THE MOTHER LODE BY ABRAXIS

Chapter 41 – Too Damn Much Business

The shower and traipsing was not to be. Instead of clothing and towels, Riddick was forced to return to the bridge with an angry, stiff-lipped Jack in tow. After she had tried to wheedle around her 'big brother' to get her way and that hadn't worked, she'd gone 'official' on him and demanded a hearing with the Captain.

Riddick decided that there must have been a course in Space Law included in her college requirements for Pilot Certification or that she had expected this and been at the ship's library. The second she had Jenna's attention, she immediately began citing chapter and verse of the regulations concerning Emergency Family Leave.

To his surprise, Jenna didn't even question Jack's right to claim Jeeter as 'family'. Instead, she calmly countered with the regulations that put such leave at the discretion of the Captain and totally dependent on the ship's condition and the availability of replacement personnel. She capped it off with the allowable visitation schedule for the infirmary but put 'sugar on the shit' with an offer to allow that to be adjusted to fit a twelve-on/twelve-off duty schedule and the security link to the infirmary. Finally, Jenna put the cherry on top with the information that Jack would be riding the command slot during her shift. Damn, Jenna was good. Jack was spinning.

"Wow! Oh, holy shit! Wow. … … But … No! What if I'm not there when he wakes up? He'll think … he'll think that I don't care … that him being hurt … being … that it makes a difference! Damn it! What if it was Bro? You wouldn't be playing fucking 'Captain all mighty' then!"

"Yes. I would."

"What!!?? But I thought …??"

"I do. That's why I'd be right where I am now, doing my job and probably checking the security visual every five seconds. But I wouldn't be hanging over him making sure he knew that I thought he wasgoing to become a cripple." Then Jenna stood up and her voice softened, "Why don't you come into the galley with me and we can get some coffee. I think there are a few things that you need to know about big, strong men and the care and feeding of their egos."

Riddick wasn't sure he liked the sound of that last one but it worked on Jack and that was all that mattered right now. As he watched the two leave, Jenna put an arm around Jack's shoulders. As Jack accepted it and even leaned into Jenna, seeking comfort, he was very relieved that there was finally someone else besides him that could do that for her. It was something that she had never been able to accept from Imam. He was also glad that Jenna had taken their discussion elsewhere. From the sound of that intro it probably wouldn't do his 'big, strong male ego' any good to listen to it.

He busied himself double-checking all of the security adjustments that he had made and their swift out-system flight for any twinking that might be needed, which was none, then made a sweep of the ship to see who was where. Sen was hold-up in his office; Syrus was back in the infirmary with Jeeter; Ben was still, or back, in the yacht; Rafferty was in his quarters; Casmir and Imam were in Imam's quarters; and everybody else seemed to be gathered in the main dinning room.

Riddick hadn't even thought about adjusting back to ship's time but realized that they must be gathering for lunch, since he was sure that Jenna had followed procedure to set the bridge shifts from 6 to 6 so that both shifts could catch one end or the other of the mandatory shared dinner meal. Because of that, he was surprised when, thirty minutes later, Mira returned to the bridge with a cart carrying meal trays for both him and Jenna.

"I didn't think we got trays except for dinner?"

"It is an excuse, First. I must to talk to the Captain immediately."

"Something I can't deal with?"

"I'm extremely afraid so, Sir."

Ordinarily, Riddick wouldn't have allowed anything to disturb Jenna's and Jack's conversation but the use of official titles, the odd phrasing of her answers and the very worried look on Mira's face changed his mind. He crossed to the galley hatch and called Jenna out. Mira began speaking the second she saw her.

"Oh, please, you must come to the dinning room. It is Sasha and Jeff and David. They are becoming quite abusive with their language … and in front of the children."

Jenna hit the hatch at a dead run. Riddick paused only long enough to order the two girls to take over the bridge before thundering after her. He really didn't see what the big deal was about some screaming match that would cause Jenna to react like that but the fact that she did was enough for him to follow her.

When they arrived at the dinning room, the scene waiting for them explained Jenna's rush real well. Jeff and David were both on the deck; Jeff sprawled across David; both out cold from the looks of them. David's face was badly bruised and Jeff had a nasty gash in his scalp. Sasha was leaning on a folding chair with her uniform shirt in shreds and bruises starting to show along her arms; but conscious. Jenna's first question showed that this probably wasn't something new.

"Where are the children?"

Sasha was still a little breathless as she answered, "I had Nagia get them out of here as soon as I knew Jeff was going out of control."

