AN - @geemeedee - the story is far from over - it turned bigger than I expected, so no end in site - Riordan will meet the guy who gave birth again - Florent - I'm leaving him a mystery for now. Tasha will not re-appear for a long time. That's a separate storyline I'm working on.
- @sealandssd - there's no royal family for now.
The Human Bearer
25.
Kyle was the perfect homie, slash accessory to crime he had ever had the chance to meet in his life. After some brainstorming with his bot, they had both reached the conclusion that for them to sneak around efficiently, Riordan only needed his master's imprint. When asked what that meant, Kyle had promptly generated a long code that practically gave Riordan the same freedom of movement on the ship as his master.
"So, it's like some sort of cloaking," Riordan said while pondering over the feasibility of this kind of undercover mission. "But I cannot really pretend to be Xana. The guards and everyone else can surely make a difference between a 7-foot snakeman and a preggo bearer."
"The imprint is not for them," Kyle explained. "Ever since the attack, there's a shortage of personnel everywhere. Florent Kasido might be of great interest to the high commander, but he is not considered a threat."
"Are you trying to tell me that he isn't guarded?"
"Not by living guards. Computers, yes, as you would say in your world."
"I'll be damned," Riordan whispered. "So, we can fool those machines, right?"
"That is exactly what I'm thinking." Kyle's more and more human-like speech was something else. Riordan had felt comfortable around the bot since they had started their partnership. Whether it was sanctioned by Xana or not, their friendship was one made in heaven... one for dudes up to no good, but still.
It wasn't only because he needed to stuff a bearer down Kanto's throat so that his ass didn't end up fucked by the guy's tail. Now, he was curious of this strange bearer, who seemed brave enough to board a ship and face a snakeman like Kanto's wrath. Even without knowing Florent, Riordan felt that he knew at least one thing about the guy. He must have a pair of steel on him.
"Is there no time when there are guards around? They must at least bring him food. They're not starving him, I hope."
"No. I believe the right way to say it would be that Florent Kasido is treated humanely, given the circumstances."
"Well, I suppose that's debatable, seeing what kind of species we're dealing with, but as long as he's not starved, I'll take it. When do you think it would be a good time to pay Florent a visit? You know, without stumbling upon some guard with a bowl of soup for him."
"That would be between lunch and dinner, when Master Xana is busy with council work. We don't want him to find out, right? Please, confirm, Master Rio."
"You know me. I do my best work without Xana looking over my shoulder."
"I will look over your shoulder. Do you find that inconvenient?"
"No, you're my homie. We're totally in this together. Plus, you always agree with me."
"Always," Kyle confirmed cheerfully.
"See? Tomorrow, after all the lunch excitement dies down, we're on a mission. And, needless to say, not a word to Xana."
"You can count on me, Master Rio."
He hoped that he could equally count on himself, too. Xana was really annoying with all that mind-probing. He'd have to think of some moronic things while they were together so that his master got bored with reading his mind.
***
Making himself scarce, with Kyle on his tail, was easy. However, he must have become a little paranoid, because he didn't like it at all how stale the air seemed to be. Not that it wasn't natural to be, since they were on a ship and oxygen was probably recycled like crazy. He would investigate the life support functionalities of the ship another time. For now, he had only one mission: to reach the lowest deck, where the prison cells were, without being noticed by anyone.
That appeared uncomfortably easy. All the bearers seemed prey to some sort of apathy, while the Xenos weren't very lively, either. Was that only his imagination, or was the entire ship prey to some sleeping spell? Even his head was getting heavy and he needed to shake off the cotton like sensation more than once.
The only unaffected appeared to be the lizard guards, but they weren't paying him any particular attention. Their workload had increased significantly since the attack, so they weren't in the business of wondering why he was roaming the place like that.
All for the best. Kyle guided him towards the elevator and then they began their descent. Riordan did a double take at his bot when the elevator stopped abruptly.
A metallic voice came from a speaker located above the door. "Your next stop requires special clearance. Present your identification."
Riordan didn't have to tell Kyle what to do. His bot fed the generated code of Xana's imprint into a slot by the door.
The metallic voice appeared satisfied with it. "Identification complete. Have a nice day, Counselor Xana Lei."
