1) The Screams All Sound The Same
He'd been struggling, not easy to admit, even in the quiet of his own head but he had pretty much figured that he'd die on this godforsaken rock. Of course, God had forsaken him a long time ago. So he wasn't completely surprised that he'd gotten cut off and cut into by the flying hammerhead shark things.
Knocking down barrels, stumbling in the mud and dark, yeah, where's your strength, your agility, now Riddick? No one else around to do it, might as well taunt himself.
And then Carolyn, pretty, frightened, inconveniently brave Carolyn, coming out of the darkness with a bottle of glow worms, helping him up. "Okay. Hold onto me," He wasn't exactly light, and she wasn't large. This was going to be difficult. "We're gonna get out of here." He tried to help, haul his heavy ass up and nearly took them both down into the mud. "Okay. I got you," The pilot gasped out the words as she tried to leverage his weight against the barrels and her legs. She could do a pretty good snarl, not too bad at motivational speaking either, "Come on, Riddick! Get up! Tā mā de niǎo I said I'd die for them, not you. Let's move. Come on."
She'd gotten him up, one hand still gripping his shiv like it was a lifeline, and he'd looked at her wet mud-streaked face, half astonished that he was standing. Something…that animal instinct that had kept him alive for so long… Movement in the dark, behind Carolyn, and he jerked her to the side.
Too late to keep the tail of the thing from hitting her, but not too late to hang onto her for dear life and slice down with the hand holding the shiv. Still sharp, the edge cut through the tail and the thing shrieked its pain as it jerked away. If he hadn't been hanging onto Carolyn so tightly, it might have pulled her right out of his arms.
Blood, hot in his nose, his, hers, now they were both a siren call for these sky sharks. "Come on Carolyn," He dragged the strength from somewhere. "We can do this."
"Yeah," She stiffened her spine and he half loved her in that moment. "Let's go. I've got the bottle."
"I've got the shiv," Riddick nodded.
"It's not far," Carolyn took a deep breath. "Let's move."
Jack had been perilously close to the edge of the light when they got to the skiff, and he heard Carolyn's worried gasp as they did their three-legged race walking/stumbling gait to the ship. "She's hurt," He growled. "Get in the skiff." He could feel his leg bleeding still; it would stop eventually. It always did.
Jack scrambled up the ramp and out of their way, good thing too, and Riddick followed, the warm wet of Carolyn's blood soaking his shirt and pants. Once in the light Carolyn dropped the bottle of bugs on the ramp and it rolled down to the mud with a faint crash of broken glass. The Imam reached for the woman and Riddick gratefully surrendered her so they could move forward enough to close the hatch.
That done, safely inside, the air filled with the scent of blood rapidly. Abu began to work on Carolyn while Riddick sat in the pilot's seat and began to run up the drives. "How is she?"
"She needs bandages, and something to clean the wounds," Not an unexpected reply but not what he'd actually asked.
Jack's contribution he found more palatable, "I saw Paris stash some of his bottles in here before we went back to the crash site. Alcohol cleans stuff, right?"
"Yes, find them and anything to use as a bandage," The Imam ordered. He half sighed, his words a murmur to himself, nothing anyone else would have heard, "With so much prayer to make up for...I scarcely know where to begin."
Riddick glanced over his shoulder as Jack brought several bottles of whiskey (or what passed for it these days) and she commented, "I know where I'd start."
Once Carolyn was bandaged, unconscious but bandaged, he turned and looked at the other two survivors. Jack had an expression on her face that said she was trying to be fearless, but she knew just how big he was in relation to her skinny self. And Abu…well he clearly realized just how dangerous this situation was. Two of them in a tiny ship with one of the most feared killers in the 'verse. He could practically hear them thinking 'what have we gotten ourselves into'.
He turned back to the controls. They could sweat it out for now. It'd be good for them to remember that he wasn't exactly tame.
She remembered pain, desperation, one foot in front of the other. Burning. Gravity pressing down and more burning.
