Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Thirty: Part One

 Notes: Time for some PARENTAL DISCIPLINE, because you knew the girls would meddle when they got the chance.

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Thirty, Part One

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Chapter Thirty, Part One

 

Kieran should have counted on the girls.

To hell with that; Elanus should have counted on the girls. He’d programmed them, after all—made them into the thinking, feeling, whole-person beings they were. Catie was brilliant and Lizzie was right there with her, and Lizzie had already managed to surprise Kieron more than once. Analyzing risk factors, creating code that acted better than any shield, working together to do something far more efficient and safer than their parents could—that was them. And they did it so well that Kieron was completely taken aback when, on the second standard day, still three hundred thousand kilometers inside Trakta’s orbit, he found himself being woken out of a fitful sleep by the leader of a mercy fleet out of Daenar.

“Lizzie, this is Captain Kingston Hu of the relief vessel Caladrius. We’re nearing the indicated coordinates, please advise.”

Kieron tried to pull away from Pol, who whined in his sleep and clung to Kieron’s shirt. The boy had been hard to deal with over the past standard day, careening from wildly excited about reuniting with his mother to terrified everything was going to fall apart. His anxiety had passed straight on to Kieron, who didn’t know how to handle it—he’d trained himself out of the physiological reflexes of anxiety as a child, and trying to understand how to deal with Pol’s state was harder than it should have been. It had ended with both of them exhausted, on the verge of breaking from too much, too quickly.

“Captain Hu, this is Captain Kieron Carr of the Lizzie,” Lizzie said before Kieron could dislodge—and probably wake up—Pol. “Thank you for responding so quickly. I trust the signal spoofers are working well for you?”

“Brilliantly,” Captain Hu said in an appreciative tone. “I have to thank you for these. They work better than anything I’ve ever seen before.”

“We have some very smart engineers on staff,” Lizzie-as-Kieron demurred. “Do you need any assistance linking up with the refugee ship?”

“No, this part we’ve got down to a science. As long as there are no problems, I anticipate we’ll be able to get all of them on board before shift change, no more than four hours.”

“Excellent. Did you bring your scrappers? I know in the contract negotiations you mentioned needing aurellium, and given that their ship is Traktan, it’s likely to contain several kilograms of it in the circuitry.”

“Yes, and thank you for pointing that out! We…” Captain Hu and Lizzie kept chatting, and Kieron…well, he knew he ought to get up and take over. Knew he ought to speak for himself, to be himself, to take command, but…the truth was, he didn’t know the details of what Lizzie was talking about. He knew about the mercy fleet, of course, but that was as far as he’d gotten before Pol broke down. It shouldn’t have mattered—they weren’t supposed to show up for another full day, plenty of time to make decisions and run them by Elanus, but instead…here they were. Now. Transferring refugees, and Kieron had apparently slept right through everything that had led to this point.

[Are you hearing this?] he sent along his implant to Elanus. There was a pause, and then—

[Catie! Did you help your sister subvert an entire fleet into doing your bidding?]

[Um…] Those were Catie’s harmonics in his mind, pink and bright…and sheepish. [Maaaybe? But it is a mercy fleet, Daddeee! Just nooot the oriiiginal one. Theyyy’re headed to another disaster now, so weeee could have the clooose one.]

[Catie.] There was a sense of Elanus very deliberately pausing, probably reining in his anger. He tried to do that when he was talking to the girls. [That’s not your call to make. You can’t just take over communications for entire fleets and reroute vessels because you feel like it!]

[Weeee didn’t! Lizzie said Kieron was siiiiick and needed Pol’s mamaaaa! This will get her moooore quickly!]

[Not the point, young lady!]

There was an electronic huff. [Just because yooooou’re old and slooow and huuuuuuman, doesn’t mean weeee should be puniiished for—]

[It’s not that,] Kieron interrupted before Catie could go full temper tantrum on Elanus. [You’ve both shown a lot of initiative with taking the lead on this. You’ve come up with some brilliant plans, and I’m proud of that, but. Catie, you didn’t tell us what was going on. You and Lizzie didn’t even bother to inform us, much less ask us.]

[Lizzie said you were tiiiiired,] Catie whined.

[It’s true,] he said. The colors inside Lizzie were warbling between warm and cold—she knew they were talking about her. She was probably listening in. [I was. I am. But that’s not a good enough reason to leave me out of the loop. What if things went wrong? What if the mercy fleet you rerouted ended up in trouble because of it, or if their captain had an alternate reason for wanting to come into Traktan space? And what about what you gave him to get them here? Your spoofing algorithms are cutting edge, the best…and now they’re in the hands of someone we don’t know, that we haven’t vetted, someone who could use them for all sorts of things that aren’t legal and could hurt a lot of people. Do you see where I’m going with this?]

[But…I thought we were doing good!] This was Lizzie. [I thought you would be happy, Kee.]

[I’m happy you’re looking out for me,] he assured her. [Less happy you’re giving away what should be very specialized information to a man we’ve never met before without any sort of failsafe. The Traktan refugees aren’t having fun, it’s true, and Pol does need his mother, and I am sick and tired. But that’s life, honey. We get through the tough times and end up safer, or at least I hope we do. In this case? Now we don’t know.]

[Oh.] That was both girls, Catie sounding contrite, Lizzie sounding devastated. [We’re sorry.]

[You should be!] Elanus finally couldn’t contain himself anymore! [Why do you have to be so smart? I should have given you both slower processors, it would keep you from growing up so fast and getting to the point where you want to argue over everything, and—what’s next? Huh? You decide someone’s been mean to Kieron so you invade their planet? You think Pol needs his own moon so you steal the tech you need to swipe it for him? After we get these people back to Gania, you girls are grounded, do you hear me? No connectivity for a week!]

[Daddeeeee!] Catie wailed. Lizzie didn’t say anything. [That’s not faaaair!]

[Neither is going behind our backs to arrange all of this. Be happy it isn’t for a month.] He closed his link, and a moment later Catie closed hers too, although not before she sang a little song at Kieron. That left him alone with Lizzie.

[Are you really angry at me?] she asked after a moment.

[I’m not angry, I’m just a little disappointed.] He wasn’t expecting her to wail when he said that, but she did, all the colors around him going dark, muddy purple.

[I’m sorry,] Lizzie said in a small voice. [I thought it was helping you.]

[It was, in a way. But it’s also not good that you negotiated in my name, with someone I don’t know, and went so far as to imitate me over the comm without asking my permission.] Pol stirred again, and Kieron sighed and tried to hold still. [But I know you won’t do it again.]

[No, I won’t. I promise.]

[Good. Thank you.] Reaching out, he patted the wall of the ship. “It’s okay,” he murmured out loud. “It’s all going to be okay.”

And the purple slowly lightened to blue.