Many thanks to those who have given me feedback. Most especially letylyf who is not a PBer but was kind enough to cross over and give me her encouragement.
THE MOTHER LODE BY ABRAXIS
Chapter 7 - GETTING TO KNOW YOU, SORT OF
Jenna slammed the com key open. A voice immediately emerged from the speaker.

"Gate Security to Cotton Candy. Cotton Candy come in. Over."

Jenna chided herself. She should have informed them to let Benjamin and Syrus through.

"This is Cotton Candy. Do you have my crew coming through? Over."

"Well, maybe yes, maybe no. Two of 'em look like they could be crew, a little chink and a kid. The other four are toners. One of 'em, a woman, is drunk as a skunk. They say they're your charter. Over."

Jenna thought fast. Something must have gone very wrong for the whole group to arrive without giving her any warning.

"Damn, they're early. Please give them directions to my hanger and transfer me to the tower. Over."

Within seconds, another voice came over the speaker.

"Tower Control. What you need Cotton Candy? Over."

"My charter is here early. Please get me clearance from Central for lift off as soon as possible. They already have my paper work; destination Derius 6, Pango City. I apologize for the rush but I'm sure you understand how particular private charters can be. Let me know as soon as I have the OK. Over."

"No problem, Cotton Candy. Gate said you had toners. You got my sympathy. Over."

"Sympathy appreciated, Tower. Cotton Candy over and out."

"Tower out."

Jenna keyed the remote signals that would close the back hanger door, open the front one and raise the hanger lights to full power. Then she leaned back into the soft padding of the command station. She could have answered the com from either one of the front stations but the command station, in the center of the bridge, was closest to the hatch. It felt good sitting there. She had known that it would. That is why she had avoided it, using only the lead pilot's station. It felt good but it wasn't hers. She leaned her head down and rubbed her temples. Then she felt strong hands massaging her shoulders and neck.

"You look good sitting here, sweet thing."

His hands felt delicious.

"Thank you, but it isn't mine."

She should be getting up. Preparing to welcome the others. But she couldn't find the will to move away from those hands. Or was it the command station she didn't want to leave? Or the group she didn't want to welcome?

"Whose's is it?"

"Maximus'. He's the leader of our group."

"He pilots?"

"No."

"Then he's the leader on the ground. Here, on the bridge of this ship, on the bridge of any ship, he's cargo."

Jenna had read Space Law. Riddle was right, to a point. Captains were required to be pilots and even the CEO of Galactic asked the Captain's permission before setting foot on the bridge of one of the company's ships. But, only between orbits was the Captain of a ship the unquestioned authority. Once in orbit, that CEO could fire the Captain and appoint another pilot to that rank.

However, law had very little to do with this situation; at least any law other than what she set for herself. No one was in any position to be running to the police or the courts and no one else could pilot but Riddle and her. If ever there was a situation where might ruled, this was it. Jeeter would back her and obviously, since he had brought up the subject, so would Riddle; for now and for his own reasons. She felt the heat of Riddle's breath on her neck.

"Say the word, Captain, and it'll be exactly like Jeeter called it."

What was the old saying? 'Devil, get thee behind me.' Well that was exactly where he was; behind her, whispering in her ear. She wished that she could read his mind or at least look into his eyes. But with Riddle that didn't work. Glowing orbs in the dark didn't reveal the subtle secrets that normal eyes did.

Still, Riddle's motives weren't what counted and this wasn't Jeeter's call. It was hers. But what should that be? She let it all rise to the surface; all the desires, needs, hates, fears, loves, dreams; let all of it mix and clash, fight and combine until her answer came. It came surprisingly quickly. She wanted the Captain's chair. She had earned it.

And she wanted more than that. She wanted her ships. All the others had meticulously designed their individual images of the perfect world. Those images were now reality and stored safely in the many pods of the 'Hole in the Wall'. Only two of those pods were hers; an apartment pod and her personal library. She had thrown all her time and energy into making their dreams real because she had none of her own. Her dreams were between the covers of her books, within the cases of her spools; dreams that she thought could never be reality.

Now, she realized that they could; that all the time she had been concentrating on the needs of the others, she had been building her own world as well. The ships were her world. The limitless reaches of space, with all their myriad possibilities, were her world. No matter what the registry papers said, the ships belonged to her and she wanted them.

Her manifest destiny became clear to her. Her determination to have it solidified within her as dense as the titanium-steel of her ships. But with it came a patient peace. She would have her ships but she wouldn't resort to piracy just yet. She would wait until she had safely delivered the rest of the group to their sanctuary. Then, if the group didn't see it her way, she would take them.

"Since you seem to know Space Law, this will be by the book, First Officer. You and the Second Officer, do not use names, will board the passengers and see that they are secured properly. There are two bunks per compartment. If Mr. Sen, S E N - he is oriental, wishes to speak to me, he is welcome on the bridge. But no one else."

"Aye, Aye, Captain." A gentle whisper and then Riddle moved away from her.

There was a hint of some emotion in that whisper that Jenna couldn't identify. It touched something in her. She didn't know how she knew it and she didn't know why he had done it but she knew that Riddle had just put her to some kind of test. She wished she knew how he had graded her answer. Now how ironic was that. She was sitting here planning her betrayal of the group and she was concerned about Riddle's good opinion.

She turned just in time to see him going out of the hatch.

"Riddle!"

He appeared in the hatch again.

"Yes?"

What had she intended to do? Ask him straight out what he was planning?

"Tell Jeeter that he sits bridge with us. ... and Riddle ... play 'nice' with the cargo, ... please."

"Aye, Aye, sweet thing."

The shitty grin was back. Whatever had been in that whisper was withdrawn deep inside him once again.

