Chapter 20

Riddick

Being in the neighborhood wasn't all that it cracked up to be, Riddick frowned as Jack dodged behind a large pile of crates. The job from Badger promised to be a good one, and something they could definitely handle without any problems.

But Persephone was something of a hub for trade of all sorts, and that meant all sorts could be found on the Eavesdown docks. Including Serenity's crew. If Jayne wasn't so paranoid about them, if River hadn't been prepared, they might have run right into the very people they were keen to avoid. In all fairness, Helion Prime going to hell in a handbasket had screwed up their timing. They'd gotten off the planet two days before they'd planned, the job on Santo had only taken a week, and so they'd arrived on Persephone a full four days early.

Badger had been pleased to get their wave, but he'd warned them that Serenity was dropping off cargo with him so they'd all want to play least in sight. If they hadn't had to pick up a data chip with information he and Jack wouldn't have even gone near Badger's 'office' as he called it.

They'd figured Jack was the least recognizable of the four of them, she'd changed quite a bit since Serenity had taken Riddick and her off the derelict. Her voice was just slightly huskier and she'd gained both height and curves. She was still an armful for him but at least he didn't feel like an old pervert with her on his arm. And trained assassin or not, a woman alone was a target for all sorts of unsavory folk. So he'd gone along with her and waited outside.

The shadows were his friend, the sky was overcast and he hadn't even needed his goggles. He'd simply leaned against the wall and flipped a shiv through his fingers like a magician would a coin, hopefully acting like another of Badger's guards.

He'd seen Reynolds, the First Mate and another fairly large individual, though he was small compared to him or Jayne, all of them entering Badger's domain and barely giving him a second glance. Idiots. Letting his beard and hair grow out some had disguised his face a bit, and with the peacoat and cap he looked like anyone of a thousand other dockworkers or hired muscle.

Times like these he was grateful his senses were above average and he'd had considerable practice focusing them on what he needed to see or hear or smell. Jack and Badger's voices were quiet, but their tones were clear. By that same token he could hear Reynolds, Washburne and the fella he guessed was their new gunhand easily.

Badger and Jack were concluding their business when the other three came in the room and Badger's annoyance at the interruption was plain in his voice. "Though you weren't due in for another day," He greeted Reynolds.

"Got your goods burnin' a hole in my hull and aim to unload right quick," Reynolds returned. "Seein' as how they're imprinted."

"You go flashin' your asses at the gorram law again?" The criminal kingpin wanted to know.

"No," The Captain sounded irritated. "Just didn't want to take any chances."

"Right," Badger's disbelief was evident. "Well gimme a few here."

"I think we've got everything covered," Jack was uneasy, he could hear it in her voice, hopefully the others didn't.

"Right, well wave if anything comes up," Badger was all affability with Jack, a pointed contrast to his dealings with Reynolds. "Give my best to your partners."

"I will," Jack promised. He guessed she was leaving and either Washburn or Reynolds got a good look at her face.

"Tài kōng suǒ yǒu de xīng qiú sāi jǐn wǒ de pì gu," Reynolds nearly gasped. "You're—"

"None of your business," Jack snapped out the words and took off. She came out of the doorway at a hard run, with barely enough time to fling a crystal in Riddick's direction, Reynolds and the gunhand right behind her. From the scent of her Washburne wasn't quite up to a running pursuit so it wasn't surprising she'd stayed behind.

Riddick stepped forward and slammed his fist into the gunhand's chest right over his heart and with his other arm clotheslined the captain. "Might wanna think twice about chasing my woman," He growled at the two men on the ground. "Or me for that matter."

"I'll be a gǒu niáng yǎng de," The gunhand gasped. "Riddick."

"Well cào nǐ zǔ zōng shí bā dài," Riddick cursed, scooped up the now dusty data crystal, and took off after Jack. He figured they had about five minutes before those two came after them.

