MINCO LS had rapidly become the most profitable division of Universal Industrial Supply, Inc. They held the exclusive mining rights to a new wonder substance known as Liquid Steel. Liquid Steel, or LS, was so far the hardest natural substance known to man. It was also the most difficult to mine. It had to be liquefied at a temperature of 2600 degrees before it could be coaxed out of the ground. It was a long, expensive process. One way to minimize overhead was to use free labor to offset the astronomical cost of importing water, a necessity since the natural water supply was unfit to drink, no matter how many times it was purified. Convicted felons from overcrowded prisons were an ideal labor pool. Those unfortunates who crashed near a MINCO work camp often found themselves 'hired' on the spot. There were twelve camps currently operating on three planets in the Tao system. New Moldavia was one. It was hot, dry and desolate, with only one redeeming quality; the nights were cool.

Riddick leaned on a railing, drinking stale water from an oversized hipflask. He ignored the beads of perspiration rolling around his goggles. Sunlight glinted on the electrified fencing surrounding the camp. He was coated in dust and grime from the days' work. He hated it, but refusal to work was automatic grounds to be shipped out to a prison somewhere. He couldn't take the chance of being identified and returned to SLAM City. So, for the past three years, he had patiently waited for an opportunity to leave. He walked at an easy pace to the water tanks and refilled his flask before returning to work. Break was over.

Jack rested on the other side of the drilling area waiting for a magnetic condenser to be replaced. The delay had afforded her and several other laborers a welcome break. Another four hours and they would be off duty. Another hour after that, and they could take one of their three weekly showers. This was what her life had been reduced to - looking forward to a shower. She ran a hand through hair that had grown back thick and wavy, and sighed. She caught a glimpse of Riddick far across the heavy sand. She ignored him. She wasn't angry with him, but she knew if she waved there would be no response. She refilled her flask and went to her post.

Right on schedule, the end of shift buzzer sounded. Jack went to her barrack and grabbed 'clean' clothes. They were left over from someone long dead, and she had never been able to rid them of the stench of sweat and who knows what else. She went outside to wait. As one of the newest arrivals even after three years, she knew she would be last in line for the showers, but she had learned early not to complain. As the last to shower, there was no real time limit. Sometimes she would stay under the cool stream for ten minutes. Amazing how no on else had figured that out. Either that or the other women were too whipped to care.

Jack had grown in the past few years, and was unaccustomed to the attention she was getting from many of the male inmates. She ignored it most of the time, but there were times when she would lose her temper. It was those occurrences that inspired any contact with Riddick. He would appear as if from thin air, and the obnoxious teasing, wandering hands and animal noises would cease instantly. Sometimes she was grateful; sometimes she resented the fact that she and Imam still had to rely on Riddick for survival. She was ready to leave this rock. Three years was enough.

Imam had acclimated better than Riddick or Jack. He spent many hours in fervent prayer. And when he wasn't praying or working in the kitchen, he wiled away the hours in easy conversation with the other inmates. He took a philosophical view to his current incarceration. Allah had sent him here for a reason, perhaps to meditate upon the loss of his sons, or to help the in-mates here find their own sense of peace. Imam found that concept difficult to master, as he was still grieving. He lived in the barrack next door to Riddick and was constantly amazed at the stories that sprang up out of no where about the enigmatic man.

He sighed inwardly as he recalled the narrow escape from those harrowing hours spent in total eclipse. He shook his head in wonder that Allah had sent such an unlikely saviour. But that was Allah's' way, and who was Imam to question Allah? He pushed those thoughts away and went to his own barrack to await his shower. Imam collected his one change of clothes and a bar of soap and then stepped back into the all-powerful sunlight to wait. It seemed like he had spent much of the past three years waiting, but for what?

Everyone watched as two guards approached the shower building. One stood outside at the entrance, the other went inside. The guard outside blew his whistle twice to signify it was time. Nineteen women lined up to wait their turn, and the first five went inside. Jack waited patiently at the end of the line.

The thrum of a cargo transport overhead caught Jacks' attention. She spun around until she caught sight of it and followed its' progress to the landing pad. The oversized hatch opened, and large pieces of equipment and a large number of crates holding supplies were brought out on magno-repulso lifts. The pilot was the last to appear. He stretched his arm muscles as he came out and walked around to the side of the craft. He opened a hatch and stood, watching a display full of red and green lights. While he was waiting, two mechanics appeared with a repulso-lift. Jack squinted to get a better view. She had never seen a transport with power cells on the side. When the green light beeped, the pilot stood back as the two mechanics stepped forward and removed the cells. Jack was transfixed as the pilot went back into the craft and appeared again with a duffel bag over his shoulder. Something big was about to happen; camp policy mandated immediate take off upon delivery; but this pilot was obviously on layover.

