THE MOTHER LODE BY ABRAXIS
Chapter 12 - SOME ANSWERS, MORE QUESTIONS
Riddick wasn't about to go anywhere. He was going to keep the play where it belonged, between him and Jenna. He wasn't going to join Jeeter and Ben as part of the background. Besides, the way she looked and smelled, all warm and relaxed, wrapped in the comfortable safety of that sensible robe; only a fool would walk away from that.

Her face, now totally free of make-up, was much prettier. To his shined eyes, make-up didn't enhance a face, it hid it. The mellow ivory of her complexion had a soft glow and her skin was unmarred except for a crescent scar at the corner of one eye. He couldn't stop himself from reaching out and tracing the scar as he moved behind her. She frowned but didn't flinch away. Riddick decided that it wasn't his touch but the scar that bothered her. He leaned over the back of the command chair so that his lips were close to her ear again and his nose was surrounded by the short curls of her hair.

"Oh, I think I'll be safer here. Call up the 'Duty' display."

He watched her note the changes. The only one made to the men's uniforms was to the vests. They were still open and waist length but the cut had been changed so that the corners at the bottom front were squared instead of rounded. All the rest of the changes had been made to Jenna's uniform.

The Cossack pantaloons were gone, replaced by body hugging trousers that were only three levels of thickness away from being tights. The back panel of the shirt was gone, replaced by a white breast band and the lacing of the shirt was done very loosely. The short vest had been replaced with a thigh length, flared bottomed one with slits in the sides from the waist down to allow a hip slung weapon to be completely accessible. It was open like the shorter ones but had a thick gold chain stretching across the space to secure it at the waist. If Riddick remembered right, it had been called a Cavalier Coat before they had modified it into a vest by removing the sleeves, opening up the front and selecting a lighter weight material.

While the men's uniforms accentuated their bulk and strength as, Riddick believed, Jenna's had intended them to do, her's now gave her a very stylish, lean look. This look was completed by the addition of platform soles to her boots approximately the same thickness as the ones she had been wearing earlier. He had placed her image slightly to the foreground of the display with the other three arranged behind her; he to one side and Jeeter and then Ben on the other. The captain/crew imagery was perfect both in placement and dress.

Jenna's stylus danced across the control screen and suddenly Riddick's shirt didn't have any lacing, just a deep V that ended about three inches above his belt, displaying a nice strip of bare skin down the middle of his chest. Jeeter chuckled. His shirt got the same treatment. Ben became very interested in the overhead and his tightly laced shirt didn't change.

Riddick had no complaints with her changes. She had warned them about the possibility of revenge and now he knew that she hadn't been trying to throw a bluff. The difference in shirts separating himself and Jeeter from Ben was also a good move. He knew that Jenna was planning on drawing as many of the others as possible into the crew as a way of reinforcing her position as captain. She had printed out too many copies of the crew contract not to have that in mind. He would make sure that any of the others that joined the crew received shirts like Ben's; keep the lines drawn and it wasn't so hard to keep control. He made a counter move by removing the lacing from Jenna's shirt so it was like his and Jeeter's. It really didn't make any difference in the amount of skin showing with the loose lacing and it looked better. It also made the rank designation of the shirts obvious. Jenna must have agreed with those opinions since she didn't reverse the change.

Jenna moved to the important changes. A shiv sheath had been added to the inside of her belt. When she gave him a questioning look, Riddick informed her that she was going to learn how to make her own. Just as he had expected, this seemed to please her. Her only reaction to the sticker and stunner sheaths that had been added to her boots was to add a stunner sheath to Riddick's boot. He gave her points for where she put it; on the inside of the right boot, left hand accessible and leaving his right hand free for his shiv. He got her message loud and clear.

"This mean we're still playing 'nice'?"

"Yes."

Her glow had developed a definite flush and those pheromones were back. He expected her to shift away from him. Instead she leaned her head back, exposing that luscious neck. While he was focused on thoughts of what it might taste like, she turned her face toward him so that when she spoke again he got just what he had been giving her.

"Now, shall I go on to the dress uniforms?"

That warm breathy whisper caressing his ear sent nerve shocks clear to his toes but most of the effect went directly to his crotch. He was damn glad that the back of Jenna's chair was between him and everyone else on the bridge. Other women, a bold few, had tried to play his own game on him but none of them had ever been able to pull it off. They had all attempted to be aggressive like he was. Jenna had played a surrender game and then turned it on him before he knew what she was up to. If the prison yoyos had been as good as she was, they might have gotten somewhere with him, at least the females might have. A man could fake a lot of rehabilitation to get laid regularly. He could play 'nice' for the same reason until the time came not to. He watched her flip the screen and waited for the explosion.

