28. Something Strange

Something strange happened while I was sick. Don calls me Lady again, but not with that pause just before the word, or that tone of voice that he knew drove me crazy. Sometimes he even gives me half a smile, like it's a compliment. Riddick seems more relaxed. Jack seems harried, but more contented too. Maybe she's just tired. I don't know what went on with those three, but it was a good thing.

Don has also instituted a proper ship's watch schedule, though Riddick insisted on Earth hours for some odd reason. It means four 6-hour shifts instead of 8-hour shifts: 24-hour days instead of 32. I should be grateful; I'm still so tired all the time. Riddick says the flu should last two weeks and it's only been four days since I quit puking, and I should take it easy.

I have second watch after Don. Riddick is after me. Jack has the late watch. It gives me almost no time with Jack, but lots of time with Riddick. Don is spending every minute with Jack training her to do all kinds of things. She isn't too badly bruised, so she must be a quicker… or is that a faster… learner than me. I'm not sure which word is proper in Furyan syntax. Why is this so much harder to write than speak?

Riddick has some strange ideas. I'm stuck writing this diary now, in Furyan, of course. Bizarrely, he wants it with a pen, on paper. He says he wont read it, but he wants me writing every night for a little while. He won't let Don reconfigure the keyboard in our cabin for Furyan letters and let me type it. My hand cramps up after a few sentences. Prick.

Took me almost an earth hour to write that, with a few push ups in between. I still need more upper body strength. Riddick wont let me train again until he thinks I'm fully recovered. If he reads this he'll be mad I'm exercising when he's not here.

I wonder how Jack is doing.

1:04 a.m.

Damn, I hate this watch. At least Riddick has the decency to give me a wake up call. So far they haven't noticed I'm crossing the com lines to whatever room I crash in. If they do, and fix the glitch, I'm toast. Listening to Don, if you can't wake up for your own watch you should be scourged. I don't know what the hell that is, but it doesn't sound nice. If I oversleep and they come looking for me… well, Don will shit bricks if he finds out I'm not in my 'assigned' room.

Time to take a sonic shower, and do my bit. Hope there are still some of those power bars left in the galley. I get so hungry when I'm up all night. I don't need Don catching me off the bridge again. Everyone else can leave the bridge during their watch, after duties, of course, but not me. Fuck no.

1:55 a.m.

Report to bridge 5 minutes early. I know Rid won't turn me in for being late, but Don checks the damn monitors and can tell if I am... since I'm his bitch after my watch, he'll make me pay. At two, on the beep, I announce loudly, "Jack reporting for the watch!"

Riddick looks nearly as annoyed over the formality as I am, but does respond, "The watch is yours."

"Anything fun out there?" I ask.

"Nothing, but a spike on sensors in quadrant 4x1x18. You know where that is?"

I think a moment. Don showed me how the quad grid works, but it doesn't pop into my head.

"Just a sec." and I go to the notes I have made on sensor grids. With Don you better take notes. He's not big on repeating himself. I check my notes, look at the screen, check the notes again, and point. "Right here?"

"Is that a question, or a statement?"

"Statement." I say it with more confidence than I feel as I try not to bite my lip.

Rid just looks at me, and shakes his head slowly. I'm about to argue when he says, "Good. Keep an eye on it, call me if it pops up again." He points to three different pads. "Do Dons list first, then Zemma's, then mine. Don't look at mine 'till the other two are done." And he walks out. That wasn't a grin on the Old Man's face as he turned away. Was it?

I sit down and start my checklist. The others can do this very fast, even Zemma, but I take my time... still checking my notes. I check ship's systems, mostly looking for red flags, and I check the ship's log. This is supposed to make me more well rounded?

3:17 a.m.

Hey! Changing the CO2 filters in the cargo hold wasn't done. Did Riddick forget to have them done, or forget to mark them off? I gotta think a minute. As 'Officer of the Watch' it's supposed to be my job to tell the 'Officer of the Ship' to get any jobs that need doing done. God, I hate ordering Riddick to do things. I thought it would be fun. Ha!

I key the com to the galley; he always heads to the galley after watch. "Ah… Riddick, did you have Zem do the filters in the cargo hold?" I wait. No answer. He probably crawled into bed with her already. He's gonna be pissed if I wake her up by calling their quarters. I hate doing ship announcements. I take a deep breath, key the ship-wide com, and almost forgot to take the quarters off the com. I'd really be fucked if I woke Don.

"Riddick? Are you out there."

The light showing incoming com is from the engine room. "You're lucky Don's not with me. I don't think that's how you're suppose to call for someone."

His voice sounds light. Just giving me shit. But he's right; Don's a stickler for protocol ever since Riddick told him to get me prepared for... what the hell was I being prepared for?

"Did you get Zemma to do the filters in the cargo bay?" I know I sound pissy. I don't mean to.

"She's still not a hundred percent, so I figured you could do it when Don comes on." I can just picture the patronizing look on his face. He knows I hate doing filters. By the time you're done you're dusty, with nasty brown streaks all over you.

I turn to Don's to-do list. It begins with 'What have you NOT done on the checklist this time?' I key Riddick back on the engine room com again. "Officer of the Watch to Officer of the Ship, please respond." I wait.

"What?" He sounds annoyed. Damn it, I'm biting my fingernail, again.

"Please change the CO2 filters in the cargo bay, and report when done." I hope my voice didn't quaver.

There's no response from him. Is he supposed to respond? I check my notes.

4:43 a.m.

