Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Ten, Part Two

 Notes: SHOWDOWN THROWDOWN, WOOHOO! Also some graphic illness and body horror, so be warned.

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Ten, Part Two

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Chapter Ten, Part Two

 

For almost half a minute, nothing happened. Kieron felt despair well up inside of him, fueled by the sickness spreading through his body. What if Catalina was somehow deaf to the world? What if Moritz had exerted a more forceful kind of control over her, what if Kieron was about to cook in his greenie suit out here, clinging to the hull of a baby ship like a barnacle while Elanus went progressively more insane back at the station?

“…I mean, c’mon, the Lizzie is amazing and you know it. No other ship—apart from Catalina, of course, but she’s more than just a ship—could do so well for you out there…”

Kieron turned his head toward the surface of the ship, fighting the urge to puke as he closed his eyes. Well…there were worse ways to die than with Elanus’s voice in his ear. It would be nicer to go with his hands on Kieron’s body, but he couldn’t have everything. Besides…he didn’t want anyone to have to watch this. It wasn’t going to be pretty.

Was it like this for Zakari? How long did he have to think about it? What was going through his head, what was he feeling? Did he cry? Probably he’d cried, Zakari had cried at the smallest things. He had been the most empathetic of all of his spousal group, which had gotten him some teasing but also made him a natural locus for comfort and problem-solving. Surely he’d cried, when he knew he was about to die. It was only human.

Kieron wasn’t going to cry. Not over his own fate. But Catalina…he did feel terrible for her. If she really was sentient the way Elanus had described…

Pink light washed over his face, and for a moment Kieron thought his eyes had started bleeding. Then he realized that no, the pink was outside of him—it was a change in the ship’s skin, all centered around where he was pressed. Catalina was responding to him! He forced himself to focus on the pulses, trying to understand them. Was it some sort of code, or…

The signal for unloading in a cargo bay! He moved to the side to clear the door, and a second later a gap started to appear. With it came Catalina’s scream. He could feel it in her hull, echoing through his physical connection to her. It hurt her to open her outer doors, hurt her badly, some sort of biofeedback loop Moritz had set up, perhaps, but she was still doing it. Slowly, bit by bit, she was doing it. As soon as the door was open enough for Kieron to slip through, he did so. The door closed behind him, and the warning lights inside of Catalina began to shut down.

Kieron’s throat ached, and his whole face felt swollen, as though he’d been hit in the face with a piece of rebar. He needed to focus, though—he was inside, but the job wasn’t over yet. Moritz hadn’t been sucked out into space, so he had to be in here somewhere. Kieron needed to find him and neutralize him.

He needed to be able to open his fucking eyes, first. When had he even closed them? They felt…gummy, gluey, and if it wasn’t blood then it was probably lymph and he—

“Son of a bitch!” The curse sounded slightly mechanical, relayed as it was over Catalina’s radio transmitter, but that didn’t do anything to diminish the rage in it. Kieron forced his eyes open, only to see the crenelated bottom of an environmental suit’s boot heading for his faceplate.

It didn’t crack the faceplate, but the impact still reverberated through Kieron’s suit. As Catalina repressurized the cabin, impacts like these would only hurt worse and worse. The next stomp he raised his arms to block, but his motion was sluggish, too slow to be any real help.

“You piece of shit!” This time the kick was to his ribs, followed by another, then another. The next smashed down so hard on his leg he thought his kneecap fractured. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, huh? Did you want to be a hero? Want to be, what, more than just a fucktoy to Elanus? You’ve just sealed your fate. I’m going to kill you, and then I’m going to kill your friends and all their children.”

No! Kieron couldn’t let that happen. Him, well, he’d been out for long enough that the radiation probably was going to kill him before he could get back to Cloverleaf Station, but he wasn’t going to die before he made sure this piece of shit couldn’t hurt Zakari’s family. He needed to fight back, but there was no chance to even catch his breath when Moritz just didn’t stop beating him. But he couldn’t…he couldn’t let him…

A new alarm blared from the console at the front of the cabin. Moritz swore and turned back toward it, threats and violence toward Catalina herself in every breath. He’d already opened his EV suit’s helmet, now that the atmosphere was back to breathable.

Now. Kieron had to do it now. He took a deep breath, then rolled himself over onto all fours. It took a dizzying five seconds to orient himself, but the interior of Catalina was much like the Lizzie’s. Which was good, because he didn’t have any energy for a misstep at this point.

Kieron reached out blindly to his left until his hand impacted the edge of the med kit. He pulled it down, fumbled it open and rummaged inside of it with sausage-like fingers until he found what he was looking for. He just had to get to his feet and—

“Ha!” A fresh kick took him down again. Kieron felt one of his ribs break that time. In terms of agony, though, it could barely compare to the fire already racing up and down his spine and through every nerve. Moritz crouched over him, his bald head gleaming under Catalina’s lights, his carefully sculpted facial hair scruffy and indistinct after weeks on the run.

“You really are a fool,” Moritz declared. “What, were you thinking you could heal yourself after what you’ve just been through? I don’t even need to kill you—you’ll be dead in five more minutes. Even with the Regen in that kit, you’d be a goner soon enough. What were you even hoping for, you da-aaaaaaaahhhh!”

His screams as Kieron slapped the defibrillator device against his face and activated it were intensely satisfying. The way he twitched and fell over a second later was even better. Five seconds of direct current and Moritz was down for the count. Now was Kieron’s chance.

If only…if only he could…

The Regen injection was right there. Right…there. If only he could—he tried to move again, but his hand had erupted in flames, or maybe fallen off entirely from here.

“Catalina,” Kieron coughed out thickly. “Go back to the station. Your daddy is waiting for you. Go home.

“Go home, Catalina.”

Then he passed out, gratefully.