Age of Nox

Chapter 6

Note: This will be one of the chapters where I will get through only half of the choice. So most people voted for A, but I won't thoroughly get through it. Chapter after this will be another voting chapter.

Jack was on her back and under the main controls desk in the cockpit, a small flashlight held by her teeth and her tools spread around her. She heard Toombs go in and out of the cockpit, his heavy boots stopping every once in a while, as if listening to her work.

She was upgrading his systems with a few basic changes in wiring, but it looked like this ship hadn't been updated in years. Jack could barely recognize some of the configuration of the wire packs. At one point she had to take a break and her stomach quickly agreed with her. As she slid out from underneath the desk, she looked up to see Toombs critically watching her from above.

"You'd better not fuck up my ship, got it?" He glanced at the desk below and internally shuddered. He had no desire to know what was happening beneath the metal.

"I'm doing updates that should've been done maybe years ago, Tums, so you can pull that tazer out of your ass," she snipped back at him. He growled at her new nickname for him. She was wiping the saliva-covered handle of the flashlight on her shirt when she glanced up at him, wanting to catch him off guard. But he always had that look of cold sarcasm, a sneer just waiting to be unfurled, the same way a wolf was always ready to bear its fangs.

"Hey, you have anything to eat? I'm starved." She passed by him, going straight to the small room that barely qualified as a kitchen. "Do you just not eat? I don't see anything here!"

"Oh just shut it." He yelled, abandoning the control panel and following her steps. Toombs leaned against the side of the door, grinning as she pawed through the cabinets. "Sit down, I'll find something."

Jack gruffly shuffled over to a counter and pulled herself up on it, wondering how Toombs ever managed to find linoleum in this day and age for the counters. She was preoccupied as he cursed, sniffing various foods that weren't very identifiable. He tossed a box of dried something at her and left the room.

"What crawled up his ass and died?" Jack grumbled to herself, locking the bathroom door. She glanced at the bottom of the door and considered jamming it – just in case Toombs decided to be more of an ass than he already was.

But she had bigger problems to worry about. Literally. There was no way she could pass off as a boy without binding herself and even then it wouldn't work. Jack winced. She wasn't sure if she wanted to be a girl just yet, but it didn't seem like time was giving her that small blessing. One glance in the mirror told her that it would be a few years until she would be a formidable opponent to other women. That was comforting, but since she was little, she had thought it wouldn't really ever happen.

How wrong she was.

"Alright, I'll give you some cred chips, get your…clothes and whatever the hell you need and get your ass back here. Got three hours and don't hang around – keep your scrawny self out of trouble." Toombs growled at her and tossed her a few chips that she caught.

"Got it." She didn't feel like standing around there awkwardly. Jack was let out of the ship and into the hanger. New planet, this was going to be exciting.

Her first stop was to get herself a backpack of sorts. Turned out to be a near everything-proof black canvas bag with enough straps, pouches and pockets to hold anything. She put all her following purchases in it – carrying around shopping bags would be asking for trouble.

Jeans, t-shirts, then both of those again for working in the ship. Buying bras and underwear wasn't nearly as pain free but she managed to pull through without too much scarring. Jack suspected she truly was turning into a girl when her line of vision focused right in on a bracelet in a window.

It didn't bother her that the leather cuff was a men's bracelet – it looked pretty nice on her and it had a lot of places to hide small blades. In the next store a strong pair of boots finished her clothes shopping.

Jack did her best to ignore the nagging voice in her head that Toombs had been uncharacteristically nice – especially for a merc. That was Riddick talking, but Jack felt that he wasn't going to have an underhanded motive. With this line of though, Jack thought she should to give him something in return.

About a half hour was spent wandering around, shifting her backpack and glancing around. With just twenty minutes minutes to spare before she had to get back to the ship she spied a shipment of alcohol going into a rather posh-looking bar.

"So what's in that?" The security officer motioned with his pen to the cardboard box Jack was barely able to carry. He had opened her suspiciously full-looking backpack but shut it immediately when the underwear and bras were on the top. So he had moved on to her other package. The large box that looked strangely heavy.

Jack shook the box and glass bottles clinked together. The officer raised an eyebrow.

"It's beer, for the captain of my ship. He gave me the creds to buy my stuff," she motioned back over her shoulder to her backpack. "So I thought I'd take the opportunity to take some of my own private cash to buy him something."

The officer laughed. "Using your captain for clothes. Sly girl."

"Better being sly than stupid." Toombs gravely voice spoke from behind them.

"Hey, I was just getting back to the ship. Officer, this is the captain." Jack introduced them and tried not to wince when Toombs steely grip closed over her shoulder.

"Evenin', let's get back to the ship." He turned her around and sent a sidelong glare at the officer. They were quiet all the way back to the ship and only after the door sealed shut did Jack open her mouth.

"Toombs, I didn't actually use my own money. I don't have any! I stole this for you!" She had put down the crate with a heavy clank that made Toombs frown. He was sitting silently in his chair in the cockpit. "Promise!" She shoved the crate over to him.

He opened the cardboard box and pulled out the crate, kicking away the softer box. Toombs jammed a knife and plied open the crate. He peered into it and a small smirk lit his features.

"You know what, Jack?" He sat back in his seat and that devilish grin kept her rooted to the spot.

"No, what?" She returned softly. What had she done wrong now?

"This could be the start of a beautiful relationship," he crooned and leaned down to take out a bottle from the crate. Jack's eyes widened when she saw the label in old English script. It was helkin.

"Well, if I'm going to steal, better steal the best stuff." She replied finally and Toombs grinned at her. He carefully put the bottle back, with a worshipping tenderness that Jack believed he showed to nothing but the drink.

