Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Twenty-Seven, Part One

 Notes: Welp, here, have some more plot. Mmm,  ploooot, so tasty...

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Twenty-Seven, Part One

***

Chapter Twenty-Seven, Part One

 

It wasn’t often that Kieron saw Elanus speechless. It was even less frequent for Kieron to be the cause of this silence—right now might, in fact, be the first time he’d ever managed it. Not even him being on the brink of death seemed as stunning as the fact that he was…well…

Elanus pointed a finger at him. “Let me get this straight—you want to break into a government facility on a hostile planet to save a political dissident and kidnap her children at the same time, then try to make it off planet with them all in one piece, while involving Lizzie in your hopefully death-defying acts of lawbreaking? Is that it?”

Sure, it sounded bad when he put it like that. Apparently the dumbfounded silence part was over.

“That’s the basics,” Kieron said, and was treated to Elanus closing his eyes and rubbing his fingers along the side of his head like Kieron was giving him the universe’s biggest headache. Which, to be fair, he probably was.

“And you don’t see the many massive problems inherent in this plan?”

“I see them,” Kieron said. “I just don’t know what to do about them.”

Elanus threw up his hands. “You could leave Trakta like you planned and come back to us on Gania, for starters! That would do it!”

“That was my first choice,” Kieron confessed, “but only before I talked to Pol. Xilinn made her decision and is suffering the consequences of it. I don’t approve of what the government is doing to her, but I also acknowledge that she’s an adult. Pol, though…he’s stubborn.” Kieron grimaced as he thought about Pol’s declaration back at the house. “When he says he’ll run away, he absolutely means it.”

“Tell his other mother what he means to do and she won’t let him.”

“She won’t be able to stop him.” Or care to stop him, probably. She would treat the kid’s declaration as an empty threat. Not to mention, the thought of going back on his word to Pol left Kieron feeling ill. “He’ll run, he’ll get lost in that forest, and he’ll die.”

“He might not.”

Kieron shook his head. “I’m not willing to bet his life on a ‘might.’” He wasn’t going to let Zak’s son risk himself like that.

Elanus stared at Kieron for a long moment, then began to laugh. “You—I thought I knew how far you were willing to go,” he said around his helpless chuckles. “I thought I—I should have seen this coming, you spent years looking for a hand, for fuck’s sake. You risked your life for Catie before you even knew her. Why wouldn’t you do just as much for an actual living, breathing child?”

“Catie is a living child,” Kieron said. “So is Lizzie.” The color of the console rippled, Lizzie offering him a sign of her affection.

“Look at that.” Elanus sounded a little wistful. “You’ve already got her under your spell.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Lizzie. It’s clear she adores you—don’t you, sweetheart?”

“Yes, Elanus.” Lizzie’s voice was a little shy, but she sounded firm. “I love Kee.”

“Kee, what the hell. Pet names. Gods save me from pet names, it’s so cute it makes me want to vomit.”

Kieron frowned. “Don’t do that.”

“It’s a turn of—oh, never mind.” Elanus sat back in his chair and stared up for a moment. “All right. You want to rescue Xilinn, grab Pol, and make it off-planet without hurting Lizzie, is that the extent of it?”

Kieron shook his head. “I want to get her daughter too. Szusza.”

Elanus shook his head. “That’s probably not going to happen. You said she’s at boarding school, right?”

“Yes, but—”

“Nope. You won’t have that kind of access or the time to make it. You’re going to have to take the boy and run.”

Kieron felt frustration rise up in him. “How can I face her knowing I left her daughter behind?” he demanded.

“The daughter who gets along with the rest of the family and has siblings she enjoys and is in a school that she likes and who hasn’t, as far as you know, complained about her mother’s situation at all?” Elanus shot back. “That daughter? This is one of those brutal compromises you sometimes have to make in the face of bad situations, Kieron. You know that. There are legal avenues open to us if we let her stay, but if you kidnap her all bets are off.”

“But won’t I already be kidnapping Pol?” he asked, vaguely alarmed at the direction this conversation was going. It was his own idea, he knew that, but hearing Elanus say it made it seem so much more real.

“No,” Elanus said, shaking his head. “Because Pol is going to run away.”

