Chapter 43: The Incongruous Smell of Bananas

She scrambled down the dark tunnel on all fours, cursing the fact she was still wearing that pretty green dress Lajjun gave her. She heard Toombs, muffled, shout "Bitch!" just as pain hit her hard. It almost made her collapse. She pushed herself forward. Felt the prickle of what she'd theorized would be a communication dampening field. As soon as she cleared it, the pain stopped. She shoved the hilt into her pocket and rested, panting. The tunnel was completely dark.

Pulled out the light. Shone it both ways down the tunnel. Looked clear. This might be the dumbest thing I've ever done, she thought. They'll take turns punishing me for this.

If I'm lucky they'll take turns.

She checked that she hadn't dropped Abu's messenger chip. Keyed to Riddick's DNA. It was still solidly in her deep, deep pocket. Lajjun had done right by her. She smiled mirthlessly. Well, since he was willing to give me another sample. . .

"What the fucking fuck!" bellows Toombs. He yanks a gun and shoots the trapdoor. The bolt bounces around the room a few times before hitting the ladder. It bursts into flame.

His fury makes mine easier to manage. Grin at him. "Think it's shielded."

"No shit, asshole." He shoves the gun into its holster and savagely pokes at the controller.

"You make her hit her head too hard she could die. Could be stuck here together forever."

He grunts and punches the wall. But he switches the controller off. Glares at me. "You know she gonna do that?"

"Oh hells no," I say, letting some tiny bit of my fury loose. She just bolted away and kept me from even the righteous fun of giving chase. He gives me a nod, like we're in this together. "Kinda hurts my feelings," I mutter.

He snorts. "Yeah, well, guess we both got played."

Yeah, brother. You and me both. "Girl Genius know how to pilot?" I ask. Know she does. I taught her. But he'll be less likely to push that button again if she's kept that quiet.

Toombs looks at me shrewdly. "Good point. Don't think so. Even if she does, there's a black cover arrest warrant out for her." I swallow. He likes my reaction. "First time she stops for food or fuel, she'll be locked up tight."

Feel sick. I got me one of those warrants. If they execute it on her like they do on me, she'll end up bloody. Which means I gotta catch her first and that will be so much easier with the mercs on my side, fuck it all. "My ship's DNA locked." Though she could guess the override code. Never thought that would be a problem. "How about yours?"

He nods. "Locked and booby-trapped. But Aereon warned me they spent a lot of coin making sure she's a really fucking good engineer and hacker."

I grunt. "Didn't see a manual override for the blast doors and I looked hard. She's gonna have to do some magic to fly a ship out. If she accidentally lifts both blast doors, we got her. Even if she can figure out how to just drop the exterior, she's probably stuck without a ship she can fly. Maybe she'll try to hoof it, but this ain't a hospitable planet and she ain't dressed for the land. Bet she'll be back with her tail between her legs."

"Unless she's runnin' to Riddick," he says darkly. "To him or from him. Got the feeling he's nearby."

"What?"

He looks me in the eye. "My palms feel hairy. That usually means the mark's near. And I don't fucking trust her da. If Riddick was nosing around, he woulda rolled on us in a heartbeat." He grinds his teeth.

Nod, slowly. "Okay. Let's assume he's around. How would she know?"

"Been thinking on all the ways her little private convo with the computer could be a problem. Maybe she figured out how to call him. Maybe that's why she took communications down for the rest of us, made sure we couldn't take her outta here before he gets here ."

"You were there. You think she was talkin' to Riddick through a table? A table that might have given her a seizure disorder?"

He glares at me. "Maybe her da sent a squirt. Or maybe she saw his ship on the security feeds. Or maybe you or Logan tipped him off."

I roll my eyes at him. "You think she knows what ship he flies? Or that your right hand man, a sociopathic Furyan supersoldier, a Helios minister, and little old me are plotting against you?" He barks a laugh. "We'll get her back. I'm not done fucking her."

I knew he'd like that last part. He laughs. Seems to calm him down. "Okay, lover boy. What play would you recommend?"

"Keep a crew ready to take her at the blast door. Find another ladder, try to figure out how she got the tunnel open. If we can't, boobytrap it so anyone coming out gets stunned. Put a pillow down in case it's the girl. Rotate through the control room seeing if anyone else can mindmeld with the table and sweet talk it into lifting the security lockdown."

He's chewing the side of his cheek. Nods. "Let's do it."

Jack scrambled down the tunnel until it dead ended. Played her light over the wall. Couldn't see a keyhole. But there was a place on the wall that was smoother, like other people had put their hands there. She ran her fingers over it and pressed her palm down. It tingled in a familiar way. It seemed to be waiting for something. She took a deep breath. "I was- I am – Audrey Kyra Parnell. Daughter of Ariadne Parnell. The last daughter of Colchis. Open."

The air pressure seemed to change, but no door appeared. "Open, please?" she asked. Something slid back and she saw four ships in the dimly lit docking bay. Closest was a small Coalsack freighter. Next to it was the Aura, the merc ship that brought her here. On the other side, a small black emergency pod. And next to it, an overpowered fourth ship with the improbable name Tanngrisnir.

That's gotta be Riddick's ship, she thought. Her eyes prickled.

It was at least a 10 foot drop to the ground. She took a deep breath. Swung herself down as best she could. Landing on her injured ankles hurt. She was very grateful for the shoes.

Stumbled over to the Tanngrisnir. It had a palm lock on it and an alpha-numeric override. She tried her own birthday.

Nothing.

Slowly typed in M-344G-M6-117. The system and the planet the Hunter-Gratzner crashed in. The loading ramp descended. Well, that's confirmation. No one else in the galaxy would use that as an override code.

