::NINE::
I remember sitting before that panel, when I was dishonourably discharged. That deathly quiet room, nothing to listen to but the sound of the fan in the ceiling, and the rustling of papers. The gentle, uneasy clearing of throats, echoing in the hollow room. There were a couple on the panel that had served with me before. Uncomfortable and uneasy, with what they themselves were ordered to do.
Usually the bastards wouldn’t go to that trouble. Would just see to it that the DD was attached to my record. They wanted me to know. Wanted me to hurt. Said I had lost my nerve and couldn’t fly anymore. That I was unsafe, and a danger to any crew that would have me. I might very well be a danger, but not to anyone in my ship.
I don’t need to look at Riddick to know that he’s secured in. He can take care of himself. His nerves are another matter. His eyebrows kicked up a little, nostrils flared, when he saw where we were going. He kept it to himself, though. Good, no backseat driving. When he realized where I was taking us, he didn’t doubt, didn’t tell me all the ways he thought I was crazy.
Hell, maybe I am crazy. Doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing though. Maybe it’s enough some days to just be that much more crazy than the next guy, in order to survive. To be willing to do what they won’t, and not be afraid to do it. I don’t know if Riddick’s ever been a pilot, but I get the feeling he’d understand what I meant by that. Would understand clearly what it meant just to survive some days.
I skirt the safe comfortable edge of the rockfield. Just within sight, so they’ll follow me in. Their fighters are smaller than the Virago. I’m counting on their cockiness, their bravado. The stones move slower, out here, at the edge. Even then, I skim close, daring the fighters behind me to do the same. A game of chicken between us, even if it’s a deadly game.
I can watch their hesitations, their actions behind me driven by the computers in their fighters, not the fluid grace of a human hand on the wheel. A slow gentle sweep past a larger stone, followed by a quicker roll the other way, past a faster, smaller stone. The heads up tells me that they’re following me deeper, staying on my tail. Good. It’s just where I want them to be.
The screen up front is almost empty for me, nothing but the dancing stones, and the small display, showing the fighters dodging and weaving, trying to advance. I wonder how clear the screens are in the fighters behind me. Whether they trust enough in their own abilities to fly on their own, or are their screens so full of display they can barely see the beauty of what’s right in front of them. A vast swirling field of stones, caught in some eccentric orbit, moving with a will all their own. Dictated solely by their size and capricious fate.
I slow down, just a bit, as I veer a little more into the whirling mass of asteroids. Riddick’s only display of nerves is the occasional glance at me. Swallowing hard. Trying to read my expression, trying to see whether I’m scared. If I’m not, he doesn’t have to be. I let the Virago dip out of sight, her gray skin curling around the body of a large uneven stone, close enough that, if you were so inclined, you could almost reach out and run your hands down it as we passed by.
No fear. None. Wish I could say the same. It’s a hard thing, to put your trust so completely in someone else. Hard for me to completely trust a woman with my life, my survival. I try to just watch the HUD, watch the two fighters dodge and weave behind us. But I keep getting pulled to look at the massive boulders she’s skimming past. I can watch as her speed drops, but it’s hard to feel it, when you can feel the skin of the ship vibrate, as we move over the stones. I don’t dare say anything. One, I don’t want to distract her, and two, I don’t trust my own voice.
She’s moving us deeper and deeper into the rocks. Doing it slowly, leading the two ships. Enticing them to follow her in. She’ll slow down just enough so that they can still see her, and will keep following, as the stones get bigger. And faster.
I can feel my guts lurch, as we move over the surface of a massive boulder. It would be nap of the earth flying, if we were planetside. She’s doing it without the aid of the computer. No fear. Completely sure of what she’s doing. We slide over the skin of the boulder like water, she’s slowing down, to let the two fighters see her again.
They probably think she’s pinned herself against the side of the asteroid, completely exposed. I’d doubt she sees it that way. They’re coming in fast now, feeling more sure, amidst the larger boulders, than they were before. She waits, moving slowly over the surface, almost slow enough that I can see the crags in it. Crags that would rip the belly out of the ship, if she misjudged, even once.
