Epilogue: Medical Bay 03, YSS Munin
"Rrr ... "
The red-paneled medical technician backed away for a moment. "Please, Suzuka-Taii ... I must insert this. Your system has been recycling its own hemosynthetic fluids for almost three days. You need nourishment."
"I would prefer food," she said simply. "I have much of it in the Iori."
"The Memorial is off-limits, Suzuka-Taii. Your things are being brought here as we speak. But you need nourishment now, before we let your hemosynthesis kick in. Now hold still while I insert this."
The Yamataian winced and turned her head away into the grey pillow of her bunk. She could feel every millimeter of the needle pierce her arm, and each millimeter was a new hint of pain. She'd suffered enough. She didn't need more. It'd already been two days since the Akuro was destroyed.
The choice, of course, wasn't hers to make. Corro had been taken away early on to get medical treatment. Word around the ship was he'd be promoted to Taisa soon -- an amazing leap for a former power armor pilot. Yukari, on the other hand, had been denied her demotion by two Taisho. It didn't help her disposition any, being unable to take responsibility for what she'd done. But at least she had administrative leave.
She knew where she was going. Straight to Yamatai with whatever she had left. With Corro being promoted, she would not be leaned upon as much -- the Taisho was a strong woman, even without Shimizu-Taisa. Ayano-Hei would be settling into whatever projects the Munin had for her. Ryuuza was probably doing repairs on the damaged ships around the fleet. And Juro ... she'd barely known. He could be anywhere. Perhaps back with his squadron.
The nourishment was some high-concentration IV fluid. Yukari could feel it course through her body. It was unsettling, a little. But she'd felt worse.
It felt odd to think that. For years, Yukari had avoided actual conflict. Sure, she exercised and trained for those years, though not very rigorously. But she hadn't had to fire a shot. Then that one day, she had to shoot at a tank, then she was fighting crazed and mutated Nekovalkyrja, and then LAMIA, and NH-27 Geshrin ... Yukari buried her face deeper in the pillow.
At least she didn't stink anymore. And wasn't drenched in blood, sweat, and grime.
Not that it mattered. The blood was on her hands for the rest of her life. She was not going to ST-backup the memories of putting a bullet in Ushiba Matsu's head away. It was the most disgraceful thing she could imagine, doing that. Matsu had just been there. And Yukari had "flipped out," to borrow a common term muttered in Nepleslian circles. Most of the nurses didn't want to come near her anyway, having heard rumors or other pieces of news about what had happened and her exposure to "the flesh." All she had was the occasional needle and her thoughts.
On that sour note, she tried to sleep.
...
"--ka-Taii."
Yukari's eyes blinked a little. She wiped the drool from her lips as she tried to force her body awake. It was slower to respond than it should've been. They must have added painkillers to the 'nourishment.'
"Suzuka-Taii," the voice said again. It was deep, but feminine.
"Haiph," Yukari said through the blanket that had creeped up over her mouth. She turned her head to see a dull brown-haired Neko holding a duffle bag and a bundle of things -- one of which was her keyboard! Yukari smiled as best she could. "Kazuhiko-Taisa," she said, curling in bed a little to simulate a bow.
"Yes. These are your things." The Neko put the items down on the small table beside Yukari's bed and dropped the duffle bag in front of it. "You have one uniform cobbled together from other outfits. I took the liberty of providing you a pistol belt for your 10mm sidearm and an appropriate holster. The pistol is unloaded; the ammunition is inside the clothes. I also found your keyboard contraption."
Yukari attempted to bow lying down again. "Arigato gozaimasu, Kazuhiko-Taisa."
The Neko's brown eyes were ice. "Thank me by getting the hell off my ship once you've got energy. That I was trumped by Motoyoshi doesn't make you a guest here."
" ... Hai, Taisa." Yukari attempted to bow again. She couldn't blame the Neko for not wanting her there. She did not want to be there herself, after all.
"Good." With that, the Taisa left, walking down the hall where other wounded Nekos lay resting.
Yukari just watched as she walked away, then looked back at her things. The 10mm pistol glimmered in the dull light. It made Yukari think about Ushiba, about the shot she took, about how clean it was. The pistol was a constant reminder to her brain of what she had done. How she'd not even given the Neko with the purple headband a chance.
She looked at her datapad and saw she'd slept for about seven hours. The pad was acting as a gateway between her and the KAMI. She didn't want it to talk to her ... not even a little. It had frightened her at first, when she had just left the shuttle, to be talked to again by a sane KAMI unit. Now it was just distrust. She couldn't be sure.
