THE MOTHER LODE BY ABRAXIS
Chapter 10 - BEST BE BOLD
Jenna allowed Ben five minutes of euphoria before switching off the vids. She wouldn't have followed Riddle's and Jeeter's urgings if she hadn't known that Ben would appreciate it. His favorite meditation spot was on the ledge outside his apartment windows at the Institute, five stories up. Something that, oddly enough, gave her a queasy feeling. Hard concrete five stories below was much more threatening to her than limitless space.

She knew that Riddle would immediately expect her to hand over the con and rest. She was not ready to do that. The meal had energized her and this was her time of the day. She had been a hard wired night person from the day she was born. That was one of the things she loved about off-planet; you could always find night by simply rotating the ship's orientation. Also, she wanted to reinforce the effect of whatever had occurred to so radically change Ben's view of himself and her while she was unconscious.

What a stupid reaction that had been. She had never fainted before in her entire life. Even though waking up in Riddle's arms had been ....... well anyway, when time allowed, she would have Syrus run a full medical scan just to make sure it was only fatigue, vodka on an empty stomach, committing murder and ....... all right, and her newly discovered hyper-sexuality, thanks to Riddle, that had made Ben's reaction the last straw on her over-worked nervous system.

Still, she knew that she didn't have to worry about it happening again. With the others she had always maintained her professional distance; being nothing more than their in-house psychiatrist, psychologist and shoulder to cry on. Even with Carl (she couldn't think of the past and call him David), she had only felt a comfortable friendship. That was why she completely failed to give Nora (Sasha was such a stupid name) the pain and angst that she loved to feed on when Carl returned from that convention with his new wife in tow. Jenna's only emotion had been sadness for Carl, for the pain she could see waiting for him when Nora began to show him her true nature.

Only with Ben had she allowed the emotions to flow both ways. Even thought she had been barely four years older than him when he arrived at the Institute, he had fixated on her as the replacement for the mother that had 'deserted' him. Her family having been taken from her even earlier, she had turned eight a month after she walked through the Institute's doors for the first time, she empathized deeply with him and gave him the place in her heart that had belonged to a baby brother that she had hardly known.

It was this emotional tie that had made his reaction to her appearance, so unlike her normal attire and so like that of his mother, such a vicious blow. That and the guilt. Guilt because she had clung to him as much as he to her and had not done her job, had not slowly weaned him away from his need for her, had not done what was necessary to make sure that he matured into as normal an adult as was possible for someone so totally gifted in such a limited range. But, even worse guilt that tonight she had carelessly and thoughtlessly caused him such pain because she was so focused on her own needs and desires.

But maybe the months of semi-separation while she worked on the escape project had accomplished some of that necessary separation and maturing. She couldn't believe that the change in him that had occurred in the few minutes that she was unconscious could have happened without some prior distancing. Still, it was nearly miraculous. Jenna had a deep suspicion that Riddle was the miracle worker. But like a great deal too many other things, discovering what had happened would have to wait until later. She turned her thoughts back to present problems.

"Jeeter, you can open your eyes now and you and Ben can explain why we need uniforms."

Ben started talking immediately.

"We have to have uniforms, Jen. Cameron is making noise and Sasha is backing him. They want a meeting and a vote. Mr. Sen told them they could have it as soon as we wake up after the hyper jump. You know that Sasha will make David vote her way. That makes three to our two. We have to have both Mr. Sen and Syrus on our side and what both of them respect is dotting the 'i's and crossing the 't's; remember lecture number one - preparation, organization and presentation. We have to walk into that meeting looking like a captain and her crew and shove it down their throats."

Jenna measured the importance of this to Ben by the total lack of hacker lingo. The fact that she would have to deal with an open challenge so soon was immensely important to her, also.

"You agree with this Jeeter?"

"Yeah, Ben's got it right. You gotta walk the walk and talk the talk or people don't listen. But ..... well, I know where Barrol's coming from, too. I don't wanna wear no official looking straight jacket either. Ben says that you got an automated tailor shop on board. Says it has every kinda clothes from every time and place you can think ah in its memory. So I thought that you could come up with something that looks .... well, that makes our point but something Barrol and I can live with."

