by Ethan Bibile
“Well, he’s… nice,” Laura added, looking at Quinn with a raised eyebrow, which caused Quinn to laugh in return.
“He’s not that bad,” Quinn shrugged as the two continued walking towards the Audion. “It’s not like I talk to him when I’m not here anyway.”
The pair came up to the cargo door, which was closed tight. Quinn noticed that Laura seemed to be taking in every little inch of the Audion. She examined every bit of her new home as if by living here she was required to learn every detail of the ship.
Quinn pressed his fingers to the scanner on the outside of the ship, and the cargo door began to open. Laura stepped back to avoid being crushed, watching it at is descended, parting the sand beneath it as it touched down to the ground.
“Welcome to The Audion,” Quinn said, gesturing a hand inside the ship. Laura slowly walked up the ramp, looking around the cargo room. Her features were ablaze with excitement despite it only being boxes full of spare parts and nothing more.
“Hey, Morgan,” Quinn said as he walked up the cargo ramp, pressing a button on the wall once he was inside the room which caused the cargo door to ascend and close.
“Hello Quinn, welcome back. I see there is someone new aboard the ship,” Morgan said, his voice inquisitive.
“Morgan, this is Laura. Laura, this is my A.I, Morgan.” Quinn said, gesturing from Laura to the roof, which was really the only acceptable place he could think of where Morgan would be if he had some sort of physical body.
“Hello,” Laura said, somewhat cautiously, looking up at the ceiling as she did so.
“Hello Laura, how are you?” Morgan asked politely.
“I’m excellent. Thanks for asking Morgan,” Laura said, adapting quickly to speaking to an artificial intelligence.
“Well, should I show you the ship?” Quinn asked.
“Yes please,” Laura said excitedly. Quinn opened the door which led into the lounge room.
“This is the lounge,” Quinn said, smiling at Laura’s reaction. She was stunned. Quinn doubted she had seen a lounge like this in her entire life, especially considering as all the furniture was from the twenty-second century. Laura slowly walked into the centre of the room, turning around in awe of the ship.
“Quinn, this place is amazing,” Laura said, turning around in circles as she continued looking at the furniture. She slowly sat down on one of the couches, and once her body touched it she completely melted back into it. “This is so nice,” She said, momentarily closing her eyes before standing up and looking around again.
It was a while before Quinn proceeded with the tour. He let Laura take her time looking around the ship and absorbing everything, letting it all sink in for her.
Once he continued with the tour, Quinn led Laura down the hallway, showing her each of the rooms. He gave her one of the two guests rooms for her to have as her own. Quinn showed her all of the rooms down the hallway with the exception of his parents’ bedroom and Natalie’s room, which he hadn’t removed anything from.
“And this is the cockpit,” Quinn said as he opened the door to the room. Laura stepped in and marvelled at the room. She wandered over to the dashboard, her fingers grazing over the buttons and levers, not daring to press or flick anything.
She stared around at all the buttons and knobs and levers; at the touch-pad on the dashboard; at the chairs and even the computer station in the corner of the room.
“Quinn, honestly, this is amazing,” Laura said, her voice revealing how she believed all this was too good to be true. She shook her head in disbelief. “Quinn, are you sure you’re fine with me living here?” Laura asked for what seemed like the millionth time.
“Laura, it’s fine, honestly” Quinn reassured her. “It’s only me and Morgan here and Morgan doesn’t take up any room, so really it’s just one person.”
“Hey!” Morgan interrupted, annoyed. “Thanks, Quinn.”
“You’re a person too,” Quinn said, shaking his head at his friend, before looking at Laura and mouthing the word ‘touchy’.
“I saw that,” Morgan said, and Laura laughed.
“Well, should we get off this planet?” Quinn asked Laura, clapping his hands together.
“Let’s,” Laura said excitedly, looking around for which chair to sit in, not sure which of the five chairs to choose.
