(Revised 05.06.2022)
The crew started preparing to drag the power cells back to the skiff. While Imam and one of his acolytes carried one of the cells, Riddick dragged the remainder of them.
"Hey! Would you like some help with those?" Nova offered.
"I mean I would, but I wouldn't want to risk accidental skin-to-skin contact. Don't want to have to drag you back, too." Riddick joked.
They could hear Johns, Shazza, and Jack talking about Riddick. Jack being the only positive one.
"Does any of that bother you?" Nova asked.
"You learn to live with it. People are going to believe what they believe. Makes no difference to me." Riddick said.
"I wish my skin could be that tough." Nova admitted.
"As soft as yours feels, could take a while." Riddick teased.
Paris had dropped one of his spirits and turned back to pick it up. Unfortunately for him, Riddick got to it first. Paris' facial expression revealed he was unsure how to approach the situation.
"Paris P. Ogilvie. Antiquités dealer, entrepreneur." Paris initiated, extending his hand.
"Richard B. Riddick." Riddick replied, accepting Paris' hand. "Escaped convict, murderer." He finished, giving a casual smile.
Nova gave a brief snort at the interaction before putting her hand over her mouth.
"That's a particularly good Shiraz. I-I-I-It's a lovely drop." Paris said, watching Riddick start to down it. "It's-It's very expensive." He insisted, words failing to slow Riddick down. "By all means. Please, help yourself." He finished, begrudgingly accepted the loss.
Paris walked away, leaving them to be the last ones in the group again.
"You want some?" Riddick offered, bottle half empty.
"What about accidental skin-to-skin contact?" Nova teased.
"Here, just take it from the bottom." Riddick suggested, extending it.
Nova went to grab it and Riddick took the opportunity to grab her wrist with his other hand, causing her to yelp.
"What's going on back there!?" Fry demanded.
"Don't worry, just testing something out." Riddick reassured.
Though startled, Nova had been fine. There was no adverse reaction like before. Although, she was starting to sweat more from the action than the heat.
"Huh, would you look at that. I guess it was a one off. Or maybe it's like chicken pox. One and done." Riddick said, letting go of Nova's wrist. "Here." He finished, extending the bottle to her again.
"I-I'll just go without, thanks." Nova said, speeding up to the rest of the group.
"Are you alright? I knew unchaining him was a mistake!" Shazza spat in Johns' direction.
"No! He didn't hurt me. It was just something from earlier he was trying to settle." Nova said.
"What happened earlier?" Shazza asked.
Nova sighed deeply.
"It's not even worth mentioning." Nova reassured.
"Hey, you can tell us anything. We'll protect you." Shazza pushed.
"He didn't do anything wrong!" Nova insisted.
"Normally I can appreciate antiques, but this, this is something else." Paris said, surveying the skiff.
"It'll work." Johns said.
"There's nothing we can't repair so long as the electrical adapts." Fry said.
"Well, it's not a star jumper." Shazza said, checking the skiff out.
"It doesn't need to be." Riddick said, standing with his hands behind his back, facial expression neutral. "Take a two-seater like this back up to the sol track shipping lanes. Stick out a thumb, bound to get picked up. Ain't that right, Captain?" He finished, looking at Fry.
Johns looked at Fry expectantly.
"Can I have a little help here?" Fry asked.
Riddick went up and got stopped by Johns.
"Do me a favor. Check these containers out and, um, see what we can patch these wings up with. Huh?" Johns ordered.
Riddick stayed silent.
Nova, Imam, his acolytes, and Paris had gone to gather more water from the machine. It was doing well so far, it just hadn't been used in a while.
"With this planet having already taken so much from us, at least we can get relief from this." Nova said.
"Speaking of taking, your boyfriend is a bit of a thief." Paris said.
"What!?" Nova exclaimed, caught off guard.
"That bottle contained expensive, top shelf liquor." Paris pushed.
Nova shook her head.
"What makes you think we're together?" Nova questioned.
"Well, it seems whenever you slip away, it's to be with him. You seem far fonder of him than any of us are, and he seems a bit taken with you as well. You might be the only safe one of us." Paris stated.
Nova put her hand out and opened her mouth to say something, but she didn't know what to even say.
"I'm just going to go check on how our escape is going." Nova stated, walking away.
"Where've you been?" Shazza asked.
"With, Imam, and the others gathering water." Nova said.
"Well, that's good news." Fry said.
"Yeah, great." Johns said, uninterested.
Johns watched Fry move to the front of the skiff.
"So, we've got enough power for sys check, but we still need more cells." Fry said.
"How many we talkin' about?" Johns asked.
"Um, let's see. We've got a 90-gig draw, the other ship takes 20-gig cells. That would be five." Fry said, thinking out loud. "Five total, to launch!" She finished, heading back to the controls.
"35 kilos each, huh?" Johns said.
"Wow, that's pretty heavy. Well, you know that old sand cat out there? I might be able to get it going." Shazza said.
"Yeah, do it if you can, but if you need a hand… where'd Riddick go?" Johns said, looking around. "Hey!" He called for Nova's attention.
"Yeah?" Nova replied.
"Where'd your criminal boyfriend go?" Johns demanded.
"Okay. Time out. Why do you all think we're together?" Nova asked.
"I mean it's pretty obvious. Birds of a feather." Johns answered.
"I could say the same about you and Fry, then." Nova challenged.
"Oh, absolutely not. Believe it or not, I actually have standards." Fry spat, half jokingly.
"To each their own, but I agree." Johns spat back.
"I think I speak for everyone when I say you will always be able to do better than that bastard." Shazza said.
Nova left, getting sick of the bad mouthing.
