The phone on the desk of the General's secretary rang. He pressed the console, then held his earpiece as he picked up, saying, "Yes, Herr General? Yes, Herr General, she's here. Yes, sir. I'll tell her. Yes, sir."

The secretary looked to Gally and said, "Rekrut Takahashi, the General will see you know. You remember your protocol?"

The secretary sighed.

The secretary nodded toward the door, which opened for Gally as she approached. She saw the General sitting at his desk and felt the butterflies in her stomach. She still remembered him as one among many amnesiac Ancients taken in by the Cerberus Guild, dressed in nothing but a crude, stained smock that had been hastily made to clothe him like the other Ancients picked up from the Hollow Sea. He had always been a little intimidating, but now that he was clean-shaven and wearing a general's uniform, he was pretty much fully restored to his former glory and that intimidation factor was so much greater. Gally felt like a field mouse wandering into an eagle's nest.

Her limbs were like sticks as she walked toward the General's desk, stopping about three paces away and standing at attention as she said, "Rekrut Takahashi reporting as ordered, Herr General."

While she may have gotten the ranks wrong earlier, she did remember the lesson on reporting to superiors and the relevant customs and courtesies. In the Navy, you did not render salutes while uncovered. In the Army, you did, but when Army personnel were embarked on Navy vessels, it was customary to abide by Navy protocols. She may not have considered herself particularly well-suited for military matters, but she at least wanted to think of herself as an apt enough pupil to retain what she had been taught.

She complied and he continued by asking her, "How has your reintegration training been going, Rekrut Takahashi?"

She could imagine the General as the sort of person who would call her out on her wishy-washy answer. She was thinking about the rumors that were being spread about her and how her fellow recruits generally kept her at a distance, but gossip and ostracism were some of the basic weapons girls picked up as children and kept using well into their golden years. Still, she would take these tactics over active bullying any day of the week. That was enough to count as getting along, right?

The General continued his questions, asking, "Anyone you know?"

From what little Gally knew of the General, which was mostly from before his memory was restored, she did not take him for the kind of person who enjoyed small talk. It did not seem to come that naturally for him and he did not spend any more time on it before getting to the point.

He was not the first person to state a particular interest in her and her experiences, but she did not want to be propped up as something more than what she was. Of course, denying her own value was not necessarily a smart move on her part either. It was a tricky tightrope walk she had to make, avoiding the twin pitfalls of overinflated expectations she could not hope to meet and a sense of uselessness that could lead to her being casually discarded.

And there it was. It would seem that Imperial society had not changed all that much in the past three hundred years. People have jockeyed for upward mobility ever since a hierarchical society was first established, but there was something particular about how that competition played out in the Empire. Even if no one came outright and said it, every Imperial citizen was expected to claw their way up the social ladder however far they could go using whatever methods at their disposal. Even if you denied it as your goal in life, you could feel the strings tugging at you all the same.

Gally knew there was no going back to the life she had before her 'rescue'. She may not have enjoyed being Giger's housekeeper all that much, but it was better than being a military peon. If she could improve her station, that would make her current existence a little more tolerable. Of course, with all efforts to climb the ladder, your choice of patrons will make or break you. Did she want to stake everything on attaching herself to General Dubcic? If he were to fall, she would almost certainly go down with him. She could not imagine that a general three hundred years out of his time could force himself into the current structure of Imperial society and flourish. Perhaps it would be better for her to play things safe.

She attempted to do a clean about-face, but her legs got a little tangled as she turned around. She pretended that she did not hear an exasperated sigh from the General as she straightened herself out and continued on her way out the door.

Once the door closed behind her, the secretary glanced at her from his desk and asked, "How did it go, Rekrut?"

Gally did not know how the secretary knew what she and the General were talking about. Either he was listening in or he was just making an educated guess. Either way, she did not intend to pry any further. She was not particularly eager to to get back to her training, but she wanted to stick around here even less.

Gally was glad to put the General's office behind her. She would have some more things to think about. Oh, what fun.

The room she was called into was not like an ordinary office. In fact, it was disconcertingly bare, with no furniture or decorations of any kind. There were only three people inside. One was Maki, and next to her was what looked like a general officer of subcontinental extraction whose collar was the Imperial purple of the Political Officer Corps. Then off to the side was Prissy in her human form, dressed in the same unmarked coveralls as the other recruits. Gally had seen her the other day with Purple and the other girls. She almost did not recognize her with her hair cut short, but there was no mistaking those red eyes of hers.

Gally stood at attention and said, "Rekrut Takahashi reporting as ordered."

Although the political officer was superior in rank to Maki, it was Maki who had called her, so Gally was not sure who she was supposed to be deferring to first. The two of them weren't standing that far apart, so Gally was hoping that she had positioned herself ambiguously enough that she would not look like she was favoring one or the other.

Gally stood at ease. She could not help stealing a glance over at Prissy but was quick to have her eyes back in the officers' general direction.

Gally was not sure if that was meant to be comforting or intimidating, but knowing Maki, saying something that was a little of both was exactly the sort of thing she would do.

When Gally's eyes strayed to the political officer, Maki glanced at him and said, "Oh, him? This is Brigadegeneral Sultana from the Political Officer Corps. He'll be leading the liaison efforts down on the surface. Normally the political officers would be taking charge here, but given our rapport, I've been asked to handle today's little tête-à-tête."

Maki walked over to Gally and put her arm around Gally's shoulder. Gally continued to stand at ease, suppressing the urge to pull away. Maki was skilled as ever at making people uncomfortable.

Gally did not quite meet Maki in the eye as she said, "A grouchy hermit who spends his time fiddling with three hundred-year-old junk and complaining about the bacon being burnt and the bathwater not being hot enough."

Gally gritted her teeth and saw out the corner of her eye that Prissy narrowly restrained herself. Besides making people uncomfortable, Maki was also good at provoking them. She knew this all too well and smiled as she looked between Gally and Prissy.

Gally tried to choose her words carefully. She knew she could not lie around someone like Maki, but she did not want to put Giger in a tight spot because she said the wrong thing.

Prissy, looking somewhat glassy eyed, said, "He's seen what was done in Arielle, what was done outside Vigau."

Gally cocked her head and asked, "What did you do there?"

Maki touched her temple, as if she were thinking, but maybe she was communicating with someone. She then tapped the little console on her wrist and some of the viewscreens on the wall showed images of a ruined brick building and a decent-sized crater amid some farmlands. Gally had no context for what these things meant, but the sight alone told her plenty.

Maki turned to her and asked, "Something you'd like to contribute, Rekrut Taus?"

Apparently Prissy was registered as 'Priscilla Taus'. As Giger's familiar, she was basically a daughter to him—sister, maybe?—, so it was little surprise that she would take his name. Still, it had a funny ring to Gally's ears, though there were more important things to deal with at the moment. Prissy contradicting her could be trouble. Gally dreaded what Maki would be able to drag out of her.

Gally could feel her cheeks flush a little. She particularly found herself remembering their time in Nylos. Giger had done a lot to look out for her. He was a far cry from a knight in shining armor, but it was not the kind of thing you forgot. As much as they butted heads, she owed him a lot. In his own way, he had been taking care of her all this time. She could tell herself it was just because he had a use for her, but would he have really done all that he had if he was just using her?

He was not the only one, Gally thought. She wondered how Maki's games would clash with whatever Giger had planned. Surely the plan was to use Gally as leverage against him. Any other time, she might not have thought she amounted to much in that regard, but maybe she was just denying reality. This was not the sort of thing she wanted to think about, but she would do well to get her own feelings sorted before the two of them were reunited. It quite possibly could determine what would happen next.