Chelen City: Chapter Two, Part One

 Notes: More Chelen City! And on a Tuesday, even! I'm getting back on track, at last.

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Two, Part One

***

Chapter Two, Part One

 

Despite his elevated status in society, Elanus still had to follow most of the rules. He couldn’t just bring anyone he wanted to on-planet without making sure they were registered with the local authorities. He’d done all of the legwork on that for Kieron, of course, but then he’d gone and spirited his lover away to his home the moment Kieron arrived instead of letting him get through the rest of the process at the same time as the refugees. That was something that had to be remedied, and quickly, before someone accused Elanus of harboring a pirate.

Pirates in deep space were a fantasy. As far as Elanus was concerned, they were so rare as to be unreal. On planet, though, or between planets in the same star system—that could happen, and did with great frequency. It was worse on Gania than most places, a side-effect of being raised with criminal forefathers perhaps. The powerful took every chance they had to outflank each other. That might mean an assassination attempt, or an effort to steal proprietary information. Or it might be “piracy,” corporate thievery under the guise of “rogue elements.”

One way that “rogue elements” infiltrated society? Being brought here as guests, outside the normal bounds of Federation commerce and licensing. The second people knew about Kieron, accusations would start being flung about if he wasn’t properly registered.

Ugh. So tedious, so time-consuming. But given that Elanus had used this same gambit in the past with some of his rivals, he could hardly protest having it used against him. That meant that early on the day right after Kieron’s arrival, when he would have much preferred lying next to his lover and possibly teasing another orgasm or two out of him, however they happened to come, they were instead standing in line outside a government office on the fifty-fifth story of a mere hundred-story building, waiting for an appointment with a registrar.

“I’m amazed this can’t be done virtually.”

Kieron sounded tired. He’d hardly had a chance to regain his equilibrium from the journey—of course he was tired.

“I’m amazed as well, but you know how it is. Every society has its backward moments. Besides, virtually confirming that a person is a registered guest, even with DNA scanning and subdermal monitoring and all those sorts of failsafes, still isn’t foolproof. And the government at least has to genuflect in the direction of taking piracy seriously, so.” He waved his hand at the hallway, the other people, the floor—everything in range. “Here we are.”

“I got the contract to run Cloverleaf Station entirely virtually. No in-person interview required.” Kieron tilted his head up to look at Elanus. “Who’s going to run it next season, by the way?”

“I’m not sure yet,” he replied with all honesty. “I’ve opened the position to applicants, but no one is standing out as a good fit so far.”

Kieron smiled. “No technologically capable, introverted-but-personable, unhealthy-relationship-with-danger scientists have applied?”

“None as delightfully crazy as you,” Elanus cooed, and was repaid by an actual laugh. The timing was perfect—they were up next. They made a space for the previous pair to get out, then stepped into the room.

“Boss Desfontaines. Mr. Carr.” The woman behind the desk sat primly, her long legs hidden but her arms folded over each other like insect wings. Since most women on Gania didn’t cultivate facial hair the way men did, they tended to have peacock-like hairstyles instead—a shock of lustrous hair in the middle of their heads, with the sides shaved in careful designs to show off their artistry. This woman’s hair was light purple and combed over to one side, with some very angular designs highlighted in a darker shade on the other side. Her face was slightly pinched, lips as thin as her limbs.

“Boss?” Kieron mouthed silently as Elanus sent the registrar a charming smile.

“Ms. Farraday. What a delight. Lilac is your color.”

Her posture relaxed slightly. “My wife chose it for me. Sit down, both of you.” Fortunately one of the seats was sized for the average human in the Federation; otherwise Kieron’s legs would have been dangling down like a child.

“I’m surprised you didn’t send an assistant along to register your guest.” Ms. Farraday did indeed look a little surprised. “Who is so important that you’ve deigned to descend from the thousand-levels and hobnob with us lesser folk?”

“Kieron isn’t just a guest,” Elanus replied smoothly, refusing to take offense. He had his status thrown in his face all the time, sometimes discreetly, sometimes screamed. He could take it. “He’s my partner.” He saw Kieron stiffen a bit and hoped he hadn’t gone too far.

“A partner.” Ms. Farraday looked at Kieron with wider eyes. “Delilah—my wife—mentioned an inquiry from you about treating a newcomer.”

“Delilah ought to keep her mouth shut before she violates Federation privacy laws,” Kieron said tightly.

