Part Twenty – The more things change

It'd nearly been nine weeks since I last heard from NJ and I was starting to get alarmed. My day at the office was almost done when I hear my mobile starting to ring, picking it up and rolling it over I see the name come up and I tilt my head to the side before I answer it, "What can I do for you Iowa?"

"Have you seen or heard from NJ?" she asks me.

"Not in about two months, has something happened?" I ask, trying to keep the concern out of my voice.

Iowa is quiet for a few moments before she says, "So a little longer than when I last heard from her. What happened last time you heard from NJ?"

Rubbing the back of my head I lean against the window frame and look out over the port as I say, "Your SecDev boarded my hull uninvited, looking for NJ. I probably could've handled things better, but I was still mad about some information that came to my attention and I acted rashly and roughly."

"And?" she asks as I hear her moving around her kitchen.

"And NJ put a hand on my shoulder asking me to let him go and I did. He then got up and took her by the wrist and left my hull." I say with a sigh before adding, "She told me that she trusted and loved me and that she meant those words were the last thing I heard from her."

"He? We haven't had a man as SecDev in almost two years." She says and I feel a chill run down my spine.

By brow knits together and openly speak my mind, "Then why didn't NJ protest his presence or let on that he wasn't the SecDev? Then again my MoD seemed to know him as the SecDev too."

"What did he look like?" Iowa asks.

Racking my brain I try to recall him before I say, "Smaller than me, by like two or three times, balding, glasses and a really superior attitude."

"That sounds like McCormick; he was our SecDev before our current one, and it would make sense for NJ not to question him being the SecDev. I love NJ to bits, but she never really pays attention to knowing who we report to." Iowa muses before asking, "But why did he want NJ to think he was still the SecDev?"

My right-hand balls as memories of my 'father' come to mind and the nightmares I still get from time to time of the things that were done to me. My fist pounds the wall as I say, "When was the last time anyone had contact with NJ?"

"Hang on." She says as I listen as she moves through her house and some clicking of keys on the keyboard before she says "Huh, that strange."

"What is?" I ask feeling my chest getting tight.

"The last known position of NJ was heading into the Bermuda triangle, about a month ago." She says in a puzzled tone before adding, "But I got a message from NJ last week saying that she was taking an extended trip up north."

"Can you try to ping her uplink?" I ask as my stomach started to turn in knots.

"Good idea, she should show up then." Iowa says and I hear keys get hit before she adds, "Mother fucker! She's not pinging back; last known position puts her about a hundred nautical miles outside of the Bahamas."

"What would it take to block that signal?" I ask as I rub my right palm on the leg of my pants.

"Fifty feet of concrete or a bunch of signal jammers," Iowa says as I hear her get up and walk back to the kitchen before she pauses to add, "Big Guy, I'm kind of worried now. Has anything like this happened before to an RN girl?"

"No, but it's happened to me before." I say as I grab my jacket and start to leave my office.

"Wait what?" Iowa asks, sounding really puzzled.

I feel a pit starting to form in my guts as I say to her, "My father abducted me about four years ago now, and turned me into the core processor for my hull to use me to kill my mother. I killed him in the end, but when my mother tried to take me out of the hull, I died."

"If you died, then how am I talking to you now?" she asks.

"I was resurrected via wisdom cubes and became what you know now. My mother didn't want me to die, so she forced this change on me." I say while making my way to my hull.

"Jesus Christ." Iowa says slowly before adding, "You've really had a messed up life."

"You have no idea." I say before I start to board my hull, damn orders to stay in port, I need to know what's going on.

XXXX

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I was less than twelve hours out of port before my radio crackled to life at the new Minister of Defense's voice came on the speakers as he hollered at me, "Thunderer what do you think you're doing? You had stranding orders to remain in port!"

My lips press together as I snort before I respond, "Something alarming came to my attention and I need to see it for myself."

"I didn't see or hear about anything coming across the wires to my desk, so what could come to yours?" he asks with a degree of contempt that I was growing resentful of hearing from humans.

"I'm worried that a kansen has been abducted." I respond, hoping he's not going to ask for more details.

On the other end, I hear some whispering before he responds, "According to observers at all of our bases, only one kansen is missing, you!"

"I never said she was one of ours." My eyes close as I grunted that out.

"Then let whoever she belongs to look for her! I'm ordering you to return to port." He says.

I look out my windows at the waves out ahead of me, my left fist balling up as I say, "No."

"Excuse me?" he retorts, a bit of alarm in his voice.