The drone of another engine came in low over the camp. Jack turned her eyes toward the sound and watched it land adjacent to the cargo transport. Several large containers stamped with orange danger symbols were rolled down the hatch and to the main equipment supply building. Rolled? She squinted to read the lettering:

DANGER! EXPLOSIVES; HANDLE WITH CARE.

In a split second, Jack put it all together. No material in existence could drill through the rock on this planet. The only way they could possibly start a well would have to be with small, powerful shape charges. Her breath caught at the implications. A finger tapped Jack on the shoulder, startling her.

"Hey! Come on, let's get movin', Jack." Jack whirled around to see security officer Tom Osborne sneering at her. A quick glance around her told her it was her turn, as no one else was left in line. She flipped Osborne the finger and went inside. She removed her clothes and stepped under the cool spray of water, barely noticing it. She grabbed one of the razors strewn across the windowsill and began to hack at her hair.

Riddick saw the freighters arrive from the other side of the camp yard, and watched with interest as the cargo was offloaded. The second freighter was out of his line of sight. Unable to see the contents, he focused his attention instead on the showers. He cocked an eyebrow when Jack emerged. Every strand of hair on her head was gone. She was up to something.

Riddick started moving toward the showers, towel in hand. Jack walked straight for him. Before she passed she glanced at him and said:

"They're gonna go for a second well."

Riddick dipped his head in response. Jack kept walking, not acknowledging it. He wanted to smile. Jack wasn't just up to something; she had a plan.

Imam was the last to shower. He exited the showers feeling not so much clean as less dirty. He threw his towel over his shoulder and began to whistle. Preparations for dinner would begin in a few minutes, so he didn't have time to dawdle. Jack waved from the window of her barrack as he passed. He waved back, and blew a kiss. A happy grin spread across her face. That single expression was enough for him to worry. In a few short years she had gone from a exuberant and sheltered child, to a sullen and devious young woman. If she was smiling, it wasn't for good reason. Her entire personality was changing. Memories of the curious, precocious girl he had once referred to as 'little one' flooded his mind, only to quickly be replaced by thoughts of his sons lost to him on that horrific planet.

He stepped wearily into his barrack to deposit the towel in his footlocker. The sight of it gave him pause. It wasn't a true footlocker. It had no lock, because it had no cover. It was little more than a cardboard box. He frowned at the misnomer. Sighing, he turned and went back through the door and across the dusty yard to the mess hall. He had stopped whistling.

Jack sat through dinner hardly contributing to the conversations flowing around her. She was mentally reviewing what she had seen, and the attendant implications. To create a new well required explosives. No camp had detonation personnel on staff, which meant they would have to be brought in on a shuttle...

Two tables away, Riddick was thinking along the same lines. A new well meant more laborers, more guards, more technicians, more mechanics, more everything. Over the next few days, the landing pad outside the northeastern corner of the camp was going to see a lot of activity. He started eating with more enthusiasm as the probable chain of events fell into place in his mind. He snatched a glance at Jack as he bit into the brick that someone had once told him was bread. Deep in thought, she stared blankly ahead of her. Her goggles were perched on her head. Abruptly, her eyes focused and locked on his. He held the gaze until she averted her attention to stare with incredulity at the woman who had started speaking to her. He suppressed a grin, thought better of it and smiled anyway.

Jack listened dumbly as Anna Greenspan, 47; school teacher from Old Grenada, prattled on about her favorite vegetables, and why she didn't like creamed corn.

"I could never really get a handle on it, you know? It's not like celery. Celery is better; I like to bite off the stalks, I don't like it cut." The utter ridiculousness of that last statement raked across Jacks' mind like fingernails dragged across a chalk board. Jack couldn't help but turn and stare at the woman. Her first instinct was to tell her to fuck off, but she knew her father would be watching. Anna, seeing she now had Jacks' full attention, enthusiastically continued her discourse on which vegetables she most liked to chew.

Shoulders slumping, Jack picked at her food and tried to tune Anna's voice out of her mind. 'Of all the women here, I have to sit next to the nut' she thought; and then: 'That could be me in a few years.' Suddenly angry, Jack plowed her spoon into the mashed potatoes. When she glanced back at Riddick he was smiling, laughing at her predicament. She stuffed the potatoes into her mouth and tightly closed her eyes, mentally willing Anna to shut up.

After dinner and cleanup, Imam stood with the other kitchen workers waiting for his turn to pick out what leftovers he wanted for the night. He pulled up the hem of his outer robes and dropped several pieces of fruit, unused celery, carrots, bread. He pointed to a few pieces of chicken and received them wrapped in paper. He dropped them into the instant pouch as well. Gathering the edges of his robe together, he left the mess hall and headed for the long and low wooden structure where Jack would be. She was waiting for him beside the steps. She pulled him from the door to a spot some distance away where eager ears wouldn't overhear.

