Chapter 5: Split
"So you really are splitting? That stupid pilot wasn't lying to me after all." James Bradley's voice said from the entrance to her fare sized cruiser.
"What the hell does it look like I'm doing? Taking a stroll around the park?" Jack didn't bother to turn around and look at him.
"You know that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit don't you Jackie?"
"Didn't I tell you not to bother talking to me again merc?"
"Captain Manor told me where this ship is heading." He said ignoring her question. His footsteps on the metal floor of her small craft sounding hollow and though she didn't show it, she didn't want him any closer to her then he already was and technically, even that was far too close. The damned merc made her skin crawl, they all did. "I thought I'd come see you about my offer before leaving myself. If you don't think it's safe down there, then I won't bother taking any chances."
"What?" She turned around and narrowed her eyes. She didn't like his tone and she sure as hell didn't like his suggestion. What the hell did he think she was?
"I'll assume that you're talking about my offer little lady." She stiffened. Little lady wasn't a description she would have given herself "There is plenty of bounty on that man's head to keep the both of us very comfortable for a very long time and you're probably the only one who could really track him effectively." James Bradley was standing right behind her; he even had the gall to have reach out and played with the strands of her hair in her ponytail. "I think we could work well together Jack, very well."
"You seriously thought that I would turn on Riddick? The man that saved my life and taught me how to survive?" She let out a quick 'ha'. "If I ever see you again merc, I'll kill you myself. Get off my ship."
"You're party. Can't say I didn't try." The man shrugged seemingly unaffected by her threat. "You know who I am if you change your mind."
"Get off my ship." She said again through clenched teeth.
"Later little lady. I have a feeling that we might run into each other again some day." James shrugged and then left.
Jack strapped her bag into a locker like compartment before sitting down in the pilot's chair and running a quick systems check. As she sat in her chair watching the screen flash up the names of different systems, she found her own mind wondering through her collections of memories from a very far and distant past. One that she tried not to remember too often. The last thing she wanted was to become bitter on top of nearly insane.
She had lived comfortably before her parents died. They were a middle class couple who loved her and weren't afraid to show her a little affection now and then and she had loved them back. That wasn't to say they had been perfect, they hadn't even been close. Her dad had been a little gruff at times and liked hard spirits a little too much, her mom liked going out with her friends a lot and sometimes she had been left alone while the women giggled at cocktail parties or in back gardens, far from her hearing.
But she had been happy.
Jack had her mother's rich, dark brown hair. Bret used to say it was the color of chocolate and almost as edible too. The idea had made her smile at the time and the thought made her laugh as she sat and thought about the silly comments he used to make in the middle of the night when both of them were awake and unable to sleep, usually after one of her nightmares. He would do all sorts of things to bring a smile to her face and pull her from the terrors in her mind.
Her eyes were the same as her father's, dark green, almost hazel but more green then brown, she had her dad's easily tanned complexion too, her mother's mouth and full lips, her father nose, perfectly straight, her mother's voice and her father's laugh, though, she wasn't sure where she got her wiry frame from. That wasn't to say she was really thin, she was about a hundred and nineteen pounds and five foot seven, but she was fit and her muscles toned but even still, it seemed even with all the strength she had tried so hard to build up, she was no match for Riddick.
It was strange, she mused as she watched another couple of clean systems flash onto her screen, most people looked like one parent more then the other but she didn't favour one over the other. She was just a mix match of them both and a little bit of herself. Come on, she shook her head as she thought about it, her mom had been busty as anything and well, she just fit a B and her dad had been a tall guy but she only hit five foot seven.
"Ever wonder what your life would have been like if they hadn't died?"
It was a question she hadn't asked herself since starting up the engine of her and Riddick's ship and flying off Demedia as fast as she could, sobs in her throat and guilt in the pit of her stomach. It had been the last time that fear had threatened to take over every system in her body.
"Riddick?" She whispered out loud, feeling that guilt rather acutely again. She had a responsibility to give him the opportunity to leave the stupid ship headed to hell if he was in the mind to take it. She owed him that much. But what after? She didn't want him to leave. She didn't want to be on her own again!
"What?" The answer was soft, unexpected and it's owner was standing right behind her. Jack stiffened, his presence suddenly very palatable behind her seat. How long had he been there?
"Sorry." Was the first thing that jumped into her head and out of her mouth, though even she didn't know for what or why she was apologising in the first place. Maybe it was just because she was scared that he could read her thoughts.
"What for?" Ice in a human body. Wasn't that what she had told Sam that Riddick was like? Ice? But there was none of the ice in his voice or on his face as she turned her chair around to look at him.
"Nothing, not really anyway," She shook her head and looked at the metal floor, trying to clear some space in her mind so she could think clearly and form words. "Can we start this little surprise meeting over again?"
"How would you like to start it?" Riddick asked.
"Maybe like two normal people who have happened to meet? Maybe without you sneaking up on me and I'm sure that a hi wouldn't go down too badly." Jack answered pointedly. "You sneak up on me too fucking much Riddick, you always used to and at the moment my nerves are too stretched to deal with it so would you please stop!"
