Get Me out of Here

[Cat]

Moments after Kyle's message was recorded
Hangars, Monte Carlo Freeport, Provence System

In about 20 minutes after the events at the bar Kyle was walking towards hangar B-2, prepared for the meeting. He was wearing the same clothes, yet his walk was much more confident, as if he had only had 2 glasses of Sidewinder Fang instead of 5 back in the bar. The expression on his face was no longer pained, despite a recent injury.

Unsure what to expect from Remy and his thugs, Kyle had prepared for hostilities. Back in the day, when he had thought that Kiara was held captive, he had started devising various ways of rescuing her. In the end he had decided he'd need a gun, a combat visor, and a pair of different grenades: one flashbang and one with an actual explosive charge. Acquiring all that had cost Kyle a small fortune, but it wouldn't matter as long as it meant he'd rescue Kiara.

Now that it seemed that Kiara was free, Kyle decided against bringing all his arsenal with him. He stopped on a small Stinger laser pistol, courtesy of Ageira Technologies. That pistol he actually kept from one of his first meetings with Kiara. She had attempted to deliver a batch of those to Bretonian resistance on planet Leeds, but couldn't get through the Gallic blockade. Kyle asked for a sample to see if he'd be able to find anyone else interested in the cargo.

However, Kyle deemed that one pistol wasn't enough. Hidden in a holster on the inner side of his jacket, the pistol could be found. The man had made a precaution though by putting a Cardamine inhaler in the pocket on the outer side. That way someone frisking him would search the pocket and find the inhaler, hopefully missing the pistol.

If it wasn't the case, however, Kyle hoped that an expandable stun baton hidden in his boot by the ankle would make it through. He didn't deem the 'endgame' gear (such as grenades and visor) necessary for this meeting, for better or worse. However, Kyle's hopes to sneak his arsenal aboard Remy's ship were futile. The two thugs that met him in hangar B-2 were quite thorough, and the only thing they did let him keep was his Cardamine inhaler. At least he was promised that they'd return the guns after the whole thing.

What's worse, the hangar wasn't the place where Remy's ship actually was. Kyle was taken to one of the mooring points on the station, and he could see a large l'Ane-class transport through the window. Remy's thug led Kyle into the ship and down its narrow corridors towards the crew room, passing it. He ended up bringing Kyle to the kitchen. The room was big, but most of the space was occupied by either the table or by a large counter, with an oven and a sink, and a large refrigerator next to it. In the opposite end of the room, facing the counter, there were several cabinets with food supplies and alcohol, and some cupboards. On top of the table there was an open bottle of wine.

Both Remy and 'Aurora' were there, sitting by the table and drinking wine apparently. As the door opened, Kyle was let in. He could only overhear a part of what Remy was saying: "... It'd better not be for nothing." After that the Brigand took a couple of sips from his glass and noticed Kyle's arrival: "Oh, you're here already." Unsure what to say, and clearly surprised by the fact that Kiara was indeed free and that the Brigand had kept his end of the bargain, Kyle couldn't find out how to start a conversation. "That's... a nice ship," he said without a hint of sarcasm.

Kiara smiled, apparently with relief, as Kyle entered the room: "There you are... uh, I think the deal was for Remy to talk to you first? Should I... wait outside or something?" Kyle shrugged, still unsure what to make of the situation: "Do as you please. I came here for some answers, and I think either of you can provide them... more or less." He didn't move anywhere, just standing by the entrance to the kitchen. It felt wrong to be the guest in this particular scenario; visiting one's own girlfriend and her husband.

The Gaul nodded to Kiara: "Oui, I'd like to talk to him, since he has to be on the ship, anyway. Do you mind waiting on the bridge or someplace else, until we are done, Aurora? I'll call you after that." The woman sighed, but gave in and stood up: "Sure, but please don't take too long." She hesitated again, her eyes on the stranger, then headed for the door, pushing past the people standing there, heading out of the room for now.

