Future Shock: Chapter Two-Rude Awakening [Date: 2 Years + P.B.]
Riddick awoke to the soft humming of the engines aboard
Raye’s small vessel. He’d been dreaming again, of things past, things he
hadn’t cared to remember, and he was
glad to have been pulled back to reality. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes,
glad that Raye always kept the lights in the cockpit down to a minimal glow so
that he didn’t have
to wear his goggles. He was sitting in the co-pilot’s chair, Raye was next to
him in the pilot’s chair working the controls leisurely. She glanced at him
sideways, keeping her face forward, when she noticed him stir. “So, you’re
finally awake,” she said quietly with a slight smile. “We’re almost to
Thelta Prime and I was worried I’d have to wake you myself. Your reflexes have
always been better than mine. If I’d startled you, you would
have killed me in an instant.”
Riddick turned his head to glance behind himself. “She’s still asleep,”
Raye told him, refering to Jackie. “Let her be, she’s earned it.” There
was a moment of silence. “You
were dreaming,” she said flatly, not really expecting an answer.
To her surprise, she got one. His voice was deep and low, pained. “I never
used to, but lately... I’ve been remembering the past. Things from that planet
and things from long ago. Ever since we landed on K1-B7.”
“Things are catching up with you,” Raye nodded gently but hesitantly.
“It’s no wonder, after all you’ve been through, all you’ve seen and done
in your life. You can’t run
forever, Riddick. No one can.”
The small craft touched down smoothly on the landing pad near colony J8-T3 on
Thelta Prime. Imam was waiting for them, smiling as the entrance ramp lowered
and
Raye, Riddick and Jackie stepped out. “Welcome, my friends,” the muslim
greeted them enthusiastically. “Welcome to my home. Allah, how you have
grown!” he grinned,
embracing Jack. Indeed she had, for she was not a girl anymore, but a lovely
young woman. She’d grown her hair out, and cascades of cestnut brown curls now
covered
her ears and the back of her neck. She was about a foot taller and her face
conveyed a sense of maturity that far surpassed her years. Imam laughed,
removing his turban and
rubbing his palm along his short, silvering hair. “But then, we have all grown
older, have we not? Come, the shelter is this way. I have a hot lunch
waiting.”
“How is life as a missionary treating you, Imam?” Raye asked as he escorted
them to his mercy shelter. It was a lovely day on Thelta, the sun was shining
and the sweet
scent of blooming folliage carried softly on the light warm breeze. The heat
felt good against thier skin after months of deep space travel, though Riddick
out of nessecity
took to wearing his goggles to protect his light sensative eyes.
“It is a good life here,” Imam told them as they strolled trough the
prospering community. “These people, they are decent hard working people. It
gives my heart much joy to work besides them. I feel I have finally found the
purpose of my life.”
They arrived at the shelter, a pleasant enough square aluminum building made
from five or six temporary emergency shelters welded together. A thick tangle of
vines
decorated with large scented red and yellow flowers grew over the shoddy silver
exterior giving it an almost homey appearence. To its left was a garden where a
few of
the shelter’s inhabitants were toiling away, planting and harvesting. A
handsome,middle aged Indian woman with dark eyes looked up from the tomato patch
where she was pulling weeds and smiled warmly when she saw they were
approaching. “This is Mona, a volunteer here and my assistant,” Imam
introduced her with a grin. “She is a botanist and the reason we are able to
grow such crop here. We owe her our survival.”
“Elemo is too modest,” she said sweetly, “it is him who the settlers
follow. I’ve preparred your rooms and lunch is now being served if you’d
like to join us.”
Riddick had never eaten organic food before in his life, synth food was the
cuisine of choice in slam and most of the colonies because it was easily and
cheaply
manufactured. The taste was difficult to adjust to, but was not entirely
unpleasant. After lunch, Jackie went on a tour of the settlement with Imam and
Mona, who had not left
the muslim’s side once during the evening, while Riddick and Connors stayed
behind at the shelter to try to grab a moments peace. Thier rooms were tiny but
comfortable,
consisting only of a small but soft bed and a table with a glow lantern atop it.
It was enough for Riddick, who’d seen far worse conditions in his lifetime.
“You look positively morose,” Raye smiled, standing in the doorway to
Riddick’s room. Her face softened for a moment as she asked, “Are you
thinking of Carolyn Fry again?”
“Among other things,” he replied deeply. The past. He thought about Carolyn
all the time, even now, two years after she gave her life for him. But now a new
spectre
emerged, someone he thought he’d buried forever. Hana. No, he tried to banish
the memory from his brain, tried to force it from him. He looked up at Raye, the
woman he’d
despised for so many years, the woman he’d learned to trust, to confide in
just in the past two. But he couldn’t tell her about this, the pain was too
intense, too private.
Maybe someday, but not now. “It’s nothing,” he tried to assure her with an
ironic chuckle. “Can’t run forever, right?”