Chapter Ten
QUINN
Watson and Quinn had never actually spoken. The man had put the A.I. into a box, cutting off access to all but non-essential systems. It wasn’t exactly a great way to make friends, but as Quinn had well established, he didn’t want to make friends.
Still, an A.I., even one that was a clone of a person’s intelligence, was less likely to bother him than a normal person. “Yes?” Quinn said, curiosity getting the better of him as he opened the channel Watson pinged.
Sorry to bother you. Watson started off as polite, not that Quinn could parse how he came across at all, but it wasn’t a command. The Captain is on the Eikos. I believe something is wrong. Her vitals are unstable, and I cannot reach her comms. Seeing as I cannot physically retrieve her, you are the next best option.
Watson had a sense of urgency to him about the situation, and he spoke faster than he should have.
“You think something has happened to her? How would you know that?” Quinn grunted as he finished the current weld running the laser down the line before setting aside his tools, getting to his feet.
He immediately walked towards the exit to Eikos. If Watson was being honest, then any wasted time would be a risk to Kira’s health. Quinn began by sending drones ahead of himself to track her down.
Her implanted health monitor is connected to my systems. I couldn’t reach her, but I was able to access the Eikos systems. The room she is in has no visuals, but audio is available. The Captain is slurring heavily, and as far as I am aware, she is not inebriated.
Quinn had no clue what the hell was going on, but something shifted in his brain at Watson’s words.
“Understood.”
Every ounce of emotion left Quinn’s voice. Anything remotely resembling humanity faded away. A flash of blue eclipsed his eyes, and a few moments later, even more drones left the ship moving onto the Eikos station.
In under a minute, the entire station blared alarmingly loud warning sirens giving the impression they were being attacked. More than one hundred drones had just entered the ship and started quarantining everyone that stood between Quinn and Kira’s life sign with impenetrable deep space shields.
The alarm cut off as quickly as it came on. One of Quinn’s drones found the central computer bank and installed itself within the principal port. Quinn cracked the station’s encryption by the time he set foot in its halls. In under a minute, he’d taken just as much control of Eikos as he had of the Callistar.
The guidance of his drones led him directly to a storage bay. Nothing had been off limits to him on his trek. Every door automatically opening and closing with the clearances put in by his neurotransmitter. Tracking not only her life sign, a visual feed of the room popped up after a drone gained access. Kira slumped back in a seat, her posture distinctly poor. He could hear her speaking, hear the slurring Watson mentioned. Cataloging the other three with her, he used a quick trace method to figure out who they were with the ship’s records.
The information that came back on all three revealed they were trial basis members of the Eikos. A quick assessment of the scene showed cards, a table, and a few drinks about. One man excused himself as Quinn hit the final threshold. He gave an offhand excuse about checking the alarms and was only partially out of his seat when Quinn barged in.
“Andrew Pierce, Quixalan Aldiendo, and Arnold Hovax.” Naming the three of them in his dead, robotic voice, he continued, “I have alerted the authorities of Velx Prime, Tarona, and Lerune Station of your current locations. I suggest you leave Eikos now, as I am sure at least one of their officers will be motivated enough to send someone to collect you for your standing warrants.”
A drone passed by his head, his hair fluttering with the speed at which it collected the cup before Kira, whizzing it off for analysis.
Arnold, the half standing man, appeared to be the brains of the operation. He quickly said, “Now you just wait one fucking minute-“ before he caught sight of the multitude of drones, some of which were quite large. The overwhelming amount limited their options and Quinn’s scan revealed they didn’t have weapons upon them, so their options narrowed even further. The man still reached as if going for one, perhaps an intimidation tactic.
Kira’s head rolled back in her seat, Quinn could see her, the slow shift in the way her muscles worked, the attempt to raise her arm out to reach for him, her fingers twitching, but not raising fully.
Andrew tugged on Arnold’s sleeve. “Come on, boss,” he spoke with an urgency. “No woman is worth going back for.”
“Your bank account number is 8DWS-C7V5-X20T. Your password is Tarona3026, home planet and birth year, very insecure Mister Hovax,” Quinn stated in that same dry monotone. “Detective Lancaster was very pleased to receive the video footage verifying your biometrics and position.”
The man continued as he moved across the room towards Kira. “What I am saying is that your associate is correct. This is very much not worth your time, Mister Hovax. Every second I am forced to continue explaining this to you is a second that I am focusing on you. You do not want my attention, Mister Hovax. If you are not out of that door in the next five seconds, I will deduct one credit from your balance for every second you continue to be here.”
One of his drones buzzed next to him. One he’d outfitted with a medical diagnostic scanner after Kira broke her leg. Quinn set it to scanning her.