Riddick watched, more than a little amused, as Jenna relaxed, did a pulse check to see that neither man was dead, made a com call to Syrus requesting he bring his hand scanner to do a check for two possible concussions and then turned back to Sasha with a disgusted look on her face.

"Then what happened?"

"Jeff attacked me! Physically! David … he tried to protect me, he really did." A soft smile curved her lips for a moment before it was replaced by anger. "Jeff hurt him, knocked him out … and even then he wouldn't stop hitting him … so I hit Jeff." This last was delivered with definite pride at the act.

"With that chair?"

"Yes!"

Jenna took a short time to think and then continued the conversation.

"Well, though I'm not pleased, this is certainly better than what I usually have to deal with; David hurt, Jeff preening and you looking spitefully happy at having caused it all. Can I hope that this difference means that you are finally ready to do something to correct this situation?"

Well, that certainly took Riddick back a step. What had happened to 'sugar not vinegar'? To his surprise, Sasha didn't get pissed. She got thoughtful.

Jenna left the woman alone with her thoughts as Syrus arrived, two rolling gurneys in tow, and commandeered Riddick and Jenna to help him get the 'combatants' loaded and transported to the infirmary. The only emotion that the snarky doctor allowed to show was a smirk of pleased surprise that Jeff was one of the injured. From what he'd just heard, Riddick could understand that one.

Riddick finished helping Syrus transfer the two men to proper beds, in separate rooms and restrained in Jeff's case, and get them stripped for examination, leaving Jenna free to deal with Sasha. Hell, if he ever found out that Syrus' ribs weren't still as bad as he was saying, he'd kill him. He returned to the infirmary office to find Jenna pouring Sasha a dose of Syrus' 'medicinal' whiskey. The blond looked like she had been crying. Appropriating himself a good slug of the liquor in a clean beaker, Riddick lounged against the wall and listened as the conversation continued.

"I want my and David's quarters moved away from Jeff's. I'd like us to be clear at the other end of the corridor if that's possible."

"There aren't any other double apartments, Sasha, and all the apartments at the other end are occupied."

"I don't care. A single one will be fine. But it has to be away from him, somewhere there isn't a connecting door between his and our quarters and he doesn't have any excuse to be anywhere near the corridor door to ours."

Riddick could see that Jenna would like to do that but was having problems with the logistics, didn't want to ask anyone else to move to get Sasha what she wanted, and was going into overdrive trying to figure out how Jeff would react to that kind of a slap in the face. He decided to throw his two credits into it.

"Have you got the kids settled, yet?"

Both the women gave him puzzled looks as Sasha answered him.

"Not really. They are all in Nagia's apartment for now. I was going to remodel one apartment for a boys' dorm and another for the girls. But Nagia isn't too happy with them being so far from her so she and Sissua will probably relocate to an apartment between the two dorms."

That was an even better answer than Riddick had expected. He turned to Jenna.

"There's your answer. Use Jeff's apartment for the boys and give Nagia, Sissua and the other girls the double apartment. Then, David and Sasha can have Nagia's old quarters, almost at the other end of the corridor. You assign Jeff the first apartment across the corridor from where he is now and you put Casmir in the second one on that side to finish blocking him off. That way, you order it; everybody moves; Jeff has no idea that Sasha had anything to do with it because she can bitch about losing her double apartment; and he can talk to the First Officer if he has a gripe about it."

By the time he had finished, Sasha was beaming at him a little too brightly for comfort and Jenna's warm appreciation was just right. Jenna's next words to Sasha were just right, too, since they would get the blond out of Riddick's immediate area.

"All right, Sasha, you had better get the moving started right now. I don't think either Jeff or David is badly hurt and I want it all finished before either of them gets out of the infirmary. I'm not going to stand for another fight starting in the housing corridor because they are crossing each other's path carrying stuff from apartment to apartment. Commandeer anyone you need to help you and First and I will cover the bridge until you get finished." Then a small gleam appeared in Jenna's eyes. "See if Casmir is willing to help."

Sasha looked surprised that Jenna would suggest that. Riddick guessed that "Prince" carried a lot more weight with the blond than "Princess" since she had never seemed to have any trouble asking Mira to do chores. Then again, maybe Casmir had been throwing his title around which Mira never had. Whichever it was, Jenna didn't seem to be missing a bet when it came to checking Casmir out. From Jenna's next request, Riddick saw that she didn't seem to be leaving much to chance with Sasha either.

"And don't get vicious with Jeff's belongings. The less he has to complain about the better. You owe me that much."

Sasha nodded as she rose and headed for the infirmary hatch. Then she paused, almost turned back as if to say something, but shook her head and continued on out the door. Riddick turned his full attention to Jenna.

