THE MOTHER LODE BY ABRAXIS
Chapter 13 - COWARDS OR CONFUSED
Jenna felt like a coward, hiding out in the galley and then making that childish dash for the sanctuary of the lounge, but she just didn't want a confrontation with Riddle until after she had settled matters with the rest of the group. And she had no doubt that there would be one. There was no way he was going to let what she had just dropped on him remain where she had left it. She could just imagine the horrible conclusions that he was jumping to. The fact that some of them were probably true didn't help. She rationalized this deception with the fact that she was truly excited about the uniforms. Her childhood had been much too full of studies to ever allow for such frivolity.

She sorted out the dress uniforms into four piles on one of the couches, her own little afterthought on the bottom of each. She made sure that the two black satin shirts, cut the same as their white duty shirts, were in Jeeter's and Riddle's piles. She had loved playing the game and wouldn't mind in the least having them running around shirtless for her enjoyment (Oh my, especially Riddle) but they needed to have a more civilized look for the benefit of the others. The group had to accept them as intellectual peers, as expert in their own field of knowledge as each of them were in theirs. Exaggerating the physical would make that even harder.

There was also a change in Ben's shirts. Both duty and dress were now laceless like Riddle's and Jeeter's. He would have to earn his dagger but his loyalty had already earned him the right to stand out from any of the others that agreed to become crew. Nor would the others have gold dress vests. She had designated black satin for theirs. But, she had some other perks to offer in exchange. She added a bath towel to each pile and then concentrated on her own clothing.

She had decided that she liked the design of the cropped dress shirt better that the full shirt with band and had ordered her white duty shirts in the same style. She had also made adjustments to the shirt, adding internal support and enhancement, and had ordered panties that wouldn't show under the tight trousers. While men knew what they liked to see, most of them really had no idea of the internal mechanics required to keep that look when you were doing anything other than standing perfectly frozen in the perfect pose. There was also her personal desire that she not visibly announce every cool air current and every reaction to Riddle with her nipples.

She had never had any interest in clothing until her forays into the outside had forced her to make a study of it. She had been surprised to discover how dependent most people were on clothing in their judgements of others. It had opened a whole new world of psychological and sociological studies for her. Consequently, she had become very fashion conscious in an odd way, her judgement of such things not being her own set preferences but those of whatever environment in which she happened to find herself; a sort of relative fashion sense. Part of that education had been the secrets of making the designers' garments look and behave as they were intended to.

Finding that the changes had been made to her satisfaction, she began dressing. Her mind turned to Riddle. He was not what she had expected. He was much more intelligent, more introspective and consequently much darker in his perception of others. He was totally a 'lone wolf' personality. This was not something that she would have found acceptable if she had any choice, if there had been any other candidate for the job. Yet, she had come to realize that something else was going on, something that was causing him to behave against type.

The first clue was his intention to rid himself of the dead-give-away of his shine even if it meant losing his night-vision; something that had to have become a major factor in every aspect of his life. That could only mean that he was determined to end his criminal career. The second and much more important one to her, since it went against his basic personality, was that he was making a conscious effort to relate to both Jeeter and Ben in a positive manner. While he demanded the position of leader, not unreasonable given the abilities and personalities involved, he was functioning as a part of a group. More than that, he seemed to have taken on a strong protective attitude toward Ben.

How he was relating to her? She was having trouble with that. Obviously, he was playing the necessary games to get her willingly into his bed. But she kept feeling that there was more; that he was interested in learning more about her than what was necessary for that. His manipulating her into not only assuming the command slot but setting in motion the plans to keep the ships for herself was part of this. True it had been nothing but a gentle push in the direction that she wanted to go. But, he had read her need for it, had taken action to see that she acted on that need and had done it with a cunning and deft touch. There was also that odd feeling of being tested. Since then, there seemed to be an intensity about the way he studied her actions, reactions, decisions, motives; she had felt that he was analyzing her as 'professionally' as she was analyzing him.

This was so improbable that it made her doubt herself. After all, with the emotional effect he was having on her, she wasn't in the best condition to be trusting her intuitions no matter how trustworthy they had proved in the past. All of this could be nothing more than her own wishful thinking. In fact, it was highly probably that it was exactly that.

