29. The Run

I hit my room to change clothes. I checked the lock pad to see if the hair I left on the buttons. As usual, it was there. Probably obsessive of me to be so careful on this ship, but I get manic if I just don't do it. Like I can't sleep alone where anyone tells me to; afraid I'll get locked in again. Damn, what a gloomy thought. I changed into a tee shirt and sweats. If Don was gonna give me free time I was gonna run the ship; run any thoughts of Her out of my head.

I strapped on my shoulder pack with my spare clothes and my 'flee kit': money and the other things I must have with me at all times. It's not heavy, and it gives me some peace. Gotta hand it to Jaron, they did have everything I needed on that ship. So far, no one's asked what's in it, or why I wear it to run.

I put the disk Riddick left me into my reader and grabbed a set of earphones. There's other music on it, this would be a good time to hear it. As I leave, I put the hair back on the lock pad.

The frigate is laid out in three decks up and down, and four sections front to back. The front section is for command: Observation in the top deck, then bridge, and command quarters at the bottom. Second section is ships operation systems on all the decks. All those damn little green lights I'm supposed to watch in case they turn red. The third section is crew quarters on the first and second decks, and cargo in the third deck. The fourth section is engineering, three decks of three different engines, and more green to red lights.

I still don't know what engine is used for what. Don told me the ship is so smart it will pick the right engine to do the job you ask it to do. There's actually another deck to the ship, a false deck at the top, for a ship's boat, or Don's scout ship: the one he caught up to us in. There's also 'wings' on the frigate. I don't know if 'wings' is the right word, but Riddick told me they help when the ship is in atmosphere. You can get inside the wings if you don't mind crawling in the small maintenance tubes. I checked them out for hiding in, but only Zemma would like 'em.

The Mongers don't like stairs; can't run a whole company of men down stairs in changing gravities, so there are ramps going up and down between decks. There's a few anti-grav tubes, too. They'll get you from the top to the bottom, and back again real quick, but using them makes me wanna puke. The entire center of the ship is open, with the ramps winding around, giving it a cathedral like look. Zem told me Mongers like large open spaces to rally the troops and assemble the faithful. At least Riddick pulled out all that gloomy shit they called art.

I learned a while back that if you open all the main section doors you can run a circle through the ship and that huge open space using sections two and three. Just running the ramps makes me dizzy, and it gets boring. I run the lower deck, and before I get to the start line, I take the main ramp up a deck, through the maze of corridors, back out to the ramps, go up and do it again. Then up to the top deck and start working down. I usually do it three times. The first time I jog and open all the doors… then I run it full out, and then a third time to close all the doors… don't want His High and Bitchiness yelling at me for leaving atmospheric doors open.

Headed down to the galley… I want eggs and bacon and pancakes and toast… but I'll settle for whatever's in a box. I like to pretend that whatever I can stick a fork into is Don.

"Zemma could have done it in half the time," I mocked, feeling churlish.

When I got to the galley Riddick was there, still in his dusty clothes, talking to Zem.

"Morning, fellow prisoners!" I quipped.

Riddick glared at me. Zemma smiled at me. I must have interrupted something real important. At least they still had their clothes on.

"I am just gonna grab something to eat and …uh, do Don's slave list." It was the only thing I could think of that would get me out quick, without sounding rude. "Wanna kick me in the head later Zem? Don's orders."

Zemma giggled, "Love to." She glanced at Riddick for approval, which galls me to no end. He just tipped one shoulder and didn't say no. "Noon-ish?"

"Super." I grabbed a handful out of a box of protein bars. "I'll see you in three bells" I said this over my shoulder as I headed out. I heard Zemma ask Riddick "Three bells?"

On the way to the lower deck I stopped by a parts locker. Before I could start rummaging for things, a voice boomed out over my head, "Officer of the Watch to Officer of the Ship, respond."

What the hell? I keyed the com pad by the door, "Jack here." I waited and looked for any cameras I might have missed before.

"What are you doing in the parts locker?" He sounded terse, but I was ready for this.

"Damn, Don, you were just complaining a few days ago about the lenses being bad on the monitors in the cargo hold. I figured I would change them as I ran." I was nervous but tried to sound annoyed instead. Watch, wait, be ready for whatever.

"I've told you before to call before entering a secure area…" I heard him take a breath, "Carry on." He sounded exasperated.

I turned off the com. "I got your 'secure area' hanging right here, Donny Boy."

I took out my notepad and grabbed the components on the list I made from computer help file last night. I had to scramble to get grab the lenses into my pack, too. "Won't do to forget the cover story," I snorted.

I changed the lenses in the cargo hold. If this had been done earlier I wouldn't have had to wonder if Riddick changed the filters last watch. It was one of Don's constant complaints: how Riddick had scraped so many monitors when he was making the frigate look like salvage. Not that I mind.

I keyed the com. "Officer of Ship to Officer of the Watch," I said flatly. I should have said 'respond' as well, but I'm not quite comfortable with that whole procedure.

"Go ahead," was all he said.

"How's that?"

It took almost thirty minutes of adjusting before he gave me an all-clear signal.

"Well, if you're satisfied? I'd like to get a run in before I go kick Zemma's ass." That might have sounded sharper than I meant.

"I told you I didn't need you already." He cut off the signal.

