A/N: Chapter Features: Sex, cussing, crashing, and monster hunting... I rely a great deal on two sources for this chapter: The Hunt For Riddick web-based game from the COR movie site and Escape From Butcher Bay for PC. UV6 is also shown in COR and the novel of the movie. I've taken some liberty with the planet and system for efffect in this chapter as the data on UV as a solar system is scarce. But enough rambling... Enjoy Chapter 25!
UV, Planet 6
One thing that Richard B. Riddick, or Amadak as his Furyan brethren often whispered to him in his dreams, had learned was that there were differing values of cold. There was the bland dusty gray cold of Cryosleep with its endless confusion due to the lack of awareness of the passage of time. And there was the natural cold of planetary winter. Then there was the mechanical cold of prison mines and mechanized spaceports, not to mention the total, impersonal, cold of deep space. But this was something altogether new. The approach to the system UV was unnaturally cold. It was so much so that he found himself entertaining the oddest of thoughts.
It went like this: if one could imagine space as warm then perhaps the star they approached was of the sort that sucked heat instead of releasing it. Like an unusual black hole that sucked heat and gave of ultraviolet radiation in return, perhaps. He doubted that such a thing existed, which was why he considered the idea a flight of fancy. He couldn't deny that everything about the system seemed colder that the space outside it. Even the colors of the planets were cool, as was the faint glow from the sun they orbited.
The UV system consisted of a large number of gas giants, and about half that number of rocky, or icy, worlds, plus moons. More moons then a single solar system had right to have, really. Yet for all the dozens of gas giants and uncounted numbers of moons, the readouts indicated that there was one habitable planet and that the life clung on in sheer determination through a cosmic winter that never changed. The other planets closer to the star were blasted with such strong ultraviolet radiation that no life was possible at all. Those further away lacked water. Of all the systems in the universe, this one was the least likely to be visited by anyone looking for an easy life.
The freighter speeding inward toward the sun was just as cold and lifeless in appearance as the system seemed to be. Not even the engines put off any sign energy anymore. But that was all right, the man inside the ship figured. Looking lifeless, dead, cold, might be just the thing that kept them alive and hidden from their enemies both real and imagined. He and his mate weren't looking for an easy life, but a free one. Avoiding those that wished to remove them from that life was worth the struggle. To that end even life support on the ship was scaled down to the limited areas that he and Jack still used. They kept layers of clothes on most of the time to ward off the chill now that the stolen Korvan ship coasted into the final leg of its last journey.
The ex-ranger, turned convict-on-the-run, thought about what had gotten them this far. Yeah, he'd pulled Jack into the control room and had her set the course while they were still outside the system. Neither of them needed to spend all their time actually flying the ship. The computer took care of it, once the half-furyan young woman had hacked it and disabled all the various warnings about being off route and losing speed. They then turned their attention to scavenging everything that might be useful. The started at the back of the ship and carefully stripped out anything and everything that could have a possible use. Then they sealed each finished compartment and turned off the life support to it. Even after moving the most valuable items into the spare crew compartments, knowing that if worse came to worse those areas would be the last to fall apart, the life support was turned off and the doors sealed shut. Now the control room, the hall, the bathroom and a single crew cabin was all that got any air circulation or minimal heat.
They spent busy days as the speeding freighter navigated through the large system around an unusual ultraviolet star. The light, dim and purplish gray, faintly illuminated dozens of planets and moons ranging from clumps of rock to majestic balls of frozen gas. In spare moments both Jack and Riddick found themselves captivated by the views. And there were some extraordinary close encounters as the ship wove through the huge gas giants, spinning on slow orbits through chilled space, as the programmed course attempted to slow the ship through drag. They skimmed the outer cloud tops so tightly that the detail from the swirling icy gases took up the entire screen. Each planet was so old that any heat they'd given off in their planetary youth was long gone. Failed stars perhaps in their own right, massive balls of gas each circled by its own miniature dance of frozen attendants. White and grays and pale shades of ice dazzled the eye against the black velvet of space. The flight path was a crazy one, making a sweep past each gas giant as it slowed the ship on a path to the sixth planet out.
Then one day they left the outer guardians behind, passed over the belt of icy asteroids that marked the boundary between the gas giants and the rocky worlds, and found the ship picking up speed as they passed the system's star. That was the highlight of the trip, the approach of the star itself. Even close up there was little warmth to be had. The light even then was so dim that only a few of the safety screens activated. As they passed UV, they used the sun's gravity to slow them further. The target planet was on the far side of the star with little more than a clump of rock between it and its sun. It was like a white glittering pearl in space. Another two days passed and they entered into a high, stable orbit.
The bronze skinned man snapped himself back to the present. The planet he'd chosen to make his final home was below his feet, still thousands of miles down. And yet, they had made it this far, and he had kept Jack with him, safe and sound. Once more, he'd trained her and knew without a doubt that she could kick any merc's ass that even breathed her direction. His chest felt a bit like it was going to burst open for a second. He sometimes wondered if the feeling meant that he was ill or something but then it would occur to him that he felt it when he thought of his mate. Jack always made him feel that way. So maybe what he was feeling was – Nah. He pushed the thoughts away. Her presence hovered behind him, with a faint murmur from her clothes that spoke of her physically being there as opposed to the sensation that hovered in the back of his mind all the time. He welcomed the intrusion into his pondering about the universe in general and how they were going to get to the surface in specific.