“Oh, you can sit on that one,” Quinn said, pointing to the chair next to his. Quinn pressed the button on the armrest which caused two transparent blue strips to pop out from the top of the seat crossing over Quinn’s chest. Laura mimicked Quinn, doing the same thing.
Quinn flicked some switches above his head. The engines of the Audion started up, as indicated by a soft humming noise from below them.
“All systems good Morgan?” Quinn asked.
“All ready for take-off Quinn,” Morgan replied, and Quinn turned the thrusters on the side of the ship so that they pointed at the ground. The Audion began to take off into the air and Quinn pushed forward on the thruster levers. He then changed the direction of where the thrusters on the sides of the ship were pointing. The Audion began to push itself through the air towards the atmosphere of the planet, building speed as it flew. The ship continued flying until a cone of fire developed around its nose. In no time it had passed through the atmosphere and reached outer space, the beautiful starry universe greeting Quinn, Laura and Morgan.
“Wow,” Laura breathed out, staring in wonder at the starry sky, billions of stars twinkling against the pure black backdrop, the entire beautiful universe ahead of them.
“How long has it been since you’ve seen outer space?” Quinn asked, taking his seat belt off and letting go of the controls (Morgan took over as autopilot, steering them out of the solar system) and turning to face Laura.
“I haven’t been into space since I was ten years old, a few weeks before my Mum and Dad died,” Laura said, undoing her seat belt and turning to face Quinn as he had done to talk to her. The two of them fell into silence as the ship continued flying, Quinn and Laura both staring into the stars.
“How did you get this ship?” Laura asked, turning to face Quinn.
Quinn didn’t say anything, simply freezing for a moment. He could hear Morgan telling him to tell Laura in his head and he knew he should. Laura had told him her backstory and after all, she was now living aboard the Audion. She should know.
“I guess if you’re going to live here, then you should know the story of the ship and how I got it,” Quinn said, his voice died down from his excited tone to a more serious one. Laura’s face turned to concern, as she looked at Quinn, ready to hold onto every single word he said.
Quinn opened his mouth. No words came out. He made a face at himself, before taking a deep breath and beginning his story.
“I’m not from this time,” Quinn began. Laura’s face turned from hanging onto every word that was uttered from his mouth to slight confusion.
“What?” Laura asked, her eyebrows furrowing together, clearly baffled at the words that had just been uttered from his mouth.
“I was born in the year two thousand one hundred and seventy-five on the fifth of April. Or at least I will be,”
And so, Quinn launched into his story. How he was from Nespritia, how he had woken up one night to find life like hell had come to the planet. How his parents and Natalie died. How he saw Agross. How he time travelled back. Becoming stranded. Finding Agross had time travelled back too. That T.A.S.P.A were the people to find to help stop the madman.
Laura seemed shocked at his story, her eyes wide and disbelieving, sitting still as she stared at Quinn. He smiled lightly at her before looking down towards the ground.
He suddenly felt two arms wrap around his chest. He looked up to see Laura hugging him just as he had hugged her. In comfort.
“Quinn, I’m sorry,” Laura said once she released him from her embrace. She put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you tell me?” She asked.
“I guess for the same reason y
ou didn’t tell me about your parents or being homeless,” Quinn said, shrugging the question off lightly.
“Quinn,” Laura said with a raised eyebrow. “Our two situations are very, very different here,” Laura said in a voice that suggested it was a fact.
“Not really. We both lost people we loved,” Quinn said.
“That’s why you want to stop Agross. Because he’s the one who did all this to you,” Laura said, sorrow for her friend in her eyes and voice. Quinn nodded silently in response, staring off at the wall yet not really seeing it. Laura didn’t peruse the topic any further than this. The two stayed there in silence, Quinn sitting in the Captain’s chair whilst Laura stood next to him. They both turned their gaze to the stars and became lost in its wonder.
“Thank you, Quinn,” Laura said. “Really, you have no idea how much this means to me,” Her voice was quiet and grateful.
