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Faint Premonition	By : ehiltebe Category: M through R > Pitch Black Views: 2132 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: In no way do I own any part of Pitch Black, its setting, or its characters, and I make no money from this work. I just get to play with them.

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Faint Premonition

A Pitch Black Alternate Universe

Chapter Seven

“The power systems don’t match up exactly.” It sounded like Sean’s patience was fraying around the edges. “Four more cells from the Hunter-Gratzner will give us ten gigs of extra juice, just in case.” Ah, so that was the name of the crashed vessel.

“Shouldn’t we get the wings fixed first? What good is power going to do us if it doesn’t get off the ground?” Between Riddick being free and the extra breather Shazza had put together for the escaped convict, Johns did not sound like a happy camper.

“And what good would it do us if it could fly, but didn’t have any power? We could split up, some staying here to work on the patching while the others go back to the wreck for the cells.” I butted in on purpose, getting a couple of thoughtful nods.

“But how do we decide who does what?” The kid had a good point. “An’ what kinda timeline are we lookin’ at?”

“Got a better question.” Heads snapped around and found a solar-powered toy robot and a picture frame in Riddick’s hands. “Did th’ people who lived here even leave?” A chill ran down my spine. Truthfully, even if there had been a rushed departure, geologists wouldn’t have left behind small keepsakes like photos, or their children’s toys. And the food caked on the plates Ali had cleared away had looked barely touched.

“Why would they leave their ship?” Trust miserly Paris to raise the most awkward question.

“It’s not a ship, it’s a skiff, and it’s disposable.” The blond brushed away the others’ concern.

“More like an emergency life raft?”

“Could’ve had a big drop ship take them off planet.” Despite her words, the free settler seemed doubtful. And now Jack began looking even more closely at our surroundings.

“These people didn’t leave.” Shades pushed up over the brim of her leather cap, she glared in response to the skeptical looks cast her way. “Come on. Whatever nearly got Zeke did get them. They’re all dead.”

The merc outright snorted in derision, and the pilot didn’t appear to believe it any more than he did. I couldn’t tell which way the priest and the astrophysicist were leaning, but it seemed a safe bet that the brunette agreed with the statement. The convict’s grim expression was worrying all by itself.

“You don’t really think they left with their clothes on th’ hooks, photos on th’ shelves.” Oh, but the man knew how to use his voice and make others react the way he wanted.

“Maybe they had weight limits.” Right. Weight limits that precluded a few grams of pictures? Restrictions hadn’t been that tight in well over fifty years.

“I know you don’t uncrate your emergency ship unless there’s a fuckin’ emergency.”

“Fuckin’ ri—” Before Jack could complete her half-idolizing mimicry of the big guy, I gripped the back of her neck gently and gave her a little shake. Like a scolded puppy, she subsided.

“Ohhh, me bloody ‘ead.” The groan distracted everyone nicely, Shazza going so far as to squeal a bit before rushing to her husband’s side. Zeke’s face was scrunched up in pain as helpful hands got him upright.

Instead of joining the small crowd pelting him with questions, I went for the med-kit. Since the general anesthetic had worn off, the local couldn’t be too far behind. I wanted to have something at hand before that happened so that the bushwhacker had to deal with the full pain as little as possible.

The contents of the box, however, were so jumbled together that I couldn’t figure out which were painkillers. The only things still in their place were the remaining syringes of Anestaphine, firmly clipped to the inside of the lid. Nor could I remember the name of the drug off the top of my head.

Well, shit.

“Niratramadol.” I nearly jumped out of my skin as warm breath ghosted over my ear. “Take th’ edge off without puttin’ him on his back again.” Riddick kept sneaking up on me, it seemed. Then he inhaled deeply, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Been a long time since I smelled beautiful.”

Heat rushed to my face as he stepped away, no longer hovering over my shoulder. Me, beautiful? No way. I’d always been just another drab-feathered little songbird in a flock that included birds of paradise. No, the convict was trying to rattle me, and I couldn’t afford to let him see that he’d succeeded. Not right now.

