The Retrofit: The Callistar 1.0

Chapter Six

KIRA

Their normal schedule resumed for the next day. Quinn being left to his own devices. Lunch, or something closer to breakfast, considering his schedule delivered by Kira around his workspace. Tuesday brought a change as she waited patiently for him to appear, all while hearing a distant grumbling.

She stopped one of the hovering drones by touching its side. It looked like another octopus that simply floated with its legs swinging about. It turned, presenting its front face, which was a rather large viewing screen.

“Would you let Quinn know I am here?”

It beeped acknowledging her before swinging around and heading up to where the new reactor core was being installed. Quinn popped out feet first, crawling backwards.

Kira kept quiet until his feet hit the solid platform that he’d raised up for his work. “I will be gone for a week. Would you like me to have someone on the Eikos bring you something for lunch?”

“Why the fe...” The man started. He paused, working his mouth closed with an effort, frowning slightly.

To Kira, he looked like a fish out of water when his mouth was open. The gears weren’t quite visibly turning, but it amused her to think he had to process how to reply.

The same awkward gesticulating of opening and closing came before he struggled out with, ”Thank ye... fer asking... I will have a drone get my lunch.”

She could tell he was trying to be nice, and possibly trying to resist pointing out that he’d been capable of handling his food before her, which would have been rude. It was clearly painful for him to piece together a reply that wasn’t telling her to fek off in the strange Irish accent he’d concocted.

“Oh, that was hard for you, wasn’t it?” Perhaps teasing him wasn’t the right move, but she wasn’t drunk this time and she’d seen the frown before he’d haltingly got out his words.

“Oh, fek off, I tried.” Quinn flipped her the bird, vanishing back into the reactor core.

Kira covered her mouth to stifle a bit of laughter. The ambient music, which she hardly even noticed anymore, changed drastically. It had been more mellow and now was suddenly harsh and deafening.

I think you made the poor boy angry.

Kira could not reply without yelling, so she’d walk back the way she came until the music didn’t threaten to burst her eardrums. “Oh fek off,” she told Watson, mimicking Quinn.

The burst of short static that sounded in her mind was almost like a snort coming back across the line.

Are we no longer respecting his privacy?

“I am respecting it to the extent that I expect he respected mine.”

Watson repeated the fuzzily gray noise. It hit intensely sharp in such a short burst.

“You know I hate that Watson, if you need to scold me, just do it verbally.”

This is more effective.

“If your goal is to get me to shut you off.”

. . .

“That’s what I thought.”

Offloading onto the Eikos early, Kira took advantage of the main ship’s log to do a thorough analysis on Quinn, or rather Paradigm Enterprises. But looking into him proved to be a fruitless endeavor. His name wasn’t in any record database. Considering his implants, it wasn”t surprising to her. The inside of his skull was completely illegal. That extensive amount of work had been outlawed because of the intense side effects, mainly death.

Putting out a few feelers with her contacts in Rumor had turned out to be equally useless and a waste of a favor. No social media, no official record of him existing, not even a picture of him at a Paradigm facility. The galaxy was a big place, and some people slipped through the cracks, but a guy like Quinn? It seemed impossible that he could be so utterly off the grid.

But the event he’d told her about, she hit the jackpot there. A planet being destroyed didn’t go without some news coverage, especially on covert channels. The publicly available information indicated that it was some unforeseen geological occurrence that cracked the planet apart. The military report on it was a much more fascinating document. It was a weapons test. A Paradigm weapons test.

“Quinn couldn’t possibly have known what he was working on.”

The man couldn’t not know what he was working on. You’ve seen the ship upgrades. Hell, you’ve seen the implants. He probably has a processing system installed inside his brain.

Kira’s face scrunched up a little at the mention of his processing system. Watson sounded almost matter of fact, but the use of the word ‘hell’ told her plenty. He still felt peeved she’d not dropped it.

“I’ve seen his eyes too.”