In the meantime Kyle walked over towards the table where Remy was sitting. He then took a seat, since he was pretty much sure he wouldn't get an invitation. Kyle remained silent, waiting for the host to speak first. The Brigand signaled the people still in the room to leave, which they quickly did, closing the door behind them. After that he gave Kyle an examining look and began: "So, now that we're here, I want to know a few things. Premierement, how did you find us? Have you been searching station by station? I want to know to what lengths you've been going."

Kyle didn't expect this question. If anything, a man who had allegedly been cheated on would probably ask something about how long it had been going on. Still, he saw no harm in telling the truth: "I wasn't searching for you, I was searching for Kiara. Believe it or not, me running into you two just like that was an accident. I did travel around a lot though. You can imagine my surprise when I found out she had another life." This seemed like a good opportunity for Kyle to learn more: "Speaking of which, how did you two meet up?"

The Gaul shrugged, but didn't provide as much info as Kyle had hoped for: "She told you that already. We're married, but that isn't important now. Let me see if I get this, you've been searching Gallia, alone?" The Gaul's voice sounded suspicious, and for good reason. Kyle couldn't but chuckle: "Now that you mention it, it must really sound funny. Yeah, I've been searching Gallia, alone. Didn't think it'd yield anything, hence I was drinking at that bar, but look where it got me."

The Gaul seemed a bit surprised with the reply: "So, you're the only one looking for her? You didn't send more people here?" Kyle tilted his head curiously: "What do you mean by 'send more people'?" Remy's question made him think: why would 'Aurora's husband' expect someone sending people to Gallia? If there was anyone in Gallia to expect that, it'd probably someone who demanded a ransom for Kiara, like the representative of the Forlorn Hope had told him.

Kyle realized that he had made a smart choice by pre-recording a message while he was back on his ship. He rigged it to be sent in a few days, should he not be there to cancel it. That message would inform the Forlorn Hope that he had found Kiara safe and sound on Monte Carlo Freeport, and that Kiara had lied a lot: she led a double life and was known in Gallia as Aurora Moreau, the wife of a certain Remy Moreau. He also mentioned he'd be visiting Moreau's ship in hangar B-2 to learn how Kiara got free, or if she ever had been captured. Now he knew that the mention of hangar B-2 wouldn't help, but at least the rest of the information seemed pretty useful.

Kyle was distracted from his thoughts by Remy's remark and a change of toipc: "Nevermind that, I'm just a bit tired. What exactly do you want from Aurora? What are you going to tell her?" Kyle could only shrug in response: "I don't really know by now, to be honest. I thought she was missing, in trouble, and here I find her, leading an entirely different life. I only knew her as Kiara anyway." That made Kyle ask the question that he had wanted to ask for the entire time: "Tell me though, is she really having trouble with her memories? I figured that much from your conversations. Right now I'm not even sure what she wants from me. So it'd help if I knew more about her life here."

"Oui, she has trouble remembering most things. It may not be nice to say this, but after what you said in the bar, I'd honestly rather if she didn't get those memories back..." The Gaul kept examining Kyle suspiciously, as Kyle tilted his head, with a mix of sadness and remorse in his voice: "I see. But you see how sensitive that topic is for her. And probably for you... given what I said." It also seemed like a perfect opportunity to find out more: "She spent a lot of time in Sirius, didn't she? Where is she from, actually? How and when did you meet each other?"

The Gaul scratched his head, as if thinking what to say to the stranger: "You really are curious about this, huh? We met on Freeport 6, but I don't really know where she is from. She never told me that kind of thing." It was a curious fact, given that he had been married to her for a year. Kyle didn't ask Kiara much about her past either, but then again, he hadn't known her for a year and wasn't married to her.

Instead of voicing these concerns, he just replied: "Freeport 6... Tau-29 then, right." Kyle remembered how he and Kiara first went there. Kiara got cut off from the path to Liberty when she ended up in Leeds, so Kyle took her for a detour to Tau-29, where they stopped at the very same Freeport. Yet it had seemed to him back then that it was her first time in the Taus, let alone on that station.