Ben was right about the automated tailor. Sasha had almost driven her crazy over the programming for that damn machine until she had located an association of historical societies that specialized in authentic costuming. With their information added to all of the current designs that she had been able to collect, Sasha had finally been satisfied. No, placated was a better term. Sasha was never satisfied. The thing was also totally functional because Sasha had demanded that she be able to start on her new wardrobe immediately.

"Just what point are we trying to make? Shoving it down their throats and talking the talk and walking the walk sounds a bit more aggressive than just showing a united presence. Am I to assume you want something they will find intimidating?"

Ben and Jeeter spoke as one.

"Yes!"

Then Jeeter added to it.

"But ... well, kinda toner, too. Kinda like Barrol's shiv insteada a machete."

Jenna couldn't help but smile at this comparison. Jeeter definitely had a very effective way of defining by simile. If this was the look they wanted, Jeeter's and Riddle's aversion to the typical commercial or military ship's uniforms was an advantage. She personally had never been impressed with them. The commercial ones screamed employee. The military didn't get intimidating until you moved down to the actual combat troops.

To her, all present day uniforms and dress lacked the flare and vigor of earlier eras. With a few rare exceptions, men's clothing in general had begun to dull out with the invention of trousers by Beau Brummel in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, A.D., on Earth Prime. Of course, she thought, that probably had more to do with the rise of the common man and his violent treatment of anyone who didn't look as common as he did, than with poor Beau's trousers. Those rare exceptions were all in dictatorships, whether political or religious, and they rarely came up with anything truly unique. Most just reached back into Earth Prime history to find something they liked. Dictators were not noted for innovative or subtle thinking and their brand of intimidation had some pretty strict guidelines.

Of course, what was a captain between orbits but a dictator. Now, how could she communicate that without alienating the others completely. After all, this whole thing was their reaction to Galactic's intention to enforce authority over them and 'dictate' the nature and direction of their researches. Some sort of official ship's dress was a good psychological tactic but only if she could keep the intimidation on a subconscious level. She decided that the best approach was to make it a game that they would want to play in which acceptance of her authority was a logical part. That settled in her mind she needed to concentrate on several other things that would be more important in the long run.

"Ben, take Jeeter and Barrol down and get their physical stats into the machine and wire it into the main computer so we can do this from the bridge. And Ben, limit access to the programming to the bridge and lock the pod off so that no one else can get into it until we are finished with it."

As soon as the three men had left the bridge by the starboard-aft hatch, Jenna put the ship on auto nav and began taking care of the important business. First, she accessed the library files and had six copies of the pertinent sections of "Universal Space Law" queued to the bridge printer. That would take care of establishing her qualifications for captain and Cameron's lack of them.

Next, she started taking care of the future. She made notes for Ben on the new identities she required in the registry of ships and for herself. She had never really liked the surname she had chosen and it certainly didn't fit with her change in status. Etta Pace had been nothing more than a camp-follower. She also wanted the ships' names to have a more nautical reference, as well. But she did like her chosen first name. She decided to only shorten it, as Ben did, and to change the spelling to make the gender questionable and remove any possibility of it showing on an alphabetic trace search. As soon as Ben made those changes, Djin Blakney would be the sole owner of the heavy freighter 'White Cliffs', the transport 'Channel Runner' and the skimmer 'Red Flower'. Once the others were delivered, all she would need to do would be change the id broadcasters of the ships to match the new registrations and begin using her new identity papers. Ben could set up an automatic hack that would allow her to remove the old ones with one simple command. She added that to the notes.

Then she referenced the legal section again and researched three types of ship's contracts. The first two were standard crew and passenger contracts for the commercial heavy freighter 'Hole in the Wall'. These she found acceptable as they were, filled in the ship's name and registry and queued copies to the bridge printer. The third, a crew-for-share contract for the independent trader 'White Cliffs', required changes before it satisfied her and was also queued to the printer.