Audrey Johastein, alis, Jack B. Badd, or just plain ol' Jack, watched her man as he stood stature still at the window. She was still not used to seeing him with hair, but at the moment he wore a rather plain cut that was just covering his ears. The debate she had going with him was if he should grow his beard or not. She thought he'd look good with one, he thought it would be a bother. Ah, well, the planet would decide. She ran her fingers through her chin-length hair to get it out of her face before slipping up behind him. With a sigh, Jack pressed her body against his, her arms circling him with comfortable warmth. Her chin rested against his shoulder and her nose barely cleared it.
He narrowed his eyes and echoed her sigh. Everything else paled when compared to the reality of his Jack. She knew when he was troubled, or needy, or wanted her, or even when he needed his space apart. He found that he knew her just as well. At the moment her body sang with tense energy, yet she was ignoring it to sooth him. He felt warmer than he had in days with her arms around him and her thoughts totally consumed with easing his mind. He wasn't inclined to move for the longest time. They stood there, watching the planet in the viewport, each unwilling to end the moment. Slowly, his mental turmoil settled and he became more aware of a building physical need. His groin tightened as his thoughts turned to the practice session the day before that ended up with the two of them seamlessly going from wrestling to fucking on the bare floor. That had been glorious. Sometimes he had to admit that Jack had been spot on when she stated that they would get little else done except fucking on just about every square inch of the ship. There was one place though that he wanted to revisit. Riddick pulled away and left the control room with a, "It will be there tomorrow, Jacket. Let's sleep on it." He seemed to be in no great hurry to risk his neck no matter how necessary it might be.
Jack stayed and gawked at the lazy spin on the blue-white orb below them. The thoughts moving through her brain were the sort of thoughts that she denied, even as she shivered just looking at the frozen world. 'What the hell have I gotten myself into?' kept resurfacing no matter how hard she pushed it away. Riddick must have realized that she hadn't moved because suddenly he was behind her, turning her and looking at her expression. "Trust me?" he asked. She nodded without hesitation. "Come on. Let's take a shower, babe." He pulled her into his arms and carried her into the bathroom. Something about his walk should have keyed her into his plan, but as it was she even missed the hardness in his pants until he had her in the bathroom. He suggestively wiggled his eyebrows, "How about we wash those worries of yours away?"
"Wash? Don't you mean fuck, Rich?" She looked at him with a calculating eye. He gave her a sly smile and kissed her, but not long enough to get her worked up. "What do you call that? A Kiss? No, I don't think so," She gripped his collar and pulled him into a tongue wrestling contest that lasted some minutes. She pulled back and gave him a 'top-that, I dare you,' look. He smirked, his lips tingling from her aggressive kiss, his groin throbbing. She smiled with a tempting dare in her eyes. Riddick nearly groaned before he swooped in and kissed her, alternating between exploring her mouth, sucking on her tongue, and nibbling on her lip. When he pulled back, Jack's eyes were glazed with desire and she looked thoroughly snogged.
He knew, one additional deep kiss and she'd loose all control. Sometimes that was welcome, but today he wanted to stay in control. However, she looked so sexy, and, damn it, he wanted her.
Jack was panting, overheated, but riveted on her mate. He had this annoying habit of making her wait, and she hated to wait. Too hazy with desire, stunned with it even, she could do little besides try to regain her senses. Then he kissed her for the third time, deeply, and her world narrowed down to him. Musk, muffled by layers of fabric, too faint for her to be satisfied, heat, dimmed by distance, hard corded muscle under silken skin that she absolutely needed to touch, to feel. His lips and fingers weren't enough, but they were the only things that mattered. She couldn't get his damn clothes off fast enough and she needed more, now.
Although he was little better off, feeling nearly feverish with desire, he helped her by undoing the fastenings that she was fumbling with. He found that she had had his clothes off in a pile before he could get the shower turned on and was occupied with plastering frantic passionate kisses on his neck, shoulder and chest, gradually sneaking downward. He set to work on getting Jack's clothes off as she latched onto a nipple but before she dropped to her knees, because he knew that was where she was heading if he didn't hurry. He turned on the water once Jack was stripped and picked her up to keep her mouth off his manhood. He'd cum too soon if her sweet mouth got that far, and as much as he wanted to be selfish Riddick knew that she needed him inside her more than he needed a quick pop.
She let out a frustrated snort as he whisked her away from the area she was aiming towards, having been near his navel already. His arms lifted her up off her feet and he captured her lips again. She curled her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as she set back to work on his neck and ear.
He let off another groan as her body moved flush against his, particularly where her suckling had left him hyper aware of everything. Her hard nubs teased against his as she moved to reach behind his ear with her tongue. He was too focused on what she was doing to care much about the temperature of the water as he stepped into the shower. It helped that she was between him and the spray though, in that regard. He curled his hands against her buttocks and kneaded the flesh there before beginning to finger her.