To think that Kiara played her role so well and ended up with him on the same station where she had first met her husband before, while her memories were supposedly intact... That's not the Kiara he knew. She seemed to care for the Gaul, but then again, she had also seemed to care for Kyle back when she had still been Kiara for him, and not Aurora. Either she was a perfect actress and manipulator, or something didn't add up.

"I bet you had a hard time staying in contact, given that she spent so much time away from Gallia and the Taus," Kyle commented to keep up the conversation. "Oui, it was harder to keep in touch, but that's what the Neural Net is for..." Remy picked the glass of wine he had left on the table and took a sip: "Anything else? Did you stop us at the bar just to ask one of us these things?"

Kyle shook his head: "Not really. As I told you, for me she was just Kiara. A woman who never mentioned your name and never brought up Gallia. You can imagine my surprise when she got missing, all of a sudden, so I went searching. And then there were news of her ship floating in space near the Gallic border. A fancy shuttle that was." Kyle had been on Kiara's ship, a retrofitted Voyager shuttle, and wondered if Remy had been on in too. Perhaps it was a good chance to find out, while feeding the Gaul a little lie to see how truthful he was?

"I heard the Junkers ripped it apart. That's too bad, a lot of money went to waste, not to mention that living room retrofits by the Freeport 6 crew. It probably cost you both a lot of money to have those zoners turn that thing into a flying living room, right?" Kyle knew that the ship had been retrofitted on Manhattan, but wondered how Remy would react to hearing about Freeport 6. If he confirmed it, he'd definitely be lying.

Unfortunately, the Gaul dodged the question: "I wouldn't know... Unless you saw her flying an Aurochs, I don't know what ship you are talking about." He drank some more of his wine and leaned back on the chair: "Explain me something, by Gallic borders I assume you mean the Taus. How did you end up in Provence? From what you say, it would make more sense to search in Sirius, non?"

Kyle nodded; he now had to reply to Remy's question, but he didn't want to give up on figuring out how truthful Remy had been: "Correct. Tau-37, to be precise. A border of Outcast and IMG space, with some Zoners trying to stay neutral. A damaged shuttle is found without a pilot. But... people don't just disappear without a trace like that, do they? Kiara didn't seem like a type ot have many enemies. So, what assumptions can we make? The Outcasts or someone affiliated with the Outcasts probably attacked her ship and took her. That's the first logical conclusion. Whoever gets captured in the Taus, probably ends up on Malta. But that wasn't the case for Kiara, I checked through my own channels."

Kyle sighed, thinking back to all the time he had spent with Kiara, before continuing: "Naturally, I searched for info among the Zoners and IMG too, they aren't the ones to hold that sort of information back. So, with Outcasts and the local lawfuls ruled out, I started thinking where else Kiara could end up. Gallia was the most logical choice. There're factions that have been isolated for hundreds of years from the rest of Sirius. If a criminal had taken Kiara and didn't take her straight to the Outcasts, it could only mean that the criminal didn't know his best destination was Malta. That's why I thought of Gallia."

At this point Kyle was suspicious enough not to bring up Forlorn Hope and how he had been informed about a ransom demand for Kiara's life. Instead he decided to use this opportunity and ask more questions: "How did she lose the memory, by the way? Neither of you mentioned that. I assumed it was due to her Sirian shuttle getting crashed."

The Gaul simply shrugged again: "We're not sure, but we think it was from the crash, oui." Remy took another sip from his glass and paused for a couple of seconds. What drew Kyle's attention here is that he didn't say anything against the shuttle being Sirian, even though he had just told Kyle he had only knonwn of Aurora's Gallic shuttle. Remy could've just missed that part though... But before Kyle could make sense of it, there was another question.