The last thing she did was to add to her notes to Ben an order to create the White Cliffs Trading Co., complete with several bank accounts, and syphon off enough credits from the group's accounts to give her amply funds to carry her until she had a functioning business. The group's consolidated funds were so massive and so well invested they wouldn't even miss the amount she was taking. Hard science paid off a great deal better than soft. Besides, if you were going to be a pirate best be bold about it.
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Riddick had left the bridge without any argument. Ben and Jeeter had made their point about the uniforms to his satisfaction. But now, he was standing in the tailor's booth, his feet on the indicated marks on the deck, his hands on the indicated marks on the walls; spread-eagle and buck naked with his shiv a good six feet away. Even though he was holding the position voluntarily, it was too much like some he had been chained in for him to be anything but totally uncomfortable mentally.

"Hey, Barrol, the machine wants to know which way you hang it?"

It occurred to Riddick that things had been much easier when the little man was scared to death of him. He couldn't keep from growling.

"You want lumps, Jeeter?"

"It's the machine, not me."

Ben came to the rescue.

"I can put in a parameter for loose trousers. In fact, I can put in any parameters you want, leash Jen's imagination just a little. Believe me, she has a really active one."

The booth signaled that it was finished taking his measurements and Riddick stepped out and begin getting dressed.

"Yeah, I got that from the names of the ships. Ok, set it for roomy through the shoulders, too, and wide, heavy belts."

He stepped out from behind the screens that separated the booth area from the rest of the shop and held out his shiv to Ben.

"And see if you can program in a sheath for this, inside at the center back of my belt."

Ben took the shiv gingerly, using only two fingers and his thumb. He laid it in a cubical that seemed to be a small version of the booth and had Riddick indicate the orientation he wanted. The machine hummed away and then signaled green. The sheath that appeared on the display, attached to the inside of a wide belt, was exactly what Riddick wanted. Jeeter took the clue. As Riddick retrieved his shiv, he put his own sticker and stun gun in the cubical.

"Same thing, only boot sheaths. Sticker on the right and stunner on the left, both on the inside of the boot and on the inside sides."

As Riddick made the mental note that Jeeter seemed to be left handed, Ben looked up questioningly.

"That way you can get to 'em with either hand, kid, and it's harder for someone else to see 'em or grab 'em and use 'em against you."

"X-er. But I have to get your measurements before I can program them."

As Jeeter disappeared behind the screen, Riddick smiled. It seemed that Ben was already beginning his education in being calmly and coldly dangerous. He would have to clue Jenna in on that.

"Which ones are you planning to program in for yourself, Ben?"

Ben looked up at him with a hand-in-the-cookie-jar expression.

"Will you and Jeeter teach me how to use them?"

"Yeah. I think that you're right. Knowing that you can do something makes it easier not to do it until it's time for it. Start out with a stunner and we'll get to the serious stuff later."

"X-er, First. I'll get one out of the weapons pod right now."

This jerked Riddick's attention to full power.

"Weapons pod? Now, who's idea was that?"

"Well, Mr. Sen started it but Jen added to it. His list was all modern stuff but she likes antique weapons, blades mostly."

Riddick wanted to know more.

"Wall hangers, huh?"

It took Ben a few seconds to understand what Riddick meant. He gave him a slightly disapproving look.

"Oh, no. Real weapons. I did the searches to find them for her. Her favorite is a really nasty looking curved sword; I think they called it a scimitar. She's pretty good with it, too. I spy on her sometimes when she's working out alone. That's the only time she works with it, when no one else is around. She gets this ..... this kind of dreamy look on her face." The kid suddenly looked embarrassed. "Well, anyway. I better see what kind of stunner I can get."

Riddick wanted to see just how extensive this weapons collection was. He followed Ben, throwing a an order over his shoulder as he went.

"Stay here, Jeeter. We'll be right back."

