RP: YSS Miharu Mission 2, Day 2

Sanjuro had quite the long training list, even if minimal military training, still considering his duties Yuril supposed that was perfectly normal. One of her neko ears twitched as she picked up Takuma's request to the Miharu, she stuck her tongue out at him.

"No thanks, I like being able to wake up on my own thank you very much." the neko paused to finish off her omelet as she mulled over the question, "Well it was certainly unexpected finding Mishhu during a training exercise. I suppose all things considered we did pretty well... None of us got hurt except for Noboru, and it wasn't that serious."
Not that he probably didn't deserve it... thought Yuril offhand recalling the man's dislike of nekovalkryja
"I wonder how that neko is doing, she got hurt pretty bad when we found those Mishhu."

The silver-haired neko sighed as she recalled seeing the neko impaled by the Mishhu tentacles.

"It really was pretty lucky we walked in on them during that time. Could you imagine if they had waited until our class came and got out of the Daisys?"

Kai simply glared at Takuma, his features suddenly getting a dark "Don't F with us" look on them. A second later, he was back to normal , Laughing at Yuril "Oh, more than that got hurt, I took a sword through the arm of a Daisy, then got my nose broken the next day, if you remember" Kai corrected, though his Yamatain body couldn't scar, he pointed out his arm, approximately where the sharpened, hardened durandium weapon had sliced through equally tough durandium armour.

Yoroko sat through Sanjuro's summary of his training. "Is that so? Why did you join the military anyway Ashitaka-Heisho? You seemed to have been a pretty skilled doctor before hand, what convinced you to join?"

Click to expand...

Sanjuro paused and pondered for a moment. He didn't think it would be wise to explain how he was, in actuality, fired from each of those jobs for several different reasons. Most of them, of course, stemming from his unique personality. These individuals didn't strike Sanjuro as ones who would understand why he rearranged the entire medicinal and pharmaceutical stocks on Central Uesureya...and Sanjuro was sure they didn't want to hear about the nurse he had supposedly touched 'inappropriately', while attempting to fix the tie on her operating frock.

"...I felt my skills could have been put to better use here."

I've never seen him like that before... Yoroko thought as she shivered slightly as Kai focused his deep unhappiness with Takuma's plan in a straight invisible eye ray.

Luckily however before she could think about it too much Sanjuro responded:

Sanjuro said:

"...I felt my skills could have been put to better use here."

Click to expand...

"I'm surprised. You didn't strike me as the kind of person that acts off of their feelings, Ashitaka-Heisho." Yoroko said as she finished off her omelet. "You seem to be the kind of person that makes decisions based soley on the facts." Yoroko paused before continuing, "by the way, what do you think of the omelets? I think they are delicious, definetly better than Ft. Ready!"

"Thanks," Mara called back to Yoroko from the kitchen. "It was my first time making rice omelets."

"You did no such thing!" Hinoto snapped back, clearly growing aggravated by Mara's nonchalance.

* * *

Shortly after Tom and Yukari were done, a volumetric window popped open with Ichigo pictured on it from shoulders up. "Freeman-Juni?" the sprite saw a lot of naked flesh, turned beet red and quickly closed her eyes. "G-gomenasai!"

The window vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

Coming out of the changing room in her usual skirt uniform, the young Warrant Officer had begun to head back towards her room to drop off her toiletries. But a bit of commotion had garnered her attention as she looked over towards the rest of the crew eating their breakfast.

"Now, now," Masako suddenly replied to the two sprites in an almost motherly tone. "No need to be harsh, Hinoto-san," the young neko said with a smile.

Yukari stirred after hearing the frantic apology from the Neko.

Tom was out, but she felt utterly refreshed. The food had been a great help, and since she'd rinsed herself well enough before ... whatever had happened to her, she donned a fresh skirt uniform and new top. All of her other accessories on, she took the ribbon and — paused. She thought a moment, then smirked a little to herself. She took her thick hair and, within a minute or so, put it into a braid. She tied the ribbon to the end; it looked dazzling in her eyes, and she nodded at herself in the small mirror on her dresser.

As she was walking to the door, a text message arrived for her — personally. The Neko opened it in front of her and read it slowly, carefully. It was from Kôsuka.

