A Thousand Shades Of Black

Chapter 19 – The Past Catches Up

Alia rolled over and snuggled closer to her mate. Riddick was snoring, a deep rumbling sound that was keeping her awake, but she didn’t really care just then. He was alive, she was alive, and the city was breathing around them.

Five months of work on Landing City had given them power, water, sewers and the rudiments of a school system. At night, lights flickered on and brightened the darkness, and by day, people walked the streets with purpose and energy.

Furya was coming alive once more. There was a part of Alia that wished that she could live on a planet that didn’t need to be rebuilt from the ground up, but those planets also had little things like law enforcement and bounty hunters.

Getting up the communications grid had been a chore, but it had provided them with news from around the galaxy. Alia wasn’t surprised that no one had rescinded the bounties on herself and Riddick, but it was irritating nonetheless. You save the universe twice over and you ought to get a medal, not a life term in a Slam, she mused.

After all, everyone she had ever killed had really deserved it.

Riddick stirred in his sleep and threw out an arm towards her. She lifted the rather large limb and draped it over herself. He sighed and settled back into a deeper sleep and she allowed herself a fond smile, which she would never have let another person see on her face. She was feeling rather content with her life, all things considered.

Toombs grinned hugely as the forested world came into view. He turned around to glance at the strange assortment of people who were crowded in behind him, staring out the starship’s view port with anticipation.

“See, kiddies, told ya that Uncle Toombs would provide!” he chortled and the band of Mercs smiled with a savage glee. His last encounter with Riddick had been humiliating, but he had a plan to change all that. This time would be different, he had a good team, lots of firepower, and a serious mad on.

He glanced back again at his team with an evil grin. He also had a secret weapon. Nothing could stop him this time, nothing at all.

Vaako sat with his knife and a whetstone, checking the edge of the blade for any burrs or nicks. Something about hanging out with Furyans gave one a blade obsession and he was no more immune to it than Kyra. Satisfied that it was about as sharp as it was possible to make a blade, he returned it to the sheath and sighed.

Ever since the gates had closed, Kyra had been walking on eggshells around him and Vaako was unhappily certain of the reason why. He had never harbored any real hope of Kyra returning his regard, but he had optimistically assumed that he could at least hide his feelings from her.

He had obviously failed. He was finding it both irritating and somewhat humiliating as well. The least she could have done was pretend that she hadn’t figured it out.

A tugging on his pant’s leg distracted him from his thoughts.

Sera looked up at him with huge dark eyes and bit her lip in thought. The redhead and her little brother, Maik, had attached themselves to Vaako since the first day and he had grown used to having them follow him everywhere, like chicks after their mother.

He knew the look on the girl’s face all too well and braced himself for another uncomfortable question. Sera had a special talent for asking questions about things that Vaako would rather not discuss.

“Do you think that the school programs know about Furya,” she asked with a pensive air. Vaako let out the breath he had been holding. She wasn’t asking about where babies come from or anything like that, so his relief was palpable.

“The school programming is sent from Earth via booster sats and is the same for all worlds. We pick it up with the main sat and cast it across the planet. There isn’t anything active in our pickup, so I doubt that anyone knows we are receiving the cast,” he replied with a mild tone.

“Okay, but what about our homework?” she persisted.

“That is only being cast to the teachers’ net, not back to Earth. The local teachers grade your work and cast it back to you.” Vaako was wondering why she was so concerned about this, but he knew better than to ask her. Sera got flustered if you took her off her train of thought and she would get to her core question eventually, if he were only patient.

“What about the communications between the people on Furya?” that was her next question.

“Could only be monitored by Near Furyan Orbit sats,” he answered patiently.

“What is the Necros left one in case we came back?” she asked next and that question made him pause. It would be just like the previous Lord Marshall to do such a thing.

“Well, there could be one, but Sera, there is no one left to receive the signal,” he reminded her with a pat on her head.

“So there is no way anyone could know Riddick was here?” she persisted and Vaako suddenly understood her concerns.

“Of course there are ways to find out that information, Sera. Half of Helion Prime knows we were on our way to Furya. However, what do you think the chances are for any Mercs stupid enough to try to get at him here?” He raised an enquiring eyebrow at the little girl and she returned him a rather wicked smirk. She was all Furyan at that moment and he pitied anyone who underestimated her.

“We’d tear them apart,” she growled in response and he nodded back at her with due solemnity. Maik grinned up at them both from where he was playing with small soldiers on the floor. His nod of agreement was both fierce and decisive and Vaako was very proud of them both. He ruffled Sera’s hair affectionately.

