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Watson butted in after she finished that train of thought. There’s a message from Toke.
“Is it urgent?” She had to ask aloud for Watson to hear.
It is not flagged as such.
“Then it can wait.” Talking to oneself wasn’t seen as a psychiatric disorder with the matter of futuristic technology. One was most likely talking to an A.I. or talking on a cross line in the ship.
Watson made a clicking sound, which made her grimace in return. She hated that sound as it rang loudly, vibrating her ear drums. It was his way of expressing his displeasure.
Quinn didn’t seem to register her talking at all. If he did, he didn’t seem bothered by it. The drone that cleared his plate came back for the rest of the supplies. Quinn ducked out before she could get another word in edge-wise.
The message from Toke was simple and to the point. A date, time, and location. She had asked for a meeting before the Callistar left Eikos, and he’d given her about a week to cool her heels. Kira mused he probably hoped she’d come to something akin to peace with his orders, to avoid yet another argument.
Chapter Six
KIRA
Their normal schedule resumed for the next day. Quinn being left to his own devices. Lunch, or something closer to breakfast, considering his schedule delivered by Kira around his workspace. Tuesday brought a change as she waited patiently for him to appear, all while hearing a distant grumbling.
She stopped one of the hovering drones by touching its side. It looked like another octopus that simply floated with its legs swinging about. It turned, presenting its front face, which was a rather large viewing screen.
“Would you let Quinn know I am here?”
It beeped acknowledging her before swinging around and heading up to where the new reactor core was being installed. Quinn popped out feet first, crawling backwards.
Kira kept quiet until his feet hit the solid platform that he’d raised up for his work. “I will be gone for a week. Would you like me to have someone on the Eikos bring you something for lunch?”
“Why the fe...” The man started. He paused, working his mouth closed with an effort, frowning slightly.
To Kira, he looked like a fish out of water when his mouth was open. The gears weren’t quite visibly turning, but it amused her to think he had to process how to reply.
The same awkward gesticulating of opening and closing came before he struggled out with, "Thank ye... fer asking... I will have a drone get my lunch."
She could tell he was trying to be nice, and possibly trying to resist pointing out that he’d been capable of handling his food before her, which would have been rude. It was clearly painful for him to piece together a reply that wasn’t telling her to fek off in the strange Irish accent he’d concocted.
“Oh, that was hard for you, wasn’t it?” Perhaps teasing him wasn’t the right move, but she wasn’t drunk this time and she’d seen the frown before he’d haltingly got out his words.
“Oh, fek off, I tried.” Quinn flipped her the bird, vanishing back into the reactor core.
Kira covered her mouth to stifle a bit of laughter. The ambient music, which she hardly even noticed anymore, changed drastically. It had been more mellow and now was suddenly harsh and deafening.
I think you made the poor boy angry.
Kira could not reply without yelling, so she’d walk back the way she came until the music didn’t threaten to burst her eardrums. “Oh fek off,” she told Watson, mimicking Quinn.
The burst of short static that sounded in her mind was almost like a snort coming back across the line.
Are we no longer respecting his privacy?
“I am respecting it to the extent that I expect he respected mine.”
Watson repeated the fuzzily gray noise. It hit intensely sharp in such a short burst.
“You know I hate that Watson, if you need to scold me, just do it verbally.”
This is more effective.
“If your goal is to get me to shut you off.”
