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RP: YSS Kaiyō Pre-Mission Seven; Under Pressure

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Pancakei

The Breakfast Baron
YSS Kaiyō
Wardroom
3日 6月 YE 39
1700 Hours


Dinner had just ended, a nice meal of miso and sushi had been ended with balls of mochi. Eden patted Kikyo on the back and kissed Saki's cheek before heading to the bridge. But, before exiting the wardroom, she spoke out without looking to the side, only staring straight forward.

"Ana, you're with me." She had paused after Ana's name, thinking deliberately about what she needed tonight and what Anastasia Barlow could do for the future of the ship.

Anastasia Barlow had been sitting at a corner table of the Wardroom after dinner, doing her semi-usual evening reading. Her dark coveralls were just a little bit dirty from work, she hadn't given herself the time to shower yet. The Elysian perked up into attention at the calling of her shortened name, looking at Eden with a perplexed gaze. After a moment, she realized what the superior Nekovalkyrja meant, and followed suit. She followed Eden out of the Wardroom, leaving other friends behind.

"Yes, ma'am?" She spoke once out of the Wardroom.

"I would like to ask you how your expirementation with the engine room has been coming," Eden asked once they were out of the wardroom. "Any progress?"

Anastasia looked up at her captain, somewhat weary in the eyes. " Yes ma'am. I've been working on a way to provide a speedy launch through over-clocking the reactor and diverting the energy into the far engines, with some speed caps disabled..."

Eden patted Anastasia on the shoulder softly as she walked, looking straight ahead, still. "That is great progress. We have to use anything we've got at our disposal to get ourselves to where we belong: home. How are you feeling, by the way, Anastasia? Boss has told me about the work you've been putting in to everything you're doing for the ship."

"Thank you..." Anastasia said as she received the pat. It was a few seconds before she responded, looking up. "I don't feel right. The past few weeks, its been like I'm always looking over the shoulder, feeling like at any moment the ships just going to... fall apart." Anastasia looked at the Captain with a rather somber face.

Grimly, Eden replied, "It very well could. If it does, shouldn't we be at our pique instead of barely holding on by threads? If it doesn't and we survive this ordeal, I would want my crew to be at their best for when SAINT questions the whole lot of them and I get demoted for what I've let you all go through, not for lack of trying to steer the situation in a different direction. What do you think?"

Anastasia did not reply, only thinking silently to herself. She had started to visibly shudder at the mention of SAINT interrogating the crew on the scenario, bringing up a whole new set of thoughts she hadn't considered before. To herself, the stakes had just been shot through the roof. "I-I..."

The Elysian stuttered, unable to make a clear answer.

Eden pressed her pink lips together as they entered the bridge together, frowning slightly. She motioned for Anastasia to sit at mission ops behind the command chair and swiveled the chair 180 degreed to look at where Anastasia would likely sit.

"I'm not saying either option is going to be easy, but the option that gets us home is the one I want. After your three are up," Eden said, referring to the SAoY contract Anastasia had signed months previously, "what are your plans?"

The technician sat down at the offline operations station when beckoned, a position she had never quite been at before. She looked up at Eden as she was questioned. "...I don't know."
The technicians response was rather flat. "I... didn't really think I'd make it this far."

"There is always a life for you in the Star Army. I wouldn't want you to grow complacent anywhere and Yamatai will always keep you on your toes, as exemplified by our current predicament. You're a smart person, an intelligent one that can do a lot of good in this universe..." She thought a moment and corrected herself. "In these universes we find ourselves in." Her diatribe was over, for now.

Anastasia looked up at her captain, sniffling a little bit as she spoke. "Thank you, Eden."
The Elysian technician looked down, still thinking about the earlier statements. For once, she spoke out of nowhere. "I haven't lived in constant fear since before I joined the military. I didn't expect to live, at least not free."

It was quite clear this was getting to the technician, her emerald eyes watering up.

Eden closed her eyes for a long moment with a frown on her face, then spoke in a hushed tone after she had opened her eyes. "There is reason to believe we may be in more danger than even I have faced. Nobody on this ship is exempt from the horrors we may yet see. But nobody is powerless against them, either. I would be scared if not for the people I have at my side and the skills I have on my person. See it within yourself that you have more to lean on than you are giving yourself credit for."

Eden balled her fists for a moment, looking as if she were ready to push them into her arm rests and stand. She was thinking about something in particular and she threw the words out quickly, "Your past has wronged you if it continues to edge into your waking thoughts like a nightmare ready to overwhelm you. I don't want that for you, for anyone." She huffed a little and released her fists before looking up to Anastasia's verdant eyes, saying no more.

Anastasia stayed quiet for a while, looking up at Eden and nodding somberly. She chose not to dwell on the subject too much, it was a bit of a pain. She spoke again after a while, in a lighter tone. "I don't know where I'll be in three years, its a far off number. Where the universe takes me."

"The universe will likely take you far, with the keen eye and smart mind of yours," Eden said shortly.