The shirts and trousers, both theirs and Jenna's, were now black satin, the vests a metallic gold and the insignia on the vests done in black. The only change in the style of the clothing was Jenna's shirt. The breast band was gone. The shirt, still with its huge puffed, wrist length sleeves, had been cropped short and chinched with a narrow band just under her breasts that closed with a gold clasp designed to look like three links of the same type of chain that secured the vest at the waist. The open neck didn't have any lacing and it didn't end until it reached the chinch band on either side of the clasp. The collar and lapels were not as large as those of the full shirts but still held the vest where it belonged. The cleavage shown added to the wide strip of bare mid-drift made a tasty display in Riddick's opinion.

With a murmured "Ok." Jenna made a pass at the screen. Riddick's and Jeeter's shirts weren't altered; they disappeared completely. Ben was given the benefit of the doubt, again.

Riddick liked the way Jenna was playing the game. No conservative regrouping or retreat; she attacked, making them give the same as they got. He felt a wicked thrill as Jenna's eyes widened and her mouth formed an 'O' at the sight of his bare arms and almost bare chest. The thrill ended as soon as her eyes traveled to Jeeter's image and her reaction was also one of appreciation. He stopped watching her and looked at the display again. Well, shit. Jeeter had been running a scam. For his size and narrower frame, the little man was almost as buff as Riddick. He could feel his eyes narrowing and knew he was giving other, visible, clues. He knew it because Jeeter had suddenly stiffened and was watching him with that which-way-you-gonna-jump look in his eyes. He was very grateful when Ben broke the mood.

"Boy, am I going to have to start working out."

As Jenna laughed, Riddick relaxed and saw Jeeter do the same.

"You'll have time, Ben. You don't loose your shirt until you get command rank."

Jenna went into a fit of giggling as soon as the last word was out of her mouth. Ben got that gleam in his eyes again.

"And I get a dagger then, too, don't I?"

Jenna stifled her laughter enough to say "Yes." and then it broke out again.

She sounded so young, so joyful. Riddick didn't want to do anything but enjoy listening to her laughter. Laughter like that wasn't something he heard in his world. But there was that look on the kid's face. Hell, he had signed on as a pilot and a weird kind of .... the only phrase that came to mind was 'native guide' like in one of those tourist safari vids. That being the deal, what was all this responsibility crap he was getting into? He tried to make himself believe that his concern for Ben was nothing more that part of the job but he finally had to admit the truth.

It was because Ben was so much like Jack, like Jack was before the darkness, the blood, and the death had given her nightmares. She had gotten over them. Riddick had made sure of that before he left her and Iman. Made sure of it by teaching her everything that he could until she was certain that she could protect herself, be safe without him there. But no matter what he had tried, the tough bravado and smart-assed insolence were gone forever, her open curiosity replaced by wary watchfulness.

He guessed that he was going to have to do the same for Ben, do it before there were the nightmares and the changes. Of course, if either Jack or Ben ever had to use what he taught them, there would be different nightmares. That was the price you paid for being the one that lived. The price you paid until you finally figured out that it was all God's big joke and he was the fucker that deserved the nightmares. Riddick hadn't had nightmares for a very, very long time.

He decided to take care of two problems at the same time; Ben's and the one he had just caused with Jeeter. He gave Jeeter a nod toward Ben.

"I'll make you a deal, Jeeter. I'll teach both of you about shivs if you'll take on training Ben with a sticker and with the weights. Set him a schedule and show him how to do it right so he doesn't get hurt."

Jeeter smiled and nodded at him.

"It's a deal, First."

Then, Jenna added to the mix.

"You really should include Mr. Sen in that. He's an expert at martial arts. His special interest is unarmed hand-to-hand and hand-to-weapon. I don't think there is a move he doesn't know nor one that he can't counter and he makes his short stature an advantage rather than a liability. He's the one who taught me the perverted uses a knowledge of nerve points could be put to."

Riddick and Jeeter both received the warning concerning Mr. Sen and neither made any further comment that could clue Ben into what had happened earlier that evening. While Ben had gone along with their changes to Jenna's clothing, knowing what she had done to G wouldn't be something he could deal with yet, if ever. Riddick suddenly became very interested in just how far Jenna's combat and weapons training had gone. He had a disturbing though that he just might find himself learning as well as teaching.

Jenna, her amusement under control, continued with the business at hand.

"Does anyone have any further changes they wish to make?"

She paused, received only silence and continued.

"All right. I'll put the order into the tailor."

