Forgotten Past: Chapter Twelve-Departure

Riddick closed his eyes and crumpled Jack’s note in his fist. Carolyn
watched silently, eyes wide in the dark. “Damn her,” he gritted out
between clenched teeth.

Carolyn jumped slightly. Riddick’s anger was a palpable thing and she
could feel it coming in waves, yet outwardly he looked completely calm.
“What are you going to do?” she whispered.

Riddick looked at Carolyn sharply. He’d almost forgotten she was there
in his worry for Jack. But he was more than worried, he was furious.
What the hell did she think she was doing, running off like that?
“There’s nothing I can do,” he said finally, sounding mildly defeated.
He gestured to an empty chair and Carolyn sat down. Riddick lowered
himself onto his usual chair. “I suppose you want to know what’s going
on.”

Carolyn nodded. “When I woke up, I had no memory. I didn’t even
remember what I looked like.” She dipped her head. “I don’t know
about anything. And until today I thought my name was Creed Xander.
Who am I?” she questioned him, lifting her eyes to his.

Riddick sat back in his chair and laid his hands over the armrests.
“You’re name is Carolyn Fry, and I met you in a very strange way. You
were copilot of a freighter called the Hunter-Gratzner, and we took
damage from a comet tail. We went down hard and you pulled us
through it.”

“Is that it?” she demanded, leaning forward slightly.

He shook his head. “No, that’s just the beginning. The planet we landed
on had three suns and no night, except for a total eclipse that happens
every twenty-two years. We just got lucky enough to land then.” He
smiled without humor. “There was an alien problem, though. When the
sun goes down, the monsters come out for feedin’ time. They were real
charmers.”

Carolyn closed her eyes and pictures and memories flashed through her
head. It was starting to come together. Riddick’s voice was starting to
bring it back. She listened to him continue on about the planet and
suddenly, it returned. All of her memory. Her eyes flashed open and she
stared him directly in the eye. “I remember.”

~~~

Reed inspected the group in front of him. Twelve members of Ahsatan
had shown up for the mission to pick up Creed. Better than he’d
expected, and the twelve in front of him were some of the best he had.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad turn out.

“Okay, folks. This is the thing. Creed Xander has been found on Earth.
As you all know, she’s a pirate of the harshest kind, but she’s also one
hell of a pilot. Her crew are some of the best in the universe, from pilots
to killers. Getting her on our side would mean having an extra edge on
the Company.

“I received a transmission late last night that confirmed a shipment of
aluthium alloy coming out of Earth, as well. Unfortunately, I had to
make a judgment call and let another crew take on the responsibility of
picking it up.” Loud groans ensued from the group and Reed help up a
silencing hand, knowing that getting ahold of the alloy would mean
having the strongest crew. “The crew is Nylorac, and we can trust them
to take care of this.”

“Since when did you talk with Levake, Reed?” someone called from the
crowd.

“Since they spotted the aluthium, Riley,” Reed answered. He focused on
the group in general. “So, we ready to go?”

Answers filtered to his ears and he led them to the loading docks. The
ship they were taking was a Space Speeder. It had twenty cryo-tubes, so
they’d be full with the two pilots, twelve crew, and Reed. When the
speeder was loaded and everyone was strapped into their seats, Reed
directed the pilots to take off.

It was smooth and they broke the atmosphere with little turbulence.

Cryo-tubes were prepared immediately for the three week journey to
Earth, and everyone climbed in for the sleep time. Reed was met with
stern faces, prepared for the worst before anything even began.
“Relax,” he told everyone as they prepared for cryo-sleep. “It’ll be over
before we know it.”

~~~

A satisfying smack. “Who were you talkin’ to, kid?”

Eddie lifted his head and bared his teeth, sucking in a mouthful of blood
at the same time. It made a strange sucking sound and Jack closed her
eyes.

They were strung up from the ceiling, their wrists bound above their
heads. They’d pulled off Eddie’s shirt, and although she knew the worst
was to come, Jack had taken time to admire his chest and abdomen.
“Nice,” she’d whispered in his ear while they’d been chained to the
ceiling.

Jack’s wrists were starting to burn and she wrapped her fingers around
the chain and pulled herself up for the slack. She was to high off the
floor and her toes barely reached. Eddie was lucky enough to stand flat
footed.

“C’mon, kid. You think I like beating you and your little girlfriend?”
the man asked her.

Eddie raised a brow. “Yes,” he bit out.

The man shrugged. “Oh, well. You’re right. I do like this, but you don’t,
do you? And you,” he turned to Jack. “Slater won’t be able to work for
six months, at least. And that’s if he comes out of what you did to him
all right.”

Jack hissed like a cat at him, baring her teeth. When the Rangers had
burst in, she’d jumped at the largest one of them and pressed her
blaster to his forehead.

Another Ranger had jumped at her and she’d pulled off a shot, grazing
Slater’s head and then she lunged with her shiv and ripped him open.
They hadn’t been able to pull her off of him and she ripped up his arms
and legs, too, in the process before one of the guards hit her in the
temple with the butt of his rifle. After that everything had gone dark.

Unfortunately, Slater would live and he’d work again. In any case,
they’d both ended up where they are now. Chained up and being
interrogated. Jack stubbornly refused to answer any questions, and so
did Eddie. He was protecting a lot more information than her, though.

The Ranger planted a fist in Eddie’s stomach, knocking the air out of
him, then he back handed Jack across the face, snapping her head back.
They hadn’t taken her sunglasses, thankfully, but Jack didn’t know
how much longer they’d hold out under this abuse. The guard was
shaking his hand like he’d hurt it when Jack finally looked back up at
him.

“You have to go into cryo soon,” she whispered. “What will you do with
us then?”

The Ranger shrugged and Jack eyed his name tag. D. Evanson. “We’ll
throw you two in a tube and figure out what to do with you at the
spaceport, I guess.”

Jack felt better knowing they weren’t going to let them starve to death
while everyone slept.

“Evanson, it’s time to get in a tube. Grab those two and bring ‘em
along,” another man ordered from the doorway.

Evanson smirked at them. “Saved by the tube, eh?”

The next thing Jack knew was she was thrown in a tube across from
Eddie and then everything went dark. It would be a short four weeks.

***

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