Kôsuka said:

Shosa:

The file attached to this message will give you the information you need. It can be transmitted via telepathic link, for secure transfer.

May Chiharu protect you, and your crew.

Kôsuka

Click to expand...

The file took only a minute to digest. At the end, Yukari shuddered.

"Saito-Hei, Hinoto-san. I must apologize for my tardiness. But we must speak, immediately. I have received word from our contact. Meet me in the Hoshi's medical lab."

Miyoko had been slowly taking in the omelette, nibbling it leisurely while eavesdropping on the conversation further down the table, but Yukari's message put an end to that. The urgency in it made her think that delaying could be a bad idea, so she didn't even clean her plate before rising and announcing, "I, er, am needed elsewhere." Before anybody could respond, she was on her way to the medical lab.

Yukari had already flown that way, and soon the pair were in the lab, along with Hinoto, who was still wearing an apron.

The Shosa wasted no time relaying the details of Kôsuka's conversation with Karl Sylvester.

... "So our conjectures were, in essence, accurate. The Taisa's body is of experimental type, and we have no options to improve upon it. A file was attached to message that contained the basic parameters of the Taisa's body."

Hoshi projected a volumetric image of the Taisa's body in a blue-wire schematic. "It is called the Signaler body — it can reflect psionic attacks such as those that Eve and her cohorts might use. The possibility of utilizing this in a planned attack is negligible. It also means that the Taisa cannot, under any circumstances, perish during any other attacks, or we will be defenseless during our confrontation with Eve."

The green-eyed Neko looked at them through narrowed eyes. "Kôsuka offered no advice as to whether to inform the Taisa or not of her status. Do you have an opinion, Saito-Hei?"

The information confirmed what Miyoko had feared since the last conversation. Kotori was a guinea pig. She'd logically known in the back of her mind that for such advanced creatures as the nekovalkyrja to be built, there had to be some experimenting, but to see it done to somebody without their knowledge or permission... it filled her with revulsion. That Kotori had almost died because they felt her abilities were too secret to tell her about wasn't exactly a triumph for the race.

"She should know," the violet-haired Yamataian said flatly. "She deserves to know what her abilities and limitations are, and who made her inable to get memory backups. On the other hand..." she trailed off with a sigh before conceding, "It's probably best if as few people know about it as possible, so we might still want to avoid letting the rest of the crew know if possible."

Yukari looked at Miyoko for only a fraction of a second. She liked the purple-haired Nekovalkyrja more and more each time they spoke.

"Agreed. It is her body, her soul and her life at stake, to say nothing of ours. The advice of her creator, Karl Sylvester, cannot be honored in this situation. I will speak to her, and let her know what we know. I will do this before noon. Is that acceptable?"

Miyoko nodded in agreement with Yukari's plan. Truthfully, she'd resolved to tell Kotori whether or not Yukari agreed that it was the right thing to do, but the Shosa's agreement certainly made things easier. "Of course... do you have any suggestion for how to explain her continuing lack of backups to the rest of the crew, though?"

"I will ask her," Yukari said. "It should be her choice. We were not meant to know this information; if she chooses to keep the circle small, we will aid her. We must trust our Taisa can handle herself."

Tom finally awoke in the depths of Yukari's room, stretching and yawning like a cat coming out of a coma. Despite Yukari's words, she took a lot more out of him than he did her. Still, he thought, it was a good thing to go through...

The Yamataian rolled over, sending his arms out in a hug that caught only blankets.

Eh...?

His eyes cracked open. No Yukari. Where had she gone off to? What time was it?

How long had he been asleep?!

He shot up like a bolt of electricity, peering over the end of the pit to read a clock that told him he was late for his work.

"Geeze! Why didn't she wake me?????" The nude Yamataian leapt out of the pit, threw his clothing on and ran out the door to the subdeck.

ON:

" ... Huuh."

Yukari took in another breath. She was outside Kotori's door, feeling a bit unsure. But there was little purpose in that. She had to be ready.

" ... Huuh." She rang the "doorbell."

The door almost immediately opened with Kotori's amber eyes staring right into Yukari's.

