XXI.

After satisfying her hunger she went to the engine room. On her way there she found Riddick in the gym occupied with his workout. From what she could hear he seemed to be really angry. She tried to tiptoe past the door. And she already got pretty good at tiptoeing. She still wasn't as ghostlike as Riddick was but she was going there. She nearly had reached the engine room when Riddick called after her.

"Where do you think you are going?"

Hope sighed and turned around. She should have known that Riddick heard everything. "My ribs still hurt and I thought I go and work on the missiles instead of working out today."

"Yeah, newsflash: solely because I let you sleep in doesn't mean you are freed of your workout. Come in here. Don't be sniveling."

'Sniveling?' Besides her hurting ribs she could barely see with that eye, couldn't breathe through her nose and he had the nerve to tell her that she was sniveling?! Hope shook her head. "Yeah, newsflash to you: Kiss my ass. I won't get myself kicked around today." And she didn't want to give him the chance to tell her that she had to leave the ship.

Riddick had her pinned to the wall before she had managed to make a second step towards the engine room. His voice was dangerously low. "Then don't let me kick you around. You were lucky yesterday. You injured one of them before you killed him. And you got a blow in your face that could have knocked you out. Can you imagine what would have happened in that case? Pure luck you survived, nothing else. Now come in here before I drag your sorry ass in there by myself!"

He didn't like to hurt her in the least. He had to force himself into it. And he never would forget the expression on her face when he finally declared workout to be over for the day and let her leave the gym. But it was absolutely necessary. If he didn't hurt her now sooner or later she would get hurt much worse because of him. She was better off without him. With him she'd never have a chance of a good life. She deserved better than a life on the run. Yes, it was much better for her to hate him. He could deal with her hate but not with her hurt or killed because of him. He never realized how strange that sounded even for him.

Hope was short of crying when they finished their workout. He wasn't considerate of her injuries and sometimes she thought he was even up to hurt her. Her anger with him helped a bit but it didn't help to hurt less. After a quick shower she vanished into the engine room and didn't intend to come out any soon.

However, after a few hours she had to reappear from there. She didn't want to but most of the electronic parts for the missiles definitely didn't work and they had to replace them. She was a little afraid of Riddick's reaction to that but to her relieve he just did a research on the computer.

"There is a small space station about 10 parsecs from here. They have a trading post but you have to go in without me. They know me there."

Hope shrugged her shoulders. Maybe a little time apart would do both of them good. She did a few researches for herself and then made contact with the trading post. She arranged a meeting with a Mr. Murrey who seemed to be the owner.

Murrey picked her up personally at the docking station. He was about her age, had a soft and smiling face and he looked like he had an open and friendly personality. Hope liked him instantly and that seemed to be mutual.

When he asked her to have lunch before discussing business she didn't think about it for a long time. For a change it would be nice to meet with someone capable of more than one word sentences. She didn't ask for Riddick's opinion on that and frankly she didn't care. With the help of the dermal regenerator her face looked quite normal now but her ribs still hurt like hell due to their workout and Riddick didn't care about it in the least. He still barley spoke to her and he still seemed to be awfully angry with her.

Murrey took her for a sight-seeing tour of the station before taking her to the dining area. He was very proud of the station and she could see why. The people were friendly, greeted each other by name and stopped for little chats. And although they didn't know her they didn't treat her like a stranger but somewhat close to a friend of Murrey. They made her feel welcome.

The station was clean and bright and they even had a lot of flowers and plants to improve the quality of air. Murrey didn't stop chatting. In fact it wasn't just chatting, he was openly flirting with her and Hope had a real good time until she heard Riddick on the headset. "Damn, Hope, that's no fucking date. Get that hardware and come back!"

Hope completely ignored him. She would deal with him later. He couldn't get more monosyllable and more angry with her as he was by now. And he couldn't leave without her because she told flight control that just she got awake from cryo sleep because of a 'malfunction'.

Her fake ID said that she was the engineer on board of the 'Iceberg' and she had a lively discussion with Murrey about the pros and cons of various drive systems. Murrey told her about a rumor he had heard that they were inventing a new one called 'warp drive'. She was curious what the grapevine was telling about it and Murrey didn't hesitate to tell her everything he knew. She was relieved that no missing engineer was mentioned in conjunction with the warp core. At least not in this quadrant of the universe.

After finishing their meal they went to the storage rooms and she picked out everything she would need. Hope was ready to leave when Murrey gently touched her shoulder. She already had suspected that he didn't want her to go but had chosen to ignore it. "Would you consider having dinner with me? I really enjoyed our lunch. I didn't have such a pleasant company in a long time."

He looked at her with big puppy eyes and Hope couldn't help but laugh. He was right. It's been a very nice afternoon with him; he was a talkative and funny guy. The complete opposite to Riddick. "That sounds great and I enjoyed our lunch too, but my captain is going to dump me when I don't return soon."

Murrey smiled. "Just if he doesn't know what he has got in you. He would be crazy to lose you on his own will. Besides that he's in cryo sleep, he won't know. And as I see it his lost would be my win. The chief engineer of the station is retiring and they are looking for a successor. As luck would have it I have quite a say in that case."

Hope was more than surprised. "You are offering me a job? You don't even know me."

"That's something we could change during dinner. I make out a good engineer when I see one."

Hope was tempted to say yes but after a second thought she declined it. "He will know when he checks the chrono at our arrival. And he can be a real ass sometimes." She didn't know what made her say that knowing Riddick would hear her but it definitely made her feel better.

But Murrey was no one to capitulate that easy. He had fallen for her the moment she had stepped out of the ship and he would do everything to convince her that getting to know him was worth the trouble with her captain.

"The parts won't be delivered until tomorrow morning and your docking fee is paid for 24 hours. Did I tell you about the weekly concert taking place today? They are playing classical music from old earth and then we could go dancing" he tried to induce her.

Hope sighed. She really would have loved to spend a normal evening but she didn't even have clothes for that or the money to buy them. And she didn't want to upset Riddick more than he was by now. She wasn't yet ready to leave him.

"I'm sorry. I really would like to but I can't. I'll go back and better hurry with the repairs. We have a tight time schedule and to begin with I don't even have clothes for a concert."