Jack squealed as the very cold drops pelted her skin, as much from the shock of the cold as from the feeling of his fingers working into her from such an unusual angle. She wiggled upwards and let out another cry as he caught her clit between two fingers and pinched it. She broke into a tirade that had nothing to do with his harsh handling, "Ah, cold! Damn it, you bastard --" He shut up the flow of words with a breath-stealing kiss that lasted through her hitting him. The sting didn't deter his fingers as they begin to work their way inside her again after he pinned her to the tile wall. He could feel her shudder against him as he stroked the spot inside her that made her swell and drip liquid heat. He moved from that spot to fingering her backside as he slid home. She let out a passionate moan that echoed off the hard walls, ripping her mouth away from his in the process. "Ah, Gods! More!" came the breathy order.
He slowly slid out and hovered, just the tip in. She clawed at his shoulders and tried to move to him but couldn't because of how he was holding her. She arched and dragged her nails over his arms. He begun to move with a slow, deep pace driving her to distraction and enjoying every moment of it. Jack clung to his body and he relished the feel of her muscles playing under his. This was bliss. Nothing else mattered as long as he had her.
She moaned and dug her nails into his shoulders. The sharp pain mingled with his intense pleasure. He licked her arched throat as he moved his mouth up to her ear, "Give me more, Jack," his husky voice tickled against her awareness before he began to suckle on her earlobe. Understanding that he needed to contrast of sensations she dug her nails in deeper until he grunted. She bit and sucked hard enough to mark his flesh as hers. He took his time, making the experience one that they could both never forget. Not that Jack could forget anything about him. He could be wildly passionate at times, matching her usually frantic need and totally unflappable at others. This time no matter how much she pushed he wouldn't be rushed. Instead he strung out her climaxes like a string of pearls, glittering against his awareness.
He made himself want to be with her on the other side so badly that he could taste it before he finally sought his release. Once there, Jack swirled around him in her perfect brilliance, totally matching his darkness and making him complete. They hovered, timelessly, on the brink of forever longer than they ever had before. Neither of them wanted to leave. But they had to. They returned to their senses. Jack was trying to cut off her tears. Richard kept his face soft, the expression he only wore for her, as he washed them both up. Then he carried Jack into the only clear crew cabin and settled them both into the cot. She snuggled into his warmth. They slept.
In the 'morning' or as close to morning as one could get while in high orbit around an alien world, Jack opened her eyes and discovered Riddick looking at her with his quicksilver eyes. She offered up a smile and he half returned it before giving her a gruff, "Get up. We gotta ship to crash."
"Well, fuck," she threw off the covers and took the clothes he was holding out to her. Thick insulated quilted items that had been inside the supplies from Imam. She made a grimace. They were crashing today. That was the reality of the situation. Her final exam was at hand. She carefully dressed and focused her attention inward. They had to survive this. Of course, if they died that would be fate and there was nothing she could do about it, but – no – They had to live. They'd come too far to die during this risky procedure. She took a shaky breath and forced open her eyes when she realized they were closed. There was a large hand holding a can of insta-meal in front of her nose.
Richard shook the can lightly making the liquid inside slosh until Jack took it from him. As he silently moved out of the room, he heard the can pop open and his mate begin to drink. The quiet darkness of the hallway calmed his nerves and allowed him to set his mind into the belief that they'd survive the coming day. He paused at the door and eyed over the orb below them as if it were an animal that needed to be brought in line and tamed. Of course the planet below them had no idea… With a faint smirk, he settled into the co-pilot's chair and looked over the readings as he waited for Jack to join him. She did so with barely a whisper from her puffy clothing. His jacket settled into his lap. Jack gave him a grin; "You forgot your coat, oh-huge-man-of-mine. I think you might want it once we get down there." Then she held out his goggles, "And these too, although we might only need them as a backup at high noon." He snatched the black goggles from her fingers with a matching grin.
He watched as she slid into her seat and looked over the computer's attempts to pull them away from the planet. His monster was the planet; hers was the ship. She frowned. "Stupid redundant safety measures. I thought I had this all ironed out, but there must be a backup memory core somewhere." She slowly hacked her way through the new safety checks that had popped up during the night as each came up… And to make matters worse, the computer kept changing the flight data back to "safety parameters" every time she set them on a collision course. For a span of 30 orbits Jackie struggled as the computer disregarded her orders and maintained it's currently stable setting. It gave Riddick a breather that he wasn't sure he wanted.
In his mounting frustration, he came to the conclusion that he knew how he'd handle a stubborn ship like this one – rip out its guts or simply force it into a manual dive. He thought about telling Jack to just take the computer off line and decided to let her figure it out. Jackie made a face and looked at him, "I'm all out of ideas, save disconnecting it stupid thing." Riddick gave her a surprised look and shrugged. She looked at him. Then she closed her eyes with a measured slowness; "I've implanted code that should seek and destroy anything that might even hint as being a safety override, and by now there shouldn't be any. I'm starting to think that the settings are hardwired, and we can't afford to lose control by ripping stuff out." He just looked at her with an 'And what should you do about that?' look. She groaned and rolled her eyes at him. "Don't. You've been thinking that I should just rip it apart already… you know you are still a jerk sometimes." He laughed. She finally pulled off the lower panel and physically took care of the problem by taking the override off line. That action meant that everything had to be done by hand. She had just re-secured herself to her seat when he nodded at her, then turned on the engines and directed the nose of the ship downward. "Riddick! No," she scrambled to turn the engines back off, "We're already moving too fast! What the fuck are you doing?!"