"You're lucky," Kotori said. "I was just about to head for the bridge."

"I am sorry to delay you," Yukari said. "May we speak, briefly?"

The Taisa gave a nod and moved aside, one hand gesturing inside her quarters. "Please come in."

Yukari gave a slight bow, then stepped inside. She took a seat near the desk without being prompted.

Kotori's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she noted Yukari's direct path to one of the chairs in front of her desk. The Taisa closed the door to her room, locked it, and joined her XO on the opposite side. "Miharu, privacy AI settings. No AI awareness until the door to my quarters opens again."

"Yes, Taisa." Miharu did not seem entirely happy about the request, though.

Kotori turned her attention to Yukari. "This wasn't a social call, was it?"

"No, Taisa." Yukari's following pause was the width of a heartbeat. "Saito-Hei, Hinoto-san and I have discovered the problem with your ST backup failure."

"Psionic defense?" Kotori asked immediately at the end of Yukari's sentence.

" ... You knew?" Yukari's face looked stalled.

Kotori shook her head, her hair swaying gently like an inky curtain. "I guessed. I had several weeks to think about it, especially after SAINT closemouthedly gave me a claim we had some sort of psionic defense on board."

Yukari let her vision go out of focus for a moment. She had facts, yes ... but Kotori had figured it out. Already. No sense stopping, then. "You are aware of what this means, were you to perish."

"I have my suspicions. Nothing very definite, though," Kotori replied. "Rather than getting myself worked up on what I do not know... why don't you tell me about what you have found out first? Then I'll have reason to angst."

Yukari nodded. "You are the only existing model of the NH-29S 'Signaler' body, partially developed by Karl Sylvester. It is a body that automatically detects and repulses offensive telepathic attack. It is a technique I do not believe you can train to bolster; it simply is." She paused for about a heartbeat. "The technique is not discerning about what it interprets to be an 'offensive' telepathic attack. Anything other than telepathic communication appears to activate it. We cannot, therefore, Soul-Transfer you at this time."

Kotori nodded attentively. "While you're at it, is there anything else you need to elaborate on my condition - so that I have most of the pieces of the puzzle instead of a few?"

"Each attack will activate the technique, and each activation will strain your body. I cannot estimate how long or how effective you can be in a drawn-out battle. There are finer points ... about it. Some restraining machines are ineffective against you. But that is mostly all."

The Taisa took a deep breath and turned around in her chair to look out through her room's transparent zesuaium viewport at the stars shining beyond. After long seconds of collecting her thoughts, she finally said: "I once envisioned transfering to a NH-29 body mostly out of the novelty of it, though I was actually quite reluctant to do so. As part of my own decision process, I sent a letter to the Ketsurui Zaibatsu to see if they could include things I would have liked to keep. Skin vision and psionics," she smiled mirthlessly. "After my NH-22M body was left dying from the PNUgen raid, Karl transfered me in this one. It was easy to figure out that any difficulty in using a ST backup could very well have been tied to his work and the desires I had outlined before."

She looked back at Yukari. "I'm not bitter," she stated. "Even with the handicap of not being able to make new backups, this body still saved my life when my old one failed me. Otherwise I would be dead. ST backups are a priviledge that not everyone has - most people have only one life. For my part... I can be patient and wait for ST technology to improve to compensate for the handicap."

Yukari nodded ... but she was not done. " ... We still have your NH-22M body." Yukari was unsure about this part ... but she was speaking to a superior officer, if nothing else. She had to tell the truth. "It is usable."

Kotori stared at Yukari, eyes wide. She was obviously shocked by the revelation. The black-haired nekovalkyrja closed her eyes as if trying to put a lid on whatever impulsive reactions she might have expressed and simply reclined on her seat. Both her hands came up to cover her face and a sigh hissed out.

"It was somehow put onboard the ship. I do not know how. It is inside a cargo container below in the hold." Yukari was at a loss as to what to actually do with the body ...

Kotori raised her face from her hands to look at Yukari. "I guess the mystery of the black box countermeasure we have has been elucidated," Kotori offered a strained smile to her XO. "What would you do?"

