Capítulo 4: TRUTH BE TOLD
Riddick hesitated in the open doorway, feeling as though his feet were heavy; it was not a feeling he found pleasant. He thought about leaving. Could he trust either man? Toombs had tried to collect his bounty many times before. Kearyn was an unknown, but leaving now meant losing the opportunity to find out who set him up on Not Furya.
He stepped through the open doorway, plagued by something he hadn't expected; that maybe he didn't want to know the truth. What if everything bad that had happened to him- to the people he loved- was his fault? Did he really want to know that? He decided he did.
Gripping the hilt of his dagger, he moved cautiously through the long, dark cargo bay, stopping a few yards away from the open hatch on the other side. Bathed in the comfort of darkness, he watched the shadows in the next room dance around the floor at his feet. What were they doing?
Without warning, Kearyn stepped into the open hatch, urging him inside with the wave of his gloved hand. "Please come in. If I do not get Eve out of the stasis soon, Alexander will lose his wits."
Riddick laughed and shook his head. He stepped through the open doorway wearing a smirk and said, "When did he get any wits to lose?"
Toombs paced around a stasis pod like a mother # guarding a newborn cub as Kearyn feverishly tried to end the sequence and open the lid.
The medbay was an unnaturally sterile white. If not for Riddick's recent transformation, the glare would have been too much for his eyeshine. A set of unusual stasis pods and the equipment needed to maintain them sat on the other side of the room.. An exam table filled the far corner and a bank of metal cabinets, presumably filled with medical supplies, took up most of the wall beside it.
Kearyn slammed a fist on the control panel in front of him. He had enough. "Alexander, please stop pacing around like a madman." he snapped, and Toombs froze. "It is difficult enough to revive someone from stasis without you making it so I cannot think." He pointed to the foot of the pod and commanded, "Go stand down there and stop hovering."
Toombs pointed at Kearyn and said something Riddick found peculiar, "If I'm stomping around like a madman then it's because, thanks to you, I've had to wait two lifetimes to get to this moment."
Kearyn motioned for Riddick to approach the head of the stasis pod. "Stand beside me." He said, "Eve will not realize you are here and I want nothing to upset her when she comes out of stasis."
Riddick nodded cordially and complied. Although the body in the second pod caught his eye. It was a woman.
"I do not believe your last encounter ended well." Kearyn added as Riddick approached. "You left her for dead."
"Not true," Riddick countered with a scowl. "I left her alive. Which is far better than she deserved. So, I'd say that the encounter ended well."
Riddick stood next to Kearyn, staring at the second stasis pod. The view screen fogged over. But he could make out the auburn hair inside. He purposely made eye contact with Toombs before saying, "What's the problem? Are you afraid if little miss six-guns sees what a real man looks like, she might swoon?"
Toombs donned a mask that could kill and seethed. "Why the hell does he have to be here? Eve was never anything more to him than just another merc to kill and I'm certain she doesn't want him here."
Riddick smirked at him. He enjoyed pushing his enemy's buttons. "With an attitude like it's no wonder you did not invite me to the wedding."
"Screw you," Toombs blurted, sneering through squinted eyes. "And who says swoon anymore?"
"Touchy, merc; real touchy."
Toombs walked around the pod to confront him until he saw Riddick's hand perched on his dagger. Riddick's face became a terrifying threat, and he said, "Not a wise move, Toombs."
"YOU!" Kearyn yelled in a rage. "Go stand back where I told you to. And this time, do not move until I tell you!"
"Lucky, merc; real lucky."
Kearyn turned to Riddick and said, "And you, if it is at all possible, could you try not to kill anyone for the foreseeable future, please?"
Riddick smirked at Toombs and said, "Sure. Since you said please."
Kearyn turned back to Toombs, and to Riddick's surprise, began defending him. "As for your rather understandable comments, you are wrong. While it is true, Riddick has killed many a merc, it has always been in defense of his own life or liberty."
"Yeah," Toombs cut in, "he seems to value his life more than any other."
"Don't we all, Alexander?"
"The only life I value is hers." he replied, pointing in the stasis pod.
"I am sure when Eve learns..." Kearyn's last words faded out as the seal on the stasis lid cracked open, releasing an ear-piercing icy vapor that settled back into the pod, obscuring Eve's body beneath an ethereal cloud.
The sound of shallow, but peaceful breathing, drifted upwards and Toombs said, "Thank god."
"You are welcome." Kearyn said.
Toombs shook his head at him warningly and said, "Oh, guy. That's just wrong."
Riddick smirked at Kearyn, who was waving his hand over the pod, trying to fan the vapor away from Eve's face. When the cloud dissipated, he could see Eve lying beneath a translucent veil shimmering like woven gold, illuminated by the bright lights in the med bay. Kearyn reached in, placed two fingers on the side of her neck and announced to the room, "She has a strong pulse. The procedure was successful."
