Prologue

"Catherine?" Lucy asked as she stepped out of the elevator into the parking garage and was instantly hit with some regret.

Why wasn''t she wearing pants? Why did she go down to the parking garage in flip-flops? Why didn''t she at least have socks on?

"Fuck, it''s cold down here," she muttered to herself as she crossed her arms for warmth. The doors into the garage were open on either end of the parking space, and with so few cars here... that left very little to stop the wind.

Cat''s new carrier, the Bastion of Sekhmet, was sitting not too far away, serving as a wall against the freezing, humid air coming in from outside. She walked fast, not towards the ship, but rather towards the addition Cat had installed within the side of the parking garage.

Lucy frowned as she walked over. They needed more words to call things than ''garage'' because saying that Cat had a garage in the garage just stripped the word of all meaning.

"Cat?" Lucy asked as she came up to the entrance of the garage-garage. This wasn''t some back-alley fixer shop like the sort where folks would come to have their DRM''d parts cracked and replaced. This was a high-tech samurai''s garage.

There were wall-mounted armed... gizmos and... lifts and tools and stuff.

Lucy knew that she wasn''t a stupid woman, but she also knew that she didn''t know jack about any of this stuff. Cat seemed to be in her element, though.

Her girlfriend was sitting on a little stool with wheels, head bobbing in time to some music that Lucy couldn''t hear. She had large headphones on, strange ones that covered both her human ears and the cat ears atop her head. In front of her was her old mech, the Nyanzerfaust. The jacks set into the floor were raised up to cradle the mech''s chest so that none of its legs touched the ground. Cat was at one of those, humming to herself while fiddling with a long row of wires nestled inside the leg.

Bits of armour were placed on the floor around her, and one of the wall-mounted gimbals was holding out a platter with more parts on it right next to Cat, well within reach.

She gestured, and another servoed arm brought down a selection of tools that Cat looked over for a moment before picking from.

Lucy just watched. It was strange, seeing Cat so deep in the zone, focused on her own little thing. She was used to seeing Cat getting things done, it was one of the things that made Lucy love her, but usually it was more... big and brash than this.

She couldn''t complain. This was a cute hobby, not that she''d tell Cat that she thought it was cute. If Cat asked, then Lucy would tell her that having a big strong butch mechanic girlfriend was the hottest thing ever.

In reality, she was just happy that Cat had something keeping her home sometimes. Home and busy with something she seemed to genuinely enjoy.

"Piece of shit," Cat swore as she fiddled with something small. A little round nut thing fell and rolled a bit.

Cat leaned to the side to pick it up, but Lucy was faster. "Here," she said.

Cat jumped slightly on seeing Lucy''s hand, then she looked up with wide eyes and her surprise turned into a genuine smile. "Lucy," she said before tearing the headphones off. Lucy picked up the slight rumble of some metal music from around Cat''s neck. "Didn''t notice you coming in. Are you just wearing a t-shirt?"

"It''s what I was sleeping in," Lucy said. "Like it?"

"You''re gonna catch a cold," Cat said with a shake of her head. Her eyes were on the effects of the cold, however.

"Yeah, I bet," Lucy grinned. She crossed her arms again for emphasis. "Having fun with the mech?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Cat said as she turned back to the machine. "This leg isn''t too bad. I didn''t think I''d need to poke at it at all, but see these lines here? They''re like super-thin hydraulic lines that go down to the toes and ankles. A few of them got crimped when the mech got thrown around. So I flushed the system out and I''m replacing them as I go. Kind of a pain in the ass, honestly, but I can see why it''s made this way?"

"Sure," Lucy said.

"Sorry, I know this isn''t the most interesting shit," Cat said.

"I still remember all of the jingles. Fuckers had that down to an art."

That had been the centre of Lucy and Cat''s own education, a series of free online courses that the orphanage had had them take and try to pass. There was some value to it, but all of the math lessons had to do with buying sponsored products, the creative writing was always about the joy of buying something that the company made, or how to write a good review, and the science lessons were always geared towards fast-tracking them to being able to work in a factory. Mostly it was safety lessons.

"I kinda wanted something... better? Anyway, I put out some feelers, and I got a reply today. Someone called me, actually."

"An actual call?" Cat asked.

"Yeah, not AI. It was the vice principal of CIAL. You know, that big university in the middle of the city?"

Cat leaned back. "Old McGill?"

"That''s its old name," Lucy said. People still called it that, but that hadn''t been the university''s name in a while. It was now the Corporate Institution for the Advancement of Learning. But that was a mouthful.

"So, what did the vice principal have to say? Isn''t he like... important?"

"I guess so? I guess someone noticed that I was putting feelers out, and then it got up to him? Anyway, he was interested in helping."

"Bullshit," Cat said.

"Yeah, obviously," Lucy said. "But he was pretty honest about it. The school has two campuses. One''s this older mega-building in the middle of the city, but the other''s their research wing and it''s a huge mini-city to the north of New Montreal. There''s a train that runs between them."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, turns out, they got messed up by shit during the Phobos Incident. A building folded and a lot of students died."

"And you want to send the kittens there?" Cat asked.

"No, but the vice principal wants a samurai student, and he''s willing to waive a lot of trouble for it," Lucy said. "Including getting a bunch of brats some one-on-one tutoring from actual teachers at their home and allowing students to basically skip ahead and take classes without all the prerequisites."

Cat leaned back. "Huh... I did want you to get out more. It''s not healthy staying at home all the time."

Lucy rolled her eyes, happy that Cat couldn''t see it. She was doing this to get Cat out of the house, not the other way around. "It''s up to you, really. There''s a lot of classes. There''s one for cooking that actually sounds kind of nice. Maybe I''ll start a restaurant one of these days?"

"I don''t know if I can afford that many bribes."

Lucy smacked Cat on the shoulder. "Just think about it. It could be fun!"

Cat hummed, then shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. We''ll have to go visit the place first, see what it''s like and how desperate they are. I guess I need an excuse to leave the house too."

"Good! Now, speaking of my excellent cooking skills, I''m making mac and cheese."

"With hot dogs?" Cat asked.

"Only because I love you."

***