25. Chapter 25
Chapter twenty-five
By the time they got to Trakta, Kieron and Lizzie had progressed to the point where they spoke for hours every day, sharing stories and facts—she loved facts, loved being able to know things for sure—and playing little games to pass the time.
Kieron still got time to himself whenever Catie or Elenus reached out to Lizzie, which he knew he needed, but the novelty of being someone that another person was relying on still hadn’t worn off.
He loved Catie, but she would always first and foremost be her father’s child. Lizzie had more of an independent streak, and while she adored Elenus, she was also less inclined to refer to him as “Daddy” or “Father” or any other diminutive. With Kieron, though …
“Kee?”
“Yes, sweetheart?” he asked as he began to go through the stream of navigation guidelines for landing Lizzie on Trakta.
“Do you have to go?”
“What do you mean?”
There was a pause. “Do you have to leave me?” Lizzie finally asked, her voice small. “I don’t want to be alone in the hangar.”
“Oh.” Well, that was … “Um. I have to go somewhere that you can’t precisely fit, but you’re welcome to keep an open line to my implant. That way you can see what I see.”
“I waaaant toooooo!”
Kieron chuckled. “Only one other mind in my head at a time, please. Otherwise, I won’t be able to think straight.”
“I asked first,” Lizzie said a bit petulantly.
“I’m oldeeeerrrr!”
“First come, first served,” Kieron said firmly, and Catie made a whining noise. “If I’m here more than a day, you two can trade off, all right?”
“Wait, you’re only going to stay for a day?
” This was Elenus’s voice cutting in now.
Kieron felt on the verge of being overwhelmed.
He hadn’t talked to all three of them at the same time since leaving Cloverleaf Station.
“Seriously? After all that travel, after all that work, you’re just going to hand over the arm and fly away again? ”
“If I’m lucky,” Kieron muttered as Lizzie entered the atmosphere above the smaller second continent of the planet. Elenus, for once, didn’t push him. Kieron was grateful for that.
Trakta was a developed planet, with thousands of cities, but the second continent was comparatively much more rural than the larger, primary one. Lizzie followed the flight path that would lead them to the northernmost city, Nephra.
Landing was easy—Lizzie handled it so smoothly Kieron didn’t even think about intervening in any step. Once they’d finally put down in a commercial landing space, though, she asked a bit timidly, “Was that good?”
Kieron smiled and patted her console. “It was perfect. You can follow along on my implant and watch, okay? Remember how we practiced?” Slowly, a soft green light came into focus in the bottom right corner of his vision. “Can you see all right?”
“Yes. Thank you. I can’t wait to see a whole new planet!”
“Or at least part of one,” Kieron amended. His implant was beeping insistently with an incoming communication from the port authority. “Hang on, Lizzie.” He switched his focus. “This is Kieron Carr.”
“Mr. Carr, this is Commander Xelo with Nephra Port North. We’re detecting unusual levels of radiation from your ship.”
“We came here straight from the Cloverleaf Quasar,” Kieron replied. “That’s probably why.”
“Our projections indicate that more of that radiation should have dissipated before your arrival here.”
Lizzie’s hull is an older version of Catie’s radiation shielding. It must be more absorptive. In the background, he could hear Elenus swearing softly over the ship speaker. “I’ll have to perform some diagnostic tests to figure out the issue. Is this going to preclude us from keeping our berth?”
“No,” the voice on the other end of the message said reluctantly, “the levels aren’t quite that high. But we’ll have to keep other ships a farther minimum safe distance from yours. You’ll incur as much as twice the original docking fee.”
“Do it,” Elenus urged him almost silently.
“That’s fine,” Kieron said. “Anything else?”
“If the interior of your ship is poorly shielded, your person may have incurred serious radiation damage on your way here.”
That was possible, but Regen could fix a hell of a lot of radiation damage. Ask me how I know. “I presume you have Regen tanks. If it’s a matter of cost, I can—”
“Regen is for citizen use only.”
Kieron was surprised. “Why is that?” he asked. “Regen gel is a readily available resource, and Alliance law states that—”
“Regen is for citizen use only,” the commander reiterated firmly. “If you become sick, you’ll have to return to your ship or leave the planet altogether. Any attempt to circumvent this will be met with force. Is that understood?”
“Yes,” Kieron said quietly.
