Prologue: The Aurora
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Trinity Blood, or Dead Space. There are a select few original characters in here, however, that are mine, such as the Commander.
"Report." The tall Methuselah commanded sternly as she walked onto the bridge. Her long black hair, fixed in a neat ponytail of curls, fell to her waist and was a sharp contrast to the otherwise clean lines of her body. Metallic blue eyes shone from beneath the heavy, dark fringe of bangs.
She wore her uniform in the style of the Empire: the fabric sheath of her dress was a rich blue from which flowered a compass of metal lattice work in silver. The long sleeves were puffed around the shoulders, adorned intricately with sapphire and silver lace, and ended in a metal bell around her wrist. The neckline rode on her breasts and was bordered with white lattice. The tights she wore beneath them were a silky dove grey, as were the high boots that tapered to her thighs.
"Yes, Ma'am." Her subordinate replied, pulling up several graphics onto the main monitors.
"Tap me into central command." She commanded, folding her hands neatly in her lap as she took her seat.
A moment later her ensign piped up, "You're patched through."
"Beta ship: are the facilities prepared?"
The response was quick: "Yes, Ma'am. Primary and secondary systems are operating at peak efficiency. All life support systems are online."
"Gamma ship: What are the findings on the samples you obtained?"
"Very good, Ma'am." A female replied over the com-system, "I believe our Mother Empress will be most pleased."
"Excellent." Commander Chandrakantar Sarala responded before redirecting her attention, "Delta, Epsilon ships: are you prepared to board?"
"Affirmative, Ma'am." A third voice chimed in.
"Prepare to dock." The Commander said as she motioned for a view-screen to be pulled up.
Photons flickered in a colorful haze in front of her for a moment before condensing into the image of her two ships pulling down onto the carefully constructed locking harbors. From the two central docking bays, a complex web of tunnels, domes, and buildings spread out across the dwarf planet's surface. Strategically planted in the rich earth were dozens of drilling hubs, set to bring the planet's bounty aboard her ships.
"When will we be prepared to bring the minerals aboard?" She asked, crossing her hands behind the small of her back.
"In sixteen hours, Ma'am."
"Excellent. Begin the extraction process." Commander Chandrakanta told her as she took her seat on the bridge.
Her subordinate nodded and began relaying messages across the digital com-links. A series of reassuring beeps filled the cockpit for a moment before a comfortable silence set in. It was followed shortly be a response from the ground team that they were confirming orders and beginning the drilling process.
Slowly, loads of valuable minerals like platinum and gold would be loaded from the drilling bases, erected some weeks previously, onto the mechanized lifts and into the underbelly of the Aurora. All of it the result of twenty-five years of hard work.
The mission had taken almost eight years to construct and plan and a little under a decade to meet with the Council and Empress' approval. What followed were seven tedious years of hand-selecting and training the crews that were now operating under her command. All of it for the good of the Empire, the honor of her house, for the joy of her Mother… Literally billions of Empiric dollars had been funneled into the project, with expected returns in the trillions.
And even allowing for that, the results were optimistic: Given that so much of the Empire's technology relied on a precious few metals that were scarce on Earth, it only made sense to look elsewhere for them; but they had never honestly expected to pull up the sheer volume that they were projected to.
Day Three
"Report." She stated simply as she stepped into the bridge.
"Things are going wonderfully, Ma'am." Her ensign responded. "We've loaded almost a metric ton of platinum as of 0100 hours."
The Commander nodded as she pulled a small computer into her hands and pulled up the preliminaries on the data streaming in from the numerous crews.
"Surprising purity." She remarked to herself as she sat the device down.
"There was a small incident this morning, Ma'am." Someone finally remarked.
"I do believe I ordered that I was to be informed immediately of any and all set-backs." She said, her eyes sharp.
"Our apologies, Ma'am." The ensign replied, "We didn't believe it to be a threat to our productivity."
"Regardless," Chandrakantar responded, "I expect to be briefed in full the next time. Now, what sort of incident was this?"
"One of the privates responsible for monitoring the loading committed suicide at 1149 hours."
She sighed to herself, though it wasn't unheard of for even the most rigorously trained crews to have a few members who didn't have the psychological fortitude to deal with the vast emptiness of space. Colloquially, it was referred to as cabin fever. It was hardly unexpected, even if it was unpleasant.
"I'll read the autopsy report this evening and prepare to inform the family."
It would have to wait until after their mission concluded in several months. Very few people were privy to the existence of the operation at all. That information would be released if-when, she told herself privately-the mission proved successful.
"Keep me updated." She said simply as she rose and passed through the automatic doors again.
"Lieutenant Aeton?"
The normally keen man stared back at the red-headed Private blankly. He was unusually pale, and she wondered if the long hours on the drilling platforms were getting to him.
"Sir?"
"Make us whole again." He replied automatically.
"I don't understand, Sir." She said.
He didn't seem to hear her; he turned to face the drill and stepped into the rotating blade.
Her scream was cut short by the blood spatter of ripped flesh against her skin.
Day Five
Her intercom buzzed and she rolled over automatically in her bed and snapped the piece into her ear.
"This is the Commander Sarala."
"I apologize for the interruption, Commander," Ensign Zenia replied, "There was an incident at 0300 hours."
Chandrakantar glanced at the small digital clock glowing in the darkness of her room. It read as 0317.
"What was the nature of the incident?" She asked.
"Lieutenant Aeton, who was commanding the third drilling platform, apparently committed suicide."
The Commander frowned. Though "cabin fever" was expected in the lower ranks, it was almost unheard of from the rank of Master Sergeant up. The training regiment simply didn't allow for that psychological tendency.
"Private Amara witnessed the event and is currently being held in the medical bay."
"For what?" The Commander replied.
"Hysteria. It seems she had a break with reality. Moreover, Doctor Sanvali is requesting your presence in the medical bay at your first convenience."
"Inform her that I'm on my way now." She responded as she clicked off the net.
Doctor Yamika Sanvali hovered over the screaming young woman, trying in vain to measure the response of her pupils with the small flashlight clutched between her slender fingers. Even restrained, she was simply thrashing too hard.
"We're going to have to sedate her," She finally told her nurse as she drew back from the table and pulled her latex gloves off. "If she continues like this, she's going to lacerate her wrists and ankles."
"Shall I prepare an injection of Ativan?" The pretty young blonde replied.
Normally, her nurse would have been correct. But the patient was doing too much harm to herself to risk waiting on the slow acting Ativan. "Best make it Midazolam."
"Understood."
The nurse faded into the background just as the bay doors opened to reveal the Commander.
"Doctor Sanvali." She bowed her head in greeting.
"Commander." The doctor mirrored the movement, "Thank you for coming."
"What seems to be the problem?"
"I'm growing concerned for the well-being of several of the crews." She said pulling up a screen full of statistics that were routed directly from tiny electronic sensors in the uniforms of the crews. The sensors recorded heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and brain waves. "Their stress levels are unusually high, and their sleep patterns are abnormal."
"I'll have operations slowed immediately." The Commander reassured her.
Day Seven
In the privacy of her quarters, her hands shook and she could feel the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up as her eyes flickered across the screen. Twenty suicides, thirty-four assaults, six rapes, nineteen murders and more than forty people confined to the infirmaries.
The effort of merely keeping the life support systems functional was draining her already understaffed and highly stressed staff. And more and more people were collapsing, muttering unintelligibly, drowning in the voices in their dark minds…
Her throat was dry as she lifted a small recorder to her lips and spoke.
"This is the Empiric Aurora in the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, requesting immediate assistance. Repeat: This is the Empiric Aurora requesting immediate assistance."
TBC
