Moirrey peeked.
Because of course she did. Ya hadta know how t’in’s would shake out, if’n yous were gonna rattle cages.
Casey were all googly-eyed at the teensy owl resting on her fist, gripping the big, leather glove and starin’ back som’tin fierce. Predators talkin’s silent-like, even if the one were no bigger’n a teacup Chihuahua. Marcelle and Willow were watching the room, and the bird, and the bird-keeper. Professionally-paranoid, heavily-armed girls were like that.
Her sister and the captain were just visible from a window, sittin’ careful on the bench. Stiff, kinda. Not at all relaxed ’til they shook hands.
That were good. She watched the man flow into mellow. Jess dinna move any closer physically, but she were leanin’ in more now. So were he. Was good. Moirrey remembered to breathe and turned around to the others.
Marcelle asked about a half dozen questions with a single raised eyebrow, but the chick could do that. Moirrey settled for a quick grin and a thumbs up. After th’last two years in each other’s pockets, it were ’nuff. Marcelle grinned as well.
Big Bad Red Admiral prolly though he were bein’ all sneaky’n’stuff, sending the captain with them, but Desianna’d done snift it all out pretty early. And made sure everyone but Jessica were enough in on it that nobody’d say nor do nothing stupid, like make a pass at the man.
Not that Willow would. Too non-professional. And Moirrey had Digger to look forward to in another few weeks. Marcelle found her own fun on the flight deck, entertaining Gustav, the pilot known as Eel, of all people. Er, maybe being entertained by him. Marcelle weren’t gonna settle for no selfish lovers.
Bird-house-keeper collected the little burrowing owl by bribing her with a caterpillar. Moirrey figgered they’d been gone long ’nuff.
“Seen enough, Lady Casey?” she asked all nice like.
Casey might be a princess back home, and a bad-ass here, but she were still only eighteen, and had never really been out of the palace. Had no idea how to sneak past watch geese or nothing.
Not that Moirrey was gonna teach her today. That could wait a few weeks. Certainness.
“I believe so, Lady Moirrey,” Casey fired back with an evil grin, catchin’ the zoologist folks sideways. She’d been sneaky, introducing the tall, blond girl as important folk and leaving herself out of things. Trust Casey to play rough.
Crap.
Everyone were staring at her now, like she done growed another head.
Moirrey scowled as hard as her giggles would allow, but let the good people fawn o’er her fer a bit. T’weren’t no schedule today besides sun. And maybe ice cream when it got warmer.
’Cause, you know, ice cream. Real stuff, too, and not the bulk containers Mendocino brought them, regular as clock-work out in the deep cold.
Took another five minutes to finally get clear of the owl and raptor folk. Didn’t need no more birds-on-fists. Fed enough critters to enough hunters, thankyouverymuch. Gots places to go, peeples to see.
Finally.
Sunlight and air. Barn weren’t bad, just weren’t sky. Couldna have no windows open, er the birds’d fly off quick-like.
‘Sides, the prey she were trackin’ were sittin’ over here on a bench, all calm and unknowing and stuff. He saw them coming, nodded at her sister, and put down his right hand.
Moirrey watched him lurch to his feet in one quick, ugly motion, like a turtle finally getting upright after fallin’ off a log in the terrarium.
Moirrey knew’d there was a stump there, and a little pocket the captain stood up inta. Hook on a few places like a one-sided garter belt, pull up yer pants, walk like nothing at all. From the lines around Captain’s eyes and cheeks, were right painful today.
“Got a silly, technological question fers ya, Captain Wald,” she said as they all gathered back up, four of them with two satellites wandering around being armed and dangerous.
“Yes, ma’am?” the captain said.
Once he got to walkin’, ya couldn’t tell, but standing up and that first step were dead giveaways.
“Why a peg-leg?” Moirrey asked. “Why don’t Fribourg do a modern, computerized version like we do?”
She’d spent enuf time ’round the captain to know this were safe ground. His silence now were mostly lookin’ fer words. Translatin’ cultures, which he were good at.
“The single greatest threat to humanity that Fribourg can imagine is an AI, a Sentience, the kind that nearly destroyed us all, Lady Moirrey,” he began.
He looked close at her. Eyeballin’ her soul, Ma useta say.
