The Retrofit: The Callistar 1.0

Chapter Eleven

KIRA

Kira

It lacked punctuation the way he said it. No question, but not quite finished, as if he’d started to say something, then decided against it. With the way his programming worked, she knew he could do that mid sentence and no one would know.

“Watson.”

His name dropped from her lips with curiosity, but not the same fervent pushing she’d been doing towards Quinn.

I hope you know what you’re doing.

“I will not mess things up for you… again.”

That’s not my focus.

“It is your focus, don’t lie to me.” Jolting upright, fingernails bit into her palms. He couldn’t see her, she thought. He couldn’t tell anything about her movements other than the sound they made, the way she spoke to him, irritated.

Maybe it is, but maybe it is for reasons that I cannot explain properly like this.

“Watson…” Her mounting anger faded as quickly as it had come on. “You can tell me anything. There’s nothing you could say that would-”

Commander West is requesting an audience. It’s urgent.

Her transmitter beeped incessantly, demanding her attention be paid to the awaiting messages. She had actively been ignoring them since she left the med bay. Unaware of Quinn’s foresight to explain his actions, she knew there’d be hell to pay, but hell if she’d pay it.

“I’m sure he is.”

This is the fourth time he’s requested it. It’s forcing me to report it now.

“I can’t… I can’t right now.”

You have to, Kira. You’re the Captain of this ship, and one of its inhabitants effectively held the Eikos hostage. If you don’t explain and smooth this over, it puts everything at risk. Imagine what Sir will say if you don’t fix this now.

She flinched, features almost pinched in reaction to the idea. Surely, some of those messages were from him. The man had planted resources in every major space station and ship across the galaxy.

She checked the very messages Watson supposedly was being forced to forward. There were several admonitions from Toke, a few from West, the gist being that he requested a meeting, immediately, which came in directly after the incident, and then he just pestered away after that. Every one she ticked and deleted. Nothing was ever truly gone. But it was out of sight and almost out of mind

Kira.

“Watson.”

This cannot be ignored.

“I’m not planning on doing it indefinitely.”

The sooner you handle this, the better it will be.

“Fine, but arrange for him to come here.”

Going onto the Eikos after what occurred it wasn’t a suicide mission, but it certainly did not appeal in any way, shape or form. Especially if Quinn tracked her, which she was sure he was possibly going to start doing. The Commander coming onto the Callistar would be simpler, regarding her movements, at the very least.

Thirty minutes later, she opened the sealed outer hull into the gate that led from the Eikos.

West stood there, pompous as ever, hair slicked back, his almost beady eyes assessing her. The quick head to toe hard to miss, but it was less salacious and more of a quantitative measure of her health, so she let it slide.

“Commander West.” The attempt at a smile was something tight lipped, landing between a grimace and an actual one. Remaining squarely in the door, she did not yield the entryway to him.

“Captain Starling,” he replied, teeth held tight together, his lips moving, but nothing else. Pushing forward, Kira made it clear by remaining planted in place that he would not be allowed entry. He added with widening eyes, “Are we going to have this conversation in the hallway here?”

“We are.”

“This is ridiculous, Kira. You do not answer my pages. You do not let me know what’s going on, instead I receive an anonymous message. Untraceable back to the origin, and money deposited into my personal account. Is this meant to make things alright? Am I meant to accept this?”

He rushed through what he had to say, barely pausing, and each breath he took occurred when he’d ran out of air to keep going. He huffed at the end, giving Kira a moment to intercede.

“You’re meant to accept that I was put in danger by members of your crew, that I was rescued by one of mine. My crew member did what was necessary in order to make sure of my safety.”

“Like hell he did,” West fumed. “Your crew member could have alerted the security on the Eikos to retrieve you, or Watson could have done so. Are neither of them capable of some common sense?”

The lines around Kira’s mouth tightened at his suggestions. “Whose payroll are you actually on, Commander West?”

The weasel came out in him, the short faced, needy, smelly little creature as he eyed her. Kira thought he portrayed contempt, as he attempted to come up with a suitable response. But if he was a little sniveling rodent who had access to hair gel, she was a Mountain Lion. Claws sunk in, ready to pounce. He would not win, that she assured herself of.

“I work for-”

“I know who you work for, on paper and off of it,” she sneered at him, this time matching his attitude in it. “And you know I am but one of many important pieces to that off record employer. I’m sure he would have approved of any means necessary to ascertain my safety and any means that were taken to obtain it.”

West shot a hand between them, putting it beside the frame, bringing himself close. Leaving between the two a half a foot step over to get into the Callistar, and Kira practically leaned into that space to make sure he couldn’t even sample the air behind her.

“You’re a spoiled brat, Kira. One day, it’s going to bite you on the ass.”

“As long as it isn’t you doing the biting,” she smirked wickedly.

A muscle flexed in his cheek, his very jaw trembling, the grinding and pressure making him almost vibrate. There’s the snake, Kira thought, wildly amused at the showing of it. Like a rattlesnake tensed up to strike. Oh, he was shaking his little rattle to the point every bit of prey in the area could hear it, but she wasn’t prey.

Captain, this isn’t helping matters.

Replying to Watson meant speaking out loud. She remained silent, but he’d get his answer either way. “Look, West, I’ll admit, it could have been handled much better. We could handle this much better, but what’s done is done. Why can’t you just take the money, play it off as a training exercise, and up your budget for your security to prevent it from happening again?”

Flesh against metal let off a sound as he dragged his hand down, the screeching made her clench her teeth. West was taller than her, by quite a bit, enough to bear down his weight as he leered, “You think Daddy’s little girl can get away with whatever she wants, don’t you? Well, I’ve got news for you Princess. There’s an entire galaxy out there, and part of it wants to know who’s taking out the dirty laundry.”

Kira’s muscles tensed, every fiber of her being fought and clawed to not to strike back. Then, to handle this with less animosity, less berating, but could the voice of reason win?

Kira, don’t put us in this position.

“Do you have fangs West or do you just hiss like a snake? I’d like to see you try to strike.”

KIRA.

“You’ll see it alright.”

West went the very direction of his namesake, stalking off as if he were proud to have the last word. If he checked the cameras later, he’d earn a quaint view of Kira, making a rather lewd gesture at his back before the door shut and locked.

What have you done?

“West won’t do anything. He’s all bark and no bite.”

That is… an unwise assumption.

“Yeah, well, I lack wisdom. Just look at your records. I’m sure your unfailing memory can provide you with plenty of examples.”

You’re too volatile, Kira, you always have been.

“Just monitor his correspondence, Watson. Take a peek into the Eikos. Follow what Quinn did, get some monitors on what he’s doing, and who he’s talking to. If he so much as sneezes without using a tissue, I want to know about it.”

At your command, Captain.