The
Bentenmaru manages to evade the Grand Cross, but suffers damage in the process.
Once they reach the pirate station Marika draws up are repair plan that
includes comm system upgrades. The specifics are unspecified but apparently
involve the ability to command an entire fleet. While the repairs are underway
she and Chiaki meet with Kenjo to discuss the situation. News that another ship
has been destroyed reaches them during the meeting, and he wonders whether even
ten will make it.
After
leaving the meeting, Marika encounters a stranger she realizes is the captain
of the Grand Cross, who says her name is Quartz Christie. She won’t say who she
works for, and when asked why she’s attacking pirates she confirms it’s for
trial data and talks about how pirates are anachronisms with no useful purpose.
She reveals that there’s a spy on the Bentenmaru and switches on her cloaking
device before Schnitzer and his men can catch her.
Meanwhile,
Kane is being tailed by Luca, the ship’s navigator, who earlier voiced
suspicions about him to Misa. The two of them corner him, but when Misa whips out
her gun she shoots Luca, who is actually an android double and the spy – the
real Luca doesn’t care about anything other than her work. The android escapes,
and Misa demands an explanation from Kane, who is obviously up to something suspicious. Watching from afar, another Kane slips away.
In her room,
Marika calls Ririka, who’s just finished her vacation and has boarded a ‘luxury
liner.’ It’s called the Parabellum and is headed for the station.
Thoughts
Whatever Kane’s
up to, the real one isn’t acting like anything’s amiss so he’s obviously aware
that the second one – the one with the lock of hair that’s always sticking up (antenna?)
– has been the one on the bridge the last few episodes, so that’s obviously
part of what he’s doing. Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure it involves reporting
on Marika to someone – probably Ironbeard. He’s clearly significant, whoever he
is, and definitely the kind of person who’d want to know about Gonzaemon’s heir
given the number of hints there’s been throughout the series that the latter
was a great man and a great captain. Kane has
shown a considerable amount of interest in her progress and goals over the
course of the series, and there’s been enough references about how she’s so
much like Gonzaemon lately – (fake) Kane’s remarks about how obvious it is that
there’s blood ties, or the captain of the Big Catch saying she looks like she’ll
be as good a captain as her father. Heck, if Gonzaemon’s as great a pirate as
he’s been made out to be and if his daughter seems to be worthy of that legacy,
it almost sounds like there’s a plan afoot to make her Queen of the Pirates. Which would
be pretty awesome.
Also,
Christie does have a point about the
current state of pirates. After all, what possible purpose does legally (or at
least legally grey) robbing bored rich people on cruises actually serve – other
than the pirates and their insurance companies making money? Sure, every
business is about making money, but usually whoever’s on the receiving end of
its services gains something, instead of losing it. Then again, no one on the
receiving end seems to mind and the pirates themselves get to make a living
dressing up in cool clothes and acting over-the-top, so it all works out, I
guess.
She’s wrong
about the “they aren’t even pirates” (with the implied ‘anymore’) comment,
though. Since these pirates have only existed since Letters of Marque started
being issued, they were never pirates
– they’ve been privateers the whole time. Of course, accounting for that little
tidbit would mean none of them would be able to say ‘I’m a pirate’, which would
defeat the whole purpose of becoming one in the first place.
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