The modern weapons were a nice collection, just about what you would find in any Regular Forces small arms locker, nicely displayed in sets of twelve; non-lethal stun guns, lethal stun guns and rifles, hand disrupters, pulse rifles, hand lasers and laser rifles. Then came a good selection of various types of grenades, both gas dispensing and explosive, boxed by the gross. There were also sets of universal filter face masks, full coverage contamination gear and full body light armor that would protect against any of the modern weapons. Of course, Riddick knew of a lot of ways to get past all of it with stealth and a simple blade. As far as he was concerned all of it, except maybe the filter masks, just made a man an easily seen, easily heard target. Better to do the enemy before he had the chance to use his weapons. But if you vaguely knew what you were doing and were fighting someone else who vaguely knew what they were doing, it might help you stay alive.

The problem was that except for the stunners, some of the not so nasty gas grenades and the filter masks it was all totally prohibited for sale to civilians, even mercs and planetary police and military. Having any of it brought the Patrol or the Regular Forces down on you immediately and both very definitely knew what they were doing. Of course, that applied to the weapons systems installed in the ships, too. Riddick wondered just what Mr. Sen was expecting to find where ever they were supposed to be going.

He helped Ben choose a compact, very efficient and definitely non-lethal stunner and then got him to move on to Jenna's side of the pod. Her displays, again in sets of a dozen each, made his hand itch. He couldn't keep himself from reaching out and touching the cold metal. He even lifted some of the weapons from their racks and sampled their weight and balance. Even though most of them weren't his style, there wasn't a badly designed nor badly made one in the lot. They ranged from machetes through various styles of stickers and curved blade knives, the ones that really appealed to him, to equally varied styles of swords. There were also pikes and spears in many styles and even two sets of axes, one single headed and the other set with double heads. The swords were limited to weapons designed for one hand. As well as any two handed monsters being missing, he also noticed that there were none of the spindly dueling style blades that were so completely useless in the uncivilized environment of a real fight. He decided that Jenna had very good taste in blades.

Then he came to a display that set his alarms off. Hell! it totally twisted his mind. The whole display was nothing but shivs and there were no duplications. What sent him reeling was that the one of a kind shivs were grouped and labeled with the makers' names. Right in the center was an almost complete collection, if his memory served, labeled "Riddick". Fuck! Now, how did he find out what was going on without tipping anything to Ben? He got lucky. Ben started the conversation.

"That's Jen's pride and joy. She's been collecting pictures for a long time and, when I found a good weapons smith, they were the first things she had made."

"Where did she get the pictures?"

"From the files she was accessing for her research. She has degrees in Psychology, Sociology and Psychiatry down to here," He made a chopping motion at his wrist. "but Criminal Psychology is the specialty that really interests her."

Riddick went cold. Jenna was a fucking yoyo. Ben didn't notice the change in him.

"You can always tell when she has started on a new file. She starts muttering under her breath and then, if it's a really bad one, sometimes she ends up kicking the furniture around."

Riddick got even colder.

"If she hates criminals so much why doesn't she find another specialty?"

Ben looked at him in total amazement.

"Oh, First, you have it all wrong. It isn't the convicts she's mad at, it's the ....what's that word..... oh, yeah, it's the yoyos. That's what she says the convicts call the prison psychiatrists, yoyos. She starts out with comments like 'trite', 'lazy', 'stupid' and then she can get really colorful. That one there in the center, Riddick, His file really sent her over the top."

"A furniture kicker?"

"Oh, more than that. She stopped firing off detailed rebuttals to the yoyos and started sending them and requests for censure to all the profession organizations she belongs to. She spent over three years trying to get support and volunteers for independent committees to monitor and reform penal psychiatric systems every where there was one. It was a real fuser for her. None of those fat heads pulling down big fees were willing to waste their precious time on, their words, undesirables and unrepentant animals. You should have heard the names she called them. All she accomplished was to get a censure from the Foundation about spending too much time on it instead of the behavioral modification stuff that they were funding. She would have quit if Mr. Sen hadn't talked her out of it and gave her all the responsibility for getting the ships and other stuff for our escape to keep her busy."

Riddick knew that his next question had nothing to do with anything but ego.

"What was it about Riddick that set her off?"

