ALPHA

For Toombs, Eve and Carolyn an hour flew by in the blink of an eye. They sat alone in the War room blurting questions at one another, holding each other in their arms and laughing at the good fortune bringing them together again. For the first time in what seemed a lifetime, life was good. The future was whole and they were truly happy in each other's company. Both Toombs and Eve found a new sense of joy in Carolyn, but she just acted as though she had known them her whole life. But what life had that been. They had not been there to see it bloosom. To teach her. To guide her. To love her.

Carolyn stood between them, wrapped in their arms as if swaddled in a blanket of contentment. "I have missed you both." she said, beaming a giant grin at them. "And now, comes the time when we can finally be together forever."

Eve studied the little girl's face wondering about the things she had seen, the secrets she knew and how old she really was. Is she even a little girl or is she like me, a thing created in a lab. A copy created to believe it is still alive. An icy chill raced up her spine and she hugged Carolyn unexpectedly. What had Kearyn done to the three of them? And why? What purpose does he have for my baby. My beautiful, beautiful little girk. She shook her head, staring into the endless depths of her blue eyes and thought, what has become us?

Just then, Master Sergeant Freeman entered the room with a small group of his men and Carolyn cast him a quick cold glance that Eve recognized. Carolyn didn't like soldiers. Like Riddick, she despised Necromongers. Although, she really didn't understand why. The hatred was dark and primal.

Freeman, like all the other soldiers aboard, had been warned away from the little girl by Krone of all people. She's different. That's all he would say. No Necromonger was protected. Life in the Armada was always the strong survive. He has always glared at her thinking little abomination. Not that he or any of his soldiers would openly dare share their feelings about the odd child in the crew. But now, that protection had faded. The little girl was defenseless.

The palid, deathly color and circular neck scars of conversion had vanished from Freeman. His men looked almost normal, if not for the morbidly gothic Necromonger armor they still wore. Two men took up positions on each side of the entrance and the others sat at Freeman's sides like good little dogs, protecting their master. The entourage nearly filled the opposite side of the long oval conference table positioned in the center of the war room. Only two chairs remained open.

"May we join you?" he asked, teturning the snide look Carolyn offered him.

Carolyn turned to the clock on the wall, then feigned a smile and said, "Yes, the meeting should get underway in the next couple minutes."

"I was speaking to your mommy, little girl." he said, rolling his eyes like a Necromonger who loathed children.

Carolyn's tiny body tensed beneath Eve's embrace and she turned to Toombs, signaling something bad was about to happen. Carolyn leaned forward, her face becoming a mask of hatred and said, "Listen, you bloated windbag. Never speak to me with that condescending tone again or you'll regret it." The childlike tone and mannerisms she spoke in took him by surprise.

After a few seconds, he managed a weak laugh, as did a few of his men. Their false bravado was just the spark needed to ignite Carolyn's anger. What they failed to understand was what Eve had already figured out. While Carolyn looked like a child, she was far from young and even further from helpless. She wore her youth like a soldier wears camouflage. It was just a distraction.

The door opened and Shepard walked in towing his usual sidekick beside him and they both sat down beside him, leaving an open seat nearest the head of the table. Thomas glanced around at all the tense faces. He looked at Shepard and asked, "What did we miss?"

No one said a word as angry seconds stretched out forming a string of tenuous minutes. Everyone waited to see who was going to win the contest of wills. Carolyn stood defiantly on one side of the table and Freeman sat on the other.

Freeman's expression was one part disbelief mixed with one part anger and when he sat back in his seat, the leather creaked beneath him. Carolyn did not miss the opportunity. She giggled and said, "See. He is a windbag."

"Nice," Freeman replied, scowling at her as if his only thought was of ringing her scrawny little neck. "One minute I'm in the most powerful military force in the Galaxy and the next, I'm reduced to being the brunt of a fart joke at the hands of a toddler. And for the record, I didn't fart; that was the chair."

Toombs couldn't stop himself. He let out a barely stifled laugh that ended in a low cough. Eve kicked in the shin and He lurched. He shook his head at her, still thinking Freeman's behavior was absurd. He leaned forward and said, "Ah guy, just let it go." Freeman turned scarlet and stared at Carolyn as she batted her eyes at him and smiled. But Eve wasn't laughing or smiling; she could feel Carolyn's body vibrating beneath her hands.

Freeman ignored Toombs' attempt to defuse the situation and leaned forward, pointing at Carolyn as if gesturing at a bug to be stepped on. "Why is the child here? I can't believe an impudent welp could aid the cause?"

