Lifeline

Chapter 21

Chikage squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, shaking her head before refocusing on her computer. She'd set up her notebook at the kitchen table and patched it in to the ship's network. Riddick was up in the cockpit mapping out a new course, heading toward a small planet where they could land inconspicuously and Chikage could take Jack into town to get some clothes. Jack was still asleep in her room, the lights throughout the ship called down to dim, partly to ease Riddick's eyes, and partly to let Jack sleep without being in total darkness. She'd thrown a fit last night when Chikage turned off the lights, and Riddick had spent a good two hours in with her to calm her down, finally calling up the lighting to dim.

She sighed, typing on the keyboard some more, shaking her head as she tried over and over to reword her search to get something, anything back. With a frustrated growl, she snapped the laptop shut and stood, pouring another cup of coffee before trudging up the stairs to the cockpit, where Riddick was bent over her nav computer.

"Anything interesting?"

"No," she said sulkily. He turned slightly, sending her an amused smile quickly before turning back to his work. "What are you working on? Routes?"

"No, I've already got the course programmed in," he answered with a slight shake of the head. Her eyebrow rose, and she lowered herself into her chair. A crumpled piece of paper was laid on the console, and she reached out slowly, her eyes scanning over the document slowly. The color drained from her face as she continued to read, not noticing
her keyboard stop clicking and Riddick turn to watch her read. Her eyes got to the bottom of the page and immediately started over again at the top. "Stevens is dead," he said quietly. Her eyes met his blankly. "The doctor." A small nod. "His signature's at the bottom." Another, more confident nod. "I'm working on tracking down Marie right now."

"Why?"

"I have some unanswered questions," he said quietly. "Important ones."

"And you think if you can find her, you'll get the answers," she guessed. An almost nervous expression flitted across his face, but he nodded slowly. "I take it the Evanis program never did any follow ups, huh?" she asked, returning the document to the console.

"Not that I can find," he answered, turning back to his computer. "And if it turns out Marie is gone, I don't know what I'm gonna do." She sighed.

"Riddick…" she trailed off, eyeing him warily. When she didn't continue, he turned to glance at her. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"I have to, Chi," he said, trying to convince her with a confident nod. "If what I went through… if what they did to me…" he stopped, shaking his head and avoiding her eyes. "The only thing I can find out about it without drawing too much attention right now is there was only one person that survived the last two phases of the project."

"You." He made no gesture to answer.

"I don't know how many phases there were, or what happened in any of the phases except what was done to me," he continued. "I don't even know how many people were in each group. All I know is that it was shut down shortly after I was released back into active duty."

"Do you know where the files would be stored?" He shook his head, flopping back in his chair in defeat. "Probably headquarters, wouldn't you think?"

"Either that or the main research branch," he suggested with a shrug.

"Well, we can scope out both." His head snapped toward her, mouth hanging open in surprise. "Sink a termyte in and see what we can access."

"Won't that leave a trail?"

"I can alter the chip to make the originating IP hop sporadically, so as long as I keep an eye on things and shut it down when we're not using it, we should be okay," she said.

"This isn't the kind of situation where 'should be' cuts it," he said sternly.

"I can't guarantee anything with any of my gadgets, Riddick." He sighed, staring at the floor for a while.

"Let me do some more digging and see if I can track her down. We'll go in as a last resort."

"So what happens when you do?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know," he answered, sucking a lip between his teeth. "I have a feeling she'd remember me." Her eyebrow rose. "Stevens did a lot of the work, but when I was, um…" he paused, a pained expression falling over his features, "out of it, she was always checking on me." Chi nodded. "Come to think of it, she was there for everything."

"Do you know what they did to you, or just have a hunch?"

"The clipboard I found didn't have any of the specifics," he sighed, "but from what I can tell…" another long pause, and he let out a shaky breath, instantly making her nervous. She'd never seen him so affected by anything, not like this anyway. If he was every bothered by something it manifested as anger at the least, but this was something else entirely, and it shook her almost as much as it did him. "I was engineered." The breath left her suddenly.

