...AHAHAHAHA! I continued to cackle, complete with head flung to the sky and arms outstretched until Chitose smacked me in the back of the head with a huff. 'Wuh'pak!' "Ow!" I looked at her. "What was that for?"
"Being an idiot, now come on, she looks like she's in pain." I rushed to the Frankenship's side as Chitose knelt beside me. The ships expression did look pained, she opened her mouth but no sound escaped her except for a heavy groan.
"Urrrrrrrh..." Oh wow I really need to check in with the bridge crew.
"Hey Captain, what's going on in there?! all we're getting from the ship is groans!" My radio was silent for a moment, before finally she responded.
"We're having massive shorts in the electrical systems! some idiot in engineering forgot to take the kilowatt rating differential into consideration, the boilers only need to be operating at half capacity right now and they are going full load!" She continued, frantic movement and the sound of fire extinguishers going off in the background. "The power surge was too much for some of the more delicate systems and we had a few minor electrical fires in the superstructure, more blown fuses then I can shake a stick at. Nothing that's hard to fix or replace once we get some surge-protection and power inverters installed, and we are lowering the fuel intake for the boilers as we speak, but the hardware in control of her voice modulation? Gone."
"Urrrrhn?"
"What do you mean, 'gone?!' "
"Exactly what it sounds like! the damn thing basically melted as soon as we turned it on! She can understand you just fine, that's a different piece of equipment, and the superstructure's data bank was set for an Australian dialect, so she understands and SHOULD be able to speak English, but I doubt you'll get much other than groaning out of her until we find workarounds for the electrical problems and get her to a proper dock for a replacement." The franken-ship punctuated this by groaning again, Hakone having to hold her down as the massive ship started to bend her constraints in a bid to sit up.
"Urrrrrrrgaaah!"
"Hey hey! easy there, easy, your fine, you're with friends now, easy!" I put my hands on the shoulders of the ship, supporting the woman's back as she started to slump again, letting out a groan with a questioning tilt. "Chitose! get some Abyss steel from the holds! also some bunker C, Hakone, cut these restraints, I don't think we'll need them." Chitose practically sprinted down to the hold as I gently laid back the ship's head back down onto my lap, who aside from that first frantic burst, settled down relatively quickly."Hey, listen, you're talk-box had a meltdown okay? We can't understand you if you try to speak, I know its really confusing right now but you need to focus, OK? Nod if you understand."
The ship paused in her fidgeting as I spoke, and nodded weakly when I finished. bringing her arms up to cup the weld lines in her neck when her hands were freed by Hakone. "Alright, I have a couple of easy questions for you" I continued. "Can you remember anything, anything at all from before you woke up just now?" She shook her head with a small groan. "OK, don't nod if this one is true, does your neck hurt? if it does just point to where it hurts the most OK?" The ship quickly pointed towards her collar, where I could see a few tiny spiderwebbing cracks in the weld.
"Captain, the ship has a few bad welds near the base of the superstructure, left side, just above the collar" I got an affirmative, and I quickly picked up some of the engineer's who had been on standby with welding equipment, to put them on the ship's neck. "These are my engineering crew, they are gonna try and stop the pain in your neck OK?" the ship let out a tiny nod, her one uncovered eye starting to water as the welders started their work. Chitose came back about then, carrying a barrel of bunker C under one arm and a small crate of steel on her shoulder.
"Is this going to be enough?" I nodded as she set them down next to me, I had to stay still to not jostle the ships head in my lap while the welders ground the bad weld away. The ship's eye flickered to me as she let out a soft quizzical groan.
"Urrrrrh?"
"I'm Georgia, the girl who brought up supplies for you is Chitose, and the adorable little Cruiser over there is Hakone." Hakone twisted the hem of her shirt bashfully as Chitose gave a little wave. The ship's eye followed as I pointed to each, and an un-occupied hand waved gently at both of them as the welders washed down the grind lines and laid down new filler rods. "Once you get your neck repaired, you can have something to eat so you can summon your own fairies, once that happens they can help doing maintenance on you, after that, if you're up for it we can sort out your rigging." Her turrets were still lying on the deck a few feet away, long connecting tubes capping off with sectional fittings meant to lock together with the sockets on the ship's chest and back. "Hey Captain two, any idea what blueprint she's based off of?" I heard grumbling on the other end, and eventually:
"Your's, idiot, you think anyone built a ship like this before?!" I facepalmed.
"Not what I meant and you know it!" I said.
There was a shuffling of papers."The superstructure is the only thing we have records for, apparently the Ne-class it belonged to was based largely off the County-class, an Australian design." I relayed this to Chitose, who posed in thought, hand on her chin.
"I don't remember any Australian cruisers personally, but if she was based off of an Abyssal I'd put my money on either the HMS Cornwall or Doretshire, they were the only two that sank due to direct enemy action that I know of." Hmm.
"If you were based off the County-class, how about we just call you Countess for now? We can come up with something better later if you like." The newly named Countess gave an almost imperceptible nod as the welders finished their work, going at the new weld with steel brushes to scrape away any slag. "Neck feeling any better?" I asked. Countess slowly nodded as the fairies dismounted her neck so I could scoop them up again. I clapped my hands. "SO! let's get you something to eat, huh?"
Countess of course said nothing, but her eye gleamed as she stared at the supplies Chitose had brought.
"How can one ship be so hungry?!" I said in amazement, as Countess once again cleared her plate, she was on her fourth helping of steel ingots within the last twenty minutes, and she'd drained an entire barrel of fuel. "I guess that maintenance must've emptied your holds, huh?" The ship nodded carefully, before letting out a small burp and continuing her massacre of metal. I sat down next to Chitose with an old Chinese civilian-issue MRE as she chowed down on an aluminum wafer, chasing it with a small cocktail she'd made out of wine and Bunker C (with a dash of pineapple) "So, you'll be leaving soon I guess, huh?" I said. Chitose paused, glass halfway to her lips, before sighing and setting it down.
"Yes, once we get past the Abyssal blockade on the coast, I'll be leaving to link up with the Vietnamese like we talked about. Hopefully they have communications I can use to contact my Admiral, and eventually they can come in to reinforce or pick me up." We lapsed into silence as we picked at our food, the only noises coming from Hakone and Countess as they noisily ate.
"I'll miss you, ya know," I said after a few minutes. "Mabe if my wandering brings me around Japan I'll look you up?" Chitose let out a snort of laughter at that, and I looked at her quizzically.
"If you get anywhere close to the homeland, It'll be all I can do to try and keep the rest of the fleet from shooting at you, and I doubt I'd succeed!" Alright, fair point.
"Still, must be some way I can get in touch again, right?" Chitose looked thoughtful, before she took a napkin and produced a pen from... somewhere. She wrote on it for a moment before passing it to me, and I saw it was a phone number. "I don't have a phone myself, but this is the public phone number for contacting the reception desk in the Tokyo Kanmusu base when I get back, I'll tell them to keep an ear out for someone named Georgia calling, just find a working landline on the coast and you can call for me, okay?"
I took the napkin, stuffing it down my shirt for my Captain to keep in her lockbox. "Okay."
I know I know, Countess is a dumb-friggen name, its a placeholder! if anyone can think up a good one let me know, it may just end up being what she's called.