“No problem,” Quinn said, smiling to himself.
They returned to the silence that had fallen over them before, both simply staring out into the stars.
“Do you mind if I have a shower?” Laura asked.
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Quinn said standing up. He led Laura down the descending stairs and into the lounge, before entering the hallway. He opened a cupboard the included things such as towels and other bathroom items. He handed one to Laura, before pointing her in the direction of the main bathroom and her room in case she needed to get anything from her bag as she had dropped it on the bed previously.
Quinn left Laura to shower, walking up the stairs back into the cockpit. He opened the door and sat himself down in the Captain’s chair, smiling to himself as he did.
“She’s staying?” Morgan asked. Quinn sighed to himself, knowing this was going to come sooner or later.
“You’d better be broadcasting to only this room,” Quinn said, shaking his head and looking out at the stars. He knew the answer yet asked just in case to rid himself of the tiny bit of doubt held inside.
“Of course, I am,” Morgan replied like it was the stupidest question Quinn had ever asked him. “Are you sure this is a good idea? Does she know we’re after Agross and looking for T.A.S.P.A?”
“Of course, I told her,” Quinn said. It was his turn to sound like it was the stupidest question his friend had ever asked. “Did you think I was going to tell her the day we find them?” Quinn shook his head and stood up out of the Captain’s seat. “I couldn’t just leave her in Nigellia, Morgan,” Quinn sighed, running a hand through his light brown hair. “She had no home; her parents are dead, and it’s been like that for her for ten years. How could I not let her stay?” Quinn said, a feeling of warmth flooding through his body.
“You’re right,” Morgan said, saying it like he’d been right all along. “I’m just being paranoid,” Quinn’s smile returned to his face and he laughed.
“You’re always paranoid,” Quinn replied, shaking his head and turning to look out at the stars.
“So…” Morgan said, trailing off. Quinn raised an eyebrow in question of what Morgan was about to ask. “Was there no other incentive for inviting Laura to live with us other than feeling sorry for her?” Morgan asked slyly, a way of asking something he had never done before.
“What do you mean?” Quinn asked, puzzled.
“You know what I mean!” Morgan teased. Quinn sighed, shaking his head.
“You know, you can be really annoying at times,” Quinn said, shaking his head at his friend, before taking a seat in the Captain’s chair and flying off through the stars.
A MAJOR UPGRADE
Having another person on the Audion certainly changed how things were aboard the ship.
Yet things changed for the better. Both Quinn and Morgan agreed that having Laura on the ship was a good decision for both them and her.
For Laura, she absolutely loved living aboard the Audion. Really, Quinn was quite sure she was just extremely happy to have a real home. It didn’t take her long to get to know where everything was on the ship and Quinn had even taught her to fly the Audion in the past two weeks that she had been living with him. And Quinn had to hand it to her, she seemed to be quite the natural.
For Quinn, having Laura aboard the ship greatly improved his wellbeing. It might have been over half a year since his family were killed and he found himself stuck in two thousand and sixteen, but he still had his moments when he was struggling. Having Laura, a real person aboard the ship certainly helped. The fact that she had gone through losses too did help Quinn as well. Laura didn’t really impact upon Morgan’s life, but the A.I was simply just glad that Quinn was happy.
Quinn walked through the hallways of the Audion after waking up one morning, yawning to himself.
“How’s the decoding going Morgan?” Quinn asked the A.I, referring to the information he had acquired from the pirates on Agross. There was a brief silence as Morgan checked the information for Quinn.
“The program seems to be decoding the files pretty quickly,” Morgan replied, and Quinn’s heart jumped in joy. He was so close to the information he so wanted. “But it will need another week at the least,” Quinn’s heart dropped a tiny bit, but he couldn’t argue with time.
Quinn entered the kitchen and began making himself toast as he did most mornings. Laura had been adjusting to the sleeping times that Quinn had set in place, as they did not coincide with the sleeping hours she had back upon Krezar. At first, Quinn had insisted that they were changed to suit Laura. But she beat his proposal down, saying that she would be fine with whatever sleeping hours he had put into place.