While she had studied the histories, profiles and psychological patterns of every one of his type that she could get her hands on, he was the first she had actually met face to face. ("and body to body" - Damn, her super-ego could be so witty at times, usually the wrong times.) It was no wonder that she found him completely fascinating. As if this wasn't problem enough for her to deal with, in what little she knew of his history and abilities and her own observations of his personality, if those could be trusted, he resembled the only living person that she had ever developed a fixation for. Even the pseudonym that he had chosen was a constant reminder. Why couldn't he have used Enigma or Puzzle or ... or any thing but Riddle ...... anything that didn't sound like Riddick.

Oh, what a fantastic mind he had; what marvelous games he had played with all of the supposed professionals that they had thrown at him. He was so different from any of the other files that she had worked on. His raw intelligence and the patterns in which his mind worked fascinated her. She had wanted nothing in her life more than she had wanted to be sitting on the other side of the partition from him testing her own mind against his. But she had never met him, could never meet him. He was dead. Since it was doubtful that Riddick himself could have lived up to her fantasies about him, it was impossible that Riddle could carry the reincarnation of those fantasies.

She steeled herself against making such a novice mistake as letting her own psychological hang-ups influence her judgement and turned her attention to her image in the full length mirror.

She could hardly believe that the woman in the mirror was her. She walked forward comparing the image to the one she had seen in the saloon mirror. There was the same overt sexuality but the aura was completely different. Instead of soft, vulnerable, inviting; this was hard, powerful, challenging. It was like comparing the feline attributes of a tabby cat to those of a panther. While the design was totally fanciful it had a quality of functionality that spoke of serious purpose underneath the playfulness. The cut of the long vest and the slightly lowered waistline of the trousers was extremely flattering to her not perfect figure, giving her a leaner, svelte look by lengthening her shorter torso without taking anything away from her long legs. The whole ensemble was comfortable to wear and allowed a wide range of motion without binding. The uniform worked.

The next step was her weapons. The first were the earrings. Then, she placed the dagger and stunner in her boots, buckled on her waist belt and attached and buckled the sword rig. The touch of cold metal against her back reminded her of the request she had made to Ben to see if something in her shiv collection would fit the pocket that Riddle had added to the back of her belt. Obviously he had. Interested in which one it might be, she reach back and, after a tentative touch to establish the proper hold, withdrew the weapon from the pocket. It was beautiful and wicked and she didn't even have to look at the engraved area under her fingers to know who had made the original that it copied. Shit! Were the fates totally intent on fucking up her mind?! The shiv that fit the pocket that Riddle had designed was one of Riddick's. It took all of her control to replace the blade in the belt pocket rather than throwing it violently across the room.

She began making Tai Chi moves to calm herself. She moved on to her favorite pattern of offensive and defensive moves for hand-to-hand combat. She ended with practicing hand holds and moves to give herself some practice drawing and achieving an attack posture with the dagger and the stunner. Once she achieved a good level of control, she turned her attention back to the business of the uniform.

She added the final touch, her afterthought; an ankle length, extremely full cape with cowl collar. She made a quick turn and watched as it flared beautifully. She drew the cowl over her head, pulling it low over her forehead. She could see perfectly but her face was in deep shadow and almost impossible to see. Perfect. She left it that way and exited onto the bridge.

Jeeter and Ben seemed to be speechless at her appearance. Riddle gave her his twisted grin.

"Now, where do you plan to wear that?"

She couldn't help but pay him back for that smirk. She threw off the cowl.

"I thought that it would be perfect the next time someone leads me down a dark alley. Just a little something to keep me from having to hide behind a dumpster."

While Jeeter rolled his eyes at the memory and Ben looked completely puzzled, Riddle laughed in a full throated rumble.

"Actually, I ordered one for each of us. They're for official trips planet side or to other ships. For now, they're to keep us from seeing each other in uniform until we are all dressed. Now, gentlemen, the lounge is yours."

She crossed to the galley to get her coffee that she had left there when the carts arrived. By the time she had warmed it up, adjusted the sugar level and returned to the bridge, Riddle had disappeared into the lounge, Jeeter was once again exploring the variety of the tailor, oh what a dandy he was turning into, and Ben was working seriously on the new identity packets that Jeeter and Riddle had given him. She was able to relax. She used the time to create the uniform displays that she would need when, if, she was successful in persuading the others to join the crew.

Then Riddle returned. As Jeeter took his turn in the lounge, Riddle seated himself on the deck at the side of her chair and, facing her, leaned back against the supports of her control console. But the expected confrontation didn't come. Instead, he briefly turned aside the cape to show the black satin shirt he was wearing.

