Chelen City: Chapter Three, Part One

Notes: Guess who hasn’t caught up with her own freaking schedule and FORGOT to post the story yesterday? This girl! *sigh* Please enjoy, belated as it is.

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Three, Part One

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Chapter Three, Part One

Being among the uppermost echelons of society came with undeniable perks. One of those perks was the transit system. Travel by tube was popular on Gania for a lot of reasons. The city was basically a mass collection of skyscrapers, with so little actual ground between them that there was no “ground” traffic. Ship and hovercraft use was circumscribed outside of the government and port buildings due to how many of the best landing sites were private property—not to mention, no one wanted to risk them hitting the tubes.

The tubes were enclosed moving platforms, some of them several stories high and large enough to squeeze a hundred people into easily. They were somewhat similar to ancient Earth subway systems, only these weren’t underground, they were all in the air. The lower stories of buildings were thick with tube stops, tube routes, and tube repairs. The upper levels were reserved for those who had the money to pay for privacy.

The entire tube system was heavily protected and preserved—tubes were safe, reliable, good for people, and good for business. The few times anyone had started trouble in a tube, they were shortly thereafter disappeared. Elanus, who had grown up using these tubes, was completely comfortable stepping into the one that connected to his home and programming in the route to his offices.

Kieron wasn’t remotely as comfortable, and he didn’t mind Elanus knowing. “This thing can’t be safe.”

“It’s completely safe,” Elanus assured him as the platform inside the tube began to move. “They’re literally built into the skeletons of the buildings themselves, and by ‘built’ I mean ‘grown.’ It’s a whole process with carbon nanotubes and a few different types of transparent steel and a lot of stuff I’m not supposed to talk about, so if you want to learn more you’ll have to glean it from blueprints.”

“Someone is trying to kill you,” Kieron pointed out. “You’re saying that this can’t be compromised by a projectile, or flooded with a poisonous gas, or—”

“I mean, it could be,” Elanus allowed. “I’m not saying that that’s impossible, but it won’t happen.”

“Why not?”

“Because it would be insane. The people trying to kill me aren’t that serious about it—at least, not in a way that would lead to mass casualties.”

“It’s insane not to think that someone could take advantage of your built-in biases and use them to get the drop on you,” Kieron said. He bounded tentatively on the platform as it sped them along, inertial dampeners keeping them from feeling like they were being pressed up against the back wall. “If I were trying to kill you, this is the first place I’d try to get you.”

“You’re not Ganian,” Elanus pointed out.

“I don’t have to be a local to be paid to kill you.” Kieron bounced again, then looked around. “There are weapons out there that could penetrate these walls, if someone wanted to be very specific. If they didn’t care about doing more damage—if they really were insane—then it would be so easy to take out a whole platform full of people.”

So they were going to talk about the potential for death in here. Okay. “There are sensors that detect hazardous materials and keep people from bringing personal weapons on board.”

Kieron arched an eyebrow. “Like the ones I’m carrying?”

“This is a private tube, it doesn’t count,” Elanus replied. Kieron didn’t look away. “Fine, those sensors can be gotten around using the right materials, but most people don’t have access to things like that!”

“Yeah, and an everyday person probably didn’t get it into their head to try and take you out,” Kieron said, then sighed. “I’m not trying to speak badly about your system. I know it works for you, and it’s worked for generations. It’s just very different from how I was raised.”

“You were raised in a death cult,” Elanus pointed out. “I think it’s safe to say that they’re not a good standard for comparison. Twelve hundred colonists, and fewer than ten survived in the end?”

“I know, it’s fucked up.” Kieron shrugged. “But there are fucked-up people everywhere, Elanus. There’s at least one other fucked-up person with a background like mine here. Refugees, tourists, business people…stranger things have happened.”

It was amazing how Kieron could make Elanus worry about things he had never worried about before in less than a minute. “Well shit.”

That made Kieron laugh. “Then again,” he went on in a lighter tone of voice, “I guess fucked up is relative. You don’t bat an eye about assassination attempts that would have me hunting people down.”

“Can you really do that?” It was something Elanus hadn’t felt comfortable enough to wonder out loud before this. “I know you grew up in a very militaristic society, but militaristic doesn’t necessarily mean murderous. Were you actually trained to kill people as a child?”

“Not ‘people,’” Kieron said, his smile dropping away. “Everyone who was designated a person was safe. I was trained to kill rats. Rats could look like people, they might even have been people once, but by the time they were rats, they just existed to be disposed of.” He turned and looked out the window. “By the end, I would have been considered a rat. I failed a lot of my mother’s tests, and that wasn’t allowed. I was the direct heir to my grandfather’s legacy. I had to be better than everyone else, and I wasn’t.”

Elanus didn’t know what to say to that. They’d already explored the ramifications of Kieron’s very disturbing past, and they were heading into a situation where they both needed to be on point. Elanus stepped up so that he was pressed to Kieron’s back, wrapped his arms around the shorter man’s shoulders, and gestured to a building in the distance. “That’s where my company does a lot of the fabrication work for our shipyards. We create the pieces there, and then the large ones go up the space elevator to be constructed in zero g, while the smaller ones go to our personal port.”

“It looks busy,” Kieron remarked, his eyes catching on the rows of lights lining the edges of the skyscraper.

“It is. Apart from scheduled maintenance, my employees run constantly on alternating shifts. No one works more than twenty-five hours a week, of course—more would just be cruel on the construction lines. My main office building, that’s where we’re heading, is the home of bureaucracy, legal, and R&D.” He smiled. “They work longer hours than the people on the line, but not by much. I try to be fair.”

“You ought to let them work less, since they have to put up with you on a regular basis.”

“Stars, you’re mean,” Elanus said, full of admiration. “If I could hire you to frighten people for me, I would.”

“Sorry.” Kieron turned around and pulled Elanus down into another kiss. “You’ll just have to live with me instead.” He suddenly grinned. “How many people get caught having sex in these things?”

“Um…”

“Welcome to LifeShip Enterprises Headquarters,” the tube intoned as it slowed down. “Please watch your step.”

Elanus reluctantly put some space between them. “Ready to find a saboteur?”

“I’ll watch your steps if you watch mine,” Kieron replied, and then the doors opened.

About ten people began speaking at once, all trying to get his attention.

Elanus grinned. It was nice to be back at work.