He Didn't Come

DISCLAIMER: I do now own Riddick, Jack, Imam, or any portion of the PB universe. This story is a labor of love, as I recieve no money or other benefits for its existance. This pertains to all chapters.


CHAPTER ONE


Jack gazed at her reflection, a hand going up to her freshly-cut hair. She sighed. It surprised her just how boyish she looked. Maybe her disguise would work after all. She hoped so. Today was the day she began a new life, a life without hospitals or foster homes. A life where she was in control.

The stink of body odor mingled with the faint scent of garbage. Though there was a garbage chute spaced every two hundred meters, people didn’t seem to know they were there. New Germany laws—the official laws, at any rate—weren’t a factor here. The only law was the true law of the planet below: watch your ass. The station was seedy and wild, much like the planet it orbited. All around her, Jack could see furtive drug deals made in shadowy corners. She was surrounded by people who were just as likely to knife someone as look at them. Although some might have found it strange, she felt comfortable in the space station, or as comfortable as she felt anywhere. She had been born there, after all, and lived there for six years before going planetside. She had been in that world for years. She was finally escaping.

Ships were docked from all over the Consortium. She didn’t remember the space station being all that busy. For all she knew, it had been, but she had spent most of her time in the room her mother had rented when she was a little girl. She was comfortable, yes, but the crowd was a little disorienting. She felt a little off-balance and tried to steady herself. This was no time to flip out.

One particular ship was her own personal ticket off-world. It was a merchant vessel that had made a stop at the New Germany station to refuel. There were no ports on New Germany that had the resources to refuel a ship this size, at least none that she knew of. It wasted time and energy to go through the atmosphere, anyway, and both were precious. The spacecraft that passed through the station on a regular basis were usually smugglers and backwater colonists, neither of whom had the luxury of either to spare.

Jack had been incredibly lucky to get passage. She wasn’t even sure where it was going. All she cared about was that it was away from the rock that had been her home for the past seven years.

The ship wasn’t in horrible shape, all things considered. It was probably smuggling something. Either that, or a bunch of colonists were on their way to some sector or another. Alliance vessels had no business in New Germany’s shitty little corner of space. The only ships that usually came through were merc ships, smugglers, or drifter vessels. She knew that what she was doing wasn’t exactly the smartest thing to do, but she was sick of having her life controlled by other people.

She didn’t notice the man, wearing a blue jumpsuit with the name ‘Owens’ patched onto the left breast, step out of the ship or beckon to her until he spoke. “Hey, kid!” he hissed.

Jack glanced up from where she had been looking at herself in the reflection of a dark window. A shiver of distaste passed through her when she looked at him, remembering what she'd had to do in order to get her passage assured.

He looked surprised when he saw her. She couldn’t help the sly smile that skittered across her face. The last time he’d seen her, she had been every inch a girl, from her long brown hair to her smallish chest, which had just begun to fill out. She had bound what little was there, and when that was added to her loose pants, long-sleeved shirt, and new buzz cut, she looked very much like any skinny thirteen-year-old boy.

She approached him, trying to keep calm. He looked around nervously before ushering her inside the old ship. It was dark, which she hadn’t been expecting. The smell of oil and burnt power cells was subtle but pervading. It didn’t bother her as much as it probably would have bothered others.

He gave her a look that immediately put her on guard. They had a deal, and she had gone through with her part of the bargain. She knew what he was thinking. It was a surprise to her, though. Even through her male disguise, men wanted her?

He reached a hand toward her, saying, “Come here for a second.”

Jack stepped back, looking around for something to fend him off with, but before things could go any further, Owens’ chrono beeped. He glanced at it.

“Fuck,” he whispered angrily. Now appearing rushed and hassled, he impersonally shoved her into the cryo-locker and attached her to the life-support system. Jack could only assume that the ship was behind schedule. She counted it as a blessing took a quick look around the cryo-bay.

There were about forty commercial lockers on board, and from what she could see, every one of them was occupied. There was one that had seemed to have been installed at the last minute on the opposite side of the cryo-bay. It wasn’t that it looked loose or poorly installed. It just appeared out of place when compared to the alignment of the rest of the lockers. Though there was something awkward about the placement of the locks and welding that held it to the ship's inner hull, it was obviously a strong and secure locker. It was shut tight from the outside with some expensive-looking, obviously high-tech electronics.

She put the mysterious locker and its restrained inhabitant in the back of her mind. Jack had never been in cryo-sleep before, and thought that her nervousness was definitely justified. She may have been born on the space station, but it was only a day’s trip from the station to the planet it orbited. Cryo-sleep hadn’t been necessary. She supposed that it would have made it easier on her social worker. Her younger self had jumped and crawled around the transport, being a general nuisance. She remembered how angry her keeper had gotten when she hid from him in the bathroom, and how many types of death he threatened when he finally found her.

Jack was unprepared for the sudden chill that washed over her as the life-support took over. Before she slipped into sleep, she became aware of her frightened breathing as it slowed, becoming long and measured. Her heartbeat slowed as well, taking on a rhythm that just felt wrong. She couldn’t help but feel like it wasn’t her body anymore. The machine was living for her. She fought momentary panic when restraints locked her into place. It’s just to keep me from moving around, she thought, trying to soothe herself as a strange heaviness settled into her body. She felt suddenly like she was floating, though her body seemed as though it had doubled in weight.

She slept.

~*~

Jack woke to the sound of someone screaming. It was muffled through the walls of her locker, but the sound was unmistakable. It was definitely a scream. As the restraints slipped away and the life support automatically detached itself from her body, she fought the bleariness that clung to her mind and tried to figure out what was going on.

The cryo-locker opened with a hiss. Air filled with the scent of something burning rushed into the sterilized atmosphere. The fog of cryo-sleep cleared immediately, but she still felt confused and disoriented. When she was finally able to focus on what was going on around her, she gasped. The ship was under attack.

The screams were coming from a homely woman on the ground with a plasma bullet in her thick thigh. Jack stared at her for a moment, unwilling to comprehend what was going on, until another bullet landed in the woman’s forehead. The screaming stopped abruptly, and the dead woman’s face looked surprised.

Jack jumped when a third bullet struck the floor with a metallic explosion and looked around wildly, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Smoke was pouring from whatever room was adjacent to the cryo bay. She looked closer, trying to see through the thickening air. It must have been the cargo bay. The crates and cases inside were in flames.

“That explains the burning smell,” she muttered before mentally slapping herself. She needed to think. She was coldly analyzing small details when she should have been saving her own ass! Even as she ordered herself to focus, she noticed the locker that had been locked up. It was open, the occupant gone. Her detached reaction snapped away and she was suddenly all too aware of the danger she was in. Jack closed her eyes, wishing she was back on New Germany. She counted to ten rapidly and opened them, but she was still in hell.

She still hadn’t moved from her cryo-locker. There was so much chaos that she didn’t even know where to begin looking for a hiding place. As she pulled the door closed, hiding herself from the chaos that raged, she thought, if there’s anyplace I’m safe, it’s right here.