"Did you back down on your part of this, too? Is that what the capes are about?"

Jenna was definitely not in a mood to give him straight answers.

"Why? Would that disappoint you?"

"Would you like it, if it did?"

Ok. Give him something to think about but change the direction.

"That would depend on why it disappointed you. But, I didn't back down, as you put it, on mine. The only reason that I did with you and Jeeter was I thought the other would be a bit too distracting, threatening. I want the group open to persuasion not immediately on the defensive. If Galactic hadn't played with such a heavy hand we wouldn't be in this situation. Which brings up another question."

She raised her voice to call across the bridge.

"Ben, why did Mr. Sen decide it was necessary to escape immediately instead of waiting until Syrus and you had finished with the ID work? If we hit a Patrol check there could be problems."

"Well, I've got Jeeter's finished. The erasure was more detailed than the rest of us, but then whose wouldn't be. I can't do much more with First's until I get a name, eye color and a past history. We had to scat because Galactic is sending in their keeper squad in the morning. That oh-seven-hundred that Mr. Sen gave you is a close-to-it. That's when they're scheduled to arrive but the detonator is wired to their entry. So is the back-at-you hack signal. It transmits ten seconds before the boom. We were already packed up when you called in. Mr. Sen said that, if things didn't work out with your meeting, 'we will have to trust that Jenna's work with the simulator will be sufficient'. That would have been a real fuser for you, I bet."

Jenna wasn't surprised by Ben's comment about Jeeter's history being detailed. She had already realized that he had been lying when he claimed not to be documented anywhere. She was considering how she was going to deal with this when Riddle spoke.

"Back-at-you hack?"

"Oh, yeah! It was Jen's idea. We all listed the people, businesses and institutions that we hate. I set up hacks that the signal will activate that will blitz their systems, totally or partially, your choice. Fun, fun, fun and makes us look like we were off the scale far enough to turn the Institute and ourselves into molted slag. Galactic's corporate and branch systems were top of everybody's list. And were they easy. Even their 'secret', 'hack proof' backups were nothing special. Just couldn't imagine anyone having the guts to take them on, I guess. They're going to get the full treatment. Even their hardware is going to self-destruct.

"One of Jen's was the hardest to rig, very selective, but I did it. Every document in every prison data base that has a psychiatric, psychology or sociology department tag is going to disappear, poof. I told you that they had fused her out."

Oh, well. Jenna had suspected that Ben had talked too much about her. At least it was out in the open now. Riddle was smirking again.

"Doesn't sound like that's a smart thing to do."

She shrugged.

"It wouldn't be polite to leave without saying good-bye, would it?"

Riddle's face twisted into a snarl. My God, what had she said to cause that? For the first time since she had met him, she was afraid of him. Then, just as suddenly as his anger and hate had appeared, it was gone; his emotions under control. His smile wasn't much better than the snarl but it seemed to show approval.

"No. It wouldn't be. Now, tell me why you want to have night vision?"

The flurry of change in him had completely off-balanced Jenna. She blurted out the truth.

"Because that's the only place where I feel alive." Then she covered the depth of that confession. "But then, I'm not facing the sacrifices that you did. Syrus is really excited at the prospect of having the opinion of his improved process from someone who has actually, now how did he put it, 'field tested' the original process. All of his subjects were volunteers that had not had any previous optical surgery of any kind."

She could see that she had diverted his attention. His next question confirmed this. It also demonstrated how shallow Riddle's trust of others went.

"Yeah, he's hot to do it, all right. That's why he wants me to give everyone the recovery shots, so he can set up for it. Want's to do both of us at the same time, both of us blind at the same time, which isn't happening. We'll take turns and use the lounge and bunk room to hole up here on the bridge until both of us are recovered. That way we can con and watch each other's back at the same time. You call it. Who goes first?"

Jenna fought the emotional effect that this tacit admission of trust and partnership had on her. After all, it wasn't as if he had much choice. It came down to her or Jeeter and she certainly had the more obvious need to protect Riddle. She tried for a moment to make the decision he had asked of her. She couldn't. There was too much conflict between her needs and what Riddle's needs might be.

"No. The choice is yours. You have suffered the loss of normal sight for a very long time. While this may suggest that you would want to be first, you have no history with Syrus to give you any confidence in his expertise and may wish to observe my surgery and the results of it before you take the risk."

