Notes: OH NO PLOT! WHAT? IS THAT A CLIMACTIC CONFRONTATION I SEE COMING? I think it is ;)

Title: Hadrian's Colony: Chapter Twenty-One, Part Two

***

Chapter Twenty-One, Part Two

Photo by Cem Salini 

The moment seemed frozen, a chill spreading through the airand restricting everything, even the breath in their lungs.

Trapper. The man who’d been ready to shoot Carlisleout of the sky when they escaped from the compound. The man who Kieron hadrammed with the skimmer, sending him flying and inevitably breaking bones. Hesounded a bit wheezy even now, but there was a fierce satisfaction in his voiceas well. And why not? They’d been careless, and now they were caught.

“Engage concealment protocols,” Elanus said, the first oneto break the ice—of course. “Girls, hide those signals.” It was too late todeny their existence, but he seemed confident that at least they could keepthings from getting worse. There was a deep hum, a flicker of Catie’s lights,and then…

“You think you can hide?”

“Comm power, please,” Elanus said smoothly. Catie’s wallsrippled anxiously with changing colors, but she complied. “I actually feelquite confident in our ability to hide,” Elanus said into the void.

“And yet here you are, talking to me right now.”

“Isn’t that what you want?” Elanus asked lightly. “To talk?Hopefully to use whatever little piddling satellite capacity your people haveto hone in on our position? Mm, sorry, I’m afraid we’ve already blocked thatcapability. We’re completely invisible to all your sensors right now.”

Was that true? Elanus was speaking like it was, but then hewas the master of projecting confidence.

“I think the ability to talk is all you’ve got, in fact,” hecontinued. “Because if you actually saw us in any meaningful capacity,you’d be attacking us right now.”

“We don’t—”

“You do. Don’t even pretend you don’t, because you do. You’reopportunistic scavengers who would rather attack from the shadows in an effortto take out your prey than even attempt something like that head-on, and I don’twant to hear your justifications because, quite frankly, there are none.”

“You landed on our sovereign territory withoutpermission, and you expect a parley?”

Elanus laughed, sounding as carefree as ever, but Kieronheard the coldness beneath the merry sound. “Sovereign territory? Any officialcharter for settling this planet was nullified the moment over ninety percentof the population died, and even then, the original charter was for thirtyyears, I believe, and without engaging the continuation clauses and paying thenecessary fees, that original term ended almost twenty years ago.”

There was a long pause, and then—“You think you’re prettyfucking smart, don’t you? But we’re the ones who saw your ship arrive, we’rethe ones who were just waiting for you to slip up and broadcast to them, and we’rethe ones who have enough mobile weaponry to atomize any attempt you make to getsupplies from up there down here. Our satellites might not be perfect, but they’remore than enough to track any drops. Judging from the ship we shot up earlier—”Elanus’s hands tightened into fists “—you don’t have the offensive capabilitiesto survive a fight for them, either.”

“Do you have the speed for it, though?” Elanus shot back thesecond Trapper stopped speaking. “Your ships rely on conventional fuels thatare undoubtedly in limited quantity, unless you’ve set up some sort of hiddenrefinery or specialized algeic growth tanks, which I sincerely doubt as thatwould require the capacity to be a decent resources manager. Even if you dotrack a drop, you’d have to beat us there, and you don’t even know where weare.”

“We know where—”

“Knowing we’re on the same continent as you doesn’t count,”Elanus interrupted briskly. “That’s a given, but I repeat, if you had theslightest idea where we were right now, you’d already be attacking us becauseyou feel confident in your ability to take out our ship. You’re not, so you don’t.Frankly, I doubt you’d get within a hundred miles of a drop point before wewere able to swoop in and vanish again.”

That was a blatant fabrication—once they got to the drop,which was going to be heavier than Catie’s entire frame, the retrofit wouldhave to happen on site. Kieron marveled at his fiancé’s ability to bullshit throughthe most fraught situations. Had he done this before?

Something niggled at the back of Kieron’s mind…Elanus in anargument with another man, drawing him out, killing him through his own hubris…thenit was gone.

Fucking memory loss.

“So, nice try, but I think we’re going to have to pass onyour attempts at intimidation for now, thanks so much. Don’t worry, we’ll seeourselves out.” Elanus waited for Catie to shut down the com, then said, “Okay,we’ll have to change the drop plans, break up the pieces into smaller packagesthat can be retrieved the way I indicated, but it shouldn’t extend our stay bymore than a week or so, and—”

“Now, hang on.” Trapper was back. “It’s clear you’re not aman to take lightly, so let’s be reasonable about this.”

Oh, now they want to be reasonable.

“There’s no need for us to get violent with each other,” hewent on. “You made a mistake in coming here, but we made a mistake in attackingwithout due cause. Let’s call that even. What about a trade, instead? You shareyour ship’s cloaking technology with us, and we’ll give you something preciousin return.”

“You don’t have anything we want,” Elanus scoffed, but thatcold feeling was starting to creep over Kieron again.

He held up a hand even as Trapper said, “Are you sure aboutthat? Because the man of yours we captured, he sure bled a lot while he wasrunning around over here. We did a few tests on what he left behind, and wouldyou believe, he’s got a relative living among us?” Trapper’s voice deepened. “Amother, nonetheless. One of our little lost boys found his way home after allthese years.”

Kieron shook his head at Elanus, who was looking at him wideconcern in his eyes. “She’s dead,” he muttered. “She…” She has to be dead.

“Say hello, Carlisle.” There was a moment of silence, then ashort scream and a curse. “She’s missing an eye,” Trapper went on, “and halfthe bones in her right arm are broken, but it’s her. Check your visual feed ifyou don’t believe me.”

Elanus pulled it up, and a projection appeared in the middleof the hold. It was Trapper in an old-fashioned chest stabilizer standingbeside a bloodied woman who looked absolutely filthy from mud and gravel. Sheglared ahead with her one good eye. “Don’t you dare,” she snarled. “Don’t you darecome for me.”

“You can listen to her if you want,” Trapper added, “but ifyou don’t come for her, boy, I’ll make sure her last days of life are anagony you can’t even imagine.” He grinned sharply. “I’ll give you an hour tothink it over.”

The image vanished, and a suffocating silence fell over themall once more.

She’s alive. My mother is alive.

For now.