If Laguna moved his right foot about five centimeters to the left, the floor would become partly translucent, but there would be a ripple pattern of more opaque patches radiating out from beneath the soles of his shoes. If he moved it any farther, the floor would become almost completely transparent, and if he moved it back to the right, it would be fully opaque again. He had been studying the phenomenon for the past eleven minutes.

"The Defense Minister's here to see you," Kiros said. He had been standing by the entrance, watching Laguna and being too bored to be exasperated, prior to this announcement.

"Huh?" Laguna looked up. The floor shifted back to opacity. "...Oh! Yeah; uh...what's he want?"

"He says it's about a naval alert," Kiros replied.

"Alert?" Laguna asked. "What's goin' on?"

"That's probably what he's here to tell you," reasoned Kiros.

Laguna nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, good point. Ward, show him in!"

"..." Ward pushed a button. The doors opened, and one of the door guards stepped in.

"The Defense Minister, Mr. Bin-Dan Gho, here to see the President, Mr. Laguna Loire, at the President's pleasure, sir," said the door guard, standing stiffly at attention.

"Yeah, yeah," said Laguna. "Look, do you really have to say that every time?"

The other man didn't respond, as was usual when Laguna tried to question members of his honor guard. Rather, he stepped out of the way, and Defense Minister Gho stepped in. Standing only up to the level of Laguna's shoulder, Gho was naturally heavyset and also somewhat overweight; but he carried with him a presence that easily eclipsed that of the President, even when Laguna was not wearing a casual T-shirt and slacks opposite the Defense Minister's formal government robes.

"Greetings, Mr. President," said Gho, nodding. "I am here on a matter of some concern to the security of our nation."

"What's up?" Laguna asked.

An assistant of the Defense Minister began setting up a display beside Gho as he spoke. "For the past few days, we have been tracking an unusually large force of Galbadian warships in the North Centra region. The Galbadian naval office claims that the operation is simply an effort to break up a pirate ring, but the levels of force deployed seem disproportionate to that task." He took a pointer and began indicating locations on the display. "So far, we have tracked four distinct battle groups — three cruiser-led, one battlecruiser — entering Centra from the Meridian Sea; they have since moved steadily eastward, and have now deployed a number of reconnaissance balloons, which are also moving east along the northern cross-Centra jetstream. For the moment, they remain in international waters, however a fifth force, a missile group, is moving southward from —"

"Woah!" Laguna held up his hands. "Why do you guys always do this to me? There's a bunch of Galbadian ships in Centra; that's what you're trying to tell me, right?"

Gho nodded. "Yes, Mr. President. Moreover, Galbadia has just raised its National Alert condition to level Three, and indications show that a separate naval alert has been issued for its forces on the east coast." He indicated two points on Galbadia's eastern coast, in the north and south. "Our intelligence also indicates that all three of Galbadia's battleship groups are preparing to depart from their ports in South Lanker and Monterosa. This combined with increased Galbadian troop movement into the Dollet and Timber areas —"

"Aah!" Laguna held his hands higher. "You're doing it again!"

"I apologize, Mr. President." Gho was very formal and not very apologetic. "Sir, it is the conclusion of the general staff that Galbadia's actions are distinctly provocative, and with our naval forces deployed as they are now, we may not be able to adequately defend our shores against attack. I am forced to agree that this assessment is a serious possibility."

Laguna frowned. "Wait...you think Galbadia's gonna attack us?"

"It would be too presumptuous of me to draw that conclusion, Mr. President," said Gho. "However, I do find these developments to be serious cause for concern, especially as we have no alternative explanation for this clearly belligerent behavior." He changed the display to be centered on Esthar. "With respect, Mr. President, I recommend that we redeploy our First and Third Naval Forces, with the battleships Sandau and Kaga, into the Kashkabald Sea to head off any possible Galbadian assault, in concert with upgrading our land forces to Readiness Level Two."

"Uh..." Laguna looked uncertainly to Kiros and Ward. "You really think all that's necessary?"

