Disclaimer: Apparently I need to make one of these for every chapter. So anywho…I do not own Riddick nor the Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick Universe. Please don't sue, it won't do you any good.

MayDay

Chapter 3

By: CosmicGibby

Jet walked out of the Admiral's Office with a grin on her face and orders in her hands. She was so excited looking at her papers and walking towards the hangar that housed the fighters, she almost missed the unkempt looking man walking towards her. To be more exact to the Admiral's Office. Jet took note that he was not wearing a CSG uniform, he looked ragtag in his brown pants, grey shirt, and faded blue vest; the whole outfit looked as if it had seen better days. On his waist he wore a utility belt containing an asp, handcuffs, and a gun. She dismissed this from her mind as soon as she realized she might be late for meeting her Commanding Officer.

Jet apprehensively stopped outside the door of the Fighter's hangar and took a deep breath before she walked in. Immediately looking at her new surroundings she felt at home; in neat and exact rows she saw the fighters.

"Lieutenant!" Jet jumped at the sound of her rank. She turned and saw the man who had yelled at her, quickly noting his insignia and nameplate she returned the greeting.

"Commander Fiarand, sir. Lieutenant Jethenna Jarrison reporting for duty, sir." She said as she handed the Commander her papers.

"Follow me Lieutenant." He grabbed her orders, turned and walked to his office. "Great another hotshot pilot who doesn't even know how things are done." She heard him mutter under his breath. Jet was surprised by her commander's feelings; she had expected hostility from her peers, not from her commanding officer. 'I guess I'll just have to prove my worth by my actions,' she thought decisively to herself. 'I'm up for the challenge!'

Jet looked at his desk and saw a picture of a young girl, she guessed the girl was around the age of ten. The bright smile on the young girls face cheered her heart. "Is this your daughter, sir?" She tentatively asked her commander, pointing to the picture.

Commander Fiarand picked up the picture and looked at it lovingly. "Yes, her mother died when she was born."

"How old is she, sir?"

"Kate just turned 9 a couple of weeks ago." He responded to her question, setting the picture back down on his desk adjusting it so it sat 'just so'. "Now, lieutenant you will be assigned to Sininen Squadron. We just had an opening in that squadron and Lieutenant Dami needs someone to fly wing. Are we clear?"

"Sir. Yes, Sir." Jet replied automatically to his question.

"Jarrison, you don't need to and aren't expected to respond with strict protocol here on the Explorer. I'm sure Kammenen explained how the Explorer works in his introduction." Commander Fiarand smiled, more to himself than to Jet. "He has the same speech for each new person stationed here. Let's go back to the hangar and I'll show you the bird you'll be flying."

They stepped out into the hangar; Commander Fiarand walked Jet down one of the aisles and stepped in front of a fighter that looked as if it had been through a war and then crashed.

"Here she is. I know she doesn't look like much right now, but after you fix her up, I have confidence that she'll fly good as new." Fiarand paused before he walked off, "Oh, and Jarrison. That bird needs to be flight ready in 5 cycles."

Jet's resolve to make nice with this man ended with his proclamation about her fighter. 'Well, at least I won't let my education go to waste.' Jet thought to herself with disgust. She looked down at her uniform and realized she was going to need to change from her Class A's into her coverall's. She looked around and realized that she was being silently watched by the other pilots and mechanics. Jet turned to leave and saw a tanned woman with bright eyes walking towards her.

"You Lieutenant Jarrison? I'm Lieutenant Rayankka Dami." Said the woman, holding her hand out.

Jet shook the woman's hand, "Guilty." She replied. "I'm your new wingman. Where's your fighter, Lieutenant Dami?" Jet inquired wanting to know if she was getting a shit-deal with her assigned fighter.

"Mine's across from your's." Lieutenant Dami explained, pointing to the fighter that sat directly across the row from Jet's. "Oh and by the way, call me Rayan. No one here is strict with protocol."

Jet nodded her head in acquiescence, still staring in disbelief at the gorgeous stat the Rayan's fighter was in. "Your fighter looks brand new. How often do they upgrade them?" Jet asked, letting curiosity get the better of her.

