Disclaimer: There's a poem by William Blake called The Tiger that I quote bits of.
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For Now
"You won't like my preference of teacher for that task." He looked at her sympathetically.
"Oh… W'Rdah?"
Jaron nodded. "'Don is a good man. Might be good for both of you."
Truth. Acceptance. Peace.
Zemma nodded.
"But that doesn't get you out of MY training. You're improving a great deal and I'm curious where you will top out at."
"At least W'Rdah won't leave bruises."
"Don't be too sure of that!" Jaron told her with a wink.
Lovely.
Jaron, as usual, taught her more about the Now as he taught her more about fighting style. It made more and more sense to her. Not just in herself but how the Furyans had managed to sidestep the cleansing, even before her father began tweaking the controls. And just how devastating the scientists' manipulation of Furyan women had been. That had been out of her father's control entirely, and his motivation for risking everything to help her escape it.
Not all Furyan women ended up on the breeder ship. There were many in the ranks of soldiers, as hidden away, and sterile, as their male counterparts. But those that were left in the hands of the scientists had their minds brutalized to make managing their reproduction easier. Had they been soldiers- perhaps some, like Vaako's mother, were- they could have survived the cleansing within the Now.
The cleansing worked against your will, to program. The harder you fought it the more perfectly it converted you. Truth, acceptance, and peace left the message of the cleansing in you like a document, to be read and understood but not a command. The Now was a directive that left you able to function in the face of anything.
Zemma wondered if it was the lack of the Now that had led her to brief madness, and if Vaako was suffering from the same ailment at the loss of his religion. And speculated how Riddick seemed to possess it so naturally. The Now wasn't a spiritual place, as she first considered it. It was pragmatic outlook on the universe taken to its most literal and extreme conclusion.
In other words, Riddick's no-nonsense attitude was the perfect reflection of Now.
'It gets easier with practice.'
Indeed. No remorse, no guilt. If it was necessary NOW then it was always necessary and so inevitable. Not fate, but acceptance of the truth.
Zemma suddenly wanted to see Nor again, and ask her forgiveness, in her own way, for trying to manipulate the very essence of what Nor embodied because she, Zemma, was afraid to lose her to the Now.
Nature of the beast.
'When thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand forged thy dread feet?
What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?'
She got that now. What hammer could alter the beast? What chain could hold it? She didn't think she would make that mistake again. Tiger, tiger burning bright… she wouldn't try to smother that light.
Zemma smiled at the little unintentional rhyme.
Jaron stopped mid-swing. "Something you want to share?"
"Would it be all right if we brought Nor back here? I can fill in the whirlpool in my room for her to use as a toilet. I…miss her." She didn't know why she was reluctant to say so. Obviously he knew she loved the old cat. But she was here by his design, for his purpose and perhaps Nor was counter to that?
Stop worrying so much, it's not consistent with the Now.
Zemma considered that, yes, the worst he could say was no, and she would somehow solve the problem of seeing her if he did.
"Do you think she's trainable?"
"Oh, cats are very clean, they want to use just one area and not soil their den…"
"No, I mean, do you think you can train her to fight with you?"
Zemma smiled brightly at this. "With your help, I don't see why not."
And so her days would be filled with not one but three training programs. Even the promise of having to spend time with W'Rdah did not daunt her. To learn to fly!
Not much time to learn to love him as you promised.
Time enough. The Now dictates.
He fears you being too close, anyway. Until you can prove yourself a fit companion you are regulated to …
…(fucking)…
…concubine again.
Zemma smiled to herself. She would live with that. For Now.