This one's kinda short, sorry. thankyou to people who reviewed.
The following four weeks were the most difficult for Jack, she ate, she slept, she worked out, sometimes Riddick would work out with her, then they would get into sparring matches that he would always win, using his height and build to his advantage. It was the constant repetition that annoyed her, so it was to her great relief when Riddick found her in the engine room, once again having fixed the rattle that came and went, to inform her they would be landing soon.
Wiping her hands off, Jack followed Riddick to the cockpit and strapped herself into the co pilot's seat, preparing herself for one of Riddick's not so gentle landings. When they cleared the atmosphere of Morse Prime, Jack leaned over to look out the windows at the tops of the many buildings.
"We're landing at the North docks?" she asked Riddick.
"They don't ask so many damn questions." He said, steering the ship.
"Because most of the people that land there are going to use the whorehouses in close proximity." She muttered, checking the statics of the ship on the screen.
"We shouldn't be here long," Riddick told her. "Get what we need and leave, don't talk to people or tell them where we come from." He ordered.
"I'm not an idiot." She grumbled, bracing herself as they touched down.
Unbuckling her restraints, she stood up, somewhat shakily.
"Where are you going?" asked Riddick as she walked towards the hatch.
"Out, I have been on this ship for more than six weeks Riddick, I swear to God if you lock me, I will kill you." She threatened.
"Be back before sun down." He said, stepping from the ship. Grabbing her jacket, she mentally calculated that sun down was at least four hours away, plenty of time.
The docks at which they had landed were in access to the slums of the capital of Morse Prime, a sprawling city Jack had never learned the name of. Ducking through the back alleys, she worked her way through the city, into a more respectable and safer part of the city. The streets opened into a market, where Jack watched the people greet each other and purchase things. Stopping to inspect a stall that offered old-Earth books, she felt the back of her neck prickle as she felt someone watching her. Trying not to be overly obvious about it, she looked around causally and spotted a man in the crowd. He wasn't familiar, with dark hair and eyes, but the way he watched her was.
Leaving the stall without buying anything, Jack pushed her way through the crowd, into a back alley where she waited.
Several hours after sunset, Riddick arrived back at the ship, opening it up, he realised that Jack hadn't returned yet, cursing, he shoved the package he held in his hands into the cargo hold and waited. She returned almost three hours later, when Riddick was deliberating whether to go looking for her, she seemed happy about something, and looking at her, Riddick could smell something on her, blood. Not only hers, but someone else's as well. Ignoring Riddick she walked onto the ship and into her room where she changed from her blood and sweat streaked shirt, inspecting a spreading bruise over her ribs and several small cuts and grazes.
"Where were you?" asked Riddick as she stepped from the room.
"I had a little incident." She answered, walking straight past him and into the kitchen. He noticed the way she moved gingerly, as if too much movement hurt.
"What happened Jack?" he asked loudly.
"Someone thought they could take me on, well actually there was a lot of them, I just gave them what they had coming." She replied, shuffling though the freezer for something cold.
Riddick waited while she pulled off out a tray of ice and dumped it in a bag, as she walked from the kitchen, she pressed the bag to her ribs, wincing as they cold ice made contact with her skin, even though the layers of material.
Riddick watched her go, listening as her door slammed shut. Walking out of the ship, he locked her in, or in his eyes, locked someone else out. Slipping silently though the city, he listened and smelled the scents in the air, and then he caught one familiar one, Jack, that led him straight through the bad parts of the city and down an old back alley near a market that was packed up for the night.
Down in the alley, he removed his goggles, able to see bloodstains upon the ground, there were a couple of men there, still unconscious, but still breathing. With a sense of pride, Riddick was able to see that Jack had thoroughly beaten them up, whatever they wanted to do, they didn't have a chance. The blood on the ground, Jacks blood suggested that someone had gotten a lucky shot in, he didn't know what with and made a note to ask Jack later, however for now, he was going to teach these people not to mess with His Jack.
Several hours later, Riddick walked back to the ship, locking it again, he walked straight to the shower, washing away the blood of the men he had found.
"Where did you go?" asked Jack the minute he stepped from the bathroom.
"I could ask the same thing." He growled.
"But you no doubt already know that" She said, he looked at where she was leaning against a wall, still with some distance between the wall and her ribs.
"Where did they get you?" he asked.
Jack held up an arm, he could see a long gash along one arm, one that wasn't exactly shallow. Riddick took a step forward to look at it, but jack yanked her arm away.
"It's nothing." She said, avoiding his gaze.
"Bullshit Jack, let me look." He demanded. Jack held out her arm and allowed him to look at the cut, which had already stopped bleeding. "Come on." He said, yanking her into the bathroom, where he washed and bandaged her arm for her.
"Look Riddick," she said when he was done. "I can take care of myself, I don't need you protecting me like this."