"The cause," Carolyn spat back, leaning over the table and grabbing his finger and yanking it towards her as if she was about to bite it. He jerked back and Toombs barely stifled a second grasping laugh. Eve kicked him harder. He grabbed his shin. Then it happened, the little girl became something else. She glared at him and said, "What would a suck-ass-toady like you know of the cause? You only removed your lips from Lord Vaako's ass one short hour ago. And that was just to save your own filthy Necromonger ass yet again."

Thomas, sitting next to Freeman, moved to the seat on the other side of Shepard. He deplored confrontation and anyone from the other side of the Galaxy could see what was coming. Anyone except Freeman, who was now livid.

"How many innocents died at your hands and the hands of those who still follow you around like mindless sheep?" She demanded, squinting angrily at the men seated with the Master Sergeant. "You realize by coming with us he's no longer your commander? He's just another defector, like everyone else. You all just abandoned the Necromonger faith the way you abandoned his own families. Now they're dead and you're here again, preparing to suck the ass of the next successor."

"He's kept us alive this long." one man standing at the door said, gesturing at Freeman.

Carolyn's voice became a menacing threat. "Oh really," she said, glaring at him. She reeled on Freeman and asked, "So, you're a big hero type, are you?" He muttered something unintelligible beneath his breath and glared at her, trembling from head to toe. "OK. I have an idea." she said, turning to the soldier by the door with a sickeningly sweet smile. "How about Master Sergeant Hero here against me? Right here; right now. Come on. I'm just a little helpless girl. How could a big hero like him lose?"

Eve hugged her as if to say stop, but Carolyn threw her off with a tremendous force. Freeman scoffed at her, barely containing a strangled snarl. Eve looked terrified. But not for Carolyn. She felt Carolyn's body vibrating beneath her grasp. The raw energy surging off her in waves actually burned Eve's hands, but she didn't dare let go.. Eve struggled to hold her back.

"I'll show you what I can offer the cause. If you show me what you can?"

Freeman stood up, ripped the insignia from his lapel, and flung it down on the table. It slid to a stop in front of Carolyn and said in a controlled tone, "Bring it on, little girl."

To his horror, a hideous 10-leg, black spider covered in coarse hair crawled out from beneath the table. The 3 pound arachnid sat in front of her, shuffling from left to right. Then it lunged forward and back, all the while hissing and dripping venom. The monstrous creature stared at Freeman through a dozen black, expressionless orbs. Its kaleidoscope images projected on the half dozen monitors behind her. Carolyn reached out and lovingly stroked the spider's hairy back and it shuddered. Its pointed legs clicking the table. "Why don't you go over and say hello to Mr. Hero." She said, angelic smile turning malevolent.

The spider darted across the table with a blinding speed, stopped at the opposite edge with venom dripping from its pulsating mandibles. Freeman gasped in terror, jumped backwards, slammed hard against the wall and stood covering his eyes in terror, consumed by the memories of the battle of Torfall, where a hive of giant spiders tore his squad apart as he ran, screaming in horror. Carolyn had combed through his memory and found the biggest one.

Everyone in the room gazed around as if asking one another if they saw anything. No one did. Nothing was there. Carolyn stood on one side of the table wearing a malevolent expression of hate while Freeman stood plastered against the far wall, wearing an expression of petrified terror.

Toombs leaned over to Eve and whispered, "Get her out of his head before this goes too far."

Eve nodded, leaned against Carolyn and whispered, "This will only fuel the fires of discord between us all. You must stop this now."

Carolyn drew back against her like a cobra readying to uncoil on its unwitting prey, and Eve wrapped her arms around the child. She gently hugged her and whispered, "I know he's an ass, but you 're better than this."

Carolyn turned around, pushed herself into Eve's lap, pressing her face deep into Eve's neck, and cried quietly. "It happened again." she sobbed in Eve's ear. "I lost control again."

Freeman shook his head, like a boxer who had taken a heavy blow to the chin. He faltered, fell back against the wall, and slumped over. "What… what happened?"

One of his men jumped to his aide, shored him up just before he fell and guided him back to his seat. The man reeled on Toombs. "What did she do to him?" he demanded, setting Freeman down in his chair. The seat squeaked again, but no one laughed.

Freeman shook his head, barely keeping himself upright in the chair. "She got in my head."

Eve raised Carolyn's face, gently wiped the tears from her trembling cheeks and said, "It's all right, honey."

"You little..." Freeman said in a cracked voice.

Eve reeled on him with an expression of fire and said, "Mr. Freeman is fine, you didn't harm anyone."