She began keying while she continued talking. Riddick found himself wishing that Ben and Jeeter weren't there and he and Jenna could have continued the virtual striptease and whatever else it might had led to. But, she made the games enough fun that he was willing to take his time getting her into bed.

"It shouldn't take long for the tailor to produce everything. Jeeter, Ben, as soon as the tailor is finished I want you to get the clothing and the weapons we have added. You may have to try a few daggers before you find one that will fit my boot sheath properly. And Ben, see if I have something in my private collection that will fit the sheath that Barrol put on my belt until I have the time to make my own."

She was keying too much to be simply ordering up the uniforms. Riddick was beginning to wonder what she was up to when she explained.

"I'm ordering a new belt since that is easier than modifying the old one. You'll probably need to get a rolling cart from one of the laboratories since I'm ordering one dress and seven day uniforms for each of us. I'm also adding something we all forgot; ten pairs each of boot socks. Jeeter, Barrol, I suggest that both of you check the catalogues and order any personal wear and clothing for off duty that you would like to supplement what you've brought with you. We have a little time to kill and might as well have fun with it. You should also get your luggage from the skimmer. We'll keep everything here on the bridge until after we go hyper and I can show you your assigned apartment pods. As soon as we are in proper ship's dress, we'll have that meeting the others want."

'Personal wear'. Damn, Riddick decided that he must be adjusting to the way she talked because he made the translation immediately. Of course, her mentioning it right after 'socks' helped. New clothes, new underwear; why not. He had been buying the cheapest of everything, saving for his eyes, so why not take the opportunity. But he sure wasn't going to do his shopping on the screen in front of Jenna. He went back to the pilot slot.

Jeeter hadn't made a move toward his own screen. When Riddick pulled up the underwear section on his, 'personal wear' was what you had to enter to get to it, Jeeter gave him a grateful face and began his own shopping. Riddick couldn't decide if Jeeter hadn't made the translation at all or was just unsure he was right about it. Riddick chose boxers and tank style undershirts in a soft silky material, in black. Then, he punched up the robe section. As this was loading, he glanced across at Jeeter's screen. He was still in the underwear section and was studying a screen full of complicated pattern samples and the pallet of chosen colors he was working with was huge. It figured.

Riddick went on to get a bath robe that was the male equivalent of what Jenna was wearing, in black. Then he chose several types and styles of exercise clothing, in black. With that, he shut down his entry into the tailor program and walked back over to Jenna. They watched in companionable silence for quite a while as Ben continue his hacking and Jeeter continue working the tailor program. It was a nice feeling but strange, not something that Riddick felt often, never before with a woman. Finally, he broke the silence.

"Is he going to have enough closet space in that pod?"

Jenna smiled tolerantly.

"He really isn't going as wild as it looks. He's spending most of his time on modeling the selections and choosing colors and patterns. As soon as we get our eye surgeries, you should give him your shades so that he can open those closets without blinding himself. He has a very flashy inner-self, loves variety and is definitely looking forward to off duty time and shore leave."

Riddick looked at Jenna's display and saw that she was monitoring the activity on Jeeter's. So much for using the pilot slot to shop in private.

"I suppose you watched what I was getting, too?"

She met his disapproval with a playful smile.

"Yes, but while I'm very curious, I'm not a total snoop. If you'll look at my screen again, you'll see that all I'm monitoring is section and function activity."

He checked the screen. She was telling the truth. Now, he was curious.

"You want to tell me what the game is?"

She rewarded him with a mellow laugh.

"It's a puzzle to solve. I'm making assumptions from that limited information. When the cart arrives I'll see how well I did."

Now, he was even more curious, curious about how her mind worked with that kind of puzzle.

"Show me how you do it. Replay the information on mine and tell me what it tells you."

Her expression asked him if he was really sure he wanted to do this but she called up the replay.

"Personal wear: two items, multiple copies; my guess, one style upper body garment and one style lower body garment. Robes: one item, single copy; a bath robe. Exercise wear: two multiple copy items and three single copy items. This one is a little more complicated. The multiples are either T-shirts or tanks and either shorts or sweats. I'll go with tanks and shorts. The three singles are paired or single garment suits designed for specific activities. I'd say a warm-up suit and one light weight and one heavy weight set of sweats. Since you chose only one color in each section and never visited the pattern pages, everything is the same solid color and that it is probably black. You took the standard fabrics for everything but the underwear."

So she had been giving them the necessary entry words, not being 'proper'. Good.

"I'd say that you splurged a little there and chose something a little daring, silky or satiny perhaps. You didn't get any sleep wear; you either sleep nude or in your underwear."

Oh, yeah, definitely not 'proper'.

