DAY 0
Prince of Wales sighed deeply, nursing her aching headache.
A thirty-minute sleep wasn't what she had in mind last night. She wasn't the only one who had that much sleep that night, due to the fact a giant shockwave hit the entire base, knocking out power for two hours. Nobody was injured from it, thank the heavens, and there was minimal damage to the base.
It was the first time she decided on coffee. To her surprise, it had worked wonders in keeping her awake.
"Ms. Wales, is there something wrong?"
She glanced to her left, spotting wavy blond hair as bright blue eyes stared back at hers. It did not take much to deduct who it was.
"Yes, Hood, I'm alright. Just a little stressed is all."
"Mm," she nodded understandingly. "How goes the situation?"
''Ah, that," Wales sighed. "Akashi said she doesn't see any other problems. The only damage was to the power of the base, which she had managed to fix."
Hearing the hum of acknowledgment from the battle cruiser made Wales turn back to the port. Before she could drone off, Hood spoke up:
"Do they know what Akashi found?"
The battleship stiffened, hesitating at her response. "She found nothing. She was..."
"You were always a terrible liar, Ms. Wales," Hood closed the gap. "Do they know?"
"I- well, no. They don't know and it's best they don't." Wales said.
"Don't you think they deserve to know? They will probably want answers as to what caused it. The faction leaders might want a report too."
"We say nothing about it," Wales said sternly. "For now the discovery is to remain a secret, and we place the blame on the sirens."
A small part of Hood wanted to protest, but she knew better than to run her mouth about something like this. Loyalty comes a long way, to break it is to break a building that was years in the making.
Even if she did tell, what're the chances they would believe her on who caused it?
DAY 1
"How is she?"
Wales' words echoed in the dimly lit, undisclosed part of the medical ward. The slow beeping of the machines was the only sound that could be heard in the room. Akashi the words, but hesitated on the truth.
"Not good," said the green-haired softly. "Fatigue is the most obvious problem. Her body seems overworked and it shows. Her stomach has shrunk and she's lost at least eighteen percent of her body weight, probably closer to twenty-five percent. Not only that, her heart is under immense stress and it's beating far too fast, several areas of muscle are overworked to the point of internally bleeding. Her stomach is the area of immense stress, and shouldn't even be possible to move without pain."
"There's more to it, isn't there?" Wales whispered.
"Her bones. Notably her rubs, spine, and joints. The damage itself isn't worrying, though x-ray scans show her bones had to have been healed recently. To put it bluntly, her current state is better than her previous state." Akashi sighed before turning to the heart monitor. "I also noticed her blood levels have been fluctuating. I found the source to be an irregular, almost foreign substance flowing within her blood vessels. I've taken a sample of her blood to run for tests."
"Lord, it's worse than I thought." Wales grimaced.
Akashi shared the same face as Wales, though she hid it better as she examined the poor girl. While she hadn't outright said it, the girl showed severe signs of sickness, alongside the significant damage to her body. However, she didn't tell them about the sickness, for the discovery was one that made her sick to the very core.
Kuru.
When she found it, she wanted to throw up. In all of Akashi's time studying diseases, medicine, and scamming, none made her feel as nauseous as Kuru.
"What... just what happened to you?" she said aloud, voice echoing in the room. Deep inside, she hoped the next few days were easy sailing.
She was wrong.
DAY 2
The girl stirred after forty-eight hours.
Her gaze was locked onto the ceiling, a stony mask on her face as her pale, dark blue eyes gazed endlessly at the wall and her grey hair sprawled across the pillow.
''Y-You're awake!'' Akashi stuttered in surprise. "You must be too tired to talk. Blink once for yes and twice for no, okay?"
She paused, waiting for a reply... only to get nothing.
''... Hello?'' Akashi slowly waved her hand.
The grey-haired girl didn't respond. Her eyelashes fluttered with each blink, seemingly aware of her surroundings.
The sight of the girl concerned the repair ship. She approached the girl's bedside, carefully laying a hand on her cheek. The girl didn't react to it, but when Akashi gently tilted her head to face her, she froze.
Dead. Dead, hollow eyes.
To call it a thousand-yard stare is an understatement. She felt the gaze pierce her soul. Akashi swallowed the sudden lump in her throat and spoke again:
"Hello? Can you... hear me?"
Silence. Utter, stifling silence.
"Seven-hundred and eighty-five."
Until she spoke.
"What?" Akashi asked. "Can you repeat that?"
"... Seven-hundred and eighty-five."
Even not understanding it, Akashi felt herself shiver at the number. "Okay, can you tell me your name?"
"Huh...?"
"Your name. Unless you don't remember it?"
"It's," the girl paused. Her eyes were still glued to Akashi's, who shuffled. "I can't remember."
"Oh? Well, that's okay. How about... how about we call you Rutsah?"
"Rutsah," she felt a familiarity with the name but shrugged it off. "Nice. It sounds nice."
And so began the new life of Rutsah.
NIGHT 3
Once upon a time, everything was normal.
That, Vestal believes, is a time she wants to go back to. It's now their third day here, but it feels like they have been here for eternity. Which she hopes not.
"The second one disappeared like the first one."
She stared at Enterprise to process the information. Neither of them spoke for a moment.
"Sending a third would be a waste," Enterprise explained. "If they are just going to disappear like this, we shouldn't bother anymore."
"I think something is causing that. What do you think?" Vestal asked.
"It's possible. But until it is sorted, I won't risk sending out another."
"I understand that."
Silence ensued at that moment. Not soon, Enterprise opened her mouth to speak, but Vestal was faster than her.
"Are you feeling ill?"
"Ill? No, I'm feeling fine, why?"
"You seem pale." Vestal pointed out.
Enterprise's muscles stiffened, staring at her before relaxing. "Homesick maybe? I'm probably just feeling under the weather because of what's happening."
"That's possible," she deducted. "But... never mind."
"What?"
"Forget it, it's just my head rambling stupid stuff."
Enterprise dropped it at that and turned around to the hallway. She stretched her right arm across her chest, sighing in relief at the sound of a bone popping. As she walked to the sleeping quarters she couldn't help but feel sleepy and her legs quake under her.
With shaky legs and a nauseous head, she stumbled into the sleeping quarters and fell into one of the berths. Her eyelids felt heavy as she sighed into the bed, the warmth of sleep taking over her weary, sick body before her eyes finally closed and she succumbs to sleep.
Her palms felt itchy.