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Max shifted in his seat, glancing over to Quinn. Kira saw it happen almost instantaneously and fought the desire to groan. Max was curious, and his curiosity was bad news for the insolent man sitting next to him.
“Smart girl, someone raised you right.” Toke grinned at her, clearly pleased that she showed she’d paid attention to his memo, just as he’d taught her once to read between the lines she had to read the actual lines first. “So, I’ll tell you why he is the head of the project and see if you can connect the dots.”
He gestured at the schematics. The screen changed to a company logo. Paradigm Enterprises, Kira recognized the name. They were one of the “big three” tech companies in the entire galaxy. Earth-based, they manufactured ship parts of every kind from civilian to military use. It was the best of the best.
“The replacement parts that are going aboard the Callistar will be of Paradigm Manufacture. Not just that, but it’s going to be from their Q series.”
Kira kept up on major ship changes. She knew the Q series was a part of the newest line from Paradigm. It was their cutting edge equipment. The Q series went on Capitol Class Dreadnaughts. The Earth’s Dreadnaught Gemini was newly equipped with a Q series experimental plasma rail. A weapon, according to reports she wasn’t supposed to see, that fired tungsten steel rods from a rail gun with near-light-speed acceleration suspended in a field of plasma. They were called Dreadnaught killers as they shredded through the thickest shields and hulls like a hot knife through butter.
“So Kira, based on what I’ve told you so far, care to make any guesses?”
“I am assuming that Quinn here-“ the lack of last name made her use his first, but she knowingly left out a proper title. “Is behind the Q in Paradigm Enterprises, though how you managed to pull him away from Paradigm would be a guess, and I don’t like drawing at straws.”
Max showed surprise at her statement, but only to Kira. She caught his curious look earlier and knew quelling it would be impossible now. His hands, which had been on the armrests, moved to his knees, rubbing the edge of them in a telltale sign.
“Clever, clever girl,” Toke said with an absent shake of his head. “Yes, Quinn here is the brain behind pretty much every breakthrough in ship design over the last decade. And he is going to do a complete overhaul of the Callistar. By the time he’s finished, she will be the most advanced deep space exploration vehicle in the galaxy. So, my dear Kira, that’s the good news, and you were smart enough not to guess the bad.”
Reaching up, Toke rubbed his eyes. “I didn’t get him away. Quinn here contacted me himself. Paradigm held him as a virtual prisoner inside of their headquarters on Earth. They couldn’t risk the company’s most valuable asset by having him going around living his life. He wanted out and for payment he has agreed to retrofit two ships.”
Toke gave a brief pause as he let that detail sink in. Kira deduced she was getting one, and he surely had gotten the other. If the man only wanted to escape, why he’d agree to two ships was beyond her. Each retrofit surely took months of labor. She needn’t wait long for an answer as he continued. “On the condition that one of those ships be used to take him into deep space. To an uninhabited, uncharted planet of his choosing where you will leave him. Then you are going to wipe your ship’s A.I. and nav charts of the location and do a memory modification of your knowledge of the location.”
There it was, Kira thought. Toke got a new ship, and now she had to uphold his end of the bargain. In exchange, she also got a new ship. It was the best kind of deal for him. Oh sure, he likely had to orchestrate an escape, but even that Toke wouldn’t have done directly. He got to benefit without getting his own hands dirty. But what he suggested, what he wanted, messing with the mind was always dangerous no matter what assurances they made otherwise.
“True shore leave then, and longer than I thought,” she said, her gaze falling to Quinn, then back to Toke. “We’ll have time to make proper preparations. The supply list is already prepared. I’ve forwarded it, but some things have yet to arrive.”
Quinn kept his eyes on the ceiling. Max side-eyed Quinn, looking back to Toke as if this phenomenon was vastly amusing instead of worrisome. This explained exactly how he’d ended up on the Callistar to start. No one simply hopped on the ship willingly or remained on it purposefully after all.
Toke chose not to meet either of their looks, dismissing the blueprints, causing the hologram to dissipate. The program shut down. “There is one last, tiny catch in all of this. You can’t kill him.”
That earned a sharp breath that was perhaps a laugh, or it wasn’t. Something in-between due to the seriousness of such a thing that he said on the matter. The memory wipe was the first insult, now he simply added another, “You expect me to-“
Toke did, and even with her interruption, he proceeded to do the same back to her, finishing his train of thought, “Or turn him into Paradigm, under any circumstances. I would not feel right without telling you to do this without clarifying those circumstances. Quinn has placed some serious personal boundaries into his technology in my ship and is soon to be in yours. Any attempt to hack it results in an immediate lockout of every system and for the ship’s reactor to go into overload. He is the only one who can disable the program and he will only give you the codes to do so once you are in orbit. He has a neural link with both ships. He can remotely trigger that override at any time for any reason with a thought.”
Kira knew, then, he did. Toke expected her to hold her tongue, and she wasn’t the type to do so for very long. Disrespect didn’t last long on her ship. Not necessarily short-tempered, but there was a spark that tended to light itself into a flame when it came to the management of ‘her crew.’ Not a boss, but a leadership role in her opinion. Getting dirty was what she lived for, and she was always with the rest of them in the muck and the mud as quick as possible to prove this.
But Quinn, so far, didn’t sound like a team player. Non-team players were shot out the airlock, as were smart mouthed passengers.
Max, who had been watching and waiting, reached a hand back up to the one over his right shoulder, the one that tightened without knowing it. He patted it lightly as a show of support for the young woman. He still kept his silence.
Kira would not change her mind from a simple touch. “You place too much trust in me with this.” Kira drew her hand out of Max’s to the back of the chair so that he did not feel the wrath that displayed in the further whitening of her knuckles. “I think it is best that my posting be temporarily filled by another.”
“Your ship doesn’t run without you and you know it,” Toke said
Toke was well aware the crew she’d put together would not listen to anyone else. He could get another captain, sure, but they wouldn’t be loyal to the new captain. Which was a big problem for a long-term trip into deep space. The crew had to be loyal, especially when their cargo was as volatile as Quinn.
“Look, as I understand it, it’s a Quantum computer core. So, he can detonate my ship from anywhere in the galaxy. Which means that I need this done properly. Therefore, you are doing it Kira,” Toke said. He brooked no arguments in tone or expression, but he took a breath as he looked to Quinn for aid. “Please say something to placate her on this.”
The man finally looked up and snorted. “Aye, ye want me ta dig ya out of this hole?”
Quinn cracked his neck and turned his attention to Kira. “While I appreciate Toke telling ya ta mind yer P’s and Q’s-” a pertinent level of sarcasm in his voice made it very clear he did not. “And I appreciate that ye would apparently rather give up yer ship than be forced ta be polite ta someone.” Surprisingly, this lacked the same sarcasm. It almost sounded like grudging approval, if anything. “I’m not going ta blow myself up just because you call me a fekking nitwit. I might do it iffin ya decide ta try slapping me around more than I think I deserve. And if ya kill me, my neural net is set up to detonate all of my locked tech. But other than that, I don’t give a shite what ya do or say as long as you get me away from people. You are all fekking terrible, and I am sick of dealing with the lot of ya.”
Something in his explanation that told her he wasn’t talking about anyone in that room specifically. He referred to other people in general, as in, every other sapient being in the galaxy.
Watson sounded in her ear. Your heart rate’s up again.
Max chimed in, giving his two cents. “Captain, if I may. I believe I would also like to stay on board.”
Kira looked down to the holy man. He would not be asking to stay on board if he did not have a reason behind it, which was beyond her own reasoning at the moment. Then, it dawned on her recalling how he looked at Quinn. Something else caught his eye.
