A Thousand Shades Of Black

Chapter 18 – Aftermath

Alia could feel the ground beneath Vaako’s pounding feet and the way that the planet was breathing out in relief. The planet was like yet another person in her mind and it was getting rather crowded in there. She could feel the crust shifting above magma like it was just skin over hot blood. The trees were hair and the wind was her fingers running through them, setting them to tossing and creaking. Each creature that walked this world had a sound, a feeling, something that she could recognize as unique to that one being. Unlike the flashing fire that was Riddick or the cool watery depths that was Shirah, Furya was like music, a low thrumming tune that vibrated in her bones.

She lay back in Vaako’s arms, unable to move her own body and instead she reached out and flexed the rocks and streams of her homeworld. She could feel mountain snows flowing down into rivers and streams until they merged with salty oceans as though they were the perspiration on her brow. Grasslands and jungles were just different depths of fur across her hide and the oceans were droplets of liquid on her flesh. She shifted and the earth rumbled, she breathed out and winds gusted across the desserts. She wasn’t certain if it was her thoughts creating these things or if the world shifted and she felt it as movement. Furya’s own thoughts, if they could be called such were ponderous and heavy, millions of years of memories crushing coal to diamonds and she shied away from them, overwhelmed by the power she could sense.

It was beyond strange to be able to feel a planet like it was her body, to know what it was thinking, but then what had been normal lately?
Vaako carried her into camp and they were quickly surrounded by the Pack. Dozens of pairs of dark eyes were focused on them and it was both comforting and disconcerting. Shirah’s memories overlaid her own as they sniffed and touched them both. Alia was startled and taken aback by the gathered Furyans as they clustered about Vaako and herself, but Shirah knew the Pack was giving reassurance and support. Alia let herself be pulled into the ritual and breathed in the scents of her packmates. Each one had a distinctive scent and it told her much about each of them. In a few short minutes she had taken them into her soul and they took her in as well.

Vaako stiffened a bit, as he was sniffed and nuzzled, but when the cubs began to rub against his legs, he relaxed. Strong arms took her from Vaako and carried her to a bed. Hands appeared to give her a drink of clear water and voices reassured her that she would be well and whole. She could see Vaako in deep conversation with Tara and could feel the loving support of her Pack around her. She found herself relaxing and the warmth of Riddick’s mind still within her own combined with her fatigue to ease her into sleep.

Tara had her head cocked to one side with her flat black eyes fixed on his face as Vaako spoke. It made him a little nervous sometimes being surrounded by deadly dangerous predators, but at this moment he felt more safe in their midst then he had ever felt anywhere else. The pack had carried Sturm away to care for her and he was trying to explain what had happened to Tara. It wasn’t easy because he still didn’t understand it himself.

“So lightning came out of her fingers and Shirah shut all the gates at once.” It sounded absurd to Vaako and he had been there to see it. He had no idea how Tara or the others would react.

“Shirah’s powers have always been great,” Tara murmured complacently, apparently unfazed by the whole tale. Vaako raised an eyebrow in amusement. He really needed to stop underestimating Furyans. They took phlegmatic to whole new levels and their gift for understatement was amazing.

Freet and Joisa materialized at his elbow and he found his arm going around Freet’s waist without his conscious volition. He leaned into her, just glad that her familiar presence was there beside him. This whole trip to Furya had been one surreal mind trip after another and he was way past tired. Her hair smelled like sunshine and he was simply glad to be alive and not fighting anything for a few minutes.

There was a rustle along the edges of the clearing where the underbrush was especially thick. Vaako tensed but the other Furyans merely turned, heads swiveling in unison like they were connected and waited. Riddick and Kyra came out of the brush looking like death warmed over and the collected warriors gave their pack leader a nod and then went back to what they were doing.

Vaako glanced at the younger woman worriedly. She smiled and shook her head to reassure him and he was surprised that his concern could be read so easily. He wondered how else much Kyra had picked up from him. It would certainly be embarrassing if she had figured out how he felt about her. He sighed to himself and decided that he was past caring about any of it. There was too much going on right now to sweat the small stuff and if it didn’t involve global annihilation, it was small stuff.

Freet shifted against him and he dropped a friendly kiss on her head before he went to check on Riddick. After all, Furya might be safe again, but Riddick had a price on his head, the planet needed rebuilding, there was this huge pack looking to Riddick to lead them and Underverse only knew what else might get heaped on them next.

