Do all Furians have this capacity for alcohol? Damn, he could drink!

Zemma had to sip her wine but didn't like the way it made her feel. J'Pheth was working on the second bottle but wasn't looking drunk OR tired. It was running late now, two hours into fourth shift, about five hours since she left Riddick's bed. Thoughts of that kept her awake and her mind pleasantly occupied. J'Pheth wouldn't let her leave his sight 'until the pretender was dead.' So Zemma sat in the sitting area listening to music and watching J'Pheth NOT get drunk.

Damn it.

At least he wasn't insisting on conversation. Another Furian trait? Or just a consequence of the lives of the Furians she had met so far? She still didn't know very much about Riddick's past life. He didn't like to talk about it unless it had some relevance, his Crematoria experience for example.

Does everything have to come back to Riddick?

She knew he found Kyra there, but that wasn't where he met her or where she saved his life. Zemma never felt inclined to press for more details. She understood how much of one's life wouldn't be fit for tête-à-tête. And she never had a friend with which to share heart to heart discussions, so she didn't miss it.

Did I kill Kyra, giving her that knife?

Crematoria was a 'slam' and Kyra had been there. She never really thought about female convicts being stationed with their male counterparts. Her 'prison' had been almost exclusively female, except for those boys who could still pose as girls. Yet there had still been chaos and violence on the breeder ship; too many people and not enough space, or food, was bound to have that effect on anyone. Women were pulled from their cells to see the 'doctor' and ended up pregnant, adding to their stress, and the population.

It's surgically reversible, you know.

Now that is enough!

Time was creeping by so slowly and her mind tended to whirl very quickly as it was.

Start thinking about how you're going to warn Riddick that there will be twenty men in this room when you invite him over.

He'll see the mask for what it is. He'll come prepared.

Twenty men! And thirty more in the 'port awaiting orders from J'Pheth.

He'll see something is wrong; he'll come prepared.

Will you be prepared?

Zemma never saw exactly what happened in the throne room the day Riddick killed the Lord Marshal. She just knew Kyra died there too. She should have called up the recordings, but continued to feel a nagging guilt about her role in Kyra's death.

She worried about Nor too. She had thought of Nor as protection mostly because no one would mess with six hundred pounds of armored cat. But J'Pheth could just shoot her unless Nor had reason to attack him from behind. The only command that Zemma had taught her that was even close was 'get him' in Furian, used when they were playing with Mab. Nor would undoubtedly attack anyone attacking Zemma in hand to hand combat, but shot from across the room?

Took too many things for granted.

Have I taken Lord Vaako's loyalty for granted? I thought I was witnessing the acts of an honorable man. But what of Dame Vaako? Was she still in the suite? Was she still alive? Why would he look so miserable and grief stricken? Riddick told you Vaako took the last swipe at the Lord Marshal, the one that allowed Riddick to kill him. It was reason enough at the time to keep him First Lord and Commander despite his wife's attempt at poisoning.

Besides the fact that it was good politics.

So what is his grief? That he killed his wife? Or that he moved against his Lord Marshal, undoubtedly at her urging? 'Victory and duty are all I have left,' he said. Honor was missing; but was it his or his wife's? Or both? Maybe best just to keep an eye on him for a while.

And you thought he looked handsome when he was haggard.

Oh, stop.

How long has Riddick been asleep? He never slept long periods of time. He was probably up by now, showering and dressing…

You haven't actually seen him naked.

In two more hours the first shuttle will be arriving with the fifty faithful. J'Pheth wont allow you to message him until the men arrive.

It'll have to be just before the men arrive. I can't make any kind of indications with forty eyes watching me. And I think I know how to clue Riddick in on the numbers, if J'Pheth isn't in full view.

And Ferrin's things are still in the closet, his weapons. Can you do it?

Not in a stand up fight.

But in the dark?

Yes.

Zemma hummed along with the next song feeling a little better.