"They're going to start a second well." She looked at the selection Imam had brought as she talked. She pulled out a piece of bread, two apples and some carrots. The thought of Anna staring, no drooling for the crunchy carrots inspired her take a few more.

"I saw the freighters." Imam acknowledged. He tied the corners of the robe when Jack indicated she had what she wanted. Jack broke off a large piece of bread and stuck it in her mouth. Around the mouth of food, she continued.

"They brought explosives." She said. Imam furrowed his eyebrows, puzzled.

"What is ectoplasm?" he asked. Jack closed her eyes and focused on chewing. When she finally swallowed, it looked as if she had swallowed a small bird.

"No, I said explosives. They need them to start the second well." She opened her hip-flask and took a long drink of water.

"Ah, well. That makes sense." He said, clearly not taking her meaning. Jack eyed him while she drained her hip-flask. When it was empty,she pressed on.

"That means more people are coming, and more equipment." She fixed her eyes on his, trying to communicate her meaning to him. Imam stared right back at her, not understanding.

"That means lots of ships'll be coming and going over the next few days." She ground out. Still, Imam showed no trace of comprehension.

"I should think so." was all he could think to say. He was taken aback when Jack closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, exasperation coloring her features. Finally he frowned. Jack resorted to glaring at him, unwilling to say anything more. At last, Imam clapped his hands and shook his head enthusiastically to express his understanding.

"Do you think Riddick noticed?" she asked, exhaling. Imam shook his head.

"I would expect that he has. There is very little he doesn't notice." He replied. Jack fidgeted with her bread before sticking it in her mouth. They stood silently for a moment; Imam lost in thought, while Jack chewed, caught up in her own ruminations. Imam broke the silence.

"I'd better take some of this to Riddick. I don't want to keep him waiting." He looked at his daughter for a minute or two, then kissed her lightly on the forehead and turned to make the short trek to Riddicks' domicile. Jack grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Keep your ears open. See what you can find out." This time she had actually pulled the bread out of her mouth to speak. Imam winced at the sight. His beautiful, little girl had shaved her head, and was now holding a wad of bread, chewed and glistening with saliva between her fingers. He shook his head once to acknowledge her request.

"I would appreciate it greatly if you were to place that back in your mouth." When Jack complied with a smile, he adjusted his headress and started walking.

A few minutes later, Imam found Riddick outside behind his barrack doing sit-ups. Riddick stopped when he saw Imam and stood up. He raised his arms and arched his back to stretch and relax his stomach muscles.

"Jack asked me to find out if you were aware of the plethora of ships that will land here in the next few days." Imam stated, as he once again untied the knot in his robe to reveal food. Riddick took the items he wanted, leaving Imam with a couple of pears, celery and one piece of chicken. Imam watched in wonder as Riddick reduced an apple to its' core in four bites. Riddick tossed the core and started un wrapping a thigh.

"Now why, do you think she would ask such a thing?" Riddick asked, mimicking Imams' style of speech. Imam ignored the implied jibe.

"I think maybe you already know the answer to that, my friend." Imam was staring at the discarded apple core. He didn't see Riddick grimace at the word 'friend'. Imam remained silent as Riddick ate the cold meat. In between chews, Riddick spoke.

"She's a smart kid. I wouldn't be surprised at all if she were thinking the same thing as I am." Riddick scraped meat from the thighbone with his teeth. Imam simply sighed in response. Riddick shifted his attention from the rapidly dissapearing chicken to Imam. When Imam looked up at him, it was with a look of resolve. Riddick cocked his head to the side, waiting for what he knew Imam was going to say.

"I will not be leaving with you and Jack." Imam announced.

"Does Jack know?" Riddick asked. Imams' eyes fell to the ground once more. Riddick resumed eating.

"I will tell her." Imam was drawing lines in the sand with the toe of his shoe.

"She won't leave without you." Riddick stated matter-of-factly.

"She has her entire life in front of her. I would not wish for her to spend it here. She is not a child anymore, something I'm sure you've noticed," Imam glanced at Riddick, who quickly averted his eyes. Imam continued. "She can not experience a full life here. She will leave without me." Imam fell silent. Both men looked at each other. Riddick shrugged and tossed the chicken bone to the ground.

"Can we count on you for a diversion?" Riddick was choosing what he wanted to eat next. He held up a piece of bread, tore off a chunk and stuck it in his mouth. It sounded like he was grinding stone between his teeth.

"As long as there is no need for blood shed, I will do whatever I can to get Jack away from this forsaken place." Imam readily answered. Riddick looked off into the distance, at the freighters far across the camp.

"Stay awake tonight." He ordered before leaving the holy man alone with his thoughts.