Chelen City: Chapter Nine, Part One

 Notes: Ugh. My kidlet brought pink eye home on the last day of kindergarten, I've subsequently been infected myself, we both have colds, and to top it all of parts of my blog are being extra-censored thanks to someone reporting them for "content issues." So, basically, everything sucks and I'm going to get off this platform as soon as fucking possible, BUT! I do have more story for you today, so...enjoy.

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Nine, Part One

***

Chapter Nine, Part One

 

The studio was comfortable, once it was lit. There was a faint sound of water falling, and the light on them was a warm sunny yellow that made Elanus’s complexion look lively instead of sallow, like pure white light would. The chairs were soft but supportive, there was a place set aside for Ryu, Aloia did in fact provide him with a very excellent drink…it was a lovely buttering-up, and by the time he’d swallowed his first sip, Elanus was ready for the questions to begin.

After all, every question was a clue for him too.

“Elanus, I’m so pleased to see you again,” Fritz said, his professional façade going full-throttle. “It feels like it’s been forever since we talked.”

“Four and a half years,” Elanus said.

“That long?”

Elanus smiled. “Oh, I remember it well. It was at the launch event for my company. You were of the opinion that LifeShip Enterprises was an enormous waste of money and a poor investment, and you weren’t shy about spreading that impression around, either.”

Fritz’s smile didn’t waver. “How crass of me! And yet you have to admit, for a company that’s spent untold credits in development of these ‘sentient’ ships, the fact that you’ve yet to launch one to the public is telling.”

“And yet we’re still the most solvent company on the whole of Gania,” Elanus replied. “And trust me, there will be a launch soon. I’ve just got a few kinks to straighten out.”

“Not too straight, I hope.” Fritz pivoted before Elanus could go on. “Speaking of kinks, I daresay it was inconvenient when Mr. Moritz ran off with your prototype. You were gone for a long time, Elanus. Why did it take so long to enact your little rescue operation?”

Elanus took another drink. “How much time do you have for me to talk about quasars and asteroid fields?”

That burnished smile dropped for a moment. “None, I’m afraid. Although…insight into the mind of a criminal is never a thing to turn away. Why do you think your former partner decided to head to such a remote location, instead of going to a more populous place where he could get lost?”

“The more people are around you, the easier you are to track,” Elanus replied. “That’s the truth across any Federation system. They’re so interconnected that not even the stealthiest ship can escape notice, but a place like the Cloverleaf Quasar…with the right kind of ship, you can get lost there and never be noticed.”

“Hmm. And yet you managed to track Deysan down.”

He smiled. “He didn’t have the right kind of ship. But there’s a big different between knowing roughly where he was and actually being able to laser-point him.”

“Which brings up another intriguing topic.” Fritz practically purred. “You invested heavily in Cloverleaf Station before you made your way there. Why?”

“Because I needed a reason not to get kicked out before I’d recovered my ship.”

“How could the people in charge kick you out? And don’t quote regulation to me,” Fritz added. “There are ways around regulations that don’t involve buying an expensive, remote station’s operating contract for three years in advance. From what I understand, the station requires a caretaker at all times. Why not strike a deal?”

“That’s not the way you do things in the Fringe,” Elanus replied. “It’s deadly there.”

“It’s deadly here.”

“The danger is entirely different. Here, if you piss off the wrong person, you can expect to be visited by an assassin on their behalf. That’s considered the beginning of negotiations, though; if you survive, which any Ganian should, you have a starting point. Out there…” Elanus’s eyes went distant as he remembered seeing Cloverleaf Station for the first time. It had been the climax of a mad chase, pushing Lizzie back when she’d been The Lizzie so hard he was afraid he was going to burn out her engine only to find he was barely too late. He’d been on the verge of insanity, driven to the absolute brink—and he wouldn’t have turned around. If things had gone bad, if Kieron hadn’t let him in for some reason, he would have gone straight into the asteroid field looking for Catie and damn the consequences…which would have been his death, one way or another.

And then Kieron had let him in, thrown him a lifeline, and at the same time loathed him so completely that Elanus had been distracted from his blind rage by the sheer strangeness of it. Kieron, with his handy research and his dogged personality and his intense loneliness that he was able to ignore, somehow, had been the difference between success and failure, life and death. Elanus owed him more than he’d ever be able to repay.

Good thing he loved him enough to try for the rest of their lives.

“Out there?” Fritz prompted.

Elanus cleared his throat. “Out there, there are no backups,” he said. “No secondary or tertiary safety measures. Just a hell of a lot of radiation shielding, some experimental tech, and whoever else is crazy enough to endure a life in the range of one of the deadliest phenomena in the universe. That Deysan went there to escape speaks to his confidence in our LifeShip’s capacity.” Elanus shrugged. “That I was able to find him and recover the ship speaks to my dedication to the project, and the wealth of other technologies that my company is responsible for.”

