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Published at 21st of March 2019 12:25:44 AM


Chapter 63

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Quinn stretched his long length in bed, one eye slowly opening to the sound of a train. "The hell is going on now?" The sound of voices downstairs pulled him the rest of the way into consciousness and he slowly sat up. A pink haired gnome was sitting at his desk, she had a half dozen huds open and was paging through some very thick books. "Remmy..."

Remmy's pretty face turned and looked at him when he spoke. Her usual smile was hiding behind a very serious expression. "I don't get this Quinn."

"Me neither." Quinn shook his head at her. Tal had ordered virtual copies of all her engineering books, for some reason Remmy had taken to studying them. "Step out so I can get dressed Remmy."

Remmy smiled ear to ear. "I've already seen you without clothes, there's no need to be so shy."

"Hmm? When would that be you pink haired vixen?" Quinn picked up a pillow and tossed it at her, it went through her and bounced off the chair.

Remmy bounced up and walked toward the door, "Leah showed us the drawings."

"Drawings?" Quinn scratched his head staring as Remmy paused in the doorway.

The little gnome grinned at him, her face turning slightly pink. "Yep, the naked ones."

"Oh god... my happy life fades." Quinn tossed another pillow at Remmy but she'd already left.

Quinn grabbed some clean clothes from his dresser and walked into the bathroom, thankfully Tal wasn't the sort of woman who left her things hanging everywhere. He quickly put some paste on his toothbrush and stepped into the shower.

"Leah Fintree..." He tried to frown and think up a suitable course of action, but he found himself unable to. A smile pulled at his face as he sighed loudly. Quinn had been spending a lot of time with her in TAP lately, doing the sort of things he had missed out on while she was hiding in concert hall.

"Oi.. nemesis.."

A tiny voice caused him to look up, he wasn't surprised. She had taken to visiting him while he was showering. According to her it was the only place she felt secure enough to change into her natural form. He glanced at the small spider queen suspended from the ceiling. "Hi Angel."

She lowered herself upside down, her furry spider legs gripping her webbing as her warm green eyes watching him intently. "There are some serious people downstairs Quinn."

Quinn raised an eyebrow. "Did Tal send you up here to get me?"

"Yep... but I was coming anyways once I heard the shower turn on." The self-proclaimed gnomeling swung gently from the ceiling, waiting patiently as Quinn finished up. She changed back into her Ba'Avriel form and perched on his shoulder after he had gotten dressed.

"You're growing fast." She'd only been born two days earlier and was currently chin high to Remmy.

She nodded sagely from his shoulder. "I'm a Queen, so of course I do everything fast."


Quinn laughed as he walked toward his door. "Let's go see these serious people your majesty." He felt her small hand stroking his head as he trotted down the stairs.

Gus Obreen was standing in his living room talking to Talia and Em. He had gone back east the day before, so Quinn knew that this was his virtual presence. The kitchen Island was covered in dominos. Leah, Mojo, Jinn, Anna and Ro-Ro were all sitting down. It was obvious that they had been playing. Tal had taught them how to play Mexican Trains, since then they had been playing regularly. The centerpiece had a button that when you pressed it, sounded like a train, it seemed to wake Quinn out of a dead sleep fairly often.

"Hey dad!" Quinn missed the Obreen family, even though they had only been gone a day. His sister Em was the only one who had stayed, she was still rooming with Ren.

"Hey Quinn." His dad gave him a small smile, "need you to come to a meeting with me."

Quinn knew that it must be serious, he glanced over at Tal who was staring at him. "You coming?"

The blond engineer nodded, "yes of course."

"Me too." Leah stood up from the island. "It's a virtual meeting?"

Quinn looked at his dad who nodded at him. "Okay dad, we're ready." Leah walked over and stood next to Tal, Mojo had accompanied her.

Gus had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing as he activated his hud and loaded them all into the agreed meeting space.

A few minutes later Quinn found himself back in Mallory Olsen's virtual boardroom. Mike Obreen was sitting next to Mallory. She had kept in touch with Quinn through emails, so she smiled when she saw him.

Quinn's smile froze on his face when he noticed the woman sitting in the corner. She wore an orange jumpsuit and was nervously tapping her foot, it was Dr. Nora Salo.

"What is that woman doing here?" Talia's voice was as cold as winter. "You should die a thousand times for what you did, you heartless bitch."

Leah and Mojo stared at Tal in shock, they had never seen her angry.

"Is that the woman who killed Quinn's mom?" Leah caught on very quickly and all the warmth faded from her eyes. "How dare you show your face in front of our family."

Mallory held up her hand, "please let's calm down and have a seat." She caught her security guards eyes and motioned for him to take a seat next to Nora, the three women looked like they wanted to attack her. They couldn't do much damage virtually, but he didn't want to give Salo's lawyers any reason to protest.

Gus took a seat and pulled out the chair next to him for his son. "Lets just listen first Quinn."

Quinn nodded and sat down.