"Crashing this goddamn boat, Jack. I'll force it down, if I have to, but I won't stay in orbit like a beacon screaming out our location." He turned the engines back on and glared at her. "Trust me, okay." That was an order. Jack clinched her jaw and nodded. Riddick watched her out of the corner of his eye. "Focus on the emergency steps that we went through, babe. It's just clockwork from here. Just a nudge from the engines to put 'er in an unstable orbit and then gravity will do the rest, alright?"
"Yeah. I got it, Riddick. Let's do this." Her voice was steady. There were no hints of childhood left in it. He'd tempered her into something strong and powerful. He turned his attention back to the controls and let the engines push the ship into a dive that it couldn't possibly pull out of.
The frozen planet came up all too fast for her taste. She tamped down her panic and began to go through the steps they'd drilled to the point that she had been dreaming them for a while. Riddick fought to steady the ship, reversing the engines against the pull of the planet in order to drop them back into safe descending parameters, but the freighter was not meant for stressful planet-side landings. His entire body vibrated with the effort for a moment before emergency lights and buzzers sprang to life. The chaotic chatter added to the already nerve-wracking task at hand. While Jackie fought to concentrate on the readouts Riddick just lost patience with the noise. He let go of the controls and even as the ship went into a spiral, dropped down under his console to sever the connections necessary to silence the alarms. A final warning light indicated that they were in an unstable orbit. He heard Jack mumble, "No shit, Sherlock," as she whacked at it with a hand. It blinked franticly at them like the ship itself was scared of the ground. Riddick snorted as he slid back into his chair.
The backup system attempted to kick in one final override and showered Jackie with sparks before giving up, "You okay, babe?"
"Yep, just fine. A bit smoky, perhaps, but not on fire. You?"
He laughed, "No sparks here. Don't think she likes you babe."
"Stuff it, Riddick," Jack was aware that they were now falling out of the sky. Luckily she remembered the programmed flight path as she tried to force the ship into giving them a chance of survival. "Yeah, you stuff it too," she cursed under her breath at the ship as she flipped switches. Then she realized that the crude job she'd done on the safety override had royally fucked up the emergency airbrakes. She unbuckled from the chair and dropped back to the floor to reconnect it. She kicked at the pedals along the floor. They depressed but did not stick. 'Damn, damn, damn.' Knowing that they needed something she connected the power back to them. She kicked at them again. They were rock solid now, jarring her leg and foot as the stomped at them, but try as she might she couldn't get them to move. "Where the fuck are the emergency air breaks?" she finally screamed. She struck out with her foot at a jammed pedal. The gears groaned and emitted a hollow clang. "Ah, Fuck!" She kicked it again. Nothing happened.
Riddick was back on the controls straightening them out of the crazy roll that the ship had veered into and attempting to hold the ship as steady as physically possible, "Hydraulic control? Try reconnecting…" The ship shook as the outer atmosphere collided with the non-aerodynamic Kovan design. Jackie dropped back to the floor. He could hear her mumbling and cursing as she fought with the mass of wires. Outside the ship things were heating up. He watched the temperature of the hull climb to the point that it was hotter than anything in the system bar the sun itself. "Hurry, Jack."
All the while, something was tickling at Jack's awareness, something that they needed to do at this point to help level out the ship. Oh yeah, the extra weight needed to go. The engines and empty cargo bays for one. She listened to the roar of the atmosphere against the hull and noted that the thrum of the engines was gone, "Purge the engines!" She ordered from inside the console.
That drew Riddick back to his own fight. He glanced at the altitude readings, grunted acknowledgment and toggled the manual purge. Explosions rattled through the ship as the large space drives disconnected and fell towards the planet. The sudden loss of weight sent ripples through the spacecraft that Riddick skillfully dealt with but Jackie felt a momentary weightlessness before thumping her head. "Ouch. Shit…" She clambered back out and kicked at the pedals again. The air breaks deployed one by one with grinding thuds that tested Riddick's control as each panel that flipped open. By this time the freighter streaked white-hot through the frigid atmosphere of UV6. Jackie looked at the speed… the breaks slowed them somewhat but they were still going too fast and gaining speed. "Purging the back cargo bins," she announced shakily as she fed the final set of data into the controls and fought off gripping the seat for dear life. 'Going down…still too fast…I'm gonna die. That's just the fact of the matter. It was good while it lasted. At least I'll die happy…'
Riddick glanced at Jackie. She was white. "Babe, don't give up." That snapped her out of it. "Lose whatever we need to lose. If it's empty purge it." She began looking over the switches and buttons again, running over what he'd told her in her mind. She purged the each of the empty cargo bins in turn until the nose of the ship finally lifted so that they stood more of a chance of landing somewhat intact. Double-checking everything she realized that there were secondary air breaks. She reached up over her head and toggled them into active status before kicking the pedals again and deploying them. The ship jerked like it suddenly had a parachute attached to it. The readings looked much better now. She took a deep faltering breath before buckling into her safety harness. Then she went over the controls again looking for anything else she might have missed. She found more to do, more which would slow the ship as it fell towards the planet's icy surface. Focused as she was on the task at hand, Jack found it easy to ignore the odds that this would kill them both.
