This translation of Russian fic by the author named "Dark Cat" Original from Russian website "ficbook"
Permission to publish was obtained.
If you find a mistake, report about it in the comments, please.
Episode 1. Got so hit
Victor
"A storm warning has been announced around the city…" the news channel announcer's voice sounded cheerfully in my headphones. Which just made me wince in annoyance. Wow, what a stunning news, I wouldn't have noticed myself.
I don't know about the news, but the wind on the embankment was really knock-off-your-feet strong. Although the roofs of houses and unattached children have not been blown away just yet.
Cursing under my breath, I tried to fasten the denim jacket and stay on my feet at the same time, but then, under a sudden gust of wind, the edges of the jacket escaped my fingers, broke out as a sail, and, the next second I was blown off the shore.
"Vacation on the sea, my ass!" flashed through my head an instant before I was dunked head first into the water.
Kha-kha! Ugh! Kha! Shit! Shit-shit-shit! I feel like I'm being hung by my collar to dry. Did they pull me out of the water by a crane? Ah, whatever, at least I'm alive. My swimming is not too bad, after all I grew up by a river, however, I had hit the water pretty hard. I don't remember how I got out of the water.
Oh, okay, okay, I am awake, put me down already, I am ready to be taken to a hospital...
After blinking for a bit, I finally opened my eyes and realized that I might not have gotten out after all. Or I did, but obviously I was someplace new.
There was no crane, but instead a young girl was holding me by the scruff, like a kitten, on an outstretched arm. Effortlessly. That in itself was a bit strange, I might not be a He-Man, but I still weighed around seventy kilograms, plus wet clothes. But it wasn't just that, I recognized the girl. Dark purple evening dress emphasizing a flawless figure, snow-white hair laid in a strange hairstyle with two tails, a beautiful face with huge, shimmering dark red eyes…
"Kongo?!"
Kongo
Flagship of Second Eastern fleet of the Fog, battlecruiser Kongo, was looking at the human she had just fished out of water with slight interest.
Try as she might, she could not wrap her processes around how he had ended up here, over two hundred miles away from the nearest shore. The last time she had seen a human ship in the sea had been 15 years ago. But here he was!
Finally, he arrived to consciousness. Now he was staring at her avatar.
"Kongo?!
Surprised, she opened her hand, and the human flopped onto the deck.
He looked around wildly for a second, knocked on the deck for some reason, got on all fours, then straightened and, staggering with each step, rushed to the board.
Actually, Kongo had heard that humans can go insane with fear, and now she was trying to figure out if this one's sane or not? He's behaving strangely. There he goes, running to the board. What for? Has he decided to jump back into the sea? Hmm, no, he skidded to a stop two feet away, carefully peered over the edge, then ran to the other side, and looked out again.
What a goof. Seems she shouldn't have fished him out. Maybe she should throw him back away?
Doubtfully she watched the human, who seemed to have stopped rushing about, sat down on the deck, and then clasped his head in his hands, muttering something unintelligible, Kongo decided not to hurry with it. Observing him was a little more interesting than watching the birds, and it was worth it to try to get an answer: where did come from?
Coming closer, she slightly leaned over him, asking:
"Who are you?"
Victor
Fuck, oh, fuck! No, I... I haven't been drinking! Definitely, haven't been drinking. Or smoking. Or use drugs! Why am I hallucinating?! Although... am I hallucinating at all? Deck under ass. Iron. Cold. And the girl. Wait, maybe this girl is just a cosplayer? Cosplaying here... yeah, and the ship is also cosplay, it's inflatable, just tin coated. A small one, just two hundred meters in length. Oh, fuck!
"... ...?" sounded above my head.
The girl stopped a mere meter away and was watching me. With a good soulful look. The same look people have when they find an old shoe in their closet and try to decide whether to throw it away immediately, or if it is still useful.
"... ...?" she repeated.
Oops. Didn't understand anything. Seems like she is asking something, judging by the intonation, but I don't recognize the language. Is it Japanese?
With my arms wide apart, I diligently made the most regretful expression I could.
"Uh, sorry, I don't understand Japanese."
The girl slightly raised an eyebrow, as if surprised.
"Who are you?" This time it was in pure Russian.
"Uh, Victor. Victor Rockin, from Russia," I replied automatically.
"What are you doing here?"
Well, a very smart question! I'm sitting and freaking out! Can't you see? However, I probably shouldn't say that out loud. Sassing a beautiful girl is not nice. Especially if this girl is also a super battlecruiser, able to sink any Earth fleet while not looking up from her cup of tea... It is better to be extremely polite.
"I don't know."
Um, from the look on her face, she's clearly disappointed in my mental faculties. Okay, I need to think of something fast or she might throw me back into the sea. And the nearest land is almost a kilometer away. Vertically down.
"Kongo, sorry, but can I make one request?"
"Speak."
"Can I collect myself a bit? I just don't know how I got here. And... I know this might sound rude, but can I ask you two questions? Where are we? And what year is it?"
"Thirty-eight degrees, fifty-eight minutes North latitude and one hundred thirty-four degrees, forty-six minutes East longitude."