The words dropped from her mouth with the softest inflection. They sparked with electricity, with light. Beneath that, she wasn’t sure what color they really were. All she could see was the ring of unnaturalness when he focused upon her.

That is exactly the reason you should walk away now, Kira. He’s dangerous.

“He’s lonely.”

That’s not your problem to solve.

“The Valstar?” Kira rechecked the log. The transport she’d requested had been a general request, or so she’d thought that’s what Watson had applied for.

Yes, Captain. When I contacted Sir, he made the arrangements.

“Recalling Morgan is overkill.” Rubbing her eyes, she’d been staring at the screen for too long. Blue light was no longer a concern, but too much intense focus still could be harmful to the eyes of non-human races.

Should I ask for another?Watson sounded almost amused.

“I prefer Morgan’s flying,” she spouted off, kicking the desk to push her chair, sliding away from the console. On her feet in a sharp turn, the door opened as she approached.

I am simply glad I do not have to feel it.

Kira laughed. “Just because you know the math of what he does now doesn’t mean you would have before.”

Some stunts he’s pulled have been outright impossible. There is no reason he should have survived them.

“Yet he does.” A matter of pride for the Captain as most everything was. “Morgan is a boon to this ship. Well overqualified. We are lucky to have him.”

You are lucky to be alive.The scorn he managed to get through his processor was impressive.

Kira laughed again. “There is truth in that statement, but it’s not about Morgan’s flying.”

Arriving at the main shuttle bay for the Eikos, Kira initially expected to hop on a regular transport to Maudlin, not to be catered to by Toke to the point he used her actual pilot. When she’d checked the transport list looking for her arrangements, she’d discovered the switch. It wasn’t an unpleasant surprise, but still a surprise all the same.

The shuttle bay encompassed a large section of the outer ring, with a landing platform inside one could board smaller shuttles, usually for less than twenty passengers, that passed through the barrier to land. It spanned across a wide open area with an almost translucent field that kept the environment, and gravity settings, alive within the bay. The faint purple tint made one aware of its presence. Passing by several smaller eight passenger vessels, Kira came upon the Valstar.

The familiar paint scheme of navy blue and yellow stood in stark contrast to the usual gun metal gray of every other ship. Morgan stood at the back, the ramp let down before him. Shoulder leaning into the side of the vessel, he had an ease about his stance. Morgan was the only other Praetorian serving on board the Callistar. Like Kira, his skin had copper in its tone. His physique resembled someone who just got off work on a shift at Abercrombie later, but he possessed quicker reflexes than a human. When he pushed off the side to greet her, it was unnaturally fast.

“Captain!” His grin widened, resembling the Cheshire Cat as he stalked forward, a model on a catwalk, arms outstretched as he embraced Kira, lifting her up in a bear hug. “Long time no see!”

“It should have been longer.” Kira could not resist smiling back, giving him a once over to make sure he looked alright. “I’m sorry you were recalled.”

“Nah, don’t be sorry.” Morgan made a tsking sound, turning back on his heel, motioning for her to follow him.

Kira avoided looking down. Morgan wore his flight suit, and for a semi-fitted onesie, it did wonders to highlight his assets and if he caught her eyes anywhere near his ass, she’d be hearing about it for weeks.

Morgan smacked a side console on their way in and the ramp lifted, making her half-jog the last few steps down at an angle. Landing firmly on her feet, she followed him through to the small bridge. The Valstar was a wonder of technology. Twin side engines, transport and cargo space, small crew quarters, only two, but efficiently sized above the cargo space in the small common area, and the bridge which housed four stations. Two were directly in front of the large windows, the other two were behind them flanking the side walls for monitoring, but the chairs and a smaller extension area could also be turned forward on a pivot. Kira strapped into the front station on the left in front, as the right was the main pilot chair.

“How’s the upgrades coming?” Morgan flipped switches, preparing for takeoff. Both knew they should clear the Eikos with minimal fuss due to the ranking of his vessel.

“More like a retrofit than an upgrade,” Kira said with a sigh. “The entire ship is being torn apart. Quinn is making sure everything is up to his standard. I doubt there will be anything original left, other than the meal trays.”