Collecting my nerves, I poured a glass of water and nudged Hassan. The youth shifted, allowing me to pass the tumbler and a few pills to Shazza just in time. She helped the stocky man down the medication, the visible tension in her shoulders easing as the faint lines of pain smoothed away from his features. After a moment, I asked the question that I was sure everyone was thinking.

“What happened in that hole, Zeke?” He hesitated, glancing at Fry. “We know something went missing, and that’s why you went in, but… Anything you can tell us about what attacked you?”

“There was this… this constant clicking.” The man shuddered. “Teeth like sharks. That’s all I saw before me light got smashed an’ they bit me.” He lifted his arm and stared at the bandaged stump.

“They destroyed a flashlight and not the pistol?” Perplexed, I drew the weapon from my pocket, noting Johns’ glare in my peripheral vision. “You emptied the clip, but you still had it when Riddick pulled you out.”

Zeke glanced from it to his unharmed right hand, visibly puzzled. “Don’t think they paid any attention to th’ damn thing. But they sure went for th’ light quick.”

“Maybe these things are afraid of light?”

“Sounds more intense than photophobia.”

“We’re not going to learn anything else or get off this rock if we stand around jacking our jaws.” I tried to head off any potential arguments. “Could we at least look around, try to figure out what happened to the geologists that built this place?” The gathering dispersed, the merc going off by himself while the kids paired up with adults. The bushwhackers, naturally, were staying put, and that left me and Riddick.

I wasn’t exactly upset that I’d be poking around the settlement with him, just wary. The odd tingle every time our skins touched made me curious, though, so I stuck close. Close enough to notice that he’d found some way to shave off all the stubble from his time in cryo. My feral side wanted to be even closer, but I managed to rein her in… barely.

Until, inside a domicile similar to my apartment back home, I was nudged around so that my back hit the wall with a little thump. A surprised squeak turned into a moan as full lips covered mine with an insistent, heated kiss. The primal part of me took over, leaving my rational mind scratching its head as my fingers clawed at the convict’s shirt.

Where the hell did this come from?

Oh, I’d been in relationships before, with nice, respectable men, but none had really gone beyond the ‘friends with benefits’ stage. Now, lust drew a haze over my mind; I wanted to get down and dirty with this singular criminal in the worst way. Then he slid broad hands under my ass and lifted me up, grinding into me. Feeling the hard length of his cock incited a hot wave of desire in me.

“Ohhh, fuck.” The words left me in a gasp as our mouths parted. I wrapped my legs around his hips as his teeth scraped lightly along my jugular vein. Then he pushed aside the straps of my bra and tank top, nipped lightly at my collarbone, and latched onto the trapezius muscle. That was gonna leave a mark, and if the other survivors saw it, they’d probably make the legendary Spanish Inquisition seem friendly.

“Riddick? Eileen?” He all but dropped me, quickly putting distance between us. I managed not to fall on my butt, and quickly shrugged my shirt back into place, covering the already-reddening mark. Then Jack peered in through the doorway. “We’ve found some stuff.”

She led us around the village to a building that had been set up as a workshop, equipped with a variety of machines that, if I were to hazard a guess, probably analyzed coring samples in various ways. Everyone had gathered around a home-made, solar-powered orrery. Three low-powered light bulbs, colored red, yellow, and blue, circled the empty center, as did two large ‘planets,’ one of them wearing two sets of rings. And between their orbits sat a small, tan ball that had to represent the damn rock we were currently stuck on.

I heard a counter click softly, watched the representation of the desolate planet as it made almost three rounds of the system before the next click. Okay, counting standard years. A fraction of my attention went to the numbers on the counter, the rest remaining on the simulation.

