Ingrid stood upon the deck of the Blade of Empire, rubbing the bloody mess that was the inside of her elbow, and watched the strange craft as it banked. It was a tube with high wings and a very wide and short T-tail. The horizontal tail surface ended in large vertical fins above and below. The two turbine-propeller engines were mounted on oversized pylons on the wings, and those pylons had a second purpose as housing for the long rear landing gear struts. However, the most bizarre feature of the aircraft was the large rounded disk, like a squashed sphere, mounted on a tripod on the roof of the craft between the wings.

"You are going to start bleeding again," Ashe said.

"It itches," Ingrid replied.

The strange airplane with the squashed sphere on the roof finished banking and lined up for a landing. The long landing struts in the back hit the deck very gently and the engines roared as the reverse torque on the propellers slowed the airplane rapidly. The airmen on the deck began to flag it down for parking. Ingrid's eyes drifted up toward the little planet high in the sky. It was mostly red and white, a blooming tundra world with snow-capped peaks. The horizon was a dull tan, an endless desert world of shifting sand dunes.

"I wish I could have seen that place," Ingrid said. "This desert world is boring."

"Well, you shouldn't have been sleeping the entire time we were there!"

The craft stopped on the taxiway and the door opened. Vaska, wearing her white dress and golden mesh of crystals, appeared in the doorway and shouted something to the airmen. One airman turned and ran toward Ingrid.

"Vaska requests your presence on the Eagle Eye, Lady Ghost!" the young man said. More airmen arrived at the strange airplane carrying a short set of stairs.

Instead of climbing the stairs, Ingrid walked once around the aircraft to get a better look at the strange flattened sphere on the roof.

"Get up here!" Vaska yelled.

"What is that thing?" Ingrid asked as she finally ascended the stairs. Ashe followed her in her full-size form, glancing uneasily at the spinning propeller.

"Get inside! We can talk once the door is closed."

The interior was dark and cramped. Dozens of green Colored Orbs in smoky glass boxes lined the walls, flashing and beeping. The individual Colored Orbs were labeled with directions and distances, and four airmen sat in chairs watching the Orbs. After the door closed, those green Orbs, and a handful of magenta Orbs, were the only sources of light inside the chamber.

"Up here," Vaska said. She opened a door to a second chamber in the airplane. The chamber was brighter, lit by small windows, and contained a few cushioned armchairs nailed to the floor. The floor and walls were decorated in paisley patterns, and a small coffee table contained a carafe of water and more magenta Orbs. The corridor to the cabin had no door, and the flight console was clearly visible in between the two pilots. Vaska closed the door behind, and the craft began to move.

Vaska embraced Ingrid tight enough to make it hard to breathe. "How have you been?"

"Sleeping mostly," Ingrid said.

"It happens sometimes, and you are lucky you stayed awake long enough to land. How long were you out?"

"Two days. What about you?"

"Terribly lonely," Vaska said. "I needed to spend some time with the other engineers, working out the specifics of this craft. But, we can be together again now!" She sat down in one of the armchairs, dragging Ingrid down with her. Ashe sat down in the second chair.

"What is that thing on the roof?" Ingrid asked.

"A radar dome," Vaska said. "There is a wide-band radar dish spinning inside. It can see targets up to four hundred miles away! We call this craft the HR-1 Eagle Eye."

The propellers began to spin at full power, and the craft lurched forward. Vaska gasped.

"I like the way you have decorated the interior," Ashe said. The deck dropped away outside the windows and the airplane pitched upward. The landing gear began to retract, making a grinding sound on either side.

"Well, this is where I am going to be. With the destruction of the Ten Skies, my father does not want me trapped on an airship during a battle. With a sufficient escort, this airplane would be the safest in the fleet. We can see enemies coming from very far away, and organize a response. This is the new command center for the entire airborne fleet."

"Does this airplane have a lavatory?" Ingrid asked.

"In the back."

"Brilliant! Maybe I should fly with you from now on?"

"I'm afraid that may be necessary," Vaska sighed. "So much has changed in the world outside since this expedition started."

"The Admiral never speaks to me," Ingrid said. "He tells me nothing, I am invited to no meetings, and I only learn about patrol missions when the fighters start leaving the deck."

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"You are too independent, you take stupid risks without thinking, and you do not exactly fit into the regular military hierarchy. I don't blame the Admiral at all. However, he is also uninformed.

"First of all, the peace talks with Kanti have been interrupted. Ten coastal cities declared independence from the Federation, and the Imperial Navy sent gunboats into the harbors. Marines entered the city at night, kidnaped the local elites, and seized the capitol buildings. The Federation military leaders have promised to send armies to attack the cities if the Empire does not withdraw.

"Second, the fighter pilots that we recruited from the Elemental Planes are taking heavy losses. Falling Leaf squadrons have reported radar signals from enemy fighters. Third, and by far the worst news I have, is that the sacrifices are beginning to mutiny. They are roaming into the places in the Elemental Planes where they should not be. They know that the Empire has not freed the sacrifices serving our bank's contracts. The FIA now patrols the Elemental Planes with stolen Federation fighter jets, killing the recruits that stray too close."

"You lie to them," Ashe said, "you willfully enslave people like them, and then you recruit them into your military. I cannot imagine why they would want to mutiny!"

Ingrid said nothing. What was there to say?

"I just wanted," she finally managed, "for them to be able to fly in these beautiful machines. After living a lie for so long."

