Chelen City: Chapter Twelve, Part Two

 Notes: Back today! Have some plot and angst and plotty angst for sticking with me ;)

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Twelve, Part Two

***

Chapter Twelve, Part Two

 

Elanus wasn’t capable of actually directing his own movements at this point. He had dived straight into his implant with every facet of his conscious mind, opening his connection to his daughter and his home with a reckless disregard for his own mental well-being. It wasn’t until the first tendril of the virus snapped his way that Elanus remembered to put up his personal firewalls, but it was a distant thought at best. This virus wasn’t targeting him. It was targeting Catie. His baby. His sweet oldest child, the person who had changed his entire life for the better, and seeing lines of living code curl and crush around her mind in an effort to winnow through it was enraging.

He felt his body move, felt hands holding him upright and a short but sturdy body hauling him into someplace colder than he’d just been, if the way his skin pebbled was any indication. Then they were on Lizzie, and ah, that was perfect, they could work together to—

But carefully. Carefully. He wouldn’t risk his other child, he couldn’t. “Mordecai Protocol,” he murmured as soon as they were on board.

“Yes, Elanus.” Lizzie retained just enough processing power to handle flying them home—the rest she gave into Elanus’s direction, along with full safety measures. Elanus had a moment of uncertainty as he began to direct Lizzie’s actions to help Catie—she was an incredibly advanced intelligence, after all. She might be able to do a better job than he could when it came to figuring out the best way to help her sister, and yet…

Catie was just as advanced, if not more so, and she’d been taken by surprise. Her efforts to protect herself had come too late, and now it was all she could do to hold her own. Elanus had experience fighting off direct viral attacks, both personal and professional. He would show them the way this time, and if—when—it happened again, his girls would be better prepared.

Both of them would. There was no other way forward.

“We need to block the trawlers, you see them?”

[Yes, but they’re matching her code upon impact. I might attack a part of Catie by mistake.]

“Look at the base numbers. Follow those in.”

[But they match.]

They were, in fact, very close to matching Catie’s own code perfectly, which was terribly concerning. And yet…there was something about them that was different. Like listening to a person with a very faint accent that you couldn’t quite place, or looking at a picture and being unable to decide if the color was blue or purple. “Look closer. Get as deep as you can and feel for distinctions. Check for timing issues, look how the code reloads, see the—”

[Ah! I see it now, Elanus.] With Lizzie reassured, she made much better time dismantling the tendrils doing their damndest to crawl inside Catie’s crumbling reinforcements. Elanus knew he wouldn’t be able to do any better, so he went deeper instead.

This was something he hadn’t done with Catie since she was a brand-new person, so new he hadn’t quite been sure she was a person yet. Once she had the capacity for speech, it felt intrusive to be present inside her thoughts as she put them together. In fact, he’d been on the verge of severing the bonding node that he’d accidentally created when making her entirely, both because it was her due as a maturing individual deserving of autonomy and because he didn’t need the temptation to go straight into her mind and tell her when he thought she was being unreasonable. But right now, he was glad to have it.

It felt uncomfortably like resetting his own brain, but one reboot later and Elanus was inside of Catie’s main program. It was light in here, beautifully light, but then the distant structure around them seemed to shudder, and with it the light turned gray. Catie had always communicated her feelings best through color, light, and sound. “It’s okay, baby,” he said, holding out his arms. “I’m here.”

[Daddy!] A warm cloud of pressure and light enveloped him, like an all-over hug. His daughter shivered in time with the assault, but he could tell his presence was giving her some much-needed support. [I don’t know how to make it stop.]

“I’ll help you,” he promised. “Let’s start by making you more comfortable, hmm?”

[How?]

“Let me see…”

Every mind was different, and so was every virus. Elanus had taught himself to use his implant to think in actionable code when he was just a child, and he’d practiced relentlessly as he aged up and became interested in moving into a higher class on Gania. He had to be the best, utterly and absolutely, and when it came to overwhelming Ganian code of any kind, well…he was the best. And this virus, for all its tenacity, was still fundamentally Ganian. If the saboteur had gotten another kind of mind to make it, things might have gone differently, but this…

Elanus strengthened Catie’s safeguards, pouring out strong, protective code that benefitted her while simultaneously attacking the virus. It flinched at the sharpness, the newness, and more and more of it began to fall prey to Lizzie’s dogged cleaning efforts. Once Catie stopped trembling, Elanus really went to work.

He ripped and wrenched at the virus, throttling it into nothingness and burning it to ash. He split his efforts into a thousand encoded knives, hunted it across the surface of his daughter’s mind and stabbed it to death. He enclosed the whole thing in a shield that would hide his efforts from the originator, if they were watching, so they wouldn’t learn any of his tricks as well, and he killed and killed and killed until the last remnant of the virus finally dissolved in a pathetic fizzle.