Riddick studied the fabric draped over Eve and recalled seeing it before. "Why is six-guns covered in a death shroud?" he asked, reaching out and touching it.
Kearyn turned to him and said, "Good eyes."
"Yeah, you gotta kill some people, get sent to a no escape slam where you can find someone to shine your eyes for 20 Menthol Kool's." he replied.
"I would have thought that after what happened to the last person you told that cockamamie story to, you would have stopped telling it by now." Kearyn snapped unexpectedly.
Riddick stood beside him, trying to think of a response, but nothing came. There were no wry witticisms or snide comments on the tip of his tongue; he was completely blank.
"The simple fact is you made that ridiculous story up; you do not know how your eyes got the way they are. From what I hear, you told some people Cutter shined your eyes, other people you told the Slam doctor at Ursa Luna shined your eyes and now, I hear you're telling people Pope Joe shined your eyes in the sewers at Butcher Bay."
"I'm going with Pope Joe."
"Really," Kearyn snapped, "you believe a pervert veterinarian who experimented on little girls in his basement shined your eyes when you were making a break for it." Kearyn raged, as though Riddick's story was a personal attack against him. "You went out for a little stroll in a rat infested sewer, found some old guy standing knee deep in effluent who said go find my radio and I'll perform reconstructive surgery on your corneas, and you thought to yourself, hey, there's an idea, I should let this wacko stick sharp pointy objects in my eyes."
"You had to be there." Riddick replied, appearing as though he didn't know if he should keep listening or pull Kearyn's tongue out by the root.
"Really," Kearyn replied, "Because if you remember, he was the same guy who told you the master sent him to kill Breanna and blind you with the knife you're currently wearing on your side."
"If you know all that, then you should know those earlier events took place years before we met in the alley on Helion 4." Riddick protested.
But Kearyn just ignored him and continued, "Yeah. Right. Sure. Because It is always a good idea to let some stranger use his filthy, rusty bovine veterinary instruments to vivisect your corneas so he could attempt a surgical procedure he could have never possibly hoped to understand, let alone successfully complete." Kearyn raised his hands into the air and almost hollered, "That goddamn no-talent hack would have blinded you all together, if not for the cellular modifications I made to you as an infant. You do not know how many lifetimes I had to relive just to perfect that eye shine and you give the credit to a religious fanatic sent to blind you forever. Oh, how rich is that?"
Riddick's head cocked to the side as he realized what Kearyn had just unwittingly admitted. He had always believed Pope Joe had shined his eyes. Why not, when he had broken free from below Butcher Bay, his eyes had changed.
But this was too much for him to take in all at once. Kearyn had just screamed the truth in his face.
"Wait," Riddick said, grabbing Kearyn by the arm so forcefully it whipped him around. "What do you mean you made cellular modifications to me as an infant?"
"Caught that did you," Kearyn said, reaching up and pulling back his hood to reveal the emancipated face of a living corpse.
"And I thought you said I received my eyes from my father."
"I did. But since the cat is out of the bag. What did you think happened when you were a baby? Did you think Zhylaw went to Furya, killed everyone on the planet and then only half choked a defenseless infant to death in its crib? Just to leave it in a dumpster on the opposite side of the galaxy. That story makes sense to you, does it?"
Riddick didn't respond, he just held him by the cloak.
"You couldn't beat Zhylaw in a fair fight when you were an adult. How would an infant have survived such an ordeal? How do you think you escaped Furya or reached the orphanage?"
Riddick's face could barely contain the anger building inside him as he reached down, took hold of the handle of his dagger and snarled, "Spill your guts, holyman. Before I Spill them for you."
Kearyn stared at Riddick as if contemplating how much he really wanted to reveal and said, "I was the one who took you off world. I brought you to the nuns for safekeeping and like I said, I put you in that dumpster, and I too m responsible for your heightened abilities. Me and your father."
"What did you do to me?"
"A single gene therapy treatment at birth. A simple injection that over the course of your adolescence, gradually altered your DNA."
"You created the N7 formula in Martin's bloodstream."
"No." Kearyn replied, "that too, was a gift of my father."
"Then how did the N7 gene find its way into Martin?"
"You already know how your blood found its way into Martin."
"Santana!" Riddick replied, remembering the alley on Helios. "It was real. He stole my blood."
"With a little helo." Kearyn admitted with a frightening smile.
"It was you in the alley that night."
"In deed."
"Why?" he demanded, drawing him closer. Riddick felt like the answers he needed were looking him in the face.
"Because if Martin had died the night of Breanna's attacked, her death would have created a paradox."
