Monday, October 26th, 2048
As Wendy still had my shelter as her temporary address, her mail arrived here. With Wendy’s permission, I read her mail to keep her updated about important developments. There were good news from her lawyer:
First, the prosecution had decided to drop all and any charges about Wendy almost killing the Omnissiah.
Second, certain financial irregularities had been discovered in the bank account of the judge who had let Chain Guy and Amanda AKA Shaver Bitch out on bail. He was now under investigation for taking bribes and would no longer make decisions in her case. The letter did not say what exactly the charges were about, so I asked Elya to do a bit of digging.
One moment please, I have to circumvent some pretty good encryption here… done.
The judge received a suspect money transfer in the timespan between your tussle with the Omnissiah and the hearing at which he let Chain Guy and Amanda out on bail.
The sender of the funds tried to conceal themselves, but I tracked them to a small company that deals in Mack parts. Parts that come from an unknown source and are in suspiciously good condition.
Interesting. And I might have to pay that company a visit. For now, however, the security of Styx Base seemed more important. I supplied Wendy with instructions on how to manufacture a bunch of the Lesser Battlecats for base defense. An improved version of the original Battlecat would follow when I got around to reworking the design.
Tuesday, October 27th
Arina made a surprise visit. Coming in, she brought a handwritten letter from my mailbox with her. It came from a certain Alice Eckhart. I opened it and read
Dear Bulldozer Caitlin,
I’m so happy to be back with my parents. My new body still takes some getting used to, but it is ten times better than the Mack version. Even if it does not have the nanite powers.
I’m still at home to recover from all the kidnapping stress, but I’m looking forward to returning to SHOCKS. Or maybe join the regular army, when I’m old enough.
Someone mentioned you have a cool new rifle type and an aimbot to go with it? I want one!
Love you
Alice
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There was a chuckle behind me. Arina had snuck up on me and looked over my shoulder.
At my indignant look she said “Sorry for peeking! But Bulldozer Caitlin? Where did that come from?”
I told her about Saturday, then continued “Remember the story about the first Dark Magical Girl that showed up?”
“The one Team Z-4 defeated at Sooke?”
“Yes. SHOCKS managed to interrogate her with some success, but did not recognize that the personality of Memory was still inside. Early September they asked me to help with a second interrogation, and I realized there was another lost MG to rescue.”
“Oh. I heard about Memory disappearing, that happened before the Macks caught me. But why did it take almost two months to give her a new body?”
“We had to build a new digital brain for her first. Her Mack brain was going tits up, I barely managed to make a copy of the data in time.”
“She is taking this awfully well. I sure did not hold up like that.”
Elya’s voice came from the sound system in my room. “An advantage of the MindSim software is that it prevents mental trauma and mostly suppresses the symptoms of pre-existing trauma. Users are mostly immune to PTSD.”
Which was all very interesting, but Arina did not let the original topic go. “So, bulldozer?”
“I was a bit blunt in explaining things when we put Alice into her new body. Then B.S.O.D. told me I have the subtlety of a bulldozer.”
“Oh my.” Arina whispered in my ear “Feel free to bulldoze me tonight.”
I felt my ears grow hot. Arina might not be able to blush anymore, but I could. In response, I ran a hand up her boobs and said “Let’s see what happens to you tonight…”
Wednesday, October 28th
Major Allen, the HANAF logistics officer I had worked with before, called me in the morning with an offer. He said that HANAF was willing to start a joint venture with me for the purpose of manufacturing and marketing of “xenotechnology”, which of course meant Mack stuff.
It would require me to put in a good chunk of money, but I could afford it from my previous weapon sales. HANAF would contribute an old warehouse as a facility for the new business and their share of the equipment we could jointly pilfer from the San Juan Island Mack base. As I did not have the transport capacity yet to do the pilfering alone, it seemed to be the best option in the near future.
Next I contacted my lawyer and Wendy. The lawyer pointed out a way I could hire Wendy as manager and be reasonably sure that legal complications about her personhood would not sink the company.
Wendy was interested as well. She asked “What exactly would be my job?”
“Management as in making the day to day business decisions. You would have to work with HANAF, as they would have a share of the company. With me when it comes to extending the product palette, in case I need to buy more blueprints for that.
“You would also be involved in hiring. As the company would start out fairly small, a dedicated HR person seems like management bloat.”
After discussing a few more details, Wendy said “I’m happy to take the job.”