It was nice to be wrong sometimes, this wasn't one of them. He'd underestimated Reynold's level of persistence and greed. It had been less than three minutes before he'd heard the two men behind he and Jack. She'd ducked behind some crates and slowed her pace to hide the sound of her steps. He climbed another stack of what looked like metal coffins and waited, out of sight, for the men to come around the corner.

Thinking of nothing but pursuit the two of them came barreling past him, and past Jack's position. If they didn't turn around…

"Fuckin' hell," He growled to himself as the gunhand cast a glance behind them and caught sight of Jack. His girl was no slouch at evading an enemy, she'd had plenty of practice at it, and in another minute she was out of sight again, but the two men had already turned around. It wasn't that she couldn't fight them off, but she and River had explained that their training was for killing, completely incapacitating someone without killing them wasn't something they'd learned. And adapting the training on the fly wasn't easy. Jack hadn't been practicing as long as River. It wasn't a good combination.

River had brought up a cortex feed of her in a bar, after she'd been triggered. He'd counted at least six men who would be dead of their wounds and five others that would likely die if they didn't get immediate medical help. Jack was trained in the same way. And the last thing they wanted was a trail of dead bodies. Not when they could be traced back to Badger and their own boat.

Jack must have decided the same thing because she stepped out right in front of the two men and aimed a pistol at them. "You two got a good reason for followin' me?"

"Riddick's woman," The gunhand smirked. "If attacking us is anything to go by."

"And," Jack's hand was steady and her gaze didn't even flick upwards to where she knew he was. She was aware of him, it was in every line of her body, but she'd never give him away.

"Nice price on his head. Yours too most likely, for aiding and abetting," The gunhand had to be a merc, that oily smell of greed was one thing all that breed had in common.

"And you were one of the last folk to see my crew. So you're going to tell me where she is," Reynolds added.

"You think so?" Jack smirked, "I could put two bullets in you and walk away. Easy peasy."

"Have to kill us to stop us," Reynolds told her. Riddick frowned, there was movement in the maze of crates behind Jack, but he couldn't move or speak to warn her without giving away his position.

The drawback of having the Sight instead of being a Reader was apparent as the ship's doctor came up behind her, his shoes scuffing and giving him away. A Reader might get overwhelmed by what she heard, but a Seer…could have a blindspot now and then. Jack twisted to the side to keep from having her back to him but he'd come through a narrow gap in the crates immediately at her back, too close for her to counter quickly, and Riddick growled low in his throat as a trio of steel needles slammed into her shoulder. She folded like an accordion to the ground, squeezing off a couple shots and getting the merc in the belly and Mal in the upper thigh.

With the doctor being Johnny on the spot Riddick didn't even have a hope of them bleeding out, the slender prick slapped a pressure bandage on the merc and a tourniquet on the Captain before helping Reynolds hoist Jack up over his shoulder. Reynolds must have radioed his ship.

Riddick growled, low and mean and had the satisfaction of the doctor casting an uneasy glance behind them as the three men and their hostage left the warehouse. Riddick scowled and made an easy leap to the catwalk that hung around the perimeter of the warehouse, following them out via the roof. Shadowing them until they came to the docks wasn't hard, not gutting the three of them and taking his woman back was the difficult part. But that would lead a trail right back to him and their boat. Because Washburne had to be aware by now of what her Captain was doing. And she wasn't poking her head out to have her throat conveniently sliced.

Serenity was in a berth a dozen or so down from them and he sneered at the ship before climbing down from the roof of yet another warehouse and strolling casually over to the boat. He might not be the engineer Jack was but one thing he knew was how to cripple a ship, and remain unseen while doing it.

"So they ain't going anywhere," He finished his tale as he gulped down some water and fished the crystal out of his pocket. "They didn't even know I was on the boat. I might not be small enough to get between the hull and the walls everywhere but the vents were big enough. I did a helluva lotta damage. It'll take them a week to suss out everything I did."