"Hmm... Do you know anyone with purple hair? Aurora mentioned one such woman, that seemed to have harmed her or something, but she couldn't remember much. I've been curious about that," the Gaul asked, and the question got Kyle thinking how much he could reveal. In the end, he decided on telling the truth, but in limited amounts and without details: "Purple hair? More like blue hair, I'd say. Yeah, I met that one. She seemed to be very protective of Kiara, and quite nosy, going as far as planting a tracking device on her shuttle. That's how she tracked us down to Freeport 6 when we..." Kyle paused and sighed here, remembering what he and Kiara were doing there; telling that to the Gaul wasn't a good idea, so he returned to describing that purple-haired woman: "If you found me annoying and persistent, just you wait until she crosses your path."

Kyle didn't feel inclined talk more about that woman. It was Elena Voigt, the same person who had informed Kyle about Kiara being captured. So instead Kyle tried to return the conversation to the previous topic: "Do clarify one thing though. One day Kiara just went missing. How did you find her in her present state? I'm trying to piece together what happened exactly since I had last seen her."

The Gaul emptied the glass and put it back on the table: "I found her on her ship in one of the Taus, I don't really remember which. She was unconscious when I got there, so I brought her back with me." Kyle nodded, trying to put some pieces of the puzzle together. Remy said he didn't know of Kiara's shuttle other than Aurochs, a Gallic model. The Forlorn Hope hadn't told Kyle which of Kiara's ships was found in the Taus, so Kyle's mention of her Voyager shuttle was only a hunch. So, either the Forlorn Hope had known of the Aurochs (which was unlikely, seeing how Kyle had never seen that ship, and the Forlorn Hope weren't exactly a pro-Gallic group), or the Gaul knew more than he was sharing. Something just didn't add up. But Kyle couldn't dwell on it, as he had to keep up the conversation: "I see... So, you mentioned 'her ship'. You just left it drifting in the Taus?"

"Uh? Oui, I left it there. It was in a pretty lousy state anyway. It would only be extra work to bring it back," the Gaul replied, without having noticed that he had already made a mistake. Or was it just wishful thinking on Kyle's behalf? "I assume it was salvaged by the Outcasts or the Zoners," the Gaul continued. Kyle made a fake sigh, going all in with this attempt to check how forthcoming Remy was: "As I mentioned earlier, her ship was ripped apart by the Junkers. Those scavengers take everything that's made out of something else than rock. I'm sorry about that."

The ruse didn't work; after some hesitation, Remy just changed the topic again: "Anything else you'd like to know? Have you decided what you're going to ask her, since we started talking?" Realizing that such blunt attempts probably wouldn't work, Kyle replied reluctantly, yet truthfully: "No, I think there isn't anything else. It's more about answering her questions by now. When I met you two, I only wanted to ask her 'Why?' Apparently it's not an option now. I just want her to regain her memories, so she'd tell me where we stand."

"Alright, I won't keep you much longer. I just wanted to ask one more thing. Do you know anything about a group of people called Forlorn? I heard that name from her, a couple of times before she lost her memories, but I never really paid much attention to it, to be honest. Lately, I've been wondering if they'd know what made her crash her ship."

Kyle tilted his head. Could it be related to the previous question about the possibility of more people being involved? However, Kyle didn't know what to think of it, so he decided to tell the truth again, although without going into details: "We crossed paths in Sirius, albeit barely. I think I saw them in space once, talking to some Golden Chrysanthemums and Brigands in Tau-29. That blue-haired woman you mentioned was apparently with them, or so much Kiara told me. Why do you think they'd know anything about Kiara?"

Despite his suspicions, Kyle couldn't quite place what exactly was wrong with the whole thing. Forlorn told that Kiara was a captive, yet she wasn't. The Gaul said the Forlorn might know something about why Kiara ended up where she did. Kyle had been told by them that Kiara's ship was found in Tau-37, but only later was he told that Kiara was hostage, so that part seemed to add up. Still, some vital pieces of the puzzle weren't there.

In the meantime the Brigand replied: "I have no idea if they know what happened to her. However, since neither me nor her know how she got into that state, I thought it was worth a shot to ask about them." He yawned before continuing: "Anything you could tell me about them and that woman? Even if I asked Aurora, I doubt she could answer."