“Elanus—”

“And then you’re going to pick him up and take him to Lizzie.”

Kieron shook his head. “We’ll be scanned by the port authority. They’ll see an extra person.” So he might as well get in trouble for two.

“No they won’t, because Lizzie’s going to dial up her ambient radiation so that their scanners are rendered useless and they’re more anxious than ever to get you off planet.” Elanus looked so smug. “Nothing worries the local bureaucrats more than ships that look like they might go ‘boom’ on their watch.”

Oh, that was actually a good idea. Of course it was, this was Elanus Kieron was talking to. He was ridiculous, but he was also a genius. “What about Xilinn? How will I get to her?”

“You won’t. She’ll come to you.”

What was he talking about? “I don’t—”

“Kiieronnn!” Catie broke in, her voice impatient and shrill. “Pleeeeease let me plaaay you my sooong!”

“Rude,” Elanus said gently. “It’s not nice to interrupt, baby.”

“But you told me to wait for teeeeen minuuuuutes, Daddeeee!”

“I did, but—”

“Yes,” Kieron said. “I want to hear your song.” He could wait for Elanus’s revelation for a few more minutes.

“It’s orcheeeeestraaaaal!”

Or thirty minutes.

 

Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part Two

 Notes: Welp, look who got smacked upside the head by the plot baton. *waves hand* Mmyep, it's going to get complicated again. Hope you're ready for that ;)

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part Two

***

Chapter Twenty-Six, Part Two

 

It took less than five minutes for Pol to tell the rest of what he knew, and another five for Kieron to verify what he’d said and to look into things more closely. Then he spent one minute standing there and fuming in silence to himself as he did his best not to panic in the face of Pol’s obvious hope and fear.

Xilinn was being held in a government-run “retreat” for dissidents. It wasn’t quite a prison—the people confined there lived in individual, small apartments and had access to green space—but it was surrounded by a security fence, patrolled by armed guards, and allowed no communication with the outside world. Her implant had been deactivated, showing her as “unknown” whenever someone reached out to it. But that wasn’t the worst thing. Even her husband’s own complicity in turning her in—he’d put up no fight when she was removed from their home, offered no protest, all in an effort to smooth things over with the couple he was currently courting—wasn’t the worst thing.

The worst thing was that she, and everyone else in the retreat, were about to have their citizenship revoked and be sent off-planet in one week. And once they were gone, they would never get back onto Trakta.

It was the worst kind of catch-22. Without citizenship and with a record of protest, they wouldn’t be able to return home. But with the stigma of being a person from Trakta, the Federation wasn’t going to be eager to welcome them onto any of their worlds either. If they were given formal refugee status, things would change, but even with Lizzie’s help looking, Kieron couldn’t see any sign that they were going to be so formally dismissed. Instead, it seemed like all these people—over two-hundred—were going to be shoved onto ships, something many of them had a deep, desperate fear of—and jettisoned into space with no guidance or help.

They were going to lose their collective minds.

“Kieron?” Pol’s hands tugging at his sleeve were enough to pull Kieron out of the silent communication he’d been engaged in with Lizzie. “Is Mama going to be okay?”

“I don’t know,” Kieron said honestly, then winced as Pol immediately began to cry. “Wait, no, that—hang on, it’s okay, just…” He pulled the kid into his arms and shushed him as he wailed. “No, really, it’s going to be okay. I’m going to help her.”

“How?” Pol demanded tearfully.

How indeed? [Lizzie, can you come up with an assessment of the facility where the dissidents are being held? Use whatever processing power you can spare from controlling your radiant radiation for this, it’s an emergency.]

[Yes, Kieron. Shall I tell Catie and Elanus what’s happening as well?]

He sighed. He didn’t want them dragged into something that was none of their business, but…maybe if it was Kieron’s business, it was their business too. Definitely if it was something he was going to involve Lizzie in, they needed to know about it. [Yes, but don’t give them too many details.]

[All right, Kee.]

Kieron looked back at Pol. “I’m not sure yet, but I promise I’ll do everything I can to rescue her.”

“Can you bring her back here?” Pol asked.

“No,” Kieron said with a sigh. “I’m afraid not. You…you know Papa Kriev and Mama Laina are courting another couple, right?”

