No Matter the Cost

As the shuttle landed back inside the hanger bays aboard the shore, Kita quickly got off of the shuttle and headed straight towards his lab. After reaching his lab he quickly plugged in his scanner to his terminal. He transferred the data over and began to process it.

Although the scanner was somewhat effective at collecting data, but it wasn't perfect. The gathered data still had a lot of problems with it. These problems needed to be filtered out and the sorted before there could be any useable data.

Kita began to write some algorithms according to his analysis that'd filter out the hundreds of petabytes of data that he had gathered in the short span. Doing all that manually would take too much time. He could just give it to one of the huge processors on-board the shore and it'd complete the task within the day.

As he continued to write algorithms for different kinds of data, He got a message from Dr. Kbom. He wanted to see him as soon as he was done. Dr. Kbom was naturally aware what was running through his mind and he had most likely gotten a heads-up from York. But Kita didn't care at the moment. He just wanted to finish this task as quickly as possible.

He quickly finished writing the algorithms and then sent all the data to the central processor to get filtered, sorted and the processed. It would still take some time before this was done, so he decided to address his other priorities. He quickly moved out of his personal lab and went straight for Lab V. He couldn't keep Dr. Kbom waiting for too long.

When he entered the Lab, he saw that Dr. Kbom was in a call with someone. The privacy shield was on, so he couldn't really see or hear what they were talking about. So he waited for the call to finish.

Dr. Kbom finished the call pretty soon and then turned to look towards Kita who was sitting on a chair reminiscing about Helen. He was quite out of focus. Enough to not notice that Dr. Kbom was looking at him.

Dr. Kbom pressed a few buttons and a pair of robots quickly came and delivered some refreshments to them. As the Robots put the refreshments in front of Kita, he quickly got his focus back and looked towards Dr. Kbom who approached the table slowly and then took a seat in front of Kita.

"Dr. Kbom, You called me."

"Yes, I wanted to talk to you about something. But, First of all. How are you faring?", Dr. Kbom said in a slow and unhurried voice. He knew how much Kita and Helen loved each-other, losing Helen was like losing a part of himself. So He didn't rush kita for an answer and allowed him the time to formulate a response.

"I'm…. Well. Thanks for worrying about me Sir.", Kita replied in a normal tone. He didn't want anyone to think that losing Helen had made him any weaker. He was still the Head researcher on-board after Dr. Kbom and was capable of performing his duties. Although that wasn't something he wanted to do right now. But he couldn't give the impression to anyone. So he held back. He held back every emotions he was feeling right now and tried to put on a facade.

But that didn't work on Dr. Kbom. As someone who knew Kita for a very long time, Dr. Kbom knew exactly what Kita was doing. He had seen him do it in the past.

"You do know that I have been your master for a long time right? These tricks you're trying to pull of won't work with me." Dr. Kbom said as he gave a slight smile.

Kita looked at him and gave a resigned sigh.

"I'm sorry for that. Although losing her has been quite hard. I'm trying to pull myself together. I promised her something. And I intend on keeping it. So I'm currently working towards that. I can mourn her after I'm done", Kita said in a determined voice.

Dr. Kbom gave a frowned look.

"I understand. Losing someone you love is a truly traumatic experience. It can have profound mental impacts on a person. There have been cases where it has led people to completely change in personality. But it's important to not lose oneself when mourning one's loved one." Dr. Kbom said in a slow voice.

Kita looked at Dr. Kbom with an astonished look. Why'd it felt like Dr. Kbom already knew what he wanted to do.

"With due respect, Sir. While losing Helen is a tragedy beyond comparison for me, I have tried to maintain a level head throughout. But I'm not gonna let anything stop me." Kita wanted to make it clear that he wouldn't let anything stand in his way to destroy the Monolith.

"That won't work. I can't let you destroy the monolith kita. As a researcher, I think you'd see the problems in destroying such a precious piece of alien artifact and engineering. There's more to that monolith that meets the eye." Dr. Kbom made his intentions clear to Kita.

Kita could figure out that Dr. Kbom and the higher-ups probably didn't want to let the monolith get destroyed. It had significant research purpose. It was also potentially dangerous. But that mattered little to Kita. He couldn't care less about it's research value right now. It already took the single most precious thing in his life. He didn't care anymore. He couldn't care anymore.

He probed to clarify.

"Is this coming from you or the higher-ups?" He asked directly without blowing around the bush.

"It's a collective decision. We can't let you destroy that monolith."

"What if I destroy it anyway?"

"Then you'll be court martialed and removed from your position."

"I see…." Kita replied in a unhinged tone.

This was within his expectations. But it didn't matter.

"I'll take my leave first." Kita said as he got up and then walked towards the door.

As he walked out of the lab V, he got into a pod and towards his lab again. To full-fill his promise to Helen, he was gonna destroy the Monolith. No matter the cost. Even if that meant that he would lose everything. He cared little about it right now.

To him. He had already lost everything worth keeping. Losing his position as a head researcher didn't matter anymore. He was prepared to lose it all.