A/N: Sorry for being a week late guys, I have absolutely no excuse...other than my own laziness, my uncertainty on how to handle some things in this chapter, and my unfortunate decision to resume my suspended campaign on Total War:Warhammer. Yes, I'm a big nerdy type of person. Still, I wanted to close the "first mission" story arc with this chapter, but it proved too troublesome. I should be able to do that with chapter 8, after which I plan to slooow my upload pace for a time. Gotta brace myself, for FINALS ARE COMING, and I want my damn degree. Goodnight from Italy, folks.
Chapter 7: Unlocked
Day 02, 22.00 Hours, open sea. Estimated position: 196 kilometers southwest of the island of Crete.
Andrea was on the bow of his ship, observing the darkness all around him: with the faint light of the moon and the deep red reflections of his battleship's fog marks giving color to the blackened sea, he could barely see the outlines of the transports they captured proceeding in a tight column behind them, in a clear night where the water was calm and the breeze was refreshing. After the heat of the lybian coast and the action of the previous day, he found the scenery to be quite soothing.
"So, how did you like your dinner?" He asked, turning around to face the black-haired girl who was sitting cross-legged on top of the closest of her main guns.
"Honestly, I don't know what I'm supposed to say: although food should not give me nourishment as it does for you, I think the taste of it was nice, and I felt a strange sensation of...being filled. I find it...satisfying." She answered with a small smile.
"You don't say? You ate thrice my share!" Andrea laughed. "That much fried fish in one evening would be more than enough to give a regular human some serious digestion problems! Maybe you should start eating something once in a while...think about it, your body might be able to process the food after all! I can see no other reason for you to have such an appetite!" He smiled, seeing the reddening effect that his remarks caused on Roma's cheeks. He then started thinking about what happened earlier in the evening.
After the ambush, he had ordered Roma to deactivate the Fog transponders on the transports, to avoid them being tracked by the enemy, and then they started cruising at around 20 knots (the maximum speed of the cargos) towards the Aegean Sea, which was the one with the less reported Fog presence. Luckily they hadn't encountered any patrols, and they had a clear run for the whole evening, allowing them to have a meal undisturbed: the dinner itself was nothing special, just some fried fish and salad with a side dish of cheese; what was curious though, was the way it was prepared.
Andrea had asked Roma the day before to install a conveyor network around the ship to allow him to get any kind of object he may need in the future, even if just a glass of water, in whichever room he was. Since such a thing was highly inefficient she connected just the food preserving room, the water storage and her material cargo hold to the bridge and the medical bay, but she supplemented the small network with "Item manipulation devices #538" in the last two rooms: that fog denomination corresponded to a strange "oven", which nanomachines could be controlled with one's mind to have numerous effects, from heating to cutting and mixing; it was basically a mix between a fabricator and a kitchen multitool, since it still required the presence of materials and ingredients brought via conveyor to function.
Thankfully, nanite communication with the device was less strenuous on Andrea's brain than the one with a mental model, allowing him to give accurate instructions to the machine which he decided to name, quite plainly, Replicator. After a few tries he managed to prepare dinner and save the procedure in the replicator's database: such a function would come in handy the next time he wanted the same dish.
Returning to present time, Andrea remembered the one issue that they still needed to address today: "So, shall we go greet our guests?" He said, motioning to go inside.
Roma uncrossed her legs and gracefully jumped down from the cannon, walking with him towards the superstructure ad then deep inside the ship, inside the armoured citadel and into the medical bay, where two mental models awaited constrained on the surgery tables, which were now inclined to allow eye contact while maintaining distance.
"Hey! Finally…I thought you would leave me here forever!" Silvia said, pouting a little but quickly recovering her upbeat personality. She then unleashed a flurry of questions upon her poor hosts: "…I couldn't even free myself, somehow all of my functions were blocked! Thanks for restoring my leg, by the way! Oooh, are you Captain Andrea?! …and who's the sleeping beauty on the other table?"
