AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not in particular. I do need to know when to recall the crew, but you’re welcome to extend your timeline.”
“Ship should be done in about... eight to twelve days, depending on how many more... episodes I have.” Quinn took another bite, chewing thoroughly. “Oh, you can tell Watson his body is going to be done growing in about two weeks.” The man thought to say that since the A.I. might want to know the status of that and it had alerted him to Kira’s distress.
“He can hear you.” She tapped behind her ear. “He doesn’t understand the meaning of privacy sometimes.”
“Well, there you have it then. Thanks for dinner.” One of his cleaning droids swept in to clean his mess.
“You’re welcome.” He caught a frown, the expression difficult to miss on such an expressive face, but he did not comment on it, just slipped back out.
There would continue to be no arguments throughout the week. Quinn showed up at six every evening to eat with her before vanishing. Without the gruff arguing, though, it really drove home how absolutely horrid he was at small talk. As in, he didn’t seem to be aware it was a thing people did.
Kira consistently asked him if he was working on his guitar, a subject that came up about his new hobbies he’d been looking into. She asked after Gary, and let the two little geckos chase each other around. On a night towards the end of the week when she told him a story about Alec, she reached across the table and touched his hand without thinking.
Mostly, Quinn wasn’t opposed to answering questions, but he still seemed to struggle to come up with ones of his own. She learned he practiced his guitar when he took personal time. When her hand touched his, he stiffened in surprise, but otherwise didn’t react. She’d draw it back almost as quickly as she extended it but it seemed difficult for her to keep from little gestures. He noticed it was small things still, a touch on the shoulder here, a wave, she’d bring him lunch and sometimes wait for a second to talk about his current project. It wasn’t with the interest of someone really worried about his progress, but the interest of someone interested in what made him tick. He’d find she smiled more than she had before, was open more. They were getting to know each other after all, he mused.
“I’ve been charting stars,” she told him at dinner one night. “There’s a nebula that I think would be beautiful to see, but we won’t pass by it. Do you want to come up to the Astrium with me?”
“Sure.”
He’d been planning on going back to work, but they were getting close to being complete. The crew would likely start arriving tomorrow and the finishing touches would be done by then. Mostly just cosmetics and stress testing now left.
When he accepted, he earned himself a broad smile. “I’ve been looking into more classical guitar music as well. There’s one I wanted to show you.”
“Sounds good.” The man hesitated, debating on whether to say something else. Kira watched him. Even with his limited ability to judge her expressions, his neural net picked up the rest. She was waiting. “How was your day?”
His research had revealed a list of questions one could ask to be polite.
A mote of nothing then she ducked her head, bobbing it a little as she swallowed, “It was good. I’ve been planning out our journey based on the projections of what is nearest. How was yours?”
“It was fine. I got the last few connections in and fired the engines. Everything is reading normal.” Quinn wasn’t sure what else, if anything, to say about what had been a fairly uneventful day for him.
“Well, what was your favorite part about it?”
“Oh, uh, huh… Dinner.” The net flashed in his eyes, reviewing the day. “What was yours?”
“The same, though I feel as if the reasons are different.”
“Entirely possible.” A notification flashed as it interpreted her tone. Teasing in nature. He did not elaborate on his answer, searching for another question that wasn’t superfluous.
Kira palmed her mouth, a giggle escaping. “You can ask whatever you want, Quinn. You don’t have to make small talk.”
“If I knew what I wanted to ask, I wouldn’t be thinking about it so hard,” Quinn said this, not to be patronizing, nor aggressive. Just a statement of fact. “What was it like growing up outside of a lab?” Because that was something he was kind of curious about.
“I don’t think I had a normal childhood.” For once, her focus shifted to her plate, pushing food across it. “But I traveled a lot, learned from a computer instead of a teacher. I saw much of the galaxy before my teens and was serving on a cruiser by the time I was fifteen. I had an odd sort of freedom but it restricted social growth because while I was exposed to many people I never stayed long with anyone other than Toke himself but I have a vague memory of a woman smiling at me who I think was my mother.”
Her fork scraped across porcelain as she added, “This crew has become my family. They are who I live for now and who I would do anything to defend, even including the Vicar.”
“Sounds more exciting than growing up in a lab.” He couldn’t imagine a life with that level of freedom and exploration. Nearly every hour of every day when he was young was planned out. From the food he ate, to what he learned, even what he did in his “free” time. His version of getting personal time was actually just the hours where he’d been encouraged to invent whatever he wanted.
“Well, you have the chance now.” She reached across the table to touch his hand. “You can go wherever you want and do whatever you’d like to do.”
“Not really.” No movement back, but he didn’t turn into her grip either. “If Paradigm finds out where I am, I will be… in trouble. I can do a lot of things, but they have more money, resources, and people. I won’t be able to avoid them forever.”
“We’ll make sure they can’t find you, Quinn.” She let go, the warmth of her touch a noted absence.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. So, what are you going to focus on once you’re on your own?”
