TITLE: Before the Dawn
AUTHOR: Topaz
FANDOM: Pitch Black
PAIRING: Riddick/ofc
RATING: R to NC-17 for violence and sexual depictions
DISCLAIMER: All characters from movies are copyright by their respective studios and creators. I am not making a profit of any sort from these pages. Really. Tane and the idea is copyright 2002 by S.A. Hoag.
SUMMARY: Riddick and Tane are running out of time to deal with the mercs and the Marines.
Chapter 1
"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" he asked, massaging the young woman's shoulders as she lay curled up on the floor of her cabin. He was worried now, for real. She had been off her feet for three days, and that had to be bad news for someone who was so hyper.
"The doctors said it would take about a week." she murmured, more motion-sick than she had ever been in her life. "And I can take the drugs for a year without any other side-effects." Tane turned a bit, daring to open her eyes. He was there, still. Riddick in private, Hunter in public, one-in-the-same . . . A year. They had a year to clear up the mistakes she had made over the past fifteen.
"Stasis. And it's safe? For you and the baby?" He didn't trust doctors. He had no reason to.
"It's been in use for a couple decades, but it's expensive, and illegal in some systems. And if we want to get at Cody anytime on our own terms, we need to do it now."
"Maybe you should have the baby first." he suggested, stroking her hair. The ships interior lights hadn't been on full-power since they had left the New Durango system. Tane stumbled around in the half-light for days until she memorized the ship.
"In five month, Cody could disappear from the universe. He's done it before and if he thinks I've turned the tables, he'll do it again."
Riddick sighed. "So there's no talking you out of this? I could handle the bastard on my own . . . Catch him alone in some port city, two minutes in a dark bar or deserted street . . ."
"The problem is, he's never alone when he's planetside." Tane reminded him.
He pulled a blanket up over her. "The Kysian."
"Yea, him. They aren't quite human. Their eyesight isn't as good as ours . . ." She glanced up at him and smiled. The shine. She would never get used to it. "As good as the average humans." she corrected. "But their other senses are better. Better hearing, better sense of smell . . ."
"More feral." Riddick said.
"Yea, that's about it." Tane had interacted with Kysians. Riddick had never crossed pathes with one.
"You couldn't forget the things you've learned about me. The aliens got nothing I can't match, little girl."
"One-on-one, I wouldn't put my money on either of them." Tane whispered. "But I know they have taken out mercs that I would have bet on. Teams. People I knew, people I worked with. They . . . obliterated a team Wade trained and supervised, and if Wade had told me what happened, I'd have called him a liar." She shivered and he wrapped his arms around her.
Before, he hadn't known. Now he was certain of it. Tane was scared of Cody. "So we take care of them one at a time." he told her.
"I don't think we have another choice."
"When are you going to tell me the real story about Cody?"
"When are you going to tell me how Johns died?" Touche!
"It's not a pretty picture, Tane. There were a lot of things that happened that you won't see in the reports. You have good memories of him as a Marine. Maybe you should let it lie."
She was quiet, then began to shiver again. It took Riddick a few moments to realize she was crying. And he had no idea how to handle that. A sobbing female was way out of his league, especially this sobbing female. He had never seem her even close to tears.
"Tane, damnit, don't . . ." he tried.
"It's not you, it's the hormones on top of hormones." She sniffed, wiped her eyes, feeling like an idiot. "Not much I can do about it, either." Tane shifted. The floor was uncomfortable, but in her bunk, she swore she could feel the ship moving. She was thankful for a brief pause in the need to throw her guts up. She was also very thankful she had made him learn to pilot the ship as soon as they cleared the system.
"I saw Will a year ago. I saw him every few weeks on the route I was running. I know what he turned in to. That wasn't Will. He died on Wexler's Station, too, I think. Don't apologize because you lived and he didn't."
He sighed, knowing he couldn't tell her. Not now, probably not ever. "Tell me about Cody, Tane, because our future depends onif we can kill him and when we can kill him.