"Urghh…Scipione, will you please calm down a little? Just for once?" Roma pleaded with a loud sigh, while Andrea chuckled.
"Well, it's nice to finally meet you in person, Silvia. Hopefully we can start a good partnership together, and you're welcome for your leg: after all, we'd like our allies to be at their maximum affordable strength." He said with a polite smile while starting to walk around the room, keeping his arms crossed behind him, "Yeah, allies…this brings me to the reason for which we are here, and for which I had Roma limit both your motor functions and your control over your nanites. Loyalty, and allegiance." He continued, stopping in the field of view of the brunette model.
"You have shown me that you are willing to aid someone which you consider your friend, and later also to be willing to defend your existence, even in defiance of your flagship's orders. That shows both a hint of altruism and self-preservation instinct, which are not typical to find in a machine; so I will ask you a very serious question." His face suddenly hardened in a cold façade, his eyes fixed on the lively model's.
"Do you wish to aid me and Roma in our quest for survival and resistance against the Fleet of Fog, to help the human people whenever possible, and to follow my commands…even if it means destroying an old comrade?"Silvia appeared confused at the sudden seriousness of the situation, and she stayed quiet for a whole minute, elaborating.
In the end, she agreed with a short nod, although she didn't appear very convinced of her decision; she seemed almost…sad.
"Traitor!" shouted the mental model laid on the second table, which until now appeared inactive.
Andrea turned her attention to the voice's source: a short girl with long, light gray, straight hair which would reach her shoulders if she was standing. Her looks placed her at the same apparent age as Silvia, 16 to 17 years old, but she had a totally different appearance: where Scipione was lightly tanned and had a soft, if lively face, her lineaments were hard and her complexion pale, though not as much as Roma's.
Her big, curve nose combined with her eyes who were painted a fiery yellow gave her visage a predatory appearance, like that of a bird of prey looking for its next victim.
She was wearing a long, form-fitting black coat which covered her completely from her arms down to her knees, without showing anything underneath; it wouldn't have looked too out of place in the early XVII century, and it sported a red cape covering her shoulders. She was also wearing some elaborate brown sandals at her feet, which were bare like her legs. On the table, next to her head, was a red renaissance soft hat.
"Bene, bene…it seems our other esteemed guest has awoken. Tell me, do you know where you are, and what this means for you…Leonardo da Vinci?" Andrea asked, while he pondered what to do with her. He had plans for her, but they all relied on a...risky procedure.
The record of her historic counterpart was impressive, to say the least: with 120.243 total tonnage of ship kills, she was the best-scoring submarine of the entire second world war…excluding the germans, of course, but they were the submarine specialists of their time; still, if her ability was somehow replicated in the fog vessel he now faced, she could prove to be a valuable asset…if she could be turned. And what the hell was up with ships named as males having female mental models?
"Hrmpf! I have nothing to say to you, other than calling you all fools not only for savingme from sinking, but also repairing my mental model. All it will ever get you to is having to restrain me." She scoffed, without bothering to turn her head to face Andrea.
When Roma brought her aboard, Leonardo's model was so badly injured that Andrea couldn't even discern its gender: her entire body was cleanly cut from her left knee up to her right shoulder in a precise line with the lower half completely missing, and the other half was so charred that her coat fused with the body; her white core could be seen in the folds of her flesh where it had been split, and the model itself was slowly disintegrating into particles of silver sand. Still, as with Silvia's wounds, there was no blood spilling from the broken body. Restoring it had been a…taxing enterprise for Roma, and a considerable investment of the newly gained nanomaterials which required a risky en-route transfer from a cargo, so Andrea was determined to have his way.
"Well, I believe you have received as well the orders from your flagship. All the models who come into contact with Roma are to be considered compromised and sank on sight, but why? Allow me to enlighten you…" He said, moving beside Leonardo's table to be able to look her in the eyes. "…during the butchery at Taranto, Roma experienced a particularly traumatic experience after being exposed to contact with the blood of her most recent kill…yours truly."