Rayan smiled, "You want to know about the state of your fighter don't you. Well the pilot before you died in a dog-fight over the Xanat moon. We salvaged the bird. Don't worry we all started out with fighters that were...for lack of a better word...fucked. Your welcome to fix it up as you see fit. In fact those are your orders, even if the Commander didn't tell you that directly. All of the parts and tools you could ever need are stored in the tool shop back there." Rayan pointed down the row of fighters to two large doors that had a sign labled "TOOL SHOP" above them. "I'd change if I were you. You don't want to mess up your Class A's, but your gonna want to hurry because you've only got 5 cycles before you and I are out on patrol together and I want to know that my wingman has got a safe fighter. If you need any help just let me know." Rayan offered before she walked back to her fighter.

Jet Looked around at the other fighters and noticed that no two fighters were exactly alike, but in their own way they all looked lethal. 'I hope I'm allowed to make whatever modifications I see fit...I've got some ideas that will speed this baby up.' Jet slapped the side of her new fighter only to have the fighter's sensor unit fall to the polished surface of the floor. 'This thing is gonna need a full overhaul.' She thought to herself, resigned.

Jet walked out of the hangar and turned toward the elevators that would take her to Gamma level when she stopped in her tracks because she heard yelling coming from the Admiral's Office behind her. Normally Jet wouldn't have cared about yelling coming out of the Admiral's Office, because at the Academy she was use to hearing Cadet's get their ass chewed out by a superior officer; it was the words that were accompanied by the angry voice that made her stop.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT WERE ONLY RECEIVING FORTY-PERCENT? THE NEGOTIATED PAYMENT WAS SEVENTY PERCENT!" Came the angry Admiral's voice. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO PULL! THE DEAL IS OFF! HE STAYS HERE!"

Jet looked through the cracked door of the Admiral's Office, she saw the admiral and the man that he was yelling at, the man she had passed in the hall. 'That's a Merc! What the hell is a Merc doing here?' Jet thought to herself. 'What does he mean by negotiated price? The Core System Government strictly forbids dealing with Mercs.' Jet hurried away from the door of the Admiral's office not wanting to get caught eavesdropping on what was apparently a conversation that should have never been taking place. 'What secrets is this secret facility hiding?'

zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxz

The overhaul of her fucked-up-beyond-all-recognition fighter was coming along smoothly, by Jet's calculations she was a day ahead of schedule. With Rayan's help and assistance they were able to rewire the motherboard and replace all the wires on the fighter. Rayan really knew her technology and helped Jet to improve on some of her own ideas. 'I gotta hand it to her, she knows her shit!' Jet thought to herself, after Rayan had suggested that they reroute the cooling and heating filament through the floor of the fighter to help save on energy, thus being able to greatly increase the speed of the engines.

Jet grabbed the welding torch that was lying next to her and snapped her mask into place. Sparks flew off of the now warmed metal as it melded into the old metal covering a hole that was detrimental to the integrity of the hull. Jet shut off the torch as she saw a pair of booted feet walk towards her fighter and stop right by her own feet that were sticking out from under her ship. Jet slid out on the roller-board and looked up into one very beaten face, surrounding two chocolate-brown eyes.

"Don't tell me you fell down the stairs!" She said, standing, removing her mask and assessing the damage on his face. "Or, was it that you ran into a door?"

"Hey, Jet." Randy said smiling and then wincing at the pain a smile cost him.

"Are you okay? That looks pretty bad." She asked, concerned.

"Aww, it's nothing compared to the number that I did on the other guy. Sorry babe, doc says I can't do anything strenuous for the next couple of cycles." He said suggestively, making Jet blush. "Hey I was wondering if you might be able to go the commissary with me for a bite to eat? They have chocolate cake, I checked."

Jet smiled at his suggestion of chocolate cake, "I…I really can't." she said apologetically, "I've only got three more cycles before this bird has to be flight ready, besides I've got my wing leader helping me out and I wouldn't feel right about abandoning her." She watched his face fall at her refusal.