Nineteen…

Twenty…

Twenty-one…

It turned over to twenty-two, and the whole thing stopped. The gas giants bracketed their much smaller sibling, isolating it from the three stars. A complete goddamned eclipse, on a planet with three suns. The likelihood had to be fuckin’ infinitesimal, yet it had happened somehow.

“There’s core samples over there.” Dr. O’Connell, voice subdued, jerked a thumb over his shoulder, indicating a table with several long cylinders of rock. “Dated twenty-two years ago this month.”

“Oh, fuck.” I reached over to reset the counter, then pushed the little planet along with one finger. The other two followed, keeping it in shadow, finally shifting out of alignment as the counter clicked again. With light from the bulbs on the tan ball again, the model moved on its own. “Damnit. A year with no fuckin’ lights but stars light-fuckin’-years away. This is just beautiful.” Sarcasm dripped from my words.

“Th’ light.” My eyes jerked up to meet Zeke’s dark ones. “If they didn’t like me flashlight, an eclipse would be th’ perfect time for them t’ come outta them caves.” He’d gone white as a sheet, Shazza supporting most of his weight.

“These geologists disappeared twenty-two years ago. Could have been durin’ th’ last one, even.” Her voice trembled, faint traces of fear beginning to show on her face. “If they didn’t leave on a drop ship, then what happened?”

“Has anyone checked the coring room?” As I asked the question, my skin crawled. I had a very bad feeling about this.

~*~

Ultimately, Johns had to use his shotgun to blow off one of the handles, since none of our attempts to pry them open had done any good. The chains rattled loudly as they slithered out of the other one, but not loudly enough to keep me from hearing the brief burst of clicking. Riddick appeared to pick them up as well, shoving the merc aside and drawing a swingblade. As he stepped toward the building, I covered his open flank, pulling Sinistra.

The doors creaked as they opened to short, sharp pushes, swinging just far enough to admit us. My eyes adjusting to the darkness, I pushed my shades down my nose, peering over the frames to sweep the large room. Movement on the other side of the wide coring pit froze me on the spot, my free hand clamping down on the convict’s wrist. He came to an immediate halt.

“What?” He used his quiet whisper, which I thought was an excellent idea.

“Over there.” I nodded in the direction where I’d seen them, and he lifted his sunglasses for a look. Then he began easing back toward the entry, pulling the doors shut as we passed them.

“What are you, chicken or somethin’?” A quick flick of my wrist reversed the titanium carbon nitride-coated blade and put the tip under the blond bastard’s chin.

“It’s called ‘survival instincts,’ dumbass. There’s something alive in there, it sure as hell ain’t human, and the only other living things we know of on this planet took Zeke’s hand, and would’ve taken more. So excuse me for being a bit cautious.” My lip curled.

“Need some power in there t’ open things up.” I recognized the snap in Riddick’s tone as what Sergeant Drift called ‘command voice.’ It certainly got people hopping. While the others looked around aimlessly, Jack mumbled and swarmed up a ladder on the side of an offshoot. Then she shoved at a lumpy, grey-tan object, pushing it over the side—and barely missing Suleiman with what looked like a bleached-out tarp.

Three large plexiglas bubbles reflected the light of the suns—the blue star setting as the red and yellow ones rose—the black-and-white vanes underneath them spinning slowly, but faster every moment. The simplest kind of solar generator there was, and the most reliable. Metal groaned, then wrenched into motion with the squeal of rusty parts. Perhaps the high-water marks in the canyon weren’t as old as I’d thought.

Within moments, an unholy screeching came from inside the armored structure, along with the flapping of leathery wings. Hell, if those things could fucking fly, we’d be in deep shit when the lights went out. The noises didn’t last long, though, fading away and leaving me wondering where they’d gone.

Cautiously, I nudged the closest door, peering inside to find the facility flooded with light. The massive coring drill hung at the top of its gantry, while metal tables had been overturned all around the room. Something had been in there that was capable of moving quite a bit of mass. One bench even had a couple of its legs bent, the dent in the armor above it suggesting it had been thrown.