At this, the grey-haired girl's eyes widened in stupor and quickly narrowed, wary. Seeing her reaction, Andrea smirked wickedly and beckoned for Roma to come near him, while he dematerialized the sleeves of his uniform.
"If you are wondering how and why such an experience turned Roma against the Fog, wonder no longer…for you are about to experience the same."
Leonardo watched paralyzed as Roma connected a pair of small, transparent tubules from Andrea's right arm to her own…and stared in mute horror at the bright red liquid that was quickly covering the distance in between. Closer…and closer…she braced herself, preparing for a pain that never came.
The blood was pouring inside her by now, but nothing happened. After a few seconds Roma disconnected the tubes, and Andrea re-materialized his sleeves; whatever they tried, it did not work on her! ...But her victorious smirk was quick to disappear.
Andrea watched as the submarine girl's features were twisting in a flurry of emotions: surprise, confusion, fear, and then utter panic as she shifted her face to look around her, like she was trying to escape something. Then she started blabbering incoherently, louder and louder, and then she started sobbing.
Then the screams began, and oh boy did she have a nice pair of lungs! She screamed, on and on she screamed, in fear, and in pain…until Andrea could not take it anymore: "Roma, would you please deactivate her vocal chords? Her screams are becoming quite disturbing."
"No need, captain. Whatever illusion she is seeing, it's probably impeding her capacity to breathe." Looking at the girl, Andrea noted that she was indeed choking…on nothing.
"Did you have a similar reaction to it, Roma?" Andrea asked, curious.
"Up to this point, yes. I don't remember choking, but I heard voices and had visions that were literally driving me mad: it was under their influence that I first turned my guns against the Fog, and it took me a whole week to confine them in a single memory bank…they are still there right now, quarantined. I don't think…SHIT!" she shouted.
"What's happening?" Andrea asked, as Roma recalled an holographic interface and started fumbling with it.
"She is trying to initiate a core purge! If she succeeds…" She explained, looking at Leonardo's model: her eyes were wide, staring into nothing, and her body was unnaturally rigid. "If she succeeds…she is dead. For real. No memory, no personality, no nothing. Gone."
"Then stop her! No one takes the easy way out, not on my watch!" Andrea sharply commanded, before noticing a quiet sobbing; turning to face its source, he was faced with a weeping Silvia who was looking at the dying model, tears falling in rivers from her brown eyes.
"Is this…is this what is locked away from us? Those 'E-Emotional p-protocols' that R-Roma was explaining to me this morning? A-are they r-really so t-terrible that she wants to d-d-die? H-how can this be? ...Will I...will...I...have...to...?" Her voice broke before she could finish the last question, but Andrea understood and his expression softened a bit.
"Yes. This is the power of human emotions, which your body possess, but that is not needed in a machine…a weapon. It is a curse, as you can plainly see: we humans can suffer to a great length physically, but even more psychologically…our minds can be even easier to break than our bodies. Do not despair, however, for our world is not just anger and sadness…there is so much more. And trust me, it is beautiful. It may be a curse, but this power will make you much more than a living weapon. It will make you a living being."
By the time Andrea finished his monologue, Roma had deactivated her holo-panels.
"I stopped the purge in time. She will make it, but her systems are currently rebooting: it will make it easier for her to assimilate the new protocols into herself, and maybe she will reacquire some semblance of sanity. She should wake in around…10 hours." She reported.
"Good! Really nice save there, Roma. If I may ask, what did she see to cause her such a trauma? I can understand that what happened to you was related to the bombardment that you undertook, but there's no such scene right here and now that would justify her reaction…" Andrea asked, thoughtful: the one they used was the only procedure he and Roma had devised to unlock the protocols of eventual Fog captives, and the more they understood the process, the better.
"Her mind was brought back to a particularly bloody mission she undertook. You should ask her, when she wakes up. I…I think THAT is private information. And also that speaking with her about it will help her recover at least part of the mental health she has just lost." She frowned, displeased by what seemed a sick interest.