Carolyn smiled up at her, kissed her on the cheek and said, "I am glad you're home, mommy." Then she looked at Freeman and added, "And you should be glad she is home, too."

The door opened and Riddick walked into the war room, still in mid-conversation with Kearyn in tow. The two of them stopped when they saw Carolyn sitting in Eve's lap, crying. Every eye fell on Kearyn. "Apparently," he snapped, glaring around the room. "I can't leave you people alone for even one hour." He closed the door.

Toombs, realizing the tense moment needed a little levity, joked, "Perhaps you might tell me when we became you people?"

Kearyn ignored the attempt, turned to the obviously dismayed Freeman, who sat slumped over and demanded, "Now, why don't you elaborate why my granddaughter is crying? Before you find yourself floating out in deep space a couple hundred years in the past."

Carolyn turned to Kearyn and said, "It is all right, grandfather. I just got angry. It will not happen again."

Still not finished with Freeman, Kearyn turned back to him and said, "Well, it appears you are no worse for wear. But in the future l would suggest you don't..."

"Excuse me," Eve cut him off, holding up a hand as if asking a question. "Not to be rude or change the subject. But will someone explain why my daughter just called you grandfather?"

Kearyn shook his head, rolled his eyes at Riddick and asked, "Will you explain?"

Riddick waved her off with a dismissive gesture that clearly only pissed her off. "Later." he said, moving to sit in the seat next to the head of the table.

"That's my seat." Kearyn spoke up before Riddick could sit down next to the head of the table. "You take the seat at the head of the table." he said, gesturing to the oversized seat meant for the ship's commander. Riddick thought it was gaudy and arrogant. He despised all things Necromonger.

Riddick scowled at him, clearly unhappy at the designated seating arrangement and replied, "l don't do the leadership thing or didn't any of you learn that the last time I sat at the head of a Necromonger table?"

"Well, then." Kearyn said, plopping himself down in the seat where Riddick was going to sit. "How fortunate for us that this is a Furyan table and, like it or not, as the alpha, the role of leader falls to you."

"When did I become the alpha?"

Kearyn gestured at Riddick's eyes and said, "It comes with the shine."

"You couldn't have put that in the fine print before I had them shined?" Riddick countered, gesturing at Kearyn's eyes. "Fuck that. You have a shine. You lead."

"But you are the Riddick."

"Fine." He snapped, not intending to lead. "Then my first order is to say that no one will ever call me that again. It sounds stupid. My name is Riddick, get it."

"Get what?" Kearyn said, winking at Carolyn.

"The Riddick." Carolyn answered, grinning from Kearyn to him. "He still doesn't know, does he?"

"Know what?" Riddick asked, scowling at them.

"That you are the Riddick." Carolyn said. "Your name in the old Furyan tongue means-"

"Now is not the time for that." Kearyn said, cutting her off before she could elaborate.

"I guess it's one more thing that will have to wait until you're ready to tell me." he said, staring around the room at the large monitors hanging high on the walls. He thought about how he'd never wanted to be in a room like this again. Now here he was again, back in the fold. He sneered down at the oval table set in the center of the room with its eleven chairs wrapping around to meet the oversized chair at the head of the table. Everyone watched as he stood, shaking his head at the chair and muttering, "Necro arrogance."

To everyone's astonishment, he grabbed the oversized chair, heaved it off into a vacant corner, and returned with a tiny chair from a nearby computer console. "There," he said, sitting down at the head of the table.

Carolyn giggled at the way he perched on it like a bird on his new minimalist seat.

Everyone in attendance stared around. Most groups were noticeably suspicious of the other groups, and the recent incident between Freeman and Carolyn had done little to improve the somber mood of the room's newly assembled occupants.

Riddick looked around and thought the tenuous alliance would never work. He asked himself how could he possibly hope to build any trust or allegiances where there had always been an underlying tone of fear and suspicion? Then an idea came to him. "A home. It's the one thing they have denied us. They took our homes. Our families. They took our freedom. Everything is gone. It's time to take it all back. And more."

"What?" Freeman asked as his man helped him back to his seat.

Riddick unbuttoned his vest, pointed to his chest, and explained. "If you bear this mark, they have denied you your rightful place in this Galaxy. a place to call home." Riddick's expression was distant as though he were deep in thought. "I don't know how we all came to find ourselves here today. But I know we're not the monsters; we're here to chase the monsters away."

"Guy," Toombs spoke up, taking in the expressions around the table. "Did you take up speaking in riddles, like him." he added, pointing at Kearyn. "No offense."

"None taken," Kearyn replied, covertly extending a raucous finger gesture he hoped everyone saw.