"Uh …"
"Japanese Sea." Looks like she got completely disappointed by me.
"And the year?"
"According to your calendar, 2056."
"Thank you."
Not deigning me with a reply, the girl turned away indifferently and majestically marched to the Central superstructure as a Princess striding into the Palace.
Oh dear, if I ever made any kind of impression with something, it clearly was not my intelligence.
Kongo
The Tactical Network of the Fog contained a lot of information about humans, but now, meeting one of them alive, Kongo was frankly disappointed. An absolute primitive. Or perhaps it's just her luck that she got one like that? After all, the human race is quite variable.
Okay, let him sit for a few minutes. After all, apparently, even those small computing abilities that it had initially are now at zero. So she should wait a bit and then try to ask a few more questions. People may not be able to navigate the sea without instruments, but why does he not even know the date? And how does he know her name?
Victor
Think Victor, and think fast. Immediately reject the assumption that everything around is a hallucination. There is no time for reflection. If this is the Kongo from the anime, then... you only have an hour to live, no more. Then she'll come to the conclusion that you're useless and kill you. Snap your neck and throw you overboard. After all, this pretty girl is, in fact, just the avatar of the ship. Model, projection, reflection, whatever you want to call it. The real Kongo is under your ass. Here she is — two hundred something meters of metal stuffed with so many missiles, torpedoes and guns that it can sink the entire US Navy. And still have leftovers.
So, quickly, what was in the cartoon? The Ships of The Fog, looking like WWII ships. From the outside at least, for in reality they were a product of the technology outstripping humanity by... I don't know by how much, and no one even has an idea of what they actually are. Sentient, almost invincible, they appeared out of nowhere all over the planet in 2039 and declared a quarantine on the sea. Like, "Enough, people, navigation is canceled, sit on land." Humans obviously did not listen, jumped into the fight and drowned in blood, losing their entire Navy. Those few who managed to escape after the slaughter, now sit in ports and are afraid to venture out. And it is unknown if humans could even damage a single ship of Fog. By the way, why the Fog has done this is also unknown. Supposedly, it's been done with accordance to the Admiralty Code directives. But what exactly is this Code - nobody knows. Might be something like the Articles, or a controlling program, or ... who knows what. I watched the anime half-heartedly, and I don't think there was any clarification regarding it.
Okay, that's a general outlook, so to speak, now onto the details. This blonde that just made a beautiful twenty meter high jump, landed on the combat bridge wing, and then sat there with a blank look – is a Fog battlecruiser, the flagship of one of the fleets blocking Japan.
By the way, she really is a cosplayer. Cosplaying the Imperial Japanese Navy battlecruiser Kongo. Badly at that. Hard to see from afar, but from close up... Human ships just don't have such smooth lines and clean surfaces. A spot of paint peeling, a dent in the plating, and rust, of course, can't forget about it. Here, however, everything is clean, smooth, as in a 3D model. And, of course, there are no windows, no handrails, no ramps, no signs of habitability, because none of that is needed.
Ugh, damn, that's the last thing to worry about. What do I care about, her appearance? Not like I am about to marry her! The most important part is her personality. And it is far from rosy. According to the cartoon, this Kongo is a cold-blooded bitch obsessed with the Charter. That is to say, the Admiralty Code. Like, if it says that it is so, then so it is! And if anyone dares say anything against it, then that person should be brought into the open sea, put facing the waves, and shot in the forehead with a rocket!
Roughly, something like that. Now, think, what do we do? Who the hell knows, honestly? No idea. Man, and that annoying knocking sound is playing on my nerves too. Where is it coming from? Oh, it's my teeth! Not sure if it's more from fear or from the cold. Damn, I need to hide behind something and wring out the clothes or I'll die early from the cold.
Kongo
The human who had been sitting on the deck got up and after looking around staggered to the main caliber tower.
"Where is he going?" - wondered Kongo, - "And why is he undressing? Oh, of course, wringing out the clothes. Right on deck! Not only is he useless, but also rude. But if he is moving around, then he must have recovered."
After waiting a few more minutes to be sure, she dropped down on the man was huddled under the first tower, occasionally bringing a paper stick stuffed with smoldering grass to his lips and inhaling smoke from it.
"P-pack was not still wrapped, so it d-didn't get wet. L-lucky" he smiled wryly, lips blue.
Kongo raised an eyebrow in bewilderment. Previously, the human had spoken clearer and his whole body was not shaking.
"C-cold. W-wind." He explained.
Kongo felt herself getting annoyed. Not only did she take time to catch it from the water, now she was supposed to take care of it! But... she can't leave things halfway. Now that she's started this, she should finish it.
With an unhappy snort, she covered them with a wave field dome and raised the temperature of a small section of the deck to thirty degrees Celsius.
"O-o-oh!" The man immediately stretched out on the hot metal with a blissful smile. "T-thank you very much. Another minute, if you please?"
It took not one, but six minutes until he finally stopped trembling. He turned his head and indistinctly cursed. He then carefully extinguished the stick at the sole of his shoe, and hid it in his pocket.