“Clear.” Pushing it further open, I looked over my shoulder to keep track of the others. Jack scurried down the rungs welded to the container. The imam clutched the hilt of his belt knife, but without drawing the blade.

Wary, the kids stayed near the doors, the girl keeping a little distance between herself and the boys. Shazza and Zeke took up that space, though I’d have preferred that he sit down. My eyes continually moved from one person to the next.

The scrawny little merchant stopped near a door that couldn’t have ever been truly airtight. Something rattled against it from inside the addition, and he reached for the latch.

“Paris, DOWN!” I warned him just in time, by the barest of margins. He dropped to the floor as the shipping container burst open, a cloud of small creatures emerging. They squealed and clicked madly, circling the room once as the other survivors pressed themselves against the walls, and dove into the gaping hole in the floor. One question answered, I moved to inspect their previous hidey-hole.

Stepping just inside, I raised my shades. Not a large space, but semi-soft debris littered every remaining flat surface. It could have been a break area once, but it had become a nest for the little beasts. A few bones even protruded from one pile.

“Can I get some light in here?” Johns banged the base of an impact flare against the jamb, but at least my glasses were back on. Nothing responded to the burst of green light, so they’d all left. I went to a knee and used a blade to shift fragments of frame and padding away from the cleaned joint I’d spotted. I thought it looked similar to a knee, and one direction yielded up a long, heavy tail that split at the end. The other way bared first a torso, then wings, and finally the head. I sat back, studying the alien conformation and trying to figure it out.

“What the hell is that?” I turned to see Fry peering past the merc. Her eyes didn’t move from the cross-shaped skull.

“Probably the same species that got Zeke.” I prodded at one of the horizontal bony stalks with a finger, then hesitantly brushed against a large, triangular tooth. “Probably what killed all those creatures in the valley, too.” I drew my hand back sharply, then extended it toward the blonde, purposely brushing it with my thumb so that the slice through the top couple layers of skin cells showed. “Razorblades for teeth.” At least it hadn’t gotten deep enough to bleed.

“Oh, God.” She began panicking, the whites of her eyes showing all the way around. I stood, yanked the flare out of the fake cop’s hand, and walked over to the coring pit. My hand opened, and the green flame fell, revealing human bones on many small stone ledges, and a very, very large pile at the bottom. Forty people, easy, and many were no longer whole; from twenty meters up, I could see that one skull was shy the entire dome, severed at the nasal cavity.

“Other buildings weren’t secure.” I couldn’t help but jump this time when the convict spoke. He’d snuck up on me again. Moved like a goddamn ghost. “So they ran here; heaviest doors. Thought they’d be safe inside.” With one last glance at the mass grave, Riddick shrugged. “But somebody forgot to lock th’ cellar.”

“Well, wh-whatever these things are, they seem to stick to darkness. So if we stick to daylight, we should be okay…”

“There’s an eclipse on the way, Fry. Or did you forget about that already?” I all but snarled at the pilot.

“It won’t take much to get that old Sand Cat running.” The brunette looked desperate to have something to do with her hands. “We’ll be able t’ make a quick trip back t’ th’ wreck for those power cells.” I nodded, then caught Johns opening his mouth. Probably to veto the idea.

“I don’t wanna hear a sound outta your piehole, merc.” My finger jabbed at his chest before he could utter a peep. “I am not risking their lives because of your paranoia.” The digit swiveled, pointing at the four youngsters. “Especially not theirs.” On one side of the bushwhackers, the boys hung on to each other, and on the other, Jack had wrapped her arms tightly around herself. A brief sniff told me why; she’d just started her period, probably hadn’t even noticed the spotting yet.

Good thing I always pack extra tampons. HER, I’ll help gladly. And some of my extra clothes.