The first lap was slow, as I opened doors for my run. I stopped and made sure the berth I slept in last night had no sign of my being there. I picked the lock on another room I planned on using. Wrong angle, I can't sleep behind the bed without being visible from the door. I found another one. I wondered if Riddick knows how good I am at lock picking? I pulled off the com panel and put my chip in. Now, when Riddick signals 'my' room tonight, it'll come here.

Along the path I checked my notes and opened wall panels to look at monitor wiring, and try to identify the components. The computer showed me how to tell if a camera was working, so I didn't have to worry about Don catching me here. Riddick left very few monitors in the center sections of the ship. I even saw why one outside the med lab was not working. I didn't fix it.

On my way back to the lower decks I checked on my stash. Stuff I had found in the crew quarters I'd stayed in. Soldiers, and prisoners, are very good at hiding contraband, but not as good as I was finding it. I wondered if I could get a job doing things like that. Ship's Illegal Imports Officer, if they have a job like that.

I stashed the stuff I'd found in an access tube to the wings, behind an electric panel and ten pounds of wiring. I was up to a short-range com unit, a needler pistol and clip, a girly magazine (in a language I didn't know, but they all look the same), few different types of money from different systems (very useful to me but why did they keep it?) I also found a very nasty picture of a brunette (kinda yum, actually), and a holo-cube of a woman that looked a lot like I remembered my mom before She came into my life.

Ugh. Why did everything have come back to Hypatia?

The run started out good, before the past encroached on me. Thoughts of Her, and my mother, ran after me, gained ground. I put on Riddick's music and ran faster… and still they pursued me. After the first lap, I did a second even faster; a song about a black dog ringing in my ears. I pushed myself until I was tilted headfirst down the ramps. Loud instruments, and a man almost screaming about a place called 'California', echoed in my head as I made short-cuts across gangways and bounced off bulkheads when I took corners too fast. I decided not to slow down for my third lap. The song about some battle pounded through my head and helped me ignore the stitch in my side and the pain in my chest as I labored for breath.

Towards the end of the third lap, the song was over and I was starting to slow to catch my breath, when I heard voices ahead of me, near the engineering doors. I stopped and leaned against the bulkhead to hear who was there. Riddick had been in here last night when I called him. I forced myself to breath easier, so whoever it is wont hear me, and so I could hear better. I concentrated on the breathing exercises Don has been trying to teach me to calm myself, and to my surprise it worked this time.

"…what if we patch it through the auxiliary engine then?" It was Riddick's voice, and he sounded mad.

Don voice was next, and it sounded equally curt. "We have been over this, Sir, wrong power source. Weapons, if we had any left on this ship, must come off the mains."

I must have come in at a hot point in this conversation. I waited, still doing the breathing exercises. No more talk, and I started to worry they would come out and catch me eavesdropping, when Don, in a calmer voice said, "Look, I know what you want, I even understand why you want it. You got rid of all the external weapons, and without them I can not make a ship to ship weapon."

Ship to ship weapon? Holy hells.

I heard Riddick sigh. "We could always put on suits and board it."

Don barked a laugh, a strange and eerie sound. I thought, Satan can laugh? "Won't be boring," he said. After a few moments Don went on in a reflective tone, "Let me ask Zemma. She knew more about the Basilica's systems than I originally thought."

There was a pause before Riddick said, "I'll send her."

Don followed up with, "And Jack… when do you tell her?"

No answer from Riddick. I heard boot steps heading my way, so I headed the other. Before I was out of earshot, though, I heard one last thing from Don:

"A soldier has the right to know what they're facing." It was a matter of fact comment. It made me feel weird. It made me feel warm towards Don. Ew!

I ran by the galley, still covered with sweat, to tell Zem I was running late. "I still have to close the doors or Don will skin me and wear me like a hat."

She laughed and asked if I wanted some company. I am glad I am covered in sweat so she can't see the tear slip out and slide down my cheek. "I'd like that." What the hell? First Don, now this? All that late watch shit must be making my brain soft.

We jogged the course and closed the doors. I shared my stairway song with her. I probably shouldn't be surprised to discover Zemma has checked out the ship almost as much as me. She even knew about the cramped tubes in the wings… she called them cozy. As we got near the engineering section I felt anxious, but the door is closed. We finished the route, and with all secure, we headed to the cargo hold to spar.

The sparring went in fits and spurts. Zemma was still getting worn-out real quick, even though it's been days since she was sick. Never mind I've never been sick a day in my life. I'm exhausted from my run, so of course I gave her shit about being tired and pretend I wasn't. She just said, "I told you I was old," and laughed.

There are questions I don't dare ask that kept trying to pop out of my mouth.

At one point I tried a sharp rounded kick to Zemma's head. It's my favorite move, though I try not to think about the One who taught it to me. Zemma blocks it, and I ended up on my ass for my trouble.

"How do you do that?" I asked irritably. "It's my best move. No one but you and Riddick has ever been able to stop it."

Zemma plopped down on the floor besides me. "Jaron showed me that. When a person sets their shoulders, and levels their center of gravity to one side or the other, that's what comes next."

I sighed, "The only way I could ever able to stop it was to charge forward and tackle Her." I couldn't believe that slipped out. I tried not to look at Zem but I could feel her looking at me. She didn't ask who the 'her' was. I thought it was bugging her to, though. I glanced at her. She raised an eyebrow back.

I sighed again. What the hell… it was better than talking about math for the next hour.