*Grins* I'm so glad you like my story! It is going to go into a more
traditional story when Jack starts to tell Pip about Riddick (it is SO HARD
to write in the present!!) Anyway, if you keep reviewing I'll keep
writing!
"A long time ago, Riddick saved my life. I was 15, maybe 16, and he was the only thing between me and certain annihilation" Jack begins, her eyes becoming unfocused as she begins to remember, "H was old enough that I fell for him- hard. But he was also old enough that I was of little to no interest to him sexually."
Pip snorts at Jack's directness, a trait Jack had inherited from Riddick.
"Imam, the only other survivor, offered to take me with him to New Mecca to give me a 'decent life'. I flat out refused, of course, and Riddick just kind of kept me. He taught me how to fight and, more importantly, how to survive. My parents were undoubtedly looking for me, so Riddick and I stayed stealth. We never owned much more than a ship and clothes, but I did have an impressive collection of digital books and videogames. I got my education with him- he was a very intelligent man. He'd read more books than any other person I knew and could, and on many occasions did, discuss them at length. He even had me do lessons, of sorts, which was another survival skill. I was smart enough that no one would know I was a runaway, thus I wouldn't be questioned."
Jack coughs and stared at the now bright stars. She takes a deep breath, letting the memories she's repressed bombard her once more.
* Riddick stared at the stars, lost in his own mind. Jack was reading in the 'living room', Tolstoy if he remembered correctly. Crazy kid. He yawned and stretched, cracking his back and neck expertly. He slid his body out of the pilot's chair and walked back to the kitchen. Jack looked up as she heard the familiar clunk of boots on the metal floor.
"Done staring into space yet?" she asked teasingly.
"For now" he replied, an eyebrow arched.
"Where to next?" she asked, putting the digital book aside.
"I don't know- I thought we'd stay out here till we starved."
"Was that sarcasm?" Jack snorted. Riddick ignored her and continued making himself dinner.
"It wasn't really funny, but at least it's an improvement." She smirked and stuck her tongue out when Riddick looked at her.
He walked away, a plate in his hand. She heard him walk into his bedroom and close the door. Jack just shrugged and looked back at her book. Her eyes darted up suddenly and she threw the book onto the sofa, trying to sneak into the computer room. She logged on quickly and deleted the web sited she'd been looking at earlier. She wasn't allowed to use the computer, even though she was a damn good hacker and knew how to cover her tracks, but Riddick was paranoid. She sensed his presence before he announced himself and Jack closed her eyes.
"This isn't what-" she started to say.
"Don't even think about lying to me Jack." Riddick snapped coolly, "You were cleaning up after yourself. Haven't you learned anything? If you can't disobey me without my knowledge, how can I trust you to not tip off the mercs by accident?"
"I-" she tried again, but Riddick wouldn't let her finish.
"Go to your room and pack. We're heading to New Mecca" he said coldly.
Jack jumped up and tried to follow him, but he shoved her in her room and voice locked the door.
"Damn you Riddick!" she screamed, her fist slamming into the metal wall. She watched the trail of blood from her knuckles drip down the metallic surface with apathy. She then grinned wickedly and opened her dresser to retrieve her tool kit. With a few screws and yanks, the door opened noiselessly. Jack grabbed the bag full of her most prized possessions and silently made her way down into the cargo hold. She threw a shirt on the floor and kept going, striding quickly through the ship. She sprayed her perfume everywhere to confuse Riddick's keen sense of smell, and doused four lab rats with the vanilla scent. She also tied a piece of an old shirt to them.
"Run" she whispered and dropped each off into a different part of the ship. Once she reached her room again, she climbed up into the air ducts. She shimmied her tiny body up and slid noiselessly, avoiding the areas she knew Riddick might be. She found a turn around area and camped out. She had food enough for a day if she was lucky, so she waited until she was sure Riddick was asleep before coming down. She padded quietly and was disturbed to see the cockpit open and Riddick's door closed. He knew she was gone by now, of that Jack was sure, and it didn't make sense that he would just go to bed after she'd disobeyed him twice in one day. She went to the food synthesizer and was about to punch in some codes when she realized that this was the trap. An alarm would sound or something. Jack cursed mentally but moved on to one of the cabinets. She took food for three or four days with her, mostly canned vegetables, but she'd survive. She silently padded back to her hiding place and prayed that Riddick wasn't pissed. *
"Did Riddick find you?" Pip asks, amusement playing in her eyes.
"Yes and no. He noticed the food was gone, but I don't think he ever knew where I was."
* The next five days found Jack hungry but unwilling to go down again. On the sixth day Jack was hungry to the point of distraction and knew she needed to get more food if she wanted to survive. She avoided the synthesizer again and groaned when she opened the cupboards and found them bare.
