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Kira avoided looking down. Morgan wore his flight suit, and for a semi-fitted onesie, it did wonders to highlight his assets and if he caught her eyes anywhere near his ass, she’d be hearing about it for weeks.
Morgan smacked a side console on their way in and the ramp lifted, making her half-jog the last few steps down at an angle. Landing firmly on her feet, she followed him through to the small bridge. The Valstar was a wonder of technology. Twin side engines, transport and cargo space, small crew quarters, only two, but efficiently sized above the cargo space in the small common area, and the bridge which housed four stations. Two were directly in front of the large windows, the other two were behind them flanking the side walls for monitoring, but the chairs and a smaller extension area could also be turned forward on a pivot. Kira strapped into the front station on the left in front, as the right was the main pilot chair.
“How’s the upgrades coming?” Morgan flipped switches, preparing for takeoff. Both knew they should clear the Eikos with minimal fuss due to the ranking of his vessel.
“More like a retrofit than an upgrade,” Kira said with a sigh. “The entire ship is being torn apart. Quinn is making sure everything is up to his standard. I doubt there will be anything original left, other than the meal trays.”
Morgan laughed good-naturedly as the ship lifted, turning about to clear the interior docking bay heading for open space. “Can’t beat the original design on those.”
“It’s a classic,” she agreed half-heartedly, still managing a smile for him.
They lapsed into silence for a short while. Morgan didn’t need to fill the space which left her with her thoughts, and Watson buzzing around somewhere. He remained on the Callistar, splitting his consciousness in order to accompany her. It was the practice for away missions as well. He would re-upload anything he gained on the mission on their return. Not that this was a mission, it was simply meeting Toke and making the introduction for Max. Something she could quite do without having him in her ear.
Meeting up with Max for pick up went smoothly enough. His pleasure at seeing Morgan was purely genuine, as was it at seeing her. Then the meeting with Toke went semi pleasantly. She did their introductions properly this time and left them to it. Toke clearly wished to discuss Quinn. He pushed on the subject before she’d dismissed herself, but she refused to elaborate other than he’d been diligent.
QUINN
Quinn, back on the Callistar, met the expectation of the word she’d used to describe him. He gave no words of luck or goodbye when she’d departed. But he’d kept tabs on her movements on the station, and noted the ship. Tracking its progress, he had slipped a small tracking beacon and drone in Kira’s luggage. It concealed itself well in the suitcase. While not hyper focused upon the results of its feedback, certain words were flagged for review. His name, the Callistar, Paradigm, anything that was concerning enough to review in case there was a lapse in the security of his position.
A conversation between Kira and Toke that had been flagged, was one he heard even if he could not see it…
“And Quinn? How is his work coming along?” Toke sounded curious, or so the filter that he put the conversation through told him.
“Good,” Kira replied. The word came too quickly. “He’s practically making an entirely new ship.”
“That’s what he did to mine as well.”
Kira was silent for a full ten seconds.
Toke spoke again. “Have you had any contact with him?”
“I leave him to his own devices. You said it was best not to interfere,” she lied openly, but while he knew it was a lie, the system pinged nothing awkward about the words. She sounded bored, according to the analysis.
“That’s… good.”
“Mhm,” Kira hummed back. “Well, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way.”
“Kira?”
“Yes?”
“Be careful,” fatherly, compassionate, loving. The system told him that about those two words. How he packed it in there in such a short two-word sentence was something Quinn couldn’t explain. It didn’t matter. She’d not said anything concerning.
Still, the man sulked, though he’d never admit it. Kira had really pissed him off since he’d been making a concentrated effort to not be rude to her. Then she’d gone and been rude to him and he did not know why she would do that.
Teasing was not a concept that he was familiar with. He didn’t know that she was just trying to be funny. The man was about as socially maladjusted as they came. Just shy of a feral child raised with no human contact for their entire life.
They took great care to curate and filter everything he could access in his youth, so as not to harm his development as a child. So he didn’t even have many common movies and books to base things on. The reason his taste in music was so ancient was because he’d found out that the content filter didn’t sort classical music by sub-genre.
In terms of gaining Quinn’s trust, her decision to be rude to him and laugh about it appeared a total betrayal.
One he was unlikely to forget.
He closed his eyes, resting his head against the cool metal of the reactor. The music had returned to its normal volume a long time ago. With his eyes closed and the music playing loud, he could almost drown out his own thoughts. Kira was only part of his focus. The memories of what he’d learned and what he’d seen haunted him. He’d given Paradigm the key to galactic peace. They’d used it to destroy a planet.
The image played over and over in his head. Not only had they blown it up, but they’d also sent down drones to record the footage. He’d gotten to watch as tens of millions of innocent people were consumed in an energy burst. They didn’t even have time to scream, as their bodies were reduced to nothing more than cosmic dust.
It wanted to play over and over in his mind. But if he kept busy and kept the music loud, then he could keep it at bay. Pushing away from the metal, he let out a long, low, exhale of breath, shaking a bit as he shrugged off the memory. Then he got back to work.