"So at least they cain't take off with Jack," Jayne was nodding his appreciation of Riddick's actions. "Too bad killin' 'em woulda led the law back to Badger or us."

"The merc is dead no matter what," Riddick smirked. "Laid up in the infirmary. Be child's play to ghost him."

"Well you can make like a toddler after," The curly haired man shrugged. "Meantime, we've gotta get Jack back."

"Obviously," Riddick growled. "They the kind for beatin' something out of someone?"

"Might've been," Jayne looked at River. "Time was, Mal woulda told me to scare information outa someone."

"Won't beat her," River was tilting her head, thinking hard. "Try to play nice at first, once she wakes up," She frowned. "Simon dosed her with smoothers…enough to knock out you or Jayne. She won't be coherent for a while. Smoothers…don't play well with our bodies."

"'S why when they get shot they just tough it out," Jayne sighed. "Okay. So if we can figure where she's bein' held we can either sneak on or demand a…whatchamacallit… parsnip, parsley…"

"Parley," River supplied the word. "Favor parley, if only because they must know that she will not go back. Can't run from them forever."

"It is turnin' out to be harder'n we thought," Jayne agreed with a shake of his head. "Got an idea though…"

"Ooohhh…" River grinned, having clearly caught on to what Jayne was thinking. "Threaten to have them blackballed… very nice."

"Blackballed?" Riddick was only vaguely familiar with the term, knowing that it was associated with clubs and guilds and was something of the 'not good' variety.

"Yeah," Jayne grinned. "Criminal underground… s'all connected really. Tongs, gangs, kingpins like Badger. Ev'rybody's scratchin' out a livin'. An' they all got an' ear to the ground 'bout who's reliable, who's a cheat, that sorta thing."

"We inform Serenity that if they do not stop hunting us, we will pass word to Badger and he will pass it on to everyone he knows and does business with," River continued. "So the trouble they had finding work after Miranda will look like a rainstorm compared to the drought we will bring down on them."

"And if that doesn't work I'll just kill everyone," Riddick smirked. "At least Reynolds and the merc. Without them, doubt anyone'd listen to your brother about you."

"Zoe thinks pursuit is a waste of time and effort. Cannot cage someone who knows how to pick locks. Pointless," River agreed.

Jack

The voices were familiar but not very much so. Men, irritated, snarling at each other, it was like the Academy all over again, groggy with drugs, her limbs uncontrollable and the ache of smoothers pounding in her brain. She and River had talked about it at length while they'd been working on their boat, trying to determine what the Academy had done to them besides attempt to brainwash and program them.

They might not have ever figured it out if River hadn't downloaded everything she could from the Academy's databases after Miranda. She'd had a small window when the Parliament would be in flux, the firewalls would be vulnerable and she'd made the best use of it she could.

Jack had trouble parsing through all the biotechnical babel that coated the screens when they pulled up the data on the procedures they'd endured. She could get the gist but her understanding was physics, mechanics, engineering. DNA sequencing manipulation and biological programing sounded like science fiction. When she'd said as much River had grinned at her, "We're building a spaceship."

That had gotten them giggling a bit, even got Riddick and Jayne chuckling. It had taken a solid week of reading in stolen moments of rest but they'd finally figured it out. The only drugs that worked like they ought to were antibiotics, some topical drugs and salves and a few that were designed to enhance lung capacity or stimulate organ cell renewal. Stimulants had very little effect and psychotropic drugs made them ill. Opioids were a type of depressant and made up most smoothers so of course they didn't work the way they should.

They'd explained it to Jayne and Riddick and the end result was that they were human, at the core at least, but their genes had been tweaked to give them increased stamina, enhanced reflexes and improved recovery times. And that wasn't including what had been done to their brains.

"But how," Jayne frowned. "How'd they do it?"

Riddick had been frowning and looking over the printouts River had been using. When he was done reading he burned the paper, "Viruses, if I'm reading this right."

