Riddik's Story: Escape

Riddik had been waiting for this for days. Well, okay, he'd been waiting for it for weeks, months even, but this one event right now that he was about to put in motion had only been planned in detail for a few days.

Twenty-Eight was at the hatching thing, and from the sense he was getting from the cat-- even at this distance-- it was not a pleasant engagement. It wasn't quite "dawn" yet on the Fate, or what passed for dawn, but it was nearing it as the caverns lightened imperceptibly. The captain was waiting at their passenger ship for them to flee as soon as the hatching was over and they could flee.

Gara was just leaving the mess hall with a snatched lunch and Brown hiding in his tunic.

And Riddik and Big Girl were outside waiting for him.

They were clinging to the light fixture on one side and the wall on the other, respectively, waiting for him to pass beneath them. Riddik knew what Gara tended to do, when it came to eating. If he was relatively certain he'd be left alone, he found some quiet corner to sit in and rest his feet-- if he was relatively certain he was still in danger, he'd keep walking. Since the hatching was going on and most of the attention was on it, Riddik was guessing this would be considered a "safe" time. The halls were quieter, so it was easier to catch an approaching sound or spot an approaching figure. Mages and security guards alike were focused on the hatching of a godling theurge, and so not as likely to be worried about him.

And once Gara got himself ensconced somewhere, he'd be much harder to dig out. So they were going to get him before he got settled.

Riddik was taking advantage of all he'd learned about Gara, watching him fight. Big Girl dove first, a silent swoop that landed on his jar of dirt, her sharp teeth snapping the tethers that bound it to his back with a single bite, and one strong foreclaw holding the lid on tight while she darted away down the hall with it.

Riddik took a second to watch the boy's reaction. The problem was, there hardly was one. What should have elicited anger or panic or both elicited a kind of... bland confusion as he looked around for a threat, hands moving to control sand that wasn't coming. So that numbness from their last meeting hadn't been entirely exhaustion and pain, it had been Brand. Riddik wasn't sure whether this was good or bad for him, but he knew exactly what it was for Gara.

Big Girl was winging off unimpeded, skimming the ceiling where the light was at its dimmest, still carrying the bespelled, weightless jar of sand. Good; Riddik wasn't planning on depriving the boy of it forever, just for long enough to get him away from the Fate.

On to step two. Even when attacked from above, Gara still didn't look above for a further threat. The boy had a lot to learn. Riddik swooped down, grabbed Gara around the waist and chest from behind, pinning his arms as best he could, and launched off after the grue.

Gray and Brown darted after them with a pair of squawks.

The kid was nowhere near as heavy as Riddik would have thought he was. He didn't really weigh any more than skinny Jay'tiel had. His struggles were more perfunctory than really desperate, and it seemed like all he had on his mind, from what Riddik could pick up, was unhappiness about his sand being taken away and a kind of blank "what is the purpose of this" bafflement.

::You'll get your sand back, kid,:: he sent, focusing his breath on speeding them down the corridors after Big Girl, towards the ship they were going to be leaving on. ::Just be patient.::

Twenty-Eight and his little deity-whelp had better be ready when he got there.

While Gara didn't exactly make a huge effort to get free, his wriggling and squirming was still awkward to carry, and Riddik was relieved to burst from the teleport pad out into the more brightly lit docking cavern, where their ship was waiting. Both of the little guys immediately dove into hiding in his and Gara's clothing, which was fine by Riddik; it meant he didn't have to hold back for them to keep up. Below, Twenty-Eight was pacing unsteadily along the floor on the way to it, though Riddik saw no deity-whelp with him. Strange.

::Get a move on, cat!:: Riddik sent at him, as first Big Girl with her jar of dirt-- keening very quietly at all the goddamn light, but flying straight on course like a good girl-- and then Riddik himself shot past him. ::This train is leavin'!::

Twenty-Eight's first thought back, sounding very vague and un-cat-like, was, ::What the hell is a train?::

Riddik prudently ignored him, and merely arrowed for the ship in question. If Twenty-Eight wanted to leave, with him, he'd just have to pick up the pace.

The hatch doors were open when Big Girl reached the ship, first, and she barreled right through them and disappeared within, probably into the darkened room prepared for her and the little guys. Riddik launched through the doors a few wingbeats after her, barrel rolled himself around a corner, and then backwinged to land. He heard Twenty-Eight lope inside a moment later, and the doors closed.

At which point Riddik set Gara down, though still kept his hands pinned in case he decided to do something stupid. The kid pulled a little against his grip, but it was more of a token protest than an actual attempt to get away. His muzzle opened, a creaky non-word came out, and then he said, "Give it back."

"You'll get it back once we're gone. Right now, the big girl has it, and if you wanna try and wrestle it away from 'er, good luck. I'll pick up your pieces afterwards, if she leaves anything." Riddik let Gara go and started striding off to the cockpit, where the captain was waiting for him. "I gotta fly this piece of junk for a minute, but I'll get it back for you once I'm done."

Riddik disappeared up the ladder to the cockpit, and after a moment of hesitation, Gara followed. Riddik ignored him, though he certainly noticed and was paying distracted attention for any possible motions of threat he might make, but much more important was giving the Twisted Fate as much distance between them as possible.

"Who's that?" the captain asked.

"A stray," Riddik answered, shrugging into the straps in the pilot's chair. "Take a seat somewhere, kid. This might be a little rocky at first."

"I thought you said you knew how to fly," the captain exclaimed.