“He escaped—” As the words left the blond man’s lips, I let my left leg fold and swept the other from right to left, knocking his feet out from under him. He hit the floor with a thump, and I quickly pinned him with a knee to his breastbone. Popping open his red box of shotgun shells, I found that about half of them were capped with the usual blue plastic, and the other half with red. Pulling the cap off one of the odd ones, I dumped the casing into my hand. No powder, no grapeshot, just two slim ampules of clear fluid, marked off with lines measuring the volume. A half-second frisking turned up an optical hypodermic gun.

“Who wants to trust the hype?” I slid the stuff across the dirty floor, aiming for the civilians gathering in an ever-tighter clump. “Who wants to trust the man who killed two children in cold blood so that he could bag a big payday?” Shazza had pulled the kid close, while Abu murmured to his charges; probably translating for me. Then I looked at Riddick.

“Who wants to trust the man who tried to get street kids out of gang territory?” My voice had changed, going from hard and snarling to much gentler tones. The convict jerked as though burned. “Who wants to trust the man who rescued Zeke?” The married couple, the girl, and the astrophysicist didn’t hesitate to move toward him. A beat later, the other six followed. Sunglasses or no, Riddick looked quite stunned, but he quickly collected himself.

“Zeke, Ogilvie, holy man, you an’ the kids’re stayin’ here.” The convict’s command voice was back, brooking no nonsense. “Fry, run th’ checks on that skiff now. Shazza, Sand Cat.” Nothing more needed to be said on that subject. “Everyone else, start searchin’ containers. Need t’ find th’ spare Vectran.” I stood then, dusting grit off my hands and the knees of my pants.

“Patching will be your job.” The three men who’d been told to stay focused on me. “After that, what supplies you can find need to be loaded. Water is first priority, e-rations second.”

“I’m staying with you.” Alarms rang in my head at the tremor of fear in Jack’s voice. Her presence on the Hunter-Gratzner hadn’t been due to wanderlust, but because someone or something had scared her into running. Whatever had caused it, I would find out eventually, and then someone would be paying the piper.

“I should stay here. I’m out of shape, would only slow you down.” Sean shifted his feet. “And I’ve worked with Vectran before, so I can at least speed that up.”

“Then I will take your place, Dr. O’Connell.” I groaned at the imam’s words.

“Fine. But no more changes.” Riddick’s bark made it clear that his word was final. “Let’s move, people, we’re wastin’ daylight.” The two other women took off at a run; how soon we got off this deathtrap of a planet greatly depended on how quickly and efficiently they could complete their tasks. The rest split up more slowly, and I put a hand on the girl’s trembling shoulders to steer her into another small home.

“Goddammit, girl, I’m tryin’ to keep you safe from those… things.” I injected as much disgust into the last word as I could manage. The kid all but jumped out of her skin.

“You… you know?” So much terror bled into her voice that I pushed my shades up and put a gentle hand on each of her arms. I didn’t want her afraid of me.

“Hon, a criminologist is a type of detective. But I promise you, Riddick’s the only other person who knows.” My brows knit with worry. “Why don’t you want to stay here? The skiff has more than enough lights to keep those things away if the eclipse happens before we’re ready to go.”

“Th-they’re all g-guys…” Tears drew clean tracks down her face as she swallowed a sob. I pulled her into a hug as my mind raced, keeping her from seeing the barely-leashed fury I was feeling. Her desperate grip nearly squeezed me in two.

She’d been molested, at the very least, probably worse. And more than a couple of times, if she’d developed enough of a fear that she didn’t feel safe unless a grown woman was around. She appeared to be trying to stick with me or Shazza, not Fry, so it probably had to be a woman who gave a damn about her well-being.

“It’s gonna be okay.” I took off her cap, smoothing down her baby-fine hair with the other hand. Couldn’t be sure that things would turn out all right, but she needed the reassurance. “But you gotta work with us here. Right now, you’d probably smell really good to those beasts, so we gotta fix that.” She stared blankly. Hell, she had no clue what I meant. “You’re getting cramps, right? Feeling pretty rotten?” A quick nod.

