Emla and I had spent the better part of an hour in the bath, helping each other wash and then just relaxing in the big tub. The water jets felt so good I never wanted to move again. I just floated in the hot water, and let my thoughts drift.
Kavin really had been with the boarding party. He’d stormed that frigate with a battalion of mercenaries at his back, and I was pretty sure that leading boarding actions wasn’t his usual job. When Akio and I had contacted them he’d made sure he was in the first group to reach the security room, even though there was another platoon that was closer.
He’d tried to play it cool, and act like I was such a badass that no one was worried about me. But the first thing he’d done when he walked into the control room was hug me, and he hadn’t wanted to let go. Then he’d hugged Lina, who he’d apparently met once or twice, and fussed over her just the same as if she’d been human.
I smiled. He just might be a keeper. But his job would make it hard to spend enough time together to be sure of that, and there was Akio to consider.
It had been hate at first sight between those two, of course. Fortunately the yakuza lord still didn’t have a body, or there might have been a fight. I had to suppress a giggle at that thought. Emla had been kind of surprised that they didn’t like each other, but I wasn’t.
Lina had thought it was hilarious.
Looks like you’ve got your pick, she’d told me over a private com channel. You should just sit back and let them try to impress you. Which one do you think will do a better job?
Tough call, I’d admitted. Akio is rich and powerful, and he did sacrifice himself to let me and Emla get away from his uncle’s ambush. But it’s his fault Yamashida was able to pull that off in the first place, and he loses a lot of points for being a jerk who thinks techs don’t really matter.
What about Kavin?
Bonus points for riding to the rescue, and treating you right. He’s coming from behind, but he’s going to have a much better army when all is said and done. What’s the saying about mercenaries? Gold can’t always get you good soldiers, but good soldiers can always get you gold.
You just like the idea of your boyfriend being in charge of a bunch of guys with guns.
Maybe. Is there something wrong with that?
You won’t hear me complaining. I’m just glad you’re going to give him a chance. You’ll keep him on his toes.
Heh. I probably would, at that. Maybe I could arrange another date before everyone went their separate ways again? Not that there was anywhere to go out here in the middle of nowhere, but a chance to talk would be nice.
Emla’s touch drew me from my thoughts. She floated up next to me, letting her hand rest on my belly while she kissed my cheek.
I turned to face her, and the next kiss landed on my lips. I giggled.
“Did you need some attention, Emla?”
“I just wanted to be touching you. You’re the most awesome mistress ever. You know that, right?”
“Thank you.”
“Are we going to have more fights like that? Because I had a blast. I could really get addicted to kicking butt with you.”
I chuckled. “It was kind of fun, wasn’t it? Although I’m a little conflicted about knowing I had to kill a bunch of hapless dog girls. It’s not their fault they were mind controlled.”
She shrugged. “I’m not really programmed to care about the moral stuff. I guess that’s supposed to be your job, since you’re in charge. Just promise you aren’t going to start moping around being all guilt-ridden or something.”
“Good goddess, no. That would be retarded. I did the best I could in the middle of a complete mess, and I think I handled things pretty well. But next time I’m going to make sure I have more options.”
“Going to make me some pack sisters?” She asked.
“Not just yet. Making people is a big responsibility, Emla, and it’s not something I’ll ever do casually. I need to really think about where I’m going with my life before I consider something like that. But there are other things I can do to make sure we’re prepared for unexpected problems. I just need to talk to Hope again when we get back to the wreck.”
If there was anything I felt guilty about in this whole situation, it was the fact that I couldn’t take Hope with me. But her core personality was built into every computing node in the Emperor’s Hope, and there was no way to remove it. She could make copies of herself, but the original would still be trapped on a wrecked battleship drifting through the Delta Layer. The only way to rescue her would be to repair the ship, and that was a project so far beyond my resources that it was laughable to even think about it.
Fortunately, it wasn’t an urgent problem. Even without power her long-term data storage was good for hundreds of years, so no matter how long I was gone she’d still be here when I came back. She could go back into hibernation to wait for me, or I could sneak her a supply of tritium and let her try to get a self-repair effort going once everyone left. Either way, I just needed to make sure that someday I’d be in a position to come back and help her.
In the meantime, between my suit computer and my own internal data storage I had room to copy off all sorts of interesting things from her design database. Personal equipment. Warbots. AI programs that were decades ahead of anything you could find in the Outer Sphere, and plans for half a dozen amazing technological breakthroughs.
Assuming I dared build any of it.
I’d had to brief Kavin and his officers on the situation while they secured the frigate, so I couldn’t entirely hide my bots. I’d done my best to make it sound like they were fakes, part of a psychological warfare scheme the captain had cooked up to confuse the opposition. Sleeping Dragon apparently had a pretty low opinion of the inugami, and most of their officers seemed willing to assume that we’d just outsmarted them. But I was sure Kavin suspected there was more going on than that.
Akio had to know who I was. He’d been researching the Mirai, the Emperor’s Hope and me all at the same time, and that was before I escaped into the wreck and showed up a few hours later with a bunch of Mirai warbots. He was keeping quiet about it so far, but I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop there.
I wasn’t sure what the Masu-kai would make of my heritage. On the one hand, I was an authentic princess with the same bloodline his family was so proud of, which would make me an ideal prospect for a political marriage. But on the other hand, would even the Masu-kai dare admit to that openly?