15 Oct 2021User319792

I received a holofac request from Coral, missing it by a few seconds, only to have it followed up with a comm message embedded with a video. The video opened with a man in a black suit similar to the one the man in the black suit wears when he's not in his flight suit. The suit was sitting in a cockpit, staring into the black with a grim look on his face. There was a slightly darker black Imperial logo stitched into the lapel of his suit, just barely visible. The video cut to the man in the black suit in his flight suit, in an Imperial Courier, slamming right into another ship's hull. I could see the man in the black suit's neck whip forward before his head slammed back into the cockpit seat, slowly lowering onto his left shoulder. The video was cut to music that made me feel like I was a part of something bigger than myself. I don't know how else to describe it. I sent Coral a holofac request after watching the video and she immediately appeared on my holofac screen.

"Pretty cool, right?"

She looked at me with widened eyes and a dumb smile on her face.

"What was that?"

"I found a video of dad buried in a mess of comms in dad's database."

We'd been grounded since the last time we'd spoken to the man in the black suit. He'd barely made it through the conversation, wheezing and grimacing like someone punched him in the throat- which I suppose Coral did do with that slavery thing. That's my thing with the man in the man suit; he probably never saw it coming from Coral. By the time he was right in the head again, me and Coral were already in total union: Why was I being punished for having Coral lie to the suit in Cubeo if his plan was to have us lie to people about not being the same person?

"If we're the same person to whoever it is we're speaking to, dad, then it's not a lie... aaaaaaaand," she rolled her head around in a huge circle at the man in the black suit's stare, which hinted at increasing irritation, "since its not a lie, then what's the point of having Cadence stuck in Achenar for the next who knows how long until she gets promoted to King of the Imperial Navy?"

The man in the black suit looked at me, then back at Coral. The muscles around his eyes began to relax and he licked his lips. I looked away, knowing what it meant. I could hear Coral's vocal chords murmur as she gulped, probably looking away, too.

"The point is that people want the both of you dead."

Coral and I looked back at each other, each of us opening invisible boxes and raising an eyebrow.

"That's it?"

Coral started laughing and shook her head, turning away from the man in the black suit, who looked back at me with eyes that looked as youthfully empty as the store rooms the woman used to put me in when she felt exceptionally powerful. I looked over at Coral, who continued laughing before shutting off her end of the comms. The man in the black suit stared at me for a short while before restating that I'm to remain in Achenar until my promotion. Within the hour I received a comms addressed to both me and Coral saying that the organization commanded we be grounded and berthed in place until further notice. I didn't even bother sending a comms request to either of them to let them know I was in Alacagui before heading to my quarters.

Octavian, being the monster that it is, had plenty of work to do, so I busied myself with a redesignation of its onboard compartments before finally sending Coral a comms asking her if she could set me up with one of those plastic boxes she was playing with, which she set up to display into cockpit my holofac screen with Ovid's shipboard controls operating as substitutes for the control she was using. She said it was easy enough before immediately getting a far off look in her eyes and shutting off her end of the comms.

"I dunno why dad's being such a baby, but I decided to dig through his stuff to see if there was something that might explain why he's constantly bending to the Empire," I scrunched up my chin, pursing my lips and squinting as a turned my head slightly to the left. Coral didn't match or catch my response, continuing, "...and I found that video. I think it was a Gutamaya advert about the increased safety of the Courier. You hear the music? Intense, right?"

I couldn't tell if she was serious about it being an advertisement. Why would I feel safe in a Courier if every time I rammed another ship my head was ripped off of my neck?

"Are you sure its a Gutamaya advert?"

"No, of course not. I'm still trying to piece together who dad is that he feels like he's gotta just accept whatever the Empire wants from him. Cool video, though, right? Anyway, I'm gonna do some more digging. Any word on when they're gonna let us back into the cockpit?"

"I haven't heard or seen anything from anyone. You'd think they'd have us moving and shaking right now, with everything going on."

Coral looked away from me, scratching her cheek. She put her chin into the crook of her palm and squinted at her desk.

"Yeah, its been a hectic week, from the Pilot's Federation's perspective, huh?"

She looked back and me and we locked eyes, nodding.