It takes Dyssia a week to realize that she's looking at this through the wrong lens.

Up to this point, it's been a standard adventure, right? The idyllic present, the inciting incident, the refusal of the call, the aged mentor--which isn't being fair to Tidal, really--but she thought this was all going to be a big space adventure.

No. Oohoho, no. 

See, this is a [i]spy thriller.[/i]

Granted, one where there's not an immediate love interest? Normally, there'd have been a femme fatale type, possibly an opposite number in the villain's ranks, to be a foil to the heroine. And Tidal could fill that role, maybe, if she weren't already being a mentor?

And one that's almost surprisingly mundane? Normally, finding out that one of your most trusted confidantes was an agent for a third party would be a stunning third act twist. Although, since it's this close to the inciting incident, it might also be considered to be setting the stage, determining the rules by which the world operates.

Everyone knows about this? [i]Does[/i] everyone know this? It's never quite clear what's common knowledge and what isn't, and the thing about being common knowledge is that nobody tells you it is until you reveal that you don't know it, somehow.

Why [i]do[/i] they have so many drones, though?

Probably, she should just ask Tidal. Everyone here seems so willing to bend over backwards to help her. Which is weird, but also somehow reassuring? Even if she doesn't know what the plan is entirely, there is someone out there who does, and who has good ideas.

But also… What if it just [i]is[/i] common knowledge? It'd be awful to see the momentary hitch in their gaze, the brief retabulation of how capable she is, the readjustment of where to start? 

Because they can't be military, right? The Pix already have a stronger fighting force in, would you believe it, [i]the Pix.[/i]

But military is all they seem to be good for, too? Fight, kill, die.

Can't be civilian, she doesn't think. Or rather, there are so many better options for virtually every civilian use. You want the accumulation of skills that comes with life, a soul, a brain.

Fuck, they're creepy.

They could be, she supposes, a form of chaff. Throw them out into a battle, clog the field with them while your actual troops are occupied with something else.

More and more, she believes their true purpose is simply to accustom Apprentices to treating living beings as disposable, as programmable.

(She hasn't gone so far as to give them a brain or a digestive system. That seems like the next logical step, but it's a hell of a step to go from various effective combat augments to creating life. That seems a good way to get in trouble.)

But she still doesn't know, and she still can't ask. And she [i]is[/i] on a Pix vessel, center of backstabbing and betrayal.

Which is why she's sneaking into Tidal's quarters. There's gotta be something there, some note, some textbook she can barrow.  All she has to do is find it, and figure it out, and hey, here's a chance to scope out where she might keep her badge.