“If that was not plain enough language, then allow me to make it simple for you.” Quinn read the results of the scan before his gaze flicked back to the three men. For all the cold and inhuman parts of him that existed in the depths of that neon blue, there was something intensely human in his fury, as he said. “Run for your lives.”
The blundering that occurred, and the speed with which they made their way from the room, was impressive by no small means.
The medical scan indicated that Kira had been given a dose of Rostan. A drug that took control of the mind, consuming it with fogginess so thick one could not move their body. Yet, that person would still cognitively know everything going on around them. While she could not escape, she could clearly feel everything and would remember it the next day.
The men commandeered a shuttle strapping themselves in. For all their pandering, they’d apparently put enough together to take the threat Quinn presented seriously. The problem was, it was too late. Almost immediately, the auto-pilot engaged, and the screen flashed up to a new destination. Planet Tarona, Bala Bala City, Global Police Headquarters. The doors sealed, and they launched into space in their own personal paddy wagon.
Meanwhile, Quinn contemplated his two options. There was a chemical cocktail he could administer that would immediately combat the effects of Rostan. Or it would make its way out of her system safely with time. Only one of those options did not involve him administering drugs he was not qualified to handle based only on what information he could access through publicly available databases.
While he had a 99% probability of success in synthesizing the cocktail required, he only had a 78% chance of correctly administering it because of the potential for human error on his part. While he could know exactly how to perform a task, his body couldn’t always replicate what his mind tried to direct.
With that in mind, he had one of his large carrier drones come in to scoop up Kira and take her back to her quarters to sleep it off. Quinn came along with her, his drones exiting the ship. He sent a message to the station manager with a full explanation of what had happened and why, along with the contents of the three men’s bank accounts, as an apology for the disruption to the station’s normal proceedings. Quinn included Toke in the email and mentioned that Toke should appreciate the efforts made to ensure the safety of a favored employee.
Splitting at the entrance to the Callistar, he left Kira with no words, no offerings, only the drone.
During his descent into the Callistar, a ping notified him that his message had a reply. Quinn didn’t read the communique. He did little of anything. He’d squirreled himself away deep in the bowels of the ship. Wrapping arms around his knees as he rocked back and forth. His mind rioted with hundreds of different conflicting thoughts, all screaming at him for a piece of his attention. His peace breaking as it struggled to keep up with the pace.
The computer core in his head let him think in ways no human could. And in ways no human should have been able to. He had only ever been as angry as he was now once before in his life. It was the same day he’d sworn he would become a pacifist, and he’d... He wasn’t sure if terrifying people as he had counted against that or not. He wasn’t sure he cared.
They’d almost hurt Kira.
The rage the thought brought bubbled to the surface and shook him to his core. That he felt that it terrified him. Far, far too many conflicting desires and wants were flickering through his head. From wanting to sit by her bed until she awoke, to wanting to have Toke replace the entire crew of the Callistar, to wanting to stay on the ship just to be with her, to wanting to just eject the crew, steal the ship, and vanish into the void, to wanting to do even worse things to the people who’d almost hurt her. Each desire repeated through his processing, coming in strange feedback loops. The ones born of the warring emotions magnifying and diminishing in severity as his own thoughts rendered him utterly helpless.
KIRA
The drone that had scooped up Kira coddled her against it, keeping her warm simply because the machinery itself was warm. Her mind raced, but with the slowness of a turtle. Still, it could piece together exactly what occurred but not allow her to speak her tongue heavy with medication. That Quinn had rescued her was not beyond her. When she was deposited in her bed, she looked for him, only to find him missing.
Tears smarted at the edges of her eyelashes. She closed them tight, knowing it did very little good to allow her emotions to overtake her. She’d been ridiculous on two counts. That night, there was no way to fix either issue, so she would have to stay on the Callistar for the foreseeable future. Her time on Eikos had ended.
Watson cut past the security protocols to her room. Her own communicator off. Kira, I hope you know it was my last option.
She couldn’t scoff, or respond, or do anything but close her eyes and let the ache take hold. Let the uncertainty of the night, and the feeling of struggling to move, overcome her.
The newly muffled sound of the engines did nothing to drown out the idea of what could have occurred to her as well. Quinn may have been capable of understanding the depths of human depravity and their pursuit of power or wealth, but he had never encountered the understanding of the physical harm they might inflict on others for pleasure. Kira shuddered, the first motion she’d been able to voluntarily make, rolling through her body a few hours later when she awoke in a cold sweat.
Kira?
“I’m fine,” she uttered. The words came out and so did the tears again. Pushing herself into an upright position, every muscle ached, each one flaming and cursing the existence of her will. Downing a glass of water on her bedside table, it cleared her throat. Worse for wear, and looking like it, she still considered the path that lay before her. “Where is he?”
