Chapter 45: Cyrus Borson's Sock Drawer

Jack sat down heavily at the table, feeling sick. "I need a minute."

"I hate to do this," Nara said, "but you really need to get back to work. We really need communications."

Jack shook her head. "I'm a long way from getting that done. But you can take one of the ships out and use her communications tech. I got the blast doors open. I don't think the communication blackout field extends more than a couple dozen miles. You might need to get out of the gravity well. But probably not."

"Shining Amaterasu and all her shining daughters" Nara breathed. "You really are brilliant. I'll start putting together a package. Thank you."

Toombs laughed. "And the transpo guy can earn his keep at last!"

Jack kept her face carefully neutral. She could feel Riddick's glare. "Runnin' on fumes," he said at last. "You got fuel for my ship here?"

"I think so," Nara said. "I think Balor left a lot. Send me your specs and I'll check."

"Speaking of which," Toombs said, "we should get the girl checked out. Doc-in-the-Box told us not to let her exert herself. Pretty sure that little romp she took counts as exertion. Let's get you to the med bay."

Jack flushed. "As long as you promise not to strap me to the bed again." It took all of the willpower she had not to look at Riddick.

Toombs was unconstrained. "No promises, darlin'."

Let Toombs and Logan take Jack away to the med lab. Hate it more than words can say. But I think he's serious that he don't get paid if he hurts her while she's cooperating. She don't have a lot of fight in her right now. And she's really mad at me. Figure I should give her some space. Especially since she didn't ask me to kill even one of them.

Go with Nara to fuel up my ship. Need that to happen anyway. Memorize the access codes so I can top off when I get back. Fueling is noisy. Nara gives up trying to lecture me and heads off to put together the message to the ice-bitch who wants to make all my dreams come true. I watch the fuel line do it's magic.

This is getting fucking ridiculous. I need to just scrag them all, throw the kid over my shoulder, and disappear into the night. Instead, here I am, playing science hero support staff. Because Jack wants to.

Because I want her to come with me willing.

Because she's that girl I let myself fall for. Or something.

"Don't kid yourself," Fry says. "You fell in love with me. She was just there all handy while you were heartbroken and needed something to soothe yourself with." I glare at her.

"Fuck you," I say to the dead girl. "I saw myself in you. Liked fucking with you. And then you stepped up, became a hero, and fucking died for me. You messed me up. That's not love. That's just an itch I can't scratch."

She snorts. "Like you'd know what love is, little Grendel. Makes sense that you want her to go with you willing, though. You wanted that from me too, may Thor's shaggy undying goats help you." I grunt. "Gotta say, as pissed and freaked out as I was by your whole "would you die for them" act, I did fall a little bit in love with you too when we went back to the cave for them. Real shared moment of heroism that got me killed." She toasts me with her fucking mojito thermos. "Odin's empty eye socket, she was happy to see you. Of course, she didn't know you were going to tie her up and rape her someday. You really gotta work on respecting other people's boundaries, killer."

Fuel tanks are full. Seal 'em up. Stomp up the ramp to the Tanngrisnir, close the door, and breathe in deeply.

Jack was here. Here without me. I can smell her in the air, mixed up with ice-giant and bananas.

Run a quick search to see if she left me anything. Find Abu's message chip sitting pretty on my bedside table. Shove it into Borson's sock drawer.

Jack sat on my bed for quite a while, I think, based on the smell that sunk in. There's fear, anger, grief, and something acrid lingering in the air. Pretty sure she barfed Dahl's good breakfast in the bathroom.

Head to the cockpit. Sit in the pilot seat and am again immersed in her scent. She sat in this seat and cried. Without me. Because of me.

Boot up the system. She'd run a preflight. In some order or another, she'd gotten the outer doors open, broke into my ship, sat on my bed, watched Abu's message, ran a preflight, shut it down, and surrendered. Why?

Tanngrisnir's shipshape, it tells me. Nara's nanites did their magic. It would have been low on fuel before Nara topped us off, but Jack had punched up the course to Polyphemus Station and she could have made it easy.

Check the logs, and indeed, Jack guessed the override code on the second try. Think on changing it.

