, whatever it's current position in her body might be.

"Get it done." Riddick's voice was still a little strained.

Zemma didn't dare reply. She just reached for the keyboard and let her fingers work. Her eyes only tracking for mistakes, what she was seeing was actually in her head. Time went from endless to absent. At some point her breathing got back to normal. She didn't notice.

"Done." She unbuckled and dove to the co-pilot's next to Riddick. She didn't buckle in right away, but unzipped her suit a little and reached into her pocket for her deck of cards. She glanced at Riddick who was looking at her curiously. "Dead man's switch." She handed the top card to Riddick and took one for herself. The rest she put back in her pocket before she buckled up.

Riddick set the card on his knee and pulled the earplugs out of his pocket. "We have to hold out for at least 2 minutes; thirty seconds to flush out, and two minutes plus to re-pressurize this room. Still up for it?"

She didn't bother to answer; there wasn't one. She was just going to do it.

"You know how to dog the door if it doesn't seal?"

Zemma nodded. She'd lived her whole life in space and she knew that drill even if she'd never had to do it; the Basilica functioned perfectly. She glanced at the door and tried not to worry about Riddick's 'salvage' job.

"This is your toggle," Zemma pointed out his; she knew hers. "If either of us drops our card, we hit it early." Her voice was firm on the matter. "The program will close that door and start pushing air in here first."

"I don't want to do this twice."

"Tough." She put in her earplugs first so she couldn't hear him argue. Well, she could but she would pretend she couldn't.

Riddick was breathing deep and fast, Zemma followed suit. She pulled her goggles down and made sure they sealed neatly around her eyes. The plugs up her nose were uncomfortable, but that was the least of her concerns. She held up her card and waited for Riddick to do the same. She couldn't see his eyes; the cards would be their only means of communication for a short time.

He took a deep breath and held his up. Zemma was as ready as she could be. She hit execute, the first part of her program started. The results were mostly as expected. She started counting down in her head, trying not to let her card get whisked out of her hand.

The cold wasn't expected. She knew it would happen quickly. She knew it would be colder than anything she'd ever known. It still surprised her, even in the enviro suit. She felt her face and fingers freeze immediately.

Nineteen.

Eighteen.

Seventeen.

She thought she could hold her breath more or less easily, but her body was shaking from the absolute lack of any heat, making it a strain.

Thirteen.

Twelve.

She kept her eyes on Riddick's face. Frost had already condensed on his nose and cheeks. She imagined it must be the same for her. She couldn't tell, she couldn't feel anything. She had to look at the card in her hand to be sure she still had it.

Six.

Six?

Was it six?

She looked back to Riddick. He was still as stone, which was no help in knowing if he was more okay than she was. But his card was still locked in his frosty fingers. She glanced at the switch. Was it time? She felt like she was about to burst. Was it time, yet!

Riddick's head slowly shook a millimeter from side to side.

Wait. Just wait. He's okay. He'll know when. It's only thirty seconds. Piece of cake.

And another minute at least before there's enough air to breathe.

If the door seals. If one of us doesn't have to un-strap and dog it closed.

Riddick's hand was reaching slowly towards to toggle that would start the second part of the program. Zemma tried to follow, found her arm responding too slowly. The cold had seeped into her bones, making more than her thinking difficult. She pushed against the resistance of her own limb.

Riddick reached the switch first. No dexterity was required, he brushed it with the back of his knuckles; his fingers no doubt as difficult to control as Zemma's arm. The door to the smallish room slammed shut. No alarm sounded, no need to try to seal the door manually. Pressure, and precious air, was slowly being restored.

Zemma's arms dropped to her lap and she could feel heat radiating up from the floor again. She clutched to the card and started counting again, struggling against the shivers that wracked her whole body just to keep her concentration.

One. Two. Three. Four…

Her throat felt tight, her lungs desperate for action. Zemma clenched her jaw and kept her eyes on Riddick. He hadn't moved the arm on the control panel, it still rested there. The other he dropped, like Zemma's, to his lap. But he still held his card, and Zemma's gaze.

He didn't need me. It worked fine.

…Twenty-one… Twenty-two…

Zemma felt a rushing in her head, starting from the back and reaching forward like long fingers. She could hear her pulse very loudly in her ears. Her heart was thumping hard, desperately, against the hollow drum of her chest. It was actually becoming painful to hold her lungs in check against the urgent instinct to survive, the need to breathe.

A new pain distracted her. Her numb fingers were no longer numb, but spiking pain as they warmed up from the heat radiating from the floor.

Lovely.

Thirty-six… Thirty-seven…

Could have taken a nice little nap, but no.

Zemma realized it had only been a little over a minute since they started this. Ten minutes ago she'd been kissing him in the dark and grasping what a fool she could be.

Then you had to go prove what a new kind of fool you could be.

Zemma growled, some of the air in her escaping. Riddick, still unmoving and unreadable, raised an eyebrow. She twitched up a small smile, knowing it probably looked more like a grimace.

Forty-seven.

Getting there.

Zemma could feel the slightest movement that was air across her face, and had to remind herself it wasn't enough yet. She could expel what she had in her and not be able to take enough back in. She'd pass out from asphyxia. She had to hold on to what she had; it would be enough, if she didn't waste any more.

The fingers of darkness were reaching further forward.

Seventy-nine.

Eighty.

Just a few more seconds. Don't embarrass yourself.

Zemma swallowed hard. Riddick sat up a little in response. She lifted the palm of her right hand to stop him. But another tiny gasp of air escaped her. Riddick's free hand flew to his chest and unbuckled his harness.

What's he think he's gonna do? We just have to wait it out now.

You're going to have to wait on the sidelines, Zem.

Blackness was coming. She wouldn't die. Before that could happen there would be enough air to breathe again. She just didn't want to humiliate herself in front of Riddick.

Cold fingers were on her face, pressing at her jaw line. Cold lips were against hers. Her mouth opened to his and she felt him expel air into her. It wasn't much, but it pushed back the darkness a little. She opened her eyes, only to see his goggles looking back at her.

How much longer? She had lost count.

Riddick expelled a little more air into her mouth and Zemma accepted it gratefully. She felt him try to inhale through his nose…

When did he take the plugs out?

…but a tiny negative motion with his head told her she had to hold on a little longer.

Zemma brought her free hand up to the back of his head and stroked there lightly. She turned his practical lock on her mouth into a more pleasurable one. She figured the next thirty seconds would go by much quicker… with a little distraction.

It wasn't long before she realized he was breathing for both of them, inhaling through his nose and pushing the air into her. She allowed herself to breathe out and felt it exit his nose onto her cheek. It was strange, silly even. She broke away from him to laugh nasally, and got light headed.

Not enough oxygen in here for that.

She pulled the nose plugs out quickly and went back to kissing him. This time they could breathe the thin air for themselves. It gave Jack's sarcastic line to them new meaning. Zemma wanted to giggle again.

The proximity alarm drew Riddick's attention away.

"Shit!"

He threw himself back into the pilot's seat and strapped in quickly, his hands flying over the controls.

"What?"

"That's what I was afraid of." He pointed to a display on the panel that identified the fast approaching ships.

"Who are they?" Zemma could recognize the code that showed the types of crafts coming -war vessels, lots of guns and fast moving- but not their origin.

"Earthlings."