"Engineered." A slow nod. "How?" He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes. "I'm sorry," she stammered, standing slowly. "It's none of my business." She walked to the door quickly, stopping when his voice continued.

"All I remember is two huge needles and a machine." She turned to look at him, but he was leaning on his elbows, his head hanging to stare at his shoes. "One in each arm, both hooked up to the machine somehow." She took slow steps back to his chair, lowering herself into it slowly. "I think I was in there for a week or so. Marie said something about be not eating for a week, being on an IV or something. Must have been longer than that. I don't know. But my right arm was always cold, and my left was always tingly."

"Two machines?"

"No, one. There was just one," he insisted. "Stevens said something about a transfusion." Chikage's brow furled in confusion. "I think they set up a clone blood bag to make sure I had enough to stay alive while they drained me into the machine so it could alter whatever they wanted and then injected it back into me." He continued to avoid her eyes, falling silent again. "Is that a crazy theory?" She took a breath and paused, glancing at him quickly.

"Not really," she answered quietly.

"You know," he said, pausing to lick his lips, "I always wanted to know what happened in all those blank moments of my life." He shook his head. "Now that I do, I'm not sure I want to any more." She reached out, taking his hands in hers.

"All of us were guinea pigs, Riddick," she said gently. "Every single one of us was tinkered with somehow." He gave her a small nod, but didn't meet her eyes. She gave his fingers a squeeze. "There's a record of what happened to you somewhere."

"What if there's not?" He asked, finally looking up at her.

"They wouldn't throw something like that away. It might be buried, but it's there." A small nod, and he looked away again, pulling his hands from hers to stand.

"I'll keep looking for Marie if you want me to," she offered quietly. He nodded, his back to her. She stood as well, resting a hand gently on his back before leaving him to return to her computer.

---

"How are you feeling?" Chikage glanced up from the computer as Jack shuffled out of her room.

"Okay," the girl said quietly, rubbing her nose.

"Hungry?" Jack shook her head no, plopping down at the table across from Chikage.

"What are you workin' on?"

"Riddick needs to track some people down," Chikage said quietly. "Ask them some questions."

"Is he a hitman now?" Jack asked the question while staring up into Chikage's eyes without expression, like it was a question someone heard every day. Chikage blinked quickly.

"No, Jack," she finally answered. "He found out some things about his past he wants cleared up."

"So how are you all affording this ship and all your gear and stuff?"

"We've saved over the years," Chikage said quietly, turning back to her computer. Jack nodded, watching Chikage work for a while. "There's a library upstairs if you get bored," Chikage said, glancing up with a small smile. Jack nodded, also smiling lightly. "Feel free," she added, nodding her head toward the back stairwell. Jack stood, glancing at the refrigerator.

"Can I take something up with me?"

"Sure. Dinner's gonna be in a few hours, just so you know," she answered with a wink. Jack nodded, taking a can of soda before disappearing up the steps, her bare feet thudding across the library floor above Chikage's head. Chi only smiled, turning back to her work. Her brows furled as she scrolled down a list of documents, pulling one up, her eyes widening as she read. Her hands shook as she closed the document and snapped her computer shut, hearing Riddick's boots thunking down the front stairs. He went straight to the fridge.

"We're landing in five hours," he said quietly. She stretched her arms overhead with a low growl, stifling a yawn as she recoiled. He suddenly glanced around the kitchen, his eyes falling on her. "Where's Jack?"

"Library," she said, reaching out for her coffee cup. He looked in the direction of the stairs and nodded, turning back to the fridge. "You wanna wait until we get planetside to eat? Just go out somewhere?"

"I'll stick out, Chi," he said, a slight chide in his voice. She chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess."

"You can take Jack out though," he said cocking his head to the side for a moment, rifling past containers at the front of the shelf. "When you're out getting her some clothes and stuff."

"I was planning on it," she said quietly. He turned around, opening a jug of milk, drinking straight from it. Her eyebrow rose.

"Can you pick up some more milk?" She watched him drain the last of it, the corners of her lips turning upwards slightly as he licked the moustache from his upper lip.

