Reunion Part 4
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Fry tried not to stare, but it was virtually impossible. Riddick, in full
color sitting before
her on the small cot that was her bed. One would think the pilots quarters
would be
bigger seeing as how they were the ones who flew the damn ships. Her eyes
shifted
unwillingly to Jack. The girl had grown into a beautiful young woman, if not
a hard one.
Her features had a look of perpetual wariness mixed with an innocence that
was reluctant
to let go. Around her neck was a smattering of tattoo’s, Japanese symbols
and the hint of
the letter’s ‘666’ on the back of her neck, just under a barcode of some
type. A prison
barcode...Jesus H. Christ, had the girl been to prison!!
Shaking herself
mentally, Fry slid
her gaze lower to Jack’s hands, which were at the moment busy as she
dismantled a small
radio receiver that Fry had stored somewhere in her cabin. Her fingers moved
over the
hard metal and reminded her of Riddick.
“It’s really impolite to stare.” Fry’s eyes snapped back up to meet the
iridescent blue
gaze of Jack who had spoken.
“Did your mom teach you that?” Fry asked back impulsively.
“No. The streets,” Jack replied. That got a curious look from both Imam
and Fry.
An
almost-smile quirked Riddick’s lips, almost. “I once stared at this guy,
Arny, too long,
and he left me with a cute little scar on my waist. After that I kind
figured it was pretty
damn impolite to stare. Not to mention dangerous as hell.” Her words had a
defensive
tone to them that Fry suspected wasn’t aimed at her. More like it was the
way she spoke
to everybody, as if constantly on the defense.
Riddick laughed, a husky sound, and Jack mimicked him, the two sharing a
look.
Imam
didn’t seem to mind at all, or didn’t seem to see as Fry did, how both of
them were in
sinc with each other. From eye movements, which continuously scanned her
compartment, to the small muscle twitches in there arm, as if they were
always on edge,
to the complete still, calm.
“I’m not a killer, Fry,” Jack said, exasperation in her voice, as if she
were loathe to
explain something that Fry should already have known about her.
“I didn’t say you were,” Fry replied, standing and moving to lean against
the wall by the
door.
“Bullshit,” Jack replied. “I saw you checking out the barcode,” she
smiled.
“Don’t
worry, it ain’t real. Just...helps to scare the natives,” she grinned.
“Nah, my specialty,”
she said, then stalled and pulled out the bone shiv that Fry had kept around
her neck since
the dark planet. “My specialty is thievery,” she smiled. She tossed the
shiv to Fry, who
slipped it into her pocket.
“You two done bonding?” Riddick intoned, voice dry as desert sand. Fry
wanted to ask
Jack more about why and how they had been captured, but Riddick was standing.
In his
full height, he easily dwarfed everyone in the room, and the little cabin got
small, yet felt
safer. And Jack’s eyes were intent on Riddick, calculating the next words
coming out of
his mouth.
“Time?” he asked Fry, that one word sparking something in her. Damn, get a
grip, all he
said was ‘time’ for fuck’s sake!, she chastised herself.
“1300 hours,” she replied. “Earth time.”
“Shit,” Jack half-laughed, half shouted in anger. Fry looked at Imam and
saw a hint of
irritation on his face.
“What?” Fry snapped out.
“Our transport off this bucket of bolts is gone by now,” Jack said, but
seemed to be
speaking more to Riddick rather than everyone else.
Fry quieted, then cleared her throat. Riddick’s eyes speared her. “You,
uh, don’t mean
the transport that played dead outside commercial space, then tried to attack
and board us
do you?”
“The very same one,” Riddick said, and though he didn’t move, he seemed to
get closer,
more menacing anyway. In response, Fry tipped her head to the side,
challenge flaring.
“I destroyed it.” Another harsh curse, from Jack, who seemed to have a
fondness for the
word ‘fuck’ and all it’s variations, including a few Fry was sure she’d
made up herself. A
deep growl came from Riddick and Fry arched a brow. “It was them or me, and
I made a
decision,” she said, not defending herself, just being blatantly defiant.
“Self preservation always has been your thing, hasn’t it?” Riddick asked,
his voice
carryig a clear reminded of the dark planet, and the events that had led them
to crash
there.
“Damn right,” Fry returned boldly. A hint of a smile from Riddick. Fry
looked at them.
She wanted an explanation.
“We were captured on Planet 0014-6, you know, one of those generally
black-hole type
planets that terra farmers pass over and give a number instead of a name.
Anyway, this
snippy little bounty hunter was on our ass because Riddick killed a few cops
to get us off
of Centuari.”
“What were you doing on Centauri?” Fry cut in. Jack shot her an annoyed
look similar to
Riddicks.
“Stealing a skiff and some...personals,” she replied absently, and continued
with her
story. “Anyways, she caught up with us, shot Riddick, set some Dobermans on
me, and
here we are,” she said. “That’s the short, very much rated version, mind
you,” Jack
grinned.
“I can imagine,” Fry returned. Jack shrugged and continued.
“News of Riddick’s capture was the front page story for the next month and
he was sent
to a prison facility, then to another one after he bit the throat out of a
guard,” she said,
waving her hands in the air dissmissevly. “I went to juvie.” She looked at
Imam and
smiled.
“Imam got word to me somehow that he was going to get me out, and I
wasn’t
going anywhere without Riddick. So, the day after that were being
transported to Slam,
and put into cryosleep, trusting Imam here to get us out. And he came
through,” Jack
finished up.
“And that transport ship I destroyed was your ticket off my ship?” Fry
asked.
Jack
nodded. “Well--” Fry started again when music suddenly blasted in her
cabin. Riddick
was standing beside the radio. Fry gave him a confused look, but he merely
raised one
hand over his lips and gestured for her to shut up. He had obviously heard
something.
In the hallway, the bounty hunter that had caught Riddick and Jack stopped at
Fry’s door
and listened, hearing only music inside. Suspicious, she stayed there for a
few more
minutes before moving away and continuing below deck to the holding cells to
toy with
her prisoners.
“Why can’t we just take the bridge?” Jack piped up as soon as Riddick had
turned the
music off.
“Because my captain, three crewmembers, one bounty hunter, and two military
personnel
are out there, and they know who you are,” Fry replied. A pause. “I have
to get back to
the bridge,” Carolyn said, zipping her suit up. The room had gone quite and
two pairs of
blue eyes were focused intently on her. She met each stare and left the
room. A foot
away from her cabin down the hall the damnable klaxon’s sounded again. The
prisoners
were loose!! Fry broke off at a run back to her cabin, but it was empty when
she got
there.
end part 4
go back to Part 1
go back to Part 2
go back to Part 3
go to Part 5
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