Chapter 3
"You can watch me send the message, if you don't trust me." Tane told him. Riddick. Not Johns, but she had know that all along. "What do you want me to call you, anyway?"
"Johns will do. For now."
They snuck down the corridor, covering a few feet at a time and expecting to run across more pirates at any given moment. The impression that the ship was abandoned was false . . . it was an ore freighter and a big one. Not the biggest, by far, but there was plenty of room to roam. Riddick had taken his glasses off because the power was on at half, the light was low.
"Com Room." she pointed, whispering, well aware his senses were much better suited for this than hers. No one was there anyway. The pair quickly sealed both doorways. "That was too easy."
"Is it on autopilot?" Riddick ask, sarcasm being one of his finer points.
"No." Tane said, suprised. She called up the original flight plans and reset them, hoping the course change would go unnoticed. Riddick made his way back to her, watching over her shoulder as she made the adjusments. Feeling his breath on her neck made her edgy. Or something. "Not that you don't trust me . . ." she said it mostly to herself.
"How are you going to send a message from here, with the radar array gone?"
Tane smiled. "Watch this." she nodded, indicating one of the monitors. It was moving around to a new viewing field. The emergency pods. As she worked the computer, one of the bay doors opened. "Don't have to launch it, just use the transmitter."
"What are you sending?" It wasn't in his nature to trust.
"Being held hostage by R. Riddick, send the Marines." she whispered.
For a moment, he was angry. It flared in his eyes, those eyes that both terrified and intrigued her. And that mouth . . . she quickly discarded her wandering thoughts. Tane stood her ground. The real message was a simple distress call about a hijacking, without any mention of him. "Do you really want to piss me off?" His anger was gone in the same moment.
"No. What I want is to not wonder what you are doing every time you walk behind me." They were both armed with plasma guns they'd taken off the pirates, and Riddick had the blade she had given him ealier. Now, she handed him her pistol. "Here's your chance. I figure the odds are even you can get to that pod without anyone seeing you."
He thought about it, he really did. Out here, if someone did figure out who he was, they probably wouldn't care. Half the systems weren't even part of the Alliance. Then again, he could use an ally. "Were you serious about piloting for ten thousand credits?"
"For them? Hell no."
Money wasn't a compelling force in her life, then. Why was she out here, if not for the money, because the money was good. Next best answer. "What are you wanted for?"
Tane sighed, and it was a ragged, hollow sound. "I took a retirement, but certain . . . factions of the military weren't exactly willing to let some of us go so easy. So I disappeared."
He offered her the pistol. "Retirement? Aren't you a little young for retirement?"
"Depends on how bad the Alliance wants to forget some of their mistakes." She took the weapon and holstered it, slipping the shoulder harness under the vest she had picked up.
"Truce, then?"
She nodded. "And when we get to the next Station?"
"Maybe I'll have a business proposition for you. What about the pirates?" he changed the subject. The Alliance had definately done something bad to her. Eventually, he would piece it together.
"When I find them, " she was calling up bio-scans of each level of the ship. "I can dump coolant through the air vent . . ." Tane caught a sideways glance from him. "Not enough to kill them, just knock 'em out and lock 'em up. I'm leaving the rest of the crew out of this mess while the pirates are still where-ever the hell they are."
"Let me look." he pushed her aside, carefully, with something in mind.
"I can do that . . ." Tane started to protest.
"Don't fuck with me when I'm offering help." He pointed. "There."
"Level Eleven, Section 3 . . . Wonderful . . ."
"The Armory?"
"Of course it is."
"Can you think of a better place to barricade yourself in?" He brought up the blueprint of the armory. "Separate environmental controls?"
"Not separate, but if they know I'm piping coolant in there, they can switch to secondary systems. Coolant has a distinct oder."
"Then we have to take the armory by force."
"There are five of them."
"Yea, so the odds are in our favor. You said they were amateurs."
She tossed a flak jacket at him. "Try not to get yourself killed."
Riddick smiled. That was the first time in his life someone had said that to him.
"Call them on the com-link and tell them . . . tell them you need someone to move a loader out of the forward bay." Tane said. They were a hundred feet from the armory, waiting in a dark side corridor. She wondered if she should mention the fact her vision in this light was practically none-existant. "Disguise your voice. Mumble or something."
"Somebody get to the forward bay and move the loader away from the doors." He tried to imitate how the first pirate spoke. Riddick was sure it was a lousy attempt and figured at this point it would be easier to just go in and kill them all.