"This ship is pretty small. Do you think that moving them is really going to work?"

Jenna took a small sip from the beaker he was holding and wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"Jeff has never man-handled Sasha before. She's not the type to put up with that so I think she's serious about being rid of him. I also intend to keep him stuffed in his lab working on the improvements to the yacht's Keller engines. That should help with the separation."

Then Jenna gave him the 'you're probably not going to like this' look. "Sasha isn't as tough as she pretends to be. She was raised pampered and protected. This is the first time anyone has ever raised a hand to her and it really scared her. Enough that she wants to try the defense training again. I promised that we would include her in the sessions with Jack and Mira."

Oh, yeah. Just what Riddick needed – a hundred and ten pounds of slut trouble, three hours a week. That smile she had thrown him was too easy to read. Sasha might be through with Jeff but she wasn't ready to turn into a faithful little hausefrau to David either. Riddick had met her kind before and, in his opinion, 'prowling' was something that was built into them before they were born and never left. He was very tempted to give Jeff a good set of bruises for putting her on the hunt again.

Suddenly, Riddick was up to the teeth with all of it. With a growl, "I'm getting that shower. I'll see you back on the bridge.", he left the infirmary at a fast walk. Once he got to his quarters, he stripped as he went, dropping clothing from the corridor hatch to the door of the bath. Setting the tub to fill, he used the shower to lather, scrub and rinse before sinking into the almost too hot water to soak.

He had been around too many people for too long. His 'people that matter' list was getting too long. So was his 'people I want to hurt, bad, but can't' list. Sheep! David, Sasha, Jeff; even the merc and thinks-he's-a-badass Sen; nothing but fucking bleating sheep and Riddick was the BIG BAD WOLF!

If the bint had been that stupid in slam, he would have killed both men, if necessary; taken her, whether he wanted her or not; and then thrown her back to the rest of the animals just to teach her a lesson. As for that bullshit plot to ghost him, both Rafferty and Sen would have died for it; Rafferty immediately and Sen as soon as Riddick could get his hands on him. End of aggravation!

What he wanted to do now was what he'd always done on the outside, just walk off and let the bunch of them fuck each other royally; just stuff Jack and Jenna into the BC and take off. But that wasn't the way it worked for him. After that last battle; that last dirty, so-gone-to-fuck dark-op; Riddick didn't ever again tell anyone else what to do. He might tell them what he thought they ought to do but they had to decide for themselves. Even if he could make himself break that imperative this time, it would be a waste of effort with both Jack and Jenna. If he forced them, the first time he took his eyes off of either of them they would be gone – trying to find their way back on their own.

And if he gave them the choice? It would be fucking T2 all over again! Jack would play the part of Carolyn; beg, plead and, finally, rage at him to stay. And Jenna ? … … Jenna would 'understand' him. And that would be so fucking much worse. She'd get that calm, slightly sad look on her face; hand him the transfer of ownership to the BC; and walk away.

A snapping sound and a small, but sharp, pain cut through his thoughts. He opened his eyes to find the ceramic soap dish that had been sitting on the side of the tub crushed in one fist, a slight trickle of blood staining the bath water. Rising from the tub and dripping across the room, he threw the pieces of the dish into the trash chute, poured antiseptic over the slash in his palm and slapped a couple of pieces of medical tape over it to keep from bleeding on the towels.

After drying off, he didn't even bother to wrap a towel around himself before striding back through the bedroom to the living room. Reaching into the liquor cabinet, he grabbed the first bottle he touched, flopped onto the couch and threw back a couple of large swallows. Vodka, damn good vodka!

"Well, now, Big Evil. Just what in the fucking hell are you going to do?"

((Scene Break)) ((Scene Break))

Jenna watched Riddick storm out of the infirmary. Someone who didn't know him would have thought that he was suffering from nothing more than mild disgust. Jenna knew better. Riddick was nearing the end of his ability to tolerate her, as Rafferty had named it, psycho circus. To be truthful about it, so was she. Perhaps because she had escaped so much of it while preparing the ships, she now found herself totally exasperated with Max's machinations in particular and being constantly on call as peace maker between the members of the group and between each of them and their own psyche in general.

The only obligation she felt now was to see the group safely delivered to the new colony. She even had doubts that the huge freighter now surrounding her would be enough of an incentive to force her to remain in contact with that colony if Max didn't clean up his act sufficiently. Oh, she would see to securing replacement pilots for herself and Riddick, probably from among Rafferty's men if possible. After that, sitting the bridge of the BC or her newly ordered twin and leaving the colony and the group far behind her just might be the better choice.