Carefully, she sat up, a bit woosy and a bit shaky, but . . . better. At least she had some color back in her face. Twenty-four hours ago, she had been as pale as snow. "There isn't that much to tell. He has always been a sociopath, I was just too young or too naive to see it . . .."
Riddick cocked his head, regarding her with raised eyebrows.
"You don't even fit the profile unless it suits you." she added, poking a finger into his chest. "When I was sixteen, things were pretty . . . intense with Cody. By the time I was seventeen, we were in the Marines and I had met Harlan."
"You dumped Cody for Harlan?"
"No, Cody and I were over before I ever met Harlan. They were cousins. Hell, he was a groomsman at our wedding. That was before he completely lost it."
"What set him off?"
"He always had a bad temper, and a quick temper. He beat the hell out of his T.I. about four weeks into basic training. They cycled him back and tried again, but he went ballistic on a couple trainees in his flight. I had already gone on to tech training by then . . ." Tane shrugged, sighed. "They discharged him, sent him home. After that, Cody was the only person Cody worried about."
"Why are you his target?"
"I was on the review board that discharged him, as one of his peers. He took it personal, but nothing ever surfaced until after . . ." Well, he knew after what.
"And after Harlan died, the blood ties were gone. He could get even with you and collect a bounty." Riddick understood his thinking. He could also taste the need to kill him.
"Yea, that's about the sum of it. He went after Kyle once, thinking I might show . . . that didn't work out too well for him."
"I can imagine." He had met two of her brothers. Wade was dangerous and it showed. Kyle was too quiet to not be a serious threat. "So you've been playing cat-and-mouse with the little . . . with Cody for five years? Because of some sense of loyalty to Harlan?"
"Four years. Makes a shitload of sense, huh?" She didn't offer any excuses because she didn't have any.
"Do you have any brilliant ideas on how to separate them so we can hit them? And if we hit them at the same time, can you take the Kysian? I know you had the opportunity to get Cody once not too long ago and you let him walk."
"Wade has a big mouth." Tane observed. "And I have no reservation about killing a Kysian merc, none at all."
"So we plan while we hunt. No mistakes, no prisoners."
He stood and stretched, leaning down to pick her up as easily as he would a pillow. She was feeling better, and he was more than a little relieved. He had expressed major reservation about her trust in the doctors on Lyra Ten. It was her choice, her baby. Riddick put her in bed. "Get some sleep. I have the bridge."
Chapter 2
Tane was working on the computer, on the bridge when Riddick woke up for a routine systems check. Her hair was wet and he wondered how she had managed to shower without him hearing it. "Gettin' soft, Rid." he mused to himself.
"No you're not. You are just used to me." she answered, arm outstretched over the consol, resting her head on it. "You know it's safe onboard. Those instincts will kick back in the moment we get planetside or portside."
"Feeling better?" He checked their heading and speed, exactly where he expected them to be.
"Yea." Tane sat up, twisting her head so her neck popped audibley.
"Old war injury?"
"I broke my neck once." she told him matter-of-factly. "We were in freefall. Part of the bulkhead was damaged from the firefight and it collapsed. The two guys next to me weren't so lucky."
Sometimes, he actually forgot she was a Marine. Ex-Marine. "What have you been getting in to?"
"I'm hunting." She brought up a file, a picture. "I'll be damned if I can find any real information on him, but this is Cody's pilot. The best translation of his name I can get is 'West'.
Riddick memorized the picture, every fine detail. He had seen videos of Kysians before, but he wanted no mistakes. This one was tall, thin, black hair, pale skin. He couldn't determine eye color, but that didn't really matter. Green was the only eye color he could discern, and the majority of Kysians had, yep, green eyes. Kysians has some distinctly feline features, mostly in the face.
"Half-breed?"
Tane sat back in her chair abruptly, spinning it around to look at him.
"No?" He wondered what he had done that had so suprised her.
"I don't know. I hadn't thought of that . . ." She tried to remember, but her mind was still fuzzy from being sick. "He looks pure-blooded. He's taller than you by . . . a good two or three inches, maybe more, and he moves like a Kysian."
