Deserter: Chapter Two-Rhea

   Rain lay completely still in the now cracked cryo-tube. The generator had been torn off the minute her glass prison had been flung out the back of the ship and now nothing would keep her asleep. Except for her throbbing head, which had met with an unfortunate accident consisting of a thump against the glass.

  The sun was magnified by the curved glass and the small tube began to heat up like a circular oven.

  With a groan and a twist, Rain woke up slowly.  There was a large crack in the tube, highlighted by blood. She lifted her hand to her head touched it, feeling the warm sticky blood against her fingers. She groaned again. The crack, along with the good sized hole her head had created, had weakened the glass and she decided if she was going to get out of here, that was her ticket.

  Twisting so she was facing the crack directly, she lifted her legs up to her chest, she rocked back on her shoulders, thrusting her feet upwards as hard as possible and smashing the glass with her boots. A few pieces broke away and fell on her. She brushed them away with one cuffed hand and began thumping on the glass with her boots again until a good sized hole opened up for her.

  Rain crawled out of the tight hole, scratching her arms in the process, wishing she’d made the hole bigger before squeezing through. “Damn,” she groaned as she looked back the way the ship had come and in the direction it had slid. She was somewhere in the middle of the crash path, pieces of the ship debris littering the way behind and ahead.

  This has gotta be some sort of cruel joke, she thought unhappily as she began hiking towards the ship. She knew it couldn’t be the best idea, considering the fool who’d captured her would be there, but she might be able to find the mystery man who’d studied her like a predator before the ship had taken a nose dive.

  Glad she’d been caught wearing a tank top instead of a leather shirt, like she usually did, she hiked along at an easy pace, often picking up speed and trotting wolf like along the path.

  After about three or four miles she began to run in earnest, the sun having set low enough on the horizon that the heat wasn’t getting to her, but it was getting cold. Running to catch up to the ship and to keep warm, she flew at an amazing speed, her military training keeping her from getting tired.

  When she was to cold to move and the sky was completely dark, Rain left the crash path and slid into the forest, feeling out the direction with her senses. She found a heavy bed of soft plants she couldn’t name and curled up in them, drawing them over her skin for warmth. She shuddered until she fell asleep, and even that couldn’t alleviate her convulsions.

  The sun rose again the next morning and Rain groaned at the throbbing in her head and the stiffness in her limbs. Years of training and she still woke up groaning after a night on the ground. The intense cold hadn’t helped any.

  She wondered what moon she was on. There we at least fourteen that she knew of, maybe more that they’d found by now. Keeping the names straight was a chore.

  She started walking again, trying to remember all the names in order to keep her mind occupied.

  Titan, Telesto, Calypso, Tethys, Rhea, Phoebe. . . she paused in her musing. Phoebe. What a dumb name for a moon. Pan, Atlas, Dione, Enceladus. . . That was only nine. Damn, she thought. How to pick one of those?

  She could make out another moon drifting around, it was very close. She decided she had to be on Rhea or Dione, considering they were sister moons. It would explain the second satellites close proximity.

  Rain rubbed her sore wrists and picked up the pace. She’d traveled about ten miles the previous day and could probably reach the ship in an hour or so. Her mind drifted back to the man. He hadn’t pointed out the fact that she’d been awake. She was never knocked out when in cryo-sleep. She tried to make her brain cooperate but she couldn’t. The rest of her body would work the way it was supposed to. Not aging and not needing food, but her mind stayed awake and she kept mobility. Sometimes she hated her brain.

  One time, she’d been fully awake for six months in a cryo-chamber. Of course she slept harder than usual in cryo-sleep, but for the most part she’s been completely aware. She’d sworn to herself she’d die of boredom. At least the other passengers dreams had kept her occupied. If she focused hard enough she could slip into their dreams and toy with them. She’d run into a lot of nut cases on her travels. Her fellow soldiers had the craziest nightmares. Some of the stuff they cooked up, or remembered seeing, was damn right scary. She often found herself pulling out of those folks’ head right quick.

  She’d seen enough black things to want to keep away from her own nightmares, she didn’t need anyone else’s paranoid delusions haunting her head and giving her overactive brain any ideas for later dreams.

  So, with the sun beating down on her back and her thick hair baking her neck, head, and shoulders, Rain wished her namesake would pour down from the heavens, or someone would bring her a glass of water. She was thirsty.