"Yeah, sure," she said with a nod. He nodded as well, tossing the container in the trash. "C'mere," she said quietly, watching his eyes narrow for a second before he complied. He stopped just short of his toes touching hers, and she reached out, winding her hand in the front of his shirt. A small smile played on his lips as she tugged, bringing his lips down to hers for a quick kiss. He broke away, his nose just barely brushing hers, his eyes level with hers.

"What was that for?" he crooned, tilting his head slightly, letting his lips graze hers lightly.

"Because I wanted it."

---

"So how long is this going to take?" Jack asked, taking two quick steps for each of Chikage's long strides. She glanced down at the girl and slowed.

"As long as it takes," she answered with a shrug. "You wanna eat first?"

"Doesn't matter to me."

"I'm starving," Chikage said quietly, nodding toward a small deli a block away.

"Let's eat first then." Jack followed Chi into the restaurant, leaning on the counter next to her to stare up at the menu, then followed to a table in the back corner, Chi taking the seat where she could see the rest of the deli as they waited for their orders. She couldn't help but smile as Jack's eyes widened when her plate was set in front of her, pausing just to look at the giant sandwich before greedily digging in.

"Don't eat too much," Chi warned, taking a bite of her chicken salad on croissant. "We've got a lot of walking to do before we leave." Jack nodded, sinking her teeth in again. To Chikage's surprise, Jack finished the gigantic meal and leaned back, rubbing her stomach contentedly. "Ready?" A quick nod, and Jack followed her out.

Truth be told, Chikage hated – absolutely despised – shopping, unless it was for hardware or gadgets. She let Jack pick the stores and what she wanted, waiting outside the fitting rooms patiently as she tried her things on. A few hours later, she was carrying more than half the bags Jack had acquired back to the ship, the girl skipping happily alongside her. Once outside the main part of the city, Chikage flipped her mobile on and plugged in the earpiece and microphone to let Riddick know they were on the way back.

The ramp was down when they arrived at the private landing strip Riddick had located, and Jack bounded up to the main level, Chikage not far behind. She heard the hatch click shut and nearly plowed Jack over. Riddick was staring up at them, leaning over her computer at the kitchen table.

"Uh, Jack? Why don't you go ahead and start unpacking," Chikage suggested, taking a step past her to set the grocery bags on the counter. Jack nodded, backing into her room. Paper crinkled as she started on putting her new clothes away, and Chikage unloaded the food she'd gotten.

"When were you planning on telling me?" Riddick asked, his voice low and more gravelly than usual.

"Telling you what?" she asked, bending to set the milk in the fridge. She heard him spin her computer around and glanced over her shoulder, her eyes shifting from him to the computer, and back to him.

"When did you find this?" he demanded, raising his voice slightly. She sighed, turning back to the groceries.

"This afternoon. I was going to do some more research later tonight to see if there was anything connected," she answered quietly.

"So when were going to tell me about this?" She whirled around, settling a hand on her hip.

"As soon as I found out if it was accurate and could find the context instead of just taking it by itself, Riddick," she snapped. "You might have already figured this out, but you're not taking on a cut and dry mission here. The shit you're getting into now isn't just a simple single document. There's a lot of things to consider, and taking everything as a part of a bigger picture could end up being a lot more helpful than taking each thing as a separate piece of the whole, and you know it as well as I do."

"So you were just going to figured the whole thing out yourself and then let me in on it, huh?" She sighed, shaking her head.

"I didn't say that," she mumbled.

"What then?"

"Look, you're too close to this. You're not going to be able to take something like that as what it is without having more information to go along with it."

"So what is it, then?" he growled as he stood, crossing his arms over his chest.

"It's one file. I wasn't about to stay there long enough to raise a flag. That's why I saved it and closed everything down," she said, taking an equally intimidating stance. They stared at each other for a while, neither moving or speaking.

"God. You guys sound like you're married." They both turned their heads to see Jack leaning against the wall wearing an openly amused expression. Chikage snickered, shaking her head as she went back to putting groceries away.