Riddick was thankful that Jack was busy and focused on the controls as the planet continued to rush up at them with astonishing speed, given the fact that she had done everything that could be done to slow the ship as far as it could be slowed. For a split second doubt crossed his mind, a faint remnant of the careful child he once was. He pushed it aside. It was too late to be double thinking himself now. He took a deep breath as beside him Jack spun her chair around so that her back was facing the ground, as it became overwhelmingly clear that the ship couldn't not crash. After a second he realized that perhaps that was the wise thing to do, and he secured his own harness as he spun around away from the incoming white surface. They would just have to trust that fate wanted them to survive now. There was a sudden wash of explosive noise, ice cold air studded with sharp fragments, and jerking motion that left them both in insolated darkness.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The Urzo watching from the high ridge saw a bright streak of light that grew larger and larger in the sky. The light was brighter than the sun, and it was forced to turn away from this new illumination in the heavens. Then there was a vast noise and a wave of heat that turned the dusting of light snow into crystals of ice across the landscape. The Urzo turned back to where the light had been and noticed a new feature of half-frozen slush in the icy landscape marring the unique fingerprint-like grooved surface. It ambled toward the new source of water, quickly forgetting the bright light that had preceded it.
0o0o0o0o00o0o0o0o0
Jackie sat there for what seemed like forever with her eyes closed. Impossibly, they were still alive. "Babe?" came Riddick's voice floating through the darkness. She noted that it sounded shaken, off somehow. Slightly slurred, even.
Her instincts flared to life, "Don't move, Riddick. I'm fine, Okay? Just stay still." She began to unbuckle herself as he went still. The smell of blood was becoming stronger and that prompted her to snag the first aid kit as she moved over to him. Her boots crunched in the fragments from the window that had been in front of his station. If she'd been in his chair her head would have been low enough that the fragments would have gone right over. But Richard was taller and his head had been exposed slightly above the back of the chair. She could see his hand pressed against the back of his head and blood seeping through his fingers. "Here, I got it," Jack placed her own hand over his and pressed lightly enough to not drive whatever might be in the wound in farther but enough to temper the blood flow. He hissed between his teeth. Jack dropped the kit into his lap, and he immediately opened it, "Gauze." He handed her the pad he'd already opened. "I think there's plexi still in there, Rich."
"Yeah? Deep?" he asked, sounding detached from the situation. "Can you get it out?"
"Snap a cold pack. It's bleeding too much for me to tell." There was a popping sound followed by crunching as he prepped the pack. His snicker made her shake her head, "Ironic, I know. Here we are surrounded by ice and I'm asking for a cold pack. Just hand it over." She lowered her free hand down to take it.
"At least I know I'm not dead," he managed as he passed it to her. "And it could be worse. I could have been facing forward."
"I don't even want to think about that." She closed her eyes as she placed the cold pack over the gauze.
He hissed again. 'Bah, I'm going soft. Its nothing more than a scratch,' he reassured himself. Then he felt the energy that he recognized from Jackie healing him before and the sensation of something slowly moving across his scalp, scraping and cutting under his skin. She soothed its passage after the fact, but that was rather dimmed by the volume of pain he was feeling. He set his jaw and gripped the handholds of his chair. "Oh, hell. Jack --," he whispered. He wanted to pull away or push her off, but he knew in his rational mind that she was helping him regardless of the agony.
She didn't respond until the plexi had made its way into her hand and she knew he wouldn't bleed to death. "I'm sorry, hon," she choked out.
He caught her bloody hands with the sharp plexi and gauze between them, "No, Jack. Don't ever be sorry. It was deep."
Jack smiled at him through her tears, "Nah, not that deep. It hit your thick skull, couldn't get past it, and then couldn't cut your thick skin to get back out." They both let out a faltering laugh. He could feel the dull throb still from the wound, and cold where he had new skin but no hair. He pulled out a moist wipe and cleaned Jack's hands then let her wipe off his head and fingers to remove most of the blood. Although he was feeling lingering pain the overwhelming emotion he had at that moment was giddy joy. They had survived, and they had made it without being attacked or intercepted. All he needed to do now was strip everything off the ship of value and blow what was left to tiny bits. Luckily they had perfect cover and anyone watching them would likely assume that they were dead.
Jack flopped back into her seat, her eyes adjusted to the darkness again. Riddick sat still for a moment more before turning to look at the instrument panel. She couldn't believe that he was checking the readouts on the situation already. If it had been her with that wound she have begged for a shot of painkiller. He hadn't even asked. She watched him carefully. He turned his head and flashed her a wry smile. The happiness just about flowed out from him in huge waves. She cocked her head, "What's the news, Rich?"
He found that he didn't mind her using his first name so much. At least at the moment he didn't. The scanners still worked, reveling that there was quite a bit of ice above them. The ship's hull was still giving off enough heat to keep an air pocket around them. And best of all, the mountain range he'd been aiming for actually had a rocky core. So what if they are 20 feet down? They had made it. Both of them. The joy of it all, the relief of it even, threatened to make him grin like an idiot. Jack would think that his head wound was worse than it had originally seemed if he did that. He fixed his mask back in place and flipped his readings over to her station. "Looks like there's a rocky core on the mountains at the edge of this flow. It'll take some work to get everything there but I think we can do it." He watched her study the data for a moment. She silently let her other questions boil over into her expression before nodding about his assessment of the rock. The mountains would be stable. "I'm going to go outside and see what we need to do to get out of here. Get the most important stuff loaded up, Jack. Overfill the loader if you have to."