“There is something worse,” the captain continued. “Something from the very early days of technology. Humans used to implant computers directly into their bodies, madam. Cybernetic systems capable of replacing your eyes with artificial sensors, or your limbs with enhanced, robotic versions. Or worse, connecting your brain directly to the Sentience itself, turning you into a member of a giant hive, like a worker ant.”
“We’re talkin’ ’bout a leg, Captain,” Moirrey retorted lightly.
Some peoples were just too serious about things.
“We’re talking about the first step towards evil, Lady Moirrey,” he replied. “Would I like a leg that worked thoughtlessly? Painlessly? Absolutely. Wire it right up and let me at it. If I was never going home again, I would seriously consider investigating the state of the art in the Republic. But this is just a mission. I would have to give up everything and be completely ostracized. Never go home. That will never be worth it.”
Moirrey felt her mouth screw up kinda sideways as she stared at the man.
Thinkin’.
She’d done some research afore now, just to talk tech with the dude, but hadn’t expected that level of calm No.
Figured. Man weren’t no slouch, er the Red Admiral, the other Red Admiral, the Grand Admiral, woulda never tried a stunt like this.
They had stopped walking. Well, she had, and everyone else had kinda petered out with her.
Whoops.
“Not wired, I get that,” she finally said after a second. “There’s gotta be a better way to do it, though.”
“Shades of evil, Lady Moirrey?” he asked in a tight voice.
“Shades of stupid, Captain Wald,” she snapped back. “Ya lives in near-constant pain, ’specially since planets ya visits’ll have a wacko gravity field and atmospheric pressure. Kin only ’magine what a storm’d be like. Is unnecessary. Makes it a bad design solution.”
Man weren’t dumb, just stubborn. Of course, weren’t like nobody within two meters weren’t stubborn, too. If they coulda distilled it, she’d be rich.
Moirrey stepped back one stride to see his leg better, to visualize things. Captain Wald stood stock still and faced her, as stubborn a guy as even Digger, which were high praise. Moirrey blocked out everyone else.
There. Huh. Maybe? Dancin’ on the edge, but this side, so even the captain oughts to not bitch much. And I can always yell at the Grand Admiral and Karl VII about it. Start a new trend. Something more civilized.
Moirrey smiled up at him.
The stubborn had been replaced with concerned. Kinda sideway looking at her, which meant he were smarter than he let on, too. Knew she were up to something. And knew her rep as a crazy woman.
Whole damned Empire knew that.
“So,” she said in a voice that had stolen every cookie out of the jar when mom weren’t looking. “Wired neuro-implants is out. Got that. What’s about a pure osseointegrated solution?”
“A what?” he asked.
Moirrey liked the way everybody got that confused look, but remained silent. This were just the two of them, at least until her sister needed to come rescue the poor guy, him being out-numbered five to one, ’n’all.
She turned to Casey, included her in the grin.
“So’s,” Moirrey continued. “Ya implant a hunk of something, traditionally an alloy of titanium, usually with a threaded end, like a screw, and an open structure, kinda mesh-like. Bone’ll grow around it, given time. Other end sticks out the stump, right out of the skin, with a connection socket at the far end.”
Casey nodded slowly, aware that she might suddenly be on the hooks in an official-like capacity n’stuff.
“With you so far,” she said warily.
“With us, we attach a custom limb with artificial muscles and wire it all to the existing nerve endings,” Moirrey chirped. “After about six months, you can walk like normal, once all the bone stabilizes and yer brain rewires itself. After that, you can start training fer marathons, if’n yer crazy enough.”
“Okay?” Casey continued.
“What if we left just the stump and the socket bits?” Moirrey asked. “Build him a detachable titanium peg-leg with a foot. And maybe some racing stripes, but no electronics. No cybernetics. Just chrome.”
It were fun, watching everybody’s face go confusered. Moirrey decided that were her cookie of awesomeness fer today, and just started walking. Let them catch up, physically and metaphorically.
If’n they could.
Seriously? The Fribourg Empire were all about black and white, some days. Useful, but stoooooopid.
Moirrey already had three-quarters of the design built in her head. Only real question were if he were right-hand dominant, like a lesser being, or a lefty, like all right-thinking people. Drop a hex-head bolt in and add a cute little carrier for the wrench right into the shin.
And maybe some flames.