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Quinn did not wake for… Eleven hours, thirty-two minutes, and eleven seconds. Give or take about thirty minutes for the time his net had been off before he’d fallen asleep. System alerts piled in as he reconnected. A few projects called for his attention, but most work had continued under an emergency drone controlled A.I. he’d put into place before the neural net had been turned off.
Crawling off of the cushions, he rearranged them to the exact specifications on their arrival. Heading back to work, he sent out a short, “Sorry this took so long. I just woke up. Thanks for last night.”
“You’re welcome,” was the response he received. Warm and lovely in tone, but with some background noise- people laughing. A quick check showed that Kira wasn’t on board the ship anymore.
It passed from his mind for a few days before he updated her. “Might take me longer to finish than I thought.”
“Take your time, setbacks are normal,” was the message he got back and something akin to a care package with his meal. A warm blanket, a collection of music on a data drive, and even some muffins for breakfast.
He, in return, sent her something equally precious as the care she’d put into the package. “I didn’t change the door code.”
Chapter Nine
KIRA
Kira stared at the message and the little box that had accompanied it. It had been almost a full week since she’d returned to the little apartment-like box on the Eikos. She’d ingratiated herself to some of the crew serving on the station, so she’d not been lonely. Kira wondered if Quinn was and shrugged it off. Aside from the few messages she’d sent, she assumed otherwise.
Are you going to open it or stare at it all day?
“Why, Watson? Are you curious?”
…
It was unassuming- a small metal box with a simple clasp that no wider than her hand or taller. Tempted to allow it to remain a mystery, just to mess with Watson, she popped the edge and leaned it back.
Inside laid a gecko, just like Gary, with skin made of violet so dark it was almost obsidian, but still crystalline, a gleam reflecting off faceted edges. A note rested under it that said: Her name is Gabby, just say it and she will turn on.
“Hi, Gabby,” she peered down at the creature, absolutely as fascinated as she had been with Gary.
The enormous eyes opened, and it raised its head, tilting it as if adjusting the way its neck attached and placing it into position. Making a full circle before it spotted Kira, it raised the tip of its chin, the brighter violet eyes blinking once. A flash of light passed through them, which reminded Kira very much of Quinn’s net being turned off, before it rose, pulling itself out the side of the box and scampering towards her open hand.
Kira laughed.
Gabby?
“He made me my own little pet, Watson, oh I wish you could see her. She’s precious.”
Gabby crawled up her arm and under her chin, nuzzling there and crossing over her collarbone and down her other arm, completing a full circuit.
I’m sure she is.
The hour was too late to wander through the Eikos so she chose to stay one more night. Gabby slept curled up on Kira’s pillow, nestling into her hair, hiding in the dark locks matching the very color and disappearing into them. Morning light broke the nighttime, a simple subroutine to mimic the passing of time, with lights dimming and rising at set times.
Kira readied herself before leaving to find sustenance. But the gecko had other plans. When the door opened it took off like lightning, leaving the Captain chasing her across the deck.
“Gabby!” Frustrated cries followed the critter. Kira did not realize where they were going until they’d arrived at the corridor that led out to the Callistar.
A return meant exploring the changes Quinn made. Gabby’s tiny little pinprick claws scrabbled at the door insistently. Scooping up the tiny traitor, she’d tell her, “I get the point, we’ll go in.”
The gecko stopped resisting, turning the half smiling face upward as if it were pleased with victory but Kira met it with eye-rolling.
Their entrance became punctuated by them passing several new devices throughout that she’d never seen before, even on Toke’s ship. It felt as if she were rediscovering an old friend who had been through a major life change.
There was an entirely new room Quinn had somehow added to the hydroponics bay. Which he’d made large enough to run an industrial multi-tiered hydroponics farm to grow a variety of vegetable matter. All of it could be processed into the raw caloric and nutritional requirements a human body needed, and injected with a flavoring gel to make them taste like whatever you wanted, or used in actual cooking. It was a self-sustaining system as well, with some creative re-working of the ship’s sewage system and a composting system. It was what would let the Callistar be out in deep space nigh on indefinitely.
Hela would be extremely pleased at the addition, surely, as the large orange tree was still cooped up over in its corner. Walking down the rows, she knew this was what deep space required, but it was still a wake up call. They were leaving for a good while. Things were changing.
Leaving hydroponics and traversing the halls, she suddenly noticed the silence. Usually, there was the low hum of the reactor that seemed to move through the ship. The sound of pipes in the walls moving liquids, the low whirring of hidden machinery in the walls. Now though? It was almost utterly silent, perhaps a bit of a low hum she could just catch, but other than that... it barely sounded like the same ship.
