“And here are the living quarters, complete with a full kitchen and recreation area,” I announced exaggeratedly.

  “Neat!” Issi yelped as she pushed past me and scampered into the central area. The layout was very similar to the one we had back home, so, of course, the first thing she did was scamper over to the couch and climb over the back. She giggled as she rolled over the back of the plush sofa and landed on the plush cushions.

  Jennifer gently poked me in the side. “Can we go check out the rooms?”

  “Sure. They’re a little bigger than the ones back home. Let me know what you think about them!” I exclaimed.

  “Nice, come on Eddie!” she cried, before taking off down the nearby hallway. Eddie was only seconds behind.

  As I wandered over towards the kitchen, Jane followed. I could feel her eyes on the back of my hoodie.

  “Alright… What are you up to? I can understand that you were excited about your new toy and wanted to show it off, but why recreate the residence up here?”

  “First of all, Bear Force One isn’t just a toy it’s my new command ship. It’s armed with enough firepower to level hive structures several hundred meters underground and crewed with enough bears to besiege an entire megacity,” I replied petulantly. “And second of all, it’s not a recreation, it’s an improvement!”

  “But why,” Alan grumbled. I glanced back to find that he was still standing at the entrance, arms crossed, looking uncomfortable, while Jane had slipped into one of the chairs around the kitchen table.

  I rummaged around in the fridge for a minute before pulling out a couple bottles of water and throwing one to Jane before saying anything. “I spent days going over the blueprints with Nyx, making adjustments to the plans, and with all the weapons, comms, and other tech built into this ship, I spent the most time on this area. At first I thought it was because after spending so long fighting, I was missing home… and that was true, but that wasn’t the whole story. I spent months improving the area around the shelter, and not once did I improve our own living conditions. When I finally had the chance to plan things out, it gave me the chance to design a more ideal layout.”

  “We’re not moving up to an airship, Evelynn,” Jane said, shooting me a hard look. “Although I’m sure the kids would love it, I’d like to give them a fairly regular upbringing. At least, as regularly as I can for living with a samurai… They need to learn responsibility, make friends, and have the space to make mistakes on their own.”

  “I’m not suggesting we move up here,” I exclaimed. “At least, not permanently. Since I’m moving most of my troops and production facilities up here, there’s going to be a lot of extra space in the Shelter, so I was thinking I could get the beavers to perform some renovations and expand out the residence. Make it a real home.”

  “It would be nice to have a little extra space, where I can get a little peace and quiet away from the munchkins,” Alan said, finally leaving the door and joining Jane at the table. “That doesn’t explain why you’ve rebuilt a complete copy of the residence up here.”

  “I’m getting to that!” I snapped before taking a quick sip of water. “So… as you’re probably aware, the situation around the city was a little sketchy for a while. I, along with the other Samurai, had to spend days clearing out tons of hidden hives and fighting Antithesis way stronger than we were expecting, and during that time my friends and I kind of came to the consensus that A, we hate going on bug hunts, and B, we should figure out a better way to detect Antithesis before they can dig in around the city again.”

  “Since I just happened to have this brand new transport, I volunteered to go visit a couple of Charlotte’s contacts and see if I could find some tech we could use and make sure everything is okay in the other cities.” I explained, before taking another sip of water while Jane and Alan looked at me expectantly. “And since I was also considering performing renovations on the residence, I thought I’d ask if you’d all like to come with me…”

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  Issi sprung up so fast that she nearly gave me a heart attack. I'd forgotten the little girl had been lying just a few feet away.

  “Road trip?” she asked curiously as she climbed down off the couch.

  “That was the idea, but I wanted to talk to Jane and Alan before deciding anything.” I explained.

  “I wanna go,” the youngling exclaimed as she pulled out a chair and climbed up to sit with the others. ”Can I bring Sir Froggington? And my Chessers sets?”

  “That’s up to Jane and Alan,” I said quietly.

  “Well, I appreciate you thinking about us and offering to renovate the residence. This is quite sudden. Couldn’t you have given us a little heads up?” Jane sighed.