"Damnit" she whispered. The slight scent of steak and eggs wafted on the air, causing Jack to turn around. Riddick sat at the kitchen table, the steaming plate in front of the seat opposite him.
"Sit down, Jack" He commanded, his tone neutral.
Jack was too hungry to disobey and sat down. Riddick eyes glinted in the darkness and Jack found herself staring him down. Neither flinched until Riddick laughed.
"You've got brains and moxy kid, I'll sure as hell give you that." He threw his head back, "You know, I don't think I'd have done anything different if I were you. By the way, the perfumed rats were a nice touch"
Jack was only half listening. The majority of her attention was focused on the plate in front of her.
"Eat up, kid. You earned it" Riddick chuckled, shoving a fork and his shiv towards the girl. Jack looked at him for a split second before grabbing the utensils and dismembering the steak as fast as possible.
"Easy, don't rush. If you bombard your stomach with food after it's been empty, you'll get a stomach ache"
Jack slowed down, focusing her attention more closely on the food. Riddick watched how she handled the shiv- she wasn't bad. He knew she would at least not slice herself open using it. Teaching her to use it in combat might not prove hard.
After all the food and two glasses of water were gone, Jack looked up.
"Why did you test me?" she asked, genuinely interested.
"You need to remember the details. You forgot to wipe the Internet addresses out of the computer- a very careless mistake. When you live on the run, you can't make careless mistakes. I have to say though, your performance was impressive. You knew I'd look for you in the cargo bay, so you left a shirt so I'd keep searching. You also knew I'd smell you, so you spayed my whole ship with that damn vanilla crap of yours. The rats, though- that was a work of art. The shirt tied to them guaranteed I'd smell you and the vanilla, and I chased one of them into your room. I stopped when I saw that all four were gone."
"Are they okay?" Jack asked, scanning the ground for her experiments/pets.
"They're fine- I untied them and put them back in their cages. I won't have your experiments running around my ship"
"So- did I pass?" Jack asked, her eyes focused on the sleeve of her shirt.
"Yes- for now" Riddick replied, "You're learning. All we have to do now is get you into weapons training."
"Can I learn how to use a butterfly?"
"If you want, but I also want you to know how to handle a shiv. They're cheap to make and can't be traced back to you."
Jack nodded. She got up and walked over to the synthesizer. She pressed a few buttons and a few seconds later two banana splits were ready.
"Enjoy" Jack smiled, relieved to not be going to New Mecca after all. *
"A long time ago, Riddick saved my life. I was 15, maybe 16, and he was the only thing between me and certain annihilation" Jack begins, her eyes becoming unfocused as she begins to remember, "H was old enough that I fell for him- hard. But he was also old enough that I was of little to no interest to him sexually."
Pip snorts at Jack's directness, a trait Jack had inherited from Riddick.
"Imam, the only other survivor, offered to take me with him to New Mecca to give me a 'decent life'. I flat out refused, of course, and Riddick just kind of kept me. He taught me how to fight and, more importantly, how to survive. My parents were undoubtedly looking for me, so Riddick and I stayed stealth. We never owned much more than a ship and clothes, but I did have an impressive collection of digital books and videogames. I got my education with him- he was a very intelligent man. He'd read more books than any other person I knew and could, and on many occasions did, discuss them at length. He even had me do lessons, of sorts, which was another survival skill. I was smart enough that no one would know I was a runaway, thus I wouldn't be questioned."
Jack coughs and stared at the now bright stars. She takes a deep breath, letting the memories she's repressed bombard her once more.
* Riddick stared at the stars, lost in his own mind. Jack was reading in the 'living room', Tolstoy if he remembered correctly. Crazy kid. He yawned and stretched, cracking his back and neck expertly. He slid his body out of the pilot's chair and walked back to the kitchen. Jack looked up as she heard the familiar clunk of boots on the metal floor.
"Done staring into space yet?" she asked teasingly.
"For now" he replied, an eyebrow arched.
"Where to next?" she asked, putting the digital book aside.
"I don't know- I thought we'd stay out here till we starved."
"Was that sarcasm?" Jack snorted. Riddick ignored her and continued making himself dinner.
"It wasn't really funny, but at least it's an improvement." She smirked and stuck her tongue out when Riddick looked at her.
He walked away, a plate in his hand. She heard him walk into his bedroom and close the door. Jack just shrugged and looked back at her book. Her eyes darted up suddenly and she threw the book onto the sofa, trying to sneak into the computer room. She logged on quickly and deleted the web sited she'd been looking at earlier. She wasn't allowed to use the computer, even though she was a damn good hacker and knew how to cover her tracks, but Riddick was paranoid. She sensed his presence before he announced himself and Jack closed her eyes.