However, the longer it took to get to that point, the longer Max had to plot and scheme, the worse the odds of ever getting there became. Something had to be done quickly to not only speed up the process of relocation but also to force Max to exercise a great deal more restraint on his megalomaniacal urges. There were two main obstacles to the first, Jeeter's medical condition and the presence of Prince Casmir and his marriage negotiations with Mira.

Jenna decided that Casmir could be returned to New Mecca when it was convenient for the Hole to do so, that or he could just cool his heels until it was. She couldn't see that a little delay would have that much effect. If Mira were to agree to marry him, he would be the returning hero and, with the backing of the Founding Families, his political future would be assured. If she didn't, he didn't have a political future other than as the leader of a doomed rebellion no matter when he returned. However, if he could convince her otherwise, she could always delegate the job to Riddick and the BC.

Jeeter was another matter. Turning back to the examination rooms, she located Syrus and pulled him away from his scan of a now conscious and very angry Jeff.

"I need to know exactly how many days it will be until Jeeter can be safely sedated for hyper?"

"May I ask what has precipitated the need for such haste?"

"If I don't get Max down on some planet and out of my hair, I'm going to kill him."

"Ah, yes. I had wondered how long it would be before you reached that point. In answer to your question, our esteemed Third Officer should be capable of safe hyper travel in four days, five at the most."

"Jack read his chart at seven days at best?"

"And she received her medical degree where?" Then at Jenna's skeptical look, "All right. I've changed my initial prognosis. He's rather a remarkable specimen, fantastic recovery factors. Most likely a matter of survival of the fittest. Now, for that admission, you owe it to me to prevent a murder of my own and do something about Jeffie before I turn his slight concussion into massive brain damage and blame it on Sasha's initial attack."

Returning to the exam room, Jenna informed Jeff of the changes 'she had ordered' in his living arrangements and his new assignment to overhaul the Keller engines of the new yacht. She then threatened that either her First Officer or she would slice him into tiny pieces if he even looked at either David or Sasha in an unacceptable manner, or anyone else on board the Hole for that matter. He, of course, felt the need to argue about it.

"You're letting this 'Captain' stuff go to your head. You have absolutely no right to interfere with my personal life."

"Whether that is true or not, Jeff, is a moot point. I am interfering in it. And I will keep my promise. The day that you cross me on this will be the most horrible day of your life … and the last. When we pulled Jack and Imam off of New Mecca, I killed five men that I didn't even know because they were in our way. I slit their throats from ear to ear and clear to their spines. Do you think I will have a problem with killing one more, one who has aggravated the hell out of me every day that I've known him?"

As she exited the exam room, Jenna wasn't sure that she had convinced him of how absolutely serious she was. However, as she entered the outer office, Syrus' laughter and his accompanying comments reassured her.

"I don't know what you did to him, Oh Captain, My Captain, but his pulse spiked almost off the chart and now he's retching. I'm sure that his headache will be horrendous after that. So sad that painkillers are contraindicated for concussion."

Jenna didn't believe for one second that Syrus hadn't listened in on her conversation with Jeff. But, it really didn't matter since she was also quite sure that he had already pumped Jack, Nagia, Mira and Jeeter for every bit of information he could get about the events at the compound. Nor would knowing the truth be in any way detrimental to their relationship. If anything, Syrus was probably quite satisfied that she was finally developing her primitive side.

As she walked back to the bridge, she began considering the other part of the problem, Max. Threatening him with physical harm, as she had Jeff, wouldn't work. While Jeff relied at his base level on his physical abilities to dominate, Max relied on his mental ones. No, with Max, it would require a threat to his 'grand scheme' that would depend on his skills at negotiation and compromise to deal with. Just a simple matter of convincing him that he had better treat Jenna as a trusted ally of the first order or she was going to blow the whole thing sky high.

It would be simple, because it was now the truth. While setting up the colony and rescuing as much of the 'ditzy damsel in distress' Institute as possible from the clutches of the 'evil villain' military/industrial complex that was perverting it was a romantic adventure on an epic scale, she wasn't going to do the sweating, bleeding, and dying such epics always entailed just to give it to 'devious old king' Max to pervert.

If it there was one thing that she had learned from all those myths and fairy tales that Syrus had made sure were part of her 'education', it was that when the hero returned time after time with whatever had been required of him for the hand of his heroine only to find that even more was being asked, it was time for the hero to get some smarts and just take his lady and run. So, that was what she was going to threaten to do to Max, just take her ships and leave him to deal with the Company and the Forces on his own.

