And like DeAndre promised, he swung by Ki's place alone. He was a man of his word when he made a promise, and Ki could get all the allies she needed in this dump. He looked strangely at the house she lived in, and he wasn't sure how to approach it, so he parked his hoverbike and knocked on what he thought was a real door.
"Over here, Dee!" Ki hissed at him from a window, guiding him to a well-hidden one-way door, one of the other real entrances to the house. "Just watch your step, and just keep moving when you step through, because that door will slap your ass if you don't."
"Damn, Ki, ya live like this?" he followed her words, almost tripping over and stumbling as he walked through the door and, indeed, he did almost get his bum hit by it.
"Yeah, it doesn't look like much, but it's… home, I guess," Ki shrugged, holding Debenau in her arms, with Gordon by her side.
"Ya have a baby, too?! Ki, this ain't a place to raise a kiddo, 'specially not an Abh kiddo!" DeAndre started to fret and worry. He hated kids being in danger of any sort, even in the "safety" of their house. "How'd ya manage to…?"
"...I extorted a doctor to do the genetic tweaking needed," she admitted. "Wasn't any other way, I had to brute force her to do what I wanted to do, and I made damn sure to keep her mouth shut after that."
In a planet rife with crime like this, it was easy for Ki to fall into the sins that plagued her family. "So you… you killed her?"
"If I kept her alive, she'd spill the beans to other patients, and those patients would try to hunt me down. This whole planet's corrupt, Dee, ya think doctors are gonna follow their whole patient confidentiality stuff? Especially since I told her I was an Abh?"
It really wasn't as easy as back in the day, back in the prime of the Dozeryua family's criminal activity, where they at least had their own genetic engineers constantly held hostage… to work for them or to die right on the spot if they refused.
"That's one reason, anyways," Ki snorted. "A little voice in my head told me to. There's the other, smaller reason. Anyways, make yourself at home, grab a beer, and a snack, we need a chat." And it was a much-needed discussion, with Ki telling her story. "So that's that, that's how I ended up in the dumpster fire that's my life."
"Wow… so what now?" DeAndre sat slackjawed at his fellow street rats.
"Aye, that's exactly why Ki asked ye to come over," Gordon scratched his head. "We wanna escape, an' we're wonderin' if ye'd be willin' to join. She told me… that yer a wee bit kinder than others 'ere."
DeAndre looked thoughtful for a second. Like his tattoo artist, he had his own hands dirty with his fair share of bad deeds, all just to survive in this hellhole. "Ki knows, I told her once, but I've got a ship, Gordie, ya see…" he let Gordon in on a secret. "Used it for black market items, mostly. Thugs like us gotta make money somehow," he justified.
"And yer willin' to let us borrow it?"
"I'm more than willin', I'mma join ya, Gordon. Maybe Ki can put in a few words fo' us to the Empress an' have her fix up our janked planet. Ki wanna get back to the military anyways, yeah?"
"Yeah, but what about you guys?" Ki butted in. "I have my plans set, I just… need you to be safe, and someone to take care of Debenau," she rattled a toy in front of him, the baby boy giggling and reaching out for it. "I don't even trust other Abh to babysit him…" she admitted, but she didn't know what to do. Gordon would probably be considered unfit to raise Debenau by himself, since he didn't know Abh culture, and because he'd probably be considered a United Mankind citizen. Worst case scenario was that Empress Ramaj would put Debenau with some Abh parent who'd probably hate him, and she didn't want to think of that. The best case scenario would be sticking him with his genetic nearest of kin, Ki's mother's family… wherever they were. She felt horrible and just picked him up and hugged him. "I dunno what they'll do with ya, kiddo…" she sighed.
"'Oi, chin up, Ki. We'll figure it out," Gordon hugged her. For now, they'd think on their escape plan, and figure out the rest on the way there.
"Right," Ki nodded. "So we'll meet up here next week. I'll just let all my clients know that I'm closing up shop and I'll be away somewhere else on the planet. Convincing enough lie, I think, and saying some real thuggish mobsters want my head… icing on the cake, makes it a bit more believable. We'll sneak out when it's the least busy so no one ever suspects a thing. We fly on out, we send a distress signal out, and hopefully… Labule ships will get it."
