Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the Pitch Black or Riddick universe, nor do I own Vin Diesel. I do own Jet and any characters that do not show up in the said universe. I do not make any money off of this story and I barely make enough money to cover my mortgage so if you sued, you wouldn't get anything but debt. Thank you.

Reviews: I would appreciate whatever reviews you may send. I'm a fanfic virgin, so please be nice. Two words: CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. Thank you.

Summary: Jet finds out that the behind the flagship of the Core System Guard there is lies, deceit, and betrayal. At the very center is a charismatic, convict.

Mayday

By: CosmicGibby

"Mayday! Mayday! I repeat I am going down!" Jet yelled into her com. "Hydraulics are not responding! Transmitting coordinates now! Mayday!"

The pressure was becoming unbearable and Jet had a few more minutes before she could punch out of her fighter. The fighter slipped into a flat spin making it harder for the seasoned pilot to stabilize. 'Shit, I don't know how I'm going to get out of this alive. Please don't let me die. I'm not ready to die!' The ship was now falling apart around her from the force of ripping through the atmosphere. 'I can't reach it.' She thought to herself, the G-forces of the flat spin keeping her hand from reaching the black and yellow eject lever. Debris from the broken fighter tipped it enough to give just the leverage she needed to reach and jerk the lever out of it's holding position.

The air rushed by her as she flew higher and higher into the sky from the force of the ejection. 'I'm alive!'

"Whooooooohooooooooo! I'm alive!" Jet yelled to no one in particular, maybe to the gods to let them know that their plans of her death had failed. "Hell, yeah!"

The memories of the past week flooded her mind, the time was given to her from floating down with the parachute strapped to her back, which had the decency to deploy.

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"Sir, Lieutenant Jethenna Jarrison. Reporting for duty, Sir." The petite, blonde performed a parade-worthy salute and waited for her commanding officer, Admiral Nick Kammenen to perform his.

"At ease, Lieutenant." Jet relaxed to parade rest, but she kept her eyes on the bump of the paint on the wall. This was her first assignment after graduation and she was determined to not mess it up.

"Do you know why you are here?" The Admiral inquired, staring at some papers on his desk.

"Sir, No. Sir" Came Jet's sharp, trained reply.

"Drop the sir, and drop the bullshit you learned at the Academy, lieutenant. One thing you will learn around here is that the BS they taught you there is not the real Core System Guard. Here you will address me as Nick and in formal situations you may even get the chance to call me Admiral Kammenen. Am I clear?" He informed the confused lieutenant.

"Sir…", He looked hard ate the hesitant woman standing before him. "…Yes, Nick."

"Good. Now take a seat." He replied appeased at her acquiescence.

Jet eased into her chair, unsure of the turn of events. Nothing at the academy trained her for a commanding officer that disregarded basic protocol. Her schooled face hid her feelings of uncertainty behind a mask of passivity. She did wonder why she was here on The Explorer, the ship that did more exploration than any guard ship did guarding the system. Jet read as much literature as she could get here hands on about the ship that she was to be assigned to after graduation, but she couldn't get anything informative. She knew that they were part of the Core System Guard and that most of their missions were classified, other than that her guess was as good as anyone's.

"You are here because: one, the CSG requires that the Explorer take on at least one graduate of the Academy, granted they must meet the requirements…and, second you were the only one that met the requirements. Keep in mind though that you are not wanted here. Most people on this ship have been in the service for at least ten years and will not take kindly to a newly graduated cadet. Especially the enlisted ones."

" I understand, Nick. What I don't understand is…What requirements? I Didn't graduate at the top of my class, in fact I wasn't even in the Top five percent…"

Admiral Kammenen cut off her reply, "My requirements were that I did not want some glasses-wearing, technology infested worm that worried more about the writings of some dead professor instead of escape and evasion tactics, lieutenant. According to your record that I received from the academy, you took on many extracurricular activities that many of the 'smarter' cadets shunned, such as knife throwing and sniping. Plus your security clearance came through like an old man on a diet prune juice." Nick said with hidden amusement, and spoke on. "Technically you are not suppose to report for another 18 hours and I will not put you on my On-Duty Roster until such time. I suggest you make use of those hours to get some rest and acquaint yourself with the Explorer. Marks will show you to your quarters."

As if the aid new exactly when to enter, Marks walked into the room. "This way, Lieutenant." Marks walked right back out with out waiting for a reply. Jet grabbed her bags and rushed after the man that was going to be introducing her to her room for the next few months. She caught up to his pace and shouldered her bag so that she could examine the man without distractions. He wasn't bad looking, just not her type. Marks was a tall, lanky man with reddish-blonde hair and from what Jet could see his eyes were a mixture of green and brown. He interrupted her inspection of him, "To the left is the hangar for smaller ships and fighters and on the right is the large hangar for transports and the like. Watch your step" Jet looked down to see a large coil of wires hidden in a cut-away of the hallway floor.

"Thank you." The blonde woman replied numbly.

"Wouldn't help me to have the newest member…whose not even on duty…get hurt while I was walking her to her room." He chided her as if she were a dumb child.

Jet stopped in her tracks as they came to end of the hallway; through windows as tall and wide as the ship she could see Siala Prime (the main planet in the Core system) in all its splendid glory. Jet watched in fascination as clouds grew and storms dissipated across the dynamic planet; the brilliant blues of the oceans accentuated the green, brown and white landmasses. Marks stopped as he heard a sharp intake of breath from the newbie behind him. He smirked, "The view always gets the new ones attention. Most of the times you just see a lot of black speckled with stars, but since we had to come pick you up we get this view. Look around, you will see that this is the atrium, which also serves as the parade ground. Every level leads to this arena."