It had worked. It had fucking worked, and he wanted to jump for joy and hug Kyle, his sleepiness from before all forgotten. However, he didn't want to draw unnecessary attention, so he kept silent until the elevator, now back at its smooth descent, stopped and its doors opened in front of him.
The first thing Riordan noticed was how cool the air was down there. Was there more than just a prisoner kept in those cells? He hadn't asked Kyle, an oversight from his part. Left, right, and center, three corridors open, similar enough in design to believe there was nothing to make one special from the others.
"Where to?" he whispered.
Kyle replied in his normal voice. "Straight ahead. We will find Florent in the last cell on the right."
Riordan hushed him. "Let's keep it down."
"There's no need," Kyle assured him. "No one else is here."
Yeah, the silence was absolute and overbearing, now that he thought about it. That gave him the creeps even more than having some random prisoners listen in to their conversation.
"Let's go," he suggested, but he didn't raise his voice. Even his steps on the smooth metallic floor seemed unusually loud.
"Who's there?" a voice called out from the end of the hallway.
It was a young voice, filled with fear. Riordan hurried to put Florent's mind at ease and said loudly, "We're friends."
"You're not the high commander," the voice accused him, now veering towards uncertainty and confusion. "Did he send you to kill me? Stay where you are!"
"We're not going to kill you. We just want to have a talk with you."
Riordan was surprised to see why he could hear Florent so clearly. The cell had no front wall to speak of, so there had to be something else holding the prisoner a few good feet away from it. He had no intention to test it on his own, so he remained at the threshold, seeing how there was such a thing as an anteroom, around two feet wide, before he would reach the cell itself. He made a waving motion with his hand.
Florent looked as attractive as in the picture Riordan had seen of him, only that he was skinnier and there was a wild look on his face. The cell was lit enough, just as the hallway, but the blue light lent everything an eerie, impersonal air.
"Do they turn their lights off so that you can sleep?" he asked the first thing that crossed his mind.
Florent was completely naked and stood on the floor, huddling himself as if he were trying to take up as little space as possible. He raised his head to inspect Riordan, but he looked down quickly as if he were afraid just staring at his visitor would come with some sort of punishment.
Riordan took a couple of moments to inspect the cell. It had a couple of surfaces that counted as beds and a small door that had to conceal a bathroom for the prisoner's hygiene needs. Otherwise, the place was completely bare of any furniture. It was a wonder the guy wasn't already off the rails, spending his days and nights with nothing to do on his hands like that.
"My name is Riordan," he started.
"What do you want?" Florent asked, keeping his head down. "You're a bearer," he added in an accusatory tone. "And you're pregnant."
"Yeah, I guess it's pretty obvious."
"What kind of sick game are you playing now?" Florent asked. This time, he looked up and flashed an angry look at his visitor. "I have nothing to say. So, you can take this friend act and shove it up your ass."
Riordan was starting to like this dude. Clearly, he must have grown from the gullible guy he had appeared to be in that photo. "How would you like to get out of here? Get a boyfriend? I know these snakemen are kind of freaky, but I bet that getting to hop happily on one of their tails beats sitting on your ass here, doing nothing."
This time, Florent looked at him like he had just grown another head and no longer averted his eyes. "What does the high commander want with this?" he asked. "I don't know anything." There was despair behind those words, and Riordan recognized the thing for what was worth. So, his and Kyle's suspicions were right. Kanto thought that Florent had information on his former master and his plans.
Riordan didn't think so. He thought that Florent was scared, that he had just tried to survive, and that story about losing the pregnancy had been used against him for some reason. After all, that general husband of his, ex-husband, whatever he could be called, was an asshole from the little Riordan knew about him.
"How about you tell me your side of the story?"
"My side of the story?" Florent buried his head in his hands and remained like that for a while. Riordan decided against talking again. The guy probably needed some time. "There's no such thing," he added after that loaded silence. "I killed a Xenolite." His voice was low and full of hurt.
Riordan moved as close as he could, hoping that he wouldn't suddenly get chopped into pieces by invisible lasers. Kyle used his robotic arm to stop him, confirming his suspicions. "You didn't," he said slowly.
