“Evelyn Claire…” Jane’s cold voice echoed around the airship’s residential area, causing a sense of dread to build up in me. “I believe you promised me that this would be a casual, family-friendly cruise. Why was the hangar bay absolutely stuffed full of bears?”

  “Not for the reason you think!” I replied, jumping off my chair and reflexively putting the kitchen table between Jane and myself. It wasn’t that I was afraid of her--I just wanted to give myself time to explain before the bops began.

  “The Family asked me to take as many bears as I could when we leave the city so they can put pressure on the city council to actually rebuild the military, which they’ve been delaying for the last six months. They want to show that they can’t rely upon me to do everything!” I explained frantically.

  “Is that so?” Jane asked, arms crossed, still standing in the doorway.

  “Absolutely! I loaded almost every bear I could on the Stratocarrier, leaving just enough bears to patrol the undercity and help during emergencies,” I exclaimed. “Besides, with all the extra bears, I can keep an even closer eye on the kids and protect them if someone does the unthinkable and attacks us!”

  Jane unfolded her arms and stepped into the room.

  “Fine. I believe you,” she muttered, “but you better do your best to avoid fighting, like you promised.”

  “I will,” I promised.

  I pulled out the nearest chair and promptly collapsed into it. “Speaking of the kids, where are they?”

  “Down on the observation deck, with Alan,” Jane explained. “They can’t seem to get enough of the view.”

  She gestured to someone in the hall, and after a couple seconds a set of five colorful foxes came in carrying a variety of bags, followed by a frog in a tophat and suit.

  “I forgot I’d assigned you all a personal bodyguard,” I muttered. “Where have they been for the last six months?”

  “I’ve been using them as guards for the school. I didn’t like having bears wandering around the kids with weapons out; at least this lot has all their weapons hidden away,” Jane replied.

  “I guess that makes sense… Why’d you bring so much stuff?”

  “Because the kids need a change of clothes and their study materials. We may be going on vacation, but that doesn’t mean they can skimp on their studies,” Jane frowned, before glancing at the frog. “Speaking of which… do you have a place where Mr. Froggington can set up, and teach classes?”

  Flicking open my augs, I brought up the plans for the aircraft carrier-sized airship. Even though Nyx and I had spent days discussing the details of the massive machine, I hadn’t even begun to memorize the layout. Oh, I knew the hangar bay was at the back, and the manufacturing area, containing the molecular manufacturing machines, was slightly ahead of that. The bridge was at the top, the living quarters were in the middle, but beyond that… I was clueless. I really needed to schedule some time to explore.

  It took me a minute to even locate the living quarters on the blueprints, but once I did, it was easy to identify the unused rooms nearby.

  “There’s a meeting room just down the hall. Step back outside the door, turn right, and it’s the first door on the left,” I explained.

  “Very good!” the frog declared. It grabbed the little hard travel case at its feet, then turned towards the door. “Please excuse me.”

  After the frog left, Jane wandered over to the table and slumped into the chair across from me. “So, have you figured out our route yet?”

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  “Not fully,” I admitted. “I want to stop in Vancouver and Indianapolis, to visit some Samurai in those cities, but there are quite a few Megacities and refuges we could stop at along the way. I, for one, would like to make a pitstop in Seattle to check in on my friends there.”

  “I don’t have a problem with that,” Jane said. “I’ll have Nyx suggest some Family activities we could do while we’re in those cities, as well as some good pit stops along the route.”

  She leaned back in her chair and stared at me for several long seconds. “I have to ask, how much did this monstrosity cost you? Up to this point you’ve only made small purchases and concentrated on blueprints. What made you decide to buy this behemoth?”

  “Nyx convinced me it was a good idea,” I replied with a shrug. “The truth is, even though I love our home, the Shelter is in a really inconvenient spot. Not only is it located in the extreme northeast, but it’s in the undercity, so all my troops need to spend extra time navigating to an access ramp before they can get topside, where most incursions happen. Not only that, but I was running out of places to store my troops down there.”

  “You know, you could have just stopped production,” Jane snickered.