I've done three course corrections, per Don's directions. If I did 'em right, we are on the exact same course as when I started. Won't know for sure 'till Don gets here, of course. I think it's his favorite torture, making me wait for hours to find out how bad I screwed up.

Still haven't heard from Riddick. Maybe that's a good thing?

Don has me studying astral navigation. I have absolutely no hope of ever doing this; the math alone is ridiculous! When I told him I don't understand it he simply handed me a reader with a math chip. Sadistic prig. At least it gets me two hours away from him to study with Zemma.

I'd nap but those damn ship monitors would catch me. I wonder if you can turn them off and make it look like an accident? I check my notes and pull up the ship's computer schematics. I don't understand them all, but there is a help button... interesting. Lets ask the computer for monitors...

5:22 a.m.

Zemma has me checking ambient energy waves and cross-referencing to see if they are possible communications. Sure, intelligent life is speaking to us with solar radiation. Can my life be any more pathetic? I need a port of call in the worse way. Suddenly, there's a red light to my left and a spot on the grid map. I look carefully and count the grids... checking my notes…

4...X1...X19, no, 18. That is the sensor spike Riddick told me to look for. I hit the ship wide com, barely remembering to take off the personal quarters, and try to stay calm. "Jack of the Watch to Officer... dammit… Riddick the spike is on right now."

I start to wonder if Riddick is actually in his quarters and didn't hear me when he strides in... dusty and covered with brown smudges. He pulls me out of my chair and plops his dusty ass in it. I take the co-pilots seat. He starts throwing switches and punching buttons. I try to keep up but get lost. It looks like he's trying to lock onto the frequency of the spike. At least, I think he is.

He switches on a com I never used... I think it's a personal com link. "Don, get up here. I got it, but I can't keep it."

"No! Don't call Satan to my watch!" Did I say that out loud? And do those monitors have audio pick-ups?

Don burst in half a minute later and takes the pilot's chair, and now I'm pushed back to the Nav. Hey now, who's Officer of the Watch? This I carefully do not say out loud. Then I notice Don is fully dressed, shoes and all. Does he sleep standing up, fully dressed? Does he ever not wear that armored uniform, for that matter? How many can he have?

"Got it!" Don exclaims. "Jack, give me five points of gain on the sensor, but no more than five."
Riddick starts to get up, but Don puts his arm out to stop him, without missing a beat of whatever he's doing. I don't think I was supposed to notice. I go to the sensor panel, grab my notepad, check it only once, and set the gain up slowly… and carefully. It may have only gone up four, but I stop when Don says, "STOP."

The two of them keep working for about an hour. No real discussion, but some nods, and one of them says something about a sloop or yacht. What the fuck?

6:00 a.m.

The spike ends, and whatever it was vanishes.

Don gets up from the pilot's seat, looks at me hovering, and says, "I believe this is still yours. I will see you in two bells."

"Two bells?" I don't get it. That's not in my notes.

Riddick looks at Don "Where'd you hear that?"

"Two bells?" I repeat.

"All military history, whatever the planet of origin, is interesting. Earth has more than it's share. I'm fond of the Napoleonic naval era particularly."

"Two bel..." I start again, but Don gives me that 'don't you dare' look, and I shut the fuck up.

Riddick snorts and says to me, "In wet navy, a bell is wrung every hour," as they walk out together.

So, 'two bells' is two hours? The prick could have just said so. Wet navy? What the hell does Riddick know about any of that?

I sit down and go back to work on Zemma's to-do list, doing the best I can. I have no interest in the forms I'm supposed to fill out, but I want to get through it and find out what's on Riddick's list for me.

6:56 a.m.

Almost done with Zemma's list; the bitch left me math homework! I stand and stretch. Why am I always so hungry at this time? For a break, I start my log entries. I mark the filter in the cargo hold changed even though Riddick never actually reported it done. He looked like it was done. I mention what I can of the spike in the sensors. I note that Don will elaborate on the entry later. See if he notices that. Twenty minutes and I'm finally done with Zemma's stuff. Damn, if it hadn't been for that sensor thing I would have been done an hour ago.

I take Riddick's clipboard but it has nothing on it. Under the page is a disk. Did he record his tasks for me? Not that I have time to do any of it… I pop it into the computer and hear is deep voice:

"If you did not order me to do the filters eject this and throw it out. If you did, then sit down and relax; you did a good job." Heh. Prick.

I wait and soon sounds of music come out; gentle string instruments, and a hypnotic beat. Not bad. It's about glittering gold and a stairway to heaven. I close my eyes and enjoy it.

8:00 a.m.

Don walks through the door. "Don W'Rdah reporting for the watch," he says. He checks our course straight away.

"The watch is yours," I tell him. "Riddick's only comment was about that sensor spike at 4X1X18, which, obviously, you're aware of."

As he looks at the log he asks if there is anything else. I tell him about having Riddick do the CO2 filters in the cargo hold. He snorts, "That'll teach him." But I don't think he said that to me, did he?

"You are on course. Took you almost an hour to do it though. Zemma could have done it in half that. Think you're ready to set a Nav course?"

"Not even almost." But he doesn't yell, he just looks at me.

"I have no duties for you today. I will com you if I need you. Spend some time sparing with Riddick, or Zemma if she is up to it. At 14:30 I will expect you for hand-to-hand training."

I have to do the math to figure out what time he means. What the fuck was Rid thinking, putting us on this screwy Earth time, just to have Don screw with it even more? I head out to the galley for some food and hope someone else will be there. I really want to know what all the stuff with the sensor spike was about. God, I really hope they don't tell me it's Her.