“Perhaps it speaks to the wealth of experience your companion at that station possessed as well, hmm?” Fritz pivoted again, clearly testing all his avenues before deciding to go deep. “You spent months together in Cloverleaf Station and managed to retrieve your ship, which is impressive enough, but you also managed to convince the man to come to Gania…after he went to Trakta and intercepted a derelict vessel full of political refugees to bring along with him.” Fritz’s eyes glittered with intrigue. “Just what kind of person is Kieron Carr?”

“He’s someone who’s obviously got a very low sense of self-preservation,” Elanus said immediately. “Otherwise he would know better than to get involved with me.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ve got your charms,” Fritz said coyly. “One of the refugees on the ship he brought to Gania is none other than the wife of his former research partner. I’m sure it’s occurred to you that to a man with ulterior motives, you must have seemed like a godsend.”

Elanus laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Are you—are you really being serious?” he asked. “Is that the angle you’re going with? Oh, my lord…”

“Tell me how I’m wrong,” Fritz challenged. “There’s very little recorded about Kieron Carr, but he himself was once a refugee from a place called Hadrian’s Colony. It was a militaristic cult and haven for anti-Federation sympathizers.”

“He left that place as a child.”

“He would have had to, since it was the site of a mass suicide twenty years ago, orchestrated by none other than Mr. Carr’s grandfather,” Fritz went on. “I’m not calling him equally insane, but I am saying that early training leaves a mark. Gania is a wealthy world, equal to any in the Central System, and you’re one of our brightest stars. These things make you a very choice mark for the right people, and it’s plain he had an ulterior motive in coming here.”

Elanus wasn’t laughing anymore. Doubling down on immigration fearmongering. Fine. “Kieron likes to do things by the books,” he said after a moment. “It was a point of contention between us while we were on the station. If you bothered to request a copy of the station’s incident log, which I’m sure you did since you’re so thorough—” there was movement off to his left, Aloia shifting uncomfortably—“then you probably saw the extensive Regen use that Kieron required after the recovery of my ship.”

“I…noted that.”

“Good. Then you’ll also have noted that the amount of radiation absorbed by that Regen machine, and the amount of damage that was repaired, was nearly too much to handle. He was on the verge of death,” Elanus emphasized. “And I am not and never have been a particularly compassionate person. I had what I needed by that point.” Mostly. Kind of. “I could have let him die and no one would have ever questioned it. I’m also not blind—I know what kind of mark I am. I’ve been targeted for most of my life.” Including by people like you. Whatever Fritz was seeing in Elanus’s expression, it seemed to be unnerving him.

“He risked his life to help me because he fell in love with me. I saved his life for the same reason. Everything that’s happened since then, including him rescuing over a hundred individuals declared outcasts by their own breaking society and left to die alone, in space?” Elanus grinned, shark-like. “That’s all just a bonus.”

Chelen City: Chapter Eight, Part Two

 Notes: OMG BETTER LATE THAN NEVER THANK YOU YANAH!!!!

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Eight, Part Two

***

Chapter Eight, Part Two

 

It was so hard to get things done sometimes. First you had to convince Kieron that taking Ryu wasn’t a bad idea, then you had to convince Ryu to come along in the first place, then you had to make arrangements to see Fritz that were almost derailed when the bastard decided to play hard to get.

“Elanus, this is simply impossible, you can’t come over now! The live show isn’t until tomorrow morning! Be at the studio at seven, or I’ll send a transport for you, and we can—”

“No.” Elanus shook his head and enjoyed seeing the smarmy smile slide right off Fritz’s face. “Tomorrow won’t work, I’m booked. It’s got to be tonight.”

Fritz frowned. “I haven’t had any time to prepare.”

“You reached out to me, I have no doubt you’ve got plenty of things prepared,” Elanus pointed out. “If you don’t, then I don’t have anything to worry about when it comes to what you might reveal, do I?”

“This isn’t how things are done.”

“And yet, this is what I’m offering you.” Elanus spread his hands. “Exclusive access for one hour of my time, in your residence or studio, with no oversight of the questions that you can ask but no guarantee of an answer, either. Or you can try to shove me off until tomorrow, in which case I’m going on Maira’s show—”

“Maira is a hack who doesn’t even do her own research!”

“Who really does their own research anymore?” Elanus asked. “That’s what assistants and specialist programs are for, isn’t it?”

“Not when it comes to working with a person. There’s a certain touch that’s required, a know-how, and let me tell you, darling, she doesn’t have it.” Fritz sniffed. “Her goal in every interview is to make whoever she’s talking to either cry or scream. It’s embarrassing, it’s hackery, you can’t do it.”