Darkness…
Jack's voice, soft, worried, "A lot of questions, whoever we run into. It could even be a merc ship." A pause, "So, what the hell do we tell them about you? How do we get Carolyn help?"
Silver…like the reflection of light over black pearls. A low, angry, and somehow affectionate growl.
What was he?
When she woke again she was on a cot. A simple affair of metal framework, fabric over foam with the astonishing luxury of an actual pillow of foam rather than a bump in the mattress. The lights were dim, but she could see the form of a giant in a chair, reading?
His head turned and she realized who it was when he spoke, "Hey Holy Man, get the kid. She's awake."
"Where?" She managed to croak out the word.
"Kid ain't psychic at least," Riddick shook his head. One arm slid beneath her back, avoiding the wound she could feel, the other grabbed a glass with a straw and held it to her lips. "Sip. Don't gulp. Or it'll just come back up."
Obediently she sipped, wondering how he'd know something like that, why was he taking care of her, where were they, did anyone know who he was? Making herself dizzy with questions she couldn't even voice.
"We're on the edge of Red Sun," He told her. She'd forgotten how skilled Riddick was at reading expressions. "Got picked up by a ship headed for Anvil. We damn near drifted past 'em. But apparently folks like the ghost lanes, even in civilized space." His derision for so called civilization dripped from the word. "They're makin' a round trip, from Paquin to Anvil and back."
"Carolyn," Jack burst into the room despite the Imam trying to slow her down. The flurry of speech, worried, whiskey, drifting, fever, flowed over and around her and she couldn't make sense of it.
"Jack," Riddick's growl of a voice, annoyed and affectionate. "Breathe kid."
"Oh, yeah," Jack looked sheepish but visibly took deep breaths to calm herself down.
"So, we can get off on Paquin," Riddick continued. "Lots of ships go through there. We can pick up passage for another system pretty easy."
"How are we gonna pay for that," Carolyn knew that her accounts were pretty low, hence the long trip to the Outer Rim and the newly terraformed planets. At least she had a positive balance though, which she hadn't before her last few runs.
"We got the skiff," Riddick explained, easing her back down. "It's worth something. And we didn't use all the whiskey to clean the wounds. Jack found a dozen bottles and they're worth something too."
"And I have adequate funds to aid our endeavors," Imam added in his soothing voice.
"Can always find work," Riddick nodded. His voice lowered, "Most normal folk don't recognize me on sight."
"Just mercs," Jack's voice had lowered and slowed its manic pace thankfully.
"Now that you're awake, I'll check in with the Captain, let him know," Riddick stood. "He offered to give me a shift in the engine room."
"I have been working as a cook," Imam smiled warmly. "It keeps me close to this room so you may call for me if you have need." He and Riddick left the room and Carolyn looked at Jack.
"Are you all right?"
The girl, still disguised as a boy, shrugged, "I'm fine. There's other women on this boat, they got me fixed up." She tugged at the high collar that hid her lack of adam's apple, "They said I wasn't the first girl hiding her gender and they doubted I'd be the last." At least she answered the question's meaning rather than wording and didn't try to dodge it.
"Where were you headed," Carolyn took a breath. "If you have people I can get together enough money to pay for your passage."
Jack shook her head, "I was on the boat because I didn't have anywhere else and passage to the new frontier was free for anyone who'd sign up on a terraforming crew. I've been on my own a while now." Her eyes gleamed, an oddly mature look for a girl only just entering adolescence, "We're all earning our way here. I'm a runner, between the bridge and the other parts of the ship."
What the hell kind of ship were they on? They'd take on extra crew mid-flight? Need runners? And had the space to give up a room for an injured woman? Jack made sure the water was within reach and promised to come back in an hour, suggesting (firmly) that Carolyn sleep some more.
Author's Note: So this began bouncing around my brain when Chisza and I were talking about the possibility of Carolyn living and if/how that would change Jack's fixation on Riddick. I've got ninety-five chapters and almost two hundred forty five thousand words but it's finished. So I should be posting once a week. The chapters aren't super long though.
Chinese Translation:
Tā mā de niǎo (goddamn it /lit. 'His mother's dick')