"How do you know who I am?" asked Kongo, who was getting annoyed with the whole situation.
"Sorry, can I ask you something else first?" asked the man instead of giving an answer.
Kongo frowned. Truely, his arrogance knows no bounds.
"You see, I need to know something to clarify the situation, and that will influence your actions," he blurted out hastily.
"My actions?" Kongo was surprised. His arrogance simply knew no bounds.
"Yeah. If I'm right, then you should hear what I have to say, and if I'm not, then... well, I'm of no use then."
"Explain."
"You see, if the information I have is wrong then I just have nothing to tell you. I don't think that you would be interested in events in Russia in 2016."
"And if it is true?"
"Well... then it's complicated. But if I were you, at least I would have listened."
Kongo unwittingly became interested.
"In that case, go ahead and clarify."
"Do you have these ships In your fleet: the heavy cruiser Maya and submarines I-400 and I-402?"
"There are. The 400th and 402nd are part of the reconnaissance division, and Maya is leader of the flagship squadron."
"Good." The human nodded in satisfaction. "And Maya's avatar is this restless girl that loves music and having fun?"
Kongo couldn't help but smile, remembering Maya with her constant: "Hey, Kongo, I composed a song!", "Kongo, let's have a carnival!", "Kongo, well, don't frown, look what I have!"
"Yes."
The human sighed and kept quiet for a bit, as if gathering his wits then carefully asked:
"M-m, Kongo, can you somehow, imperceptibly for other ships, find out whether it is a real projection of Maya, or if it is the third-party program only simulating it?"
"What?!"
"Well, let's assume that someone wants to keep tabs on you. You, specifically. And this someone, knowing that Maya has no mental model, creates its similarity. That is, he writes a program that simulates the behavior of the girl Maya, and through it monitors your every action. After all, if the cruiser Maya is the leader of your personal squadron, there is no better candidate. She's always around. Adjutant, confidant, as people say."
Hardly hearing the nonsense to its end, Kongo sighed with disappointment. So much time wasted! The man had gone insane after all.
"Wait!" he snapped, his eyes blinking feverishly. "Kongo, I may be crazy, but check first and then you can throw me overboard."
Finding out if Maya's avatar was real was extremely simple — she just needed to address directly the core of the cruiser through the flagship access authorization. The thing was, to access someone else's personal matrix was more than just an insult, it was... however, if she assumed for a moment that this stupid human was right... Damn it, a flagship has no right to reject even an obviously crazy hypothesis if they threaten the safety of the fleet. And... Maya will understand. That is, she will be offended, of course, but she'd understand.
Kongo did not hesitate any longer, and slipped into the virtual tactical network, calling the squadron going to the islands, where 401 was supposed to appear.
"Maya, how are you doing?"
"Being flagship is so great!"
Kongo unintentionally sighed.
"Yes, Maya, being flagship is not bad. Only unpleasant sometimes."
"You're just too serious, Kongo!" Maya laughed.
"Noblesse oblige. But this is a business call. I need direct access to your core."
"Kongo!"
"Sorry, it's necessary. I'm going to reassign some squadrons, and I need data on the load on leaders' cores."
"All right, all right, watch."
Quickly checking parameters of the computational load on the core of the cruiser, Kongo breathed a sigh of relief. That's it, human can be thrown.
She was about to break the connection when she caught an inconsistency. During the conversation the load was almost unchanged, as if the core supported the projection but did not process the incoming data. Which was nonsense, it simply could not be! Unless... it was sending it somewhere else.
Initiating an emergency protocol, Kongo received a "picture" of "Maya's" core and felt the world around her collapsing, crumbling into tiny fragments as if grinded by a megaton charge.
Instead of insanely complex web of sensor channels in the core of "Maya", only an imbedded pseudo-matrix with a remote access unit was shining dimly. Which simply did not allow the mental model to form, closing all the feedback functions on itself.
Maya…
Funny, mischievous... and ready to carry out any of her orders. Funny, spiteful... and trying hard to cheer her up when she felt incomprehensibly melancholic. When the burden of responsibility felt so crushing, as if the superstructure will fold in on itself like a house of cards…
Maya…
The one who was the closest to her... was just a doll whose strings were pulled by an unknown puppeteer?!
"Kongo, how much longer?" Maya whined disgruntled. "I composed a song and I want to sing it to the destroyers as they are falling asleep!"
"She hasn't even noticed anything."
With great difficulty Kongo gathered herself and responded as calmly as possible.
"Everything is fine, I'll be in touch soon."
And quickly severed the connection, leaving the tactical network.
She stood for a second, waiting for the plating to stop ringing from the generators going into sudden overdrive and for the target designation system signals to cease searching the horizon for targets.
She wanted to kill someone. Didn't matter who.
"It seems I was right," sighed the man quietly.
Turning sharply, Kongo loomed over him, barely restraining himself from crushing this pathetic creature.
"Who… did... this...?"
For some reason there was no fear in the man's eyes, but rather sadness and sympathy.
"Kongo, do you have any powerful anti-submarine ships in your personal security?"
Chapter 1: Beta'd by UnfortuWatcher