“Then you’ll be seeing me tonight, I suppose.”

Fritz rolled his eyes. “Gods, why do you have to be so difficult?”

“It’s how my mother made me,” Elanus quipped.

“Fine. Fine, my producer is going to kill me when I call her up with this, but fine. In the studio, one hour, and you don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to but don’t expect me to cut your reaction to my asking.” He pointed a finger at Elanus. “People want to know what makes you tick. They want to know what motivates you. They want to know about the death of Deysan Moritz, and they want to know about the mysterious man who stole your heart.”

As long as they don’t want to know about the girls. “All that’s on the table…within reason.”

“Good. Then I’ll see you soon.”

“Send a transport.” Elanus wasn’t about to get Catie or Lizzy to fly him over there.

“Fine. Such a diva.”

The call ended, and Elanus looked over at Ryu. “Does he seem familiar?”

“Fritz is familiar to everyone,” Ryu replied, which…fair. Elanus hadn’t met the man in person in years; it would be interesting to do so now.

 The ride to his studio, in a custom air transport that was gilded on the inside (so tacky, it was good that Kieron wasn’t riding along because he would absolutely combust at the sight of this thing) and contained at least half a dozen covert cameras, was educational. Ryu, in the role of bodyguard, checked it for weapons and didn’t find any. Elanus didn’t either, but for someone like Fritz, information was just as much of a weapon as a knife. Silence was to be expected, and Elanus put a thick firewall over his implant as well, just in case he’d missed some scanning technology in this thing.

The studio was on the thirtieth floor of one of the larger buildings downtown, one dedicated to and equipped for media production of all sorts. Gania, for all its advancements, didn’t care for the use of AI when it came to entertainment. For defense, for science, for medicine, yes—but to make people laugh? To get them on the edges of their seats? To educate and entertain their children? No. There was being a conman, and then there was being a pure capitalist in a society that, for all its faults, was dedicated to socialism and the betterment of its people through accessible and interesting work. So here they were, ready to make nice with Fritz and see what came floating to the surface during their conversation.

“Hello!” A young woman with bright red hair floating out from her head like a bunch of slender branches greeted them as soon as the transport opened. She wore square, chunky topaz jewelry in at least a dozen holes in her ears, and was tall even for a Ganian, almost half a foot taller than Elanus. “It’s so lovely to meet you, Mr. Desfontaines. I’m Aloia, Fritz’s personal assistant. We’re so glad you and your…” She glanced at Ryu. “Is this your boyfriend?” she asked in an excited voice.

“Ugh, no!” Ryu said at the same time that Elanus said, “Absolutely not.”

“Oh.” She looked like she regretted asking at all. “Um…”

“Bodyguard. Pretend he’s invisible, I certainly do,” Elanus said with a smile, which made Ryu scowl at him. “I take it your boss is waiting for us somewhere in here?”

“Yes! He’s in Studio C! It’s our most intimate space, reserved for special interviews such as this one.” She began to lead them deeper into the building, which unlike so many skyscrapers that were obsessed with adding in natural light wherever they could, seemed dedicated to eliminating it instead. “I’ve been instructed to take care of any requests you might have. Can I get you something to drink, or have a meal from your favorite restaurant brought in?”

Thus giving Fritz longer than the required hour of time? No, I think not. “I’m just fine, Aloia, thank you.”

Her shoulder sagged a bit even as her walk remained perky. “Of course! Please let me know if that changes and I’ll take care of it as quickly as possible.”

Actually… “What if I asked you for a Moondew mixer?”

“I would go to the President’s lounge, speak to his butler, and ask him for a bottle,” she said quickly, not missing a beat at the highly exclusive request. “I’m sure he’d give it to me if it was for you.”

“What if instead I fancied a red viverian crisp?”

“I’m sure we’ve got some supersonic connections that could get out there and get back before your interview is over,” Aloia replied, practically beaming.

Hmm. “How about a—”

“Elanus! Stop interrogating my assistant and get in here!” A familiarly flamboyant man appeared in the doorway up ahead. “And Aloia, what did I tell you about this man? Don’t answer his questions!”

“Oh…I…”

“Not a one!” Fritz wagged a finger at her. “We ask the questions around here, not him. And speaking of, the man of the hour, Elanus! Please.” He smiled and gestured to the dark room behind him. “Won’t you step into my lair?”

Chelen City: Chapter Eight, Part One

 Notes: Finally diving back into plot! Enjoy a fabulous introduction.