"You didn't model anything; clothing is strictly functional for you and has nothing to do with your self-image. You didn't get any leisure clothing; you feel that as long as you are on the ship you are on duty and, when we make planet fall, whatever you have already will do or you will get something that blends in with the local customs because standing out is dangerous. I'll also bet my life savings that the restyle of the vests and the gold and satin material of the dress uniforms were Jeeter's idea and the tight trousers, bare skin and platform boots were yours. How am I doing?"

He told her the truth and then changed the subject.

"Too damn good but Jeeter deserved to lose his shirt almost as much as I did. Now, what did you mean when you said 'our eye surgeries'."

Now, why did that question make her look so uncomfortable?

"Well, it started because I'm ... I'm horribly myopic, near-sighted..... The awful truth is that I wear glasses with lenses that look like triple-layer plate glass and make me look like a pin-eyed owl because I can't even use eye-drops without having a minor panic attack. I had to wear contact lenses tonight for obvious reasons but Syrus had to put them in for me and he had to knock me out with gas for a minute or two to do it."

Her confession made, she relaxed and stopped her unconscious stroking of the scar that had caught Riddick's attention earlier. He had a hunch that whatever had caused that minor scar had done some major emotional scaring at the same time. Panic over eye-drops just didn't match with the cool control of her reaction to a shiv pressed against a major artery. It seemed that everything he found out about her just led to even deeper layers to challenge him. It had been a long time since he had run into someone who challenged him. She had his total attention as she continued.

"Anyway, when we were making the plans for his medical supplies, he flatly refused to 'clutter up' his surgery with obsolete optical equipment and insisted that I let him surgically correct the problem. Of course, I had the same problem with that as with contacts. To try and convince me, Syrus started giving me the total tour of what could be done to the human eye. That's when I found out about what you call a 'righteous shine'. One of Syrus' assignments for the Institute had been refining, improving and inventing optical surgical techniques and one of the ones he had worked on was righteous shines for the military and certain industries. So I finally agreed to the vision correction if Syrus would agree to give me night vision along with it. That's why I could offer you the same surgery as part of your contract. Syrus stocked up on all the latest equipment and supplies for all types of optical surgery including that one. You should start thinking about what color eyes you want. He has every color and shade of that color that you can think of."

Fuck! What was wrong with her? She reads a bunch of prison reports about shines and gets some oh-gee-wow, how-cool shit going on in her head? The only reason anyone would give up what a shine cost you was to stay alive.

"It doesn't matter. Anything but black/brown. That was what they used to be. You'll have to choose for me. With a shine you can't see colors right. It's like being color-blind in every way that you can be. You just have to guess. And vid screens, computer displays, spool readers, anything like that hurts like hell if you use them very long. Maybe I might have piddled around like Jeeter if colors had any meaning for me any more and if using the display too long wasn't going to make my eyes burn like fire and my head feel like it was splitting open. And righteous shines are just the same when it comes to that stuff. You trade a lot for that night vision, Jenna. You better be real sure that you have a good enough reason for making that trade before you do it."

Suddenly Jenna was angry; ice and granite angry. When she finally spoke and her words told Riddick that he wasn't the object of that anger, he realized that he had been holding his breath.

"That's what you were going to pay fifty thousand credits for?"

"Yeah."

"And it was a legitimate physician?"

"Yeah."

"The dirty rotten bastards! They kept it for themselves, just like all the other things!"

Riddick had a hunch that whatever was bothering her could give him a lot of answers about what was going on. He waited patiently for her to get to it in her own way.

"You're in for a surprise, a very big surprise. Those problems were what Syrus was working on. He said that they had only added some sort of light-reactive chemical coating with a cosmetic color factor to the original process, your type of shine, to limit the night-vision effect and hide the shine in brighter light. He invented a completely new process for both the night-vision enhancement and the light-reactive limiting of it. He says that it not only doesn't interfere with color perception but actually enhances it." She laughed ruefully. "I know he meant that to reassure me but I can't help but wonder if someone else's idea of enhancement is the same as mine. But that really doesn't matter. What does is that you'll have color again and no problem with direct light sources like display screens. That's what you should have been able to get for your fifty-thousand credits!"

Riddick was so overwhelmed with this possibility that he almost forgot he was hunting for different information. Almost but not quite.

"And why couldn't I?"

"Because the Institute sold out to the highest bidders! We found out that they had been lying to us, that our work wasn't being put into public domain. The Institute was allowing the military branch of United Worlds and Inter-Galactic Enterprises, the same military/industrial bully boys that have existed since the twenty-first century, have first call on everything. I don't need to tell you that they don't share well with others. When we protested, Galactic bought out our lifetime contracts with the Institute. Now, they not only own everything we develop, they are telling us what we will develop and denying funding for anything else."

