Iris and Azalea shared an uncomfortable look.
“It isn’t our place to speculate on the motives of our betters,” Azalea said.
“It’s a statement, Emla,” I told her. “A show of wealth and power, like the way half the palace was built by hand even though bots could have done the work a thousand times cheaper. Now don’t badger them, please. I’m sure they’d get in trouble if they said the wrong thing, and we don’t want that.”
“Of course not,” she agreed. “It’s just weird. Now I feel like I should be bowing to them, or something.”
“If we are ever guests in your home you may feel free to treat us as you wish, Miss Emla,” Azalea said kindly. “But as you are currently guests of the oyabun, please allow us to serve our role properly.”
“Alright, I guess. I don’t want to get you in trouble,” Emla said.
I snickered. “Now you know how I feel when you and the techs are like that with me,” I said.
I might have gone on, but a message from Naoko interrupted me.
“Whoops. Meeting time.”
There was no rush, so Emla took a moment to change into the jumpsuit Azalea had picked out for her first. It was a lot like what I’d seen all the inugami wearing. A skinsuit that covered her completely from the neck down, but hugged her figure tightly enough that I would have been embarrassed to wear it. The slippers that came with it had active traction control to grip the polished floors that half the rooms in this place boasted, and there was an attachment point at the hip for her pistol holster.
I declined an offer of house slippers for myself as well, and went barefoot. I’m not sure why, exactly. It just felt right.
We found the rest of our party assembled in the conference room, looking about as happy as I was about our predicament. As soon as the door was shut Naoko put her hands over her face.
“What are we going to do?” She groaned.
“What we must,” the captain said mildly.
“But Captain, simply being here is terribly dangerous. One wrong word, a single inadvertent slight, and anything could happen.”
“Yes, it’s a dangerous situation, Naoko. But it isn’t quite as bad as all that. Lord Himura and I have been acquaintances for some time now, and mere guards and companions are beneath the notice of such an important personage. I was a bit concerned for you, Alice, but you handled yourself perfectly.”
“I don’t like the way the younger Himura was looking at her,” Naoko grumbled.
“If something happens there I’ll handle it,” I said, a lot more confidently than I felt. “I’m more worried about our schedule. This is going to tie up the ship for weeks, and I can’t imagine what that will cost in reputation and lost profits. Sir, are we going to be alright?”
“It’s not as great a concern as you might think, Alice. We were about to begin a circuit of various dark colonies that the Square Deal trades with, and I’m always careful not to commit to a specific schedule for those stops. So long as we aren’t missing for more than a month our reputation will suffer no great loss. As for the money, the ship’s finances are quite healthy at the moment. You needn’t fear being left without employment, provided we handle this affair with proper delicacy.”
“So what’s the play, boss?” Chief West said casually.
“We’ll go with the obvious plan, I think. I don’t believe that this lost gold exists, and even if it did I feel it would be unwise to be present when it’s discovered. I doubt that Lord Himura will lead this expedition himself, and a subordinate would be all too tempted to find some excuse to dispose of us instead of sharing it. So I shall attempt to arrange matters so that we show them the location of the wreck, remain on station for a day or two while they assure themselves of its authenticity, and then take our leave.”
“I’d rather not be there when they start poking around, anyway,” Chief West agreed. “There’s no telling what they might wake up. The Swarmlords deployed a lot of self-replicating bots in that war, and Mirai tech has such extensive self-repair programming that it’s damned near impossible to destroy it for good. Even if everything is really dead right now, all it takes is one idiot connecting a power source to the wrong thing and we could be buried in warbots.”
Yeah, that would be bad. The great powers of the Inner Sphere were a lot more advanced than any of the nations out here in the Kerak Sector, and there’s no telling what kind of advanced hardware their bots might have. One way or another they’d be nasty opponents.
“Just remember to be on your best behavior while we’re here,” Captain Sokol admonished us all. “Even in private. There won’t be any official surveillance, because that’s considered rude here. But there are always spies in a place like this, so it’s best not to make too many assumptions about your privacy. The clan lords also have the usual intrigue going on, and if Lord Himura has an heir now that’s only going to make things more complicated. So be polite to everyone, but keep your eyes open and don’t make any commitments. I have no doubt there are all manner of plots in progress, and we can’t afford to get dragged into them.”
That sounded easy enough, and for the rest of the evening I played it safe. Emla and I tried on clothes, and built up a selection of local fashions with Azalea’s help while Freesia plied me with food. She was an amazing cook. They had a lot of weird food here, things like fried octopus on a stick or bits of raw fish rolled in seaweed. But most of it was surprisingly good, and she somehow managed to add my supplements to the menu in a way that complimented the dishes.
When I noticed how the distinctive zing of my heavy metals blend enhanced the flavor of the wasabi I had to ask about that, but she claimed it wasn’t her invention.
“The head chef prepared much of this menu for Lord Akio,” she explained. “Your nutritional prescription includes many of the same supplements, so it seemed natural to see if you shared his tastes.”
“Apparently I do, because this is really good. What’s up with that, anyway? I noticed that everyone around here has at least some basic enhancements, but he’s really hardcore. Is it some kind of status thing?”
“I wouldn’t know, ma’am,” she replied demurely.
“Oh, right, that could be taken wrong. Sorry, Freesia. I’ll try to remember not to ask you things like that.”
She flushed. “There’s no need to apologize, ma’am.”
“Now, Freesia, my personal honor is mine to guard. No one gets to tell me I can’t apologize for something if I think I ought to.”
“Of course, my lady. Thank you for your consideration.”