Thinking quickly. A weakness of Yukari's. "If the soul is still intact ... all we are allowed to do is explain the situation. She, as a soul, is technically dead — we cannot issue orders to her, unless she enlists. If there is no soul, there are limited techniques available to us that can restore you to that body. ... The only other option is to reserve it for one of the Nekovalkyrja crew."

Kotori looked down a moment and finally said: "I did not sign up for this. I did not sign up to become a tool for the Empire - that was the very reason I left the Ketsurui Samurai. If that is what the Empire demands of me in order to serve it ... then I find myself in a corner. I cannot promote these kinds of measures - in fact, I think there's an Imperial Law against it."

"If there is no soul inside the body, there is no argument. Only if there is do we have a problem. We can face the problem now ... or we can leave it inside the container and address it upon completion of our mission." Yukari seemed firm about the choices.

"There is argument," Kotori countered. "I desired more of my life than to become somesort of foil against telepathic criminals. I had desires and ambitions of my own. You didn't submit to my argument that you should be made a Juni - I have no less reason to have a grievance with this."

" ... I do not believe the situations are the same. Not at this moment." Yukari kept her eyes on Kotori. "We can attempt to devote resources to developing ST technology to bypassing the technique. But those are resources we cannot devote to our war effort, if we do."

Kotori shook her head slowly. "I have my own answer already. I don't expect you to like it... but care to be my sounding board?"

"Yes," Yukari said simply. No sense in being verbose now; Kotori's mind was moving.

The Taisa nodded, moistened her lips and said: "I will not compromise the current mission by working a countermeasure to recover my original body. I will complete it and if there are any psions amongst our antagonists, I might be able to help."

"At the conclusion of the mission," Kotori continued. "I will take what measures I have at my disposal to transfer my experiences to my former body and then I will dispose of myself. If SAINT want their bloody NH-29S, they can look for someone else."

" ... Commit suicide? To foil SAINT?"

"SAINT is foiled in the process - they certainly didn't ask me about those kinds of stakes; I feel no obligation to meet them," Kotori replied. "But I owe it to myself to be unique and between me, the clone, and the NH-22M whom survived despite all odds... I'd rather root for the original."

"It is your soul. It is your choice." Yukari smiled serenely. Almost coldly. "I, nor any of the crew, will stop you."

Kotori sighed. "I will not impose imperial law on my creator. I owe him too much for that." She paused and added: "But this playing with my life makes us even. I don't have to feel guilty about my past mistakes anymore."

"You are an officer of the Empire, though, so you will have to make your own choice on wether to follow my lead or deal with it in your own fashion."

"I do not argue your rationalizations. They are yours. I will protect your right to end your life as you choose. That is my only duty as an officer." Yukari nodded.

"You make it sound so official," Kotori smiled wanly. "This should be trivial, really — as mundane as a NH-27 discarding one of her tentacles. I don't see it as suicide. I see it as reclaiming control on my life."

"It is not official. We do not know how well the memory transfer will work, if at all. But Saito-Hei has been interested in this, and I will assign her to investigate what can be done to assist you." Yukari kept the cold smile on her face.

"I have a simpler answer," Kotori claimed.

"Yes?"

"I'll create a NH-29 youngling of myself with my own memories in her," Kotori answered. "She can be used to do the Soul Transfer Backup to overwrite the data in the NH-22M. Seeing the memory capacity will be smaller, I'll leave most of the audio/video files for Miharu to transfer to the NH-22M later."

"And once that is completed ... what will become of her?"

"Same thing as myself," Kotori returned without hesitation. "There shouldn't be a problem from her either."

"If there is?"

"The process is one of self-miniaturization," Kotori explained. "It dates from the older nekovalkyrja body types and allowed them to miniaturize themselves by creating a youngling body, transfering their memories to it and then discorporating their own body after that. In essence, I would be the youngling." She smirked. "Seeing I want this, I don't think I'll cause trouble then. Being a youngling once was enough."

"I see. I understand." Yukari made a small nod. "Then there is nothing more for the crew to do, yes?"

Kotori pursed her lips as she reflected on Yukari's words and then shook her head. "Self-miniaturization is not something the NH-29's Operating System is made to do. I'll need medical assistance for that. The NH-22M's brain should also be protected from being overwriten, so, it'll likely need to be examined so to make that possible."