Kyle yawned as well: "I barely crossed paths with them." That was actually true, he only talked to them once, and that was when Elena found him and Kiara on Freeport 6. "Lawful mercs, seem to be hanging around Liberty, judging by what I heard from Kiara. That blue-haired woman is one of them, goes by Elena Voigt, apparently. A friend of Kiara, from what I know. That's about it, I don't really know much more."

"A friend of Aurora, huh? This is the first I've heard of this...Elena. Any idea why Aurora would be having the ocasional nightmare with her?" Remy asked. Kyle jush shook his head: "I wouldn't know why Kiara would get nightmares about her... unless it had something to do with that tracking device she had planted on Kiara's ship."

In the end, the Gaul seemed somewhat satisfied with Kyle's answers: "Alright, I think those were all the questions I had. As agreed, I'll go tell Aurora to come talk to you." Remy got up from his chair and streched his arms before continuing: "There is a catch though. I don't want you to tell her anything truthful you haven't said already in the bar." At first Kyle was that Remy decided to uphold his end of the bargain. But the 'catch' got him off guard, leading to a weird smirk in the corner of his lips, which the Gaul must have noticed. "Like I said before, I don't want her getting any needless memories back. Expecially ones involving Sirius. So, when you talk, you're going to be vague and come up with a few lies. If I notice her acting any stranger, I may decide to hurt one or even both of you."

Kyle regained control momentarily, hiding the smirk. Remy's story was getting Kyle suspicious, and now the Gaul even went as far as making threats out of nowhere. Regardless of what Kiara may have done, the Gaul was not to be trusted. Kyle's expression got serious, as he replied: "Cards on the table, huh? You really don't strike me as a caring husband. I heard you though. But since you've been so nice and open to me, I'll return the favour by being as open: if you decide to hurt me or her, I may decide to bite back."

With that, Kyle reached into his pocket of his leather jacket: "But now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a little more Cardamine to take. This whole thing has been rather stressful. I think you'd rather keep your distance, si? After that I'll be ready to talk to Kiara." Remy's expression changed at the mention of Cardamine: "Put that away." He kept his eyes on Kyle as he continued: "What are you going to do if you have to 'bite back'? Will you kill me and everyone on the ship? I'm sure she'll believe you were protecting her if you start attacking people like that. Whatever you tell her will be little more than a murderer's word."

Kyle's expression changed to that of surprise an amusement as he heard Remy actually considered the possibility of Kyle being successful, and even more so, Remy's reaction at the mention of Cardamine. Who would've thought that the blasted substance which bound Kyle to planet Malta (just like it had done to colonists from the Sleeper Ship Hispania centuries ago), might now be Kyle's saving grace?

Kyle didn't have any weapons, apart from a vial of Cardamine in his inhaler. A certain amount of that substance gave the user a boost in reflexes and strength, but it came at a toll of addiction. Kyle didn't know how much Cardamine it took to get addicted, because he tried to avoid using the substance, and he was only addicted because he had been captured by one of the Outcasts and taken to planet Malta, where Cardamine was everywhere: in the air, in the water, and in the wildlife. Still, he tried to avoid using it unless absolutely necessary for survival. This could be just the case.

A chuckle escaped Kyle's mouth: "What's wrong? I thought the Brigands were all about freedom of doing what they wanted. And seeing how you seemed reluctant to be near Cardamine, I just gave you a friendly warning to keep the distance." Kyle put the inhaler on the table, his hand on it. "And I don't know what I'd do, because you haven't done anything to me or her yet. I'm just reminding you that every action has a reaction, Remy. Now, if you'll excuse me..." Kyle stood up and turned away from Remy to use the inhaler; he had trouble taking Cardamine in front of people, even though that substance had altered him so much that it was required for him to live. When Kyle was done, he hid the inhaler in his pocket and turned back to Remy: "Now I'm ready to talk to Kiara."

At least the Gaul didn't do anything about Kyle's stunt. He simply replied: "Alors, I'll get her. You stay put." He walked towards the door and left, saying nothing else to Kyle, only muttering "Bete de merde" before closing the door behind him.