"You've met him?"
"I tracked him once, out of curiousity, just to see . . ."
"You play dangerous games, Tane."
She shrugged, opening a panel on the consol. "This is a new toy you should check out. It looks like a plasma pistol." She flipped open the clip. "With some added kick. If Cody happens to be wearing body armor - and he always does - this will help. The clips have blue encoding rather than green." she pointed to the markings that were only variations in texture to him. Every third chamber contained a round with a tiny explosive charge in the tip. More contraband she had picked up somewhere along the way.
"Body armor, huh? Aim for the head."
An odd look crossed her face, as if she might be feeling the nausea again. Tane stood, running her fingers down his jaw to get his attention. She leaned close and whispered. "I love you, I'd kill to protect you. And I trust you. But please, please, when it happens, don't tell me how, don't give me details. Ever."
Riddick didn't know what to make of that and couldn't decide if he should apologize or not. I'll never understand women. Not one. Not you, Carolyn, sure as hell not Tane. He caught her by both arms. "Is there something you're not telling me?"
"I can't kill him. I tried, remember? Can not do it."
"Heard about it. What did he do when you let him go?" Riddick knew if he was missing something, it could cost him his life. Or hers.
"He smiled at me, the smug son-of-a-bitch, and said 'You shouldn't be such a girl. Pull the trigger.' Then he walked away."
He digested that for a few moments, letting her go. "We can use that."
"That he thinks I've gone weak-kneed?"
Riddick nodded. "We'll work on the Kysian, first. He's the one we don't know anything about. What you don't know can kill you."
***********************************
"Ursa Lunar 1010, this is EF-277437 requesting docking clearance." Riddick talked a smooth talk into the comm. He was good at that. Tane stood in the hatchway, arms folded, watching him. He had a style all his own. It was just that sometimes, it wasn't very . . . civilized.
"EF-277437 state your home port and last call." a human voice returned.
Riddick looked back at her for some sort of confirmation. "Tell them." was all she offered.
"You seem to forget we jumped the lane out of Corbic Prime without clearance."
"Just do it."
"Alright. EF-277437 out of New Durango, last port of call Corbic Prime."
"Corbic Station has a red flag on you." the controller informed him.
"What in the hell . . ?" Riddick began, not keying the mic.
Tane slipped into the co-pilot's seat. "1010, this is Cpt. Tane Cameron. Corbic is where the ship came out of dry-dock. We have had intermittent radio problems from day one. Techs replaced the entire system on New Durango and I have the bill to prove it. Send our apolgizes to Corbic Sation."
Silence.
"Nice." Riddick commented. "What if they don't buy your story?"
"I said 'captain' instead of 'commander' so they know I'm military, they won't screw with us."
He shook his head, too aware that she knew how things worked and he did not. The Slam wasn't real-life, not to people on the outside. "You are cleared to land, approach vectors are downloading to your on-board."
"See?" she smiled sweetly at him. "And that's why I get paid the big money." It took only a few minutes for the ship to navigate itself into dock. The lunar station was big, twice the size of Corbic Station, and new. There were still construction crews working the underground sections. As they sat waiting for soft dock confirmation, Tane purged the computer files and re-booted the system.
They orbited around the far side of the station and Riddick exhaled sharply. "What in the hell kind of ship is that?"
Tane looked up at it looming into full view. A heartbeat passed, two, three, as she sat frozen in place. It was a Kysian troop transport.
"What is it?" Riddick repeated, alarms going off in his brain. Nothing ever startled her into silence . . .
There was a second ship docked to the first, about the same mass, but in a hell of a lot better condition. They looked to have been in a firefight, recently. The starboard side of the first ship was battered and burned, several hull breaches evident. Its markings were totally unknown to him.
"Kysian." she breathed. "Predator class, or maybe bigger . . . " she couldn't recall the name at the moment. Tane stared at the ship, awed and still a bit shaken. "They actually got a command ship."
"Are we being invaded?" Riddick asked, more adrenalin pumping in to his system than was comfortable. He was only half-joking.