"We have all the implants from the test subjects, HYLO made sure to recover them." Dr. Salo's voice shook when she spoke, she looked down at her feet refusing to make eye contact.

"So?" Talia had studied the process during the trial, her engineering background gave her some insight into the procedure.

"We also saved implanted memory shells from each of them." The old neurologist squinted at Quinn, for some reason she had been steadily losing her eyesight since she had been arrested.

Tal placed a hand on Quinn's shoulder, "that won't bring her back Quinn, it would be a copy of the neural map, missing the key component."

"Consciousness." Quinn also understood the process, at least the steps involved, Pops and Tal had explained everything at great length.

"Quinn we are having someone bring you the implants and imprint." Mike had sent a security team to deliver it to his Grandson's house. He secretly approved of his grandsons relaxed demeanor, it was easy to underestimate him.

Mallory had Quinn sign a few virtual papers and then ended the meeting. "This wraps everything up Quinn, I hope it brings you some measure of closure."

Quinn shrugged slightly as he hugged his dad and grandpa, "these are old wounds, they healed a long time ago."

"Sunday dinner at our house, bring everyone." Mike and Louise had decided to embrace Quinn's virtual friends. Orion Media was making a strong move to attain HYLO's assets, Mike already knew of several interesting projects from their Research and Development department.

"Okay grandpa, we'll see you then."

A few minutes later, Mallory watched as everyone logged out of the virtual conference room, then she spoke to Dr. Salo. "Stay here for a few minutes, I have to prepare for our next meeting." When Dr. Salo had come to her, she insisted on meeting with the families of each of the test subjects. Mallory wasn't sure why, but the neurologist looked slightly unhinged. Perhaps she was aiming for an insanity plea in her appeal.

"I'll be here.. where would I go?" Nora Salo continued to stare at the ground as the room emptied out. A skittering on the ceiling drew her eyes upward.

"Hmm... aren't you interesting?" A voice spoke from above the lights, slowly she lowered herself downward, her green eyes staring as the older woman tried to stand up and stumbled to the floor.

The old doctor's mouth opened and closed as her face paled. It was something out of a nightmare, a spider-human hybrid watching her while upside down. Dr. Salo had always been terrified of spiders, she threw herself on the ground and covered her head. "I'm sorry.. god in heaven I'm sorry."

"God isn't going to help you here." She landed lightly on the doctors legs and slowly walked toward the back of her head, Nora screamed hysterically as the creature stopped on her shoulders. "You shouldn't have hurt him," the voice whispered in her ear.

***********

"It's on me Q." Jangles ordered two beers for them, smiling at Ren when she delivered them.

Quinn took a long drink, "thanks Ren." He watched her walk away, Jangles always seemed to show up when Ren and Lara went on stage. He shook his head in disbelief, it was always standing room only.

"Don't look so sulky my boy." Pops walked up and plopped down next to the bard, inexplicably the two of them had become drinking buddies. "You had years to recruit the Songbirds while Lara Sy was at Concert Hall."

Jangles scowled at the old man, who he regularly referred to as 'Overlord.' "Pipe down.. it's going to start."

A few moments later haunting music flowed from the stage. Ren played a sad melody, Lara's voice blended in smoothly as the two of them told a story about unrequited love. It went on for several minutes before ending in thunderous applause. The two held hands on the stage and took their bows before making their way to Quinn's table.

Quinn stood and clapped when they approached. "That was so nice guys. I could listen to the two of you play all night."

Ren smiled and hugged Quinn tightly. "I can't play all night, but I'm sure Lara wouldn't mind singing for you." She smiled sweetly and took the offered seat next to Pops.

Lara laughed and sat next to Quinn, "well not all night, but I'd sing a bit." Lara didn't bother to hide her affection for her commander. She smiled at him as she stole a drink of his beer.

Quinn grinned at her when she pushed his drink back toward him. "How come everyone takes my drink?"

Quinn's comm-chat blink at him and he quickly opened It, Mojo's face looked back at him. "Hey Mojo."

"Q'Ikah, could you come to Ravenwood right away please?" Mojo had been handling a lot of the governing work, along with Yayia and Bez.

"Is there a problem?" Quinn could hear both Tal and Leah talking in the background.

"No, bring all the Songbirds with you please." Mojo cut comm a moment later.

"Okay then, guess that means we have to go." He glanced at Lara who was already moving, "let the others know please."

Lara nodded as she glanced over her shoulder. "Of course commander."

Jangles watched all of them leave. "Damn, I really want to see this Ravenwood I've been hearing about."

Pops cackled and slapped the bard on the back. "It's paradise my boy!"

Jangles scrunched up his girly face and favored the 'Overlord' with another scowl. "What does 'lkah mean anyway?"

"That's an easy one, it means husband." Pops finished off his beer and gestured for another before he realized that there was no one to serve, both Ren and Lara had left. "Damn it, guess I'm the barkeep now."

"I expect a discount then." Jangles followed the old man to the bar as he continued to nurse his beer.

Pops shot him a lopsided grin and nodded. "Yes, of course. My special discount."




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