The Chronicles of Riddick: Ghosts of Furya

  ***

  Waters was showered and back to her feminine standards in four minutes, and in another minute fully dressed with her hair tied up so it wasn’t touching her BDU collar. She would’ve liked to have camped in the shower for an hour but such luxury would have to wait another day, when she was home and off duty. Right now, she had to ready her squad for landing in Arlington, Virginia.

  She opened the bathroom door and fought her combat-trained reflexes at the sight of Riddick standing in front of her, facing her. She balled her fists as he fixed her with his studious gaze, standing uncomfortably close and giving no outward indication that he was a threat, but he was more wild than civilized.

  You don’t tame a Furyan, Aquarion’s words and accompanying laughter echoed in her mind. The Elemental had sounded thoroughly convinced.

  Waters clenched her jaw as she relaxed her fists and stepped out of the bathroom. Riddick moved out of her way, unperturbed. He didn’t seem in the least bit bothered that he’d disobeyed orders, but she couldn’t punish him. He probably didn’t know better yet. Still, it was so hard to gauge what he did and didn’t understand. Waters scanned the ship for signs of anything out of order. All the capsules were as she left them with their green halos, and the ship’s hum unvaried, no alarms going off. Everything was as it should be, except Riddick’s location. She forced herself to shrug her unease off as she headed to the nearest occupied capsule and began waking her squad.

 

  8.

  They landed in HQMC in Arlington, Virginia bright and early. Waters taxied up to a choice hangar of a dozen while navigating among other traffic taking off and landing. The base was an organized zoo. The sounds of a busy airstrip sounded foreign after being gone for over half a year.

  Once the final runway had been crossed, Waters noticed all the people gathered outside the open hangar awaiting her arrival: families.

  Four wives, several children from baby to tween, parents, grandparents, and siblings. No husband or kids for her. The no kids part wasn’t so bad. She had nieces and nephews to fill that void. But no spouse?

  She mentally shrugged the melancholy away. No point in a pity party. Wouldn’t get her dating any faster. Besides, her parents and two siblings stood among her squad’s families, every last one of them a welcome sight.

  Waters guided her ship to where the Civil Air Patrol motioned her to park, paying more attention to the families than the men waving orange glowing sticks at her. She’d clocked tens of thousands of hours piloting the Bridger, a space ship that created wormholes to punch through countless light years of outer space. After barking a few commands to her squad, she shut the ship down and followed her men down the open hatch, Riddick by her side.

  Wives and children flew into their husbands’ and fathers’ arms; many kisses, hugs, and loving words were exchanged. Waters’ family tried to greet her with equal warmth but Riddick jumped between them and bared his teeth. Her family stopped short, flowers in hand and confusion on their faces.

  Waters put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright, Riddick. They’re family. They mean no harm.”

  He looked at her with a raised brow. “Family?”

  She stepped around him and held out her arms to her niece and nephew, ages five and six. Devan and Tanya finished running up to her, and she lifted them into her arms as they wrapped their little arms around her neck.

  “Auntie Jade!” they both shouted.

  “Waters squeezed them tight and pecked their foreheads. “Hey, you two. It’s great to see you again. I missed you.”

  “We missed you, too,” Devan said.

  Waters’ parents joined the group hug. “Welcome home, Jade,” Mom said. “It’s a relief to have you back in one piece. I saw Spark showing off a fang the size of an arm. What the heck did you all run into?” Her parents stepped back.

  “Dunno but we called it a really big bear. Now it’s a really big dead bear, unfortunately. It left us with no choice.”

  “Ah. Now who’s this young man? He seems rather protective of you.”

  Waters grimaced. “He’s an alien, and the rest is classified for now.” Her father gave her a knowing nod. Her family was used to getting only morsels of intel over the years.

  “What’s your name?” Tanya asked the Furyan.

  “Riddick,” he said, stepping closer. “You’re family?”

  “Yep!”

  Riddick glanced at Waters, then held his arms towards Tanya. She unwrapped her arms and reached for him.

  Waters hesitated before letting her niece latch onto Riddick. “Be gentle,” she said to him.

  Riddick held Tanya just like Waters had, and even kissed her forehead, then began rocking her like Waters had unconsciously started doing with Devan.

  “Welcome home, Riddick,” Tanya said with childish enthusiasm.

  Riddick stopped rocking. “Not home.”

  Waters said, “He’s an alien, Tanya. He’s very far from home, but Earth is probably going to be his new home from now on. Now don’t try to ask him too many questions. He doesn’t know much English yet.”

  Mom said. “What’re you going to do with him?”

  “I have no idea.” She set Devan on the tarmac and he clung to her hand. Riddick set Tanya down and held the girl’s hand as well. Thankfully, Tanya wasn’t bothered in the least. She was a very outgoing, sociable child. “It’s up to my superiors and what they want to do. Our mission was just a scratch above a waste of time. Which reminds me.” She turned to the other groups of families. “Pond!”

  Pond pulled away from his wife and her lips, and stood at attention. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow at o’six hundred for paperwork.”

  “O’six hundred. Yes, ma’am.”

  “At ease.”

  Pond’s shoulders drooped. Writing up the report on their latest mission was adequate punishment for the vocabulary lesson prior to Riddick’s first ever shower.

  9.

  Waters stood at attention while doctors assessed Riddick in a biohazard room, pumping him full of vaccines and jotting down illegible notes. The place was overkill precaution-wise, since three months in cryosleep would kill just about every pathogen. That and the milieu of vaccines the Furyan was getting pumped full of could keep a whole army free of illness for probably a year. And while he was getting an immunity boost, her squad was getting a routine physical examination, along with a fitness test to see how out of shape they’d all gotten. She would join in on the “fun” once she was done keeping Riddick calm. Waters’ superior, Brigadier General Fink, watched on from the other side of the glass, a pensive frown on his angular face.

  Fink was a typical jarhead with an inflated ego that struggled to fit in any doorway. Waters could almost see the glass bending to compensate for how close he stood to it. Streaks of condensation formed on it from his heavy breathing.

  One of the female doctors said, “Riddick here seems like a perfectly healthy teenager. I don’t see any cryo sickness or anything. Maybe aliens like him metabolize anesthesia and sedatives differently. We'll have to wait for the lab results before we can draw anything conclusive.”

  “Thank you, ma’am. I’m glad to hear he’s alright.”

  “Waters,” Fink barked in his intimidating voice that never failed to get on Waters’ nerves. He always sounded like he was talking down to everyone when he spoke, even when expressing gratitude.

  Waters marched up to the glass, doing her best to focus on Fink’s pale eyes, instead of the splotches of condensation. “Yes, sir?”

  “What did you find?”

  “A lot of corpses and very few answers.”

  “What can the alien tell us?”

  “Not much. Maybe more once his English is solid, but he had to have been born the year his planet got invaded.”

  “Is he not fluent in any language in our databanks?”

  “No. He’s more or less wild.”

  “Then why did you bother bringing him back?” br />
  Recalling her run-in with Aquarion, the Elemental from Quintessa, Waters glanced at the trio of doctors packing their equipment. The medical personnel were allowed in HQMC’s medical facilities because, after extensive screening, they’d proven themselves trustworthy and proficient at being tight-lipped. Still, she wanted to keep her scraps of intel as classified as possible.” Permission to deliver a full report during my debriefing, sir.”

  “Permission granted. It better be good. I’ll see you at eleven hundred.” He marched off with his ego leading the way.

  Oh, it wouldn’t be good. Fink was gonna be pissed with the lack of intel. She simply didn’t want to deal with his ego or temper at the moment.