Anastasia grinned, looking at the silver lining. "Thank you, again ma'am."
The Elysian looked around the bridge, having only ever seen it from the back. She then spoke up again, still slightly shaky. "If you don't mind me asking, what do you plan on doing?"

Eden smiled, stretching her legs a little as she spoke without needing to think on it long, "Serve the Empire with my wife and child—children, if I'm lucky—at my side. It's not a lot to ask, but it's a fair understanding that it won't be easy to stay together the way the military works. I can only hope that I never have to say goodbye to anyone I love. Sometimes that means crew members, too," Eden added, looking at the blue streak in Anastasia's hair and then her shining green eyes. "Sometimes."

Anastasia leaned forwards on the desk, listening to the captain's thoughts and dreams. She nodded and smiled a few times with a mix of quiet glee and slight sorrow on the lower notes. "I can understand that..."

She leaned back, thinking for a moment. "To be, brutally honest... when I first joined the Star Army, I didn't like Nekovalkyrja. I thought artificial life was something wrong, let alone for warriors. But serving through the past few months that view has been... satisfyingly proven wrong. People like Yoshida and you and Misaki, its shown me there's something more. Compassion, love."

Anastasia smiled warmly with a more-than-slight tinge of humility.

The technician finished her confession simple. "And, I'm sorry for ever doubting you, Shosa."

Eden's golden eyes looked on at Anastasia with a glint of pain in them. "It hurts to hear the stories that you and some of your Elysian sisters and brethren have gone through. I knew no such pains of growing and never will. I will only know the pain a Neko can face, which is limited in scope when compared to non—" her voice got very low as she said, "—artificial life forms."

Anastasia's green eyes looked down to the floor as Eden repeated her words back to her, now finding out the sullen grief that she had insulted the Nekovalkyrja. The technician nodded, speaking quietly while brushing her dark hair. "Growing up in wartime is rough... Orion has had it harder than I have."

"What was it like for Orion? How are you two so different? More importantly, how are you two alike?" Eden asked the volley of questions smoothly and without hesitation.

Anastasia was taken aback by the captain's smooth barrage of questions, going quiet for several moments. After taking a few seconds to think, she replied. "Well, he lost both his parents at a young age. Both of them were civilian casualties, from what I know..."
It was saddening for the Elysian to say aloud.

"I never met my biological parents. My earliest memories were with my step-parents. My step-mother was a nurse, always out of the house when called upon, yet... she was always back when you just needed her..." The technician paused, breathing steadily through her nose. She could only bear a few words. "My step-father was a mechanic."

The blue-winged Elysian leaned back in the seat, her head drifting to the ceiling as she partially unfurled her cobalt wings. "We both grew up during the same wars. We were living different lives, but all effected by the same crises..."

"I understand what he's been going through. At least, I think I do. We've been talking for the past few weeks." The technician looked back down at the Captain, the blue streak in her hair being brushed around. She breathed in and spoke simply, emerald eyes glinting. "War is a sad thing, though it may be necessary."

The technician went quiet, her voice trailing off.

"War does not protect our hearts and minds, but it protects our bodies and souls." Eden bowed her head. "There are repurcussions to every action and inaction. Those repercussions are, in the worst cases, death. Death is irrevocable and ubiquitous in everyone's lives, not just soldiers and not just children with bad pasts. The fear of death, no matter how strong you may be or may pretend to be, is a common thread in everyone's lives."

She folded her hands over one another and Eden asked, "Do you know how you can help Orion while helping yourself repair the damage of death?"

Anastasia sighed quietly and smiled humbly, looking down at her lap as she played with her hands. "It's been helping him to have someone to talk to. I want... to show him that there's still more brightness to life, just around us."

Anastasia's eyes wandered the bridge again, looking at the various displays and cabinets in the room, then back at Eden and her white uniform. "And I guess, everything happens for a reason. That's why we're all here... lives crossed."

"It would seem that way," Eden said. "It most certainly does seem like there is a reason for all of this." She put extra emphasis on the latter word. "I like that you've found someone to help you and for you to help. Sometimes that is all that gets me though the days of not knowing."

Anastasia nodded, remaining quiet for a while. "I do have, one more fear." The winged engineer looked up at Eden. "I've been wondering what's going to happen when we get back home. I'm afraid of losing my position on here."

"I will fight for all of the Kaiyo crew to stay where they are on this ship. Even if it costs me my own job, I'll make sure of it," Eden said steadfastly.

Anastasia's expression didn't change too much as she acknowledged the captain's promise. She soon smiled and started pressing out the baggy wrinkles in her dark coveralls. "Thank you, Shosa."

"You're very welcome," Eden replied, feeling like their conversation had come to a close. "But it is you who deserves the thanks, Anastasia." She looked pointedly at the girl before nodding her head slightly and gently turned her chair a bit to the side, beginning to take over command of the vessel.

Anastasia felt the same, standing quietly and exiting the bridge as to leave Eden to her own devices. The chat had given her more than enough to think about for the next few days.
 
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