“Do you know what’s wrong with me? I’m not sick, am I?”

“No, no. You’re starting your first period. It’s a perfectly normal part of growing up for us. But it means your body’s getting rid of some pretty nasty, bloody stuff, and we need to fix things so it can’t be smelled. Gimme just a couple of minutes, and I’ll have some stuff that’ll help.” When she nodded, I darted outside and found my bags, piled near the skiff. It took less than a minute to dig out what Jack needed, and then I headed back at a run.

Fortunately, everyone else was occupied with other things and failed to notice me.

Someone, at least, had fostered the kid’s mind. She was sharp enough that she caught on with minimal explanation and slipped into the long-abandoned house’s bathroom to change. A loud sniffle announced her emergence, and she leaned up against my side almost immediately.

“What else do I gotta do?”

“If Riddick or I tell you to do something, you need to obey immediately. No arguments, no questions. One of us says ‘jump,’ you’d better be on the way up before you ask ‘how high?’ Understood?”

“‘Cause you don’t give orders without a good reason, right?” I nodded, getting her to smile. “And neither does Big Evil.” Chuckling, I gave her a bit of a squeeze.

“When we get off this rock, I’d like to know what put you on the Hunter-Gratzner, okay? What Johns did… I don’t let people get away with things like that, with hurting kids, especially, if I can help it. And my boss, Jamie—he’s the closest thing I have to a brother—he’s a lawyer, and hell on wheels for anyone who crosses either of us. He’d be more than happy to go to bat for you in the courts, if necessary.”

“Thank you.” Jack put an arm around my waist and returned my one-armed hug as she whispered. After a moment, she pulled away and scampered out the door.

“Took care of that?” The gravelly voice startled me again. I spun and smacked the convict in the chest. He didn’t react to the blow at all.

“Will you cut that out?!” He grinned broadly. “You’re worse than the Sergeants; at least I can fuckin’ well hear them.”

“Not gonna be altruistic an’ shit an’ help th’ pilot, too?” A dark chuckle accompanied the words.

“Once we get those cells and a light source in case we aren’t fast enough to beat the eclipse, I don’t care if she lives or dies.” I half-snarled as I spoke. “Not when she was gonna purge the whole passenger cabin to save her own cowardly ass.”

With a smug grin, Riddick moved closer, the toes of his boots almost touching mine. He leaned down, and for a moment I thought there was going to be a repeat of the earlier kiss. Instead, he went to my shoulder, nose flaring as he breathed in deeply, moving up my neck to my ear. When he stepped back, his expression seemed even more self-satisfied.

Taking note of my personal scent, I realized. And it was at least the second time. My inner beast all but purred at the knowledge, while my rational side wondered why he wanted to know what I smelled like.

“An’ what about Johns?”

“Billy Bad-Ass has used up all his warnings.” He cocked an eyebrow. “He’s already got two strikes against him. He tries somethin’… Three strikes, and he’s out. Not gonna wait on him at any point, either. If he can’t keep up, then that’s just too damn bad.” I ended on a sarcastic note. If the merc managed to make it all the way back, I’d shoot him before I let him get on the little emergency vessel. It would be crowded enough with twelve.

The convict touched his lips to mine, more gently than before. The taste of him intoxicated me as his tongue probed my mouth. Eventually, though, my lungs demanded air, and I had to pull away. He paced over to the door, but turned at the last moment, slowly licking his lips.

“I like th’ way you think.” His teeth flashed in a savage grin, and then he slipped out of the converted cargo container.

I had to admit it, he set every one of my senses on fire. As I slid down the wall to sit on the dusty floor, I hoped that I could keep from jumping his bones for long enough to get our little group of survivors off this fucking planet. Without anyone but Johns and maybe Fry becoming alien chow, at least.
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Faint Premonition