Jackie made a face; "There's a second loader in the hold, Riddick. I'll load up both of them once there's air. With any luck most of the vital stuff will fit." He moved with a bounce in his step that was rather new as he went past her into the hall. She chewed on the inside of her cheek as she resumed life support in the cargo bay that had been left with stuff in it. She could hear the slide of the emergency ladder and the clang as it hit the floor. Even though she knew Riddick would be climbing it to open the upper hatch she was startled by the loud clank that the hatch made as it hit the hull. Cold air swept into the cockpit. It figured that he'd leave it open. She got up and set herself to packing up the loaders while Riddick's steps hollowly clattered across the upper hull. She could hear the crunching getting more and more distant as he moved away from the hatch.
He paused and looked about the chamber the ship was in. The lower half it was still slushy, the ship somehow managing to not sink further. The back end was just about level with the edge of the ice near the cargo door. Above his head, there was a ceiling, rippled and cracked from impact, above a layer of mirror smooth ice. He reached up and ran his fingers along it. He had about a six-inch leeway. He walked toward the back of the ship and scanned around him. Off one side of the ship a small, persistent wave of heat rose. Likely something was smoldering just under the heat resistant tile. He kicked the layers off to check carefully edging back when the smoldering flared into flames. He looked up and noticed that the heat had kept a fissure open. He wondered if a loader would fit through it. If not then he'd have to set up a pulley system of some kind. He snorted. He'd need a pulley system anyway. He planned on making this a single trip if he could. He turned away and continued to explore.
Finally the cold made her think twice about leaving the way open for him to come back in. She wandered into the hall and climbed up the escape ladder, pulling the hatch closed before moving back to her task. The glimpse of the ice overhead was enough to tell her that it was likely after dark. She tried not to worry. Her mind just wouldn't focus on the work at hand without drifting into the panic inducing thoughts of how she would die if he somehow didn't come back. No sooner did she convince herself that he wouldn't leave her of his own free will did she begin to worry that perhaps he'd run foul of some horrible fate, a wild creature, a deep fall into an icy chasm, or perhaps simply the cold would do him in. But when he came back he seemed rather satisfied with his progress. "What?" She asked.
He patted her on the back before taking the first filled loader out. Jackie shivered as he opened the cargo doors revealing a slick, refrozen cavern-like pocket surrounding the ship. She heard his shiv crunch into the ice several times before he stepped back in and snagged an armload of metal rods most likely meant as a tent supports and several lengths of cable. "Keep grouping stuff together, babe. I'll be back soon." She heard the loader whine as he started it up and moved off into the gloom. His 'soon' was long enough for her to finish packing the second loader. It was long enough for her to package up nearly everything into stacks based on importance. She was getting scared as she tore apart bits of the freighter that might be worth hauling up to the surface.
Riddick moved the loader to where the crevasse loomed above him. He gathered his supplies for the pulleys he needed to put in and climbed onto the packed loader. He used the loader as a steady surface and put in guides for the cable. While the loader wouldn't fit through the last few feet of the ice, Riddick could just fine. It was very cold, subzero, even. He was glad that Jack had insisted he have his coat as he installed the pulleys themselves and threaded the cable. He took a moment to look at the landscape. There was a smooth scar from the ship's impact that went almost to the mountain range. He hadn't been aware that they came so close to it. He considered the loader and the stuff on it. Things that he and Jack needed to survive. He couldn't risk leaving it on the surface. He ducked back down and lowered it to the hull of the ship. They needed some type of sled, something that would move over the ice no matter how heavy it was. The ship had plenty of metal hull that was intact. Maybe they could use that.
Jackie was on her way to the cargo door when he finally dropped down into the hall where the emergency exit was. She heard his entrance and spin with her shiv ready. Riddick chucked. He'd taught her well. She deflated with a sigh, "Don't do that Rich, I'm not as fast a pull as you are and I might hurt you."
"But you didn't, and you were on the ball, Jacket," He mussed her hair and hugged her. "We have a problem, though. There's a way out, but the loaders don't fit. At least not fully packed they don't. I was thinking that we could make sleds or something."
She looked at him. "Well, I suppose we could. Anything else?"
"One of us is going to have to stand guard while the other one is hauling stuff up."
"We could use a scarecrow."
"Not a bad idea, Jack. Not bad at all."
They set to lifting sheets of metal out of the cargo bay floor. Jack came up with the idea to make runners using some of the thin fabric dipped in water that had been allowed to freeze. Riddick was able to form a mold from a pipe that helped them shape the ice. By coating the mold with grease before filling it they could easily slip the runner out once it was solid. The fabric helped strengthen the ice while the ice would melt slightly under the friction and glide on a layer of water. Riddick also showed Jack where the opening was and how it was being kept open. She added fuel to the smolder area and used the heat to melt the water they needed for the ice. Riddick then made a scarecrow and hoisted it up into position. He made sure it was very large and that it carried a strong shock should a creature challenge it. They then begin the process of raising everything they wanted to take with them out of the hole where the ship was buried. It seemed to Jack, as she helped to guide load after load to the top, that they were taking just about the entire ship in pieces. Of course, there was much they weren't taking too.
