Hadrian's Colony: Chapter Eight, Part One

 Notes: Back to the main story! Let's have a revelation I know some of you saw coming ;)

Title: Hadrian's Colony: Chapter Eight, Part One

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Chapter Eight, Part One

 

Against all odds, Kieron did make it to the creche before his targets did. Or at least, that was what his readout said; no heat signatures visible, and Kieron was positive they wouldn’t hesitate to fire on him if they got the chance to do so. It helped that, for all his height, Doubles was a pretty light guy. It took only five minutes to carry him to the building, and it the work of just a glance to figure out a way to make sure the pirates talked first and shot later when they got here.

Kieron, now better aware of the precarious situation with the floor, stood back in a defensible corner of the room adjacent to a door where he could retreat if needed. His hostage was a different story. Kieron used his length of survival rope to tie a knot around Doubles’ ankles, thread the rope over an exposed beam in the ceiling, and then with a few heaves and a bit of a balancing act with his own bodyweight on the other end of the rope that he finally settled by tying the free end to an old chair and sitting in it, he’d taken advantage of a rather nice pit trap.

Not a second too soon. He’d just sat back into the chair when a red light appeared in the center of his chest. Kieron couldn’t see the shooter, but they had a clear shot through the front door he and Elanus had used earlier. Their ship had to be close…

How far did Catie and Elanus get? Are they okay? Did they manage to land safely?

“I don’t recommend it,” Kieron said into the com in Doubles’ helmet, one hand on his pulse rifle and the other resting on the backpack in his lap. Blobby was in there, with just enough of him poking out the top to use his recording equipment. Kieron didn’t know if any of the footage would be useable, but it was better to have it and not need it, he assumed.

“Bold of you to think I care what you recommend.” That was the woman again, cool and controlled.

“You do if you want to save your guy here.”

“What makes you so sure that I do?”

Kieron smiled. “You already had the chance to kill me, and you didn’t take it. Someone on your crew values this guy’s life, even if you don’t.”

There was a pause on the other side of the com, probably for a discussion but maybe for a scuffle if he was lucky, and then she was back. “It doesn’t look like you’ve been taking good care of him. How do I know he’s still alive?”

Kieron resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Use your thermal cameras to verify.”

“You could fake a heat signature.”

“With what?” he demanded. “My portable heating unit? Putting him into my gear? Do we look like the same size to you? Be serious.” His patience, sorely tested, wasn’t tried further as Doubles groaned audibly and began to blink his eyes. “If you want to deal, come deal with me face to face,” Kieron said. “Don’t try to send someone around the back, I’ve boobytrapped it.” He hadn’t, but they didn’t need to know that.

“Let my man go first, then we’ll talk.”

Kieron tisked. “Oh, you don’t want me to let him go right now, I think. He’d be in for quite a rough ride.” He glanced theatrically toward the hole in the floor. “I mean, I don’t think there’s a reptilian down there right now, but I can’t verify that. There was a few days ago.”

Doubles opened his eyes all the way. “B…boss?”

“He’s calling for you,” Kieron added. “You don’t want to disappoint him, do you?”

There was silence. After a few seconds, though, the red light on his chest vanished. That didn’t mean anything, of course—those lights were nothing but toys in this day and age, a way of intimidating an opponent into giving up when you didn’t want to immediately fire on them. That boded well for Elanus and Catie getting away clean, actually; pirates usually valued what they could take more than their crews. If she didn’t want to kill Kieron outright, her man be damned, then she wanted information from him.

“Boss?” the guy called more strongly, twisting a little as he got a handle on his situation. “What the fu…”

“Don’t move too much,” Kieron called over, getting the man’s attention. “I did my best on that knot, but you know how it is when you’re in a hurry.”

“What the fuck is this, man?” Doubles didn’t take his warning to heart and began to writhe madly on the end of the rope. “Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m the guy keeping you from falling into a hole in the ground,” Kieron said.

“A croc hole? Stars, you crazy bastard, are you trying to get me killed?”

“I would prefer not to,” he said with perfect honestly, “but the more you struggle, the harder it is for me to stay seated.”

Doubles finally seemed to understand his situation and stopped moving. He didn’t shut up, though. “Boss!” he screamed, staring from the hole to Kieron with a desperate look in his eyes. “Boss, Lis, Trapper—fuck, you gotta get me out of this! I can’t go into a croc hole! Boss! Lis!”

“Calm down, Doubles,” the woman said as she stepped into the room, and…huh. Kieron hadn’t realized she was so close. Points to her for stealth, although admittedly it was helped by the chameleon armor she was wearing, right down to the full facemask she wore. She had her gun down at her side, but Kieron was sure she could have it up and on him in under a second. “It’s going to be fine. We just need to have a conversation with this nice young gentleman here.”

Kieron smiled. “Sounds perfect. Why don’t we start with introductions?” He leaned forward slightly, and the change in the chair’s balance made the rope start to swing. Doubles let out a shriek that echoed in the hole beneath him. “I like to know who I’m dealing with.”

“You’re dealing with someone who won’t hesitate to make your life short and hellish if you kill her crewmember,” the woman said, but reached her empty hand behind her head to unclasp her helmet. She pulled it off, and—

Kieron froze. It was—no—but it had to be. She was different, obviously she was different, her short black hair threaded with gray and her right eye partially cybernetic, but Kieron knew that face. He saw it in his dreams. He saw those arching eyebrows, that chin, every day he bothered to look in a mirror.

My mother. Stars, it was his mother, his—

“Lina Carlisle. Captain Lina Carlisle,” she said.

That was someone else’s name, but this was his mother. Kieron was sure of it. Still…

“Zakari,” he said tightly. “Zakari Desfontaines.”