"I said no! You, damn humans, treat us as expendable assets, but when one of us goes missing, it's just 'oh well, not our problem.' She's been missing for almost two months now and only kansen seems concerned by that!" I yell into the radio.

He's quiet for a few moments before saying, "Send me the name and I'll talk to my counterpart in the nation in question, but you need to return to port, now."

Balling my fist I respond, "And I said no." before I smash the radio and shut off my tracking system. I had better pick up the pace if I wanted to stay ahead of any force they sent after me.

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It'd been almost four days since I 'signed off' with my fleet, but I was here in the Bahamas now and I had managed to find what I was looking for I think. According to my charts and records of the war with the Sirens, this island once known as New Providence had been decimated, the population wiped out, but one thing was clear, someone had moved in. All around the harbor I could see massive sea walls had been built, watchtowers placed on top, and massive sea doors blocked the entrance. Using my gun sights I zoomed in to inspect the walls, towers, and gates, again I was thankful for how stealthy my hull is, it had allowed me to get so close, but one thing was sure, when I start this attack, that surprise will be gone.

As I sight in on one of the towers I can see human-sized objects moving around and my fists ball up tightly. I angle my hull to get all four turrets on the two towers, splitting the load of shells between HE and AP, putting two turrets onto each tower and I wait for the perfect moment to fire. I load AP in my A and Y turrets with HE in B and X, I aim, letting out a breath slowly before I fire A and Y turrets first, with those shells downrange when the shells are approximately five seconds from their targets I fire B and X.

With those shells downrange, I angle bow in and charge, my loading systems reloading my forward batteries in record time while I take it a little slower on my rear turrets. As I charge down the range I bring my secondary battery online and let them seek targets on their own. It's not a moment after the towers explode in a shower of fire, concrete, and twisted steel.

I'm almost at the entrance and I detect torpedo boats inbound, I don't care. I push my drives harder, I'm just about there when I detect a wave of torpedoes inbound, I shift my rudder to port, then starboard and thread the needle. I feel a smirk come to my lips as I see the panicked faces of the humans on one of the torpedo boats when they realize I'm not stopping.

I feel the crumpling and scraping against my bow as I go through the torpedo boat that was in my way. I sense they have closed steel doors across the harbor, so I fire my bow turrets, watching as the high explosive shells slam home, caving the door inwards before it gives way and falls into the water. I know that I'll draw too much water to get in there with that sinking gate so I banish my hull and summon my rigging, skimming between the sinking doors.

Ahead of me, I see more humans lining up on the docks, I lock on to them with my rear turrets that were on my left while my forward ones were still reloading. The HE shells slam into the docks, and I feel the compression wave from the blast while bits of concrete rain down around me.

I get up on the docks, keeping my rigging around me, I sense movement to my left and I raise my hull part in time to let small arms fire bounce off of it harmlessly, the secondary turrets I had their return fire, hitting with all the force of 133mm guns firing high explosive.

After those guns have rung out, I notice how quiet the dock sounds, I doubt they were expecting me to come charging in here. As I listen carefully, I hear some moaning to my right. When I get to it, I see a human woman; her legs are pinned under part of a wall. Her eyes go wide as she looks at me, she starts to try and reach for her gun. I place my right boot on her hand, pressing down as hard as I can before I kneel over her and press the hot barrels of my A turret against her exposed neck and I ask, "Where is she?"

She screams in pain from the heat and I turn the turret so that it's not pressing against her skin and I ask again, "Where is she?"

She's sobbing so I swing it back around, stopping just short of touching her again and she cries out, "North Lab! She's in the North Lab!"

I stand back up and lift my right boot off of her hand, moving it to just over her head before I slam it down as hard as I can, over and over until I hear a wet crunching sound, and her screaming stops.

XXXX

I fire my main guns against the doors to the main lab again, blowing them open and down a corridor, in the emergency lighting that was in the building I can see a collection of soldiers so I yell out to them before I go in, "Run now and I won't kill you."

In response to my demand, I hear the cocking of rifles, so I answer that by firing more of my main batteries.

As I cross into the facility I can see the damage my guns have done, the walls are cracked, bits and burned, nothing is left of these humans after my shells hit home. Walking through the facility I encounter a little more resistance, but it was easy to sweep it aside with my weapons. I went up to the next floor after the lower level had been secured and I stopped outside a lab that had been made to look like a nursery, my fists ball up tightly as I walk through this room, the crib had been knocked over in the shockwaves that had rocked this place when I fired my main guns, thankfully nothing had been in it yet. As I look up and to my left, I feel sick to my stomach as I see a room that had been set up to be like a delivery room, a bed with things to hold the legs open and apart, and medical equipment everywhere. My breathing was getting rapid and shallow I was really starting to worry about what was going on in this place. I closed my eyes and listened, in the distance, I could hear rhythmic beeping, something in me told me that was where I needed to go.