Riddick came back down once the bulk of the goods were up top. The loaders had to be slightly de-assembled to fit them through the top of the crevasse. He and Jack set to work on each one, working quickly to get them to the surface before something came along looking for an easy meal. He then sent Jack up top with the first loader and orders to put it back together. She cursed at having to work in the subzero cold with little tools and gloves but managed to get the damn machine running by the time he emerged with the second one and took the tools to work on it. Jack set about re-packing her loader and the sleds they made while attempting to figure out how they were going to get the train moving without derailment along the route. Riddick had fewer problems using the tools with gloves on and Jack was glad he hadn't heard her cussing. They worked through the crystal clear night and just as the dim star rose signaling morning they were ready to begin their trek to the jutting peaks.
The only thing left to do was to set the remains of the ship to explode. Riddick told Jack, "Take the lead loader, move it a bit and attach a sled, rinse and repeat, until you have them all. Attach the end loader to the last sled and follow the smooth flow toward the ridge. I'll catch up with you." He packed up the pulleys and all but one cable. He didn't leave her time to argue. As he descended one final time to the ship, Jack rolled her eyes and set to work with the task he'd assigned her. She reused the cable to help string the sleds together. One loader went in front and the other behind, set to the same controls. She then set off carefully down the slick, smooth ice flow. Jack found herself holding onto a cable to keep her balance. She had little experience walking on ice.
Soon Riddick was walking along side the sleds too. Usually he was a bit ahead. She frowned at his ease on the ice. Riddick had no problems with his balance. She shook her head and watched his movements. There was a trick to it she discovered. Copying his movements made each step easier. Soon she was confident enough to move up and down the line watching for trouble. They moved at a slow and steady pace, taking most of the day to clear the ice scar. The grooved landscape between it and the ridge made Jack groan. They stopped for the night and pitched a tent, using as much of their sleds as shelter as they could. Amazingly enough, Jack was sure that the ice was warmer than the air. Near midnight the far end of the trail burst into light and heat. Jack looked at Riddick, "Why don't we keep moving, huh?" It was clear that neither of them would sleep anyhow. He nodded and they set about re-packing things to get over the rough surface.
Near high noon they reached the vertical climb that announced the start of the mountains. "I'll scout ahead, set up the pulleys, and see what I can find in the way of shelter. You set up camp here. It's out of the wind, at least." She couldn't argue with that. Riddick set up the scarecrow again at the likely point where one of the local creatures might venture into the nook they stopped at. Jack moved the loader with the food and important survival gear into a defendable location then proceeded to turn the sled rails into spikes of ice. Riddick set off up the cliff, stopping here and there to set in cable guides. Jack took an empty sled and her shiv on a hunt for blocks of ice and snow to fill up the cracks between them. Using the natural overhang and adding additional ice blocks she formed a supported roof by tilting some of the sleds upright and wedging them into place before packing around them with snow. Because there was no fuel for an actual fire there was no need for a smoke hole. She built the narrow area into a low door and arched the ice blocks carefully inward until she could cap off the roof. Then she made sure that the structure was strong enough to support her weight and packed the top with snow to make it airtight. It was a lot of work, but she fashioned a nice little campsite and had warm food by the time Riddick came back. He looked around with a smile. Jack had used several of the mattresses to make them a ledge for sitting and sleeping, and had a small candle burning for light. That coupled with the wind-free shelter made it seem warm. Jack offered him a steaming cup of soup. "Nice, Jack. If we have to we can camp here for a few days."
"That wouldn't be my first choice. There's something out there with large feet and wicked looking claws if the prints are any indication. That's why I made the entrance so small and put a blanket over it. I'm hoping that the heat won't attract the thing, whatever it is." She settled down on the bench of sorts. Riddick thought about that. It was a good sign in a way. Something that large needed lots of food to survive. If it could live here then they could. He stood up and set his soup down for a moment to move the scarecrow in front of their 'door' and one of the empty sleds behind it. He then picked up his cup and settled down next to his mate.
"I'll deal with the snowman in the morning, babe." He hugged her. Soon the candle was out and they were snuggled up together under mounds of blankets. They kept their under layers of clothes on because the covers couldn't keep out the deep chill. Riddick was glad for his hood, using his coat as a pillow and the hood to keep his head warm. He was glad for Jack, too. Her body pressed tight against his and her breath on his neck as she snuggled down into him. He slept lightly, listening for sounds that would betray any attacker. When he woke, he found Jack already up and cooking. He dressed under the covers and slipped on his coat. The dawn's light made the ice overhead glow faintly. He stretched. "Um, hot – what? Oatmeal?"
"Instant something. Grits, I think, with ham and maple…" Jack handed him his cup. "At least it's hot. Or warmish." She shivered a bit and sat next to him. "The fuel isn't going to last long. I'll need to store anything that will burn. Shit, fat, anything. If I don't the only hot we'll get is raw, freshly killed, hot." He agreed fully. Anything that could burn they would have to place a high value on. "What is your plan for the day?"
He thought about that before answering, "Scout up the hill. Try to find those prints you mentioned. Look for someplace that's solid, like a rock cave. Maybe kill the critter that lives around here." He ate his breakfast before it went cold. Jack let him. Finally he stood up, "I don't want to corral you in, but don't wander far. If I find something I could be back rather quickly."