"No. That's a Colonial Marine Cruiser. Big guns, not as fast, but damn, they got it anyway, didn't they?" She was checking the datalink from the station. "I have got to learn to read the shit they send me before I delete it."
"Marines?" Riddick asked.
She paused, watching him. "We are ok. Marines don't hunt Alliance felons, especially not dead ones."
"You knew there would be Marines here."
"There is always that chance." Tane's gaze strayed back to the Kysian ship.
"You are itching to get a look in that ship." Riddick stated.
"Look at it . . . I want to fly it."
He regarded her over the top of his goggles, shine reflecting back at her. "Have you lost your mind?"
Tane shook her head slowly. "No."
"We are looking for Cody." Riddick reminded her.
"Chances are, Fleet Command will be want me to supervise the upload of the system files, if there are any left . . ." In fact, she was counting on it. A stray thought suddenly had her attention. Tane was a flurry of motion, sending a message. "Hey blondie." she smirked at the video. "Look at what I just found sitting in plain sight at a civilian port." She directed the camera for a slow close-up of the Kysian ship. "I would like your professional opinion on this . . ." Tane had a wicked grin. "Get back with me quick."
"If Fleet Command wants you involved, do you have a choice?" Riddick wondered.
"I do."
"And if you turned down this particular assignment, there would be questions."
She nodded. "Want to go sight-seeing?"
"Sure. Who's 'blondie'?" Riddick eyed her, knowing well enough he had better be suspicious. If he didn't ask, she wouldn't tell, and damned sure as not, he'd regret it later.
*************************************************************
"Constellation type cruiser." West verified, clearly disturbed by the images playing on the video.
Cody wasn't concerned with his co-pilot's emotional state. "How old is this? What system is it out of?"
"It's forty-two hours old, out of . . . Voynich."
Pressing fingers to his temples, Cody leaned back far enough to stare at the ceiling. "Fleet Command will want their top people to examine it. And Tane is one of the top programmers they've had in the past twenty years. The real question is - Will she come out of hiding to get a look inside?"
"No." West thought.
"No? You don't know her." He sat up. "If she isn't there already, she will be. I just have to figure out what suprises she has planned."
"Curiosity isn't as powerful as fear."
"She has never been as afraid as she is curious."
"That makes her dangerous."
Cody laughed. "To whom? We really can't go barging in there, as packed with Marines as the system is right now. But maybe I can figure out a way to . . . encourage her to move on a little sooner."
West could bide his time, playing like he couldn't get around Alliance space without Cody's guidance. It was a useful ruse, for now. He did tire of being subservient, but that was a game, too.
*****************************************************
Tane tied her hair back as she strode down the walkway, in search of an MP. The station was crawling with Fleet personal, but a lot of them were civilians, and Tane didn't deal with civilians. She spotted a pair heading in the same direction and didn't feel like running to catch up with them. They were regular Fleet, military but not Marine. A shrill whistle got their attention.
"Can I help you, Miss?" the sergeant offered. The corporal had been annoyed until she caught up with them. Tane had purposly left an extra button on her shirt opened. She had also left it untucked, her clothes a bit unconfortable now.
"'Miss'?" Tane handed him her military ID card. "I'd like to see the Duty Officer or the OIC as soon as possible."
He peered at the card, then Tane. "This is out-of-date." Among other things. It had a clearance level of 4, higher than his, certainly, and only one level below Fleet Command.
"I'm retired." she offered.
"I have to scan this to verify." he told her. He was paid to be suspicious. To his partner, "Stay with Captain Allen." There were call boxes every hundred yards along the main corridor. He returned within a minute.
"Cpt. Allen," he said, sounding a hell of a lot more serious than he did before. "How formally do you want to do this?"
The corporal was in momentary disbelief.
"As informal as possible. I don't do the military protocol because I don't have to and neither do you becasue I really am retired."
"Can I ask what your business is with the OIC?" the Sergeant asked. The trio headed for the station center.
"That ship sitting on the next platform, mostly. How did they get their hands on it?"