“Medical privacy laws only apply to confirmed citizens or guests, even if they are Federation,” Ms. Farrady replied. “We have to be able to discuss things like the potential for spreadable disease, for instance. These conversations are being had right now about the refugees you accompanied here, Mr. Carr.”

“We were thoroughly medically examined before landing, and I’ve been in good stead since my last Federation physical.”

“Mmm. According to the reports we requested from your former post, you’ve had a number of physical and mental challenges since then. Anyone would be concerned.”

Time to cut this off before it rots. “Let’s get to the point,” Elanus said. “Are you denying his registration?” If she was, Elanus would go over her head. It would eat up some of his social and covert currency, but he would spend all of it if it meant keeping Kieron beside him.

“No,” Ms. Farraday said after a moment, uncrossing her arms and leaning her elbows onto the desk. “But we are going to make psychological treatment a necessary component of it. It just so happens that Delilah has an opening in her schedule.”

“She’s from Hadrian’s colony, isn’t she?” Kieron’s voice was cold. When Ms. Farraday nodded, he shook his head. “I don’t want to meet with her.”

“Who else would be so understanding of your mentality?”

“That place and everyone who lived there is part of my past,” Kieron insisted. “I don’t want to dig it up just because someone I can’t even remember is feeling sentimental.”

Ms. Farraday stared between them for a moment. Elanus waited for her next play. Legally, she couldn’t deny Kieron the chance to choose his own therapist, but she wasn’t the type to give up easily either.

“There is a request for mixing from the refugees,” she said after a moment.

“Mixing?” Kieron looked at Elanus.

“With Ganian society,” he clarified. “To meet with people beyond our aid structure.”

“You in particular,” she said to Elanus. “Apparently there’s a woman who’s missing a daughter. She has all sorts of things to discuss with you. However, quarantine requires them to be isolated for another two weeks, and due to the delicacy of their health, no remote access is being allowed. President’s orders,” she added when Elanus opened his mouth to complain.

Shit.

“But I might be able to find a workaround for you and your registered guest, if he chooses an appropriate therapist.”

“You massive bitch,” Elanus said with a bit of admiration. He hadn’t expected this level of brinksmanship from a simple registration. He looked at Kieron, but didn’t say anything. This had to be his choice, not Elanus’s.

“Fine.” Kieron seemed completely unemotional as he said it, as flat as an untrained AI. “How many sessions?”

“As many as required to—”

“No,” Elanus interjected. “One for assessment and then follow-ups, not to exceed one per week for six weeks. That’s the standard for incoming refugees, you’re not going to increase that for Kieron, who is a guest, just because your wife has a thing for his mind.”

Ms. Farraday finally nodded. “All right. I’ll put you in touch via implant once we have you connected to the planetary database.” She pulled an implant reader out of her desk—a surprisingly old-fashioned one, the kind that gave scientists a bad name with all its exposed wires and bulk. “Now.” She smiled. “Bow your head.”

Kieron complied despite the impropriety of the position, while Elanus carefully hid the anger he was feeling. This is a power play. Beyond the therapist. Someone is deliberately making this uncomfortable for us.

And he was going to find out who.

Chelen City: Chapter One, Part Two

 Notes: Guess who had a brain blip and forgot to post yesterday? Same posting schedule for, like, a decade, and I forgot. I blame my interminable cold. Enjoy some girls!

Title: Chelen City: Chapter One, Part Two

***

Chapter One, Part Two

 

Elanus was proud of his home. Not because he’d secured ten of the highest floors in the most scenic corner of the tallest building in Chelen City, which incidentally was the tallest residential building on the entire planet. That was to be expected from someone with his social status. It would have been strange for him to have fewer than five floors, downright odd for him to live on a lower level.

The building itself was very socialist—people from all walks of Ganian life lived within its three-hundred stories, as opposed to other, newer towers which restricted themselves to the ultra-wealthy from bottom to top, or older towers that housed the middle class and lower. The top fifty stories, though, were for people who had money to burn.

Elanus was proud of his corporation and his station in life, but that wasn’t why he was proud of his home. It wasn’t the position of the place, or what that represented. It was that he’d worked hard—he, himself, no decorators or designers helping him—to make it feel like a real home. Like a cohesive living space spread over ten stories. Each story was either one large, single room or split into multiple spaces, but regardless, you could see how they worked together.

His home wasn’t metallic and hard and shiny. It was soft, with area rugs and real wood furniture and art from cultures all over the galaxy hanging on the walls, or in a few cases from the ceiling. His home had warm lighting and hand-woven fabrics and surfaces that showed use. His home had a huge bed that would welcome another body, and two floors dedicated to his two children at the very top. His home was built for family, not exploration or showing off.