“Yes, we would,” he smiled back and he looked as fierce as they did as he said it.

Kyra was watching a group of young Furyans engaged in what she was rapidly coming to understand was the planetary sport. It seemed to be a cross between Basketball, Tennis, and a bar brawl and had very few rules that she could figure out.

Both teams of eight had a hoop that they defended, each one being on opposite sides of the field. They had small rackets that they used to get the fist-sized ball through their own hoop and to swat it away from the other team as they tried to get it into theirs. The first team to make it to twenty points won. Other than that, it was a free-for-all, with the only real rule seeming to be that no weapons, besides the rackets, were allowed in play.

The players were otherwise free to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate the other side to their heart’s content. There was a lot of shouting and swearing as well, which seemed to be a very important part of the game. Kyra, not being a native born Furyan, was having some problems figuring out why the game was so very popular.

She was sitting beside Ramona, who was nursing the infant Alpha of the Faille pack. Ramona had white blonde hair, pale skin, and a lovely face. She had very dark eyes, deep black and intense. Her hair was cut short, like most of the women here, but it was so light and wispy that it curled around her head like puffy clouds. She was lean and wiry, with the athlete’s build so common among Furyan women. Kyra had expected her to hate anyone from the Riddick pack, because of the death of her mate, but the reverse was true. Faille had forced her into the bonding and his death had freed her mind from a terrible sort of slavery.

Kyra found it hard to understand how Ramona could love so fiercely the child of her tormentor, but it was obvious that she did. The four-month-old infant was greedily suckling and Ramona occasionally winced and shifted the baby when his sucking grew painful, but her expression was loving and tender as she cared for her child. Watching the process, Kyra was both envious and horrified.

“You’d think that the kid would go easy on you, just as a survival trait,” she commented and Ramona gave her a rueful smile. They both paused to wince as one of the players took an elbow to the stomach and then turned back to their conversation.

“No, all he is aware of is his hunger and the need to sate it, kindness will come much later in his life,” she sighed and shifted the baby to the other breast.

“The other Alphas will be coming in a few days to check him out, are you nervous?” Kyra asked next, still baffled by aspects of Furyan culture. Ramona shrugged.

“What’s to be nervous about? Either they will find him to be the Alpha or they will not. Either way, he is my son and I am his mother.” There was such serenity in her declaration that it made Kyra wriggle uncomfortably. Was motherhood really so great? It looked like an awful lot of thankless work involving arduous physical labor and lots of pain and discomfort.

Kyra peered around Ramona to scrutinize the little grub with a dubious eye. It was small, helpless, smelled like sour milk and created a lot of fuss and bother.

“I don’t think I want children,” Kyra stated with a wrinkled nose, She nearly had to shout the words to make herself heard over the din of the game.

“You say that now, Kyra, wait until you’re older,” Ramona laughed and Kyra was instantly irritated.

All her life she had heard that line and she was still waiting. How old did you have to be before you weren’t treated like a kid?

“I’m eighteen now, just had a birthday,” she muttered rebelliously. Ramona turned those dark, fathomless eyes on her again and Kyra shivered under the weight of her gaze.

“Give it a few years,” commanded the older woman with a withering stare and Kyra subsided. Damn Furyans. How had she managed to land on an entire planet of people who played her favorite game better than she did? On any other world in the galaxy Kyra was top of the food chain. On Furya, she was surrounded by better killers.

It just wasn’t fair.

Freet and Joisa sat off to one side, watching the men as they worked. The ex-Necros had been given the task of digging up rubble out of gardens and making room for the new plantings that waited. Between the heat of the day and the effort of their work, they had finally given in and taken their shirts off.

Joisa nudged Freet as Daikken dug his shovel deeper into the earth and Freet sighed. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate the aesthetics of the two men as they worked but neither Daikken nor Auret held any interest for her personally.

A familiar footstep coming up the road set her heart to racing and it was an act of will to turn casually as Vaako appeared around the corner to join the work party. He was trailed, as usual, by the two Furyan children and the elder of them was chattering at him as they approached. Vaako was listening to her prattle with grave attention, as though it were of great importance and Freet forced herself to remain seated and merely wave.

It wasn’t as though her effort were required, she thought sadly to herself. It wasn’t as though Vaako ever really noticed her at all. He was more wont to pat her on the head or drop a brotherly kiss on her cheek as he passed than to actually look at her.