"Hi Jack. How are you? Having a good day?" He said, obviously making his own point. They weren't normal people, having a normal conversation or meeting. She scowled at him and then started laughing the laugh of someone close to loosing it completely. A laugh half way between a laugh and a sob.
"I'm crap. My day sucks ass and I'm leaving The Aurora, a ship that I like and a crew that I got on well with, people that I counted as friends." She stopped laughing suddenly and sharply, and then looked straight at him, her eyes cold and wide, and her face pale. "Thanks for asking." The last sentence was said almost aggressively.
"You're leaving?"
"Didn't I fucking say that?" She said, the scowl back on her face.
"Why?"
"What is it with you and your stupid questions? It's either one word or short answers and stupid fucking questions." She snarled.
"Don't get lippy with me Jack."
"I'm not seventeen anymore Riddick and you're not my dad. You never were." She looked away from him, not liking to look at him and see herself reflected through his dark glasses. Jack didn't like what she saw in the reflection staring angrily back at her.
"I never tried to be your father."
"I know that. You never tried to be anything." She retorted. Then made herself soften her tone. "If I turn down the lights will you take off the goggles?"
"If you want me to." He answered.
"I want you to." She nodded and flicked the switch that took out all but the lights farthest away from them, so that she could still see. "Believe it or not, I don't set out to pick a fight. I'm still dealing with a lot of shit. I mean, yesterday I thought you were dead. Do you have any idea how scared I was?"
"I have an idea." He shrugged. "Life happens Jack."
"Yeah, well. I wish it wouldn't."
"You wanna tell me why you're leaving The Aurora?"
"Because this ship is headed to picked up a few scientists from THAT planet." She answered, letting her face fall into her hands. What the hell was she thinking crying in front of a dead or rather used to be dead man, a man who was as cold as ice? A man who had taught her how to forget emotion, and here she was crying for the second time in two days. She never cried when he was around before and could hardly believe that she was letting herself now. But she couldn't have stopped the tears even if she had tried.
She was afraid.
"What planet? I can't read minds kid."
"The dark planet with three suns where we were almost killed, where Shazza and Carolyn and the others died." She said. The silent tears turning into silent sobs, which stuck in her throat and made her whole upper body shake with the effort to keep them silent.
"Shit." Was all Riddick had to say to the answer he had been given.
"Yeah, shit, bucket loads of bloody shit." Jack confirmed.
Then strong arms encircled her and lifted her off the seat and onto his lap. She didn't feel like fighting him over it, so she sat there curled up against his chest and cried, her hands clutching handfuls of his black t- shirt for dear life so it seemed and all the while, his strong arms were wrapped around her blocking out the world.
"They can't hurt you Jack." Riddick said softly after the sobbing had stopped and she seemed to have pulled herself together somewhat effectively. "Not on my watch."
"I'm sorry." She said, her voice somewhat muffled because of the way she was sitting.
"Rule One: Don't apologise for things that aren't your fault."
"I have my own rules to live by now." Jack said but still didn't move. She couldn't remember the last time she had been held like that, like she was made of glass, like she was important. She was safe surrounded by his arms and his distinct smell. A smell, which she couldn't believe she had forgotten. After all, they had slept near each other every night they weren't on transports for five years. He would always push the bed up against a windowless, doorless wall and she would get the inside, with her back against the wall while he slept facing the room, his broad back to her.
They had lived in some dodgy areas and some not so dodgy areas, in some pretty close quarters and some spacious ones but it didn't matter where they were he had made her feel safe and made sure that there was always him between her and anything that could come through the door. She had never thought that it was a deliberate action to keep her safe but rather a way to keep her from getting him killed by getting in the way. It was just the way that things had happened.
She forgot things concerning Riddick didn't just happen. He didn't seem to do much that didn't have a point or a purpose. "God, what am I doing? I've got to be going soft. For that matter, what the hell are you doing?" She pushed herself away from him and got to her feet. He just sat and looked at her, not seeming at all phased. "Where did the old Riddick go? You wouldn't have ever done that before."
"Tell me which Riddick you prefer and you got it kid. It's no skin off my back."
"You're making it sound an awful lot like you're going to be sticking around. Don't play with me, please, I've had enough of that so far in this life."
"Sticking around for a while was in the original plan. You don't think I spent time and energy finding you only to make sure you were safe and then leave again did you?"
"Well, if you're not going to spilt on me, you're welcome to stick around. I'm leaving in an hour. I just have to go get clearance." Jack wiped her hands on her black jeans, knowing that her face would look like hell and that a stop off in the bathrooms for a quick dunk in cold water would be on the agenda. "I'll see you then if you want to leave."
"And if I don't?"
"Then stay. It's no skin off my back. I've lived without you this long and successfully." Jack left the spacecraft reeling. You think you knew what to expect from a person and then they went and did something totally unexpected and it left you wondering. What else was new with Riddick and which Riddick did she like better? She didn't know the answers to either question and it left her feeling a little uneasy.
It took her twenty minutes of cold water to stop it looking like she had been crying her eyes out and then it took another five to make her way along the familiar corridors to the main control room that was the Captain's domain.