It was what he feared already, what had led to his plot against Riddick. The solution was to make that fear an open, out-of-the-shadows certainty with equally open communication as the only preventative measure available to him. Max might prefer his twisted little plots but he wasn't so stupid as to persist with what wouldn't work. Now, Jenna just had to make sure that he knew that she wasn't stupid either and that the games were over.

Stepping onto the bridge, Jenna dismissed Mira and Jack with instructions to aid Sasha with the changes in the quarters assignments but to make sure that the blond did her share of the actual work, not to let her do nothing but supervise. As soon as they were gone she began to set her plans in motion. The first step was a call to the shipyard from which the BC's twin and the new bay had been ordered.

Jenna was pleased to find that the bay was available now and could be installed as soon as the Hole arrived at the shipyard. The BC's twin required the added installation of the hyper engines but that was already underway and would be finished within seven to ten days. When she questioned the quick availability of them, she discovered that she had Max to thank for it.

It seemed that the designs for both the ship and the completely innovative bay had been deemed extremely marketable and the company that owned that chain of shipyards had contracted with the group for exclusive rights to manufacture them. The slight delay in the availability of the ship was due to the fact that their standard model was Keller-drive-only with hyper as a special order. Also, the cost of bay, ship and installation would be taken from the percent of profits already owed to the group on product sales before the yearly transfer of those funds into company stock.

With this very satisfying outcome warming her soul, Jenna turned to the nav console. Calling up all the plotted gates within five to seven days of the Hole's present location, she searched for the best route to the shipyard. She located what she was looking for quite quickly, a gate six days away that would require only one secondary jump with very little travel time between gates to get her where she wanted to be. Entering and activating the new nav plot, she sent the Hole speeding through space on its new mission.

If Syrus was correct in his prognosis for Jeeter, she would be overseeing the installation of the new bay in slightly over eight days and should be able to leave the shipyard as soon as the new planet-lander was ready, ten days at the outside if all went according to plan. She figured twelve days into her evolving schedule since you could never rely on everything happening as it should.

Her next call was to a second shipyard in the same sector, one that thought that the government regulations against certain types of armaments for civilian merchants were there to be broken. From that communication she learned that it would require only four days, with the proper extra payment for 'over time', to replace the tepid weapons the regulations allowed with ones matching those of the BC.

Turning to her next task, she paged Rafferty to the bridge. When he arrived, properly dressed in his ship's uniform, Jenna got right to the point.

"I've ship's business to take care of that will require approximately sixteen days. As soon as that is accomplished, I want to begin picking up the first of your people. I want this first contingent limited to security and construction muscle. How many men do you think you can arrange for pick up in that time frame?"

To Rafferty's credit, he limited his visible shock to a few seconds of rapid blinking. "Somewhere between one and two hundred but most of them will have families that will have to come in as soon as the colony is on the ground."

"How many pilots in that group?"

No blinking, the merc was in operations mode. "Keller or hyper?"

"Both and combat trained if possible."

"With myself, three hyper. Maybe ten more that are Keller-only. All of us are combat trained."

"Good. You have access to the com, Mister. Start making your calls."

With this new information, Jenna re-contacted the original shipyard and arranged for two more bays and ships without hyper drive. This pushed the cost a little beyond what was owed the group but the Sales Manager assured her that the company would have no problem carrying a negative balance, at a reasonable rate of interest that would be less costly than the sale of already purchased stock, for the few months it would take new sales to cover it. The installation of the new bays would only increase the time for installation to the twelve days that Jenna had approximated in the first place.

Another call to the second shipyard raised their time estimate to rearm all three ships to only ten days while still tripling the 'over time' payment. Such were the ways of doing business. Jenna was well satisfied with the twenty-two day estimated time but put it on her personal schedule at twenty-eight and informed Rafferty of the change in his time frame.

She also gave him a credit card number that his people could use for any commercial travel they might need to use to group-up and informed him that he could use side-trips for the two hyper planet-landers, with himself and Riddick as pilots, to smooth out any routing problems he might have. With an awed comment, "Damn, Forces Central Command could use someone like you, Captain." The merc began to work the com hot and heavy.

All that accomplished, Jenna turned her attention to Max. Checking his location on the security screen, she open the com to his office. When it was answered by his voice mail, she bypassed it and opened the room speaker.

"This is the Captain. I am hereby informing the Colony Leader that he has twenty-one days to inform me of the location he has chosen for his colony. If he does not choose to do so, I will choose one." Then, "I mean it Max. You start playing straight with me or your ass is going planet-side whether you like it or not. End trans."

Closing the internal com, Jenna blocked Sen from any external com usage then relaxed back to wait for the results of it all.