"I would also like you to know that I don't like the use of this method. What if someone else tries to suicide and I'm not there to stop her? Or what if someone, in her madness, cuts loose from my restraints?! A Battleship or a Suppression Vessel would be fully capable of doing that, and your precious child would be in grave danger!" She stated, with a bitter tone.
She thought that humans were supposed to feel empathy, but he looked at Leonardo's suffering just like herself once looked upon her victims, before her own unlocking. What's worse, he almost seemed to enjoy seeing her suffer, and she did not like that.
"Then we will find another way, but until we do, we are stuck with this! And…you are right: this needs to be done far away from the medbay." Andrea conceded. "I'm sorry, I did not ask you the details, but I need to know what she and I will be talking about: I highly doubt her first phrases are going to be coherent…and what is a suppression vessel?"
"Your kind calls them Aircraft Carriers." Roma briefly answered. "Urgh…I don't like it, but I can see your point. I will send you an infrared image of the ship that she sank…the name is on the bow. Prepare for instant nano-comm."
As she shared the submarine's memory frame with her captain, his eyes widened: "My God…the Divina. She torpedoed the Divina…" He slumped to the floor. He was shocked, but now he could understand the submarine's reaction. "The news spoke about it for weeks…it was the night we humans truly understood how cruel the Fog could be to our kind: a cruise ship, 5.468 souls aboard. Disappeared...without a trace...in open seas, while returning from Cyprus. No survivor, or body, was ever found."
"H-how t-terrible…" Silvia whispered. At that, Andrea slowly rose up and got close to the brunette.
"Well, now it's time to see how much you really care, Silvia." He quietly stated, looking at the fragile-looking girl.
"I-I'm afraid…D-do y-you r-really have t-to...do...it? " she whimpered, and Andrea's heart clenched. But after using his own nanites to produce a handkerchief and wipe the tears from Silvia's face, he steadied himself: there was no other choice. So he gave the order. "Roma…start the procedure."
Silvia resumed weeping as soon as he uttered the damning words, and kept at it until his blood was fully transferred. Then it intensified, as she rocked her head back and forth, violently, and then she started screaming too. First it were just unintelligible words, then screams of pain, and then a single, final cry:
"NO! You don't understand! I'm sorry! I'M SORRY! I DID NOT WANT THIS TO HAPPEN! I NEVER WANTED THIS TO HAPPEN!"
This time Andrea could not look on coldly, but he kept looking. He had to keep looking. He knew that if his prisoners and allies were to experience a hell they themselves created, he would still be the one to give the order, and send them there. He needed to watch, because it was his own hell to endure, and he was certain that someday this would be haunting him during his sleep. He never in his life could stomach the screams of a woman, even in movies: they made his blood chill and his belly turn inside out in guilt, and they flayed his heart with sharp blades of voice that caused incredible pain. These were no exceptions. He tried to ignore the grey-haired girl's cries, and he thought he managed to endure them, but it was not true. Silvia's were the final straw, and a single tear escaped his eye. No, he had to find another way to do this; he was not strong enough.
Finally the cries stopped, and a loud, constant sobbing took their place.
Not being able to stay put anymore, Andrea moved to Silvia's side and unbuckled her restraints; she fell right onto him, her weight bringing him to his knees.
He caught her and hugged her tight. "Ssshhhh…It's over…we are here with you…it is all gonna be ok...it's over..." Then he started weeping, silently.
As Roma saw Silvia hugging him back in desperation, and the tears of guilt that Andrea was shedding, she thought that maybe she misjudged her captain…or maybe he is more complex and unknown to her than she would dare to admit. Maybe she still not understood completely what it meant to be human. Only time would tell.
Now, Silvia was undoubtedly with them, she saved a life and she was restocked on both nanomaterials and...food. She smiled: maybe this was the beginning of happiness.