Kieron seemed to relax as he moved through the spaces, even though he had plenty to say about what could be improved—another motion sensor here, something to prevent long-distance eavesdropping set into the immense glass windows, a weapon readily available in every room somewhere. Elanus listened and made dutiful notes, but his eyes were transfixed by the way Kieron’s shoulders loosened as they walked, and the tension in his jaw slowly vanished.

Stars, but he was handsome when he didn’t look like he was on the verge of murdering someone.

Elanus knew life with Kieron was going to be a challenge. Ganian wasn’t an overtly xenophobic society, but given how easy it was to tell those who’d grown up here from those who’d been born into heavier atmospheres, you never had to wonder who the aliens were. In a culture already inclined toward stratification of status via class, stratification due to native versus non-native status invariably followed.

It wasn’t as bad as Traktan society—Ganians welcomed people from all over the galaxy to work and live here, and had no qualms about going abroad themselves. But physically, the differences were startling. Ganians were taller than almost everyone around them, that was just a fact. Some Ganians took “taller” to mean “smarter, more beautiful, and basically better in every way.”

Elanus was going to get shit for having a lover—hopefully someday more, but he wasn’t going to push his luck right now—who had been born and raised on another planet. And that shit would spill over onto Kieron. Fortunately the man seemed immune to that kind of subtle insult—or if not immune, at least not the sort of person who took it to heart. You could think whatever you wanted of Kieron, but if you underestimated him, there’d be hell to pay.

“…going to need at least two—are you actually listening to me?”

“Hmm?” Elanus blinked, suddenly aware of the fact that Kieron had stopped walking and was staring up at him now with a warning expression. “Oh, absolutely.” His implant replayed the last ten seconds in a flash. “I completely agree about upgrading the entry unit, and the girls should absolutely have their own by their bays. It wouldn’t do for somebody else’s tech to sneak into their rooms.”

Kieron folded his arms. “Nice save.”

“I was listening!”

“You were replaying.”

“Same difference!” Elanus sidled closer and slid his arms over Kieron’s shoulders. “Are you going to nag me about this? Because I’m not going to lie, that kind of turns me on.”

“A stiff breeze would turn you on,” Kieron replied, winding his own arms around Elanus’s waist. A coy person would have used the gesture to soften their rude words; Kieron wasn’t that conniving. He was perfectly happy to insult Elanus and give him physical affection at the same time without any cognitive dissonance whatsoever. He was unlike any partner Elanus had ever had before.

He could never give him up. He’d die first.

“I’m not that bad,” Elanus said. He rubbed the back of Kieron’s neck, delighting in the way it made his lover close with pleasure. “Certainly not lately. I’ve been far too busy to be turned on by anyone or anything but you.”

“Mmm.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to suggest a return trip to the bedroom, where—despite a few little stumbling blocks—they’d both managed to have a good time. But then a query pulsed at the corner of his implant, with just a hint of whine to it, and he knew it was time to be more sociable. “Catalina is slavering at the metaphorical mouth for a chance to project her latest hundred-decibel aria at you,” he said.

Kieron’s eyes opened as he grinned. Elanus melted a little further. “I can’t wait to see her.”

“Lucky you, you don’t have to,” Elanus said, gesturing toward the nearest window. They walked over together to see two small, sleek ships come in for a landing a few floors up. The wall shivered ever so slightly as they both settled into their docks.

[Whyyy does Lizzie get the top beeerth?] Catie demanded over their implants.

“You didn’t want it before,” Elanus pointed out as they took the stairs up to the ninth floor.

[I needed it for my stuuuuuff!]

“You do not.”

[I dooooo!]

[I can move] Lizzie offered tentatively, but Elanus shut that down before his daughter could jump on the offer.

“You get the tenth-floor dock,” he said firmly. “If you want to trade at some point, that’s fine, but for now we’re going with what’s already established, got it?”

[Daddeeeee!]

“Don’t you ‘Daddy’ me,” he warned as he opened the door to Catie’s dock. It was spacious for a ship of her size, with boxes full of parts on the floor and projection tech in every one of the walls. “You made your bed, now you lie in it. You can—”

“KEEEEEEERONNNNNN!!!!” Catie’s shrill scream of glee drowned out his lecture, and everything else. Kieron, to his credit, held in his wince and went straight over to Catie’s side, laying his hands on one of her walls with a smile.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he said affectionately. “It’s so good to see you.”

