Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Six, Part One

 Notes: Almost ready for the first venture into the radiation-filled space between the Station and our goals! Have some introspection and snark to warm you up ;)

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Six, Part One

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Chapter Six, Part One

 

Eight hours had never passed so slowly.

Kieron had done his best to fill the time. He refined and re-refined his algorithm, until the numbers were so stable that improvement simply couldn’t happen without more data. He made the modifications to the Regen unit, resolutely not wondering why it had to be so good at targeting specific problem areas instead of doing the full wash. He even sent out his first wave of probes, something that normally filled him with a calm sense of purpose. The probes were his best bet of finding Zakari, and this time around he had more data for them to go on than ever. The odds were the best they’d ever been…except for the fact that he had to find Elanus Desfontaines’ ship first.

That was the worst part. Not the finding of the ship—Kieron was resigned to that, as well as he could be resigned to anything that wasn’t finding Zakari. No, the problem was the fact that he was actually looking forward to finding the mysterious ship. Elanus’s description had captured his attention like nothing else had managed over the past two years, and now Kieron had to grapple with the fact that his heart, which had always been so stalwart, wasn’t as fixed as he thought it was. There shouldn’t be room for any longing in his life other than finding Zakari’s body. So why did he have to suppress a shiver at the thought of looking for Catalina, the ship that was more than just a ship?

Is it because of Elanus?

Kieron had a lot of fucked-up habits, but lying to himself usually wasn’t one of them. Sure, it had been a long time since he’d been attracted to someone—not since Gil, a miner he’d met two seasons ago now. It had been even longer since he’d actually been intimate with another person, almost five years. Zakari had worried about him, saying Kieron was deliberately isolating himself, that he needed to reach out and give a little bit in order to get. “It’s fine if you don’t want it, but I know you do,” Zakari had said more than once, his round face puzzled. “So why not have what you want?”

It was an unfinished argument between them, and would remain that way forever now. Regardless, Kieron knew what longing felt like, and while there was more than a hint of that emotion in the way he looked at Elanus, it was only a physical urge. He could deny himself any physical urge that wasn’t immediately necessary to survival. No, it wasn’t the prospect of exciting his body that drew him to this project…it was the potential of interacting with something so far beyond his understanding that made Kieron anxious to start looking.

A living ship. A ship that was its own entity, that could handle the radiation of the quasar and take its pilot to places no being had ever seen before. How incredible, how delightful. It was exploration at its most basic and essential, the sort of thing Kieron had dreamed about from the moment he’d first allowed himself to dream. Kieron’s hands shook just thinking about it, and that was completely unacceptable.

He did a mini-triathlon on the exerciser, running, cycling, and using the special zero-g setting for a swimming facsimile that left him exhausted, but finally tremor-free. He showered, using more water than he ought to, but if he ran out at least he had someone to complain to now. He shaved, changed his clothes, ate a bland but nourishing meal, meditated for a bit and then finally, finally, Elanus emerged from his ship with a tired but satisfied expression.

“She’s ready,” he said, and held out a hand for the tab Kieron was holding. “Did you get the changes made to the Regen unit?”

“Yes.” Kieron waited for the other man to look over the log of his last eight hours. He saw when Elanus’s eyes got to the exercise portion—they skipped back up to read it a second time, then looked at him with far too much amusement.

“You ran twenty kilometers, cycled for fifty, and swam for ten all before coming to get me? And you still had time to do the busy work?”

“I’m sorry, was any of that supposed to be challenging?” Kieron replied, not bothering to hide his sarcasm. Elanus wouldn’t buy him being polite and obedient anyway.

“No, but it was supposed to take time and help you keep your nose out of my business,” Elanus replied. “I see I underestimated your ability to give yourself busy work. Or,” and now he smiled, “Do you get off on punishing yourself?”

I’ll get off on punishing you. “Are we going now?”

“Ooh, touchy! I’m not judging your kinks, Sparky. God knows I’ve got enough of them myself.” Elanus handed the tab back. “How far out will your probes be by now?”

“Between five and fifty kilometers,” Kieron replied. “Depending on which route I set for them.”

“Are they sending data back live?”

“Not yet. It takes a lot of energy,” he said when Elanus frowned, “and I need to spare as much as I can for their thrusters and AI controls. We can start downloading data when we’re out in your ship. The probes have a hard time broadcasting through the Station.”

“Big thick hunk of junk,” Elanus muttered. “Fine. We should be able to stay out for three and a half hours before we need to return and let Lizzie patch herself up. You help set the course, but I do all the flying.”

“Fine.” For now, at least. “Let’s go, then.”

“Ah, wait.” Elanus held up a hand as Kieron made to walk toward the ship. “First things first, a little safety briefing. It’s standard procedure before bringing on a new crew member,” he added when Kieron’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You think I’m going to break protocol and give you another chance to make a complaint about me?”

“It’s not like you couldn’t get me arrested the moment Cloverleaf Station is back in the shadows,” Kieron replied testily. “I think we’ve reached a détente, don’t you?”

“Still. This is a specialized safety briefing, and it’s very short, so humor me.” Kieron sighed, but nodded. Elanus smiled brightly and rubbed his hands together. “Excellent! So, all the normal stuff, blah blah blah pressure suit, plus I’m the captain and you do what I say, and also, there is a very specialized med kit in the Lizzie that will walk you through what you might have to do for me if at any point I go unconscious.”

Kieron frowned. “Why would you go unconscious?”

“I probably won’t,” Elanus assured him.

“Probably isn’t good enough.”

“God, you’re like a catterpet gnawing on a koi.” Elanus shook his head. “Suffice it to say, if for any reason I can’t communicate with you, the stuff in the med kit will stabilize me long enough to get me back to the revamped Regen unit in the clinic. All right? It’s nothing contagious, don’t worry about that. Now.” That devilish smile was back. “The longer we stand here arguing, the more radiation your little probes absorb and the less use we get out of them before they shut down. So let’s make the most of the time we have, shall we?”

Kieron hated that he made a good point. “Fine. But this isn’t over,” he warned as he marched around the man and headed for his ship.

He almost missed Elanus’s low mutter of “You’d better hope that it is.”

Almost.