River nodded, "There was a program, it began in the Americas, part of their intelligence agencies, funding research into genetic manipulation via viral infection." She sighed, "Problem was the delivery system. Started out with oral preparation, meds to be taken daily or something like."

"But why would you want someone dependent on pills if you're going to use them for infiltration," Riddick had seen the problem with that right away.

"Exactly," River nodded. "But once they determined the effect was what they wanted, they could create a virus to duplicate the effect. Inject someone with the virus and they would become ill, but once the body's immune system assimilated the virus, it was part of their DNA. Along with whatever effect they wished to achieve."

"And they've been doin' that to the kids in the Academy?" Jayne had looked outraged and he'd sounded like he was ready to kill something. Or more to the point, someone.

"The program started with adults," Riddick tapped the ashes. "Least that's what it implies."

River nodded, "Oversight was part of the process, but as the Earth died, other concerns took precedence over Outcome. The program was used to weed out the weak, given as injections to all who would ride the arks. Those that died would not make the journey. Those that lived… an entire generation bred from those that lived, the results studied."

"They wanted ta see if they'd pass it on to their kids," Jayne got it before the rest of them did. Maybe it was because he came from a big family and had seen how traits were passed along.

"Jayne is right," River nodded. "But further experimentation was deemed risky. The human race was finite and survival was priority. Once the planets were found and terraformed, the program could be picked up again. It was learned," Jack had watched as River's nose wrinkled in profound distaste. "It was learned that the virus took the best with adolescents and pre-adolescents. Children who were due for drastic changes. The virus was embraced more thoroughly."

"So they started takin' kids," Riddick snarled.

"Carefully selected," River nodded. "Why else are Core worlds so well regimented, guarded and elevated. Only the best of the best are allowed. Lineage is studied and subjects are…encouraged to breed for increased capabilities."

"No wonder the Core is so screwed up," Jayne muttered.

"Frustrating for them," Jack had grinned, Seeing what River had. When the men had looked at her curiously she'd explained. "No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't program a virus with free thought and obedience. Apparently one cancels out the other."

"So they tried other things, like the Pax," Jayne shook his head. "Trying to make people better."

"Better worlds." River had sighed and climbed into Jayne's lap. Jack remembered Riddick hadn't given her a choice, simply pulled her into his arms and breathed in her scent like he was starved for her.

Riddick. He'd tensed…he'd seen the doctor behind her…she'd seen him look, it had been the only thing that warned her, but she'd been half a second too late and in an awkward position. Just went to prove that even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. She and River knew there were ways to get around their abilities and training. It was difficult, but as Serenity's crew had proven, not impossible. Reynolds must have had an earwig and relayed their position to the doctor. She'd known they weren't far from the docks, not with as many warehouses as she'd run past or through.

She frowned, or tried to frown, her muscles still weren't working right, everything felt like mush.

She must have passed out, or fallen asleep again, whatever you called brief periods of lucid thought in between blackouts. This time she was able to open her eyes, though that didn't do her head any favors. The light was painfully bright.

"Well, look who's awake; little miss sunshine," Reynold's voice was just a shade too hostile to be jovial, no matter how hard he tried at it.

"How're ya feelin'," The engineer, Kaylee, helped her sit up and held a glass of water to her lips. Jack inhaled, analyzing the scent and determined that if they'd drugged the water it was colorless and odorless, so she sipped it finally, the liquid a relief to her dry throat.

"Like I been on a three-day bender," Jack croaked out. "What the hell did he shoot me up with?" Kaylee got her another glass of water and retreated out the door.

"Standard smoothers," The Doctor's supercilious voice was unwelcome. "Now where is my sister?"

Jack leaned back against the wall and stared at him, "You even remember her name? What she can do? What she likes and dislikes? Or did all that get thrown away when you had to give up what you wanted to get her out of the Academy? Is that when she became something to be owned? Or did that happen later when nothing you did helped her?"