It was certainly never boring around Riddick.

Riddick scanned the clearing, noting the watchful eyes of his new pack and the interplay between his Necros and the Furyans.

Aereon took form beside him and he didn’t even jump. He turned and gave her a long look, wondering what she was thinking about all of this.

“I had no idea that Shirah was so powerful a force. It’s rather daunting,” Aereon murmured and Riddick found himself nodding in agreement.

“I hate dealing with forces that I can’t beat into submission,” he retorted and she gave him a sly smile.

“I hate not being able to even frame a decent equation.” She was looking across the clearing, but she obviously didn’t see it. Her dress was shifting with the breeze, her ice blue eyes were unfocused as she gazed into a place he couldn’t see, a world of probability and numbers. “I am concerned for your mate, Riddick. I can’t calculate how this new development will affect her.” Aereon was frowning now and it occurred to him that Aereon liked Alia. He had long wondered whether the Elemental felt anything, or if she were as cold as her calculations. Now he could see her eyes scanning the assembled Furyans and their meager possessions. Her concern was obviously for more than just Alia.

“She is Furyan,” he reminded the saffron draped woman beside him and she raised an eyebrow at him in amusement.

“Forgive me, I forgot for a moment. She will be fine, of course,” Aereon replied with sarcasm dripping from each word.

“Alia is a survivor,” he stated blandly and shrugged. He could never explain it to the Elemental. Some people bent to fate and others bent fate to their will. Alia wouldn’t bend and she sure as hell wouldn’t break. Whatever happened she would fight and survive regardless.

Kyra watched Vaako heading over towards Riddick and she stepped farther away from where he was talking to Aereon. She had missed most of their low voiced conversation because she was too busy trying to wrap her mind around the size of the pack.

There must be hundreds of people in the clearing. They had erected lean-tos and tents to form a small village, but it was crowded, barely sanitary and disorganized.

Faille must have been an even worse leader than he was a father, because the whole encampment was a mess. Kyra studied it with interest, trying to think of ways to make it all work. Food was going to be a priority and ways to keep it from spoiling. Sanitation was another issue. A thought occurred to her and just as Vaako reached Riddick she trotted off to find Tara.

The other woman was busy stirring a pot of stew outside of her tent and Kyra had to thread her way between children and pets to reach her.
“Tara, why haven’t we been living in one of the cities?” Kyra blurted out and Tara smiled up at her through the steam rising from the pot. Her dark eyes crinkled in good humor as she answered.

“Because Faille was afraid that the Necros would return and find us in the cities.” Kyra cocked her head at Tara and tried hard not to say precisely what she thought of the departed Alpha.

“Right, first thing then, we find a mostly undamaged city and get the water and power going again. We can’t have this many people living in such a small place and digging latrines in the forest. It will get ugly really fast.” Kyra chewed on her lower lip as she thought. “Any suggestions as to which city might fit the bill?” she asked the redheaded Furyan.

“The largest city on Furya was Landing City, large parts of it were flattened but there are still large areas that are still standing. The city generators were still intact as well, though I don’t know about the waste systems,” Tara mused.

“Sounds good. As soon as possible we should get moving in that direction. How far is Landing City from here?” came her next question.
“Only five clicks or so west. We can all pack in about four hours and it should take us about a day or so to reach it,” Tara replied with a firm tone and Kyra tried not to gape. You’d start thinking about these people as being nice village types and then they would spring this Furyan shit on you. How could you pack this whole camp in four hours and how could you get this many people moving all together in one direction so quickly and efficiently? It shouldn’t be possible, but Tara’s tone was without doubt and almost casual.

“Sounds good. I’ll run it by Riddick.” Kyra kept her voice just as casual as Tara’s. She’d be damned if she let the older woman know that she was impressed by any of this. Years of bluffing and fighting her way through the Slam served her well now. She slouched off to talk with Riddick and really hoped no one could see how intimidated she was feeling at that moment.

A planet full of Riddicks really was rather daunting.

Vaako was wondering about Lajjun and Ziza and what to do with a planet full of traumatized Furyans. Aereon was listening to Riddick speak with pursed lips and a thoughtful expression, but Vaako was having trouble tracking on the conversation.

