The drone resolved into shape above the garden - nearly two metres across, a four-rotor heavy-lift configuration painted dull industrial grey, a large cube of brushed metal clamped beneath its frame. On top of the drone's central housing, sitting cross-legged with the easy balance of someone who'd clearly done this before, was a person. A woman. Raven-black hair flowing out from beneath a sleek dark helmet.
Arashi yelled something incoherent about the begonias as the drone descended.
The metal cube touched the grass with a soft thud and the clamps released. The cube had small screens, switches and metal lids and tiny trapdoors all over, like some kind of complicated mechanism. The drone lifted its empty frame upward, hovering two meters above them in idle while the rider rose to a standing position, then the drone dipped one more metre so she could step off cleanly.