"Sounds like a good plan," DeAndre nodded. "But what about him? How're we gonna keep him quiet?" He pointed at Debenau.
"I know what knocks him out, don't worry. He's a good kid, he's starting to sleep through the night now, too," she cradled him. "Yo, Dee… if you find Heather, mind asking her if she wanna tag along?"
Heather was the other one of Ki's amicable exes, a dark skinned Lander woman with fiery red hair, DeAndre's cousin. It was a pipe dream, of course; one day, she just disappeared. "Maybe, we'll see," he shook his head. He hadn't seen her since then, either, and they only had a week before they'd leave the planet… possibly for good. There was always that small chance Heather herself escaped to join the Abh, but… Ki doubted it. She doubted anything remotely positive. "Heather's a tough cookie, Ki. I'm sure she's okay… wherever she at."
"Yeah, well… I wanna hope you're right, Dee, but I just can't," Ki admitted. "I'll believe it when I see it, I guess." Gordon patted her on the shoulder, trying to comfort her "So… leave everything behind, everything that's not important. Take just what you need," she advised. She had a knack for planning, especially like the higher ups in the Labule, though she didn't really realize that. "That's Plan #1."
"An' what if we get caught?" Gordon couldn't help but to ask.
"Plan #2: knock them out cold or gun them down, if you gotta. We're in charge of our own weapons, I'm sure we all know," the street rat checked that off. She looked out of the window. It had been so long since she last saw the stars, would she feel like she belonged? "I'm gonna be back home, but it won't feel like home… and it's gonna be Debenau's first time in space, too," she mused. "We're gonna be like… fish out of water, he's gonna see all sorts of stuff for the first time, things he'd never see if he grows up here."
She supposed the one good thing here was that her ex-boyfriend George wouldn't be around. She broke up with him prior to joining the academy, and received a scar on her face as a result from the confrontation. Since then, however, she saw neither hide nor hair of his worthless arse. She hoped it would stay that way… but then other exes might catch wind and try to gun her down. Most weren't an issue, they backed off and ended their relationship with her once she started to fight back, and she was a dreadfully scrappy and dirty fighter.
Other than George, one other was a major issue. Ki narrowed her eyes at the thought and at the memories. One of her ex-girlfriends Gina almost killed Ki in cold blood, and she was the only one who ever figured out she was an Abh. "Wonder why she never told anyone…" she thought out loud. It never really made sense to Ki that she kept that dirty secret to herself. "Wonder what her plans are…"
"Who?" DeAndre butted in.
"An ex. She's the meanest, most violent piece of garbage I ever dated. Just remembering her's making my scars hurt… A blondie with big cutesie eyes, shorter than me, but… don't be tricked by that. Makes George look like a goddamn angel in comparison," she explained.
Sure, Ki planned out their escape, but what good would that do if either George or Gina caught them? Ki would prefer to avoid killing another person, if she could help it… but this was a bit different. "Plan #2A: Gordon's seen her before, and he's got my blessing to shoot her down and leave her for dead if she sees us in our little escape."
The Lander thug wanted to ask Ki about what exactly happened, but decided not to prod on. "So what's she planning?"
"No clue, and that scares the hell outta me," Ki responded back. "It's exactly why we gotta shoot her down if we see her."
"And this George guy?"
"I haven't seen him lately, but still… just be on your toes," in all honesty, the street rat was actually rather nervous. It was basically two violent exes gone, neither hide nor hair seen ever since then; they could still be biding their time, or they might have moved on to new targets. She looked at the clock; it was late, even considering Nokturnela's perpetual darkness. Debenau fussed a bit, he needed his sleep. "Well… this ends this meeting, hit me up if you guys hit any snags before then." Ki rocked her baby, kissing him on the forehead as the youngster yawned and fell asleep, being handed off to his dad.
"Aye, time to go to sleep, wee squirt!" Gordon fawned as he went to put Debenau to bed.
Dee was curious on more than a few things… "How'd you…?" he pointed at Ki's bandana, obviously referring to her frosh. Surely, with all the people she slept with, they'd find out of her identity as an Abh?