“Ittt’s good to see youuuu! I miiiiiissed youuuuu!”

“I missed you too, so much.”

Elanus watched the love-fest go on a bit longer, then turned and headed up the lift to the next story. He could have taken the stairs, but his knee was starting to ache. He’d need a targeted treatment before long. But for now…

There she was. His original ship, the cutting edge before Catie, now her own unique sort of technological wunderkind. “Lizzie,” Elanus said with a smile, and was delighted to see her nose go a bit pink.

“Elanus,” she replied warmly.

He came over and patted her hull. She couldn’t feel it the way Catie could, he hadn’t installed that level of responsiveness into her skin, but he knew she saw it. “I’m so proud of you,” he told her, his voice a little thick. “You took such good care of Kieron.”

“He took good care of me too,” Lizzie said.

“Shush and take your compliment gracefully, darling.” Her harmonics made a low, pleased sound. “You’ve exceeded my every dream. You’ve managed things you were never built for, and you did them all beautifully.”

“Thank you, Elanus.”

“I’m going to share some specs with you over the next few days—potential upgrades. You don’t have to take any you don’t want,” he emphasized, “but if you’ve been hankering for a more colorful skin or better responsiveness or a more powerful backup processor, those will all be on the table.”

“I…I’ll think about it.”

“You do that, darling. Then we can—”

“Daddeeeeee!”

Oh boy. Splitting his time between these two floors was going to be…a challenge.

Ugh.

 Sooo, I'm sick. Down with a sore throat and stuffy nose, and so is my kiddo. It was a rough weekend, so there's no story today. Sorry, darlins. More Chelen City as soon as I'm a little recovered.

<3

Chelen City: Chapter One, Part One

 Notes: Omigosh, HERE WE GO BABES!!! From outer space to planetside, our gents are starting a whole new adventure--learning to survive living with each other. And having snarky tweenage sentient ships to look after, and looking after a bunch of refugees, and dodging assassins--wait, what?

Oh yeah. You know it had to happen. Can't all be domestic fluff, we need to throw some mayhem in there too ;)

Have fun! I know I am!

Title: Chelen City: Chapter One, Part One

***

Chapter One, Part One

 

“Where to begin, where to begin…”

“The assassinations, babe. Start there.” Kieron’s voice had that sharp, caustic edge to it that would make almost anyone else either shit themselves or make themselves scarce. He sounded like a dangerous man when he talked that way. He was a dangerous man.

Elanus, fortunately, knew him well enough to be able to let the tone slide right past him without cutting anything vital. “The assassination attempts,” Elanus corrected him, reaching for his glass of wine. “I’m still alive, obviously.”

“So you are. Why?”

Elanus choked on his first sip. “Wh—what kind of question is that?” he demanded after wiping his mouth.

Kieron was resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Elanus could tell. “You said they’re bad assassins, but Gania is a highly sophisticated society with a tradition of technological innovation. You can’t be the only genius on the whole planet. If someone wanted to kill you badly enough, they’d be able to figure it out. So why are you still alive?”

Elanus sighed. “All right, so…there are some things about Ganian society that are a little…unusual.”

“Mm.”

It was hard to believe they’d been happily ensconced in bed just twenty minutes ago. Where had the afterglow gone? It hardly mattered—Elanus was so pleased to have Kieron in grabbing range again that he’d endure a thousand glares and remonstrations every day for the pleasure of having him back by his side.

That said, Kieron was absolutely dogged when it came to managing and mitigating danger. At least for other people.

Welp. Story time. “You probably don’t know this, but originally Gania was a Central System penal colony. White collar crimes only,” he added. “Hardly the equivalent of somewhere like Redstone. There was a lot of tolerance by the guards when it came to…inmates enriching themselves in novel ways. A lot of black market trading, of course, a huge amount of bribery and smuggling, but eventually it turned into a system of patronage by the strong toward the weak.”

“Which is reflected in your education system to this day,” Kieron said. “I get it.”

“Not just the education system,” Elanus corrected him. “In every aspect of society. We’re socialist, for the most part, but the wealthy are expected to do at least as much as the government, on top of what we’re taxed, for those with lesser fortunes.”

“That…seems fair.”

“I agree,” Elanus said. “Except remember the part where the people here had all the moral backbone of a bunch of whinging criminals when they arrived here. A lot of fortunes were made in very immoral ways, and not everyone gave according to their station. So a casual system of…remonstration was instituted. Remonstration by assassination, technically.”

