Inspecting the new ship was important, and since it was a project Sandora and I had personally overseen, we naturally had to go take a look ourselves. After breakfast, I left the noisy god cops to their own devices and headed to Shadow Space with an eager, high-spirited Sandora.
The new ship had been assembled in high orbit on the far side of Gaia—by habit, I called the side of Gaia facing Shadow City its front. Tawell had established a medium-sized starport here, specifically for building various experimental space installations. When Sandora and I arrived, Tawell was still directing her team through the new ship's final system calibrations and initial energy injection. We stood atop A-2 Tower, on the side of the starport facing space. There was an open observation hall here, and through its transparent barrier, we could see two silver-gray alloy "bridges," each more than ten kilometers long, extending from the starport below and straight into space. Countless metal or energy-beam "bones" branched from them, making them resemble bizarre multi-legged arthropods: this was a variable shipyard, apparently used to secure the new vessel. Yet in the middle of the shipyard, all I saw was empty black space. There was nothing there.
"The new ship is temporarily concealed by a cloaking field. I hoped it would make for a pleasant surprise." Tawell's... who-knows-which-numbered avatar came up behind me and spoke proudly. "Once the final adjustments are complete, both Your Majesties will be able to see it. It truly is a beautiful big fellow."
The corner of my mouth twitched. Isn't it still a coffin? I had seen the new ship's draft design in Sandora's room before. The only improvement this coffin-obsessed Glasses Girl had made was turning one coffin into two coffins arranged side by side. Still, seeing the