The Challenge

(A KanColle Side Story)

Introduction – The Challenge

He sighed after the door finally closed. Putting up a positive front to his team was complete bullshit.

The slight buzzing of the halogen lights only made his headache worse, but it was nothing compared to the light that had been flickering throughout the entire meeting. As if punctuating their situation.

The money was all gone. Congress simply stopped caring. Everything was going into funding those ship-girls now. Them, and every defense contractor that thought they had a way to turn the now (nearly) useless naval sailors into cut-rate version of the aforementioned ship-girls.

As far as he knew, nobody had yet made a 'ship-girl system' that didn't either immediately sink, explode, or do next to no damage against Abyssal-styled mock-up targets.

*No room in the budget for actual scientific work when you could spend money on a bunch of your buddies' crap – right Congress?*

Another sigh escaped his lips at that thought.

"Well, it was good while it lasted." He picked up the folder on the meeting-room table as he stood. "Now it's just moth-balling everything."

Today's meeting had been about doing just that.

*Well, that, and scheduling the farewell party,* He looked at his watch as he moved to the door – an electronic model made more for function than style. *Which I need to get to in about thirty minutes.*

At least there was money enough for that. If Congress was going to shut the project down, he was damn well going to use the last of the funds he had to get his team properly sloshed.

He walked over to the door and out into the hallway. The same halogen lights that seemed to be ubiquitous in all late-70s, early-80s construction cast their vaguely unpleasant glow into the hallway. The linoleum flooring was still pealing, but that wouldn't be his problem for much longer.

His office was just down the hall. Right next door to the clean room. A slight smile worked its way on to his lips. *Fond memories there.*

Countless hours with his team were spent in that room. Cleaning, installing, modifying, and *Only sometimes,* MacGyver-ing improperly made parts into the design.

Opening the door to his office, everything was still in the slight disarray that it always was. *Soon to be filed and dumped into storage* He thought, eyeing the paperwork. *This can all wait until Monday,* He shook his head. It was always better to let people go on a Friday, right?

He putzed around the office for a bit. Mostly shuffling things into different piles, to allow for an easier time of things when he had to actually pack everything up. He checked his watch again.

*About time, then,* They planned to meet at their normal bar, 'The Proper', that was close enough to work to be convenient to everyone on these occasions, and, you-know, had pretty good food. *Hipsters, am I right?* The self-deprecating eye-roll came naturally at this point. Had to laugh at yourself sometimes to keep in good humor. Another wry smile made its way to his face.

As he exited the room and locked the door to his office, the smile quickly left his face.

The door to the clean room was ajar.

"Dammit." He muttered as he swiftly walked towards the partially open door. *It had better not be someone on his team that did this, job loss or not.* They knew better.

Passing the distance quickly, he made his way into the air-lock. Making sure to close the door behind him.

In front of the window, which gave a passable *but minimal* view of the actual clean room was a woman he had never seen before.

"Hello? Who are you?" He used a more commanding tone than he normally might, "And what were you thinking leaving the door open like that?!" That, more than anything, was a sticking point. Everyone who worked in this building knew better than to leave the door open like that. Only one malfunction in the clean-room could significantly damage the equipment with the door open like that. *At least it wasn't my team that did that.*

"Sorry about that," Her voice was slightly strained, like she was reliving a painful memory. He politely ignored the tone.

"What team are you on? You should have been told not to leave clean-room doors open like that." She couldn't have been new, the agency froze hiring last year once the Abyssal threat emerged.

She cocked her head to the left, still looking through the window. He took a moment to observe her. Short-cropped black hair in a pixie style, thin glasses perched on a beautiful face, lithe, wearing a standard lab coat over what looked to be a blue jumpsuit.

The silence dragged on. "Well? What are you even doing here? The project has been mothballed anyway." He was starting to become slightly apprehensive, *Was she even on staff?* He couldn't recall ever seeing her before, even in passing.

"I…" She paused, "I think I'm here because of the project…"

*Oh God, a crazy wandered in and now I have to call the police.* He had never had to actually worry about this in his time as project manager, but had heard stories from others on occasion – usually at conventions and over a beer. He pulled out his cell phone from his pocket.

"I remember…" She trailed off, slowly placing her hand on the window, she seemed to have an intense look on her face as she examined the project in the cleanroom. He took the opportunity to open his smartphone and pull up the 'phone' function.

He was just about to dial in the emergency number when she spun around, focusing her now-intense gaze on him.

"You asked who I am." She stated. All hints in her voice at relieving painful memories was gone. All that was left was a dispassionate, yet intense, voice. She now seemed laser-focused on the conversation.

Yet his attention was no longer focused on her, but rather what was happening behind her. As if by *f-ing magic* something formed behind her – an orange cylinder framed by two white cylinders.

"I am Oh-Vee-Zero-Nine-Nine." She paused, as if thinking of something, then stuck out her right hand, "You can call me Challenger."

He didn't respond, there was no way this was real.

As if sensing his inability to understand what was going on she lowered her outstretched hand and used her left thumb to point behind her. "I think I'm here to help with the new spacelab project."