Cynewulf
I've gone way too long without posting another fragment, so this one is very rough. I'll come back and clean it up later.
Caedmon's wristpad had been updated with the layover suite key, and he swiped his hand over the lock. The door pulled half an inch into the room from its frame and hissed gently as it slid to the side. The lights came on, slightly dimmer than the hall for ambiance.
He stepped into the first section of the suite, a small room with a chair and table. A dispenser to his right supplied water, and a slot would produce a tray of food from the kitchen on request. The door hissed shut behind him, its panel sliding over the frame and settling outward, sealing the room from any pressure breach in the hall and magnetically locking shut.
Caed touched the door to his left, which slid into the wall and revealed the tiny restroom. The receptionist had informed him of the water prices, but they were listed on the wall of the shower stall beside a display that would show how much was being used. There was a door in each room that led forward to the bedroom.
He tapped the door leading from the dining room to the bedroom, tired from his last assignment and just wanting to sleep. The restroom slid closed, and the bedroom opened, already dimly lit. He stepped into the room and looked at the single mattress, the screen on the wall, the table and chair.
A tall canine was sitting in the chair. The hairs on Caed's neck stood up, his breath caught in his throat. His first instinct was to run, but he knew that if his pursuers were already in his room, they were surely outside it as well. Instead he stood frozen, struggling to see details in the dim light.
"Hello, Caed." Came the familiar voice.
"Sin?" Caedmon asked breathlessly. What was his brother doing here?
"You know I prefer Kin, but it can be pronounced that way." Cyn replied.
Their father's obsession with Anglo-Saxon poets had given them both their names. Caedmon, named for the first English poet whose name was known, was older than Cynewulf by two years.
"Why are you here? You aren't really going to take me back to him, are you?" Caedmon's voice was heavy with fear. He hadn't seen his brother in half a decade, and he had never been able to beat his brother in a fight or a chase.
While both of them were augmented to survive in a vacuum with a suit, they were made for very different purposes. Caedmon was designed for engineering work, Cyn for battle. Everything that the otter could do, this wolf would do better.
"No. I'm here to warn you he's close. He'll be on this station in a few hours. The records will say that I got here a few minutes before his bounty hunters, and you were already gone."
"You're helping me?" Caed was completely caught off guard. Growing up, the wolf never would have backed up his brother.
"I saw what he did to you. He made mistakes training you so hard, and while I used to think that they were just mistakes and you should return to him... It's been seven years since you escaped. You'd have been an adult for four years if he'd given you human rights. There's no reason for him to still be chasing you. I couldn't keep helping him, but I can't really help you, either."
"You're acting like you have a choice. I thought you were his loyal, obedient killing machine, doing whatever he told you to do."
Cyn looked hurt, but Caed didn't feel any remorse for lashing out at him. "Things have changed. He realized he pushed you too hard, and decided to give the rest of his children human rights last year. We aren't property anymore, we're not pets. Alfred is still a minor, until later this year, and Beeda isn't far behind."
"Then why is he still after me?" Caed almost shouted, stepping fully into the room. The door slid silently shut behind him. Tears rimmed his eyes. Five years on the run, and his little brothers were being treated as humans. He couldn't believe their father would give them their rights, but to still be chasing Caed after the others had been freed? It was devastating.
"He's stubborn. You wronged him, so he's got a vendetta over it. You ran off, denied him his chance to let you go on his own. You're still technically his property, you know."
"I am no one's property, dammit!" Now he was shouting, and the anger caused his tears to spill down his cheeks. "The laws are going to change soon, and I'll be reclassified as human. He won't have any right to hunt me down."
"I know," Cyn said calmly, "but until that day, you're still a mod two, and the property of your designer until released. You have to stay out of his reach until then. I know you've been running for half a decade, I know you're tired, but you have to hold out just a little while longer."
"Kin, I don't want to run anymore." His tiredness returned, and he sat heavily on the corner of the bed. "I want to make friends. I don't want to have to work for free so that captains will keep me off their records. I want to have a life."
"I'm sorry, Caed. I can't help you any more than I already am. He got me a position at SolCon as soon as I was old enough, so I have the resources to be here now. But this is it. I'm pulling every string I have to be here without anyone knowing."
Caedmon put his head in his hands. How long would it be? Another year? Two? He felt like he was falling apart at the seams already. He felt a firm hand on his shoulder, and looked up. "You're so much taller..."
"Seven years will do that, brother. I'm all grown up now." Up close, Caedmon could see better despite the dim lights. The wolf's black and brown fur was thick. He had a tribal tattoo bleached onto his right bicep, which disappeared under his vest. His warm, olive coloured eyes looked down on Caedmon's emerald orbs with a comforting gaze.
"And your eyes have faded. They used to be as bright as mine." The tears were drying, and his voice was strong again.
"I think he spent more time on your eyes. And your mind. He had different priorities with me." He lifted the otter to his feet.