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Eight, Part One

***

Chapter Eight, Part One

 

Elanus had always been a believer in the maxim “The best defense was a good offense.” He didn’t like to wait for action to come to him and then respond to it. Admittedly, this had led to some less-than-stellar decisions over the course of his life at times when a natural, immediate would have been better than the practiced one he handed out. There were plenty of reasons why he’d been a bachelor for most of his adult life, and his “calculated bastardry” was one of them. Lucky for him, Kieron didn’t mind him being a schemer at heart.

In this case, though, he was beaten to the punch. And by one of his very own targets, too. The possibility of that happening had been all the way down at Plan G, although in retrospect he should have ranked the potential higher. Especially since the person to contact him was Fritz.

The request for an interview was sent in video form, and a more carefully curated blend of folksy approachability, professionalism, and cute innuendo Elanus had never seen. Fritz was one of the few men to wear his head-hair as elaborately as he did his facial hair, with tightly braided swirls and spirals and elevations here and there, giving the whole thing a wavelike look. His skin was dark brown with gold highlights along the cheeks and eyes, and his lips were a pouty, glossy red. He wore a brown suit that perfectly matched his skin tone, with a repeating pattern of the wave in his hair on it, only in the same gold as his makeup. He was…very handsome. Almost exhaustingly so.

It must take him an hour to put himself together in the morning. Elanus was all for looking his best, but he tended to prioritize the mental over the physical.

“El-anus Desfon-taines, back at last,” Fritz’s message began. “And with hardly a word about the things you’ve been up to for the year you’ve been gone. People are curious about you. You left so dramatically, you spent months in one of the most remote places in Federation space—you even went to the trouble of taking on that station’s contract, don’t think I don’t know—and then you finally come back only to prepare the way for a boyfriend and a ship full of refugees. A boyfriend that hardly any of us have seen, much less know anything about, although a little bird tells me that there’s a story there.”

Fritz grins. “I’d love to hear some of it from you, but I don’t mind going digging for it either. Would you like to control some spin? Come on my show! I’m fully booked this week, but I’ll bump any one of them if it means getting to see your precious face again.”

Precious face? Elanus fought the urge to gag. Pretentious son of a—

“Do let me know. I promise not to go live with any of my information about you until next week at the earliest, so there’s plenty of time.”

You’re going to regret threatening me.

“This isn’t a threat!” Fritz added, raising his hands in the air. “It’s a simple statement of fact. You’re a person of interest in the media, and you’ve been avoiding giving an account of yourself. You’re intriguing, especially in wake of your partner’s death. This is honestly stuff you should have handled weeks ago if you didn’t want to get bothered about it now. I promise to lend a sympathetic ear.” He grinned suddenly. “If you bring your boyfriend, I’ll even let you vet some of the questions.” He gestured toward his implant with a “tapping” gesture. “Message me!”

“Wow.”

Elanus turned in his chair to see Kieron standing in the door of his home office, arms crossed. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Since ‘dramatically,’ I think.” He shrugged. “If it was meant to be a secret, you should have closed your door.”

Elanus thought about it for a moment, then sighed. “It’s not a secret, it’s just not something you need to concern yourself with either. Fritz wants a story, that’s all.”

“And…do you want to give him one?”

“I want to talk to him, at least.” Elanus gestured at the other chair in the room and waited for Kieron to sit down before continuing. “He’s one of the people I’m considering as a candidate for hiring an assassin.”

“Really?” Kieron looked at the frozen image of Fritz projecting from the center of Elanus’s desk. “He doesn’t look the type.”

“He’s cutthroat,” Elanus replied. “He was a lawyer before he switched fields. He’s a hell of a researcher, too. If anyone could dig in and figure out what was going on between Deysan and me, he’s at the top of the list.”

“So you want to find out what he knows.”

Elanus laughed. “There’s no way he’ll let anything big drop. I’m trying to gauge him for…well, a lot of things. Interest. Sincerity.”

“Clearly he’s interested, if he’s reaching out for an interview,” Kieron pointed out.

“True, but that might be less about me and more about wanting a story. I am a pretty big scoop right now.” Immodest but true.

“Mm.” Kieron cocked his head a bit. “Do you want to do the interview, then?”

“I think I do.” He might as well. It saved him some legwork.

“And…do you want me to come with you?”

Elanus reached for Kieron immediately, and lucky for him, Kieron took his hand and let himself be tugged over. He rolled his eyes as Elanus settled him in his lap, but that was a fairly normal reaction. “I always want you with me, but you shouldn’t do anything you don’t want to. If you’re there, he will try to pry information out of you.”

Kieron frowned. “Then…I better not go. But I don’t like the idea of you going alone, either.”

“Oh, darling.” Elanus smiled. “I won’t go alone. I’ll take Ryu along.”

And see if Fritz has any reaction to seeing me in control of the man he might have hired to scare me with an assassination attempt.