"There will be no overwriting," Yukari said bluntly. "With your permission, we can reformat your OS to allow for the miniaturization. But we cannot overwrite the brain of the 22M — if it has a soul, it is an individual. Your memories can be added to hers, if she accepts them."

"So, you are suggesting that she be given memories, but without the benefit of her personality growing from them?" Kotori chuckled. "That's going to cause more harm than good. The soul whom was transfered was still hers. We would have been the same at that point and you don't want her to benefit from that? With several months more of life experience under her belt?"

"Would is the operative word." Yukari's expression became tighter. "Illegal as the actions of SAINT were in this instance, you and the NH-22M are now two souls, two people. You cannot simply overwrite her that way — it is no better a decision than those of SAINT. I would prefer you both live."

Kotori looked away, her expression dark. Idealism and selfishness were obviously warring in her. "Just giving my memories to her means what I was after the PNUgen raid was just 'someone else' instead of a continuity." She smiled bitterly. "You know, the only time you ever saw Kotori in the NH-22M body was in the Empress' palace. How odd to feel this was such a long time ago when it amounts to barely being more than a year."

"It was a continuity. It was a soul transfer. Now it is not. Now she is her own person, if a soul is inside of it, and you are yourself." Yukari was leaning forward, pressing on. "You would not want an NH-29S body?"

Kotori turned on Yukari. "If I was the NH-22M, I would not want to have been copied. Period."

"You have been. That cannot be changed. It was illegal and wrong. But now it has been done. It is not a situation as arbitrary as granting rank — it is a soul. You have decided your course, but she has not decided hers." Yukari's body felt stiff.

Kotori's eyes locked with Yukari a long moment before averting them again. That had to be a record for Yukari. "I suppose I have until the end of the mission to figure out what exactly I should do then."

"You could ask her. What she would want." Yukari's face softened. "Perhaps you would agree."

"Oh, and what then?" Kotori scoffed. "Give the crew two Kotoris to deal with? That's not happening. She isn't going to just let herself go back into stasis when she learns that she's been copied. If anything, she'll fight tooth and claw to make sure she's the surviving one, and she'd have a right to do that."

"I suppose the Kotori of 'old' is not as reasonable as the current one." A smile creeped into the corners of Yukari's mouth.

"More experience doesn't necessarily prevent you from being dumb," Kotori returned hotly. She had not forgotten her XO's foolish stint in the VR chamber.

"No, it does not." Yukari's smile was more humble now. She understood the barb. "May I instruct Saito-Hei to help develop an NH-29-safe replica of the NH-7 OS? We can also attempt to theorize a more efficient process to transfer your memories to the NH-22M, if she accepts."

"If she accepts?" Kotori blinks. "Do you think it might be better for her to have none of my memories?"

"I do not know." Yukari's eyes locked onto Kotori's. "It will be her decision. She is her own soul — she must choose. She might be more reasonable than I thought."

Kotori stood up. "Was there anything else you needed to tell me?"

"I wanted to apologize, for my behavior this morning. It was unbecoming." Yukari stood and bowed deeply to Kotori.

"Well, you seem fit enough," Kotori replied. "I take it that means you are fit for bridge duty?"

"I am."

"Good," Kotori returned, grim. "Let's get this mission over with then." She headed for the door.

"Kotori." Yukari said, sharply. Now or never. " ... I have neglected you, recently. I am sorry, Koto-san ... I have not felt I can approach you, and I have been cowardly."

"I never prevented you from bathing with me, Yukari. You're welcome to if that is what you want to do." Kotori smiled faintly. "Why ask? Did you think I would reject you?"

"Reject? No. But you might not have said anything to me. I did not know." Yukari's own smile rose on her face like the sun. "Besides, Koto-san, I must show Nyton how to fix your hair properly."

Kotori had a smile in return to Yukari's, though hers had about as much warmth as the setting sun over Ralt did. The tidings Yukari had brought left a wound which was still too raw for more than that. "I suppose you could teach him much." Kotori yanked the door open and left her room.

Yukari looked at the closed door for a few seconds, then let out a shallow sigh. She then followed Kotori out.

