Chelen City: Interlude 7: Kieron

 Notes: And he's awake again! But not without some complications. Let's just read on and...not kill me.

Title: Chelen City: Interlude 7: Kieron

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Interlude 7: Kieron

 

Kieron opened his eyes, blinked them against the too-bright light, and grimaced at the gritty feel of his lids scraping against his eyeballs.

“Consciousness achieved.”

Oh god, was that the autodoc announcement system? What the fuck, why was he in the autodoc?

“Initiating final scan.”

Final scan of…what? Why…where was everyone? He looked around the room blearily, but apart from a second regen tank that was still humming merrily along, there was no one else in here.

“Applying restoratives.”

Restorative wha—“Fuck,” he shouted as a mobile arm suddenly spritzed his eyes with moisturizer. Then he almost gagged as a straw was thrust in his direction fast enough to go not just into his mouth but close enough to his damn throat that he barely even tasted the water.

“Safety measures deactivated. Welcome back to perfect health, Kieron Carr.”

“Perfect health?” he spluttered. What had gone wrong with his fucking health? What was this? And why…why didn’t he remember anything?

He’d barely gotten past sitting up when a small, dark-haired woman ran into the room. She was wearing a full-length dress that had a silvery gleam, and black shoes on her feet even though they were indoors. Her anxious expression melted into a smile as she saw him. “Kieron, you’re awake!”

“I…” He knew her, he knew that he knew her, her name was… “Xilinn?”

“Yes!” She came over and extended her hands in a gesture of welcome, but didn’t touch him. Not surprising—it felt like half his skin had been regenerated. He was a patchwork of hypersensitive spots laid next to normal functioning ones, and even though he couldn’t see the difference between them, he could clearly feel it. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re awake. It’s been five days, we thought you would be back with us after three, but the damage went deeper than Elanus had anticipated. He—Kieron?” She frowned as she looked a little more closely at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Is Elanus my doctor?” Kieron asked cautiously.”

“No…” Xilinn said. “Kieron, where do you think you are?”

“I have no clue,” he said honestly. “When I saw you I thought Trakta, but I feel like—” The second he considered it, he knew he was wrong. “We’re not allowed there, though. Are we.”

“No.” She shook her head. “No, we’re not. Lizzie?”

“Yes, Xilinn?”

Hang on, whose voice was that? The house AI? But it didn’t sound like the standard house AI. It wasn’t professional and dispassionate. This voice sounded…concerned. Plus, who named their house AI Lizzie?

“Has Elanus been alerted to Kieron’s status change?” Xilinn asked.

“Yes. He should be here in ten-point-two-five minutes.” There was a pause, and then, “Kee? Are you okay?”

Kee? Was that him? When had this person given him a pet name? How were they close enough for her to give him a pet name? No one outside of Zak did that.

And Zak…Zak was dead. Kieron wasn’t sure how he knew that, but it felt incontrovertible. Zak was dead, and Xilinn was here instead of with her other spouses, and Pol was—

“Where’s Pol?” he asked.

Her face brightened. “You remember Pol?”

“I do. And…” He was going to ask about [name], but he already knew that she wasn’t here. Wherever here was. “Where are we?” he asked with a very unsubtle pivot.

“In Chelen City,” Xilinn said. “On Gania.”

“Gania…” That was a planet he hadn’t thought about in a long time, if ever. Kieron knew of it, sure—he knew it was a planet founded by convicts, he knew it was populated by a very wealthy elite, he knew they had weight and money to throw around outside the Central System…but none of that explained why he was here. “Who do we know on Gania?”

Xilinn sighed. “Oh my. Kieron, what goes through your mind when I say the name Elanus Desfontaines?”

Kieron let the words wash over him. He sat with them, let them roll about in his head, finally let them settle, and…

“Nothing.”

“Fuck.”

Kieron knew he shouldn’t stare, but he’d never, in all the time he’d known her, heard Xilinn swear like that. “Xil!”

She pulled back and began pacing. “Oh fuck,” she repeated. “He was worried about this. You took so much damage to the [part], and he got you into Regen quickly but there’s only so much it can do when it comes to preserving memory as well as function. Fuck.” She stared at him determinedly. “Well. This is unacceptable.”

“What is?” he asked, completely lost.

“It’s just, it’s not—Lizzie,” she said, “you have to make sure Elanus knows about this, all right? Don’t let him rush in here blind, I don’t want him to get hurt.”

“I’ll inform him, Xilinn.”

“Get hurt why?” Kieron demanded. He was starting to shiver.

“Oh, Kieron.” Xilinn noticed his discomfort. “Hang on, let me get you fresh clothes. I’ll be right back.” She vanished, and Kieron took advantage of being along again to dry himself off with the towel that had been provided by the regen unit—weird, most of them didn’t bother—and wrack his brain over what the fuck he was doing on Gania some more.

It felt odd to be so unmoored in his own mind. Kieron didn’t know where he was supposed to be; he couldn’t think of where he’d just been or the last thing he remembered or what he was meant to do next. He remembered Xilinn quickly enough, and through her Pol and Zak, but trying to visualize Lizzie was giving him a headache.

Gania. Good grief, why had he come here? Whoever Elanus was, was he the reason Kieron had decided to come here, so far from everything he’d ever known? What purpose did he have in a city on a planet full of giants owned by hedonists and criminals? What the fuck was he doing here? Why the hell had he—

Kieron heard steps running in the hallway. He kept the towel across his groin so he wouldn’t scandalize Xilinn, then looked over at the door and—

A person skidded to a halt in the entrance. Not Xilinn—not Traktan. Ganian. A man, over seven feet tall, with close-cut brown hair shaved in skintight whorls from the tip of his chin over the top of his head. He was handsome, in a long, lanky kind of way, and when Kieron met those [color] eyes in the face that was trying so desperately hard to be stoic—

Fuck, what was this emotion? Why did it feel so overwhelming to look at this man? What was happening inside his chest, an ache so painful and sweet all at once? Why did he…why did he…

“I…love you,” Kieron said, sure of how he felt even though it was such a novel emotion—maybe because it was such a novel emotion. “I don’t—I don’t know—how do I—Elanus.” He reached out, knowing it was stupid and he’d probably be hurt, but then…

Elanus came to him and enfolded him in his arms, pressing his lips to the top of Kieron’s head. “Sweetheart,” he said, and Kieron hid his face in Elanus’s chest and tried to understand why he was crying.

He didn’t, but it didn’t seem to matter. Elanus held on anyway.