She walked up the ramp. The ship smelled like Riddick, ice giants, and strangely, bananas.

She found his tiny cabin. Sat on his bed. Used a fingernail to scoop up some of the mostly-dried sperm from deep between her legs and poked it at the chip.

The chip unfolded and her adoptive father, the man who gave her to monsters, the Minister Abu al Walid appeared before her. "My friend," he said. "We need you. The enemies of your people have become the enemies of mine."

She watched the whole thing. Then she watched it again. Then she went to the small head, vomited yellow tofu, brushed her teeth with Riddick's toothbrush, and watched it again.

Gotta give the asshole his due, he takes full credit for losing Jack. Nara's just mad at him this time. Logan and Dahl both make a point of rolling their eyes at me sympathetically, like they've lost marks before because of Toombs.

Toombs tells them all about hairy palms and crazy theory that Riddick's here and Jack's running to him. Tells everyone to keep their guns hot. Logan keeps reminding him that there's no Elemental bounty if I'm dead. He seems to forget instantly.

I try hard to act like we're good. That it's not making me crazy that she ran away from me the first chance she had. Guess I told her not to fall for a killer.

Everyone takes a turn tryin' out the table in the control room that gave Jack the seizures. It rejects the four of them instantly. I stall. Can't afford to be out like she was. But I do wanna talk to her sister.

Put my hands on the table. My hands sink in.

Something happens. I'm not on cold Colchis anymore. I'm someplace green and blue and beautiful. With Shirah, the woman of my dreams, the woman of nightmares, smiling down on me from a golden throne. And I know, all the way down, that this isn't some fucking computer interface, this is her. "Fuck you," I say, before she can say anything.

"Oh, my child," she says.

"No. FUCK YOU. You set me up. Did you fucking set up Jack too?"

"The last daughter of Colchis is playing her part. You could learn valuable lessons about submitting to destiny from her."

My head is shaking and I've got a curved blade in my hand. "No. NO. She doesn't have a fucking destiny." I hear something and twist around. There's a beach and Jack is there barefoot in a ridiculous white dress playing volleyball with a whole lotta heavily armed soldiers. She doesn't see me.

Shirah stands up and she's got a fucking big spear in her hands. "Will you die for her?"

"Oh, fuck you." I say. Grab the spear, put it on my own heart. Not what I thought I'd do. But so it goes. "No. But I will kill for her. No fucking doubt." I feel the prick of the spearpoint on my chest.

Shirah, fucking Shirah, backs up a step. I don't let go of the spear. Neither does she. "Oh, my child," she says again.

"No. You are not my mother. As you fucking delight in showing me, my mother was killed by some fucking asshole."

"Killed by Zhylaw," she says. His name is ice down my spine. "And he will kill her too."

I shake my head. "He'll never have the chance. I wanna talk to her sister."

Shirah shifts into a dark skinned soldier with dreadlocks and a big assed gun where the spear once was. She gives me a nod and points the gun at something skyward so it's not actually pressed into my chest. "Furyan."

"So I hear. You Radne?"

She smiles. "Sometimes. What brings you to my table?"

"I want her back. Open the blast doors."

She quirks an eyebrow at me. "You make demands of me? Because of you, little sister is in chains heading to a dark place."

"Don't you put that on me. I'm doing everything I can. Not my fault her father slaved her out."

"Covu's fault. Zhylaw's fault. Our peoples' fault for not stopping them when they were small. My people's fault for failing to stop them when they got big. Your fault for refusing the call."

"Just open the fucking blast doors and I will make sure she's safe and far away. If she rabbits she'll end up bloody."

"She will not run from her troubles, little Grendel. She is not like you."

"Then I'll throw her over my shoulder and drag her out of here."

Pretty sure I should have kept that evil plan to myself. Radne shakes her head and those black dreads are like tentacles everywhere. "She will not thank you."

I shake my head too and only then do I realize my ridiculous hair is gone . "Just open the blast doors. All you gotta do. If Chillingworth's people catch her - " I swallow hard. "She'll be years dyin' in the dark."

Jack's sister gazes into me like she's measuring my every cell. "There are other options."

"Fucking stupid options."

She sighs. "I closed those doors to protect her. I will open them if she asks. But she put them between you. What can you offer in exchange for denying her that choice?"

I pat down my pockets and find the rest of the knife pieces from Audhumla. Hold them out to her. "Got this."

She drops the gun to her hip and closes my hand over the pieces. I feel heat. When she lets go, there's a sharp small blade in my hand.

I go to give it to her, but she shakes her head. "That won't pay your way. Though it might help in the dark places."

Fry's there, because of course she is, driving a golf cart and wearing a bright green golf outfit with two blood red pomegranites embroidered over her boobs and a third on her crotch just to fuck with me. She leans out the side. "Hey, I got an idea," she says. "Why don't you just do the right thing, kill Zhylaw, endow a children's charity with the 5 mil, give Jack her life back, and spend the rest of your life atoning for being a massive asshat? You do that, I bet Jack will let you crash in her basement and keep you in tacos until you die."

"Fuck you," I say.

"Oh no, I've seen what you're into. Dying for you is as far as I go. But I've got a thermos full of mojitos if you two wanna join me for a drink on the beach. We could check in on Jack."

Radne looks at me pityingly. Hate that. "You are not worthy of the women who die for you."

I growl, "didn't ask them too."

"Come on, killer," Fry says. "She's not going to give you what you want. Let's get a drink and sing the songs of our people. You know the one about why the wizard's staff got a knob on the end?"

I take a step towards her and I'm back in the cold with assholes. Lift my hands from the table. There's a blade in one of them. A woman is looking at me, wide eyed and hopeful. A man is petting a piece of equipment like it's a fluffy kitty.