Fry's in the co-pilot seat again. "So she can't steal your ship? Or so she won't be able to get out of here without you? Ooh, do you think she'd try to take a run at the Necros without you? Sounds like that's what her sister's suggesting to her."

My hands curl into fists. I might just be aiding and abetting her suicide.

Mercifully, Nara comes back at long last before I dive too far down into that dark place. Walk down the ramp to meet her again. She smiles at me. Not much of it reaches her eyes. "I have the message prepared." She hands me a chip and a flimsy. "Everything Ms. al-Walid got from the Colchis computer, a report on our status, and directions on connecting with our communication's satellite. You'll need to both upload this and download anything queued up for delivery on the satellite. Carefully. Everything's heavily encrypted and you try to step into the datastream without the right codes it will self-destruct. I can come with you if you need me, but I'd rather stay here and keep working with Jack. Do the instructions make sense?"

I scrutinize the flimsy for a long moment. "They do."

She nods. "Good." She gives me a stern look. This needs to work. Please be careful."

"Yes, Doctor." She's still looking at me like she's got something to say. "What?"

"The Necromongers are worse," she says.

"Worse?"

"Than me. Than Toombs. Than you. Than what's happening to Ms. al-Walid." I grind my teeth. "I'm sorry you stumbled into this. I know you don't like what's happening to her. I also know that despite what you said, you are taking advantage of her. If I didn't need your help, if you weren't the only other person who might be able to talk to the computer, I'd tell you to keep going."

I grunt. "Aphrodite's shiny panties, lady, she came onto me. I'm just a guy. I'm not turnin' down an invitation from a girl like that."

Nara stares at me, hard. "I am concerned you may have exceeded the scope of that invitation." Stare at her blankly. She thaws a little. Pats me on my arm. "I do not think you're just a guy, Cyrus Richards. I think you have the capacity to be something great. Maybe you're meant to be part of this. Regardless. Bring back any messages on the satellite, I'll pay you 5,000 credits and refuel your ship."

I run my hands over my head. Want all this fucking hair gone. Nod. "I will."

"We need this. Fly well." She turns on her heel and leaves the landing bay. I stare after her. Really want Jack with me on this trip. Try to think of a way to get her here willing.

Can't figure that one out right now. Realize I'm stalling. Sooner I get off the ground, the sooner I can get back. Engage the engines and take off.

Toombs and Logan took her back to the med lab. Toombs was excited in a way Jack did not like. She also did not like the fact that someone had unstrapped the diagnostic bedout from the cot and moved it from the cozy corner into the middle of the room. Or the way Logan started bustling around the room, pulling out equipment from cases that had not been there when she left this room for breakfast. And most definitely not the way Toombs grinned when he said, "lay down, darlin.'"

She did, gingerly. She could almost feel the diagnostic scan pass through her. "Okay, pretty good. Says you've got a 40% chance of seizure in the next four hours. I'll take that. Logan, you get the cameras ready?"

"Yeah, boss."

Jack started to get off the table. Toombs stopped her with a glint in his eye. "Hold up a sec." She realized that Logan was setting up and releasing camera drones.

She sat back down, slowly. "Remember how I said we don't get to hurt you as long as you're cooperating?"

"Yeah," she said, cautiously.

"I'm gonna give you an opportunity to cooperate right now. Swear on your pretty little sister's fragile life you'll help us catch Riddick."

Oh, shit. "I can't do that."

"Yeah. Kinda figured." He grinned. "Here's what's gonna happen. Your little boy-toy got me thinking. You've known him a day and he's already insisting we not hurt you, even though I'm pretty sure he was ready to beat your ass good when you bolted down that tunnel." She shuddered. Toombs liked that. "Riddick's loved you forever, according to the Ice-Bitch. My hairy palms tell me he's near. We're gonna put together a little video card for him to encourage him to get his ass down here. Show him what he's gonna get with you and the lovely piece of jewelry you're wearing. Figure we gotta get it done before you get control of this system. Bonus that your boy-toy's tied up with messenger duty."

She swallowed hard trying not to look at the flying cameras. "That's crazy. And if you're right that Riddick still cares about me, he will kill you for this."