"Are we there already?" was the answer he got.
"Just do it."
They waited for their prey in the dark. It felt like hours, but Tane knew it was only minutes passing. She could hear herself breathing. She could hear him breathing. He had taken off his tattered shirt to put on the vest and Tane was quite sure she had never seen anyone so . . . finely sculpted. Perfect muscle tone, perfect body. She had to make an extreme effort to not stare, and he hadn't seemed to have noticed. Being this close to him was beginning to effect her, in ways she certainly hadn't expected. Maybe it's because you have made a point of not giving a shit about anyone but yourself for so long . . . Tane told herself. And when a man finally comes along that is stronger than you, and bigger than life, it knocks you on your ass. Serves you right.
"Party time." Riddick said. He saw the effort it took her to move. "Are you alright?"
"I'll live."
"Let me lead." he told her.
The two pirates never stood a chance. As soon as they were within range, Riddick stepped from the shadows, moving faster than Tane would have believed anyone that size could. Years of surviving in the slam, she knew. He backhanded the one closest and sent him sprawling across the hall. Then he grabbed the next one by the throat and pounded him in to the wall not once or twice, but three times.
Tane stepped up, kicking the pirate that was already down, making sure he was out. Riddick let go and he slumped to the floor in an unconscious heap. "You're right, they are amateurs. Out for a quick buck with a quick plan. Fuck, they probably don't have a pilot with them."
She agreed. "Three left."
"Three armed, and we might have suprise for a second or two. That's all. Don't screw around, Tane. If you have to kill, don't you dare hesitate. You know better." He wondered where that came from.
She nodded. "Let's do this."
It wasn't exactly a mad rush, but the pair burst into the room fairly co-ordinated for never working together before. Tane dodged left and went high while Riddick rolled right and kept moving, low and fast. He shot the first one he got the crosshairs on. After that, everything went wrong.
Tane lost the pirate she was drawing on as he ducked behind a steel girder that divided the room. She followed him, in her sights, and moving closer as she squinted to aim, one eye shut. He came back into view with an old blaster-type pistol pointed at her. Tane didn't have time to swear, just drop and move. Blasters left massive damage in their wake. This one opened a gaping hole into the hallway and promptly caught the interior wall on fire. He fired a second time, sending a shower of shrapnel and debris across the room where Tane had been.
Riddick forgot about his prey and turned to concentrate on the asshole trying to blow a hole in the ship. He watched Tane take a hit from debris and disappear in the smoke. "Move, Marine!" he bellowed, opening fire on the pirate as he turned towards him. Riddick was standing against an outside wall. A hit from a blaster would leave them all getting sucked out into space from the hull breech. Two shots, dead pirate. Too bad.
The smell of the heavy black smoke and the smack on the head left Tane somewhere she tried not to go . . . bad memories boiled up, and for a few moments, took over. "We're in trouble, Harlan. Call them back. Call them back." She looked at the blood she'd wiped away from her face. Strange. She didn't remember that. "I'm calling for evac." Goddamn it. Stop it. This isn't Wexler's Station . . . She came around firing, past Riddick, the final pirate making a run for it with another blaster powering up. He got two steps.
For a split second, Riddick thought he was dead, that she was going to do what every law enforcement agency in the Alliance hadn't been able to do in two decades. But overlaid in that second, he heard the last intruder, flushed from hiding, and he was behind Riddick.
Fuck me.
"Clear." Her voice was shaky, and if she looked bad before, she looked like she needed to be in a med-ward now.
"I'm clear - are you sure there were seven of them?"
"Yea." She was dazed by the head wound, still bleeding heavily.
"Who is Harlan?" Riddick asked, thinking it was probably one of the crewmembers locked up below. Then Tane was pointing her weapon at him, wavering, but she was a deadly shot nonetheless.
"Where in the fuck did you hear that name?" she demanded.
"You just called to him." He wanted to grab the gun from her and give her a slap just for pointing it at him, but some instinct told him it was a really bad idea.
She looked like she wasn't sure where she was. "Yea." Tane touched her head and flinched. "Shit." Holstering the weapon, she looked around at the chaos they had made. "Three down?"
"Three dead. Do you have a medic on board?"
"Are you hit?"
"You are." Riddick busted open a kit and wadded up a chunk of gauze. He guided her to a clear spot in the day room across the hall and sat her down. "Hold this." The makeshift bandage would do for now. "Do you have a medic?"
"He's in lock-up. You might want to turn them loose."