"So, eye drops freak you but you're willing to be first just to make me feel better about it?"

Jenna couldn't keep from laughing. He was so right about her ambivalent feelings toward the surgery.

"Since you mentioned my cowardice; and, yes, it is just that; I have a favor to ask of you that may bother you more that going first would me. Syrus is an excellent physician technically but he has a horrible bed-side manner. Do you think that you could find the patience to hold my hand until I'm unconscious and then talk me through the adjustment period after the surgery? It shouldn't effect your choice of going first or second. You can do equally well using either the experience you have already or that you will have with the new process."

Riddle stood up rather quickly. As he stood looking down at her, she could feel an almost angry determination in him.

"No I can't. I'll go first. You don't go for the shine unless it's what he says it is."

He walked away and into the galley before she could make any reply. Well, well, well. Professionally, she found his reaction interesting. Personally, she found it irritating. His being that protective was certainly flattering and she would welcome his experienced opinion but she rebelled at his assumption that he had the right to make such a decision for her. Only the fact that he was totally correct in his opinion that both pilots shouldn't be disabled at the same time kept her from becoming stubbornly determined to have her surgery before he was conscious again after his.

When Riddle returned to the bridge he went straight to the pilot slot and began working with the nav computer. He was obviously avoiding any further conversation. Jenna realized that her reference to his experience during his original shine surgery had triggered this. She decided that, if the memories of it were bad enough to elicit that intense an emotional reaction from someone as hardened as he was, she didn't want to delve into them further any more than he did.

Jeeter returned and Ben took his turn in the lounge. The only matter that required her attention was a request from Jeeter to replace the buckle on his waist belt with his razor buckle. Jenna allowed this with the stipulation that he would make a new one for himself and matching ones for her and Riddle with the sunburst and the proper slot insignia as the decorative pattern and matching small buckles, without razors, to replace those on the weapon rigs. She also requested a matching buckle, without razor, for Ben's belt. He agreed with enthusiasm and she opened the equipment and materials files of Cameron's metallurgy lab for him. His total attention focused on them and he became just as incommunicado as Riddle until Ben's return signaled the time had come for the unveiling. Jenna could tell by Ben's smile that he was pleased with the change in his shirt.

Though Jenna was fairly certain that she had prepared well to prevent any serious conflict in the meeting with the group, the anticipation had put her on a slight adrenalin high. She felt playful. She keyed the bridge security camera to display onto the main viewer and lined the four of them up as they had been in the tailor display.

"Well, gentlemen, the time has come to see if we look as good as the tailor said we would."

She dropped her cape and the others followed her motion almost simultaneously.
-
-
-
*************************************************************************
-
-
-
Riddick felt like a coward as he slid into the pilot slot and pretended to concentrate on the nav display. But he needed time to think. This whole thing was beginning to blow up in his face. Four years ago there had been a woman, a kid, a merc, a holy man, a bunch of other people and monsters. Somehow the woman had made him the one responsible for saving all of them from those monsters and had ended up dying to save him. All he had been trying to do ever since was to give some kind of meaning to that death by doing what she had asked him to do; rejoin the human race, end his criminal behavior and try to live straight.

This contract was supposed to be the beginning of that pay-back. Instead, he was back where he had started: a woman, a kid, a holy man (that thought threw him for a moment but he had to admit that Mr. Sen gave him the same feeling that Iman did), a bunch of other people and monsters. The only thing missing was the merc. But the monsters weren't the kind he could gut with his shiv and the woman wasn't Carolyn.

Carolyn he had understood; simple basic survival vs. simple conscience. There was nothing simple about Jenna. Jenna ... so cold that she could program those closest to her for suicide; could figure out a way to torture a bleeder in a quick minute; and could shove a cylinder of death up a man's nose ...... yet, so warm that she saw something in Jeeter that no one else had and offered him a new life instead of a beating; felt guilty because she hadn't changed clothing and had upset Ben; and, even though she was core scared, wouldn't choose the second slot for the surgery as she wanted because she thought his need was greater than hers.

On top of all that, she had an uncanny talent for saying things or doing things that hit the sore spots inside of him; that brought back memories, not only from four years ago but from every part of his life, that he wanted to stay buried. When that happened it was as if the way her mind worked was too close to the way his did; the way she saw the world outside that mind, too much the way he saw it. Even her life was paralleling his. She had died on Derius 4, lifted into space determined to be something she had not been before and had made sure that she took what revenge against her monsters that she could as she left.