"It's a risk. Gamblin' for the big stakes. Whatya say? Promise to help, or spend the next hour screaming."

She closed her eyes. "Fuck you, Alexander Toombs."

"Good talk. Take your shoes off. She shook her head. His smile broadened. "It's gonna happen. But feel free to struggle."

"I wouldn't," Logan said, looking up from a monitor. "He'll get himself even more worked up and that won't work out well for you. Though will make for a compelling take."

Jack ran her hands over her hair, feeling the grit from the tunnels and the floor. "Set and all his howling demons," she muttered. Started removing her shoes slowly with shaking fingers. Why didn't I let Riddick kill these two?

Because that would be wrong. And I might need them, mighty Isis help me. He shoved her shoes in the corner, came back with menace in his eyes. "Oh that's good," Logan called. "Very melodramatic."

This is absurd. They're making this tape to show Riddick. Who is probably coming back anyway. And will kill them if I even hint I want him too. She shuddered again. Logan made a pleased sound. It's just for the cameras. It's not real.

"Take off the dress and lay down, darlin'. Let's do this right."

Logan cleared her throat. "Think we should leave the dress on. Leave a little for the imagination."

Toombs grunted. "You're no fun. But okay. First take, clothed."

Jack laid back, heart hammering. Whether he was playing for the cameras or what, Toombs' hands were lascivious and intrusive as he buckled down the wrist and ankle restraints. She didn't fight him. She closed her eyes and tried to retreat inside herself.

"Don't you look good. Let's get a couple of good quality stills of this picture. Open your eyes."

She didn't. He tickled her bare foot. Her eyes shot open and she pulled back hard against the restraints. "Oh you're ticklish! That'll be fun." They took the shots with her glaring at them, then went back to video. He tickled her again and she convulsed, helplessly, angrily. His fingers started crawling up her dress.

"Might wanna move on," Logan said. "Suspect Nara's gonna want her soon."

"You're no fun today," he said. But he stopped. Jack lay there panting. "Do you think we should get Dahl here for this?"

"Nah. He's cooking lunch. Also, I think he's getting a little sweet on her. He didn't like me knocking her to her knees when she surrendered."

"In-tere-est-ing," Toombs said. "Not how I thought that would go. Movin' on. How do you think we should do this - crank it all the way up for the shock, or give it the slow build?"

"I'd start low and work our way up. We can always recut the video." Jack closed her eyes again. Started to cry.

"Oh, not yet, kid," Toombs said. "Save that for after. Here, lemme do something nice for you." He sat down on the bed and started rubbing her feet. She glared at him, anger momentarily replacing fear and grief. He smiled at her and turned a switch.

Desire crashed through her. She groaned. "That's low." He played his fingers up her legs, over her skinned knees. The mix of pain, pleasure, humiliation, and helpness made her sob. "Hey, none of that, kid. You wanna give me a complex?"

She glared at him but he stopped touching her, which helped. He waited until she wasn't crying. If she closed her eyes, she could almost enjoy the feelings. "This is medium." She was panting again, this time with want and fear. One hand was back, caressing her bare thigh. He watched her with heavy lidded eyes until Logan started clearing her throat meaningfully.

"And this, this is something nice just for you." He had one hand between her legs, under her dress. The other moved a control and something glorious and shameful ripped through her. She hated that she was bucking against his hand. She hated the sounds that were coming from her. But she couldn't stop herself. "Oh, you're a screamer! Nice. I do like a girl who likes it." He caressed between her thighs roughly. She shuddered. The tears came back. He pulled his hand back out and gave it a big and appreciative sniff while watching her cry tears of anger and shame. "Osiris's missing balls, I wanna do you," he said.

"Remember we don't get paid if you do," Logan says. "I might just shoot you myself."

"Yeah, yeah." He stood up and stretched. "All right. Crying girls ain't my bag, but maybe it'll stir Big Bad's loins. Moving on. Let's get this bit in just in case she seizes."

All the fight had gone out of her. She did not resist at all. He smiled down, almost cherishing. "We'll go slower this time."