Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Two, Part One

 Notes: Hiiii! Back to Cloverleaf, where you'll all be thrilled to know that we're nearly at the end of Dave's tenure on the station ;)

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter One, Part Two

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Chapter Two, Part One

 

Getting everyone else out of the station was one of the best parts of Kieron’s job. It wasn’t that he was completely antisocial; he couldn’t have been effective as Cloverleaf’s station master if that was the case. It was more that the satisfaction he got from the eight standard months spent catering to other people’s needs paled in comparison to the pleasure he got out of spending five months by himself, alone, just him and the station and her various creaks and groans, working on his special project and diving in deep to the parts of his psyche he usually had to lock away.

Shadow time was for Kieron to devote to other people. When the station moved into the hot zone, that time was all for Zakari.

Getting people out was more hectic this pass than usual. He’d had just enough time to get both the Masons in for a single deep-tissue Regen treatment before returning them to their ship, where their onboard Regen unit could handle things until they got to a major trading station or planet.

“It’ll be fine,” Thoosa Mason said after Kieron asked for the third time whether they thought they could make it. “It’s only a few weeks, we can manage that. Plus, I asked Robbie and his crew to come with us as far as Delta Nine, just in case.”

“Ah.” Kieron hadn’t had much interaction with Robbie—no last name—and his crew, four total, even less named, but they’d been model guests every time he met with them and had no red flags associated with their ship, so what he didn’t know wasn’t his business. “That’s good.”

“It is.” Thoosa sighed, then patted Kieron once on the shoulder. For a physically affectionate person like Thoosa, it was a very reserved gesture. Kieron knew he only had himself to blame for that. “Thanks for everything. You went above and beyond for Jin and me, and we’re not gonna forget it.”

“It’s my job.”

“Yeah,” Thoosa said, shouldering a pack that held the last of the things from their storage locker. “And you did it really fucking well.” Their departure left Kieron with a feeling he’d almost forgotten—pride.

Dave’s departure, on the other hand, left Kieron with a feeling he was very used to steeping in at this point—wrath. “The extra fuel isn’t free, Dave. You know that.”

“It’s a perk!” Dave protested, stabbing the surface of Kieron’s desk angrily. The holographic display in the air between them wavered. “It’s in the contract!”

Kieron shook his head. “Enough to get here from your point of hire, and to return to the same place after the contract is done, is included. Not enough to get you to Riva.”

“But I have to be at Riva in twenty-two days!”

“I don’t care.” I cannot express to you how little I fucking care where you go, as long as it’s far away. “You only get free fuel as far as Delta Nine, which is where you came from after you signed the contract.”

“This is bullshit! I can’t afford that much fuel on my own.”

It wasn’t any of Kieron’s business, but… “There’s literally nothing to spend money on out here. All of your basic needs are covered, and use of the luxury food items are an actual perk of the job. Entertainment, clothing, it’s all included. Where did all your credits go?”

Dave sat back abruptly in his chair. “Um. Uh.”

“You didn’t have anything shipped in,” Kieron continued, leaning forward slightly. “And as far as I can tell from the subspace communications log, you haven’t paid for premium access there, so you’re not spending all your credits on porn.”

“Ahahahaa!” That as a nervous laugh if ever Kieron had heard one. Dave wasn’t quite meeting his eyes, one hand scratching through his thin beard while the other one tapped against the edge of the table. “No, totally not porn.”

“Then what?” It had to be something in house, but there was literally nothing else Dave could have spent so much money on, unless he was part of some kind of…of… “Dave. Have you been gambling on this station?”

“What? Dude, no, of course not!”

He still wasn’t meeting Kieron’s eyes. “You know I don’t give a fuck about your extracurriculars,” Kieron said slowly, “but gambling is expressly forbidden on station if it’s not virtual. And you know why, right?”

“Um…yeah. Cause…”

“Because when people gamble on real life, they begin to look for ways to change the odds in their favor.” Kieron felt his temples start to pound. Were his veins bulging? He didn’t know, but from the look on Dave’s face they probably were. “On a place like Cloverleaf Station, which is on the edge of disaster at all times, that means doing things that could put people’s lives at risk.”

“Betting on how many times Howie is going to shit in one day isn’t risky!” Dave protested.

“It is if it means fucking around with his food to give him diarrhea,” Kieron replied, feeling a dark sense of satisfaction temper his rage. “Which he got a couple of times, if I recall. Not to mention the times we had inexplicable shorts in the wiring, or issues with the computer, or blank spots in the records where there should have been camera footage or data from the mineral stores. You’ve been messing with the control systems.”

“I…no.”

“Dave.” Kieron leaned forward. “Do you honestly think I’m not going to be able to find your sticky little digital implant prints all over those shitty slices in the records? Do you think I’m not going to be able to figure out who you were gambling with? Do you really think I’m going to let this go, after all the shit that’s gone wrong during your tenure here?”

“It could have been you,” Dave pressed, obviously not scenting the blood in the water. “It’s your word against mine! I could level a complaint about you for, like, so many reasons. You’re a total asshole to work for, you know that? I could tell the bosses on Delta Nine all sorts of stuff about you.”

“Do it.”

Dave blinked. “What?”

“Tell them. Tell them anything you want.” Kieron was supremely unconcerned. “Give them whatever doctored footage you’ve got too. And then we’ll come back to following the money trail, which you haven’t been able to hide, and I’ll get in touch with the Calloway crew—” it was a bit of a shot in the dark but yes, there was the flinch he was looking for “—and see if they’ll give you up in exchange for being allowed to work here again, because otherwise I’m blacklisting them, and then—”

“Okay! Okay, fine, there’s no need to be so fucking pushy, dude!” Dave held his hands up placatingly. “Yeah, I made a few bets with the Calloways and, like, a couple other people, and they didn’t all work out for me, but we didn’t put anyone in danger! I totally promise!”

“How do you know that?”

Dave smirked. “No one died, did they?”

No thanks to you. “I want the record of every single bet you made,” Kieron said coldly, and the smirk fell off Dave’s face. “I want to know what systems were affected and when, and if you can’t give me every detail I ask for, I’m reporting you for illegal activities to our supervisor.”

“Dude…no.” Dave’s hands were shaking. “Please, don’t do that. I can’t afford to go to prison, man! A place like Redstone would eat my ass for breakfast.”

“Redstone isn’t an operable prison anymore, and nobody is interested in your ass,” Kieron replied. “Get me those records. Now. Then get your stuff together and get the fuck off this station. You have—” He checked the chronometer dramatically. “Two hours and fifteen standard minutes.”

Dave gaped at him.

“And you’re still paying for that extra fuel,” Kieron added. “Run.”

Dave ran.

Kieron watched his back vanish through the door, and his sense of satisfaction gradually overwhelmed his urge to do physical damage to the idiot. He shut his eyes and took some deep, measured breaths, carefully getting himself back under control. He was so much better at it these days; all that work with the meditation master on Delta Nine had paid off.

Gambling. It could have been worse, but not by much. Kieron wasn’t lying when he said he wasn’t going to report it, but he was going to blacklist the fucking Calloways, and anyone else he found out had been fucking with Cloverleaf’s systems. It was too precarious out here to allow for any slip-ups or mistakes. Nobody knew that like Kieron.

If someone had died because of a few stupid bets…well.

Prison would be the least of their worries once Kieron found them.

Back to work. The sooner he ended Dave’s contract and sent it off, the sooner he’d be comfortably alone.