Jet looked intensely at her large surroundings, the atrium…arena…whatever Marks called it was huge. It looked as if you post every soldier in here in parade stance and still have room for another unit. Opposite of the viewing windows was were each floor's end; it looked as if from every floor you could see the polished metal floor of the atrium and a grand scale view of the widows. 'I can't wait to see what the view looks like from the top floor, 'Jet thought excitedly to herself.

Marks resumed his nasally narrative of the ship, "This floor is Alpha Level, it houses the bridge, the admirals quarter's, the landing bays and of course the hangars. Beta Level houses the commissary and the Recreational rooms. The Rec. Rooms consist of pool tables, table tennis, courts for all sports, and of course what is affectionately called the "Party Pool", that's the pool for games and such, we have lap pools in the Physical Training facilities. Gamma Level are the bunks and sleeping quarters, which has two floors to it, considering that we have so many people who are stationed here. Delta Level has all the Physical Training facilities and it houses the Medical Bay. Epsilon Level has the agricultural facilities, we grow and maintain all of our food here. Don't worry you won't get duty in there only the enlisted men are required to maintain rounds on the service lists in there. Zeta Level consists of the engine rooms and the molecular power generators. Phi Level consists of our prison and isolation rooms."

Noticing that they use the Greek alphabet of Old Earth, Jet suddenly wondered why it skipped from Zeta to Phi and not just continuing on with the alphabet in normal succession, she posed this question to Marks, whose response was not what she expected.

"Phi signifies the unending eternities, so we thought that it was the best name considering all of the prisoners on this ship are convicts who have been sentenced to life imprisonment." Marks replied with disgust in his voice for the naiveté of Jet's question. "Are you ready to be taken to your room?" He said it more as a statement instead of a question which was emphasized by his brusque manner of walking towards the elevators.

Jet thought to herself and rushed to catch up with him, "Marks." She said hurriedly, he stopped and did an about face barely giving Jet time to stop instead of running him over. "I'm sure your very busy," not wanting to spend anymore time in this condescending man's company she continued on with her proposition. "I don't want to waste anymore of your time, if you just tell me my room number I'd be more than happy to escort myself there."

Marks looked at with uncertainty in his eyes and then realized what she was offering, "Your room is Gamma Level One," He looked down at a piece of paper and continued on, "Number 958." With that explanation he stepped off the elevators and the doors closed. Jet pressed the button that said Gamma Level One and looked at her Chrono. 'I have seventeen hours left before I'm supposed to report for duty, if I sleep for eight of them then I will have time to work out, take a shower, unpack, grab something to eat and still have time to get acquainted with everything on this ship.' Jet calculated to herself.

Getting off the polished elevator Jet looked at the numbers next to the doors and realized that there must be different hallways for each numbered hundred. 'Would it have been so hard for Marks to have been a bit more descriptive about where my room is,' she chastised him to herself. Jet walked towards the end of the hallway that lead to atrium, rounding the corner at the end she realized that she was right about the numbers. She stopped to stare at the beauty of the view and then continued on her way, following the big signs posted above each hallway that read "200", "300", "400".

Jet found the sign that advertised in big, bold numbers the hallway that was to be her home for the next few months. With even numbers on the right and odd numbers on the left, she gained the clues that her room, number 958 was going to be on the right. Stopping at the door that held her nameplate, she realized that Marks never gave her the key to her room. "Dammit!" Jet muttered out loud.

"Can I help you?", Asked a masculine voice, right behind her.

Startled out of muttering curses under her breath, Jet jumped and turned around to look into the chocolate brown eyes of the very attractive man that had asked her a question. "Come again?" she asked embarrassed that someone could overhear her litany of curses.

"Are you new? Can I help you?", He asked again, with a smile on his face.

"Um…I'm not sure…um…How did you know?"

Chocolate eyes cut off her explanation, "It's the bags." He said looking at her military issued travel bags with a glimmer in his eyes, "They gave you away."

Jet looked at her bags, usually able to just look at a situation and assess it, she grinned at her mistake and his explanation. "Actually, yeah. I need to get into my room and the weasel who gave me the 5 cent tour didn't tell me how to get into my room." Jet explained.

"Ah, I see. You must have met Marks. Well, you see this box here," He said pointing to a box on the right hand side of her door. "All you have to do is say your name and rank into the voice-com and your door will open."

"Lieutenant Jethenna Jarrison." Jet said firmly into the box. The door slid open revealing a pleasant sized room containing a queen bed, standard issued bed linens, a desk and a door off to her left.

"Lieutenant Jethenna Jarrison, eh?" He introduced himself, "My name is Randen, Captain Randen Branners. Most people just call me Randy or Branners. You're welcome to do the same."

"Excuse my manners. Yes that's my name, but mostly my friends call me Jet. I would be pleased if you called me that." Jet explained. "I appreciate your help. It really brightened my day. Thank you."

"No problem, what do you say you and I go on down to the commissary and grab a bite to eat. I was just headed that way and I would appreciate a new face to talk with." Randy said invitingly.

"I'm not sure, I should really get settled…" Protested the blue-eyed girl, adjusting her glasses.

"I won't take no for an answer." He said charmingly, "Plus I know for a fact that they have chocolate cake."

Jet laughed at his persistence, "All right, but there better be chocolate cake. Just let me stow my bags."