So, when Quinn was sitting at the table, he wasn’t really expecting Laura to enter the room.
“Good morning,” Laura said chirpily, smiling at Quinn as she walked over to the kitchen bench to make herself a bowl of cereal.
“Morning,” Quinn said in response. “You’ve adjusted to the sleeping times here. Congratulations,” Quinn said, raising a piece of toast her way in congratulations. Laura smirked at Quinn as she poured milk into the bowl of cereal.
“Thank you,” Laura said, putting on some sort of posh accent. “Thank you for this prestigious award,” She sat down at the table opposite Quinn and began eating her breakfast.
“So,” Laura said, swallowing a mouth full of food. “Anywhere or anything we’re doing today?”
Laura had been incredibly accepting of Quinn’s constant and yet random travel, telling Quinn that it was fine, and she really didn’t mind that they didn’t stay in one place. She was quite happy travelling to all these different planets, considering she hadn’t been able to do that in the past ten years. Quinn had insisted that Laura pick whichever one she wanted to go to and of course, she sometimes did, but Laura said that for most of the time, she was simply just a passenger aboard the ship.
“I dunno,” Quinn said shrugging his shoulders. “Anything you want to do today?” Quinn asked, simply to be polite because he knew exactly what Laura’s answer was going to be.
“No, not really,” Laura responded with a shrug, proving Quinn right.
“What about you Morgan?” Quinn asked, looking up at the roof. “Anywhere you wanted to go today?”
“Quinn,” Morgan responded like he was being incredibly stupid. “It’s not as if I can venture out onto the planet, is it? I am simply here for the ride,” Morgan responded, and Quinn shrugged in response.
“Your loss,” Quinn said, smiling in Laura’s direction, who smiled back.
“Really Quinn, you shouldn’t have been so stupid as to think of that question,” Laura mocked as she stood up and put her bowl in the dishwasher.
“What?” Quinn spluttered in surprise, nearly choking on his toast as he did so. “You’re siding with him?”
“Ha, Quinn,” Morgan cried out half-heartedly. “You’re on your own,” Morgan jested, which caused Quinn to shake his head and look up at the roof.
“Well if it came down to a fight, it would be one physical body verse one physical body and an A.I that I’m prett
y sure isn’t functioning right,” Quinn teased, smiling to himself as he knew he got Morgan with this one.
“Excuse me, Quinn Fenton,” Morgan retorted back in a huff. “I am functioning perfectly fine. My systems are all currently operating to one hundred percent.”
Quinn glanced at Laura, who was enjoying the strange antics between the two friends.
“Now boys,” Laura said, smiling widely. “Stop fighting, calm down,” Laura said, before turning away from them and walking to the kitchen door. She turned her head around and looked back at Quinn.
“I’ll just be in my room.”
Quinn smiled at her, before realizing that Morgan could see him through the security cameras. Quinn immediately removed the smile from his face, looked at the kitchen security camera and shook his head in Morgan’s direction.
Quinn exited the kitchen but didn’t follow Laura. He made his way to the bathroom where he showered and brushed his teeth before returning to his bedroom and getting dressed for whatever the day held for him. Quinn wandered into the study, where the robot shell he had found lay on the table, still as lifeless as it had been on the day he had found it. He rubbed his hands together, eager to finish the project, which was very nearly complete. Opening the back compartment, he looked at the work he had previously done. He had managed to install all the salvaged parts, all he needed to do now was install the battery compartment and a battery. These two items had been purchased on Nigellia a while ago.
For the next hour or so, Quinn was huddled up inside the study, installing the battery compartment. He screwed in screws and attached wires from the battery to all the components so that it powered everything.
Just as Quinn attached the final wire, Laura came through the door behind him.
“Hey,” Quinn said, concentrating to the fullest on the robot. He was in the zone.