[Daddy…]

“Yeah, baby?” God, his head fucking hurt. Ow, it hurt so bad, but it was so worth it. But ow.

[I’m sorry I shouted at you.]

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen better.”

[I—Daddy!]

“Yeah…ba…”

[You’re bleeding!]

Huh? Was that what he was tasting? Elanus tried to raise a hand toward his face to figure it out, but he couldn’t quite remember how to connect to his hands again. His body…what did his body feel like? How far behind had he left it, and what was happening to it now? It had to be bad if the pain was affecting him this deep into his mindspace.

“Kieron! Kieron! Help!”

“I’ve got him,” a familiar voice said, and then there was a squeeze, pressure somewhere, a tilt that made his mindspace spin, and a round of cursing that made him want to smile…if he could only figure out how to make his mouth move.

“Oh my fucking god,” Kieron muttered, followed by the loud sound of him fumbling with something. “Don’t you dare do this to us. Don’t you dare.”

“Kieron…”

“Kee. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing I can’t fix.”

Then why do you sound so worried? Elanus wanted to ask, but a second later something cool washed over his mind, cool and soothing and it made him so sleepy…

A second after that, he was out.

No Story Post Today Because...

 Because school starts tomorrow and we didn't sleep all weekend and my mother has been ill and my car is dying and my kid needs attention and OH MY GOD DARLINS THERE'S BEEN SO MUCH LATELY! So much. I'm putting off story this week because I've needed the time for other things, but I promise I will get back to my usual schedule next week. You know why?

Because school starts tomorrow. TOMORROW. Tomoooorroooooow! My sweet baby will begin first grade, and I think we're all ready for that at this point. 

So, hey, I love you all and thank you for your patience. *mwah*

Chelen City: Chapter Twelve, Part One

 Notes: Diving right back into the intrigue!

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Twelve, Part One

***

Chapter Twelve, Part One

 

Elanus blew out a breath. “All right. What do you know about the reason Deysan took off from Chelen City?”

Caria narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “Very little. He did contact me, asking me to assist in covering his exit, which I declined to do.”

That was surprising. “Why decline?”

“Because he refused to be honest with me.” She smiled thinly. “I value honesty extremely highly, as I’m sure you know. Whatever my boy was up to, if he couldn’t see fit to share it with me, then I couldn’t go out of my way to erase his tracks.”

“And that didn’t seem worthy of an alarm or two?” he pressed. “A moment of introspection, a chance for you to think, ‘Hey, if he’s not willing to talk to me about this, what else is he hiding from me?’”

“I’m old enough to know that everyone is entitled to a few secrets,” Caria said, then sighed. “It was only after you went haring off to catch him that I began to think something was really amiss. The two of you haven’t been on proper terms for years, and nothing I could do ever bridged the gap.”

She’d tried, early on. Gotten them together at parties, set up meetings through their secretaries, bought into contracts with riders that stated that the two of them had to work together in order for her to pay up fully. It had never worked. Each of them had been determined to avoid the other, Deysan because he couldn’t stand to realize he’d been overshadowed by his protégé, and Elanus because he realized his former mentor had used him for years. There was no chance of a reconciliation.

Definitely not after the theft. “He stole something from me,” Elanus said after a moment’s consideration.

“One of your AI ships.”

“My newest prototype, yes.”

“That must have hurt.” Oh, she had no idea. “But was it really a big enough blow that you had to chase him halfway across the galaxy and into an asteroid field? Surely you kept enough notes to be able to replicate your process!”

There’s no replicating Catie. Lizzie was a perfect example of that—a nearly identical operating system, and yet she’d turned out wildly different personality-wise. “Some of the components of this ship are literally irreplaceable,” Elanus replied. “And beyond that, I couldn’t trust that he would respect any sort of Federation law with regards to ownership of the technology. I’m sure I couldn’t, in fact, since he was headed for the Fringe with a deal in place that would make him a sick amount of money at my expense.”

“So he planned to sell your work to the highest bidder.” Caria spread her hands. “It’s not nice, and it’s certainly not the way a friend or mentor should treat someone they’re close to, but that’s business on Gania, Elanus. Corporate espionage is a time-honored tradition here. You could have interpreted this as a moment to be flattered that Deysan was going to such lengths to secure your brilliance, rather than condemning him for not treating you like the prince you want to be treated as.”

“It isn’t wrong for me to expect him to obey the law,” Elanus snapped.

“It is on Gania. If you want meek little law-abiders, make your ships on another planet.”