The drone didn’t answer. Watson, for once against her wishes, was blissfully, but she reached for the one large enough to carry her, as she did not think her own feet would suffice. “Take me to him, please,” she asked desperately. She knew the possibility of what Quinn faced, and they should face it together.
The drones’ base lights blinked at her and did nothing. All the drones in her room were just hovering and not moving. Frozen. One foot in front of the other, she told herself, rising and using them as handholds to the hallway. Peering out, every step became a slog.
Kira, you shouldn’t be moving. Please, take care of yourself first. He is not physically harmed.
Now you want to speak.
“You, most of all, should know that physicality is only part of who we are.”
As she traversed down towards engineering, the closer she came, the harder the realization hit: the entire swarm was on standby. Only the ones performing the simplest jobs, such as cleaning, continued to move on a pre-set program.
A glint of light caught her eye, and scrambling, something small raced towards her around a power conduit newly installed. Gary crawled up her leg, to her chin, and looked at her quizzically. Then, the gecko pointed itself in the direction it had come from.
“Gary.” Her breathing became labored as she increased the pace in that direction. She clung to a rail to keep herself upright. Kira sat down fully once, in order to rest, but only for a few scant minutes.
Using the shuttle system to pass up and down the floors, she would finally pour out of one, with Gary taking off. Finding Quinn settled in front of the hydroponics bay, rocking back and forth in an upright ball.
“Oh, Quinn.” She felt hollow at seeing him so incapacitated. She dropped to her knees before him. Her hair frazzled around her face. Deathly pale beneath her naturally tanned skin, even her lips appeared so, and her muscles held a slight tremor, but she made it there of her own accord and her own will.
The rocking stopped when she spoke, and he just looked at her. Tears streamed down his face in thick rivulets and he whispered. His voice had no accent, but it was rife with pain and anguish. “I’m just tired of thinking. Tired of people leaving me, betraying me, using me. I’m so tired. I just want to be somewhere else, Kira. Somewhere where there is no one around to hurt me. I am so tired of hurting all the time. If I get to know you, then I might like you, and then I will hurt when I am finally alone. But if I stay, something is going to happen, something always happens, and then I am going to be hurting again. Why couldn’t you just leave me alone? Why did you have to make me like you? I just don’t want to hurt, and every choice I have now is just pain. I don’t want to hurt anymore.”
Shifting his weight forward, he put his nose into his knees and his body shuddered as he sobbed.
“Sometimes pain is worth it, Quinn,” she told him with the gentleness that a mother used when speaking to a child. Her actions had been partially selfish in getting to know him. She had wished to save him by helping him through the trauma of his past actions, but at first she’d simply wanted to test limits, to see how far was too far.
“I’m going to touch you now,” she informed him before she leaned forward, the gentle pressure of an embrace that her body wished she’d never done. It cried against it, against moving again, and she fought with all she was worth to do so as she told him her voice full of worry, “I do not have all the answers, but I know that even those I have lost, that I have loved, I would never give up the knowing just to give up the pain as well.”
The man stiffened all over, as if the input overwhelmed his senses. But unlike last time, where it was a shock to a functioning machine, this felt like an emergency break to one spiraling out of control. Quinn sagged into the embrace, continuing to weep for a few moments before he passed out. Exhaustion, physical, mental, and emotional, finally catching up to him like a mallet in his skull.
Unlike his decision to leave her, she did not leave him.
“Watson, get one of the storage movers up here, please.”
The reply she received came as a clicking of the line. The automated movers had long handles that could be used to manually direct them or they could be programmed to make automatic routes in the ship. One came through the hall after ten minutes, at her request. The base hadn’t magically grown in size from her ankle debacle, but it would do. Kira grasped Quinn’s shoulders, using his jacket to tug him back. It reminded her of having to use the same device, leaving med bay what seemed like a lifetime ago.
Sweat coated the nape of her neck by the time he hung halfway off the platform. His calves and feet scraping the floor. Using the handle like a walker, they made it to the med-bay. It being the closest room with anything resembling a bed. Raising up the transporter, she shoved Quinn off onto the wide cot, huffing and panting.
Satisfied, she sat on the edge. The width barely made it a twin bed, certainly not suitable for two grown adults, but she couldn’t force herself to move further. Laying not quite next to him, but close so she could watch over him, she succumbed to her own exhaustion halfway on the frame and halfway on the cushion.
Reaching out, settling her hand over his, for just a second before she fell asleep, she watched a man who’d been written off as nothing but an asset who was now realizing just what it meant to be human.
Neither were in a great hurry to wake. Quinn sleep deprived, Kira drugged still. Gabby and Gary were the ones that decided that the quiet was insufferable. After some time, they peeked out and chased each other, darting over their owners as they slumbered.
