AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m fine.” The nervous movements continued. The conversation had gone on for far longer than he intended already.
“Well, if ye change your mind, you know where the mess hall is.”
Alec departed, taking his tablet with him. Quinn found that the interaction with Alec hadn’t been horrible, and he was glad that he’d done it. That’s when he realized what he was doing, mostly because a thought occurred to him then and there that he would show Watson that the stupid A.I. was wrong. He could get along with the rest of the crew. The thought made him frown a bit. Was he doing this out of spite?
“Oh, you’re here.” A barely masculine tone hit the air, full of disappointment, and perhaps a touch of fear because where it came from was a teenager who’d just gotten over the cracking of his voice from puberty.
Jaden, the file supplied him, brother of Bree Morrit, the ship’s Doctor. The gangly teen was the opposite of his sister. The crew profiles described her as pale, with long brown hair. His skin had a warm mocha tint, with jet black hair shorn so close to his scalp that if it wasn’t so dark, it wouldn’t show. Broad nose and thick lips completed the look.
Quinn chose to not reply to his statement.
“Not gonna turn me out?” The kid readjusted a pack on his shoulder. The olive green bag’s thick black strap dug into his muscle.
“No.”
“Alright then, man.” The boy had apparently decided it was worth the risk of whatever he was doing. Crossing to a station Alec had not been at when he’d left. He dropped down in front of it, rigging what appeared to be a small but effective confetti cannon with a pressure plate trigger.
Quinn cocked his head. “What are you doing?”
“Rigging something up for Rick. He’s supposed to help Alec later.”
The answer was flippant and quick. Quinn knew Rick was the ship’s security officer. He’d seen him in passing, but had not spoken to him. The brooding man was even quieter than Quinn. Perhaps they were both poor conversationalists.
“You are setting up a confetti cannon connected to a pressure plate. I can divine what it does, but why are you doing that?”
“Because it’s what I do?” Backing out in an awkward army crawl, the kid rose to his feet. His cargo pants weighed down around his hips, but his loose shirt covered them still. “Look, I prank Tick and he does it back. It’s a thing we do.”
A definition of a prank flashed up for Quinn, and he frowned slightly at it. “Alright.”
“You’re not gonna tell him, are you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
If Jaden was looking for a permissive adult, he’d find one in Quinn. Indeed, if the kid managed to befriend him, he’d find himself with a distinct advantage in the prank war against Rick, considering what Quinn was capable of.
But that wasn’t a concern at present, as a message blinked up, ‘lunch?’
He sent back his response a moment later. ‘Where?’
‘Bridge?’
‘Now?’
‘Yes, please.’
He left without a goodbye, ambling into the bridge, smiling as he saw her working, not even really aware that he was doing so at first.
A flick of a hand and one could see the entire network of the stars. With one finger, the user could even bring up the Callistar’s network to see how everything was functioning. Kira stood before it, plotting the next few jumps so that they could be done overnight without her having to be up again.
An impulse struck Quinn to tell her he’d had two somewhat successful conversations with other crew members, but he watched her plot jumps instead. Space was 99.9% nothing, but when the only places you wanted to go were in that .01% that had something, you had to chart your course carefully.
Kira seemed so involved in finishing up the current course correction that either she did not notice his presence or wouldn’t break her concentration. The beeping of the delivery system for their lunch broke her out of her work and made her glance back. Her face broke into a brilliant smile, outshining his own, when she caught his eye.
“Hey you.” She cast aside what she was doing, clearing the view to the stars passing by.
“Hi?”
