They left the building area and took the main road toward the middle of the base, where the Command Center stood.
Yunera walked half a step to the left again, and Kimmy didn’t mention it this time.
The ground started to hum before she heard anything. It came up through her shoes first, a slow, heavy vibration from the northern road, then the engines followed, several of them, pulling something much heavier than ordinary trucks.
Brakes hissed somewhere ahead.
A voice called out near the checkpoint, and another answered it.
Kimmy slowed down.
She could feel the people in the convoy without trying.
Drivers, escorts riding along the side, a few soldiers who had stepped off to clear the junction. All of them were ordinary, living presences, and all of them were tired in the same way, as if they had been on the road for a long time.
The trailers behind them were easy enough to read.
Six heavy frames, strapped down and cold, dented and cracked in places. She could not sense anything living between them.
"Six machines," Kimmy said. "Tracked, heavy on top. Parts of them are slightly damaged."
Yunera looked up the road. "They have arms on top. And one has its screen on."
"What does it say?"
"Nothing. It’s just lit."
The last trailer passed in front of them, and a soldier waved the road open again. The engines faded toward the Tech Center side of the base.
Kimmy listened to them go for a few seconds. She didn’t know what they were for.
"Are those coming in toward the base?"
"Yeah." Yunera kept her eyes on them. "Did Hans get something from somewhere?"
"Maybe. Let’s not ask for more."
...
The Saicine report was shorter than Hans expected.
Felix kept it plain.
The last of the Albian ships had docked at the second berth, the wounded were in the field hospital, and the civilians were being moved ashore in groups so the harbor didn’t turn into a crowd.
Hans sent back one line, keep to the agreement and continue as planned, then closed the terminal.
"Commander."
Dianne had stopped just inside the door.
"The transport from PCL-1 has reached the gate. The Engineers are asking where to put the machines."
"Somewhere out of the way until they finish checking them."
"Understood." She paused. "Miss Kimmy and Yunera are also here to see you."
Hans looked up.
"Both of them?"
"Yes, Commander."
He opened the base map. Two green markers were already crossing the central road toward the Command Center, close together.
At least there was something normal, for once.
Kimmy hadn’t come looking for him again since that morning in the park. He wondered what she was here for this time.
"Let them in."
Dianne left.
A minute later the door opened again, and Kimmy came in with Yunera half a step behind. Yunera stopped near the wall and folded her arms.
She looked like someone who had paid for a good seat.
Kimmy walked to the middle of the room and stopped there. Her hands were together in front of her, and she faced Hans exactly.
"You told me I would be part of what you’re building."
"Yeah?" Hans leaned back. "I did."
"I’ve thought about it for several days." She lifted her chin. "I accept."
Hans waited for the rest of the sentence, but it didn’t come.
"Accept what?"
"What you said." Kimmy didn’t move. "I thought about it properly, and I accept."
He glanced at Yunera. Yunera was studying the ceiling with great interest.
Hans tried again.
As far as he remembered, he had told her she was part of it because she kept asking and pinching him.
There weren’t even any terms. He had meant that she could stay, choose what she wanted to do, and have a place in the Golden Eagle Army, which was more or less what she was already doing.
"You don’t have to accept anything. You’re already here."
"Being beside you is not the same as being part of it." Her voice stayed even. "You said part of what you’re building. I want that to be real, and not only something said in a park."
She didn’t pinch him, and that was how he knew she was serious.
He had once clicked through a confirmation prompt without reading it and ended up with his base in the wrong place for an entire match. This felt the same, except the prompt was a person.
"...Okay," he said slowly. "What do you want that to mean?"
"I don’t know how it’s done here." Kimmy lifted her chin a little. "That’s why I’m asking you."
Hans rubbed the back of his neck. There was exactly one answer to that, and it wasn’t small. He couldn’t say it while pretending the question was.
"Sit down first."
Kimmy found the chair at the end of the table without any trouble while Yunera stayed where she was.
Hans pulled out the chair across from her instead of leaning on the table. It didn’t seem like a conversation to have standing up.
"There’s a process in the Tech Center," he said. "Dr. Shearman went through it. So did a few others."
"So that’s where the doctor went," Yunera said from the wall.
"Let me finish."
She raised both hands.
"People who go through it become registered as my personnel under the same framework my soldiers use. They get access to things they couldn’t use before."
Hans kept it at that. "You keep your memories, your personality and your opinions. You can disagree with me. You can tell me I’m wrong, and that doesn’t change."
Kimmy waited.
"What changes is that you can’t knowingly betray me, sabotage my command or work against it."
She didn’t answer straight away. Her folded hands tightened a little.
"Is it permanent?"
"I haven’t seen anyone undo it."
"I see."
"You don’t have to do it. If you say no, nothing will change. You stay exactly where you are, and nobody will treat you differently." He rubbed his jaw. "You could also be unconscious for several days afterward."
"Then I’ll do it."
"Don’t answer right now. Think about—"
"I’ve been thinking about what it means to tie myself to you for days, Hans."
He had offered her a seat, and she was asking where to sign.
"...Alright."
"And me," Yunera said.
Hans looked over. "You?"
"She’s going to be asleep for days. I’m not sitting in a corridor waiting for her."
"That’s not a reason to—"
"It’s not the only reason." Yunera pushed off the wall. "Same rules? Memories, opinions, no stabbing you in the back?"
"Knowingly. And yes."
"Then I wasn’t planning to, so what changes?"
"The pod still has to accept you. It checks whether you’re compatible. If it says no, it says no."
"Fine."
He opened the terminal.
"Dianne."
She came in almost before he finished saying it. "Commander."
"Schedule two pods. Today."
Dianne looked at Kimmy and Yunera, then back at him, and said nothing else.
Kimmy rose from the chair. She faced Hans again with her hands together.
"Thank you."
"Don’t thank me yet," Hans said. "You could be asleep for several days."