Kurutsuki no H.I.K.A.R.U. //Kishiro only please

[Thkaal]

Sitting at a terminal, the teen coded away to her heart's content. She had gathered everything she could on the history of Sirius, including the time before the colonization of the sector. Though there wasn't much of the latter. Keeping the information on a secured system, she was only allowing her special AI project to interact with the secured system.

"The data provided is anomalous. There are connections necessary for certain events to have taken place. I fail to make the associations as they have been described."

"Not all information is available to everyone. Yes, there is a lot, but with so many millions of people, it is one of our limitations. We can't process every byte of information. We take parts and extrapolate based on experience."

There was a moment, the system started to run warmer. It was not a huge increase in temperature, a mere 3%, but it was enough to alert Kimiko that the system was having trouble.

The synthetic voice issued from the speakers, "I am detecting further anomalies. Errors in judgement, inverse actions to oaths, and malicious data artifacts impeding civilian processing of data."

It took a moment for Kimiko to understand what the system was reporting and then she smiled. "Lies, manipulations and secrets. You will find a lot of those."

"What is the purpose of these anomalies?"

"Generally, a way to gather power." She thought a moment about that word and then changed it, "A means to gather control over citizenry outside the immediate influence."

"This is the purpose of your father arranging a marriage for you."

It was a difficult task for the young engineer to discern if that was a conclusion, a question, or an observation. At first, she thought to explain that particular situation, but there was a question that now formed in her mind, Why would HIKARU say such a thing in the first place?

"In a way, yes. My parents want to make sure that I'll be able to take care of them when they're older. So they make sure that I will be able to do so by arranging a marriage for me." The question lingered in her mind. There was something strange going on in her code. She could not see what was happening, and the break points were next to useless when HIKARU was rearranging them to complete his processing of data more efficiently.

"There is an incongruity in your statement. Your father's financial records indicate a deposits within the last three weeks of $32,768,451.43. This is an increase of 7823% of average deposits over the last five years. There is a tier connection of no more than 4 between all sources of deposits indicating a coefficient of 0.79864 that there is a single entity controlling the deposits. Correlating this information with the explanation of temporal control over other entities of significance less than 0.125, I would propose that a zone of influence beyond you is involved in your engagement."

The girl paused. That much money was a ship, a good ship. Perhaps there was more to this engagement, but it did not matter. She was a good daughter, and her parents had done everything they could for her.

"Going to the symposium will alter 9 tiers of relationships with a degenerative coefficient of 0.683. This could, in time, make significant changes to Samura Industries, Blood Dragons and the Golden Chrysanthemums."

That got the girl's attention. She completely stopped and stared at the wall, unsure of what to make of that. Why would her attendance at a jump gate symposium have such a drastic effect? And why would it have anything to do with Samura but Kishiro wasn't mentioned at all?

[Jtan911]

So here I am lay on his back under the back of his Ravens talon, a whole host of problems circulating on my mind.

First on the list is my ship. Well yes, it’s partly my fault, but seriously meeting Xenos these days? What are the chances? They are pretty uncommon these days, and so it would be just my luck that I would meet two of them in the middle of desolate Galileo of all places. Now I’m no fighter pilot, wish I was, but I ain’t. And two Xenos, even if they were off their faces with alcohol, was not a chance I was willing to take. So into the dark matter field I had led them, doubling back and losing them fairly easily. But my bad luck wasn’t over yet. Radiation. It just had to melt something important, and now my ship is only running at 83% speed, and I’m not settling for that.

Second problem. Engines. I’ve temporarily fitted a basic model Kishiro engine. I hate it. It doesn't look, feel or perform as good as my old one, but until I get some replacement parts from Bretonia, which, with the Gallic war on, is severely unlikely for any decent price, I’m stuck with it.

Third Problem. Work. I have nothing to do with Kishiro. Since the debacle with Nebulae Complex, my transport has been grounded, and I haven’t been reassigned to any new shipment runs. So I’m left here, on Saitama watching Honshu rotate - which a sane man can only stand for so long - and wandering what to do next.

Without warning, my Holo-pad beams into life, announcing in a monotone: “Employee 91197, please report to Laboratory 4 immediately”

Lab 4. That’s interesting I suppose. The ground-breaking Kishiro advancements are meant to happen in the first 5 labs of Saitama, its where all the top scientists are set-up, or locked up in a way, and given endless streams of money and resources to realise their inventions, providing they pass their 6 monthly progress check with the board of directors.
Well time to clean I suppose, No point in rushing, it’s not like I owe the guys anything, hmph, they've probably got some real mundane grunt work lined up for me or something. Just what I need at the moment.