Kira felt it first when Gabby dove under her chin, hiding in her hair. Groaning, she removed the animated gecko in a way kinder than she felt like being. Eyes still shut tight against the dim lighting, the events of the night before flooded her. Quinn’s weight pressed against her, reminding Kira of his reaction the last time she’d tried to touch him. Holding her breath as if it would keep her from making further movements, Gary leaped off of Quinn, smacking her square in the cheek.
That breath released as she put her feet off the edge and rose upward. Quinn stirred onto his side, but did not seem to wake. Frowning at the gecko, Kira gave him a ‘I could murder you look’ before it settled back on the cot. Gabby followed.
“Watch after him for a moment for me, please.” Whispering, she tugged the blanket up over his shoulders. Then, padding on more steady bare feet, she went to get breakfast for both of them.
Quinn sat upright by the time she made it back. The two geckos clambered into his lap and curled up around each other, slumbering peacefully. He didn’t look up or say anything, just stared down at the little creatures he’d made.
Bringing a light breakfast, mainly fruit and croissants. Kira sat across from him, giving him space, placing the tray down between them.
“We should eat.”
Neither reached for the food.
“Quinn, I-” What did she wish to say to him? What could she say? He’d been avoiding her, then he’d rescued her once again. It was turning into a bad habit that she needed him to do so. Sitting cross-legged, she had her hands turned down on her knees and she clenched the fabric. “Thank you,” she ended up on. “For saving me.”
“You’re welcome,” Quinn mumbled. His voice lost the Irish brogue, but wasn’t quite the monotonous robot tone he’d used before. He just sounded tired and defeated.
“If you want me to leave you alone, I will.” She made the offer, but her voice landed far from even like a serrated knife, it rose and fell the edge uneven. She cared for him. A thickness unhidden and full of the tears she’d not quite shed all the way last night. “I should have respected your wishes to start, but I just didn’t want to see you leave on such bad terms. I don’t know what I was thinking- or maybe I wasn’t thinking. I’m so sorry to have put you in this position. It was unfair of me to push my presence on you to begin with. Max has just been trying to get me to be more sensitive towards others, and I guess I was the exact opposite of that.” It was clear she was flustered. Twisting about, the cold of the floor traveled up through her feet. She left the tray. She didn’t even ask for Gabby to come with her. “I’ll still send along meals if you want them. I’ll stay on the ship and off of Eikos, but I’ll be where you aren’t.”
Quinn listened without interrupting, his head leaning on the side of the wall, his eyes downward. Gabby rushed, flinging herself off the side like a flying squirrel, arms outstretched, landing with the clicking sound of metal tapping metal before rushing toward Kira’s leg to shimmy upward.
“It’s a bit late for that.” His voice carried his usual gruffness, but it still sounded more weary than anything else.
Pausing her back to him, she stiffened. “I can make it less painful.” She wished she didn’t have to, and she was glad that she wasn’t facing him anymore.
“By what? Acting like a bitch, so I don’t like you anymore?” Quinn snorted. Then he laughed. Really laughed. He fell over and clutched his stomach as the offended lizard, Gary, dove for cover.
“Why in the world is that funny?” Rounding on him, he’d sparked the anger that she’d felt when he’d been avoiding her all those days. The rage she’d felt when she’d searched for him to talk about how Gabby was doing or just to see him because she’d enjoyed his company.
“Because this all started because you were too stubborn to leave me alone. Then we got to know each other and you want to loop back to being a bitch,” Quinn said, wheezing with amusement before falling into another fit of laughter.
“I don’t want to loop back to being anything. I wasn’t the one who decided that just avoiding me was the best way to handle the fact that, for once in your life, someone was trying to be a friend to you when you’d not had one before.” She shoved her hands in her pockets to keep from slapping him as he continued to laugh at her expense. Lashing out because he had called her names.
Quinn’s laughter slowly died down and he stared up at the ceiling.
“Yeah, well, mission bloody accomplished Kira,” the man said with a sigh.
“Stars, you’re infuriating Quinn.” Tossing her hands up in the air at his words, she went to stomp off, but before she left the room she called back, “Dinner’s at six.”
“Says the woman who badgered the future hermit until she was, apparently, his friend.” He laughed again, something manic to it. He wasn’t any better. He wasn’t mentally in a place ready for healing. But apparently, for the moment, he wasn’t a totally useless curled-up blob not doing anything at all. Kira could deal with this.
“Well, now you can either show up or deal with the Eikos. I won’t send it with the drone.” That was the ultimatum now. He didn’t want things to go back to the way they were, so she’d make it worse.
Leaving him alone there, she needed a shower and a moment to think clearly.
Watson thought the opposite, and he was promptly told where he could go stick his computer chip.