Gho nodded. "Respectfully, Mr. President, I think these are the minimum reasonable steps to take under the circumstances. I can give the order immediately with your approval."

Laguna stood there for a moment looking thoughtful, though most of his thoughts went towards wondering if he should even try to act like he could rival the Defense Minister's knowledge of the situation. "...Right," he said. "Yeah, okay. Take those...er, actions you just said. You have my approval."

Gho looked to his assistant, who handed Laguna a clipboard with a piece of paper on it. "The orders, Mr. President. Initial at the top and sign at the bottom, if it be your pleasure."

"Yeah, yeah." Laguna took the paper, initialed, and signed. Then he handed it back to the assistant, who went back to pick up the display.

The Defense minister bowed. "Thank you, Mr. President. I will of course appraise you of any further developments."

And he left.

"Laguna..." Kiros frowned. "Do you know what you just did?"

"Yeah!" Laguna replied. "Gho wanted to move those two battleships into the Kashkabald Sea and increase the readiness level of our ground forces and maybe start another world war too, but what the hell difference does it make, because those guys already have their minds made up before they walk in the door!" He flopped down into his seat, causing the floor to flicker transparent for half a moment before reverting to the mostly opaque. "...I'm so tired of this, you know?" he said. "Maybe I should just quit, and let someone take over who can actually do something with this job. I mean, what's a single good thing that ever came from me being in this office?"

"...," Ward offered.

"And the time you saved Ellone from the Galbadians," Kiros added.

"...," agreed Ward.

"And when you helped SeeD defeat Ultimecia, and saved everyone from the Lunatic Pandora," said Kiros. "We all get frustrated sometimes, Laguna. But that's no reason just to walk away."

"Well, what else can I do?" Laguna demanded. "Like you guys always tell me; I'm just a figurehead Chan keeps around so people will like the government more."

Kiros and Ward glanced at each other. Normally, they were trying to talk Laguna down from some harebrained scheme, using arguments not unlike he was using now. With the shoe finally on the other foot, it was maybe time for a different approach. "Laguna, the Parliament's never gonna change," Kiros said. "They benefit from the way things are now. But so far, all you've done is try to talk to them; and when you can't convince them, you just do what they tell you. That makes the people think you're just some spineless puppet. Now, the people have to elect the Parliament. If you're going to get anything done, you gave to get the people on your side."

Laguna sighed. "The last time I had the people on my side, they elected me president."

"Maybe you should start acting like their president," Kiros suggested. "You don't have any legislative powers, but people still see you as their leader. You should try leading him."

"So..." Laguna was thoughtful. "Instead of making my addresses to the Parliament, I should try talking directly to the people of Esthar?" He jumped up; the floor became transparent, but Laguna kept his balance. "Ward, start writing a speech! Tell the people of Esthar that I'm sorry that I've been so preoccupied lately, and I want to initiate some serious government reforms!"

"Uh." Kiros held up a hand. "Laguna, I don't think you should start right off by talking about reforming the gov—"

"This'll be great, guys!" Laguna exclaimed. "Just like old times, except we live in a palace!" He began flipping through the papers on his desk, sending many of them flying to the floor. "Okay, the first thing I wanna do is..."

Kiros and Ward exchanged another look, and shrugged. Producing a clipboard, Ward began dutifully scribbling down the gist of Laguna's rambling.

"Here we go again," Kiros muttered.

It was already well into the evening by the time the Galbadian scouting force had made landfall on the tiny island where the Galbadia SeeDs had found the first evidence of their prey. Now a dozen landing craft had come ashore, and easily that many small warships held position in the deeper waters offshore.

As the four SeeDs picked their way through the scattered debris on the rocky inlet's shore, Keri could have hardly felt more out of her element. Not only was her specialty with linguistics and computers rather than shoreside detective work, but she had grown up in a Monterosa farming community, several hundred kilometers from any standing water. Beaches were new to her, especially the sort filled with sharp rocks and debris that could cut up her legs quite nastily and even punch right through her boots if she didn't watch her step. She was staying very near the Galbadian landing craft, analyzing various pieces of wreckage that the others thought interesting enough to bring back; although she had no idea how she might determine whether any of them came from a pirate ship or not.