"Is there anything else you'd like to relay before I-"
"There is," Kearyn cut him off, holding up a gloved hand. "No, Lord Marshall has ever set foot on Furyan soil."
"That's a lie!"
"Wrong! Zhylaw was a liar. He never went to Furya. The visions you thought were memories are shadows of an alternate timeline. A timeline you must prevent in the future."
Riddick snatched Kearyn closer and fumed, "Aereon's prophecy says it already happened."
Kearyn pulled his hand away and replied, "Aereon's prophesy was based on her limited scope of view. She merely interprets images. Although, those images do not always come to her in chronological order."
Kearyn turned to Toombs, who fixated on Eve lying in the stasis pod, and asked, "Have you been listening to any of this? Do you have any input?" Toombs seemed unaware that anyone had spoken. So Kearyn spoke louder, "Alexander!"
Toombs turned his attention to Kearyn as if unfazed by what he was seeing and asked, "Ah... yeah... Why do you look like a corpse? And guy..." Toombs waved his hand in front of his own face with a distorted grimace, "What is that God awful stench?"
"0k, in that order," Kearyn snapped, "A, I am dead and b; the stench is me. But thanks for noticing and pointing it out. That is not at all awkward or embarrassing."
"You're quasi-dead?" Toombs blurted in amazement.
"Hardly," Kearyn replied, continuing what he was doing at the console. "Quasi-deads are partially living shadows of their former selves and I, on the other hand, am much more than a shadow, and far less than partially living."
"Are you serious? You're actually dead?" Toombs asked, as if trying not to be insulting.
"As a doornail," Kearyn answered with a shrug. "Although, my soul lingers on in this form, even after death."
"How did this happen?" Toombs asked, gesturing at his withered form. "And why am I only noticing now?"
"If you allow me a moment to check on Eve, I will explain." He replied, reaching in to check Eve's pulse again. Toombs grinned widely when Kearyn confirmed her continuing good health.
"Normally," Kearyn began, reaching beneath his cloak and exposing a shroud just like the one covering Eve. "When a Necromonger priest places a shroud over a severely weakened supplicant, it is to force a fragment of their soul into the underverse. However, in my case, this shroud serves only to keep my corpse from petrifying completely. Without this shroud, I would become little more than a pillar of salt." He laughed to himself and said, "You could say that it is my lot in death."
"What happened to you?" Riddick asked, reaching out and touching the golden fabric Kearyn held in his hand.
Kearyn dropped the shroud and replied, "My father was an ancient and powerful being. The first being, in fact. He was born when this Universe was still in its infancy and when he was still in his, his Creator gave him the ability to move through time and space using nothing but thought. Although, he never learned of the existence of such powers until much later in life."
"Did this happen to him?" Toombs asked.
"No." Kearyn replied, "He was an immortal."
"I thought you said he was dead." Riddick said.
"I did." Kearyn said with a nod. "But alas, my father was immortal, not indestructible."
"Who was he?"
Kearyn waved Toombs' question off. "If I may continue? When l was born, I received a few of my father's lesser gifts." Kearyn explained, pointing to his eyes. "Like these and the ability to travel back in time."
"Back in time?"
"Yes. Unfortunately, by the time I learned I could not travel forward in time, my fate was sealed. The gift of immortality I received only extends to my soul and not my physical being. When I went back, I destroyed my physical form. That is why I created these shrouds."
"Guy, that sucks."
"Agreed," Kearyn admitted, opening his cloak to reveal the mummified body beneath. A wafting stench of death filled the compartment. "It only took one trip back, and I realized it would forever trap me in this withering corpse."
Riddick moved around the pod, fixated on Kearyn as he went along. "What happens if you take off the cloak?"
Kearyn let the cloak slip off his shoulders and answered, "The mummification process continues each time I remove the shroud. Although, a great number of millennia would have to pass before I became permanently immobilized."
"How long before you don't stink anymore?" Toombs asked, waving the smell away from Eve's face.
"One can always count on your sensitivity, Alexander," Kearyn replied, placing the shroud back over his shoulders and allowing his cloak to fall closed. He moved around to the side of Eve's pod, pulling his hood back over his head. He didn't want her to see him.
Riddick leaned towards Kearyn, gestured at Toombs and said, "I can throw him out the airlock."
Kearyn stood over Eve, studying her through shining eyes, and said, "Unnecessary. Although, I appreciate the thought."
Toombs moved next to Kearyn, watched him examining Eve and said, "I'm sorry."
Kearyn stood up abruptly, and Toombs jumped backwards. When he saw Toombs reaction, he apologized, "Forgive me. I often forget how my appearance repulses those who can actually see me."
"Actually, see you." Riddick repeated.