  A half hour later, mouth cotton dry, Rain stopped suddenly in her tracks and stared up at the unforgiving sky. A wet drop fell on her shoulder, and then another. With a half grin twisting her full lips, Rain opened her mouth, and collapsed.

  ~~~

  Riddick’s head shot up. The crew and passengers hadn’t wanted to leave the ship until they could figure out what moon they were on and how far from Titan, Saturn’s largest moon and their destination, they were.

  He’d already figured they were on Dione or Rhea, one of the sister moons, by the closeness of the moon that he could see circling them. He hadn’t felt the need to tell anyone of his suspicions though, and they didn’t ask him what he thought.

  Walker was stalking authoritative like around his crew, pointing at different areas of star maps of Saturn. They concluded it was Rhea they were on.

  But that’s not what had caught his attention. He could feel someone, and they were close. A half mile, maybe. Rain began to splatter across the ground in large, heavy drops and he glanced up at the sky, quickly wishing he hadn’t when the sun burnt his eyes, even through his goggles.

  Clouds had driven in on a hot wind and they furled and twisted angrily, shooting out bolts of lightening and howling with thunder.

  He knew it was the woman. She was tracking them. They’d all gotten back in the ship when the sun had set, trying to escape the freezing cold, and he’d decided that if the crash hadn’t killed her, the cold would. Now he knew he’d been wrong.

  The rain began to come down harder and the sun became muted by the clouds that raged above them. Riddick slipped from his perch atop the ship and headed in the direction of the woman.

  He quickly felt himself getting closer to her and was soon able to pick up an alien scent he was sure was her. Salty and definitely female. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and within a few moments he’d spotted her.

  She was laying on her face in the dirt, which in the rain had become mud. He trotted over to her silently and hunkered down on his haunches, not touching her, but once again studying her silently. She was alive, which was a miracle all on its own, especially considering she was probably drowning in the two inch deep mud.

  He tangled a hand in her wet hair and lifted her face from the ground. She gasped and coughed but didn’t wake up. Wondering why he even bothered with her, Riddick swung her up over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and headed back to the ship.

  He wasn’t sure he should let the merc know he’d gotten a hold of his prisoner, but he didn’t really feel the need to protect her from whatever fate awaited her on Titan.

  With a self-deprecating shrug, he merely continued to the ship. Whatever happened from there, happened. It wasn’t his place to worry about it.

  ~~~

  Another headache is what Rain woke up to.

  She was in another bed of ferns, but the sun was still high in the sky and the rain had stopped, leaving everything wet and fresh smelling.

  She shifted and then held deathly still when she spotted her mystery man watching her from the base of a huge tree.

  His begoggled eyes left a tingling feeling on her skin and she could feel them burning into her intently. She stared back, her emerald eyes flashing.

  Riddick felt a strange sensation creep across his neck, like fingers drifting over his skin, or breath sliding over his flesh.

  She was looking at him intently, her emerald eyes flashing curiously at him. She didn’t seem frightened.

  ‘You found me,’ she said silently.

  He felt uncomfortable with her ability, but nodded.

  ‘And you didn’t turn me in?’ she asked.

  Riddick shook his head.

  She sent him another of those little half smiles, like she knew something he didn’t, and laid back on the ferns he’d placed her on.

  When he’d gotten close to the ship he’d stopped, uncharacteristically indecisive.

  Then, deciding he wanted to know more of her, admitting to himself that he was slightly intrigued, he’d hid her and returned to the ship. No one had noticed he’d left and they were all going to stay another night.

  The merc had been more than upset at the loss of his prisoner. He’d apparently been tracking her for more than a year and she was worth a hefty amount. A deserter, he’d said. Left her unit high and dry without a word to the commanding officer. She had a superiority complex, records showed. That had made a grin pull at his lips. He remembered well that classification by Slam’s shrink.

  Now, he could practically feel her scaling the layers of his mind and he didn’t like it. He should ghost her, he told himself. Get her out of the way. No one would miss her, she was a con. He knew no one would miss him if he disappeared, except for Jack, maybe. But the shaved kid didn’t count.

  “Who are you?” he asked out loud.

  She turned, as if he’d startled her out of some sort of reverie.

  “Rain,” was all she said. Her voice was low, throatier than he’d have expected.

  He cocked his head. “Last name?”

  “Cloud,” she said, her lip curling sadistically.

  He sneered. “Cute.”

 She shrugged and closed her eyes, rolling away from him. Most people had more sense than to turn their back on him and he felt a need to make her afraid of him. He wondered what it would take to make her scream in fear of him.

  Also shrugging, he closed his eyes and leaned back against his tree, his fingers playing over the shiv he held in his hand.

  “Your name?”

  Her question didn’t startle him. He’d known it was coming.

  “Riddick,” he answered, not bothering to open his eyes.

  “First name?” she asked.

  “Have one.”

  He could almost feel the sadistic grin twisting her lips again. He twisted his back, eyes still closed.

  The leaves rustled from her direction and his eyes flew open behind the goggles. She was gone.

  He stood up quickly and looked around, trying to feel her out with his senses, but somehow she was evading him and he couldn’t feel her at all.

  She was either long gone or able to hide real well.

  He didn’t pick either one or the other, but did head back to the ship. He was sure that wasn’t the last he’d heard of Rain.

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