Chapter 11
"W-warspite?" Elizabeth stood, unable to comprehend the sight Infront of her.
They all stood there, frozen in sheer shock at the sight of Warspite.
Hood was the first to regain her senses. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed Javelin's shoulder. "Javelin, your ship will fit in the river, we need your sick bay!"
She had flinched at the touch but had been able to listen. "R-right." Quickly turning she started to run over to the river.
"Please, take her." I slowly carried her over to Hood. She quickly stepped up and took Warspite in her arms, with a look of horror she started running over to Javelin's ship. I turned to U-556 "You too, put her in one of the sick bay bed's, we need to keep an eye on her."
"Ya." Readjusting the girl on her back she begun to move.
Elizabeth looked to be in some kind of trance, her eyes had been solely focused on her sister as Hood carried her to the ship. "Warspite." She softly spoke, with the beginnings of tears starting to form she followed, wobbling slightly as she moved.
While all the girls had been able to just glide along the water, I had to start walking into the water. It had just reached above my knees when Hood ran out from inside the Javelin
Leaping over the railing she landed on the water and made her way over. "Sorry I thought her majesty would have grabbed you." Without any effort she picked me up and turned around.
The second our legs hit the deck of the Javelin we both started running. Years of serving aboard ships had made moving around them second nature, ducking under bulkhead's and sliding down ladders I made it quickly to the sick bay.
Warspite lay on one of the beds, surrounded by the three girls. "Javelin! Get us out of here, head for open water as fast as you can but keep her steady. Keep an eye on your sensors, don't let anything get near us. U-556, I need any medical supplies you can find, if you need to, tear up some bedding to use as bandages." Both of them nodded before running off in separate directions.
The ship kicked as Javelin started to move it. I moved bedside looking over her injury's, Hood moved to stand opposite me. "She's lost a lot of blood; we need to clear the wounds and keep pressure. Here, help me get her scarf off."
I started to move only to find Elizabeth in my way. With tears streaming down her face, she was shaking Warspite. "P-please Warspite! Wake up, s-stop playing."
Without thinking I shoved her out of the way. I didn't notice her loose her footing and fall, however I did hear a distinct clang as her crown fell from her head. I looked to see her on the floor, completely in shock. I realised what I had done. "I'm sorry I didn't mean t-"
"You brute!" she yelled. Still crying she stood and ran out of the room.
I turned to look at where she had gone only for Hood to grab my arm and pull my attention back. "Deal with her later. I'm going to lift her head, get the scarf off." moving she gently cupped Warspite's head in her hands and slowly lifted. I undid and slowly removed the now bloodstained scarf.
U-556 returned carrying a stack of bandages. Practically ripping off Warspite's coat I found a large deep cut across her right shoulder. "U-556 grab a bandage and apply pressure here for now. Hood that chestplate is cutting into her chest we need to get it off."
As we undid the strap Warspite's chest rose as she took a deep breath, but there was no sign of her waking up. Hood put her hands on the chestplate. "It was restricting her breathing, but it was probably also keeping pressure on her wound. The moment this comes off you need to stop the bleeding."
With my nod she promptly removed it. I had to act quickly, removing the remains of her shirt and immediately trying to put pressure on the wound, within seconds the bandages were completely soaked in blood. Changing them again I noticed our already dwindling supply of bandages. Leaving Hood to tend to her chest I spoke to U-556. "I need you to find more clean bedsheets and tear them up. Bring them here along with boiling water." taking over her job of keeping pressure on her shoulder I tried my hardest to wrap bandages to free my hands.
Several times I had to replace the bandages. Without any proper medical tools and with my limited training the best we could do was apply pressure and pray her body would heal itself fast enough.
We eventually settled into some sort of rhythm. The moments between the panicked rebinding of her chest and shoulder, we would tend to her smaller injury's. She had several burns and shrapnel injury's all over her body. Using the torn sheets and eventually having to resort to partially cleaned rags, we cleaned, removed any metal, and bound them.
"Her heartrate seems stable. The bleeding also seems to be finally slowing." I lifted my head from her chest. We had been working for hours. Hood's ponytail had come undone, adding to her dishevelled look. My entire body ached with fatigue. "it's going to be a rough night, but I think she's stable."
Hood ran a caring hand through Warspite's hair, the glove having been discarded long ago. "I believe our peculiar biology is to thank. Look, some of the smaller cuts and bruises have already started to heal." Hood gave a small chuckle. "She really is a dreadnought, through and true."
I looked at the blood covering both of us, I started to feel uneasy as the shock begun to wear off.
Removing her hand, she pulled a blanket over warspite, both to preserve her modesty and to keep her warm. Surprisingly she leaned down and gave Warspite a soft kiss on the forehead. "She always walks around with such a tense frown, yet now she looks so peaceful. Rest now Warspite, the world will need of you soon."