  “I had no idea that I’d make enough points to buy this monstrosity, or that I’d have the option to go visit a couple other Samurai quickly after everything settled down,” I explained. “Everything just kind of lined up that way.”

  “Why the heck did you buy this massive ship anyways?” Alan grumbled. “It’s completely different from anything else you purchased up to this point.”

  “Several reasons. It has a lot of space for bears; it can carry and deploy a lot of the oversized equipment I used to have to leave lying around; and it’s able to easily deal with a couple situations I had problems with before.”

  “Like what? Too many bears?” Alan snorted.

  “More like massive hordes that even my bears can’t handle, and dealing with entrenched hives,” I replied coolly. “I’ve spent a small fortune arming this thing, and I’ve even mounted the UHR in the main ventral turret.”

  “Should I be impressed by that?” he asked.

  “You’d be impressed if you ever saw it in combat,” I said, before glancing at Issi. “But I want to be clear… I do not expect to engage a single Antithesis on this trip and will even avoid danger while the kids are on board. If we do run into something, I’ll send the bears to deal with it.”

  “At least your head's in the right place,” Jane muttered. “Alan and I will discuss the trip, but we’re not going to make any promises.”

  Issi’s face fell, and she slumped in her seat at the declaration. “Awwww…. But, roadtrip…”

  “She didn’t say no,” I said, patting the girl’s head, “she just said she’d think about it.”

  As the sound of running feet echoed down the corridor, I looked up, just as Eddie and Jennifer came stumbling back, wide smiles pasted on their faces.

  “You should see the size of the rooms up here!” Eddie exclaimed. "They all have personal bathrooms and an attached study room. Mine has a mini library, and Jeniffer’s has a workshop,” he paused, looking around the table. “What’s happening here?”

  “We’ll tell you later, after Alan and Jane have time to talk,” I declared. “How about we give them a little bit of space, and I take you kids to the lower observation deck? You can see the entire city from there.”

  “Really?” Issi declared, immediately perking up. “I wanna see!”

  “This way then,” I said, pulling out her chair so she could pop down. “Stay close so you don’t get lost.”

  I stopped by the door and waited for the kids to line up before opening the heavy metal door and leading them into the corridor. Even though this was a combat ship, the walls looked like they could have come out of a high-class office. Tastefully decorated and inlaid with soft lighting, you’d never guess this was a samurai battleship. Well, you wouldn’t if there weren't armed teddy bears absolutely everywhere.

  I didn’t even need to glance at the signage hung at each corridor intersection. Although I hadn’t memorized the ship’s full layout, the observation deck was special. It was someplace I both wanted to check out myself, as well as show the kids, so I’d looked up the route before bringing everyone up.

  We went two corridors over, then down a set of stairs to the lowest part of the ship. I stopped at the bottom of the stairs to make sure no one fell before stepping towards the panel at the center of the room.

  The observation deck wasn’t that large, around six meters wide and ten meters long, with walls that tilted away from the floor at a forty-five degree angle. With a press of a button, the walls became transparent, like glass, giving a panoramic view of the city below.

  You could see the massive airship stretching out in all directions, along with several of the larger underslung turrets. Thankfully we were hovering well above the top of the tallest megabuildings, so they didn’t block the view at all. If you went to the edge and looked down, you could still make out a ton of detail of the city below, or you could if you went close to the windows. I didn’t dare—this place gave me severe vertigo.

  “Wow! It’s so pretty! Is this what the city always looks like?” Issi asked as she pressed her face against one of the windows.

  “When it’s not being torn apart by someone trying to cause trouble,” I grumbled.

  “If they did, you’d make them regret it,” Jeniffer exclaimed with a grin. “Just like you always do.”

  I stared out across the vast cityscape, from the vast walled manufactories to the south to the huge offices in the core and residential areas in the east and west. It was different from the undercity I was used to, but it was still my city.

  “Damned right,” I muttered. “It’s not a perfect place, but I’ll do what I need to to defend it. For your sake, and for the sake of the other people down there.”

  “That’s a sappy line,” Eddie snorted, causing Issi to burst out in giggles.

  “Shut up and enjoy the view,” I replied with a smile.

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