"Lots of makeup like you wouldn't believe. I really hate wearing makeup, so I had to plan carefully when I'd smother it on… and it's kinda why I prefer using the bandana to cover it up, I just tell people I like this fighter aesthetic and they leave me alone, luckily. If they don't, they get a good kick in the dick or stomach."
"An' you said you killed the doc'... who had to help ya when ya had to squeeze him outta ya?"
"Another doctor, and I had to get Gordon to kill him off," she admitted, sighing a bit. She hated remembering what she had to do, she hated the blood she had on her hands. "I wish it wasn't like this, but what could I do?"
Silence for a few seconds as he took it all in, wrangling with the fact that this pretty chill tattoo artist resorted to murdering people just to be safe. "So… what exactly are the Abh like?" DeAndre couldn't help but ask, Ki would be pretty much his only experience with the so-called enemy. That, and at least it'd shift the topic a bit.
"Honestly… besides my family and the basic biological and cultural stuff, I don't even know. The two things I know is that we Abh love zero gravity, we were made for it. We actually need it when we're babies, you see, so they can develop their sense of direction," she summed up, "and we have our little sensory organ, not like a third eye… but if you were following me, and I wasn't looking, I could tell you how far or close you are, that's the easiest way to describe it. A sixth sense, I guess."
"Yo, hold on… with the gravity stuff, then what about yo' baby? An' you? An' yo' daddy an' granddaddy when they grew up?"
"Aha! We have a tightly kept secret room in the basement. It's nothing too fancy, but it got the job done," Ki showed him downstairs, an extremely well-hidden set of stairs that led to a zero-gravity chamber. "Back in the family's heyday, we had the tech to make a room for zero g's, so when we eventually went underground, we made… this," she flipped the switch, pushing Dee off to the field.
"Kiii, this ain't funny!" DeAndre felt like he was going to be sick as he floated about, his first time in zero gravity, and the tattoo artist shut it off, laughing her ass off at the poor man's predicament as he landed on his back. "Man, you can be so cruel," he feigned being hurt, brushing himself off.
"Hey, no need to feel bad, you didn't do too bad for your first time in zero g!" Ki snorted a bit, grinning like an imp.
"So tell me more, what's their culture like an' all that jazz?"
"Can't say I know much about Abh culture, but I can definitely say that most Abh I ever knew when I was in the academy were cruel, and those who didn't join in… well, they ignored how I was being treated," she hummed. "Well, except one, and she was hardly… a typical Abh, anyways. They're supposed to be all pretty and elegant and sophisticated, but… not in my experience. My only friend was some hillbilly with green hair, with the prettiest orange eyes," she grinned at the nostalgia, the only good memories she made in the academy. "I just hope she's doing well, I haven't seen her in years…"
"Wait… I thought you was supposed to have blue hair," Dee looked stumped as all hell, and it showed how clueless he was about the Abh. He just had to know about… well, everything about them, to see if they were different from what the UM portrayed them as. This was as good a time as any other, maybe even better, as now Ki had at least an extra friend on her side, and she was right, this was a much-needed chat for him. She got to unload her whole story, and he got to learn about the Abh.
"Eh, green and purple are fine and all," Kizelia waved off casually, though she had a feeling that there was more to it than that. "Dee, if you've got anything else to say, spit it out. I know you're not the type to nitpick on the small things."
"Man… they always say that the Abh dun like their kids… that their kids just a part of a big machine, but then I see you an' yo kid… I dunno what to think. You look an' act like any otha' human bein' out there…"
"Dee, ya bet your ass that propaganda is wrong as hell about the Abh. I definitely know one thing… we Abh wanna have a good relationship with our kiddos, it's the most important relationship in our culture. I'm sure as hell that my kid makes me happy when I see him. Question all the propaganda you see from here on out, man. Just don't fight the power, because they'll probably kill ya."
Next chapter:
"Escape routes?" Ki perked up a bit. "Listen closely, Baroness Dairuzu," she beckoned her closer, "I have a plan to escape from here, with a few of my buddies, You want in?" She had a feeling Ruseja would be a great help with the plan, and she felt that it was high time for the noble to go back to her family.
"...Tell me more," the baroness mused, definitely interested. The more allies in on this plan, the better.