Jack nodded. "Sure. I can work around here. It'll take near all day to melt us some water."
"Take a section of plexi, some black cloth, and some metal. Make a solar heater. You can use some of the tiles I took off the ship to insulate it from the cold. Use your head, Jacket. You're not stupid."
She chewed on her lip, nodded thoughtfully and replied, "Yeah, I'll do that." He stepped up and kissed her. "See you soon?" She asked. He nodded. After he set off she scrounged up what she needed to make a solar heater and looked for what passed as a sunny place to put it. She finally settled on digging out a bit of the cliff above the shelter to support the contraption and wedged the tiles into place, topping them with a bent section from a sled. She lined it with some of the thin cloth that was dark in color and placed a metal cylinder, carefully wrapped in the same cloth and filled with ice and snow inside that. Then she slid the plexi into place. The cylinder had a tube attached to it that she ran down a tile filled groove into another cylinder where the water should end up, if everything worked. She made sure that the lower cylinder was insulated so that it wouldn't refreeze. Jack looked at the 'solar heater' and wondered how long it would take to actually get some water from it. She stepped back and sealed the groove with tiles and a layer of packed snow to keep the sub-zero air off of it, then turned and screamed at the large, dirty-white, shaggy creature coming at her.
For a moment Jack thought that she was going to die. Sure, she knew how to fight. If push came to shove, she'd defend herself. But this – monster – was not what she was expecting. It was huge, nearly twice Riddck's height, and ugly. Viscous slobber highlighted razor sharp teeth. Horns defended its eyes. Thick fur protected it just as well as its long claws. It was like a bear almost just with more humanoid proportions in the torso. She clutched her shiv and wondered if it was long enough to actually cut through this thing's hide. Then another large, bluish white, but not so shaggy form sprung from some point over her head and hit the creature with both feet and blade, knocking it back and down with a snarl before springing away out of range. Jack sank back against the ice in relief as the creature regained its feet. Riddick was here. Things would work out. The monster looked at her, advanced a handful of steps, and suddenly her mate was on its back bringing it down with a swift, deep, cut to its neck.
"Mine," he growled at the head that went bouncing away from the body under him. Jack blinked at the slow spread of crimson on the ice. Riddick stood up and fetched the head. "This'll make a good warning to any others not to mess with us. Get to work on it, Jack. The fur will be loads warmer than the blankets." He snagged a spare pole and worked it into the ice before fitting the head onto it. Jack moved forward and mechanically set to work with her shiv. She was glad for his help when he joined her. They worked to gut, skin, and carve up the beast. Jack made up some of the kill for lunch and then focused on how to preserve the meat and prepare the skin while Riddick went off to look for the creature's lair. She knew that they would need to use every part of every kill if they were going to survive here and there was no room to be squeamish about it. She forgot about the water until it was time to make supper. She was surprised to find that the water in the cylinder was relatively warm. She left it for the moment and went up to refill the solar heater. She had a spare cylinder already filled with ice. It was a fast change out for the first one. Before going inside for the night she filled the spare again so that she could switch it out as soon as the other was empty.
Riddick returned after dark, snagging more poles and setting up something outside before coming in and letting the warmth of the shelter revive his mood. Jack handed him a steaming cup of what proved to be instant coffee. Rare enough treat, he figured. "What's the celebration?"
"Um, I love you?" She replied with a shy smile. He looked at her with amusement. "And you saved my life, more than once." She hugged him, "But I'm not sure how dinner is going to taste, so I thought the coffee would be a nice counter for my cooking."
He did laugh then, his chest swelling to bursting with the combined emotion from the day. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was feeling mighty fine at the moment, and he doubted that her cooking was all that bad. "Um, it won't kill me, so that's all good, Jacket. After what we've survived, anything you cook is going to be a gourmet meal," he drank the coffee, "and this is very nice to come home to."
Jack blinked then felt the heat in her cheeks, which seemed to make the entire situation even more embarrassing. She was unsure why his words would make her blush, but something about his coming back to a ice-block half-hut camp and calling it home felt, well, intimate, nice, and – solid. He was saying he loved her, without actually saying it. She hugged him tighter, "I'm glad to report that the solar heater worked. I was actually able to get the stew to boil because the water was warmer. And there's enough food for us to eat what we want without worrying about later. I even heated up some flat bread."
He moved over to the mattresses and let her fill him a plate. The food was wonderful, rich and meaty with just the right amount of added grains and dehydrated veggies added to make it seem like they had eaten more then just the local wildlife with boiled water. He ate until he was full, and enjoyed every bite. "Jack, don't ever say you can't cook. That was the best meal I've had in a long time."
She placed the remaining stew into pockets of bread and wrapped them up in foil. The food would be cold in the morning but by placing it between two of the insulating tiles perhaps it wouldn't be frozen. She wished that they had real fuel for a real fire so that the coals could keep the food warm, but at the moment all they had was canned-heat camping fuel. "Thanks. It's good to know, really. I mean, you are stuck with me."
He caught her hand and pulled her into their bed, "I wouldn't have it any other way." He then showed her exactly how much he enjoyed being 'stuck' with her.