Bandaging his wrist had proved more painful than the gorram wound itself, but Johns knew that he had to stop the blood from flowing so freely or the others would come to find he dead on the skiff and kick his body out for the land-sharks to snack upon.

Damn Riddick.

Why the hell had he chosen trim instead of the obviously choice of safety?

Sure, the gal was beautiful, but she looked inexperienced and was probably a virgin anyhows!

Growling, the mercenary dragged himself onto the pilot’s seat and engaged the take-off sequence. He mightn’t be able to pilot much, but he knew damned well how to chart a travel plan in the Cortex board and engage auto pilot.

He’d leave those gorram people and Riddick would be sorry he hadn’t ghosted him when he had the chance.

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“Is it just me, or does the fact that this planet supposedly doesn’t exist---like Miranda---bother you, sir?” Zoë Washburne asked, hands clasped behind her back, legs separated slightly and placed firmly on the ground as they looked at the planet M6-117, the planet that Kaylee’s tracking device said she was on, the planet that supposedly didn’t exist.

“’Course it bothers me.” Captain Malcolm Reynolds announced, hunched over the computer graph of the planet, his gut feeling telling him something wasn’t right. “As does the fact that it’s supposed to be uninhabited but the thermal scanners are picking up an army-worth of heat signatures.”

“’N they ain’t human.” Jayne Cobb, the large mercenary, announced from where he stood behind Zoë. He didn’t know much about anything that didn’t have to do with weapons and tracking---his expertise---but he knew those figures the thermal scanner was picking up weren’t human.

“What are my mei-mei and ­bao-bei going through?” Simon Tam, the ship’s doctor and River’s brother, asked from where he sat by the image, looking pale and worn. While