"I don't have to justify myself to you," Simon Tam sneered at her, those dark eyes cold and as unlike his sister's as chalk from cheese. "She is my sister and I'm responsible for her. She's very unwell and she belongs here where I can help her."

"Oh," Jack rolled her eyes. "Right. She couldn't have fixed herself on her own. Gotten the space and time to let all the drugs you doped her with clear out of her system so she could think and breathe and control her own mind and body. If you didn't have something to do with it you figure it hasn't been done right."

"She's unstable," Simon threw up his hands. "This is getting us nowhere," He looked at Mal. "We tried it your way. When will you try it my way?"

Jack tilted her head, the Sight coming easy and clear without the drugs, "Oh…" She sighed. "So you figure you'll drug me up and question me? Got some of those drugs make people spill their guts?" Mal shifted uncomfortably and she knew she was right, "Too bad those'll work just as well as your smoothers did. Drugs don't work on me anymore than they do on River."

"Why is that exactly," Mal honestly sounded curious.

She smirked at him, "Because River wasn't the only student at the Academy." She enjoyed the shock that little bomb had created and continued, "She's a Reader. I'm… well, you could call me a Seer. I'm clairvoyant."

Simon's reaction to that was to spout a torrent of blue language in Mandarin and Cantonese. The Captain just leaned against the wall and regarded her thoughtfully. "Guess that makes you as dangerous in your own way as River is hers."

"Too right," Jack rolled her eyes. "And I can tell you that if you want to drug me, you won't get anything. You could try torturing me, beating me, whatever, it isn't anything I haven't already endured. Just like River did." She flicked her gaze at Simon. "Never thought of that did you? That half of her problems might be PTSD? What is it with doctors? They think drugs will solve every tā mā de problem."

"Hammers tend to see things like nails," Zoe Washburne appeared in the doorway and looked at the Captain. "Kaylee and Wash don't know what's wrong. But we aren't breaking atmo anytime soon. And Badger's due to come by for the goods now that we're past nightfall. That plan we had of leavin' as soon's the goods were clear isn't looking too likely."

"Nǐ tā mā de tiān xià suǒ yǒu de rén dōu gāi sǐ." Mal cursed, "It is always gorram something."

Jack giggled as she got a flash of what Riddick had done, "It's gonna take you weeks to suss out." She predicted. "And that's if you're lucky."

Zoe's gaze speared her, "And you know that how?"

"She's a Seer," Mal said it without a trace of irony in his voice. "Come outa the Academy, same's River."

"That…" The First Mate bit back whatever she'd been about to say, studying Jack thoughtfully. "Hmm…"

Jack shrugged, "Everybody's mind works different." She tilted her head, "You've got about ten minutes to let me off this boat before all hell breaks loose."

"You'll forgive me if I take that with a grain of salt," Mal smirked at her. "Why don't you just sit back and relax. You ain't goin' anywhere."

"Neither are you," Jack smirked back at him. "And you won't be either. Not unless you've got an angel sitting on your shoulder gonna give you a boost with his wings."

Author's Note: There must be something in the air on Persephone that makes Mal and Simon do stupid things? They're lucky Riddick didn't smell blood on Jack or he'd have just sliced his way through them rather than go and get Jayne and River for backup.

Anybody catch what River is referencing when she talks about the Academy programs and what they were trying to achieve?

Chinese Translations:

gǒu niáng yǎng de (son of a bitch)

cào nǐ zǔ zōng shí bā dài (fuck your ancestors to the eighteenth generation)

tā mā de (fucking)

Nǐ tā mā de tiān xià suǒ yǒu de rén dōu gāi sǐ. (Fuck everyone in the universe to death.)

Script Chinese Translations:

Tài kōng suǒ yǒu de xīng qiú sāi jǐn wǒ de pì gu (script- Shove All the Planets in the universe up my ass)