"I don't know, all I know is they towed it in two days ago and this station has been in chaos ever since. They are shipping in a dozen techs from the Rift, but they won't get here for two weeks."
They were going to beg Tane to look at the Kysian ship, and she was going to make a bundle of money from it. The funny thing was, she would have done it for free just to get on board. But she wasn't going to tell them that.
"You are carrying a sidearm?" the Sergeant asked.
"Always. Why?"
"The station isn't secure."
Tane stopped. "I don't recall that bit of information in my docking upload." Of course, she hadn't even read it.
"No." he concurred. "But we have a few stray Kysians . . . at least we suspect there are. No way to account for the troops. There are 61 in lockup on the lower levels and a couple hundred bodies we incinerated."
"This is an opened station." Kysians could come and go as they pleased, but the system was claimed by the Alliance. Too damned close to the Frontier for comfort, tho'.
"Exactly the problem."
"There are reinforcements on the way." Tane stated it as a fact rather than a question.
"There are." He couldn't give her info he didn't have. And a Fleet Sergeant didn't get a lot of top level secrets.
"So I should have gone on to the next system if I was really concerned about security?"
"Yes, ma'am."
*****************************************************
Riddick trailed along behind them, on the opposite side of the wide corridor, pretending he had a passing interest in the many shops that lined the level. He was out of earshot. Since it was early in first shift, the crowd of people was growing, so sometimes, they were out of sight, but Tane was never beyond his sense of smell. The atomsphere seemed tense, but maybe that was just him. Crowds always made him on-edge.
While Tane was learning what she could, he was going to see what he could dig up. He could go places and learn things she would never hear through official channels. As much as she liked to think she could handle anything, Riddick seriously doubted she would have a clue about the 'bad side of town'.
Once this thing with Cody was over, he'd have to educate her on the finer points of the criminal lifestyle. She was certainly teaching him a thing or two . . .
Chapter 5
The moment Tane set foot on board her ship, she knew there was trouble. She had no idea what kind, but something was definately wrong. The lights were on full power for one thing. Automatically, her left hand dropped to release the safety on her sidearm. Damnit. she thought. And here I am, not wearing body armor. What in the hell is wrong with me, thinking a civilian port was secure . . .
Cautiously, and a silently as she could move, Tane headed for the bridge. Unless it was Fleet Command themselves, she had too many security devices in place to worry about the power core or cargo hold for now. Bridge. It looked rearranged.
That was because Riddick had put it in battle mode, the consol pivoted around to face away from the nose of the ship. It effectively blocked the entryway, but it was another security feature. Whoever happened to be working the captain's seat was the only person visable on the vid. From the corridor, Tane could hear him talking to someone. She allowed herself a split-second of relief, but no more. The lights were still on, and that was his warning to her.
"Wetworks are no problem." Riddick was saying. "Blood washes off just as easily as sweat." he shook his head and shrugged. Tane got close enough to see he had a pair of dark glasses on. He didn't look up, but he tapped his finger on the consol.
"But you don't kill women?" the disembodied voice at the other end asked, not quite mocking but close. Tane froze, breathe caught in her throat, hands suddenly shaking. It was a real-time conversation, and she could never mistake the voice. Riddick was talking to Cody.
He remembered how Wade signalled me before we made New Durnago. Tane thought wildly. Cody was close, he was in the sector, and she was responsible because she had sent out the uncoded message to get his attention but maybe that had worked too damned well . . . Tane took a deep breath and slipped around to a secondary station.
"If the price is right . . . " Riddick mused to Cody. "But honestly, you can't afford me."
**You can see this but Cody cannot.** appeared across the bottom of the main screen to Riddick a few seconds later. He made no indication he saw it. Good. **Tap one finger for no, tap two for yes. Got it?**
He tapped two fingers as Cody sneered an answer. "Too many perks, huh?"
Tane suddenly wanted to throw up. **Is he in the system?** she typed.
One finger tapping. "I'm not at liberty to discuss our . . . arrangements."