Lillen would help her, of course. Yukari didn't understand where the NH-12 had come from, or why it was around. But it was hard to mind her -- she was nice, after all, if crude. She would not be going to Yamatai with her.
Yukari asked the KAMI through her datapad to close the curtain around her bunk. Once that was done, she slowly got up and waited for her muscles to get blood flowing to them. The IV came out easily, and her hemosynthesis healed it over with ease. Yukari smiled at that and took off her gown. She'd showered not too long ago, and she was clean enough to wear a uniform. She put on the uniform -- standard undergarments, stretchsuit with grey panels, her brown boots and gloves, and a beat-up pistol holster and belt. She found the four boxes of ammunition and loaded both magazines with hollowpoint rounds.
Something about the action was mind-numbing, but in a good way. The holster had a space on its side for the other magazine, so she put it in. The holster rested a bit further toward her stomach than her NSP had -- she had to draw it across her body, which was not a surprise, but when she tried to draw it, it came naturally to her eye. About head-level.
Yukari quickly put the gun back in its holster. She forced her hand to stop shuddering and picked up her keyboard. Her datapad had come with its own little pouch on her right thigh, where it made a good counterbalance to the pistol on her hip. The duffle bag went on her left shoulder and sat on her right hip.
My administrative leave starts when I want it to, she thought. I want it to start now. She left the medical room and headed for the shuttle bay.
She still wore her battered Seitô rank pin. No one, not even Kazuhiko-Taisa, who had been so dissatisfied with it before, had given her a new one.
SET: Armor Bay 06
Yukari smiled at the shuttle bay's coordinator. "A Kitty is fine," she said in Japanese.
"Are you sure, Suzuka-Taii? The SMX have spread since the Iori incident and are still spreading."
"I would prefer to be alone for this trip, Juni-san," she said. "Unless there are other craft available."
"Well ... " The Juni scratched her head, then clapped her hands together. "I have it." She stepped out of her little box of an office and gestured for Yukari to follow her. They walked around as several hundred technicians and soldiers were busy repairing armors, shuttles and other pieces of damaged equipment. Sparks flew occasionally, but it was mostly tinkering followed by yelling. Some of the Geshrin and Nepleslian technicians were injured but still worked.
The Juni stopped at the foot of a Hoplite Variable Fighter. Its condition was a bit worn, but in intermediate mode it still appeared menacing. "The Hoplites are being phased completely out of service, to be replaced with new Mindys and Kylies. This one's already lost its registry number, so no one will miss it."
Yukari approached it and put a hand on the nose. The Zesuaium-lined titanium armor was cool, if slightly pocked in places. "But, the SLICS system ... "
"I can have technicians fix that easily. We were going to convert them for colony defense use anyway."
"But the modification of Star Army property -- "
"Isn't an issue, Taii. No registry, no foul." The Juni sent a silent command to a few of her technicians to rearrange the control system to one similar to that of a Kylie.
"Ah -- "
"Yes, Taii?"
"There is a flightstick, neh?"
The Juni smiled and nodded. "Yes Taii."
Yukari smiled and bowed a little. She then let her eyes roam as the Juni went up and hovered over the cockpit as a team of three technicians arrived. She noticed everyone being so busy. Doing so much work ... and here she was, running away. It hit her suddenly. She was running away, as a coward would. Everyone was repairing the damage of her mistakes while she lounged by the beach. Lazy and cowardly. What would Corro say? Or Ayano, or Ryuuza?
Yukari thought for a moment about her friends. How she was leaving them. She justified it in her mind easily enough: "I am damaged right now, and cannot function. I need time to repair myself." It was very mechanical for something emotional, but it was true. But it still felt like an excuse. Which it was, of course. Ushiba Matsu would not hesitate to see me for what I am. She shook her head some; thinking like that would not help her become whole again. She needed to cry, to scream, to break down. She could not do that here, not among her peers.
A small red string caught her eye past the Hoplite. She walked over to it and plucked it from the ground. It was actually a piece of thin, fabric-coated wire. She smiled a little, then put her slightly messy hair in a ponytail as she did before the incident. The wire was hard to tie, and one end was a little sharp, but it worked well enough to keep her hair back and in place. It was no bun, but it would do.