"I can project my former image into the minds of most."
"Most." Riddick repeated
"Those who lack the ability to resist subtle mind control see what I want them too."
Toombs felt somehow guilty for his reaction. He and Kearyn had been companions for a long while, and Kearyn had always treated him with the utmost respect. "You have been a good friend, and I have no right to fear or distrust you. I hope you can forgive me."
Before Kearyn could react, Riddick's hand had left his side, and his dagger pressed against Kearyn's neck. Riddick was squeezing the hilt with so much force the tendons in his hand creaked beneath the skin. "I, unlike our friend here, am not inclined to feel sorry for your plight or predicament." Riddick said, moving in close.
Kearyn did not spirit away this time. Although he was keenly aware, he could do so at will.
Riddick's voice became a dark and terrifying whisper, "Why don't you explain what's going on before I lose what little patience I have left."
Toombs voice carried a sickeningly sweet envy. "There's the killer I remember." he said.
Riddick turned to him, knife still pressed to Kearyn's throat. "Tell me something, Toombs. Do you trust him?" Riddick asked, turning back to Kearyn. He studied the man standing before him, waiting for Toombs' reply. "There's something about a guy hiding beneath a cloak that screams you shouldn't trust me."
"Guy!" Toombs shouted, trying to get Riddick to release Kearyn. "What good is cutting his throat gonna do? You're threatenin' a corpse. Besides, he's tellin' the truth. Not the whole truth. But he's not lying."
"You didn't say you trust him."
Toombs studied Eve lying in the open stasis pod and answered, "He risked everything to save us both and two days ago Eve was nothin' more than a mutilated brain fused into this ship's computer. He grew her a new body, removed the control chip from her brainstem and gave me back the only person who ever loved me. That's gotta count for somethin'."
"That doesn't mean he's trustworthy." Riddick protested.
"No. I guess it doesn't." Toombs said, gently pulling the shroud off Eve's face. "God, I'd almost forgotten how beautiful she is." His eyes filled with desperation and he pleaded, "I need him to make sure she wakes up."
Riddick gazed down at Eve's face and thought of a time long ago. He could feel the warm summer sun on his skin, see auburn hair blowing in a gentle breeze, and heard a young woman's voice carried across the winds of time. Kearyn made him remember the girl and the woman he had met in the alley. The woman he loved. The woman who had been attacked because of him.
"What is it?" Toombs asked as he watched Riddick's expression change.
But Riddick didn't answer, Kearyn did, "She reminds him of a young woman he loved a long time ago; a woman he thought died on a world far from here. She reminds him of his wife, Breanna Fry."
Every fiber in Riddick's body clinched at once, as if the name had brought back an eternity of loneliness and regret. He wanted to lash out at Kearyn, but his code wouldn't allow it. Riddick placed the knife back in the sheath and said, "The Reverend Mother used to tell everyone..."
"Sometimes the truth cannot be derived from the telling; sometimes it has to be derived from the seeing." Kearyn said, finishing his sentence. He had recited the old Nun's mantra verbatim. There was yet more evidence that Kearyn knew, far more than he was telling.
The two men studied one another for a few tense moments until Riddick finally said, "Your note said answers."
"It did."
"They had better come with proof."
"As you wish," Kearyn said, "if it is proof you want, then it is proof you shall have. And for the record, I never liked it when she told me that either." Kearyn said, turning his attention back to the terminal beside Eve.
Riddick squinted at Kearyn through eyes of doubt and suspicion. "This had better make sense soon. And Kearyn, when we get there; you better pray I like what I hear."
Eve's eyelids flickered open for a split second and Toombs said, "Holy shit. She just opened her eyes."
Kearyn examined the readouts on the control panel and confirmed, "Ah yes. It appears Sleeping Beauty is about to awaken at last." Then he took a moment to warn, "However, before she does, let me be perfectly clear about a few key points. No more bandying about with knives, no more shouting like madmen and everyone, especially you, Alexander, needs to remain calm." Then he turned to Riddick and said, "As to your likes and dislikes, I will only say this. If you come with me on this journey, I will tell you everything you want to know. As for now, however, your demands for answers will have to take a back seat to Eve's recovery."
Riddick glared at Kearyn and said, "I hope you won't make me wait too long?"
"I give you my word. I will present you with the proof you have asked for just as soon as the time presents itself." Kearyn answered, waving Toombs up to Eve's side. "In the meantime, Alexander, I want your face to be the first thing Eve sees when she opens her eyes. I do not want her traumatized any more than necessary."
Toombs looked puzzled by Kearyn's concern and asked, "Why do you care about a woman you don't even know?"
"The better question, Alexander," Kearyn answered, staring down at Eve, "is what makes you think I do not know her?"
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