Notes: Oooh, fire in the sky! So pretty!

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

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Chapter Twenty-Three, Part Two

 Photo by Mohamed Fsili

“You…” Kieron’s voice died off as he lost his ability toarticulate exactly what he was feeling. He could hear the others arguing, Catiesquawking and Elanus shouting and Lizzie replying defensively, but he couldn’tsay anything because he could see a light in the sky. It was growing larger,and soon enough he could make out individual fireballs splitting off from it,some of them fizzling out but most of them staying close. He felt Carlisleshiver, and lifted her into a more comfortable position in his arms as hewatched the fire get closer and closer.

“Kieron, you’ve got to get farther back!”

“It’s all right,” he said as he watched the door to the compoundsuddenly flare open. He could see the silhouette of people inside of it, sawthem taking their first steps outside. The falling fire dimmed that light, andthen as the first person stepped through the door, shouting, gun lifted—

The fire struck.

Kieron had never worked as a mercenary. He hadn’tparticipated in aerial bombardments, he hadn’t been part of strike teams takingout orbital stations, he hadn’t seen a lot of combat. But he was absolutelysure that, without a doubt, this was the most precisely targeted assault thathad ever been levied against a stationary facility from space. It hit thecenter of the base, a few splashes of fuel erupting up and out, but nonetraveling more than fifty yards before sputtering out.

The fireball dug its way into the weapons cache, which ofcourse Lizzie knew the location of since Bobby had done all that recon work,and consumed the explosives there, incorporating them into its sound and furywithout allowing them to randomize the damage. The fire and heat coruscatedoutward in shades of orange, yellow, and white, coming to a pinnacle justbeyond the edge of the compound itself. A second later the fire contracted,burning itself out and focusing the last of its energy on the center once more.

Everyone who came into contact with it died. Everyone, everysingle person in the base who’d been watching and tormenting and taunting them,was dead now. Tactically dead, strategically nuked from space, to use anancient Earth term.

And Kieron and Carlisle were fine. He could barely even feelthe heat of the fire through the storm that still raged around them.

“Impressive,” Carlisle said, her voice like smoke. “Youhave—” she coughed. “Good friends.”

“That was my daughter’s doing,” Kieron said, his voicedistant even to himself. That was Lizzie, all Lizzie. She must have run thenumbers on his survival and found the odds she liked the best, and then—

She’d acted. Without hesitation, without a second thought,and it had saved his life.

And if she’d calculated wrong, she would have killed him.

Kieron shivered, not out of fear for himself but from fearfor Lizzie. If things hadn’t gone this way…if she’d ended up being the reasonhe died instead of the reason he was saved…she would never have forgivenherself. Lizzie was quiet, far quieter than her sister, but she was no lessintense in her emotions.

“Kee?” Lizzie’s voice, tentative and soft, cutthrough the fog in his mind.

“Baby,” he said immediately. “I’m here. I’m all right. Youdid it.”

“I saw your life sign, but you weren’t saying anythingfor a while.”

“I was just…” Stunned. Impressed. Afraid. “Surprised,sweetheart.”

“As long as you’re surprised and communicating,”Elanus snapped over the com. “Catie’s on the way around to you, we’ll pickyou up in two-point-three minutes. Any damage?”

“No. Not to me,” Kieron amended as he looked at his mother.“But Carlisle is pretty worse for wear.”

“Catie will fix her up in no time.”

The rest of the crew on Lizzie’s line were being awfullysilent. “Status report, Ryu,” Kieron said.

“Nothing to report,” he said, sounding just theslightest bit spooked. “We had the payload ready, but I didn’t even knowLizzie had released it until she told you about it. Lizzie…we agreed we’d talkabout it before you deployed.”

“I’m sorry! You would have told me not to do it, though,and I didn’t have time to explain my math to you!”

“Your math had a fifty-seven perrrcent chance of beingwrrrong!” Catie snapped. “You could have killlled Kieron!”

“I would never kill Kieron! My math was perfect, look athow it all worked out!”

“I’m talking about your varrriables, not yourprimes!”

“I’ll show you variables!” There was sudden silenceon the coms, and Kieron put a hand over his mouth to silence his sudden snortas he realized that his girls were having a math fight. A math fightover the odds of his surviving Lizzie’s intervention. God, he wished he couldget Elanus alone right now to talk about this, and preferably share a drink orten about it.

“Kieron.”

“Mm?” he said to Carlisle.

“I think you’re going into shock.”

“Mm.” He probably was, slumping back onto the ground andmaneuvering Carlisle so she was on top of him instead of soaking up the colddirectly. Not that the rain wasn’t freezing, but it was better than lying in apuddle.

“Don’t get comfortable,” she said, irritation warring withsomething else he couldn’t put a name to in her voice. “You don’t have time forthis.”

“It’s shock,” he slurred, “not really…controllable.”

“Everything is controllable to a certain extent. Look atwhat your kid just pulled off.” Her tone of voice made it clear that she wasmore impressed than judgmental.

“Mm. Kids are hard.”

Carlisle was quiet for a moment, then surprised him with alaugh. “They are,” she agreed. “They’re the hardest thing in the world. Smallwonder I did so little when it came to raising you, when you intimidated me sobadly.”

“Mm.”

“Kieron, stay awake.”

“I’m awake,” he said.

“Don’t close your eyes.”

“They’re…open. S’just dark out here.” He was tired. Moretired than he should be, after such a clean extraction. Carlisle was in farworse shape than he was; there was no reason for him to be this tired while shewas wide awake.

“One minute to you,” Elanus said. “Stay awake,Kieron.”

God damn it, he was awake! It was just hard to stay thatway, but he’d do it. If Lizzie could predict how to save his life beforesetting a base on fire, he could do this much.

She could have killed him, but she hadn’t. They were solucky. Or she was just that good, just that intelligent. It was frightening, tohave a kid so intelligent—a kid who was optimized for combat scenarios. Howmany people would want her, if they knew what she could do? War-based AIs wereincredibly expensive tech, notoriously unreliable despite all their models andtraining, and here was Lizzie predicting payload, survival rates, andcompensating for human reactions.

So smart, his girl. Almost too smart for her own good.

“Stay awake, Kieron.”

He hummed.

“I mean it!” Pain erupted in his left arm, but it was asmall discomfort when he was already so cold and wet.

“Kee?”

That was Lizzie. He needed to talk to her, to let her knowhe was all right. He tried to speak, but couldn’t do it. He was too…too…

“Kee?”