  “And if I had, there's a good chance I wouldn’t have had the troops to both contain the incursion that happened in the middle of the city and defend the towns around the outskirts of the city,” I declared. “I’m going to keep producing troops and extending the protective area as long as I can.”

  Jane sat up just a little straighter, the smile falling off her face. “Right, understandable. Still doesn’t explain why you invested in this thing instead of more production capability, or a surface facility.”

  “Well… I could tell you that it helped progress my core catalogs, like Armored Vehicle, Linear Accelerator Weapons, Fusion Generators, Matter Reconfigurators, and even Hydroponics, or that it gave me an excuse to open up the Nanite Repair Systems, Light Reactive Shield, and Projected Energy Shield catalogs, but the truth is… it’s just fucking cool!” I exclaimed excitedly. “Sure, it’s got enough firepower to scourge entire hordes off the face of the earth, and I’ve mounted the UHR in the main turret so I can fire on hives several hundred feet underground, but I like the feeling of freedom. Now, if there’s a problem outside the city, I can do more than just send a handful of Kodiaks.”

  Jane laughed. “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself. You’ve spent so much time running around, worrying about everyone else…I think this is the first time I’ve seen you do something just for yourself,” she paused. “I did notice you didn’t answer my question about the cost, though.”

  “It was fucking expensive, alright,” I admitted, throwing my hands up. “It wasn’t all my points, but it was the vast majority of them. Between the catalogs and this thing, I’m already running low! I’ve earmarked a bunch of points to upgrade my Synthetics while we’re traveling, but beyond that… It's all family savings and emergency funds. I didn’t even have enough to fully arm this thing!”

  “Alright, alright, calm down, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Jane exclaimed. “I wasn’t trying to criticize you. I just wanted to know if it was expensive or not. I’m glad you remembered to create an emergency fund this time. I’m sure you’ll build up some points again in no time, especially with this thing.”

  “That is the plan,” I grumbled before sitting up and looking at Jane. “But only after we get back!”

  Jane just nodded. “You haven’t cut back on safety features on this thing, right?”

  “Only weapons!” I confirmed. “I wouldn’t have suggested we use it to travel unless it was one hundred percent safe!”

  “Good.”

  Jane leaned back in her seat and frowned. “I know the kids enjoy the view, but they usually get tired of it after a couple minutes. I wonder what’s taking them?”

  “I’ll check,” I said. “I need to head to the bridge and perform my final checks anyways. I can look in on them before I go.”

  Pushing myself to my feet, I trudged over to the door and tapped the open button. As it swept open, a tiny blur slipped in and smashed headfirst into me.

  “Avast, ye landlubbers! I’m shanghaiing this ship!” Issi declared as she bounced back, rubbing her head.

  “You commandeer the ship and shanghai the crew,” Nyx corrected, as their avatar wandered in behind the girl.

  My eyes flicked between the pair. They both had tricorn hats, leather vests, and plush swords at their belts. Issi even had an eyepatch on.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “I’m a mighty pirate, and I’m taking this ship to be the flagship of my new pirate fleet!” Issi exclaimed proudly.

  I looked up from the little girl to the bear, then to Alan and the kids beyond.

  “When we were on the observation deck, Issi asked if this was like sailing across the sea,” Alan explained. “And I told her, ‘Sure, probably.’ Well, you know how her brain works. She went from ships to sailing to pirates in just seconds. You know, the regular. What I didn’t expect was for your AI to show up and encourage her.”

  “Imagination is important,” Nyx declared with a smirk.

  “You just wanted to aggravate me,” I grumbled, turning back to Issi.

  “Alright, Captain Isabelle, if you were to take over the ship, where would you go?”

  The little girl’s face scrunched up for a moment, and she brought a hand up to her chin.

  “Where were you planning to take us?” she asked after a couple seconds.

  “Vancouver, then Indianapolis,” I replied with a raised eyebrow.

  “Then to Vancouver! Steady as it goes!” Issi shouted before marching past me, hands clasped behind her back.

  “As the captain orders,” I chuckled, stepping aside so the others could come in.

  When Alan passed by, he just shook his head despondently. “It’s going to be a long trip.”

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