Chapter 35
charclone
Well-known member
Pina had mastered several languages already.
She could speak fluent Elbish, several Elven languages, and the Warrior Bunnies tongue, in addition to the common trade language. She could write in half of those with a skill that had earned her acknowledgement from King Duran.
Yet this 'English' was driving her mad.
It contradicted itself in several places, used symbols that could change their sounds, and had many different spellings for words. Some words were pronounced the same but were spelt differently and had completely different meanings.
That it bore a resemblance to ancient Saderan meant she was not completely floundering, as Bozes and several other knights were, but she was still frustrated. Worse, Lelei's services had been required by the otherworlders, and they had outbid her.
Or at least Pina assumed they had outbid her, she was rather limited in funds at the moment, after all. The idea that they could have simply asked the young mage to stop assisting Pina was preposterous, and she had seen no indication that the young woman was under any sort of compulsion or threat. Her master was still working for 'NATO' after all.
Ultimately, it meant Pina had been briefly cut off from using the internet.
Earlier today, however, an officer had delivered a gift on behalf of the General. A 'laptop' like what Lelei had. The officer had even helped teach her a little about how to set it up and get it running.
She suspected a trap, but she was unfamiliar enough with the device, and desperate enough for the information, that she couldn't refuse it.
"What did you do Hamilton?" She stared in disbelief at her aide, who had a much better grasp of written English, and was thus the one to work the device.
"I moved the 'mouse' over this symbol here and pressed this button twice." The brown-haired young woman explained. "This is a 'search engine'. I then typed in the question to the 'search bar'."
Pina blinked in disbelief.
"And the machine just displayed the answer?"
"Yes… um. Princess? It says that NATO has three point three million soldiers." Hamilton frowned and typed in another question. "And that NATO is composed of thirty members… and many nations are looking to join."
Pina cursed under her breath.
The pieces fell into place. Either the information was false, and all set up to fool her, or, if Lelei was telling the truth, then they had done no trickery because they had not needed to. The truth alone was enough, in their minds, to underscore how beaten the Empire was, without needing to fight.
Pina thought it over.
"Princess?" Hamilton began. She stopped when Pina held up her hand.
"I believe… that we must make every effort to both convince my father and the senate that a war with NATO will not be winnable in our lifetimes." Pina stated. "In addition, we must be careful to ensure that NATO maintains its disinterest in conquest."
"I hate how the general is playing fast and loose with opsec, but at least it's worked out this time." The intelligence officer shook his head. He had protested giving the Imperials a laptop with internet access, even if it had been bugged with spyware, and had a dozen backdoors set up.
He sighed as he read over the transcript of the Rose Knight's leadership's meeting that had happened later.
The Imperials had put together a plan that they thought might convince NATO not to continue aggressive action. It was barebones, and overly optimistic in the officer's opinion, not to mention made far too many assumptions, but for a bunch of young girls whose idea of a spy probably involved the medieval equivalent of James Bond, it was noteworthy.
He attached it to his report to the general.
Lelei had been left alone, aside from getting the scientists to put together some tests, and getting her to help with translating for the merchants arriving from Italica with the purchased foodstuffs, to keep her too busy to help the Imperials anymore.
The officer sighed as he pulled up the next report.
It was an analyst's interpretation of a sermon, given by one of the local religious figures.
"I miss when my job involved guessing what the Russkis or Chinese were up to." He rubbed his eyes. "Now, I need to guess what 'gods' are doing, make sense of the fact that the whole sermon looks to be aimed at the fact that the damn priest knew we were spying on them, despite it being through an electronic bug several blocks away, and deal with requests from eggheads looking to study the local religions."
She could speak fluent Elbish, several Elven languages, and the Warrior Bunnies tongue, in addition to the common trade language. She could write in half of those with a skill that had earned her acknowledgement from King Duran.
Yet this 'English' was driving her mad.
It contradicted itself in several places, used symbols that could change their sounds, and had many different spellings for words. Some words were pronounced the same but were spelt differently and had completely different meanings.
That it bore a resemblance to ancient Saderan meant she was not completely floundering, as Bozes and several other knights were, but she was still frustrated. Worse, Lelei's services had been required by the otherworlders, and they had outbid her.
Or at least Pina assumed they had outbid her, she was rather limited in funds at the moment, after all. The idea that they could have simply asked the young mage to stop assisting Pina was preposterous, and she had seen no indication that the young woman was under any sort of compulsion or threat. Her master was still working for 'NATO' after all.
Ultimately, it meant Pina had been briefly cut off from using the internet.
Earlier today, however, an officer had delivered a gift on behalf of the General. A 'laptop' like what Lelei had. The officer had even helped teach her a little about how to set it up and get it running.
She suspected a trap, but she was unfamiliar enough with the device, and desperate enough for the information, that she couldn't refuse it.
"What did you do Hamilton?" She stared in disbelief at her aide, who had a much better grasp of written English, and was thus the one to work the device.
"I moved the 'mouse' over this symbol here and pressed this button twice." The brown-haired young woman explained. "This is a 'search engine'. I then typed in the question to the 'search bar'."
Pina blinked in disbelief.
"And the machine just displayed the answer?"
"Yes… um. Princess? It says that NATO has three point three million soldiers." Hamilton frowned and typed in another question. "And that NATO is composed of thirty members… and many nations are looking to join."
Pina cursed under her breath.
The pieces fell into place. Either the information was false, and all set up to fool her, or, if Lelei was telling the truth, then they had done no trickery because they had not needed to. The truth alone was enough, in their minds, to underscore how beaten the Empire was, without needing to fight.
Pina thought it over.
"Princess?" Hamilton began. She stopped when Pina held up her hand.
"I believe… that we must make every effort to both convince my father and the senate that a war with NATO will not be winnable in our lifetimes." Pina stated. "In addition, we must be careful to ensure that NATO maintains its disinterest in conquest."
"I hate how the general is playing fast and loose with opsec, but at least it's worked out this time." The intelligence officer shook his head. He had protested giving the Imperials a laptop with internet access, even if it had been bugged with spyware, and had a dozen backdoors set up.
He sighed as he read over the transcript of the Rose Knight's leadership's meeting that had happened later.
The Imperials had put together a plan that they thought might convince NATO not to continue aggressive action. It was barebones, and overly optimistic in the officer's opinion, not to mention made far too many assumptions, but for a bunch of young girls whose idea of a spy probably involved the medieval equivalent of James Bond, it was noteworthy.
He attached it to his report to the general.
Lelei had been left alone, aside from getting the scientists to put together some tests, and getting her to help with translating for the merchants arriving from Italica with the purchased foodstuffs, to keep her too busy to help the Imperials anymore.
The officer sighed as he pulled up the next report.
It was an analyst's interpretation of a sermon, given by one of the local religious figures.
"I miss when my job involved guessing what the Russkis or Chinese were up to." He rubbed his eyes. "Now, I need to guess what 'gods' are doing, make sense of the fact that the whole sermon looks to be aimed at the fact that the damn priest knew we were spying on them, despite it being through an electronic bug several blocks away, and deal with requests from eggheads looking to study the local religions."