As she touched the blunt loose end sticking up from the wire-tie, her eyes latched onto a passing technician, holding an aether rifle to be attached to a Mindy somewhere. She looked like just another Neko -- "Uso," she said outloud. Her focus was lost for a moment. That could not have been? When she looked again, the Neko was gone.
Yukari just shook her head again. She needed to leave.
...
A half-hour later, the technicians walked away from the job. It was a jury-rigged system, but it was designed for Yamataians specifically, and it avoided costly retrofits. Simply, a small wireless transceiver was plugged onto the SLICS jacks, which were moved to be next to the seat instead of in it. Then, a modified three-quarters helmet using the same brain-reading functions of a Kylie helmet was put on the pilot's head. The helmet and transceiver interacted with each other almost seamlessly, but the transceiver used a lot of energy. One technician spent the whole time rigging a small power cable to the transceiver to keep it powered.
Yukari bowed deeply to the technicians, who were a bit flustered, and to the Juni. "This is too kind of you, Juni-san."
"Think nothing of it," she responded, bowing. "It has the dark blue paint and white stripes because it was going to be assigned to a group of minutemen. But since it has no registry, we'll find another on easily enough. She's yours."
"Sou ... " Yukari looked up at the craft. "Thank you."
"My pleasure, Taii." The Juni bowed again and went deal with her next task.
Yukari looked at the craft again, then with keyboard in hand, floated up and into the cockpit. The seat folded forward to reveal a small amount of cargo space -- just enough for the duffle bag and keyboard. Folding the seat back over, she found the helmet. It was a simple blue-grey with a thick faceshield to offer a space for the the HUD interaction produced by the SLICS. She put the helmet on and secured it with the chinstrap, then pushed the yellow button on the control panel in front of her. The canopy shut and sealed itself off. The small life-support system turned on, the hiss not audible to the Yamataian with her helmet on. She flicked a toggle on her left control panel, then another, then another. The clicks were immensely satisfying.
The fighter powered up quickly. She smiled as she snuggled herself into the tan-colored fabric chair. The multitude of manual controls made the fighter feel much more friendly than a power armor. She touched two more buttons and the "feet" left the ground as the fighter's anti-gravity pushed itself up. She turned the fighter around slowly with the flightstick on her right control panel, then nudged it out of the bay. It was so much better than a power armor, she wanted to squeal.
Yukari waited a moment before engaging the two sublight engines. The throttle was set by a black stick on her left control panel; she left it at the bottom so she could fly lazily away from the Yuumi-class battleship. In the distance, she saw the work that was still being done everywhere. Thousands of Nekos, Geshrin and Nepleslians were repairing various vessels. She watched a Ketsueki-class corvette loop over the Munin toward the Dainslef, probably to switch out a repair crew or two. It was a sad sight ... but one of energy and life. That was enough.
"YSS Munin, this is Taii Suzuka Yukari. I am leaving the Staging Area, en route to Kikyô system." The first thing Yukari wanted to do on Yamatai was not speak English to anyone.
An image of a pink-haired Neko popped up across her visor. "Suzuka-Taii, your craft is unregistered. I have been instructed to hold you until I speak with Kazuhiko-Taisa."
Yukari frowned. "Acknowledged, Munin. Standing by."
SET: The Munin's bridge
The communications officer relayed her quick converstation and her dilemma with the Taii to the operations officer, who relayed it up to Kazuhiko-Taisa.
The Neko frowned, then managed a rocky smile. She relayed her wishes back down through the small chain. Just in case you feel like forgetting, the Taisa thought coldly. She'd seen just enough of the tapes from the Iori before they had been confiscated. She'd seen when Ushiba Matsu had had her head caved in by a bullet.
She knew what the Taii had been to whatever had destroyed the Iori.
SET: Yukari's Hoplite fighter
"Suzuka-Taii, this is Munin."
"Hai," Yukari replied.
"Your fighter has been registered in the Star Army's civilian ship registry database."
"Thank you. I will name it when I reach Yamatai," she said.
"No need," the communications officer replied. "Her name is Hrist."
" ... " Yukari rarely felt anger. But she felt anger now against Kazuhiko-Taisa. "Hai. Thank you, Munin. ... Hrist out."
Yukari let out a deep breath, then shook her head gently. People like Kazuhiko enjoyed testing the faith of those under them, it seemed. Weak as she was for leaving, Yukari felt it had to be done, and she was not about to give up on her friends and the Empire. Not yet. I still have faith. If I lose that, I am nothing.
The CDD was engaged with the push of a button. In an instant, she was on her way home.