“Chiding people by killing them?” Kieron’s eyebrows were so high up his forehead they looked like they might crawl right up into his hair.

“Only if it’s a person’s third or fourth offense,” Elanus clarified. “Before that, the attempts deliberately fail. You might be poisoned, but not fatally. Drowned, but not to the point where you couldn’t be resuscitated, that sort of thing.”

“So when someone is mad at you for not doing your part for society, they send a deliberately bad assassin after you.”

“That’s the idea. Of course, it’s become rather bastardized over the years…” Elanus had another sip of his wine. “In the case of my most recent assassination attempts, for example. I’ve supported enough causes that our leaders have put me on a permanent ‘Do Not Kill’ list. It ought to mean I’m as good as gold from here on out, but there are fringe groups who disagree with my inclusion on that list, largely because I won’t share patented information with them.”

A light of understanding went off in Kieron’s eyes. “This is about the girls,” he said, finally reaching for his own glass of wine.

“It is,” Elanus said. “Technically speaking, it’s about the current state of Lifeship Enterprises. I’ve been very careful over the past few years to keep the level of advancement in my AI systems private. Remember how Lizzie was before we upgraded her? As far as my investors should know, that’s as far as I’ve gotten. Exquisite work, but not genuine sentience.” He sighed heavily. “It turns out my former business partner wasn’t as silent on the subject as I was. I don’t know everyone Deysan told, but there have been several attempts not just on my life, but on my business—efforts to steal data, even efforts to steal pieces off the production line.

“Someone even tried to steal Catie.”

Kieron leaned forward some, his eyes murderous. His hands, Elanus noted, were completely steady. They’d been shaking ever since he got to Gania, and only now, when Elanus was sharing all the worst news, were they steady.

Poor guy. He’d been fucked over but good by his upbringing. Elanus would have to do something about that…but right now he was going to be grateful that Kieron was his cuddly little murderbunny.

“What did she do to him?”

Elanus laughed. Of course Kieron understood. “Electrocuted him to the point of unconsciousness. I had him taken to Chelen City’s only indigent-serving hospital, and he’d vanished by the next morning, well before they could have gotten him in and out of a Regen tank given his level of damage. His employer had picked him up, no doubt.”

“And do you know who that employer is?”

“I know a few of them,” Elanus extemporized. “And the ones I know for sure, I’m going to deal with my way.”

Kieron did roll his eyes this time. “You’re going to talk them to death?”

“Sparky, you’re running hot tonight!” Elanus laughed and blew him a kiss. “No, sweetheart. I’m either going to talk them around to keeping their mouths shut until the technology is truly ready to be released, or I’m going to blackmail them into the same state.”

“You have that kind of information?”

“With Catie hacking their systems? Yeah, I can get blackmail material on just about anybody.”

Kieron suddenly looked worried? Why? “Elanus…you should be careful about that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re basically asking a kid—your kid—to look into your enemies’ pasts and dig up all the worst things they’ve ever done to use against them. And I understand why, but that sets a precedent for her that it’s all right to take some very drastic steps in order to get what you want.”

“Wanting me to be alive is a good thing,” Elanus said, feeling strangely unsettled.

“Obviously, but the way you’re going about ensuring it might not be.”

Elanus waved the criticism off. “She understands why this is important.”

“But will next time be as important?” Kieron pressed. “When someone does something she doesn’t like, something that isn’t a life-or-death situation, and she decides the best thing to do is blackmail them into doing things her way?”

“Catie won’t do that.” But he didn’t sound as confident as he wanted to.

“She won’t if you talk to her about it, no,” Kieron said. He looked tired again. The tremor was coming back into his hands. “But you have to be upfront about it, and very, very honest with her. I had to have a few talks with Lizzie like that, and it wasn’t fun, but—”

“About what?”

“I’ll tell you later,” he promised. “Let’s get through this stuff now. So people are throwing bad assassins and saboteurs at you to try and force you to give them things they shouldn’t know about on the grounds that you need to share because fuck proprietary software when you’re on top. Is that it?”

“Just about,” Elanus agreed.

Kieron rubbed a temple. “Shit. This place is all kinds of fucked up.”

“Yeah,” Elanus said, feeling a little bad about it. “That’s Gania for you. Paradise on the outside, Purgatory on the inside. At least there’s no Hell level, though.”

“Oh, I just bet there is.” Kieron downed the rest of his wine in several long swallows. “All right. Show me the rest of this place so I can figure out how to secure it better.”

Elanus would be surprised if Keiron could improve on his home’s current security system, but… “Your wish is my command.”