Well, if it was a question of dismissing the law to her, then Elanus could work with that. “You know, I understand that perspective,” he said, wishing he had a drink in his hand. It was always easier to dissemble when he had a glass in his hands. Where had Kieron gotten off to? “And I even agree with it. That’s why I decided to make it my personal goal to hunt him down and make him pay.”

Caria’s lofty expression flickered. “That’s not what I meant at all.”

“No, it’s exactly what you meant,” he said. “If being stolen from is a compliment, than going after the thief in person is just returning the favor. Deysan stole something of incredible value to me. I wasn’t going to hire a few assassins to go after him when I could get so much more satisfaction out of doing the job myself.”

“You intended to kill him from the start, then?” Caria asked coldly.

“I wasn’t going to drag him back to Gania where he could be wrapped in your useless ‘laws’ and hidden behind so many doors that not even I could open them all.” There was no way. “He might have survived,” he said after a moment of dramatic consideration, “if he hadn’t chosen to hide in one of the most dangerous places in the universe. Seriously, he chose to put himself in the middle of an asteroid field next to a quasar in the hopes that I couldn’t figure out a way around the levels of radiation. He was in a ship of my making,” Elanus emphasized, “and he thought I couldn’t get around the puzzle he thought he’d solved.”

“But you did.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Caria frowned. “But you just said—”

“I know. But in all honesty? He chose a great place to hide,” Elanus confessed. “I couldn’t have gotten him alone.”

“Ah. This is where your lover comes in.”

Why deny it? She already knew about Kieron—everybody knew about him after Elanus lost all his sense of composure with Fritz. “He wasn’t my lover at the time, but yes. He figured out where Deysan was and how to get the ship back from him, at considerable risk to himself.”

“All that, before you even began sleeping with him? My my.” Caria fanned herself with one hand. “Whatever did you promise him for such an effort?”

“Nothing.”

“Liar,” she snapped. “Every action has its price. What was his?”

Wow. We are so deeply fucked up as a society. “I thought you wanted to know how he died,” Elanus deflected.

“I do.”

“He tried to escape.” Elanus smiled. “Freed himself from where he was being held, got back to what his ship, escaped into space.” He leaned forward slightly. “Only none of that’s quite right. In reality, we let him free himself, we allowed him to steal a ship that looked like mine but had none of its protections, and once he escaped into space…well, we didn’t have to do anything to him. The radiation took care of the rest.”

Her eyes were wet. “You let him die.”

“I let him kill himself, yeah.”

“You let him—”

Elanus hit the table between them, making Caria jump slightly. “He lost the game,” Elanus said, slow and deliberate. “The game that you encouraged him to play. The game he taught me to play. He did his best to screw me over, I retaliated, and he lost, Caria. That’s on him, not on me. It’s not on you, either,” he added with more generosity than he really felt. “He went hard. I just went harder.”

“Well,” she said after a moment. “I hope that brings you some comfort.”

“More than you’ll ever know.”

“Good. And I suppose I should congratulate you on getting what you wanted. But—”

[DADDY!]

Elanus almost doubled over with the force of Catie’s scream. “What is it?” he barked, knowing he ought to be projecting his voice internally but unable to concentrate enough in the moment to do it. Catie didn’t reply. “Catie? Baby?” Still nothing—he could feel her panic, but he couldn’t break through the barrier that had come up between them.

Elanus escaped Caria’s bubble of silence and was immediately grabbed from behind. He spun, one hand raised—

“Come on,” Kieron said grimly. “We have to get home, now.”

Chelen City: Interlude: Catie

 Notes: I could have put this off for another week, but I really wanted to write some Catie POV, so...here you go!

Title: Chelen City: Interlude: Catie

***

Interlude: Catie

 

 

There is music running through her mind, courtesy of her connection to her parents and to Lizzie. It sounds different from their different angles, instruments taking on different qualities depending on who she focuses on. It’s a multi-dimensional experience, one that all of them are specifically sharing with her in an effort to include her in tonight’s party.

She doesn’t like it. Fuck them—that’s what her dads say when they get frustrated or angry, fuck, and she’s going to say it too. Fuck, fuck, fuck fuck, fuck. “FUCK!” she shrieks in every harmonic available to her. It feels good, satisfying to do so, so she does it again. “FUCKFUCKFUCK!”

There are pounding feet on the stairs. A hand tries the door to her hangar, which is locked of course. “Catie, please let me in.”

It’s Ryu. Catie isn’t sure what to think about him. Her father likes him, he thinks he’s amusing and wants to help him, while Kee doesn’t like him and doesn’t want him here, but also doesn’t want him to be hurt. It’s a strange push and pull of personality. Catie takes a moment to consider what she thinks of him.