Cody laughed. "I'll bet. Did she tell you she's a Marine?"
"Marine?" Riddick feigned suprise beautifully.
"Ah, not just Marine, Colonial Marine. And if it comes up . . ." Cody smirked. "She'll tell you she's retired."
"And she's not."
"Not hardly. Can you say 'counter-intelligence'. Tane has spent more time in the past five years in Kysian territory than my pilot."
**Is West there?** Tane typed quietly.
Riddick responded by tapping one finger. Tane was turning on the extra security systems and closing the hatch a heartbeat later. **I have red lights all over the panel, he is trying to track us.** she warned. **Tell him you know that.**
One finger continued tapping. "Now I know you can't pay me enough. I do not fuck with the Alliance any more than I have to. And I don't have to bring her in for you. I don't need a price on my head."
**I know him better than anyone alive. Tell him.** she persisted.
"Stop trying to trace me Cody." Riddick said simply and it sounded like a threat.
There was a brief silence, then Cody laughed, a real laugh, not the mocking sneer he had displayed earlier. "Yea, that's her ship alright. How about if I offer you a nice bounty of my own for Tane, alive and well, and . . . disarmed?"
**I want you to see how he reacts to me.** Tane typed. **It's important.**
Riddick stopped tapping his fingers entirely, contemplating it all.
"Money, real spendable credits, just for staying out of the way when the time comes." Cody continued. "Unless you've went and gotten attached to her . . ."
"How much?" Riddick said abruptly, tapping two fingers.
Tane moved back around to the entryway, waiting to make her appearance, hoping he wouldn't see things, a lot of things, that were different now. A year and a half ago, she had let him walk, and it seemed like a thousand years now.
"Twenty thousand. Alliance Standard, of course." Cody said.
Riddick looked up at Tane. "Twenty thousand?" He put a second video feed on, so Cody could see she had just walked on to the bridge."
"I'm worth twenty thousand?" she tried to sound insulted and amused. That, or sheer panic might come through. "I think I'm hurt."
"That's just for Hunter to keep you safe and secure until I can pick you up, my dear." Cody answered. There were subtle and not-so-subtle changes in him as she went on-screen. Riddick saw them.
Knowing Cody all too well, Tane knew what was coming next. She swore she wouldn't let it show, not like this, in front of Riddick and sure as hell not in front of Cody. He had never caught her on a live feed this time of year before, but she dreaded those few words.
"I'll think about it." Riddick said, clearly not interested.
"Yea, those perks with her are pretty . . . intense, aren't they." Cody was back to leering. "Doesn't matter to me. One bounty, one dead merc." he shrugged.
"Uh-huh." Riddick dismissed the threat.
Here it comes. Tane knew. He'd never forget, never let me forget.
"Hey, Tane." Cody said.
Shit.
"Looked at your Earth-date calendar lately?"
"You are a fucking asshole, Cody" she told him.
"What did you ever see in me? Anyway. Tell Harlan 'happy birthday', will ya?"
Twisting the knife, right in the heart. "Fuck you."
"Hmmmmm, not recently." Cody offered.
Tane cut the feed and the screen went black.
"Are you alright?" Riddick asked through the closed door.
"Fine."
"You've been in there damned near an hour. Are you crying?" It was a speculative guess, but Cody knew how to hit her where it hurt and he had. Riddick had seen the look on her face after she cut the transmission off. She looked . . . shattered.
"No. I'm fine." she repeated.
"Could have fooled me." he said to himself. "You were right. He's psychotic. Something had to set him off on you. Any ideas?"
The door slid open. She hadn't been crying, either, but she looked pale. "I don't know. I thought it was becasue I was on the review board that dismissed him, but the trouble didn't start then." Tane stared at him a minute, shook her head and sighed.
"What?" Riddick asked, barely more than a whisper. He had turned the lights down and she the glasses.
"I swear, I can't think around you."
"Should I be insulted or flattered?"
"You cloud my judgement." she restated.
"You seem to do fine when it counts." He nodded towards the bridge, indicating their conversation with Cody.