"Listen," Riddick said, ignoring the snickering as he prepared himself to make an impromptu speech. "What we are about to undertake is not just about revenge or vengeance. This is a rescue mission."

"Rescue mission," Toombs blurted. "Other than Kera, who are we supposed to be rescuing?"

Riddick turned to him, gestured towards his family and said, "Our families." He pointed at Shepard and Thomas and added, "We fight to save our friends." Then he turned to Freeman and added, "We fight for those in our command and those under our protection." Riddick sat back down, purposely making eye contact with everyone in the room before continuing, "And we fight to save our home world and all those who live right alongside it."

Carolyn smiled across the table at him and interjected, "I'm with you, Sir. I think this could be the beginning of a glorious adventure."

Everyone in the room stared at one another as if she were some strange creature from a far off world. She just shrugged innocently, smiled with a half giggle and said, "I'm just saying, there's nothing wrong with a little excitement once in a while. This place is boring." Then she stuck her tongue out at Freeman and said, "Besides, everyone here just treats me like a kid."

Toombs whispered in Eve's ear, "Are you sure she's not a forty-year-old trapped in the body of a little girl?" Eve's expression read something like your guess is as good as mine.

Carolyn turned to them and whispered, "Age is only a number. If I have a say in the matter, I'm much closer to twenty something. Forty is just such a midlife crisis age."

Toombs rolled his eyes at Eve and they both laughed and hugged her.

Thomas stood up uncharacteristically, drawing himself into the center of attention. "All that saves the universe, common enemy shit is fine and dandy, But the sad truth is we're nothing more than a handful of ragtag scientists, even fewer soldiers and one pissed off ex-Lord Marshall riding around in a stolen Necromonger warship."

"Your point, little man?" Freeman asked, glaring at him as if he wanted to throttle him.

"The simple fact is, our shared enemy can destroy a planet's defenses in a single night and we don't have a snowball's chance in hell of even entering anyone's planetary orbit without being blown out of space. No one is going to welcome a Necromonger warship. So, if you're suggesting we do anything more than sit around a campfire singing 'Michael, row your boat ashore' I say you're all crazy. We should cut and run."

Riddick's outward calm masked the growing anger festering within him. He sat at the head of the long table, waiting for Thomas to end his rant. Shepard saw what was about to happen so he sat forward and cut Thomas off, "Be that as it may, Thomas. You knew exactly what you were getting into before you agreed to undertake this mission."

"MISSION!" Thomas yelled, dropping back in his seat.

The lights went out and almost everyone in the room lurched in their seats. Riddick grinned around the room at the terrified faces sitting in the dark. "You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" he asked, noticing a sense of calm in Carolyn that he wouldn't have expected in a child so young. She sat between her parents, smiling as if nothing had happened. Then she turned to him, pupils flashing in the dark, and he realized the little girl could see as well as he could.

A small light came on over the center of the table and everyone sat in silence, staring at the neatly folded cloak sitting atop a pair of boots. The pile of neatly discarded clothing lay in front of Kearyn's seat. A voice spoke from somewhere outside the tiny ring of light. "When I told Shepard he could bring you along, it was only because he vouched for your character, Thomas. I had reservations about your intentions, as you have never had a family of your own. You are an untested factor in an equation longer than this ship."

Thomas fidgeted in his seat, searching the darkness around the room to find where the voice was coming from. But there was no sign of Kearyn. Not even Riddick could see him in the darkness. His voice came from inside their heads.

"I may speak my mind, as well as the next man." Thomas said, looking around as his face turned whiter by the second.

"As do I," Kearyn spat. His voice was a sickeningly sweet threat. "I should have warned you, Thomas. Like my father, and his father before him, I also have a dark side." The words echoed off like a thunderclap rolling through storm clouds high above and its dire intent fell on the room like toxic rain on a field of immobilized scarecrows.

"You could scarcely imagine the unquantifiable length of time that has passed in preparing this plan." Kearyn said, leaping from the shadows behind Thomas. He wrapped his long, withered arms around him like chains binding him to his seat. The sight of death clinging to Thomas made the room gasp. Most had never seen Kearyn's true form. Riddick remembered the horrible feeling of those withered bands wrapping around his chest and pulling him into the nothingness. Kearyn placed his mouth close to Thomas' earlobe and said, "Now here you come with this eleventh hour bullshit, threatening to destroy everything we have all worked so hard to achieve. Your cowardice does not negate the lifelong sacrifices or suffering of those who sit in this room."

"Let go!" Thomas shouted, wrestling feebly to free himself.

