One of the tests needed for restoring a pirate to Protectorate Pirate status was dinner with the Royal Family they’re pleading their case to. Since Reb was asking the Royanas, the dinner was…awkward to say the least. Arsha and Reb spent half the meal glaring at one another. Rikuna decided to break the silence. “Isn’t this nice?” she asked. “When’s the last time we got together like this, hm?”
“The only meal I remember sharing with her,” replied Arsha, “was when she drugged me and my crew and tried to ransom us!”
“It cost me a FRIGHTFUL amount of people,” recalled Reb. “We never fully recovered from the Splitters’ actions on MY island.” Rikuna gulped.
“Eh heh, good times?” she mumbled.
“No,” said Arsha and Reb together.
“Would somebody please pass the potatoes?” asked Elgrad.
“There…aren’t any potatoes, sweetie,” reminded Hanako.
“Well,” said Elgrad, “I figured the pirates who kidnapped our daughter and had five of her crew killed to be turned into Revenants by Dr. Borg could PULL POTATOES OUT OF THEIR ILL-GOTTEN GAINS!” By the time he was shouting, he was pointing his fork at the pirates.
“Uncle Elgrad!” snapped Rikuna. “We’re here for a nice family dinner, not to fight over who killed who or who stole what!”
“No, let’s have that conversation!” hissed Melgem. “Perhaps we can discover why those fool peasants seem to like you so much!”
“Fool peasants?!” snapped Foresna. “As a peasant, I take offense to that!”
“But why?! You emulate the rich too much! Putting sunglasses on dogs, taking photos of meals, and DON’T get me started on data crystals filled with nothing but recorded plays!”
“At least we’re not fool enough to attack a cruise ship!”
“Now, you see here! We do NOT attack cruise ships!” snapped Reb.
“Not what I read from the news. What ship did you guys attack again? The Monkey Business?” Arsha and Foresna high-fived each other, then Arsha got an idea.
“Is that what this is about?” she asked. “You two are too embarrassed by that and so you felt like you permanently lost your touch at actual piracy?” Reb’s face went as red as her hair in embarrassment and fury. “…Your silence says yes.”
“Look, it’s not REALLY that,” said Melgem, trying to help his wife. “It’s…that prophecy.” Reb sighed.
“The Final Prophecy,” she elaborated. “New Realms, unlimited resources, untold wealth, everyone with full bellies, it’s not all that great for pirate business.”
“Then, by that logic, the Protectorate Pirate job’s gonna go the same way,” remarked Arsha.
“No, it won’t,” said Reb. “While Protectorate Pirates won’t be attacking actual pirates, we DO get paid in making sure the minor threats, like stowaways, are taken care of.”
“Look, Rebby and Melly,” said Rikuna, “what you need is to spend some quality time with average people instead of famous ones like Arsha, and I know just how to do it!” She then held up a flyer. “Who wants to join me as we see the new Mechanica engine for the railway tomorrow? It’s a new type of engine!” Arsha sighed.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” she grumbled.
“Arsha, wait!” interjected Elgrad. “You’re not seriously suggesting-?!”
“My crew’s gonna hear about this, and I’m telling them to take the proper precautions concerning them!”
“…Well, I guess I can’t ask for more than that.”
“REB ROJAM?!” yelped Denstra when the news reached her.
“Unfortunately,” confirmed Dalengor. “However, she’s not doing anything bad at the moment.”
“Keep security on standby when she does!” ordered Denstra. “I am NOT gonna suffer her a second longer than I need to!”
“That’s exactly what Arsha asked me to pass along.”
“Good. Make the necessary arrangements.”
“Aye, Ma’am.” Dalengor then headed off.
Four Mechanica engines were standing in front of their berths at the Largandra Railway sheds, awaiting their controller, Arsha, Reb, Rikuna, and Melgem. The railway was a small one at the western ends of Largandra, so there was no need for a massive fleet of engines. One of the engines, a Mechanica Tank Engine woman named Dulna, looked at her watch. “What’s keeping him?!” she grunted.
“Relax,” soothed the express engine, a Mechanica Tender Engine woman named Gornula. “If anything, an arrival now would make him early.”
“You know how much of a stickler he is for timetables,” said a Mechanica Tender Engine man named Jarnathu. “I’m sure he’ll be here.”
“There’s a saying on my old railway,” retorted Dulna, “if you’re not early, you’re late!”
“Sounds a little stressful, if you ask me,” said the last Tender Engine, a Mechanica man named Henurya.
“In my eyes, there are two ways of doing things!” snapped Dulna. “The Great Varshenta Way or the Wrong Way! At heart, I’m still an engine of the Great Varshenta Railway and-!”
“Don’t we know it!” groaned all three Tender Engines. Just then, they heard a horn.
“Is…is that a new…heavy goods type of horseless carriage?” asked Jarnathu.
“What’s that purring noise?” quizzed Gornula.
“If I were a betting engine,” remarked Dulna, “I’d say it’s the engine arriving on the turntable!” The engine was a Mechanica woman, but she had a different shape to the steam engines. She looked boxy and had no funnels on her shoulders, just radiator grills. There was no visible mana crystal supply and there was nothing for water storage. There WAS a cab, as the controller, a human man named Tophan, stepped out with Arsha, Reb, Melgem, and Rikuna.
“Hello, Engines!” called Tophan.
“Hello, Sir,” replied the Engines.
“Sir, if I may,” asked Dulna, “is she the new engine?”
“She is, indeed!” replied Tophan. “Her name is Crysna.”
“Where are her funnels?” asked Henurya.
“I don’t have any,” replied Crysna. “I don’t run on steam power.”
“You don’t?!” yelped Gornula. “How do your pistons move?!”
“I don’t have pistons.”
“Then how do your wheels move?!”
“I have a crystal-drive engine. One or two mana crystals a day and I’m off.”
“You mean, the mana crystals are wired into you?!” asked Jarnathu.
“They are.”
“It’s kind of like how a ship’s engines work,” explained Arsha, “just smaller, thus needing fewer mana crystals.”
“As such, my type of engine is called a Crystal Engine,” Crysna said proudly. “I must say, I’m excited to work here!”
“Crysna is here on trial,” said Tophan, “to help with shunting work. Dulna, I know you can do the work alone, but what happens when you break down? Your larger co-workers are rather…clumsy when it comes to shunting.”
“Th-the term is awkward, not clumsy, thank you,” mumbled Gornula as she looked sheepishly at her buffers.
“In any event,” continued Tophan, “Crysna needs to learn. Please teach her, Dulna.”
“Yes, Sir,” replied Dulna.
As Crysna learned her duties and what branch line the two shunters run, Reb spoke with Arsha. “Their worthy Fat-”
“LARGE Controller to you!” hissed Arsha.
“…Their worthy LARGE Controller thinks Crysna needs to learn. Crysna’s a Mechanica. She doesn’t need to learn. Besides, she’s a new type of engine.”
“I’ve seen new types of ships that blunder their way through life unlike Endea. If Crysna wants to succeed, she’ll heed Dulna’s advice.