Pol scowled. It was an unfairly cute expression on his little, round face. “It’s all they talk about,” he grumbled. “Parsen and Vivi all the time, gross. They have three kids, too.”

“You’d be a much bigger family with them around,” Kieron noted. “It would mean more playmates, right?”

“No, because they’re all old kids. Like, ten! And they go to schools that are far away from home, and now Papa Kriev and Mama Laina want to send me and Szusza and Filip and Ophred to schools like that too!” He crossed his arms grumpily. “I won’t go. I’ll run away first.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Yes I can!” Pol pointed at the forest. “I can run away in there! I’ve done it before—I got lost for a whole day before Mama found me! She said it was lucky she caught me before nightfall, because otherwise I could have been eaten by a cavernous tree.”

“Um.” Kieron tried to parse that sentence. “A carnivorous tree?”

“Yes!”

Actually…Kieron scanned a quick breakdown of Trakta’s flora and fauna in his implant and shuddered. Xilinn had been right to be worried. There were actual carnivorous trees in this forest, highly prized for the many pharmaceutical compounds that could be derived from the digested remains of their victims, usually an indigenous monkey-like species. If Pol ran in there, and no one went after him…

“You really shouldn’t do that,” Kieron said.

“I will!” Pol insisted, actually stamping his foot on the ground. “I will if I can’t see Mama again soon! I will, I will, I—”

“Okay, okay.” Kieron held up his hands. “I need to figure out a way to help your mama, though. That means no running off yet, not even if your other parents are talking about her like she’s never coming back. I won’t leave the planet until I make sure she’s safe.”

“You promise?” Pol asked.

“I do.”

“Okay.” The child took a deep, wobbly breath. “I promise to not run away, then, even if Papa Kriev and Mama Laina are shitheads.”

Kieron blinked. “Where did you hear that word?”

“From Devin at school! He says that about his other parents all the time,” Pol said proudly.

Not for the first time, Kieron wondered how harmonious many of these group marriages really were. He’d done the right thing, refusing Zak’s offer to bring him into this one, even though it hurt at the time. He’d never have been able to keep so many people from going after each other’s throats.

“Pol!” It was Laina, in the backyard a few dozen meters away. “Where are you? It’s time for dinner!”

“Go with her,” Kieron whispered. When Pol began to shake his head, Kieron elaborated, “I can’t look for your mama if I’m here watching you. I’ll stay in touch, though, I promise.” How, he wasn’t yet sure, but he’d do it.

“You have to,” Pol whispered fiercely.

“I will.”

“Pol! I won’t ask you again!” Laina shouted. “One more delay and you spend your next day off cleaning the family shrine!”

“I’m coming!” Pol shouted, then turned and ran for his house. Kieron watched him go, then climbed back up to his skimmer.

“To the port,” he said when it prompted him about destination, then sat back and rubbed his temple with one hand.

He was going to have a lot of explaining to do to Elanus when he got back to Lizzie.

Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part One

 Notes: So, we're less close to being done than we were a month ago, BUT! It's going to be fun and interesting and not that much of a departure, so I hope we all enjoy the ride.

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part One

***

Chapter Twenty-Six Part One

 

Kieron’s blood went cold. “Taken?” he repeated, kneeling down so he was one Pol’s level. “Taken by who?”

“The city magistrates! They said Mama was speaking sed…sidi…it’s something that means lies,” he said tearfully, “so they took her away! Mother Laina says she’s already been moved to Garelle.” Garelle was the continental capital, where Trakta’s government was leaping into so many bad decisions lately.

“What do they want with her?” Kieron asked quietly. He could imagine Xilinn having trouble keeping herself from speaking out against the new separations of classes, despite him bringing Zak’s body back to protect her own children. She was a teacher, and dedicated herself completely to her students. Seeing some of them torn away from their old lives and forced down a harsher path had to infuriate her.

“Papa Kriev said she’s going to be another example,” Pol whispered, anger twisting his little face. “I hate him! He could have asked for her back, but he’s already courting another mother and father in Garelle. He wants to forget about my mama and change me and Szusza and Lorna’s names and everything!” Lorna was Zak’s other biological child, with Laina.