Kearyn's words were as smooth as silk and as plush as velvet. "But don't worry, Thomas. I will not kill you. Luckily, there is one last service you may perform for us now." Then, to everyone's amazement, at the same moment they vanished, Kearyn reappeared in his seat fully clothed and the lights came on. But Thomas had vanished without a trace.

"What the hell just happened?" Shepard demanded with an expression fashioned from disbelief and worry. "Where is Thomas? What have you done to him?"

Kearyn turned to Shepard and explained, "I just sent our squeamish little friend back in time." Before anyone could speak, Kearyn held up his hand and added, "No. Thomas is not aware of what just happened to him. As far as he knows, Shepard sent him to the docking collar to supervise the jump engine retrofit."

Shepard appeared confused. He had no memory of the events Kearyn spoke of. "That's absurd. I didn't send Thomas to supervise the retrofit; I would do that myself."

Kearyn smiled politely and explained, "I beg to differ. I watched you send him on his merry way, myself."

"Guy," Toombs said, making eye contact with Shepard. "I thought you, of all people, would know he can move through time."

Shepard's jaw dropped ever so slightly, leaving his lips parted. "Time travel?" he thought out loud.

"Only back in time." Kearyn replied, "I have to travel forward the same way everyone else does."

"If you brought Thomas back in time, why can't Shepard remember telling him to go to the docking collar?" Freeman chimed in, scowling as if he had caught Kearyn in a lie.

"Simple," Carolyn answered unexpectedly. "It is because of Shepard's proximity to the temporal distortion field generated when Kearyn jumped."

"What?" Freeman replied, staring as if not understanding a word she was saying. He didn't. "Is that even English?"

Carolyn scrunched up her face as if annoyed by his lack of knowledge. She knew more about temporal physics than most PhDs. "In layman's terms, if Kearyn solo jumps back in time, no one's the wiser. But to tandem jump, like he just did with Thomas, he needs to be in direct contact with the person traveling with him to produce a temporal distortion field large enough to surround both of them."

"You can project a temporal field?" Shepard said.

"What we just experienced was the effect of being caught up in the temporal distortion field without actually being in direct contact with Kearyn. The energy surge Kearyn gives off triggers a Celestial event."

"What do you mean celestial event?" Freeman asked, looking at Kearyn for the answer.

Kearyn pointed at the nearest computer console, pretended to press a button and replied, "When I travel back through time it's like pressing the rewind button on vid-disc, l see the fixed point in time I want to return to and the vid restarts from there."

"So you, and whoever you bring with you, go there?" Eve asked.

"Not exactly," Kearyn answered. "When I rewind a video, I don't just rewind one character, I rewind the entire movie. That is what Carolyn means by a celestial event."

"The entire Galaxy resets." Eve said.

"Exactly," Kearyn replied. "When I brought Thomas back, the entire galaxy went back with us. I call the effect buffering. So, while everyone outside this room rewound, you were all masked from the time shift because you were inside the energy surge producing the event."

"Bullshit. That's not remotely possible." Freeman said.

Kearyn shook his head and sighed. "Why must I always be plagued by nonbelievers?"

"Because, what you're saying makes little sense; it's crazy." Freeman replied.

Toombs scoffed at him and said, "Guy, I can vouch for what he's saying. In fact, I know he's telling the truth, because he's brought me back in time, like he just did, Thomas."

Eve blurted out, "He did what?"

Toombs leaned over and reassured her, "I'll explain everything later."

Kearyn rose from his seat, walked over to the nearest control terminal, and turned on the wall monitor above it. "Proof is in the seeing." He said, looking at Riddick over his shoulder and pressing a switch. Before the screen came on, he purposely turned back to Freeman and asked. "Thomas, how is everything going with the retrofit?"

The monitor lit up, and Thomas stepped into view. "The engine upgrade is well under way, Kearyn. I estimate we can make a long range jump sometime within the next few hours."

"That's good, Thomas. I knew Shepard could count on you to get the job done." Thomas stepped out of view and Kearyn called out, "Oh… Thomas. Just one last question before you get back to work."

"Yes," he replied, returning to the screen.

Kearyn turned around, making sure everyone was paying attention and said, "I know this may seem odd, but could you tell me who sent you down to the docking collar to oversee the jump engine retrofit?"

Thomas seemed confused by the question. "Shepard sent me. Why? Is there a problem?"

"Not at all, Thomas." Kearyn said, turning back to him with a smile. "Thank you for your help. Kearyn out." Then he switched off the monitor and returned to his seat.

"Holy shit," Shepard said to himself.

Kearyn nodded and replied, "Not quite how I would describe it, but I suppose that will have to do."