"Judging by the type of wreckage we're seeing, it looks like she was some kind of ocean clipper," said one of the Galbadian engineers whose name she didn't know. "There's little enough debris that she could still be seaworthy; which makes sense, because...well, she ain't here."

"Any chance she sank?" asked their Galbadian supervisor.

The engineer shook his head. "Water out there don't get deeper than twenty meters. We'd have bumped into her, coming ashore."

"Besides, we would have been able to spot them from the balloon images," said Keri.

"The balloons should have been able to spot them afloat, too," the Galbadian reminded her. "But there's still no sign of them anywhere except for this debris." He turned to the engineer. "Get all this stuff collected in the hold of the 1125. I want to go over everything we've got with a microscope, see if it tells us anything."

"Aye-aye, sir." The engineer headed off to carry out the instruction.

"They doubled back on us," Tavin said, nodding towards a section of the horizon marked by a dark, lightning-filled cloud. "Headed southwest, into the storm where our balloons couldn't follow."

The officer frowned. "You have evidence of that, son, or is it just a hunch?"

Tavin stood up taller, fixing the Galbadian with a challenging glare. "It's the smart move, he replied. "I'd do it, if I were them."

Keri, suddenly wishing to distance herself from the conversation, became very interested in a metal plate that was lying nearby.

"Heading into a south Centra storm is suicide," the officer declared. "They'd be dashed against the rocks. More likely they headed northeast, striking for clear waters while the wind carried our balloons to the south."

"If they're trying to ditch pursuit, they won't want to head for clear waters," Tavin retorted. "You said yourselves they like to operate down here; I bet they think they can brave the storms, and I'm telling you that's where they went."

"I can't recommend that we sail right into the middle of a minor hurricane!" exclaimed the Galbadian. "We'd lose half our fleet! And regardless of how well these fugitives know the terrain, it's simply not possible to navigate a south Centra rainstorm, especially with a damaged ship!" He narrowed his eyes at the SeeDs' leader. "When you're done here, I want some real suggestions about where they went."

As he headed off down the beach, Tavin glowered after him. "What the hell does he think I was giving him?" he demanded.

A couple of things had caught Keri's attention at about the same time. For one, she had noticed that the Galbadian had referred to the pirates as 'fugitives' in the middle of his rebuke; she didn't think she had ever heard that particular term used for them before, although she supposed it technically fit. The other thing was a bit stranger.

"Tavin," she said, holding up the metal plate she had been studying. "There's something weird about this thing."

The plate was trapezoidal, probably some sort of hull panel that was very slightly curved to match the shape of the ship. And it had writing on it - a series of Centra numerals which were presumably part of the vessel's hull number or other designation; and a completely different set of characters along the top edge.

"These lines here are an early Kashkabald mathematical form," she explained. "It fell out of use way before modern ships were in use, but it seems to be the basis for a lot of para-magical machinery. I can't really tell you more than that without translating what it says, but I'm pretty sure this wouldn't show up on any normal pirate ship."

Tavin was frowning; though perhaps not, she thought, at the piece of metal. "So what would it show up on?" he asked.

"Well, the only thing I've ever seen it on was the equipment down in the MD level of Garden," Keri replied. "But I dunno; if this ship is from Centra, this could mean anything."

"The pirate ship's supposed to be a Galbadian model," Tavin reminded her.

Keri hadn't thought of that. "...you're right," she said. "You think this isn't from the pirate ship after all?" Tavin didn't respond, but Keri could see that something was going on in his head. "Okay, what are you thinking?" she asked. "You're kind of creeping me out."

"I'm thinking that Galbadian guy was acting awfully suspicious," Tavin replied. "I mean, like, suspicious of us." He shook his head, turning away and stalking off down the beach. "What the hell is going on here...?"

Left alone, a distinctly concerned Keri turned back to the piece of metal, and wished she had a good archaeo-Kashk dictionary on her person.