“We will need to discuss the future with the other Alphas, Riddick,” she was saying, but Vaako wasn’t sure what the context was.
Kyra came striding up to them and planted herself in front of Riddick.

“There is a large town five clicks west and Tara thinks we can all be packed and ready to go in four hours. I think that if we get ourselves there we can get the generators going again and start living like civilized people again,” she stated in cool tones, but there was a challenge in her eyes. Riddick shrugged.

“Get it going, Kyra.” Her eyes brightened and she scampered off happy and excited.

“You gave in to that rather easily,” Aereon drawled with an amused expression.

“What do you mean gave in, I’ve been planning on getting out of this forest for a while. I just had to deal with Faille first.” Riddick turned a totally blank face on the Elemental and Vaako wasn’t certain whether Riddick really had been thinking that way all along or he just couldn’t say no to Kyra.

Not that it really mattered, either way they were going to finally stop camping out and get somewhere with a roof. Mind you he’d be right back where he started, rebuilding a city. Was he doomed to wielding a hammer on every world that the Necromongers had destroyed?

Alia woke when the cot she was lying on was suddenly shifted upwards. She couldn’t turn her head, but she could hear the sounds of people moving and the scents of her pack mates around her.

She reached out to her mate and he sent her a wave of calm reassurance. She drifted back to sleep and dreamed.

Shirah stood in the remains of a plastacrete bunker staring around her at the devastated landscape of her homeworld in horror. Rumble creaked, the groans of the wounded and the screams of the dying drifted on the winds and it was all because she had lost control of her strange powers.

The planet Earth had bucked, a single convulsive shudder, when she had opened a rip in space and time. That twitch had sent tsunamis roaring across the planet, had caused earthquakes and volcanoes that ripped apart the crust.

In a short few minutes she had set into action a chain of disasters that would devastate the whole world. Dark eyes blinked at her from the shadows and the other children of the Atlantis Project flowed into the room.

There was no condemnation in their gazes, no judgment. They knew that she had not intended harm and they loved and respected her. They also knew that this world would never look at the genetically engineered race with joy and pride again.

She looked around her and felt a terrible grief come over her, as she stood helpless in the destruction. She had to leave this world and take her brothers and sisters with her.

They would not be welcome here again.

Alia could feel Shirah stirring inside of her, waking from the dream with her. Shirah stretched and yawned and began to carefully separate the threads of her mind from Alia’s. It was a little painful, the binding had been close and the separation was difficult. As the last tendrils of Shirah’s mind unwound themselves from Alia a faint tingling sensation started in her fingers.

Alia twitched a fingertip and then her whole hand. With a relieved sigh she turned her head and felt sensation returning to her limbs.

“I was knocked unconscious by the effort of shutting all the gates, child. Apparently I was still running the body at the time,” came the familiar voice. It resonated in her mind and Alia merely nodded. “I apologize for the fright.”

Alia waved a negligent hand, still too tired to do much more than twitch weakly. She could happily sleep for a week or two.

Riddick felt the exchange between Shirah and Alia and felt a wave of relief wash over him. He liked simple explanations that made him happy. He looked back over his shoulder and wondered how come so damn many people were following behind him.

Didn’t they know that he was a loner?

Vaako was trudging manfully along beside him and Riddick knew that the ex-Necro was glad that the Furyans were keeping to a slower pace in deference to the young ones. That the pace was still spanking from the point of view of the humans they were marching with was beside the point.

Riddick remembered his fellow escapees on Crematoria and had a moment to regret their loss. They had all been good men and it sucked that the Necros had ghosted the lot of them. Had they all been Furyans they would have made the run and slaughtered the Necromongers without breaking a sweat.

Another glance over his shoulder and it occurred to him that the people following him were all survivors. They had survived the Necromongers and Faille’s bad leadership. They could probably come out of a black hole with nothing more than a bad attitude. For years he had been afraid to care about people partly because they kept dying on him, little chance of that here. It was certainly something to think about.

Wouldn’t Carolyn laugh to see him now? He thought that she would be pleased to see how far he had come.

“Kyra! Come on girl, can’t you go faster than that?” He called back to the lagging teenager, who promptly stuck out her tongue at him. He grinned and scooped up one of the children, tossing a startled little girl over his shoulder. He missed Ziza and that more than anything told him that he had finally rejoined the Human race. Well, as much as any Furyan really could.

He liked it here.