"I care Jack, I left and I'm going to make it up to you." He said seriously.
"By smothering me to death?" she muttered as she walked back to her room.
Walking to the cargo hold, Riddick retrieved the package he had stored there before, opening it, he was greeted with files, all of them with dates and times on the top of them. Settling down in the cargo hold, he sorted through all the files that listed descriptions of the people who had been passing through the Morse system. One profile caught his eye, middle age Muslim man, and his wife and four year old daughter.
"Found you." He whispered.
"Found who?" asked Jack.
"Imam passed through here, about three weeks ago, with his wife and daughter." Riddick told her.
"That could be any family." Jack said, looking over his shoulder at the file.
"On a commercial ship from New Mecca, perfect timing, this is them." He said.
"Where are they now?" she asked.
"Just passing through, according through the files, the ship went to the Lirage System." He said. Jack picked up the file and looked through it.
"How far away is that?" she asked.
"About three weeks travel." He said,
"We better be going then." She commented.
"So you noticed the market was swarming with mercs as well?" he asked.
"I'm not stupid." She said. Riddick began to pack away the files as she prepped the ship for takeoff. "Are we stocked enough for three weeks?" she asked.
"We're going to make a stop off on Morse four." He said.
"That's in three days." She pointed out.
"We'll be right till then." Riddick said, receiving clearance and taking off.
The worst part about space travel, thought Jack as they lifted, was most defiantly clearing the atmosphere. Her stomach jumped as the ship found it's way through and out into the clear realms of space. Riddick set the autopilot as Jack checked the fuel and oxygen supplies.
"This is going to be close." She commented, looking at the screen.
"It'll be fine." Riddick said, looking over her screen at the shoulder.
"If you say so." She said, unbuckling herself and walking to her room to sleep of the effects of taking off so abruptly.
When she woke up a few hours later, she found Riddick in the gym, sweating profusely as he worked out.
"So how exactly did you get those files?" she asked.
"I have a friend there." He replied.
"You have friends?" she asked.
"Not that kinda friend, try acquaintance." He said, stopping to look at her. Jack couldn't make out his expression in the dim room, he had kept the lights low to work out, not needing his goggles, meaning Jack could see his silver eyes in the gloom.
"How did you know where Imam would go?" she asked.
"He mention once, a long time ago he would have wanted to go through the Morse system, Lirage, maybe to Telaron, before he settled in New Mecca." Riddick told her.
"Why didn't he?" she asked.
"I dunno, didn't ask."
"I'm going down to get food, you hungry?" she asked. Riddick shook his head and turned his attention back to the bag. "Whatever." She said, leaving.
In the kitchen, she grabbed and apple and used one of her knives to cut it into pieces, each one she chewed purposely with thought. Looking at the time, she realised that it had taken her over two hours to at her one apple.
Toombs looked at the person in the office, he didn't seem a day over thirteen and he reeked of fear as the mercs stormed the office.
"We're looking for a big man, bald with goggles, would have had a seventeen year old girl, dark hair, green eyes, you seen them?" Toombs asked.
"They passed through here a couple of days ago." He stammered.
"We missed them Toombs." Said Alexia, his only female crewmember.
"Where were they headed?" Toombs asked the kid.
"I don't know, we don't ask questions here." The kid said, trying to back away from them.
"The closest system id the Lirage system." Said one of the others.
"Well then, looks like we got our new destination." Said Toombs as they all left the office.
"You think this is worth is Toombs?" asked Alexia as they walked back to their ship.
"You seen the payday on his head, doubles almost every time he jumps a planet, this is worth it." Toombs growled.
"Why is the girl so important though?" she asked.
"She's the only person he ever gave a damn about, you kill her you might as well kill him, I don't know why they want Riddick so badly, but I tell you, this is worth it." He said.
"Even divided seven ways?" she asked.
"Even divided seven ways, we'll still be up for early retirement." He promised.
Jack and Riddick landed on Morse four, three days after leaving Morse Prime. Riddick handed Jack a handful of money and told her to buy food. Refilling the fuel and air tanks, he followed Jack to the market, to help her carry back the food she had bought.
Packing it all away in the cupboard, Jack herd the ships alarm go off, signalling they had received a message. Walking up to the cockpit, she opened it and read the message.
"Riddick!" she called, urgency in her voice.
Riddick heard the urgency in her voice and walked quickly and quietly up to the cockpit.
"What is it?" he asked, startling her. holding a hand over her heart.
"You should see this." She told him, stepping out of the way so Riddick could see the message from Morse Prime.
"So they followed us to Morse Prime." He noted.
"And they know we're going to Lirage." She said.
"Looks like we're staying here a few days." He said.
"Why?" she asked.
"We wait for them to go to Lirage, then we follow, see who's hunting who now Toombs." Riddick growled.
i promise something will happen next chapter