She remained in the command chair and began her systems checks in anticipation of receiving clearance. All three of the stations were set up for every function necessary; pilot, navigator, com operator, weapons officer. The only difference in the command station was that it could over-ride, partially lock out or completely lock out the other two. Jenna locked out all functions for the secondary forward station. Until she knew just how well Jeeter knew his way around a bridge, it was safer that way.
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Riddick walked aft along the gangway toward the hold. What in the fuck had he just done? No, he knew the answer to that. Why in the fuck he had done it was the problem. Ok, so the woman didn't know what she was becoming or where she belonged and he did; well, at least he knew a big piece of it. He had started to see it the minute she began that tour. Every gesture, every word, every expression on her face as she described this ship and the one waiting in orbit had screamed it. With every brush of her fingers against any part of the ship, she had radiated the same feeling touching his shiv gave him.

So he knew. What was that? Knowing things about people was what you had better be good at if you were going to survive. Knowing things that you could use to your advantage when the time came for them to be useful. But what he had just done sure wasn't that. Provoking a coup d'etat, a civil war, whatever, when he didn't know all the players nor the rules of the game they were playing was just about the stupidest move he had ever made. So why had he done it?

He had done it because she belonged there. When he had walked onto that bridge and saw her sitting in the command slot, she had belonged there. Dressed like an up-town hooker, she belonged there more than any tight-ass uniform mannequin he had ever seen.

He had done it because when she said that it didn't belong to her; said it in that gentle, sad, questioning voice; something had twisted inside him that hurt worse than any bullet or shiv ever had. And he had seen another woman's face; Carolyn's face; gentle, sad, questioning face. He had done it because people could be dead even while they were still breathing and this time it wasn't happening. Pay back was owed. Now that she knew that she wanted them, no one was going to take Jenna's ships away from her.

Riddick stomped into the hold and over to Jeeter.

"Jenna's the Captain. I'm First Officer. You're Second Officer. Use First and Second, no names. Orders are we get the ground-hogs strapped down for lift, two to a compartment. We do it by the book and we play 'nice'. Nobody except an oriental named Sen gets anywhere near Jenna. Then we ride the bridge with her. Clear?"

`"Crystal, First."
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Shit, what had it been? Almost three years? And he had never seen Barrol act like a damn thing was important to him 'cept the cash for a contract. Always just cold, calm and scary. Well, now he was calm and scary, all right, but he sure wasn't cold. Something had bitten him where he lived. Something that had to do with Lady. Something that was making him clinch and unclinch his hand like he wanted to be holding that nasty-assed shiv ah his.

Jeeter didn't even wanna try and guess what had pissed Barrol off but one thing he did know: Barrol wasn't pissed at Lady; he was pissed for her. For the first time since Barrol had collared him in that alley, he had called Lady by a real name 'steada that smart-mouthed 'sweet thing'. Lady wasn't just a thing to Barrol anymore; she had a name. He called her 'Jenna'. Pretty. Wasn't the one she gave G so maybe it was the one she was gonna keep.

Well, whatever was coming down, Jeeter knew which side he was on. He wanted Barrol to know it, too. He leaned back against the skimmer, took his sticker outa his boot and pretended to clean his nails. He kept his voice sounding easy.

"Hey First? If somebody's fucking with Lady, can I kill him a little 'fore you have your fun?"

Barrol turned and stared at him. Sweet Mother, shades and all that man could stare harder than any other man Jeeter had ever known. Then Barrol smiled. It had a nasty twist to it but it was a smile. Ok, maybe he was beginning to warm up a little.

"Seems that there may be some question about Jenna being Captain."

"Like hell there is!"

"Exactly. But she wants to play it legal so that's what we do. For now. So put the sticker away."

"Sure thing. Guess I'll pop the hatches on those compartments and section out the tie-downs so we can get 'em down and secure before they got time to think about making trouble. That all right with you, First?"

"Second, you fall in real easy with ship lingo and prep for someone who just crewed for Tio a few times."

Ahh fuck. When he'd found out that Barrol could pilot hyper he shoulda figured he'd been military. Shoulda figured that, shoulda remembered it, shoulda been more careful. Kept his big mouth shut and waited to be told. But Barrol was still acting friendly. Well, friendly for Barrol.

"So?"

"Soooo, you don't happen to know how you react to hyper, do you?"

His first thought was to lie to Barrol. You didn't get tested for hyper 'less you wanted to be a commercial hyper pilot, like they'd ever let a slum rat like him touch one ah their fancy ships, or was in the Forces. And for him the lie had the same end as the truth. But, hell, Barrol was treating him straight so far. Respected him enough to search him for weapons; something that stupid G had never thoughta doing. And it was a sure bet that Barrol wasn't into turning anyone for bounty.

"Give's me the screaming meemies."

"Too bad. But any more ship's knowledge you have, use it. Just tell me what you're doing first. Now, do those hatches and tie-downs. When they show, I'll keep them here until you're ready."

Jeeter headed for the gangway. Damn, if he'da had a Top like Barrol, might not ah gone AWOL and raider. Yeah, but you didn't know how to do the things Barrol could do being a Top. You didn't know 'em being any kinda Regular Forces. Special Opps, maybe; Cappers for sure. Shit, he'd crossed paths with some ah those bastards going through the line and coming back. They were scary mother fuckers.

Yeah! And so was Barrol! But how did a capper end up with a prison shine? They did shit that'd make an honest con turn green and puke and got paid for doing it. Hell, Jeeter sure wasn't going to ask him. What Jeeter was gonna do was pray to the Holy Mother to give Lady whatever it took to keep him on their side or gave Jeeter whatever it took to kill him if it came to it. Nah, he'd take that second one up with St. Jude.