Chapter 23 – Very Well. Now Apply Yourself.
The battle with the raiders concluded, the transport vessel Iris in tow, Letaria was making her final approach to the relay station Cranea.
An electronic tone sounded inside Arden's cockpit--distinct from the standard channels used by the administration bureau or the vigilante corps. A highly classified, special-frequency signal.
"...Oh? This channel--"
"Hello, Letaria. How did the first job go?"
On the monitor: Milea Ichinose, her lab visible behind her.
"M-Milea?! Why are you calling me directly?!"
"I set up an encrypted direct line for you in Arden."
Said casually. Letaria's expression twitched.
Thorough was not quite the right word. This meant her location and communications were being tracked around the clock.
"...Milea. You're monitoring me, aren't you. My supervision was supposed to have been lifted. Being watched at every hour is, I have to say, rather unwelcome."
Letaria protested. Milea was entirely unmoved--she answered in the patient tone of a parent explaining something to a child.
"Unwelcome? I send you out alone into space, and if you get lost--what then? You wouldn't know your own position, you'd be calling for help in tears, and I'm supposed to simply leave you there? ...Could you find your way home on your own, do you think?"
A faintly unkind edge in her delivery.
"That--well--"
The words stuck.
The complexity of the station architecture. The vast and unfamiliar routes of open space. She still couldn't navigate a map with anything approaching confidence. Asked whether she could return independently without fail--the honest answer was uncomfortable.
"...Hmph. Ohohoho! Nothing is impossible for me! ...It is not--but there is no harm in having a guide, I suppose."
"Good girl. Don't worry--there are trackers in Arden and in the bracelet on your wrist. If anything happens, I can assist."
"The bracelet as well..."
Letaria made a sour face, but there was no argument to be made. Whether this qualified as surveillance or smothering concern, she genuinely could not decide.
◆◆◆
The Iris docked at Cranea's Bay Eight. Letaria secured Arden in the hangar and descended the ramp to find the transport's relieved captain already waiting, alongside Zein and Fal, who had disembarked ahead of her.
"Adeniam-san--truly, thank you. Without a guard of your skill, we'd have been stripped of everything. Please accept this."
An electronic payment chip and a small token of additional thanks. Letaria received both with a composed smile.
"I did only what was required. I pledge, on the name of Letaria Adeniam, that any commission I accept will be completed to perfection."
The client departed.
Zein stretched his long legs out and settled onto a nearby crate, studying Letaria with open interest.
"Still--up close, it's remarkable. That pilot suit. You look like something out of a storybook."
He regarded the Noble Lotus with genuine admiration.
"I am not a princess. But I will accept the compliment."
Fal approached too, still buzzing with energy that hadn't quite settled.
"...Honestly, I thought at first it was just terrible taste. But after watching you move--that maneuvering would kill a normal pilot in a standard suit. You'd be crushed before you finished the first turn. So the performance has to be there. I can't deny that."
She said it with visible reluctance--but her eyes held something that was simply, plainly, curiosity. Zein rolled his shoulders in a gesture of recognition.
"Good work out there, miss. Because of you, our cut stayed intact. ...Mind if I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"How were you moving the machine like that?!"
Fal got there first, leaning in.
"Moving that precisely, that fast, through open space--that's not possible for a normal pilot. Tell me the technique."
Letaria considered for a moment, then began to explain with gestures.
"Technique is a difficult word for it. I simply... synchronize my sense of the machine with my own body. Trace Mode--is that what it is called? I engage it fully, and then I move as I intend to move."
She extended her right hand, cutting the air.
"When I want to avoid a shot, I move my body. The machine follows exactly as I imagine. ...Does that make sense?"
The moment the words landed, Fal's mouth fell open.
Zein went still, eyes widening.
"...Miss. What did you just say? Trace Mode?"
"Yes. It is somewhat demanding, but nothing I cannot manage."
"...You're not serious."
The energy drained from Fal's voice.
"That's not human. And if you're not using manual controls, there's no way to replicate it."
"I do believe someone told me something similar before. But Trace Mode is the only way I know how to operate."
"Then this is completely useless to me--absolutely useless!"
Fal's shoulders dropped. The "technique" she had been hoping to learn was raw physical ability that no ordinary person could access. The disappointment was genuine.
But she lifted her head almost immediately, and pointed at Letaria.
"Even so--even if I can't do it now, someday I'll get there. You're my goal."
"Ohohohoho! You intend to catch up with me? Very well. Now apply yourself."
Beside Letaria's laughter, Zein sat quietly, watching her with narrowed eyes.
(...Those movements, in full Trace Mode. Even accounting for a custom low-load suit, she's past the physical limits. Is she one of those 'enhanced humans' the military and the corps are rumored to keep on retainer...?)
He ran a thumb across his stubble. A quiet suspicion, accumulating. But he was not the sort of man to voice it without cause.
"Right--job's done. We have another commission waiting. ...We'll cross paths somewhere out there, miss. Next time, let me buy you a meal."
"See you, Letaria! I won't lose next time!"
"Yes--farewell. I shall show you another display of my brilliance when the time comes!"
Zein and Fal waved and walked away.
Watching their backs, Letaria felt something she hadn't felt before--a quiet, unfamiliar warmth. Something like having colleagues.
Well then.
She turned and surveyed Cranea's broad passage.
Milea had mocked her with talk of getting lost--but this was not Seldia. It was somewhere different. Noisier. Heavier with iron. A stranger kind of place.
"First--I shall conduct a thorough inspection of these premises!"
Letaria stepped forward into the unknown, already curious.