"Begin the day with a friendly voice, a companion unobtrusive," Kelly sang, opening the door to Victor's bedroom.
"seems pretty damn obtrusive to me, go'way," he mumbled, holding a pillow over his head.
"Sounds like someone's got a hangover."
"well obviously... ugh."
Kelly smiled briefly, but then her expression hardened. "Get out of bed, get dressed, and get to the living room. Now."
--------
"Rgh. What's so important?" Victor asked, shambling out of his room to see Kelly standing in the kitchen.
"Just making sure you're alright. The good news is a hangover's just equal parts dehyration, headache, and regret," she explained, pouring a glass of water and opening a pill bottle. "Here, ice water and Depane, that'll help with the first two at least." He took two pills and a drink, and she continued, "Since you don't have a flashcooker here, you're making your own breakfast."
Victor sat down on the couch and turned on the viewscreen and a lamp. With the lights on, Kelly got a better look at his apartment. It was rather sparse, with stark white walls, black furniture and curtains, and grey-blue carpet. There were no decorations to speak of, but a surprising assortment of electronics in corner workspaces.
"Seriously, what's this about?"
"Hm, y'know, yesterday at the bar, you referred to me as your 'clockwork shoulder angel', why are you surprised I'm checking up on you? Flip it over to the news, I want to see how the game ended..."
"I'm sorry, I think I heard you wrong, because it almost sounded like you object to rescuing slaves."
"Four hundred people, Kelly. That's a sixth of the population of New Vancouver. The majority of them provide nothing beyond physical labor, which we don't need much of yet."
"I can't believe I'm hearing this."
"We have to account for our resources, Kelly. Can we provide training and shelter for that many people, with no notice?" Escher paused, but Kelly knew he was going to continue. "When you get a large number of refugees with insufficient training, shelter, and employment into one area, what comes next? Crime and discontent."
"Then if it's that much of a problem, you can march out there, pack them into Ken's freighter, and take them somewhere else. But you won't. I know you won't. You might be that heartless, but somehow Kane's dream is important enough to you that you won't risk it on the PR shitstorm that'd come up if you did."
Only silence and staring followed. As usual, Kelly made a solid argument.
"Well?"
"I'll... see if there's some construction or factory work or something..."
"Hm... We don't yet have anything incriminating on the LSF-"
"Enough. Stop right there. You always do this, you always fall back on screwing someone over. Put an end to this. Put an end to them."
"Not that simple. Criminals are good at escaping, especially obviously coordinated efforts. And they are vindictive."
"You'd know."
"Exactly. Now, that rules out a direct assault. If we can give the Hackers something that we don't actually care about, however..."
"Why the LSF? Why not Ageira or IND?"
"While I don't like any of them, Ageira and IND are useful to us. They bring money and jobs to the Natio. Intelligence agencies are dangerous, and the LSF is one of the worst. I'd rather work for the Buro, if politics aligned differently."
"Yes, stamping out dissent does seem to be right up your alley."
"As I said, if things were different; I didn't just mean Gallia, Kelly. My work has always involved keeping tabs on LSF activity, and they've just been getting worse. There are pre-Exodus parallels I could draw, but the model doesn't line up perfectly."
"So do we have a plan at all?"
"Plans never survive. We have an angle. We need to keep playing Liberty's criminals to minimize further problems... and administer swift executions to those who fail to get the point. Given our dealings with Ageira, hostility from the Hackers will probably be unavoidable... but the modern Xenos seem willing to work with some foreigners. An idea..."
"Perhaps that's what bothers me. But the base is down, our objective is complete. Stay until the Metropolis is operational, assist the VWA if you wish. "
"What about-"
"It's... not standard, but I will direct Dubhe until your return. We're also working on reinforcing the Headlong Flight, it should serve well as an additional weapons platform in emergencies. The Natio will be defended with all necessary force."
"Understood. Dubhe 1 out."
A click is heard. The console display changes.
Channel closed.
Open new channel?
> y
Destination
> 313_morgana
"What was it you said..? 'Plots within plots'? This time, it's actually the case."
"You're playing a dangerous game, Escher."
"More or less dangerous than war with Gallia?" Silence. "As I thought. Be ready to leave at a moment's notice."
"But what about the Bundschuh?"
"They are part of the plan as well. I already know you won't abandon them, and I don't plan on forcing the issue. We will simply handle things more discreetly."
"Would you care to explain why there's three hundred more people in New Vancouver than there were a week ago?"
"The Hackers hit Itasca. Just like the Chrysanthemums, they always were too stupid to recognize opportunity. Luckily, most of the people on the base were already on their way out because of a lack of supplies."
"That... doesn't quite answer my question."
"Well, if I had to guess, most of them didn't want to take a chance on leaving and getting killed by a bunch of drugged-up nerd-ragers."
"That makes sense." Escher turned to leave.
"Hold it." He stopped. "Mind explaining what's going on with my ship?"
"Are you familiar with the Huginn project?" Matsuda nodded. "We're working on scaling up the internal systems. Headlong Flgiht is the next testbed. And speaking of opportunity, I'm starting to see one involving our 'friends' at Mactan... which I still have the coordinates for, incidentally. Stellar drift wouldn't have taken it far, given that Magellan isn't an orbital system."
