Chapter Sixteen – Patch Up to Catch Up

Chapter Sixteen – Patch Up to Catch Up

“Interviewer: Professor D. V. Dens of Stanford University, thanks for coming in.

Professor D. V. Dens: Well, some of them are built so that the front doesn’t fall off at all.”

–July 2028 interview on the C&D Money Talks show.

***

The rest of the meeting wasn’t any less fun, but at least it passed relatively quickly. Libre had explained a few things about the local political scene, but it was… well, all bullshit that I’d handle later. The more immediate issues in my mind had to do with the condition of the wall and how many enemies we could expect to be crawling towards it.

“If my plan functions, then we should have about… nine more hours of relative peace,” Libre said with a glance at a watch. “After which we will likely see an invasion attempt along the far-eastern flank from the air. We’ll know if they try a much smaller push overland from the west, similar to what you landed within.”

A lot of aliens, but not an overwhelming amount? We could handle that. Assuming he wasn’t dead wrong and we weren’t going to be dead-dead for it.

“Alright, I think I need to get some air. You two staying here?” I asked with a vague gesture towards Gomorrah and Hedgehog.

They wanted to stay, at least for a little while longer. There was data to copy over, and Gomorrah had questions, but honestly? I’d come in here stuck between the desire to punch someone and the need to desperately not be involved, and now that the yapping was over and the punching wasn’t happening just yet, I felt kind of exhausted.

Maybe it was the flying over as well? Piloting could be surprisingly tiring.

“I’ll accompany you,” Crisis Mode said rather quietly.

I nodded. Probably for the best, that. I wanted to have a chat with her anyway. So, I gestured to the door with my head, then started that way, and waited just outside. Crisis Mode joined me, then when the door closed, she let out the kind of sigh that felt like it came from the soul.

“You good?” I asked.

She nodded. “I’m well, thank you. Just… it’s been a long week?”

“I get that,” I said.

“I… don’t like him. But also, he’s been kind of, I don’t know, reliable? Seeing him break down like that has me a little, I don’t know, it feels wrong?”

I hummed a vaguely agreeing sound. “You still went to bat for him,” I said. “You didn’t have to defend him or anything. I think any one of us in there would have been willing to smack him around if you called him out.”

“Would you really have done that? He’s a samurai?”

“So are we? If we don’t call each other out for being assholes, who will?”

Crisis Mode chuckled. “Fair, I guess. How long did it take you to… you know, get used to the idea that you were a samurai at all?”

I shrugged a shoulder, then started towards the elevator. There were some people milling around. The same office worker sorts that Libre had told to get going. They watched us move by but didn’t do much more than that. A lot of them were talking in the quick, low whispers of people with good gossip and too much time to spread it with.

“I guess it took me a day or two? To be fair, our situations were different. I wasn’t made a samurai during like, a siege. I had a couple of days of hard work, then some time off to get my shit together. Speaking of which… you know, if you want to get your shit together, now might be a good time for it?”

“Thank you. But I’m not really sure what that means for me,” she replied.