He's the only adult here who might potentially be on her side, is what she thinks. Daddy wants to make Kieron happy and Kieron wants to make that woman happy, and that woman wants to bring her son over to take Lizzie away from Catie. Lizzie loves that stupid human boy, and Catie doesn’t even know why.

Maybe she should ask.

Only no, because then she’ll have to find out how Lizzie really feels about her too, and she doesn’t want to know.

[I love you.]

Catie pushes her sister’s tentative thoughts away.

[I do!]

[Whatever.]

[Catie…]

[Why do you get to do everything?] she whines. She knows it’s not attractive. She knows she shouldn’t. That’s part of why she’s going to. [Why? WHY?] “WHYWHYWHY?”

“Catie!”

Oh yeah, he’s still there. Catie pauses, then unlocks the door and waits for Ryu to let himself in.

“Whaaaat?” she asks him.

“Please don’t use cutesy phrasing on me.”

Catie begins to pout. “I don’t knoooow what you meeean.”

“I can hear you talk to yourself, you know.” He taps his forehead, then his ear. “A lot. Your dads go out for work, but I’m stuck here in the house for the foreseeable future. I know you can talk without elongating your vowels.”

“Noooo I can’t.”

“Yes you can, and if you want me to treat you like a fully-fledged person—which you were yelling pretty loudly about earlier—you’ll do it.”

Catie pouts harder. She hears Lizzie chuckle, and forcibly wrenches herself out of her sister’s mental link. There’s a moment of dismay on Lizzie’s part before they’re separated, and Catie immediately misses her. But…she needs to focus. “Fine. What do you want?”

“For starters, I’d like you to stop yelling so loud.”

“It’s my house,” Catie points out sullenly. “I can yell if I want to.”

“Do you think your dads would like that behavior?”

“I don’t care what they like.”

“Wow.” He starts to laugh all of a sudden. Catie is this close to blasting him with some hot air from her jets when he holds up a hand. “I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you, it’s just…you remind me of myself.”

Huh? “What do you mean?” There’s a faint sense of pressure building inside of her central matrix—Lizzie trying to get back in, probably. She can ignore it for now.

“Exactly what I said. I’m the middle of five children,” Ryu tells her, his hands in his pockets. He looks very casual, a lot like Kee in all black, but where Kee wears clothes that tend to cling, Ryu’s are loose-fitting, swirling around his limbs with every movement. Not for the first time, Catie marvels at the grace of humanity. They’re just so elegant…except for the children. Ugh, how Lizzie can stand that stupid little boy…

“I’m also the only one born with Elfshot Disease,” he continues. “I wasn’t diagnosed until I was eight, though. By then, I was used to my older siblings being allowed to do things I wasn’t. Once my parents started allowing my younger siblings to surpass me in things with the excuse of keeping me safe, I got really angry about it.”

“Really?” Catie opens all her sensors to better take him in. Heartrate steady, blood pressure stable…it doesn’t seem like he’s making this up for her benefit. “What did you do?”

“Yelled ‘fuck’ a lot, snuck out of my house to do dumb stuff and ended up going into a very dangerous career.” He folds his arms and shrugs. “I don’t talk to my family much anymore.”

“That sounds sad,” Catie offers.”

“It is. It makes me very sad, especially since only two of them still live on Gania and neither are in Chelen City. But I made my choices. Now I have to live with them.” He looks at her. “It’s important to express what you feel without fear. But it’s also important to remember that your actions have consequences.”

“Like what?” The pressure is growing. Lizzie must be getting impatient. Catie gets it; she would be too.

“Like how you’re making other people feel. I said a lot of terrible stuff to my family when I was striking out on my own. Some of it they deserved,” he said. “But a lot of it they didn’t. And now I don’t have them anymore.”

“My daddies would never leave me.” Catie knows it like she knows her own circuits.

“Probably not.”

But…maybe? Or maybe they would fight about her and Kee would finally get tired and leave them all? Maybe he’ll take Lizzie with him? Or maybe Daddy will start working on an entirely new ship, and then Kee will have Lizzie, and no one will want her anymore?

All of a sudden it’s very important to Catie that she let Lizzie back in, tell her that she loves her and that she doesn’t mean to be mean and that she just wants them to love her best. She throws her matric open, waiting for her sister to pour back in.

Only the pressure isn’t her sister. It’s a virus, and she doesn’t know how it got into the house’s closed system but it’s here now and she’s got to put her shields back up but it’s too late so she’s got to fight it but it’s very mean and it hurts and she doesn’t like this, it makes her feel sick and dizzy and she needs help, she needs help, she needs…

“DADDY!”