"I'm not sure. The way she talked about him, I could never figure out if she wanted him for a patient or a colleague. She said that he should be analyzing the yoyos; that he knew more about psychiatry and psychology than they ever would. She really fused when he was reported dead."

Ok. Ego well fed. Time to get back to business. Jenna wasn't a yoyo but if she had studied his files so thoroughly why didn't she recognize him. His disguise wasn't that good and the shine and, because of her peculiar interest, the style of his shiv should have killed any doubts that it raised.

"What did this 'Riddick' look like?"

"I don't know. Jen has all physical descriptions and photos stripped from the files before she downloads them. She says she doesn't want any non-significant influences effecting her analysis. Are you really sure that I shouldn't have one of those, too?"

The kid's eyes were gleaming as they scanned across the display of shivs. Riddick didn't want that kind of trouble. He had found out what he needed to know, that his identity was still safe, and it was time to get Ben away from temptation.

"No. Until you learn how to use one, all you'll do is cut off your own fingers. Now, show me a scimitar."

"Jen never had hers duplicated and I'm sure that it's in her pod."

Riddick was disappointed. You could tell a lot about someone from the weapons they liked. He had learned a lot about Jenna in the last few minutes but her own personal blade really intrigued him. He motioned Ben out of the pod ahead of him, just to make sure that the kid didn't collect some other play toys for himself, then he had a second thought. Walking back to the rack of curved knives, Ben had said that Jenna's scimitar was curved, Riddick selected two; one about half sword size for himself and another about 3/4 the size of the first for Jeeter. He ginned. Rank did have its privileges.

Then he ordered Ben to lock off the weapons pod. If any of the others got a wild hair up their ass to arm themselves he didn't want it happening. They finished their business in the tailor pod fairly quickly even though, while Ben was programming the boot sheath for his stunner, Riddick and Jeeter had an argument about how the curved knives should be worn. After a couple of jibes at Riddick about abetting Jenna's imagination instead of limiting it,

"You know these are a sure way for us to wind up looking like characters from that vid show "Raiders From the Edge", don't you; all vinyl and syntho-rubber."

Ben sided with him and produced a picture of the sheath and rig that Jenna used for her scimitar; a thin belt that was attached to a waist belt on the right side, ran diagonally across the belly and back and carried the sword sheath so that the hilt of the weapon was about six inches below waist level on the left. Even though the belt and rig were black syntho-leather, the simple, functional design made Riddick pretty sure that Jenna's taste didn't run to vinyl and syntho-rubber.

Jeeter surrendered and, at Riddick's order, Ben had the tailor shop spit out finished belts and blade rigs for him and Jeeter; in black to match Jenna's. They both put them on immediately. Jeeter was definitely left handed. He had rotated the design of his rig so that the knife hung on the right hip. For his part, Riddick was totally satisfied with the fit of his shiv under the belt. He was surprised to find that he was pleased with something else. It had always been a necessity for him to hide his weapons but he found that he liked the well balanced weight of the large knife laying against his thigh.

The image of the scimitar that was displayed along with Jenna's belt and rig had made Riddick hungry to touch the real thing. It had the same style and deadly beauty he went for in a shiv. As they locked off the tailor pod and headed back for the bridge. He couldn't keep from making one more try for it.

"Ben, is there any way we can get into Jenna's pod?"

Ben looked at him with a wiry, prideful smile.

"First, I can hack anything electronic. Computer programming and hacking is just my hobby. Micro electronics; circuit boards, surveillance and detection gear, transmitters and blockers, etc.; that stuff is my field. You want Jen's scimitar, don't you?"

"Yes."

The image of Jenna, standing tall with a wicked blade like that in her hand, gave Riddick one hell of a hard on. Now, what was that? He had run into a few female mercs, even a couple who had dressed like Jenna was dressed to get to him. There had been whores, too, who thought that he was drunk enough to not notice that they were going for his wallet. Surprise, Big Evil doesn't get that drunk. The second the weapons came out any urge he had to bed any of those women had disappeared so completely it was like it had never happened. Why was the idea such a turn on with this one?