"I do," was all Riddik answered with, busy familiarizing himself with the controls and checking the sensors for any sign of pursuit, then he disengaged the docking clamps with a few loud thunks. Gara, he saw out of the corner of his eye, had hunkered down by the ladder hatch. The captain was giving him a wary look, but she turned back to focus on the radio, letting the control tower or tunnel or wherever the Fate crew was squirreled away that they were leaving.

No one tried to stop them. Riddik gunned up the engines and they lifted off, hovering until they got the confirmation that bay door four, the one closest to their parking spot, was clear. Then Riddik floored it. The ship bucked once in protest-- the captain said something protest-like, herself-- but then it launched itself into motion.

Gara went skidding and thumping behind him; Riddik could hear the scrape of his claws on the metal-alloyed floor. The captain jumped and turned to look at him in surprise. Riddik didn't say anything until they were aloft, out of the hangar, and with a course plotted in for a jump to warp speed. Damn, but it was nice to be back in control of a modern vessel.

The ship powered up with a hum, rattled briefly before he unleashed it, then jumped surprisingly smoothly into the faster-than-light speed. Then Riddik finally smirked, looked over his shoulder, and said, "I told you it would be a little rocky."

The kid was staring at him. He didn't exactly look disturbed, but he didn't look quite as placid as he had before, either. "You left the Fate," he rasped, a little bit of emotion coming into his voice, for once. Accusation. Just a hair.

"You noticed that, huh?" Riddik said, as the ship settled into a comfortable rhythm of speed. "And from the looks of it--" He checked his readings again. "--we're not even being followed."

Yet, anyway.

"We will be," Gara growled. Riddik thought he detected a little bit of anger in there. Or... no. That smell was fairly unmistakable. He might sound angry, but that was fear. "Where is my sand?"

"Right where I told you it was. The big girl's got it."

"Riddik," the captain hissed, finally getting tired of being talked around. "You didn't tell me there was one of their toys involved in this."

The look Riddik shot her shut her up, but she glared fiercely, and that made him chuckle. "You worry 'bout your ship, captain Shelborn. I'll worry about their little toy." He hit a few buttons, tapped in a command, and unbuckled himself. "Let's go get you your sand, Gara."

Gara waited until Riddik started down first, and Riddik kept some of his attention on the kid as he did. He didn't think Gara would attack him, but one never knew what someone would do in a strange situation like he'd been thrown into. He led the way down the corridor to the closed door, behind which was Big Girl and Brown, who had darted in after her. Gray was still curled up inside his shirt.

There, Riddik paused, and turned to Gara. Just to make sure, he said, "I won't be expecting any trouble from you on this ship, if I give this back to you. You make me a liar, and you'll regret it. A'ight?"

"I don't... cause trouble," Gara ground out, even though he hardly seemed to be paying Riddik. any attention at all. He was fixated on that door, or maybe the sand behind it, and his hands were twitching. Huh. That was interesting. Did Gara view his sand as more than just a weapon? Some kind of touchstone or... heh... security blanket? Well, after over a year of it being his only defense, he probably felt naked without it.

Maybe he'd have to face that someday, but Riddik wasn't quite cruel enough to make him face it yet. "Wait here," he said simply, and pressed the button to open the door, simultaneously warning Big Girl that there was going to be light in a minute. The door slid open on the sight of her tail disappearing into the shadows to one side of the rectangle of light spilling in. It was some kind of cargo hold, which worked fine for keeping grues safe and contained.

The jug of dirt was just barely visible to regular eyes, against the far wall.

There was a sharp intake of breath from Gara as, presumably, he spotted the dirt-carrier. Then his hands were working again, in a flurry-- the motion Riddik recognized as a summoning. There was a loud pop from the jug, as the cork popped, and sand came rushing out. Riddik tensed, wings half-opening and his feet automatically shifting in a ready-to-tackle position. But he sensed nothing malicious. Just relief and need radiating more strongly than anything Riddik had sensed from the kid in a long time. Since that second mark had been put on him, at the very least.

It wasn't an attack, at least. That he realized, though he also realized it could turn into one.

And since Big Girl was less psionic than he was, and less patient with potentially threatening actions, it was entirely possible that might happen. As the stream of sand rushed towards the doorway, the grue shrieked, a truly ear-splitting sound, and lunged at it, snapping and slashing with her claws. She stopped just short of the light, and the sand, almost amusingly, flowed around and away from her on its way to Gara.

Where it swirled around him, and the emotions faded into a relieved kind of calm as Gara sighed. The sand ran through his fingers like little snakes, gathered at his feet in tiny shifting dunes, looked like a pet crooning over its master. The last portions of sand left wrapped a thick tendril around the container's pinched middle and started to drag it forward across the floor, while another branching stream recovered the cork. If Riddik hadn't been so accustomed to seeing it by now, he would've called it eerie.

The last of the brief surge of emotion had disappeared. No malice, still, no intent to attack, so Riddik relaxed and he waved off Big Girl with a mental, ::Shut up, he's not hurting you,:: and his eyes behind their goggles on Gara.

"Somebody's impatient," he said.

Gara said nothing, he just examined the bitten-through sash that had once held his jar of dirt on his back. Riddik shrugged. "Pick a room, there's four empty ones. Just don't pick the one that smells like the captain, or one the cat is in." He turned away, saying over his shoulder, "We'll be about a week in space before we get where we're goin'."

And still, Gara said nothing. Oh, well. Riddik let it go, and went to go get himself something to eat. He was starving.