When I got to the room it was coming from, I kicked the door down and in the dark room I could see blinking green lights, in time with the rhythmic beeping as I took a step in I heard from inside the room the voice of the man I had known as the SecDev call out, "One more step and you'll regret it."

Pressing my lips together I snarl out, "Like you could ever hurt me."

"Maybe not," he says, pausing to turn on a light, letting me see him standing above NJ who was laying on a bed, clearly out of it, her belly exposed and swollen like she had eaten a big meal. In his free hand he had a big needle, he grinned at me and added, "but killing your unborn child would."

I feel like I've been punched in the stomach, child? I'm a father? I stop walking forward and sight in on him with my secondary battery, but I know I can't use them, NJ is too close. I start to cycle down to my small caliber anti-aircraft guns, everything is danger close. He laughs at me as he taunts, "I know she's too close for you to use your rigging, you'd think I'd be dumb enough not to take that into account?"

I'm seething at this; I can't use any of my weapons on him, and not risk NJ or this apparent precious cargo she was now carrying. I banish my rigging to the harbor as I say to him, "What do you want?"

When he sees my rigging is away he takes the big needle away from NJ's belly and I take a step forward causing him to put it back over her belly as he says, "No, I said not one more step."

I take one step back and growl out, "Fine."

"Good. Did anyone follow you here?" he asks me as he takes the needle away again.

"I don't think so." I say as I take hold of a piece of the door frame and add, "You know I'm not going to let you leave here, alive."

"Yes, yes you are." He says as he lifts a device and tosses it to me and adds, "Now, be a good boy and make a deposit, I'm going to have to find a new subject for this experiment."

After I catch the device I ask, "And if I don't?"

"I've got a plan for that too." He says taking a little device out of his pocket and continues, "This is linked to some charges in her hull, I push the button, and her hull sinks, killing her and what she's carrying."

I look down at the device, it seems to be a cold storage unit for biological samples, looking over at him I see I'm in a difficult spot, but I've got no choice, I growl out, "Fine."

XXXX

With my sample given I return to the medical room, and hold out the sample to him and he tells me, "Toss it to me."

"Not a chance. You hand me the remote and I hand you the sample container, at the same time." I counter.

He gives me a sideways look and says, "You're not as dumb as I thought."

Damn this human, damn him to the depths for this. But that's right, come within my arms' reach, you stupid human. He extends his hand with the remote and his other hand for the device, I let him take it and he drops the remote in my hand, but for that split second when his attention was off of me, I use my now free hand to grip him by the throat, while I slip the remote into a pocket and grab hold of his wrist with that hand in blinding speed and start to pull that arm out of his socket. His eyes go wide and I see that he's trying to scream in pain, but I'm squeezing too tightly with the hand around his neck, I glair at him and I whisper, "The moment you screwed up was when you took her." I see panic start to fill his eyes as they start to bulge out, his face going red at the lack of oxygen. A moment before he would pass out, I let go, dropping him to the floor. In a flash I'm kneeling behind him, I've got him in a headlock and I pick up that needle out of his pocket and slowly drive it in through an eye, letting him scream the entire time as he had to watch it go in. When his body stops twitching, I leave it on the floor and go over to NJ, she has all of these tubes connected to her and I don't know what does what, I take a deep breath and take out my mobile and call Iowa.

"Big Guy, where are you?" she asks in a panic.

"I found her, on New Providence in the Bahamas." I start before pausing to add, "And bring a repair ship, I don't know anything about medical stuff."

Iowa is quiet for a minute before she asks, "Is she alive?"

"I think so, I don't know how to read these displays." I say as I tap one of the monitors.

Iowa lets out a sigh of relief and asks, "What's her condition?"

"Unconscious," I start, pausing to put a hand on NJ's belly as I add very quietly "and pregnant."

Iowa is again, quiet before taking on a professional tone of voice, "We're six hours out from New Providence."

I rub NJ's belly as I say, "I'll see you in six hours then."

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A/N: I'm impressed at the numbers of people going back to Hard Landing's reference to this, but that outcome has been averted, so no need to worry about a dark ending to this one.