Chapter 3
At 0500 hours (five am for all those who didn't know) Riddick walked onto the docking bay in one of the jumpsuits. He wasn't originally going to wear one, he was just going to show up in his tank top and cargo pants but they were kinda rank so he didn't have much of a choice. He had woken up a few hours before he was told to report so he took the time to modify the jumpsuits so that they concealed the thin metal shivs that he made. The docking bay foreman came up to him.
"You're the newbie huh? I'm Michaels, I already know who you are, word travels fast on this ship. Okay, what you're doing today is working on the new skiffs. Under the controls you'll strip a small patch off of the blue and yellow wires, twist them together then bind them with electrical tape. I know you're color blind with the shine job and all so I marked the blue wires with an X and the yellow wires with a slash."
"Appreciate it. Do I need to ask why I'm re-wiring the life support system?" Riddick asked and Michaels perked an eyebrow.
"What makes you think they're life support?"
"The blue wires control the oxygen valves and the yellow wires control the air circulation. When you spend most of your life in Slam or on the run, you learn things." Riddick said and the man nodded gruffly, he turned and walked away with Riddick following. They stopped at the main docking bay and Michaels gestured to the hundred skiffs in ten rows of ten, with a wide sweep of his arm.
"Hop to it boy. Tell me when you're done, even though I doubt that you'll be done today." He said and Riddick let out a low-pitched growl at the 'boy' comment, it wasn't the type of growl that you couldn't hear but feel. The foreman shuddered and walked away after handing Riddick wire strippers and three large rolls of black electrical tape. He put them in the large pockets of the jumpsuit and went to the first skiff.
He boarded it and went to the controls, lifting the faceplate off and looking at the jumble of wires. Leaving the wire strippers in the pocket he took out his shiv and held it in his teeth by the blade, edge facing outward of course, and rooted through the wires searching for all the ones with an X and a slash cut into the rubber tubing. He took two wires and cut the tubing off where the markings were and pressed them together, setting the shiv down and ripping a piece of electrical tape off with his teeth, wrapping it around the vertex's of the two wires binding them together.
Several hours later Riddick was done and it was lunchtime. He walked down the ramp of the last skiff and the foreman waved him over.
"You done boy?" he asked.
"Yes."
"With all of them?" Michaels asked incredulously.
"Yes." Riddick and the foreman couldn't stop the flicker of surprise from his eyes.
"You're dismissed then." He said and Riddick handed him the wire strippers and the remaining rolls of tape, walking out of the docking bay and back up to his quarters. The door closed and he locked it starting to unzip the jumpsuit. He took a shower washing the sweat and dust off his skin and got changed into his clothes that he had found folded neatly on his bed, cleaned and pressed. He laced his boots up, put his goggles back on and left the room going to the mess hall for lunch.
Riddick coded in his selection into the food creator and brought his tray to an empty table in the corner, sitting down and starting to eat. Lot better than prison food he'd give it that much. He scanned the room on instinct and saw only one other person sitting alone in quiet thought everyone else sitting in large noisy groups; the one person he never figured would be sitting alone, Bobby. She was sitting at a table in a corner at the other side of the room with her head back and eyes closed partly, looking at the room through her lashes. He watched as her eyes flicked back and forth across the room and she swallowed. Her eyes closed tight but he watched as a lone tear escaped the corner of her eye to leave a glittering trail down her cheek. She got up and left the room quickly, leaving her tray on a small table where several were already stacked.
He stood and put his tray on the same table, following her. He followed her scent through the maze of corridors and saw a door slide close after her back retreated into the room. He went up to it and pressed the door chime, there was no answer from inside but when he put his ear to the door he could hear muffled sniffling from inside.
"Bobby?" he asked stepping back a little.
"I'm busy, come back later." He heard her answer.
"Busy crying?" he asked and the door slid open a little framing her tear stained face.
"How did you know I was crying?" Bobby asked.
"I heard you, and I saw you start to in the mess hall." Riddick said and she looked away.
"What do you want Riddick?"
"I want to know why you're crying."
"Why?"
"I don't know." He said after a moment of thought.
"Well as long as you're here you might as well come in." She said and the door slid all the way open. He walked into her room and noted that it was bigger than his and better furnished. He said his find out loud and she smiled. "Perks of being the Captain's daughter." She sat down in a large circular chair with her legs tucked under her. The room was dim so he removed his goggles and the corner of his mouth twitched as her eyes widened at the sight of his silver eyes. "Nifty." She said quietly. Bobby looked away and cringed at something, another tear rolling down her cheek. Riddick went over to her and brushed it away with his thumb making her look at him, meeting his eyes. He pulled away suddenly, growling at himself for the amount of emotion coursing through his body with that simple contact.
Riddick fled the room quickly, not looking back. Barely registering the pain the light in the halls were giving his eyes. When he got to his room he locked the door and coded it so if anyone decided to stop by it would play a DO NOT DISTURB message. He sat on his bed with his head in his hands, a spot between his massive shoulders shaking with tension.