Fort Redstone in Cosmo Land was not the only Orange Star military base, nor even the largest, but it was the most well known. Besides being the home of the Redstone Academy, the preeminent officer school for the Orange Star Army, Fort Redstone was also the home of the Orange Star Armor Division, the Saber Museum (honoring the famous Orange Star general, Saber), and the Orange Star Gold Bullion depository, among countless other facilities on the 100,000 acre estate. An extensive portion of its history held it as the Command Center for Orange Star military operations, although that prestigious position had been held by the more modern Fort Hidebound in Omega Land for the last generation.

Fort Redstone's storied history was not the reason for Sonja's visit, however. As an alumna of Redstone Academy, a result of a crosstraining agreement between Yellow Comet and Orange Star, Sonja had access to a number of military documents and blueprints that, while not classified, were certainly unavailable to most foreign nationals.

Sonja's national pride did not like to admit that Orange Star had anything to offer that Yellow Comet could not accomplish on its own, but her reasoning and advantage-seeking mind forced her to realize that Orange Star's larger and more active (read: more belligerent) military had much to offer, and its different military culture offered an opportunity to approach complex issues with new angles.

And since the number of rejected proposals for her Pipeline project had risen into triple digits, it was a new approach she needed.

She sat in the Redstone Academy Library, hunched over and absorbed in a dozen unfolded blueprints and maps scattered across four tables that had been hastily shoved together. In her laser focused state she wasn't aware of anyone nearby until their voice broke the silence.

"What's an arch?"

"Huh?" Sonja looked up to see Andy, standing over her shoulder, peering down at her hastily scribbled charts and notes. She reactively spread her hands out and crumpled all her notes together underneath her, and seized up as if trying to sprout porcupine quills from her back. She may have hissed.

Andy jumped back, putting his hands up defensively. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you!"

With some effort, Sonja relaxed and took stock of Andy. He wore his iconic red heavy duty work jacket and shorts. She didn't understand the practicality of wearing suspenders and belt on the outside of one's pants, but that was hardly the most mind-boggling trait of Andy's. For instance:

"How does an engineering genius not know what an arch is?" Sonja asked.

Andy's seemingly permanently affixed smile gained a modicum of bashfulness, and he ran a hand through his unruly brown hair. "Well, I guess I'm pretty decent at fixing engines and stuff, but I wouldn't call myself a genius. I've just never been too good at names and books."

Sonja found herself smiling in spite of herself. "I'll try not to hold it against you."

Sonja changed gears. "So what are you doing here, Andy? Aren't you busy with reconstruction in Omega Land?"

"Yeah there's still a bunch to do, I'm just dropping by," Andy explained. "They're gonna be tearing down the old command post and putting up a new airfield, and Nell likes to have me keep an eye on things like that at the start."

"Andy the Supervisor. Moderately frightening."

"Yeah, well..." Andy said with even more sheepishly. He didn't seem to notice the slight derision in her tone - probably for the best. "But what are you here for, Sonja? Or should I say 'Sonja-Sensei' since you're like, an upper classman and everything?"

Sonja raised an eyebrow. "Pro-tip, Andy: one season of Hiroshi the Dog-Eared Samurai Professor does not make you an honorary citizen of Yellow Comet."

Andy blushed. "Oh, you uh, saw that?"

Sonja gave Andy a pat on the shoulder. "Remember, things you say on Tankbook do not, in fact, stay on Tankbook. So just stick to the titles you're used to." Sonja contemplated a moment, then continued with a mischievous smile. "So you would address me as 'Mistress.' "

"Nice try, Sonja, I'm not that dumb."

Sonja shrugged. "Can't blame a gal for trying."

Andy chuckled. "Like 'Mistress' is a real title..."

He leaned over and got another look at Sonja's maps. "Hey!" he shouted, pointing at an arch diagram. "They stole the bridge design I used for Salmon River!"

"Andy, the arch has a four thousand year history."

Andy's expression turned dead serious and he looked at Sonja intensely. "So we're dealing with time travel?"

Sonja sighed. "No Andy, it - look, I'm researching some alternative ways of arranging Black Pipes to repurpose for reconstruction."

Andy made a face. "That's kind of creepy. Do you really want to have black pipes criss crossing the countryside?"

Sonja frowned. "Don't you start on me now."

Andy shrugged. "Well, whatever. But what do you need bridge supports for?"

"To hold the pipes up and keep them level, obviously."

"That's kind of silly," Andy said.

"Andy, you must be aware that pipelines need to be level and secure to be useful?" Sonja asked.

"Well yeah," Andy said. "But Black Pipes don't need supports. As long as they're powered they'll stay perfectly level and functional. During a skirmish with Flak, we tried to wipe out a pipeline by causing a landslide underneath one. We bombed the cliff below it and watched fifty feet of rock fall into the ocean below, but the Pipe just stayed hovering in the air over it. Like I said, super creepy."

"What."

"Well yeah, I guess you could do that," Lash said, lifting up her welding mask to address Sonja. The sculpture she was molding from scrap metal didn't have a recognizable likeness, but did manage to be vaguely menacing and unsettling. "But that's hardly defensible. If a seam goes down you can lose half the pipeline into the ocean."

"Lash," Sonja said, exhaustedly. "The entire point of these pipes is to reduce costs, not erect permanent wartime structures. This is exactly the kind of break we needed, and you've known this all along? And how do the pipes even do that? The properties Andy described violate several laws of physics!"

Lash crossed her arms. "Patent pending."

"Fine, be that way," Sonja said. She went back to her modeling program, working in the new variables. With these new parameters, she wound pipeline over depopulated areas and bodies of water with little infrastructure. With any luck she could get the proposal to her father within the day.

After her discussion with Andy, Sonja had rushed back to Yellow Comet by jet, too absorbed in this breakthrough to let her regular flying anxiety and motion sickness hold her back (althugh she wished it could have also helped hold back her breakfast). Lash was no longer restricted to her plexiglass cage, downgraded to a security bracelet and supervision by an armed guard that stayed in the room at all times. Convincing her father to reduce security wasn't overly difficult; Sonja had been one of the only COs calling for a harsher sentence for Lash, afterall. If everyone else insisted on pushing trust and forgiveness, what was the harm in a small measure?

"So what happens to me after your little pet project gets done?" Lash asked, as if reading Sonja's mind. Sonja was confident that Lash could not actually read minds, however. Pretty confident.

"Well," Sonja said, thinking out loud. "Before, I had a plan to send you back to the high security prison with perhaps more privileges. But..."

"But...?" Lash asked, a smile teasing at the corners of her lips.

She swiveled in her chair to give Lash a head-tilted look. "But maybe I've had a change of heart. Grit tells me reconstruction is going way faster in Blue Moon because of the pipe network we put up. If it works in Yellow Comet too, we could start implementing similar projects in Orange Star and Green Earth. Perhaps total clemency might convince you to start putting your talents to other productive means."

"Lash, super genius philanthropist inventor," Lash said, seeing how the words felt on her tongue. "Got a weird taste, but it's not the bad kind."

"Of course, there is one major hangup," Sonja said. "What are you up to with your old Black Hole buddies?"

"You're so sure that I'm actually working with them?" Lash asked.

"One hundred percent," Sonja replied.

"Then there's only one thing to do," Lash said, dropping her mask and welder to the floor and then throwing herself into a roll that left her sitting on the ground a few feet away from Sonja. "And that's play a game."

"I don't like your kind of games, Lash," Sonja said.

"This is a game of truth, nerdbait," Lash said. "So if we had already started, you would have just lost."

Sonja glared at Lash for a moment.

"Alright, what is this game?"