Morgan laughed good-naturedly as the ship lifted, turning about to clear the interior docking bay heading for open space. “Can’t beat the original design on those.”

“It’s a classic,” she agreed half-heartedly, still managing a smile for him.

They lapsed into silence for a short while. Morgan didn’t need to fill the space which left her with her thoughts, and Watson buzzing around somewhere. He remained on the Callistar, splitting his consciousness in order to accompany her. It was the practice for away missions as well. He would re-upload anything he gained on the mission on their return. Not that this was a mission, it was simply meeting Toke and making the introduction for Max. Something she could quite do without having him in her ear.

Meeting up with Max for pick up went smoothly enough. His pleasure at seeing Morgan was purely genuine, as was it at seeing her. Then the meeting with Toke went semi pleasantly. She did their introductions properly this time and left them to it. Toke clearly wished to discuss Quinn. He pushed on the subject before she’d dismissed herself, but she refused to elaborate other than he’d been diligent.

QUINN

Quinn, back on the Callistar, met the expectation of the word she’d used to describe him. He gave no words of luck or goodbye when she’d departed. But he’d kept tabs on her movements on the station, and noted the ship. Tracking its progress, he had slipped a small tracking beacon and drone in Kira’s luggage. It concealed itself well in the suitcase. While not hyper focused upon the results of its feedback, certain words were flagged for review. His name, the Callistar, Paradigm, anything that was concerning enough to review in case there was a lapse in the security of his position.

A conversation between Kira and Toke that had been flagged, was one he heard even if he could not see it…

“And Quinn? How is his work coming along?” Toke sounded curious, or so the filter that he put the conversation through told him.

“Good,” Kira replied. The word came too quickly. “He’s practically making an entirely new ship.”

“That’s what he did to mine as well.”

Kira was silent for a full ten seconds.

Toke spoke again. “Have you had any contact with him?”

“I leave him to his own devices. You said it was best not to interfere,” she lied openly, but while he knew it was a lie, the system pinged nothing awkward about the words. She sounded bored, according to the analysis.

“That’s… good.”

“Mhm,” Kira hummed back. “Well, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way.”

“Kira?”

“Yes?”

“Be careful,” fatherly, compassionate, loving. The system told him that about those two words. How he packed it in there in such a short two-word sentence was something Quinn couldn’t explain. It didn’t matter. She’d not said anything concerning.

Still, the man sulked, though he’d never admit it. Kira had really pissed him off since he’d been making a concentrated effort to not be rude to her. Then she’d gone and been rude to him and he did not know why she would do that.

Teasing was not a concept that he was familiar with. He didn’t know that she was just trying to be funny. The man was about as socially maladjusted as they came. Just shy of a feral child raised with no human contact for their entire life.

They took great care to curate and filter everything he could access in his youth, so as not to harm his development as a child. So he didn’t even have many common movies and books to base things on. The reason his taste in music was so ancient was because he’d found out that the content filter didn’t sort classical music by sub-genre.

In terms of gaining Quinn’s trust, her decision to be rude to him and laugh about it appeared a total betrayal.

One he was unlikely to forget.

He closed his eyes, resting his head against the cool metal of the reactor. The music had returned to its normal volume a long time ago. With his eyes closed and the music playing loud, he could almost drown out his own thoughts. Kira was only part of his focus. The memories of what he’d learned and what he’d seen haunted him. He’d given Paradigm the key to galactic peace. They’d used it to destroy a planet.

The image played over and over in his head. Not only had they blown it up, but they’d also sent down drones to record the footage. He’d gotten to watch as tens of millions of innocent people were consumed in an energy burst. They didn’t even have time to scream, as their bodies were reduced to nothing more than cosmic dust.

It wanted to play over and over in his mind. But if he kept busy and kept the music loud, then he could keep it at bay. Pushing away from the metal, he let out a long, low, exhale of breath, shaking a bit as he shrugged off the memory. Then he got back to work.