The Virago continues to roll over the horizon of the stone, just as the first fighter nearly reaches her. I look over at her, her grin wide and beautiful again, as she gives the Virago a burst of speed, spilling over the horizon, tucking into a roll that pulls us between two massive boulders with barely a sliver of light between them. Exactly enough room for the ship, and that’s it. Watching through the shield, as it fills completely with stone, moving past in a blur, it’s speed and ours. I can feel the thrum through the floor, and know the boulder is moving as fast on the other side. One slip, and we would be ground to dust between the two. I’m impressed with her ability to judge it so well. It takes me a moment before I remember to breathe.
The first fighter, even though he’s smaller, can’t even come close to accomplishing what she’s done. Without computer aid no less. The sound of tearing metal right behind us, as the first fighter is ripped apart, between the two boulders. All of a sudden all of these damned rocks just got a whole hell of a lot bigger.
“Just one more to go, you big beautiful girl.”
A man would swear and curse at a ship. Every curse for a woman you can imagine, a ship being always female. When Jane talks to the Virago, it’s love. Never a hard word to her. Almost under her breath, like you would speak to a lover, not like an inanimate thing. The ship can’t hear her, of course, but if it could, it would be. I know I am, and she’s not even talking to me. Her voice softens, all the hard edges in her, gone.
Her hands gentle on the wheel, at ease, sure of herself, sure of her ship. Like it’s an extension of herself. I suppose that’s not so strange. I feel the same way about my shivs. Guess I just never pictured a woman feeling like that before.
The second fighter is coming in hard and fast, angry now. A good way to ensure that you make a stupid mistake. Jane moves into a tiny clear patch, to goad him into doing it, increasing her speed again, by the time she pulls into a gauntlet of whirling rock. I can’t watch outside anymore, worried it’ll make me throw up again, so I watch Jane instead.
She breaks out in a soft laugh, when the second fighter follows her into the gauntlet, as the Virago starts to spin. I can only imagine how it must read to the fighter behind us. He’d never be able to get a solid read on her like that. Must be distracting as hell, and make it hard to keep an eye on the boulders. Especially when you’re trying to do it on a HUD, not like Jane, who’s flying by the seat of her pants, her vision unobscured by anything. The fighter behind her not even a notion for her anymore. She knows she’s going to kill him in here, or lose him in here. The sad fucking part of it is, the guy will have done it to himself. She hasn’t fired a single shot. Didn’t ask them to come in here after her. They followed her.
She skims, still spinning, between three boulders, boiling between them. Moving so fast it’s hard to see, part of me not wanting to see. The last fighter clips a wing on the last of the boulders, and is bounced between the three before disintegrating.
She slowly stops spinning, her speed becoming comfortable again, as she makes her way back out of the rockfield. Still skimming over stones. She didn’t do it solely as a defensive move, she just likes doing it. Fearless. I realize I’ve been holding my breath. I try to look out the front shield, and just see it as she sees it. The horizon of the stone, the crags rushing towards us. A flicker of open space, before she’s skimming over and around the surface of another stone. Almost using the tiny bit of gravity generated by the massive boulders to propel her through the field.
Slowly, the boulders grow smaller, and farther apart, as we move out of the rock field, until we are back in open space again. I hate admitting to myself the relief I feel. She’s turned on the HUD again, doing a scan of the area. Checking to make sure we’re alone, and checking for location. We still have to intercept the medic. She’s turns to me, finally, after making sure we’re safe for the moment.
“You all right?”
Not sure whether I can trust my voice or not. Catching a reflection of myself in the front shield. I’m paler than usual. But, yea, I’m all right.
“I’d fly with you anywhere, Jane.” She let’s out a very quiet laugh, her smile brightening her whole face.
Can’t fly anymore, my ass.
“Still want to wear that sheet? Or do you want to wait until we meet up with the doc?”
His laugh fills the whole ship, his head thrown back, enjoying himself thoroughly. It’s infectious, and pretty soon we’re both laughing like a pair of loons. Don’t think it was all just nerves, either.
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