Chương 422: Book 7 - Chapter 18 - Banquet

It turned out that, despite Destiny's massive size, Mako and the Sisterhood weren't that far away. I guess the sisters wanted to keep all the samurai in the same general area, which kind of made sense when they didn't want people wandering, and the ship was the size of a building. I followed Sharron down a set of service stairs to a slightly less luxurious-looking floor. Wood paneling and carpet instead of hardwood and 'high art'.

Don't get me wrong, a single room in this section probably cost more than every single building in Sector Eleven put together, but at least I didn't feel like I was going to go into debt for the rest of my life if I touched anything. After a quick trip through the corridors, we emerged into a large room with massive hardwood tables, crystal chandeliers, and red velvet-cushioned chairs.

"Uhhhh… Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?" I asked, glancing around the room.

"No, this is the place. That's Mako over there," she said before gesturing at a grey-skinned girl hunched over a table corner. After a second, Sharron turned towards me and raised an eyebrow.

"Why would you think this is the wrong place?"

"Well, when Claire and Alise said they set up the Sisterhood in a dining room, I pictured a cozy little place with a handful of cozy little tables surrounded by half a dozen chairs. I've seen CEO offices that aren't as plush as this," I said.

"I never expected this level of luxury in a secondary dining area."

"I guess the rich just live differently," Sharron shrugged.

"Come on, let's go chat with Mako." As we weaved through the sea of tables, the grey-skinned girl looked up and gave us an excessively toothy smile as she lolled back in her chair.

"Humboldt! Long time no see, how have you been?"

"I came back alive, so I can't complain," Sharron said.

"I see you're doing well."

"Yup! Found myself some good friends, dealt with a couple of corrupt companies, and started introducing some biodiversity back into the oceans. You know, standard stuff," Mako replied. Once she was done bantering with Sharron, she stood up and held out a hand.

"You must be Teddy. My name's Macy Graham, but you can call me Mako if you'd prefer."

"Evelyn Claire," I said, firmly shaking her hand.

"I hear you're the one I should thank for convincing many of the other samurai to participate in this little campaign."

"Eh, it wasn't that impressive," she replied, flipping her hand dismissively.

"All I did was talk to a few of my contacts and asked them to ask their AIs about Gene Tenders, so they knew what was at stake. Most of them volunteered the instant they knew how dangerous the situation was. Besides, it's a biological wonder that I'm quite interested to see the patterns of, and in turn, so were they."

"Still, I appreciate that you made an effort. Considering the situation in Seattle, I wouldn't even know where to start," I said.

"Yeah, well, we may not all agree on how the city should be run or who should be in charge, but at least most of us realize that we can't afford to ignore the Antithesis without putting the city, or the entire world, at stake again," she explained before chuckling.

"Keyword being most. Others needed wheel greasing."

"A sensible point of view," I said with a nod.

"I honestly don't understand why so many samurai feel the need to form factions and push their agendas on everyone."

"You don't? Really?" she snorted.

"Because I heard that you headed up the group that overthrew the Calgary government."

"I didn't head up the rebellion, I just participated," I grumbled.

"And I wanted to stay out of it, but when I found out the previous council was willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives in order to win a war they started, I couldn't stay still." The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"That's very noble of you," Macy sighed, turning herself to be directly facing me in her chair.

"You acted when people were at risk, based upon your personal beliefs. Unfortunately, the problem with Seattle is we have several groups with extremely strong beliefs but opposing positions, all of which are willing to come to blows in order to defend their positions. Add to that one or two people who want to not only encourage the conflicts but take advantage of them, and you'll begin to understand why the city's in such a mess right now."

"It's a tough position to be in," I said.

"You can't push the issue because you're dealing with other samurai, and that would only make the situation worse. All you can do is try and keep the conflict from boiling over." She nodded.

"Exactly so. It's why I'm usually not the one who's pulling the strings, even if I'm apparently good at it. You'll have to talk to Delta about that layer of bullshit." I smiled at her awkwardly. I understood the situation they were in, but I couldn't do anything to help them. Not only that, but we'd gotten into a slightly political discussion when I didn't want to. At least not now, while we were in the middle of the chase. If they wanted help afterwards…

I cleared my throat and tried to get the discussion back on track.

"Claire and Alise mentioned that you've been doing some recon instead of staying with the fleet, is that right?" I asked. Macy nodded.

"I'm not exactly built for sitting around, waiting for something to happen," she said, standing up and stretching her neck.

"My build allows me to travel at extreme speeds underwater and even teleport short distances, but I don't have a lot of stationary defenses or ways to detect Antithesis, so I thought I'd go out and take a look around."

"Did you find anything?" I asked.

"Just the usual, a couple schools of Antithesis, some large bottom feeders, and a large floating hive," she replied.

"A floating hive?" I asked. Mako nodded.

"Mobile hives are surprisingly common underwater. The added buoyancy allows the Antithesis to move a ton of biomass around while picking the seafloor clean. The ocean is so large, and there are so few samurai patrolling it, that massive leviathans can survive undetected for a surprisingly long time," she said.

"Well… shit," I muttered.

"And I thought stealth hives were bad."

"Well, they're technically similar, except our versions grow poisonous stingers and huge needle-like teeth," she said, before looking up in a nostalgic glance.

"Also shrimp cannons."

"And that's why I prefer to stay on the land and let you all deal with that," I declared.

"You know, the one thing I did notice is there was a lot more biodiversity in the Antithesis models over the last few days," Macy queried, pulling a small shark robot out of nowhere and projecting a hologram onto the wall with depictions of what she began to talk about." Normally, new hives use the same half-dozen models as scouts, skate-like model ones, shark-like threes, and squid-like fours, but there's a real menagerie around here. A lot more poisonous models and biological weapons."

"Sounds like the Gene Tender's influence," I said.

"The thing is, I don't know how it would be affecting the models and hives, located ahead of its advance. My forces ran into something that was designed to gum up their engines, but I had assumed it was left behind when the Tender passed. If it's able to adjust genomes ahead of its advance…"

"We could have a serious problem," Macy finished.

"If it's able to do that, who's to say that it couldn't do the same elsewhere? Maybe hundreds of kilometers away."

"Now hold on, you two," Shannon cut in, "just because you've encountered a few isolated mutant models doesn't mean the Tender is involved. Even if it is, we have no idea what method it's using to 'update' the locals. Evelyn's troops ran into a standard pack this morning, so if nothing else, we know its influence is limited and hasn't reached all the local Antithesis."

"Still, it's something we should keep an eye out for, and we should warn the rest of the fleet," Macy said.

"We don't want someone diving into a school of Antithesis, expecting to find the usual, only to find some sort of new species of samurai killer." She laughed, gritting her teeth with worry and excitement.

"Oh, the Sisterhood will be having some fun today."

"I was hoping to meet a couple of the others today, but I guess that's not going to happen," I grumbled.

"Can you send me their contact information? I'd like to put together a comm group so I can keep in touch with everyone."

"I can do you one better; I'll send you an invite to our private chat," Macy gleefully offered, not waiting for a yes or no as a ping went off in my augs for a new comm channel.

"If you have any questions for the rest of the team, you can ask there."

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem," she replied.

"Sorry for performing a chat and run, but I want let the crew know about the brand new eats! I'll talk to you later."

"Take care of yourself," Sharron called at her as Macy jogged for the…wall and then promptly disappeared into a path that wasn't there the moment before and wasn't there the moment after. The two of us were quiet for a moment, taking in what just happened, then I turned towards Sharron, a small grin on my face.

"I like her."