"Call down there and tell them I'm coming."
"Riddick." she said. He stopped. "I wouldn't have shot you."
"I believe you." He did. Happy now, Carolyn?
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Chapter 4
"You red-headed stepchild." The lanky blond engineer gathered Tane up in a careful embrace, then stepped back to give her a once-over inspection. "When Marcus told me you were piloting the scrap, I accused him of drinking on-duty."
"And now that I'm on board, he probably is." Tane had known the flight commander for ten years, and he didn't appreciate her view on just about anything. "You're a sight for sore eyes, tho', KC." Twenty hours of sleep, two grains of morph and a hot shower had left her in a considerably better mood.
"Yea, women line up to be with me." he grinned.
"We are so good, we should be licensed and taxed."
KC's grin broadened. Tane wasn't his type, or maybe it was the other way around. They were friends anyway, had been since . . . hell, same ten years. "We're stuck with you for seven whole days."
"Corbic?"
"Closest secure station."
"He said he was right out of Corbic." she thought out loud. There had been doubt, about everything up until she went into shock and he hauled her to the infirmary. Patched her up pretty good, too, considering. She scratched at the square of a bandage just over her left ear. Four perfect stitches.
"Who?"
"Johns."
"Yea." KC scratched his head. He might look like a Kansas farmboy, but he wasn't slow on the uptake. Not that he'd ever been to Kansas, or Earth for that matter. "Is this the same William Johns that was your Security Officer on your first command out of the loop?"
"Same one."
"He's merc now."
"Bounty hunter." She saw a fine line of difference. Most people didn't.
"And?"
Tane shrugged. "He said his transport went down and he lost his prisoner. Three survivors. I have to bring up the database and see if I can find the reports."
"You don't believe him?"
"I want to know the whole story."
"Isn't that why you are scavaging for work out here in the Wastelands?" KC knew where he could venture, and where he could not. This was reasonably safe ground.
"Ouch." she pretended to be wounded, clutching her hands to her chest. "You know where to aim." "Tane, really, maybe digging around in this isn't such a good idea. If you snoop, then there will be people intersted in why you were interested . . ." he shrugged. "You know how things work. Does Johns want Fleet I.A. looking into his business?"
No. Definately not.
"You know the shit he was in a few years ago, after he lost Riddick on the Frontier." KC added.
For a second, she froze. Of course he knew about that. Who out here didn't? Her pulse raced for a moment, wondering if KC knew Riddick on sight. Or Johns. The morph hadn't worked out of her system yet, it was fogging her brain.
"Were you running out there then?" she tried to make it part of a casual conversation.
"No." He had still been in the Marines.
So had she. The incident had been what peaked her curiosity, enough to call up Riddick's profile. Even some of the classified stuff. Interesting read. "I'm not going to do anything to stir up I.A. I don't need the grief."
"Good."
"You know it was Riddick he lost on the transport?"
"On the Hunter-Gratzner? No shit. Big loss there."
"What do you know about it, about the crash?"
"Rogue comet reported in that sector. A dozen ships have gotten pulled out of the shipping lanes. I don't know anything specific about any of them. What are you going to do when we put you off at Corbic?"
"I don't know. Pick up something until TelInc clears me to go out again. I can always merc." she shrugged, smirking. "You buying me breakfast?"
"It's past lunchtime, sweetheart."
Artificial shipboard cycles always messed with her internal cycles. "Great." Tane piped up. "Happy hour." If worse came to worse, KC would cover for her. He owe her one or two. He wouldn't like it, but he'd trust her. Marcus, on the other hand, might be a big problem.
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She wasn't disappointed, either. The moment she entered her cabin, she could see the light flashing on the com, indicating someone had paged her. "Gone an hour . . ." she lamented. It was Marcus. "Shit." Tane exhaled sharply, hands on her hips. He had written her up several times during her two year stint on his ship. She believed the ship belonged to the Fleet, but he had fined her for insubordination when she voiced that particular thought. Eventually, she learned to shut up.
"Captian Marcus, this is Tane Cameron. You paged me." She tried to sound professional, cool and collected. Seven days, she reminded herself, only seven days.
"Cameron." It was a statement in itself. No title, no emotion. "I'd like a few words with you. I'm on the bridge. You do remember the 'no weapons on the bridge' rule?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then come up and I'll see you now." He ended the transmission.
"Shit." She felt the need to repeat that. If Marcus knew who 'Johns' really was, she was heading to the bridge to get placed under arrest.