Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Eighteen, Part Two

 Notes: What's going on out there? What have they found? Is it Zakari? IS IT ALL OF HIM? Tune in to find out ;)

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Eighteen, Part Two

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Chapter Eighteen, Part Two

 

Whatever they were looking at, it was man-made—or at least, sentient-lifeform-made—that much was clear. The section that was visible head-on looked like part of a fuselage, but it was bigger than just that. Some of the central cabin was still attached to it. Not the part that would have held the pilot’s seat, though—this was too close to the back of the ship. So not something that was likely to have Zakari’s body in it, if it was even his ship.

Kieron cut through his own useless mental meanderings with a harsh pinch to the inside of his knee. “Catie, can you identify the model of the ship based on the pieces you see here?”

“Yess, Keeeeron. This is a piece of a XP-Dart 5.3, Xera Cona Factory, on—”

“Thank you.” That was their ship. Xera Cona Factory was the largest manufacturer of spacefaring vehicles on Trakta, and Kieron and Zakari had poured most of their personal savings into getting this one. When it was made, it had been middle of the line for mining vessels, but their custom radiation shields had elevated it to far more expensive than it looked. It had been equipped with all sorts of scientific supplies as well as the standard mining kit, and was big enough for two to sit in comfortably for days on end while they worked.

It had been a joy, buying this ship. The first thing Zak had done after they got it was take his children for a ride—in atmosphere, of course, because no Traktan parent risked their child to space if they could help it. It had still been fun. Kieron had never felt more like a part of the family than he had that day.

And now here was a part of their lost ship. As much as it pained him to see it broken apart like this, he couldn’t just leave it here. The potential for learning more about what happened to Zakari was too strong.

He cleared his throat. “How close can you get to it without risking impact?”

“Thirteeeeeen point two-one meeeters.”

“That’s still not close enough for you to risk getting into a greenie and going out there to poke around,” Elanus said quickly. His hands seemed oddly twitchy, like he was on the verge of taking hold of Catarina’s external controls and turning them around…or like he was trying to keep himself from grabbing hold of Kieron. “There’s no safe range for that, as far as I’m concerned. I absolutely refuse to grow you another entire body’s worth of vital organs, do you hear me?”

“I hear you, and I’m not an idiot,” Kieron said.

“Could have fooled me.”

“Keeeeron!” Catalina interrupted before the conversation could deteriorate any further. “Penetrating density analyssiiiis shows therrrrre is a high probabiiiility of organic matter insiiide the structure.”

What? Could it even be remotely possible that something of Zakari was left on this piece of ship? Why in the back of the ship? Why wouldn’t he have been in the pilot’s seat, where he could see the pictures of his family he’d left stuck in the crevices on the dash? Had the accident that took him out happened too quickly for him to get to the front…but this wasn’t the part of the back that had held the bathroom, either.

What the hell had happened here? “How big is the organic matter?” he asked, a little proud of how calm his voice was.

“Less than a meeeeeter loooong.”

Elanus spoke up. “Can you safely reorient to get us a visual confirmation?”

“Yess, Daddeeeee.” Catalina began to slowly, carefully move herself closer to the wreckage, and Kieron found himself holding his breath. He had no idea what he was about to find in there, and he was afraid to get his hopes up, but…

“Expanding bit.” Elanus pointed to a sharp, petal-like protrusion jutting through the fractured hull as their point of view changed. “Miners use them—”

“—to anchor their crafts to asteroids, I know.” He’d only been working on Cloverleaf Station for nearly half a decade, now. “We always kept a full four-point set in the ship with us.”

“And what are the odds that your old partner put that one through your hull deliberately?”

“High,” Kieron said, his breath coming quicker despite how hard he was trying to stay calm. “I can’t think of any reason for it to be there otherwise.”

“He wouldn’t have gotten spacesick and done something rash, or maybe indulged in a kill-pill if he knew he was going to die anyway—”

“He was orthodox Traktan,” Kieron snapped. “That means no suicide, no intoxicants—he didn’t even use Regen unless it was a life-or-death emergency, because they take such a strong stance on purity of original form. He wouldn’t have put a dart through the hull and compromised its integrity without having a very good reason for doing it.”

“No one knows how they’re going to react to death until they’re faced with it,” Elanus said, more gently than Kieron was expecting from him. “I’m not blaming your friend for anything, I’m just…trying to understand.”

Kieron shut his eyes for a second. “So am I,” he confessed. It was easier to be honest with Elanus when he wasn’t looking at him.

“Keeeeron.” Catalina’s voice was soft, like she felt unsure about interrupting their conversation—or unsure about what she was going to say next. “I can seeeee iiit.”

Stay calm. “Put it up on the viewscreen, please.”

Their view of the space in front of them vanished, replaced by a magnified view of the chunk of his old ship. A small section was highlighted in…pink. Of course, in pink. Catalina couldn’t get enough of it.

“Enlarge, please.” It got bigger, the picture slightly more clear. Even Catalina didn’t have perfect performance in this much radiation, but Kieron thought he had an idea of what the organic matter was now. His mouth went dry.

“A little bigger,” he whispered. The image became a little bigger, and he saw…he saw…

“Is that an arm?” Elanus exclaimed. “How the fuck did he attach one of his own arms to the back of the ship? How did he—”

“The bit.” As soon as he realized what he was looking at, Kieron knew what had happened. “The expandable bit. Zakari must have known what was going on, he knew he was going to die out here. The odds of the ship staying in one piece were small, but if he could break the ship apart himself, and make sure each part carried a piece of him with it…then the chances of recovering some of him to put back into his family crypt increased significantly.”

“Oh.” Elanus fell silent, a rare enough occurrence that Kieron felt like rewarding him with some more knowledge.

“His whole body would be best, of course,” he said roughly. “But having at least a part of it to bury legitimizes the eternal nature of his soul, in the eyes of his culture. Hundreds of years ago, Traktans used to cut off a finger or an ear before going to war and leave it at home, in case the rest of them was lost to battle. Most modern Traktans have given that up, but…” But the lesson had stuck.

“So, wait. He literally tore himself and your ship apart, into quarters, before he died so that you’d be able to find a piece of him to send home?”

“Yeah.”

“Holy shit.” There was both horror and deep respect in Elanus’s voice. “That’s got to be the most badass thing I’ve ever heard.”

Kieron had to agree.