END

Kotori, with Yukari on her heels, made her way to the bridge. The brown-haired Sanri had been monitoring the bridge and quickly vacated the navigation seat for the Shosa. Kotori asked Yukari to run a system check with the sprites in engineering while she paged both Nyton and Miyoko to report to duty on the bridge.

Once the checkups were more or less done and that Miharu had returned to full military power, Kotori gave out the order for Miyoko to locate appropriate targets in the debris field near the light cruiser and ordered them to take six of them out. The ship, under Yukari's guidance, made a smooth sweep around them all which allowed Nyton to swiftly take down the stationary targets.

A quick diagnostic check quickly followed, with Tom reporting that the cannon was still experiencing major heat buildup - his handiwork had helped make it so that the unit hadn't suffered damage, but it still made it a bad idea to rely on the sixth shot in prolonged battle. Kotori and Nyton figured that they could settle for volleys of four and find some other use to the spare power until Tom figured some way to cope with the waste heat.

Miharu finally folded away from Hanako's Star to the Sydney passage, where they dropped from hyperspace to rely more upon the stealthier combined field system. The search for the first probe beacon left behind was short, but then, it was only a beginning.

"Shosa, assemble what people you believe you will need to track down the whereabouts of the other probes the Sekkou should have left behind," Kotori ordered. "The sensor dome will be at your disposal for that."

"Yes Taisa," Yukari said, and got up from her seat. "Saito-Hei, Kimura-Heisho, please come with me."

Telepathic messages went out to Tom and Sigurd, so they could also assist.

Once everyone was assembled into the Sensor Dome, Yukari brought up a schematic of the first probe that was discovered, as well as a general map of the system. Both floated large over her head.



"We are at the mouth of the Sydney Passage, our nose pointing toward Lor," Yukari said. "The probe we have found is roughly 2,000 kilometers to our port side. The things we know are limited."

Yukari turned to the image of the probe. "Physically it is a standard MEGAMI-type probe. It is coated in Xiulurium, but that stealth coating has been worn off in some spots, which allowed us to find it easily. We have yet to attempt contact with it."

The image of the probe was zoomed, examining the internals. "The probe lacks access to PANTHEON, relying instead on a different kind of network that is similar to PANTHEON. We have not attempted to contact it, but Hinoto-san has monitored minute pulse transmissions coming from it, so it is still active.

"Our objective is to devise a method to discover the location of the next probe. We need only do this once, for we will act quickly enough to discover the rest of the probes before we ourselves are discovered. You may consider all possible methods to be on the table. This is a chance to generate ideas; we will determine as a group what could work best.

"Kimura-Heisho, perhaps you could start?"

Takuma scratched his chin while giving the problem some thought. "If we could intercept one of the probe's signals," he started, pausing for a second to gather his thoughts. "If we could even access it under the other network, we could make a copy of a message, change the message to a query about the status of the probes in the area, then bounce it back. All goes well, it will believe it's just a status check and we'd have our information."

"Another idea, far less likely to work, would be to remotely or directly disable the probe, for a minutes time. An armor could then proceed over to the probe, jack into it, steal the information, then re-enable it before it misses its next message, or Miharu could sent a fake message to buy time." He gave a sigh, indicating his lack of faith in the second plan. "The problem would be that if we disabled it, chances are it would run a diagnostic program and alert its owners that it had been tampered with or malfunctioned. Without disabling it, we run the risk of it setting off an alarm."

"Those ideas are what comes to mind right now." He waited for the other's opinion on what he said.

"The probe did not strike me as part of a relay from the Taisa's explanation. That might have proved too obvious seeing they were shadowing the renegade Daughters of Eve ships," Sigurd said. "They sounded more like recordings left behind to leave some proof of their passage and the progress the Sekkou made on its investigation in case it never came back."

" ... " Yukari seemed to pause for a moment, then frown. "Hinoto-san tells me the probe has stopped transmitting. So Sigurd-san is ultimately correct.

"This changes our task. Without signals to trace or decipher, we must now attempt to locate the probes through their stealth coating." She bowed to Takuma. "I am sorry, Kimura-Hei, but it appears we must try something else."