Chapter One

[Keratan Three]

Jack stared out the tiny window of her 'comfortable budget apartment', "Yeah," she snorted, "a closet with a mattress in the corner, a chest of drawers and a bath-tub - all the comforts of home."

It had taken her a week and a bit to get to Keratan Three, and now that she was here, Jack didn't really know what to do. She had decided at the ticket desk at the New Mecca station that Keratan Three would indeed be her destination - passage was cheap and the voyage was not far. Long trips in cryo sleep were no longer her cup of Vali Broth.

And of course, her stubborn streak and her desire to prove to Iman that she was as grown up as he was, had also propelled her here. After all, she had ranted silently on the transport, I'm no kid and I can make it any where, especially K-3.

So she had arrived only with her satchel and a vague notion that she should find somewhere to stay.

Somewhere to stay turned out to be a fleapit. But it was all she could afford and the door did lock and that was all she could really ask for. She needed money to eat and money to get a ticket off planet in a week's time, when the transit stations orbit brought it back to the planet. "Until then, I guess I'll just have to slum it".

The view out the window was uninspiring - the brown brick of another fleapit, so Jack set about the task of flipping through the brochures that had been thrust into her hands at the station.

"God loves you - join us in worshipping Our Lord__ Blah, blah" Jack tossed it across the room.

"Protest the unethical treatment of miners on Tenus Prime, The Lord loves those who love others, Success seminars to get that job. Oh please!" Jack balled these up and they joined the first on the other side of the room.

"Need a shoulder to cry on? Drop in center for troubled youth." She fingered the pamphlet, frowning at the memory of the man who had given it to her. He had seriously wigged her when he had put his large arm around her, asking her questions that she had not been willing to answer, "Are you new here? Off the last transport? Are you a run away? Where do you intend on staying? Where are you parents? Don't you know that they care for you?"

She had managed to escape his grip only after she promised that she would call in at the center if she needed help. Like hell, creep. A shiver went up her spine at the thought of his arm on her. "Yes, there were definitely bad vibes coming from that man."

Another shiver washed over her and she ripped his pamphlet to bits, deciding that this planet had not been her smartest choice and now she was stuck here. Checking that the door was locked and secure, she leaned her back against the door and sighed, "the sooner I get out of here the better."

[New Mecca]

Riddick stepped of the transport and strode towards Iman's dwelling. He could not believe that he had come back for the kid, but the look of hurt and betrayal Jack had given him as he left had invaded his thoughts to the point where he had turned around and headed back to New Mecca. I have no idea what I'm expecting to accomplish here, he mulled as he walked the streets, maybe I can make her understand that she can't come with me, it's no place for a kid to be with an escaped convict.

In a short time he was on the threshold of Iman's shanty, staring the holy man in the eye. "Mr Riddick. Well, this is certainly a surprise. I__"

"Is Jack in?"

"No. No she is not in. She is no longer on the planet. She left for Keratan Three just over a week ago."

Riddick stood silent, mulling on this unexpected information, clearly surprised. After a moment, his stony mask asserted itself as he addressed Iman with a cold, threatening voice. "You let a teenage girl travel to K-3 by herself?"

"I did not have much of a choice. She mentioned that she wanted to leave so I asked her to think it over for a while first. But a few hours after that I went to see her and she was gone."

"You are sure she went to K-3?"

"It was in her note."

Riddick turned away from Iman and began to walk back towards the transport station. "Mr Riddick," Iman called, "where are you going?"

"To bring her back, Holy Man, and hopefully alive."