"And that's why you're running."

"Yes."

Fuck! Fuck!! FUCK!!! No wonder both ships were armed to the teeth and had hyper drive and electronic invisibility and that the weapons pod was stuffed with prohibited arms. They were going to have the whole galaxy on their tails. The Patrol, the Regular Forces, probably Special Opps and the sixty-five percent of the commercial community that was owned or proxy controlled by Galactic, aka: 'The Company', which meant mercs. He sure hoped that Ben had been right about everybody in the group being fucking geniuses.

"Just where do you think you can hide out that will be safe from the Company, the Patrol and the Forces?"

"That is not your worry. Even if you decide to make your position as First permanent you will have no reason to know where the others are. Any supply runs that I make for them, you and Jeeter will have shore leave, as you will when I deliver them and help them set up. Consider it fair return for their not knowing any of our new identities and the ships' new identities. There shouldn't be many runs. We've designed the community to be totally self sufficient if necessary."

"The names all of you are using aren't your final names are they?"

"No. And if either you or Jeeter don't stay, everything that Ben has just set up for me and for the ships will change again, too."

Riddick understood where she was coming from but that didn't make him happy with it.

"And what makes you and Ben knowing not a risk?"

Damn, there was that strange, sad gentleness in her eyes that he had seen when she killed G. Riddick didn't think that he was going to like her answer.

"Ben and I are not a risk because everyone in the group that wasn't naturally capable of suiciding if captured was heavily conditioned psychologically until they were. Now, please, go get the luggage from the skimmer."

She turned her face away from him, got up from the command slot, picked up her coffee cup and walked into the galley without looking at him again.

He should have seen that coming. Maybe he had suspected the first part of it but not the rest. He snapped orders at Ben and Jeeter, telling Jeeter to cut the shit with the tailor and both of them to get their butts in gear and collect the clothing and weapons, then bolted off of the bridge into the hanger bay. He lucked out. There was no one in the bay. He entered the BC to find that it was also uninhabited. The others seemed to have accomplished the unloading of the bus and disappeared into the rest of the Hole. He stepped onto the bridge of the BC, secured the hatch behind him and collapsed into a squatting position with his back against it. He rubbed his hand over his head and wished for the many millionth time that he could shave it again.

The image in his mind was of Jenna; the sad, gentle eyed Jenna. She was laying beside him, warm and soft in his arms, that sweet, deep voice murmuring into his ear; telling him when and how he must kill himself.

She was the shrink; who else would have given the others that conditioning? He wondered if she had recorded it for herself but then something told him that she hadn't been one of the ones who needed it. That wasn't the worst of his thoughts. What really had him twisted up was wondering if the ones that had needed it knew that was what they were getting. Did they know or did they go into that trance thinking it was only a simple smoothing out the psyche session and got themselves programmed for dying instead?

Did Ben? For as certain as he was that Jenna hadn't needed to be programmed, he was just as certain that Ben had. How could she have done that? A kid that she cared so much about that his disapproval had sent her over the emotional edge, how could she have coldly programmed him to commit suicide? Riddick had thought that he had become one cold mother fucker but that was way beyond him.

He rehashed the whole evening, searching for the patterns and, more important, for the exceptions to those patterns. Searching for the questions that she was damn well going to answer.

When he walked back onto the bridge, Jeeter and Ben were bringing two lab carts through the other aft hatch. Jeeter parked the cart he was pushing on the bulkhead by the hatch. Ben parked the other cart by the hatch to the crew lounge. That was some fancy tailor machine. Everything on the carts except the boots were neatly folded and sealed in clear plastic packages with the name of the recipient printed on them in large block letters.

On Jeeter's cart here was a small pile of plain black garments on one corner and the rest of it was anything but black and anything but plain. Riddick knew this had to be the extra stuff they had ordered up. Ben's cart held four piles of what must be the uniforms, four sets of boots and the added weapons. It also had a pile of huge fluffy bath towels and a pile of folded and packaged black garments that Riddick couldn't identify. But whatever they were, they had a lot of material in them. Riddick dropped Jeeter's two bags at his feet, swept his new clothing into his and then set it down beside the cart.

Just then Jenna appeared in the galley hatch. When she located the uniform cart, a brilliant smile suffused her face. She crossed the bridge half dancing/ half running and disappeared into the lounge taking the cart with her. As the hatch closed behind her, Riddick found himself staring after her in total confusion. How could someone do what he had seen her do to G and what she had just admitted doing to her own people and still be so innocently joyous, like a child dressing for Carnival?