Hadrian's Colony: Chapter Seventeen, Part One

 Notes: Ready for a rock and a hard place? 'Cause I got one for you!

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

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Chapter Seventeen Part One

 

Photo by Cody Chan

Kieron’s entire world narrowed down to putting one foot in front of the other. It was all he needed to do, all he needed to think about. It wasn’t easy, but it was simple, and that was all he could handle right now. Step. Step. Step. He moved in time to the pulse that emanated from inside Blobby, tuned to a frequency that Catie would be able to pick up on if she was listening closely enough, but that other ships wouldn’t have any reason to be looking for.

He walked for a thousand steps. Two thousand steps. Five thousand steps, and every step took him farther from—

No.

Just walk.

Compartmentalization. His therapist had talked to him about that over and over—back before she’d been implicated in an enormous scandal thanks to her wife. Kieron wondered what Delilah Farraday was up to now, what her fate had been. Whether she too was using her hard-earned compartmentalization skills—skills that she’d learned here at Hadrian’s Colony too—to get through her life.

Is it hard? Does she miss her wife? Is she still with her? Kieron hoped she was. It hurt to be separated from the people you loved. Hell, it hurt to be separated from people you didn’t love, case in point—

No. Walk. Just walk.

He walked, and slid here and there, and at the apex of this stretch of the narrow ridge he was climbing upon, the wind kicked up badly enough that he wasn’t able to stay on his feet. Kieron dropped to his knees, and he couldn’t keep his grip on Blobby, who in cane-form began to roll down the steep surface.

“Change!” Kieron shouted. It was the first word he’d spoken since walking away from— “Change, Blobby!” Kieron watched with a sense of rising horror as the little bot tumbled over the precipice they’d found themselves on, vanishing, oh shit he was going to fall to the bottom of the canyon and those tunnelers would find him and—

And then he reappeared on six legs, clinging securely to the slippery stone as he climbed back up to Kieron. Kieron stared, his heart beating so rapidly he felt it in his throat, and waited for Blobby to get into grabbing distance. Once there, he grabbed him and pulled him in close with his good arm. “Holy shit.” Kieron closed his eyes and turned his face up toward the tumultuous sky, letting the tiny, stinging droplets of rain ground him. “Baby, you can’t do that to me.”

Blobby tapped out a reply in Morse. It took Kieron a moment to understand. [I am okay.]

“I’m glad you are,” Kieron said. “And I really need you to stay that way, so don’t wait to do whatever you have to do to save yourself, all right? Whether you have to run away or hide, or any time you need to change shape, that’s what I want you to do. Prioritize yourself, okay?”

[No thank you.]

“Yes.”

[No thank you Papa.]

“Don’t call me that,” Kieron muttered. “Elanus is your papa.”

[Creator is creator. Kieron is Papa.]

“Where did you even hear that word?”

[Context. Plus Daddy is already taken.]

Kieron sighed. “Yeah, I guess it is. Still, if I’m the papa, then you need to listen to me when I tell you to prioritize taking care of yourself, okay?”

[Creator said no.]

His fiancé haunted every interaction Kieron had with his kids. “Creator is wrong.”

[I also say no.]

“Blobby…”

[May I have a new name?]

That startled Kieron enough that he craned his neck down at the little bot. “You want a new name?”

[Yes please Papa.]

“Why?”

[Blobby is a name for someone who can only be blobs. I am someone who can be more than blobs. I can be a cane, and a ball, and a taser, and a spider, and a—]

“Yes,” Kieron agreed before he got lost in the recitation. “You can take on all sorts of shapes now.” A warm, fuzzy sort of feeling spread out from his chest. It might just be the painkiller wearing off, but it still left him feeling nice. “I guess you do need a new name.”

[Yes please. But not Catie. Or Catalina. Or Lizzie. Or Elanus. Or Kieron.]

“Right, not a name that someone else has. Something just for you.”

[Yes please Papa.]

“Okay.” He nodded stiffly. “Good. When we find Elanus, we can—”

[No Papa, need a name now!]

“You need a name right now?” Actually, that made a fatalistic sort of sense. Kieron didn’t know how far they’d come from the wreck of their ship. He didn’t know how far the edge of the plateau was, or if they were still being stalked by the tunnelers, or…much of anything. All he knew was that his kiddo had a request, and there was no good reason not to do it. “All right. Sure. Let’s see…do you have any names that you like?”

[Blobby.]

Kieron chuckled. “But you just said you don’t want to be called Blobby anymore.”

[I like how it sounds, but I don’t like it.]

“Ah. That’s a challenge. Well…what about…” It was so hard to think. His arm ached, and his headache was coming back with a quickness. Fucking concussion. “What about Bobby?”

[But…I don’t…bob.]

“Ah. No, Bobby is usually short for Robert, but it sounds like Blobby, so…it’s a good name, I promise. But there are millions of names out there, we can find more.”

The little bot heated up as he thought about it. Kieron waited patiently, and a minute later came— [I like it, Papa.]

“Good.” Kieron smiled. “Then you’re Bobby, baby. I love it.”

[I love you.]

“I love you too.” He basked in the warm feelings for another moment, then forced his eyes open. “All right, I guess we better—damn it!” Adrenaline surged hard and fast, and Kieron grabbed Bobby with his good arm and got into a crouch as he saw the lights flickering through the rain in the distance. “Shit, shit…” He began to back down the slope that Bobby had fallen down a moment ago, but it was slick enough that he started to slide almost immediately.

Fine. Be difficult. “Hold on, okay?” He set Bobby down, then unslung the rope from where it had been looped around his neck. He tied a quick and dirty knot, then wound the rope over his shoulder, between his legs, and around his thigh. He was able to slide down with more control this time, but every second felt like a second too long when a ship with all sorts of scanners was out there looking for him.

The scanners don’t work in the canyons. But they’re not in the canyon, and neither are we. But it’s cold, and we got down fast. It could miss us. It could. Kieron pressed his head to the rocky slope and stared up to see if the light appeared over the ridge.

He didn’t see a light. But he did hear a sound drawing closer. It sounded like…

Claws, scuttling against stone.