"Hey Kit."
"Hey John." She gave the young engineer a small smile. She hadn't been expecting to run into John or any of the crew on her way to see Tex; she almost had wanted to slip away with only herself and the captain knowing about it. The rest of the crew knew enough about her as it was, to stop them wanting a lot of contact with her anyway.
John was only her age. Tex Manor seemed to like to bring his crew onboard young and bring them on in their skills. He was a man that seemed to train loyalty into them as well. And all of them were loyal to each other, she would kill for any of them, would take a bullet for them too but there was no way that she could make herself go to that planet. In that particular fight, survival and fear had won out over loyalty and part of her hated herself for it.
"Are you sure you have to quit?" He asked.
"I've got no other choice at the moment John. It's that or my sanity." She shrugged before continuing on, sad that he felt she was letting him down, but there was nothing for it. None of them had had to deal with the creatures on that planet or with the aftermath of haunting nightmares and the fight for survival.
A year and a half she had served aboard The Aurora, half a year as co-pilot and a year as pilot. A good year and a half of her life and she would never regret a minute of it. She would miss the old hunk of rust, she realised as she stopped in front of the open door to the control room. Tex was sitting in a chair with his back to her and Sam and Danny were in front of him. He was obviously talking to them about the procedure for the pick up of the scientists.
"Captain Manor?" Jack walked into the room.
"Yes?" He answered as she walked around so that she was facing him.
"Can I make a suggestion?"
"If you would like." He nodded. He didn't look angry, just a little sad.
"Danny couldn't land The Aurora on that planet. You and I and everyone else knows that. He can handle a cruiser, though, like it's an extension of himself and there is another cruiser on this ship besides my own. It would be safer for everyone involved if he just picked the crackpots down there on that."
"She's right you know." Sam said. "Me and Dan could take The Torc down there. That way, there's less chance of anyone being hurt." The security officer shrugged and looked over at Jack and gave her a nod and a smile. Sam had always backed her up and it looked like she was going to continue to do so. Jack gave the older women a thankful smile.
"I'll think about it in more depth later." Tex said with a shrug. "Anything else I can do for you Jack?"
"A couple of things actually sir." Jack sighed. "First off, I'd like to thank you for the opportunities that you've given me, and I'm sorry that I have to leave like this, but really sir, I can't go to that planet, I won't go near it. And I want you to know that if you ever need a pilot for any of your runs that don't include planet hell, well, you know where I live and you know my skills."
"You're a good pilot Jack. Bret was right about you. I'm sorry that you feel you have to go."
"Thank you sir. There are some things in my past that I can't find peace with. I'm sorry too." She smiled sadly at him. "Permission to leave from docking bay four sir?"
"Permission granted." He answered. "Safe flying."
"Thank you sir." She said before leaving.
()
He had never expected that particular turn of events. He thought as he dumped his own bag into a locker compartment onboard Jack's cruiser. But then, there was a lot of things that had happened in the last two days when it came to the girl that he hadn't expected or planned on.
It wasn't that Riddick hadn't expected the girl to get a job; he had, just not a legit job like she had gotten herself. After being around him for so long, he had expected her to loose some of her worry over what was right and what was wrong but in a way he was glad that he hadn't seemed to rub off on her in that way. Only thing was, she sure as hell had rubbed off on him.
Even before the crimes and murders that had landed him in Slam City, when he had been, well, a little more human, he had never had someone else depended on him at any level for survival. Until Jack, he had never had anyone that needed protection or teaching or food and clothing, someone that could only get it from him.
Something like that could change a person, a man. Sometimes it didn't matter how cold you were or how hard you tried to be unfeeling. The minute you started to care, you were doomed. The only problem was he only realised that too late. He should have left Carolyn on that planet in the first place, he would have made life hell of a lot easier for himself if he had but he hadn't. Hindsight was a bitch.
Now, that wasn't to say that he had done a complete one eighty and turned into a law abiding citizen of the free universe or that he was now a giant and well muscled teddy bear but at the same time, he wasn't a heartless, soulless killer any more. Richard B. Riddick had changed and he still wasn't sure if his trip back to humanity was a good thing or a bad thing. He just accepted it; there wasn't much else that he could do.
"So you decided to join me then?" Jack said, leaping up the ramp and hitting the button that would close the hatch and airlock her ship. The girl had an almost feline grace to her as she went about her preparation work. She moved, it seemed without any effort at all.
"For now." He replied taking the main piloting chair and waiting for her to comment. She didn't, she just sat in the co-pilot's chair and buckled up.
"I trust you know what you're doing?" She said.
He didn't answer her just gave her a pointed look so she shrugged and put on her headset.
"Aurora, this is The Chancer, clamped in docking bay four. Captain Kit O'Donnell, requesting permission to disengage docking clamps and leave The Aurora." Jack said clearly.
"Chancer, this is Captain Tex Manor of The Aurora, proceed with departure." Tex answered as docking bay four depressurised and the doors into open space were opened. The Captain was silent for a moment and then the headset crackled to life again. "I hope you find your peace Jack."