He couldn't help but see the humor in the fact that, if the hack worked as Ben had described, she had probably done a better job of that revenge than he had. Oh, The Company wouldn't fall but, fuck, they were going to bleed; bleed trillions of credits each day until they got their wounds bandaged. As for the yoyos, she had given them eighteen hour days with migraines and ulcers. He was sure that the cons would see to that. Playing with yoyos was one of their favorite diversion. Oddly enough, even the guards thought it was fun. ..... Oh, shit! The guards' files would be ripped the same as the cons'. Their files would have to be repaired before they could receive any raises or promotions, time out of the facility or transfers. As Ben said: fun, fun, fun.

But Jenna's monsters could follow her off planet, most certainly would if they got the smallest hint that she and the others were still alive. That's where he came in. She had made it very clear that she need him to teach her, and probably the others, how to survive and defend themselves in an alien place; because the world outside of their Institute was just as alien to them as that planet had been to the others, just as much the lair of their monsters. Once again he was fucking responsible.

At this low point of his thoughts, he glanced at the nav display. He discovered that he had been unconsciously plotting the best jump from their present location to New Mecca. He had even given it an execute code name and locked it into the memory. He comforted himself with the fact that at least he understood that reaction. The focus of his thoughts couldn't have failed to bring thoughts of Jack and Iman along with the others.

They had already been on his mind anyway because the last few messages he had received in the safe drop he had arranged hadn't sounded right. There hadn't been anything that he could put his finger on but his gut told him that Iman was worried about something. The holy man had actually wished him God's blessing for the end of his pilgrimage. This was as close as Iman could have gotten to telling him to get his ass in gear and get back to them. He had tried to believe that it was just the holy man's disapproval of the way he was financing his new beginning, the only way he had to do it, but there was still that uneasy feeling that it was more than that.

He had just begun speculating on what Jenna's reaction might be to a request for a detour in her planned escape route when Ben returned to the bridge. At Jenna's order to form up behind her, he quickly locked down the nav program without taking the time to remove his plot to New Mecca and took his place while doing his best to seem interested so as not to ruin Jenna's fun.

As their images appeared on the viewer, he was more interested in the reactions of the others than in the display. At least he was until his eyes dropped from Jenna's radiant face to the rest of her. That tailor machine might have all the bells and whistles but it hadn't done justice to the reality. But there was more than just her physical appearance. As she took in the power staged image of herself as leader, flanked by the others, she became that leader. Her aura rippled and surged with strength, pride and a sexuality that put a tight knot in his throat. He was struggling for words to describe it when Ben made his own appraisal. It was a righteous one.

"Hot damn! Stand and deliver. Captain Jen and her bad-asses have arrived."

Riddick was surprised to find that his bad mood had made a complete turn-around as he watched Ben dash to the com slot and open the ship's intercom.

"Now hear this. Now hear this. There will be a meeting of all crew and passengers in the library, immediately. All crew and passengers will gather in the library, immediately. Ca...."

Jenna had followed him and now clamped her hand over his mouth and switched off the intercom.

"Save the introductions until the meeting, Ben. Now, allow access to the tailor from the library and then get the legal packets and the contract forms for the Hole."

Riddick watched as Jenna crossed to the weapons slot and began punching keys on an auxiliary board whose function he had not figured out during his initial scan of the bridge. A diagram of the ship appeared on the main viewer with nine position locaters blinking on it. With this visual aid, Riddick began to appreciate the design of the ship to a much greater level.

The image of it, as they had approached in the BC, was that of a standard monster freighter; the bridge, with its crew quarters and galley, and engines, with their accompanying support and maintenance area, and the connecting gangway on the lowest level with a rack of pods, nine wide and four high, stretching in between. The first clue that it was not standard was the BC's bay being camouflaged to appear as four separate pods. Most freighters carried their auxiliary vehicles in obvious hangers under the bridge area. The Hole only had a standard coupling hatch in the connecting gangway. He had gotten some idea of how non-standard it was during his trip to the tailor and weapons pod and to Jenna's apartment pod. Now, from the diagram, he could see the full extent of it.