He stood and picked up the crate, moving to the only storage closet in the entire ship that had a lock on it. He padded the crate with the emergency blanket that had been Jack's and looking satisfied, locked the closet. Jack couldn't believe him – he would've been the nicest man in the world if he had showed that kindness to humans. Toombs moved back to his seat and heavily sat down, silently taking note that Jack had sat down on the floor.

"Want something?" He asked, not putting much sincerity in the question.

"Actually, yeah. I do." She replied, a definite tone making him swivel his chair to face her. "Let's just talk. I don't know much about you, you know some stuff about me – let's just…"

"I don't chat, fuzz skull." He growled, turning back around. He had to build that wall of uncaring fast because Jack was really growing on him. "Stay here."

Jack looked confused as he stood and grabbed a jacket, keying in the code for the exit ramp. He didn't say a word as he descended it and it closed behind him.

"Well, wasn't that informative?" Jack asked to no one, standing up to get her bags. She might as well organize her stuff. She supposed afterwards she could go through all his stuff – not like he would notice and he wouldn't be back for a long while.

"Christ almighty," Jack breathed, scrolling down the bounties Toombs had amounted over the years. He should've been swimming in cred chips by now, but clearly they were in a locked account or he had spent it all. During one stretch of time, there was one bounty every two weeks. The database labeled it as a record. There was a long period of searching after that, then some easy bounties. What had he been searching for?

Taking her time, she carefully went through every file of highest bounties and it didn't surprise her that Riddick was at the top. Without realizing it, she pulled Toombs' long-sleeved shirt over her knees that were folded up against her chest. She never had spent enough time with Riddick to really see what he was like. What if he had taken her with him? They'd probably be running from people like Toombs right now. As antisocial as Toombs was, there was something about him that Jack gravitated towards.

She glanced at the chronoclock. 23:18. It wasn't that late.

It didn't take her that much more time to read through the interesting files, so after she had finished that Jack pulled out all the tools she had been using before. Grabbing her flashlight and another backlight, she shimmied under the control panel and went back to upgrading the systems.

White wire cross-ignited with the blue, which plugged in with the red. Another set of that which was held together by a four wire pack user. Jack didn't know how long it took her to custom cross the black and orange cables – each hair-thin wire had to be tightly wound with one of the opposite color. That had to be done with two precise pliers. There were about thirty pairs to make. Then those were wound together separately. It was a long process but it would give the system-planner an update that would widen it and categorize everything by universe instead of singular system. Jack wondered why she enjoyed this so much and rubbing her eyes, pulled out from under the panel and looked at the chronoclock.

02.15.

The next day she would go out and buy books, this was a little strange. Who did this for hours and enjoyed it? Reading would be a better use of time. Going back down under, it never occurred to her that it was a little odd she hadn't gotten word from Toombs. But he was probably with some cheap whores down in the sex district of the port they were at. Maybe he was getting some sleep. Jack shrugged it off and moved onto another set of wires.

He wasn't sure how much he liked staring into the blackness of the room. The usually soft curves of the women lulled him into a well-deserved rest, but not tonight. They were invading his space and the sex hadn't been worth what he paid. He'd worked each of them twice and they were exhausted – what lightweights. Toombs tried not to think of Jack in the ship by herself.

"Huzzwha?" Jack blearily opened her eyes and startled when a tangle of wires greeted her. Why had she woken up? The vibration of her comm. device rattled the device on the floor next to her. She barely grasped it in her hand and accepted the call without even looking at the number.

"You a Jack, sweety?" A nasal voice inquired over the line.

"What's it to you?" She grumbled, using a hands-free device and clipping the comm. unit onto her pants. She began to analyze the wires – where had she left off?

"There's a Toombs here, sugarpie. Says he got somethin' to say to you." Jack scowled. This was probably one of the whores he had slept with the night before.

"Well you sure as fuck ain't his secretary, Bessy, so put him on the line!" She snarled into the speaker piece, only grinning when she huffed at being called a cow.

"I don't know what you said, but it wasn't nice." Toombs' tired voice came in on the line. Something didn't sound right.

"Hey, you alright? What the hell is going on?" She propped herself up on her elbows, wire packs forgotten.

"Nothin', just checkin' in." He replied as if it were normal. Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Checking in on your helkin, right? I've been under this control panel since eleven thirty last night, so I haven't been able to make sure it was all warm and freaking toasty with the blanket padding. But I'm sure it's still there." She nearly growled into the phone. This man had some guts to be doing what he was doing.

"Not on that, fuzz, on you. What the fuck are you doing under that panel? Got drugs or something down there that you aint' sharin' with me?" He asked roughly, making Jack laugh.

"I'm working on your outdated systems, Tums. Give it a rest. You wanna be all nice 'n shit, get me a coffee or something on the way back to the ship. Unless you got another round with Bessy and the herd." Jack shook her head to herself. What the hell had gotten into her? Toombs wasn't hers to keep a leash on.

"That jealousy I'm hearing?" She could almost see that shit eating grin on his face.

"What you're gonna hear is me slicing all your systems and shattering every bottle of helkin if you don't bring me a coffee soon." She snarled.

"No need to get a stick up-"

"There is a blade right on the wire that connects your computer to the thousands of files of porn that you store on your hard drive, Toombs. Let me just pull a little pressure on that, oh! Look! A small cut in the rubber around it and just a little farther-"

"Stop! There's somethin' not right about the way you think. I'll be there with your damn coffee, just go do something else for a bit." Toombs distractedly cut her off and continued. Jack could hear the rustle of clothes and zippers.

She cut the comm. link and grinned to herself. Maybe keeping Toombs on a leash wouldn't be that hard after all.

I am so incredibly sorry for the complete lack of updates. There was a stretch of time where I was just so super busy I didn't have the energy to put into this. But everything is calming down now (yay for summer!) so updates will be regular.

-Shamrock