"It is not your fault, and it is out of our hands now. Elementals, including Light Elementals, cannot understand their language. We cannot verify their loyalty in the same way that we do with other soldiers. Natasha has... canceled the program. The sacrifices are going to lose their wings until they learn to speak Imperial."

Outside the window, an escort of six Fat Meg fighter jets approached along one side. On the opposite side, an escort of Falling Leaf fighters flew nearby. The pilot and first officer were chatting quietly in the cabin.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that language, would you Ashe?" Vaska asked.

"No," Ashe said, "and neither does the Queen of Lightning. We are both dumbfounded by how you bone cages keep coming up with terrifying new things!"

"In any case, the last update I have is about my father and the banks. There is a roadmap in place to introduce a purely fiat currency. The elites have been informed and new financial instruments have been introduced to insulate those elites during the transition. Most of the losses will be incurred by the lower classes."

"That's terrible!"

"It's politics. In any case, my father is going to directly interview the parties in most major contracts moving forward, using his new Light Elemental to force the parties to be truthful. An economy is ultimately just a massive network of promises. When people at the very top make big lies, that's when things start to go wrong."

The Meg squadron broke away suddenly. "What is wrong?" Ingrid asked. She stood up.

"Wait!" Vaska said. "I'm not done with you!"

Ingrid opened the door to the dark chamber with the Colored Orbs. "What is going on?" she demanded. The soldiers turned to face her, looking confused.

"There are radar contacts," one of the soldiers said, a woman with very short hair. "They are across the conduit ahead. About four hundred nautical miles away."

"How many contacts?"

"Four."

Ingrid shivered. "Can you tell us their heading? Their speed?"

"Um, they are heading straight for us at, and the speed must be supersonic."

"Vaska we need to run, now." Ingrid said. "Tell the pilots to turn around and fly back to the airships at full throttle. We can hide in the shadow of the airships."

Vaska just stood there, astonished by the outburst. "You seem very certain of this," she said.

"This airplane cannot maneuver, and those four zombies know exactly where I am at all times. It defeats the purpose of having an early warning command center like this if the enemy always knows exactly where it is."

The first officer, who must have heard the outburst, stalked toward them alone. "Is there a problem, Lady Ghost?" he asked.

"Turn the airplane around, we run," Vaska said. "Your new mission is to get us to safety. Ingrid is right. She should not be on board this craft, not ever."

"Yes Princess," the first officer said. Even before he was seated in the cabin once again, the airplane began a sharp turn toward where the Meg squadron had been just moments before.

"Is this aircraft equipped with parachutes?" Ingrid asked.

"No," Vaska said. "It should not be near enemies."

Ingrid waved her hand around the room. "Get rid of all this. Move the chamber in the back forward and allow the pilots and the crew to speak directly. Install a door under the tail and give everyone a parachute. Does this craft have flares?"

"I get it, add flares as well."

"Hypersonic missiles are out," the woman at the console said.

"That was fast," Vaska said.

"They are moving very fast, Princess."

"Let us listen to the pilots," Ingrid said. The woman activated one of the magenta Colored Orbs.

"... Dark Three. Dark Three. Don't worry about it, fire them all."

"... lost contact. One of them dropped down or something. Too much ground clutter."

Ingrid and Vaska waited in silence. The little green orbs all over the console flickered and flashed occasionally.

"... Splash one, two, three. One of them survived. Dropping down..."

"I have visual. Heading one-seven-five, distance five miles. They are very low, I only see the shadow on the sand dunes."

"Dark Three! Dark Three!"

"It's painted to look like the desert floor! All camouflaged tan and brown."

"It shot a missile!"

"Splash! All targets destroyed."

"Mother Goose do you read?! There is a missile headed your way. Bug out! Bug out!"

The woman at the console activated a second magenta Orb. "Affirmative we are already on our way out. We are tracking the missile already."

"Where is it?" Ingrid asked. Her palms were sweating just listening to the chatter.

"It was fired at... one hundred miles, I think. It is going fast and flying very high now. Seventy miles away."

"It's hypersonic," Vaska said.

Ingrid ran to the front and squeezed in between the two seats, leaning forward and looking out the window. The airship fleet loomed on the horizon, far too far away to use as cover.

"Fifty miles," the woman called out. "Forty seven miles."

"At fifteen miles make a very sharp turn to the right," Ingrid commanded. "A full ninety degree turn, we fly perpendicular to its path."

The two men glanced at each other, and the pilot nodded. "Yes, Lady Ghost."

"Twenty miles.... fifteen miles."

In a sudden flurry of motion, the pilot slammed the right propeller throttle back and kicked the rudder hard, banking slightly and pulling up on the stick. The left wing ripped around and the nose dropped violently, almost causing Ingrid to fall forward onto the throttles. The airship fleet was out of sight, and the ground loomed ahead in the forward windows. The pilot pushed the right throttle back to full.

"Six miles... three miles..."

Ingrid counted. They should be dead.

"It's moving away from us."

"I have visual," the pilot said. It was a streak of white smoke at a sharp angle, curving slightly toward the but too far away. It hit the top of a sand dune and exploded.

Ingrid patted the man on the shoulder. "Thank you, for saving us." She returned to Vaska in the little room with the paisley carpets and cushioned armchairs. The carafe of water had overturned and spilled its contents all over the floor. "So, you were saying something about the banks?"