“Good. You may debark.” The communication ended. A light on the console blinked, informing Kieron that a holo call from Elenus was waiting for him.
Holo calls from this distance took an obscene amount of power. It had to be something serious.
He accepted the call. It was the first time he’d seen Elenus in three weeks, and he looked a bit wild around the edges, the crisp lines of his beard beginning to blur, his hair standing up like he’d been running his fingers through it.
He was gorgeous. Kieron had to clear his throat. “Hi.”
“Trakta is being kicked out of the Alliance.”
Kieron closed his eyes for a moment to help get his brain back online. “There hasn’t been any news of that,” he finally said.
“They’re doing their damndest to make sure there isn’t news about it.
The Alliance severed diplomatic ties last month, and they’ll be pulling out their military assistance and major investments soon.
The banking system is on the verge of collapse.
Trade is going to be hugely impacted. There will be repercussions felt from this for decades. ”
“Why, though?”
“Inclusiveness versus fundamentalism,” Elenus said tiredly.
“Trakta’s parliament is passing laws that explicitly go against the Alliance charter.
They did it knowing they were going to get slapped and have layers and layers of fail-safes in place to make sure word gets out slowly, and the panic can be minimized.
Their efforts aren’t going to work for much longer, though.
They’re running out of Regen, and they can’t synthesize it themselves. ”
Ah. All of a sudden, the worries over radiation and the fee gouging made more sense. “Shit.”
“Yeah.” There went Elenus’s hand into his hair again.
“Kieron, they can’t know about Lizzie. If they realize they have a novel, cutting-edge technological wonder in their docking bay, they’ll never let you go.
They’ll impound her and ransom her, if I’m lucky, or take her apart in an effort to find out how to make more of her.
That’s nothing to say of what they could do to you, which—they’re exiling their own people to other planets; I can’t imagine they’d be too fussed over stealing your things and kicking you onto a transport or just shooting you through the head and being done with it. I can’t—you have to—”
“Elenus.” Kieron smiled at his … him. “I’ll make sure Lizzie and I are all right.”
“It’s bad there.”
“I’ll handle it.”
“It could get worse.”
“I’ve had way worse,” he reminded Elenus, and that got a smile.
“Please be safe,” Elenus said at last. “And head for Gania as soon as you can.”
“We will.” It was going to be all right. The situation was worrying, but he and Lizzie would get through it. No one was going to keep the four of them apart.
No one.
***
Kieron moved with purpose through the crowds outside Nephra’s space dock.
Now that he knew what was happening there, he could see evidence of it all over the place—the frenetic way people were haggling with each other over deals that should have been settled way before a face-to-face meeting, the way some folks strutted about with Traktan colors on full display while others looked haunted, wearing neutral shades and none of the insignias of Traktan culture.
Citizens versus non? A new layer of separation for a people who had spent so many decades unified?
It was regrettable, but it wasn’t Kieron’s concern.
He was there to put things right for Xilinn and her family and then to move on to his own.
Seeing Elenus for the first time in days made the longing Kieron felt for him so much worse, and Catie and Lizzie’s bickering made his heart ache.
He wanted them all to be together. More than anything, he wanted that.
He checked his implant, making sure nothing new had come in from Xilinn—not since he was still several days out.
She’d requested he meet her at their family home, where a descendancy unit had been temporarily installed to confirm DNA once he arrived.
It seemed convoluted to him, but he’d do whatever she wanted.
It was time to lay Zak to rest and put his family’s minds at ease.
He rented a skimmer and let it fly him out of the city center, to the northwestern part of the city, right on the outskirts of the lush, misty forest that covered the northern part of the continent.
It was a wild place, only visited by research biologists and pharmaceutical manufacturers, and Kieron had to admit he wasn’t surprised to see the number of ships buzzing over it right now.
This forest was one of Trakta’s most precious natural resources.
If they were going to be cut off from the Alliance, it was vital that they start looking for other ways to take care of themselves.
The skimmer set down outside Xilinn’s house, and after a moment’s consideration, Kieron told it to wait. It would cost more to keep it there, but he wanted to be able to leave quickly if needed. He walked up to Xilinn’s front door and knocked. A few moments later, it opened to show—
Not … Xilinn. It was Laina, Zak’s other wife. “Mr. Carr.” She smiled, but it didn’t get as far as her eyes. She looked stiff, like she might shatter if she shut the door too hard. “Thank you for coming.”