AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He tentatively tried it. He wrapped his arms around her, loosely at first, but soon he clung to her.
A smattering of tears hit her shoulder from him. She held him tighter. “You’re not some experiment anymore, Quinn. You’re free.”
“I don’t know what that means.” He sounded so tired, weary. The little hold out on his Irish accent gone, once again replaced with his factory standard.
“You’ll find out.”
“What if I don’t? What if I never stop hurting?”
“There’s never going to be no pain. That’s just life, but you find moments that outweigh it. You can’t feel those, though, if you cut it all off.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Life isn’t fair.”
“I want to make it fair.” He squeezed tighter.
“You can’t fix the whole universe, Quinn.” Drawing back so she could look at him, her arms came down his forearms, she did not release just yet, knowing that he needed this still, “Men have tried, and they’ve failed. Some have become monsters in the process. The best you can do is to treat those around you as you would wish to be treated and hope that in some small way, it makes things better for them.”
“Why can’t I? I figured out how to fit the power of the sun into a battery you can place into your communicator. Why can’t I just fix everything? Why do people have to take what I make and use it to blow things up?”
“Because that wasn’t alive. It was when you added in that factor that it was used horribly.” She hoped he’d understand one day that it wasn’t his fault. He had been innovating for good. “Your intentions were good, but they were taken by others and transformed. You cannot blame yourself for what others do. If I were to use Gabby to pull off a robbery, it would not be your fault.”
“I have an answer for you. It is yes, you make me hurt less. Enough that I could talk this out with you.” His infernal, technology driven blue eyes met amber. Emotionless sentiment met someone lacking an understanding of what this meant. She gripped him a little tighter.
“Then please don’t destroy yourself.” The first real and true thing she’d ever asked him to do for her. Everything else he had done was voluntary and never something she pushed for. This she was asking for. She was asking it as a woman that was but a scant foot in front of him and still connected to his body.
“Okay, I can do that.” That half sparse laugh he’d done in the pool. He did it again, and both of them let go only physically.
“Okay.”
Captain. Alec is asking for access to the ship.
Kira had forgotten the codes had changed, and she knew she should greet Max personally. She paled, asking aloud, “How long has he been trying?”
About ten minutes now.
Kira buried her face in her hands for a second. “I’m so sorry, Quinn. I have to go fetch Alec or else he’ll be in an even worse state.”
Quinn just nodded, blank, remote, and yet not.
Alec was about to blow a gasket by the time she reached him. His accent didn’t disappear when he became angry. It got worse. Much worse. So much so that Kira couldn’t understand the brogue and would tell him to speak where the translator could decipher it.
That set him off on another tirade all the way down to engineering with her in tow, rolling her eyes once or twice.
He wasn’t grumbling about the alterations, but rather being locked out, “Bloody kicked ou’. Then locked ou’. You ken how frustrating it is ta be locked ou’ of yer own bloody ship!”
Kira trailed behind him, still knowing exactly how long he could carry on this rant and choosing to ignore most of it, “It was a security issue, Mr. O’Malley.”
Alec went on under his breath for a short while as they walked through the engine room. He stopped, suddenly, by the oscillator, looking up and noticing the stark change as Kira had. “It’s quiet.”
“It is.” Kira didn’t know how he would react. Until-
“It’s about bloody time!” Alec threw his hands up in the air. “Been telling you for years, my hearing ain’t gonna hold out.”
Kira laughed at that one. Things were going to be fine then.
She left him to explore, knowing that he had the manual Quinn issued.