What looked like a standard pod rack was a two level, five pod wide core, camouflaged and shielded from attack by standard pods on all six sides. Most of these were labeled as supplies for settlement but a good number were excellently placed weapons ports. He also knew, from his trip inside that the fourth level would stand up to a Patrol inspection without giving away the secret of this core. The Hole was a fortress in space. A fortress with room for guests. There were twenty-four apartments.
-
-
-
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

--------PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS
E-------PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS
N-------PODS--PODS____LABS___________LIVING AREAS_______PODS--PODS--LOUNGE
G-------PODS--PODS____LABS___________LIVING AREAS_______PODS--PODS
I-------PODS--PODS____LABS____LIVING AREAS___AUX BRIDGE_PODS--PODS---BRIDGE
N-------PODS--PODS____LABS___________LIVING AREAS_______-----BAY------
E-------PODS--PODS____LABS___________LIVING AREAS_______-----BAY--------GALLEY
S-------PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS
--------PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS--PODS
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

LEVEL 1 - ALL STANDARD PODS
LEVEL 2 - PODS (LABS AND APPARTMENTS) PODS
LEVEL 3 - PODS (LABS AND COMMON AREAS, AUXILIARY BRIDGE) PODS
LEVEL 4 - ENGINES, STANDARD PODS, GANGWAY,(BAY) , BIDGE
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
-
-
-
Jenna hit a function key and a name appeared with each blip except two. The two unlabeled blips were on the bridge of the diagram. Jenna checked his and Jeeter's locations and her fingers flew across the keyboard again. 'First' and 'Second' appeared beside the correct locaters and the blips labeled 'Jenna' and 'Ben' were re-labeled 'Captain' and 'Com Op', respectively.

The auxiliary board belonged an internal security system the likes of which Riddick had never seen before. The only ones he knew of that could distinguish identities worked with sensors, either implanted or worn and, as far as he knew, he and Jeeter hadn't been tagged. His curiosity about that was followed quickly by the question of what kind of nasty defenses might be wired into it. The ability to dispose of an intruder without having to leave the bridge was an interesting idea. He looked up to find Jenna staring at him. Her amused smile told him she knew exactly what he had been thinking.

"Yes, there are some surprises included in its programming. As soon as your eyes are ready for it, I'll open the ship's manuals and you can get to know the Hole. She's really amazing. But then what would you expect? All her fathers are geniuses."

Ben, his hands full of the documents for the meeting, walked over to Jenna and laid his head against her shoulder.

"Yeah, but you're her mother. You're the mixer, the one who could put all our pieces together and make it work."

Jenna ruffled Ben's hair. If Riddick hadn't already figured out the relationship between the two, a blind man couldn't have missed it now. Then, Jenna gently stepped away from Ben.

"I had a great deal of help from everyone. Speaking of whom, Mr. Sen and Syrus are already in the library and Jeff, Sasha and David are together on the apartment level just entering the elevator. I don't want the whole group together too long before we arrive. Retrieve your capes and follow me."

Riddick was doubtful about the capes until Jenna showed them the secret. She fastened the waist level, front closure before securing the cape around her neck. This caused the cape to fall back and down behind her rather than wrapping around her body. As she walked forward and then turned, it flared and swirled but stayed where it belonged.

This whole thing with the uniforms had been nothing but a time filler for Riddick. Only the game with Jenna had really interested him. Now, however, as he moved down the gangway behind her, the cape swaying and billowing to the rhythm of his movements, he caught himself making adjustments in his posture and stride to increase the effect. The damn thing had him walking tall, proud and hungry like some I-own-the-galaxy punk. Fuck! He hadn't been that stupid since he was twelve years old.

As he consciously toned down his reaction to the cape, he decided that he just might have totally underestimated the value of what the other's had been up to with this; most particularity Jenna. She hadn't put her effort into it only to effect the rest of the group. She had been just as intent on effecting Ben, Jeeter and him. The only thing that she hadn't done was whisper 'Gotcha' in their ears.

His first reaction was that he didn't like being manipulated one little bit. His second was wry amusement that she had been able to do it. His third was that it was his own fault because he hadn't figured out a very important thing to know about Jenna. But he knew it now. No matter how insignificant something might seem, if Jenna involved herself in it, either it wasn't insignificant or, by the time she got through with it, it wouldn't be anymore.
-
-
-
-
-
-
(You guys aren't going to beleive how hard it was to get those ship diagrams to look right after they were up loaded. This document manager just doesn't relate to my word processing program. Anyway, I hope they were worth the effort.)