That couldn’t be legal…then again, Kieron didn’t really know what qualified as legal right now. Everything in Trakta was up in the air—its justice and legal systems, its healthcare, its educational institutions. To not only not contest Xilinn’s abduction but to be complicit in it, though… “What does Laina think of all this?”

“She doesn’t care!” Pol began crying. “She told me not to speak to you at all, but I have to, because you’re the only one who might be able to get Mama back.”

How in starlight’s name was he supposed to get Xilinn out of whatever hole she’d been dragged off to? It wasn’t like he’d come here with an army, he’d come alone…

Well. With a very intelligent ship as well, but…

Oh, shit.

Distantly, Kieron heard something beeping. “Pol,” he said firmly, “we’ll figure this out. All right? We will, I promise, but right now I need to go back to the kitchen before Laina realizes I’m missing. Can you meet me behind the house in five minutes?”

“Yes,” Pol sniffled, rubbing beneath his eyes with the edge of one hand. He six now, only six, and this was what he had to deal with. He had to be terrified right now.

“Good boy,” Kieron said, and before he could second-guess himself he pulled Pol into a hug. The little boy shuddered for a moment in his arms, but he didn’t fall apart. “I’ll meet you behind the house very soon. Only come if you won’t be caught, all right?”

“Okay.” He reluctantly stepped out of Kieron’s arms, then turned and ran down the hall, his feet nearly silent on the dark floor. Kieron stood up and went back into the kitchen, picking up his cup of tea again just as Laina rejoined him.

“It’s authentic.” She beamed at him, genuine delight on her face. It reminded him of how she’d once looked almost a decade ago, back when she had first married in and things were so much happier than they’d become. She had been more open-minded in her youth, inclined to listen to others and not just defend what she knew. She’d even considered leaving Trakta for a brief tour of the nearest star system, although in the end she hadn’t quite been willing to risk it.

To think that now she was complicit in letting her wife wither away in some government containment facility. Kieron had to force himself to smile back at her.

“I knew it would be.”

“I’ve already let Kriev know,” she said, rubbing her hands together. “Oh, this is such a relief, I can’t even tell you. I was so worried about the children.”

“Xilinn told me she was concerned that if I didn’t find Zak, you might have to leave with Lorna,” Kieron said with all apparent sympathy. That wasn’t exactly what Xilinn had said, but Laina didn’t need to know that.

“Oh, something like that. But it doesn’t matter anymore.” She sighed deeply. “Now everything will be all right. Lorna and Szusza will be thrilled they get to stay with Ophred.” Ophred was her son with Kriev, the only child whose parentage hadn’t been in question thanks to Zak’s loss.

“Not Pol?” Kieron asked as innocently as he could.

Laina waved a dismissive hand. “He and his older brother don’t really get along, not like the girls do. He’ll come around. Now…”

She wanted him to go, that much was clear. “Well, I should get back to my ship.”

Laina nodded firmly. “That would be the best course of action for us all. Thank you very much for bringing Zak home. As soon as Kriev is back, we’ll gather the children and inter him with all due ceremony.”

No mention of Xilinn coming back for it, even though she’d been Zak’s primary spouse. Not one. Laina had already given up on her.

That could only mean bad things for Xilinn. Kieron already knew he couldn’t leave her here.

He needed to talk to Pol. To think that a six-year-old was his main source of information regarding saving a woman’s life…

[You’re upset,] the corner of his vision read. Lizzie was talking to him. [What can I do?]

[Stand by,] he wrote back. “Please give Xilinn my best,” Kieron said as he got up to leave. “And thank you for the tea.”

“You’re welcome.” She saw him to the door, watched him walk down to the skimmer and get inside, and only went back into the house as he began to pull away.

Fine with him. Kieron directed the skimmer to the end of the street, up one level to the next section of roadway, and parked it on a median there. He’d be able to climb down and meet Pol with no one the wiser, as long as he didn’t let the vehicle linger for too long.

[Kieron? Should I tell Elanus and Catie what’s going on?]

[Hold off on that.] He needed to know what to tell them, first. Kieron left the skimmer, stepped onto the long, terraced pole that held up this part of the causeway, and walked down it to where he could see the small boy peeking out of his backyard, watching him descend with hope written all over his face.

Kieron hoped he could live up to whatever Pol was expecting of him.