"No." Tane moved past him to the bridge. He had returned it to it's normal operating mode. She sat, taking the co-pilot's chair. "I didn't think he was that close . . . I sent that transmission to my brother uncoded so Cody would hear it and he did, but he's already in the sector. That was stupid, stupid, stupid. We could both be dead because it didn't occur to me he'd know about that ship and know I'd be close." She leaned back, covering her face with her hands. "That was so stupid." she murmured again.
"So . . . you aren't allowed to make mistakes?" he took the pilot's seat. He had adjusted it to fit him and it was comfortable.
"No, not now."
"You are taking it personal, and that's why you can't finish it." Riddick told her. "I saw a lot of things about Cody you didn't tell me. Couldn't tell me, maybe. Are you still in the Marines?" he seemed to change the subject.
"I let Cody think that so he less likely to screw with me if there are Marines in the sector." She sat up, shook her head.
"He said you would say that. Now, I tend to not believe what I hear as rumor and innuendo . . ." Riddick couldn't help but smile. If she was a spy, she was damned good, and even if she wasn't, he suspected she did covert work for them anyway. He had always suspected that. He couldn't predict Tane. She's not a lot like you, Carolyn, except for the things that really count. I think you two would have been friends.
"I don't have a good track record with men, in case you hadn't noticed."
"But you have a plan. You always have a plan."
"I have a couple ideas. I won't tell you everything, that's not the system."
"The system? Hon, I'm on your side . . . " There was an edge in his voice.
We are going to have our first real fight. Tane thought. "It's for your safety."
"I'm not the one with a psychopath up my ass. I'm trying to fucking help you and you want to shut me out and do it all on your own. Remember what happened last time - didn't quite work out the way you planned did it?"
"I don't want anything to happen to you."
"I've been places and done things you really don't want to know about. Cody's got nothing I can't take care of. But you have to step back and let me do it or we are going to spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulder to see if he's there . . ." He spoke slowly, as if he were explaining it to a child.
Tane rubbed her eyes. "How long have you been out of Ursa Luna? Three, four months. What do you think the Alliance will do to you for murdering a Terran citizen? They will gene-scan you and they will know who you are and you'll be lucky if they just send you back to Slam City . . ."
"Never happen. I won't go back . . . "
"That's what I'm afraid of."
Riddick sighed. "Have I ever known anyone more stubborn?"
"I suppose you can't help it." She smiled at him.
"You win. But it's a two way street." The comm started beeping, a message incoming. "If that's Cody . . "
Tane had it. "It's coded, it's clean. So it's . . ."
"'Blondie'?" After meeting two of her brothers, he found it difficult to believe the third was . . . blond. As shipboard pale as Tane was now, she was still brunette with an olive complexion that looked very Earth Medeterranian area ancestory. Kyle and Wade had the same features.
Apparently, they looked like one of their parents and brother three took after the other. He was blond. "Hey kiddo, I hope you did that on purpose or you were really, really drunk." Drew greeted. Definately a Cameron, same attitude, same smile, the one that totally wrecked Riddick when Tane wore it.
"Sure as hell." Tane responded. "A Kysian mid-class, mostly in one piece. Nifty, huh?"
"Been onboard yet?"
"They have to clear me through Command first."
"That should take five minutes." Drew scoffed. "So, when are you expecting Cody to be knocking on your door?"
Riddick waited for an answer to that.
"Drew, Hunter is piloting for me. This is the missing brother." she introduced them, as brief about it as she could manage. "Cody is already in the sector. I got his call just now, and he's as plesant and charming as ever."
He wanted to say something but skipped it. Wade wouldn't tell him who 'Hunter' was. "I'm on-call. If you need a hand . . ."
"I know." Tane told him.
"They have a full alert going there. Did you know that?"
"They closed the lane right after we put in. So either they are tracking Kysian movement close by or they are going to move the ship soon. Pick one."
"Or both?" Drew offered.
"What a lovely thought." Tane sighed. She did sarcasm well.
Written by Topaz at August 30, 2003 08:30 PM