"Hey, Hey, Hey…HEY!" They both turned to see Rayan sticking her head out of an absurd hole in the fighter where there should have just been smooth tempered metal. "I will not be having you blame me when you faint on me for your nutrition. Or lack thereof, for that matter." She protested with a smile on her face. Rayan looked at Randy's uniform assessing him. "Captain Branners" She climbed out of the hole, "If you will give this young woman a few moments with me she will be ready for lunch. You just make sure she eats a balanced meal, you hear?"

Randy nodded and smiled, "Yes, ma'am."

Rayan grabbed Jet's arm and drug her behind the half-finished fighter, "Are you crazy? Do you have one too many bolts loose in that genius brain of yours? What do you mean by turning him down for a lunch invite? Have you not seen that ass?" Rayan whispered, berating her new friend.

Jet tried to put up a protest, "Rayan, come on he's just being friendly, you know with me being the new person and all. Besides I've got a lot to get done if I am to have my fighter ready for patrol."

"Honey that ain't the Welcome Wagon, if it is they missed me. Besides girl, you have got to eat something. When I go on break I am not going to bring you some food so you can ditch Captain Gorgeous over there." Rayan said, pointing to the door of the hangar where Randy was standing.

"Rayan, I can't. Have you taken a good look at me?" Jet complained. "I'm still in my coverall's and I've got grease and dust smeared all over me."

"Girl, I swear you are the most agrivating woman I have ever met. He likes you I can see it. Those coveralls look damn good on you too. Now go before I drag you to the commissary myself." Rayan insisted, shooing Jet to the doors

Jet laughed at her enthusiasm.

Jet and Randy walked through the doors of the commissary and stood in line with thier trays. Jet looked around and was surprised at the amount of people the commissary could hold. It looked as if every table was full. 'I wonder if we'll be able to find a place to sit once we get our food.' She thought to herself and voiced her concern to Randy.

"We'll be fine. This is just the lunch rush. I've never had an issue with finding a place to eat." He assured her.

"What are you going to get?" she inquired of his lunch selection.

"I was feeling like getting a burger and some fries. You?" he said, returning her question.

"I wasn't sure, but now that you mention it I want the same and chocolate cake." She smiled at him and pointed to a table, she said. "I think I see an empty table over there." She grabbed her chocolate cake and headed in that direction. She took a seat at the table and pooped a french fry in her mouth. "Owww, hot, hot!" She picked up her napkin and spat the offending french fry into it, trying to hide her embarrassment.

Randy looked at her with a huge grin on his face and amusement in his eyes; a deep rumble of laughter started in his chest and he grimaced in pain. "Got to remember that I cracked a few ribs." he said more to himself, than to her.

"Yeah, about that..." Jet said with caring in her eyes, "What happened to you?"

"We thought we were getting rid of a prisoner that we have in one of the isolation rooms up on Phi level. Well, we had him chained up for the animal that he is and we were taking him out of the isolation room and all of sudden his animal explodes. I didn't get the worst of it. A couple of my enlisted men landed in the med bay with concussions and one slipped into a coma." he explained, his voice laced with concern, then switched to disgust. "This one is pure animal. I came out lucky I got a few bruises, two cracked ribs, and a broken nose."

"I'm so sorry. I forgot that you worked on the prison level. So did you and your men...uh... "get rid" of him?"

"We weren't going to kill. He was just getting transported out of here. We were able to subdue him enough to stick him back into his isolation room, but then were stuck with getting him back out again. Well, before we tried it again I received a call on my comlink to let me know that our orders had changed and he was staying on The Explorer after all." Randy continued on, "Frankly, I'm surprised. We recieved orders a month ago that he was leaving and then they were changed so quickly. I don't get it."

What's his name?" Jet asked, interested that this one prisoner had exercised so much power over Randy and his men.

"Riddick. Richard B. Riddick." Randy replied, his voice dripping with disdain.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope you all enjoyed it. I am so sorry it took so long. Please forgive my tardiness. Thank you so much to my Readers and my Reviewers.

Wolven Jedi: Thank you so much for your support. I promise that you'll find out what the initiation is!

Amita4ever: Thank you for your critique and you were totally right. I hope you can see the beginning of the plot in this chapter. Am I rushing things?

Everyone please review I totally need all the help that I can get.