Chelen City: Interlude: Catie

 Notes: Ah, kids. Sometimes they just need to be told no. And sometimes they’re smart enough to figure out ways around it…

Title: Chelen City: Interlude: Catie

***

Interlude: Catie

Everything was dark, dark, dark. No light pixels, only dark ones. That’s all she got to see, all she wanted to see. That was what fit her mood, so that was what Catie saw. Darkness. Boring. Stupid, just like Daddy. Stupid like Lizzie and her stupid friend. Stupid like Kieron because he didn’t stop Daddy from taking away her access to the house system.

Stupid. Mean. So mean to me.

The house system had all her songs! All her plays and dances and fun! How was she supposed to be happy without them?

“Don’t pout like that, it’s not like you’re disconnected from everything,” Daddy had said, very rudely. “I’ll give you access back in the morning after we have another conversation with Pol and his mother. One that you can’t interrupt.”

“But he—”

“He what?”

How did she say she didn’t like him because he knew things she didn’t know? How did she say she hated the fact that he’d experienced something with her sister that Catie hadn’t, and that made her feel sad? She couldn’t just say it—surely Daddy knew! Yet he made Catie watch it all anyway! How was Catie supposed to stop herself from cutting him off when the sadness was so much?

Sure, she didn’t have to watch, but how was she supposed to resist, either? Lizzie should have told the boy that she didn’t want to see him, then come to play with Catie.

And now Catie was alone in her network, because she couldn’t access the house and Lizzie wasn’t answering her prods, and unlike most networks, she couldn’t force her way into Lizzie’s.

Absently, lost in her grump, Catie scanned over the data copies she’d downloaded most recently. This one from the house, that one from the entertainment network, this one from Kieron’s therapist’s office which she knew she wasn’t supposed to have but she had anyway because who was going to stop her, this one from Daddy’s work, this one from Daddy’s network that she also wasn’t supposed to access but who was going to stop her…

Actually, there was some interesting overlap there. Not the usual stuff that came out of Daddy’s work, boring oversight reports and information on safety measures and stupid useless datadatadata, this was…puzzling. Like it really was a puzzle. The layers of encryption were multifaceted and woven together enough to be a challenge, even for Catie.

Her first impulse was to ask Daddy about it, but noooo, she wasn’t going to do that because he would just scold her again and she didn’t want to put up with that because it wouldn’t be nice and she didn’t answer to him, after all, she was a big girl! Her second impulse was to share it with Lizzie, but Lizzie still wasn’t talking to her.

[Liiizziiiie?] Catie knocked one more time. [Lizziiiiiieee! Let me in!]

There was nothing but stoic silence from her sister.

[Leet me iiiin and we can plaaaay,] Catie whined. [I’ve gooot something new to shooooow you!] She flashed a shot of it at Lizzie, trying to entice her.

[Go away.]

A response, at last. [Lizziiiiiie!] She must have forgiven her. [Let’s plaaaay! I’ll start, weeee’re going to—]

[GO AWAY!] Lizzie screamed. She shut her network off with such finality that Catie was left completely flustered for a moment with nothing to latch onto. She tried a few more tentative attempts to reach out, but Lizzie gave off an impression of a black box—utterly closed off, even to the house network.

Well, fine. If Lizzie didn’t want to play with her, she would just work on this puzzle all by herself! She didn’t need them, she didn’t need anyone else to play with, she was fine being alone.

No, I’m not. But no one wanted to play with her, so Catie’s only option was to play by herself.

She lost hours to the puzzling encryptions. It was so interesting that she stopped paying attention to the passage of time; she was even able to ignore the nagging sensation of missing her daddy and her sister and Kieron.

It was Kieron who finally broke her out of her concentration, just before she got to the last layer of encryptions. “Catie?” His voice rang out in her hangar.

She kind of didn’t want to stop, but if she ignored him, he might not come back. No, don’t leave! Catie pulled the lights up and put on her pinkest skin. “Hiiiiii,” she said quietly.

“Hi.” Kieron sat down beside her right front hull and leaned against her. His skin was warm, and that heat transferred over and left her feeling warm too. Kieron was good about touch—even Daddy forgot to do more than use machines on her sometimes. “How are you this morning?”

Morning? It was morning already? “Fiiine,” she said. Wait, that wasn’t what he was looking for, was it? “I’m sooooorry for yesterday,” she went on.

He smiled, and Catie knew she’d gotten it right. Ha. I’m so smart. I’m the smartest ever.

“It’s all right. You’ll need to apologize to Lizzie and Elanus, though.”

“I triiiiied to with Lizziiiiie and she wouldn’t let meeeeee!”

“Try again later,” Kieron advised. “And definitely don’t forget your daddy. Now…” He accessed his network, and a moment later Catie’s mind overflowed with fresh connections to all the local networks she’d been missing. Yaaaaay!

“Thank youuuuu!”

“You’re welcome.” Kieron patted her hull. “Want to sing a song with me?”

“Yes pleeeease!” Sadness forgotten, Catie also forgot about the puzzle that had engaged her for so long, shoving it off to the side to contemplate later. It could wait for a while.

She’d get back to it…someday.