"This isn't what-" she started to say.
"Don't even think about lying to me Jack." Riddick snapped coolly, "You were cleaning up after yourself. Haven't you learned anything? If you can't disobey me without my knowledge, how can I trust you to not tip off the mercs by accident?"
"I-" she tried again, but Riddick wouldn't let her finish.
"Go to your room and pack. We're heading to New Mecca" he said coldly.
Jack jumped up and tried to follow him, but he shoved her in her room and voice locked the door.
"Damn you Riddick!" she screamed, her fist slamming into the metal wall. She watched the trail of blood from her knuckles drip down the metallic surface with apathy. She then grinned wickedly and opened her dresser to retrieve her tool kit. With a few screws and yanks, the door opened noiselessly. Jack grabbed the bag full of her most prized possessions and silently made her way down into the cargo hold. She threw a shirt on the floor and kept going, striding quickly through the ship. She sprayed her perfume everywhere to confuse Riddick's keen sense of smell, and doused four lab rats with the vanilla scent. She also tied a piece of an old shirt to them.
"Run" she whispered and dropped each off into a different part of the ship. Once she reached her room again, she climbed up into the air ducts. She shimmied her tiny body up and slid noiselessly, avoiding the areas she knew Riddick might be. She found a turn around area and camped out. She had food enough for a day if she was lucky, so she waited until she was sure Riddick was asleep before coming down. She padded quietly and was disturbed to see the cockpit open and Riddick's door closed. He knew she was gone by now, of that Jack was sure, and it didn't make sense that he would just go to bed after she'd disobeyed him twice in one day. She went to the food synthesizer and was about to punch in some codes when she realized that this was the trap. An alarm would sound or something. Jack cursed mentally but moved on to one of the cabinets. She took food for three or four days with her, mostly canned vegetables, but she'd survive. She silently padded back to her hiding place and prayed that Riddick wasn't pissed. *
"Did Riddick find you?" Pip asks, amusement playing in her eyes.
"Yes and no. He noticed the food was gone, but I don't think he ever knew where I was."
* The next five days found Jack hungry but unwilling to go down again. On the sixth day Jack was hungry to the point of distraction and knew she needed to get more food if she wanted to survive. She avoided the synthesizer again and groaned when she opened the cupboards and found them bare.
"Damnit" she whispered. The slight scent of steak and eggs wafted on the air, causing Jack to turn around. Riddick sat at the kitchen table, the steaming plate in front of the seat opposite him.
"Sit down, Jack" He commanded, his tone neutral.
Jack was too hungry to disobey and sat down. Riddick eyes glinted in the darkness and Jack found herself staring him down. Neither flinched until Riddick laughed.
"You've got brains and moxy kid, I'll sure as hell give you that." He threw his head back, "You know, I don't think I'd have done anything different if I were you. By the way, the perfumed rats were a nice touch"
Jack was only half listening. The majority of her attention was focused on the plate in front of her.
"Eat up, kid. You earned it" Riddick chuckled, shoving a fork and his shiv towards the girl. Jack looked at him for a split second before grabbing the utensils and dismembering the steak as fast as possible.
"Easy, don't rush. If you bombard your stomach with food after it's been empty, you'll get a stomach ache"
Jack slowed down, focusing her attention more closely on the food. Riddick watched how she handled the shiv- she wasn't bad. He knew she would at least not slice herself open using it. Teaching her to use it in combat might not prove hard.
After all the food and two glasses of water were gone, Jack looked up.
"Why did you test me?" she asked, genuinely interested.
"You need to remember the details. You forgot to wipe the Internet addresses out of the computer- a very careless mistake. When you live on the run, you can't make careless mistakes. I have to say though, your performance was impressive. You knew I'd look for you in the cargo bay, so you left a shirt so I'd keep searching. You also knew I'd smell you, so you spayed my whole ship with that damn vanilla crap of yours. The rats, though- that was a work of art. The shirt tied to them guaranteed I'd smell you and the vanilla, and I chased one of them into your room. I stopped when I saw that all four were gone."
"Are they okay?" Jack asked, scanning the ground for her experiments/pets.
"They're fine- I untied them and put them back in their cages. I won't have your experiments running around my ship"
"So- did I pass?" Jack asked, her eyes focused on the sleeve of her shirt.
"Yes- for now" Riddick replied, "You're learning. All we have to do now is get you into weapons training."
"Can I learn how to use a butterfly?"
"If you want, but I also want you to know how to handle a shiv. They're cheap to make and can't be traced back to you."
Jack nodded. She got up and walked over to the synthesizer. She pressed a few buttons and a few seconds later two banana splits were ready.
"Enjoy" Jack smiled, relieved to not be going to New Mecca after all. *