All his attention was for Kyra.

So Freet merely nodded at him and turned back to join Joisa’s contemplation of the other men. She had given up the Necroverse just to be near him. She would have to be content with proximity rather than intimacy.

Anything else was merely hopeless.

Riddick reached down and grasped the young man’s hand, lifting him easily and then with a flick of his wrist he sent the boy flying. Jeran twisted in midair, landing on his feet, cat-like and then launched himself at Riddick again.

“No, no, no,” Riddick sighed as he caught the youngster mid-leap and tossed him ass over teakettle. “You must learn your opponent, find his weaknesses, not just charge in and hope for the best,” he chided. “Think!” he roared, as Jeran just lunged at him again.

He caught a flailing arm and pinioned it against the boy’s body. Jeran went limp and looked up at him in irritation.

“Riddick, you don’t have any weaknesses!” he protested rather breathlessly and Riddick released, laughing as he did so.

“Perhaps I should have you spar with someone else,” he conceded with a grin still on his face. Jeran made a face at him and sighed.

“No, I am learning more in having my ass kicked by you than I’ve ever learned from anyone, its just kind of frustrating when after four months I still can’t even get a shot in on you.” The rueful tone made Riddick want to ruffle the kid’s hair, but he knew that Jeran was very self-conscious about his dignity, so he restrained the urge.

Riddick had vivid recollections of being a teenager and few of them were pleasant. He was trying to give Jeran a slightly better set of memories, without going too easy on him. After all, this slender young man was still a Furyan and would one day be a deadly warrior, if he could learn how to think first and act second.

“Let’s try it again, only this time think first,” he admonished the boy and tossed him through the air to watch him land lightly several feet away.

Jeran paused and waited, slipping sideways around Riddick, his eyes moving and his posture relaxed.

Riddick felt Alia coming towards him through their bond and reached for her mentally.

“Ha!” Jeran shouted in glee and Riddick looked down to find a small sharp blade pressed against his abdomen. He grinned at the boy grabbed the knife hand and tossed Jeran backwards over his shoulder. “Hey!” he heard as Alia wandered into the gym.

“Riddick,” she nodded coolly at him, but he could feel her pleasure at seeing him.

“Sturm,” he replied equally casually as Jeran charged him again.

“I had you!” the young man complained as once more he was grabbed and tossed aside.

“Past tense,” Riddick pointed out. “Remind me to stay focused during combat,” he explained to Alia as she raised an eyebrow at the exchange. She frowned at him.

“I shouldn’t have to,” she reproached him and he grinned back at her. She was so sexy when she got all tough and bad assed. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

“I came to tell you that the sensor net is reparable, though we are going to need some more parts from somewhere.” He could see her satisfaction in her eyes. She was putting a lot of effort into rebuilding the high tech aspects of Furya, wanting the planet to be ready for whatever the universe threw at it next.

He was more concerned with basics, things like sanitation and education, but he understood why she was a trifle paranoid. They were both still wanted criminals and the planet wasn’t in any shape to repel even a small army, should some government get it into their heads to come after them. The Company was also still pretty pissed at him, Riddick mused, so she probably had a point.

“Well, we need to get back to Helion Prime soon anyway, or Ziza will blow a gasket.” Her last message had been pretty firm on the point and he could just see the eight-year-old hijacking a ship and coming after him.

“True,” Alia murmured, carefully not saying anything about how easily the child manipulated him. He shrugged, no longer caring what anyone thought about it. Ziza was important to him and that was that. Besides, it wasn’t like Alia herself was immune to big dark eyes and a trembling lower lip. She shot him a darkling look, but couldn’t dispute the fact.

“You’re leaving?” Jeran asked, with a somewhat panicked look.

“Well, not immediately, but we do need to do a shopping run for the planet at some point. It’s not like there is anyone else to go,” he groused.

“But the other Alphas are coming,” the boy reminded him and Riddick nodded.

“Well, of course we won’t leave before then,” Alia reassured him and Jeran breathed out gustily.

“Good, because I sure as hell don’t want to have to be the one to tell them you’re not here,” he admitted and Riddick did ruffle the kid’s hair this time.

He saw the rueful expression cross Jeran’s face, but he just couldn’t help it. The boy reminded him so much of himself at that age.

Toombs landed the ship on the outskirts of what looked like a half destroyed settlement. He knew Riddick had to be close.

He was going to get him this time for sure.

A/N - Sorry for the long hiatus. Hope it was worth the wait.