"This is all my fault; I should have been-"
"What happened, happened. We can't change the past, but we will learn from it". She moved to a bucket of hot water U-556 had left us. Both her and Javelin had been running all over the ship gathering what they could, when she had last returned, I sent them both to get some rest. "Here, come wash yourself." She begun to wash her hands and tried to scrub away the blood on her clothing.
I joined her. I caught myself constantly looking over to Warspite, fearing she would take a turn for the worse.
Getting the blood off my hands had been simple. Using a rag, I had tried to clean my clothes but just ended up with large red stains on them. "So, who is she?" Hood asked. She gestured to the girl sleeping on the other bed.
"No idea, we found her cube connected to some sort of machine. Warspite couldn't touch it. But when I did, it became her, she's been unconscious since." At some point someone had given her a blanket and removed both her beret and boots. I gave her a quick check over, thankfully there were no apparent injuries on her.
"I didn't get a close enough look, but I could see the weapons being used and the ships sinking in the river. Why was a siren attacking the place?" Hood begun collecting Warspite's clothing from the floor.
"She wasn't, the siren..." the words stopped as a lump grew in my throat. Memories of what we saw flashed through my head. "Later. I'll tell you all what happened, I just need some time." the ship rolled slightly, making me realise I had told Javelin just to get us out into the sea, with no destination in mind. "We need somewhere safe to go. We can't risk staying out in the open sea for too long, a battle would be far too dangerous. A port wouldn't be good either. Too many people and we have no idea who to trust."
"If I may, I might know of somewhere we can hold up until Warspite is back on her feet, the water is shallow and sheltered. And it will probably be abandoned."
"Where is it?" I knew of most of the surrounding waters, but my nautical knowledge was probably noting in comparison to an actual ship.
"North, it's an old mustering ground for the Royal Navy, strategically it has a large importance. But economically, not so much. Javelin will know of it."
As if she had heard her name Javelin tiredly walked into the sick bay. "It's mid-morning, there's no contacts on radar or sonar, and the radio is quiet. Any orders?"
Mid-morning? There weren't any portholes in the sick bay so I didn't notice the passage of time. But this would mean we had been trying to save Warspite for well over twelve hours. With this realisation my body felt an extra wave of fatigue wash over it.
"Yes Javelin, how far away are we from Scapa flow?" Asked Hood.
She looked off to the side for a few seconds, I could see her quietly counting out numbers. The ship turned slightly. "At cruising speed, I can get there in about five hours."
Hood looked to me for approval of the destination. "Yeah, take us there, as long as it's quiet and safe its fine. Point us in the right direction and then go get some rest."
She gave a long yawn. "Aye, heading there now."
Hood spotted something in the corner of the room. "Wait, just before you go, could you tell me where her majesty is right now?"
"Oh yeah, she's currently... Huh, she's down in the lower decks, right by the aft boiler room."
"Thank you. That will be all." When she had left Hood went and collected what she had found. Turning, I saw she was holding Elizabeth's crown; it had fallen off when she fell. "I believe this should be returned to its owner. And that you should be the one to take it to her."
I felt a twinge of guilt as I remembered pushing her over. Not to mention I didn't know if I could look her in the eye right now. As much as Hood had said otherwise, I still felt responsible for what happened to her sister. "couldn't we just leave it here? I'm sure she'll wander over soon; I could really do with getting some sleep."
As I suspected she shook her head. "Nay. I was the only ship of my class, so I can't imagine what she's going through right now. She needs someone to comfort her, and despite what she said, she holds you in a high regard." She pushed the crown into my hands. "Heavy is the head that holds the crown. I think both of you can understand the meaning behind that quote. Go, I will watch over these two."
I looked at the crown in my hands, despite the size, it was rather heavy. "Ok, I'll go find her. If anything happens, come get me."
The Javelin was smaller than Warspite, so it didn't take me long to make my way over to the boiler room. My steps were slower and shorter than normal, I was constantly trying to find the right words to say but to no avail. Before I knew it, I started to hear quiet crying.
She sat facing a wall with her face buried in her knees. Shoes on metal weren't exactly quite so she noticed my presence. Promptly standing up she wiped away the tears and looked at me with puffy eyes. "What do you want." She coldly spoke.
I walked a bit closer. The aura of confidence she always had was gone, replaced by frail look that served to make the feeling of guilt I felt even worse. "I'm sorry for knocking you over." I held up the crown. "You dropped this."
Without speaking she took the crown, looking over it with an affectionate look she ran a finger along the crown's rim.
With no warning her face twisted to anger and she threw it at me with all her strength. I was barely able to move my head out of the way as it impacted a pipe resulting in a loud bang. "I don't want my crown! I want my Warspite!"
A fist went into my chest. "Give her back!" She hit me again. "Give her back!" she continued to hit me and repeat the phrase, each time the hits got weaker as tears started to fall from her face. Eventually they became weak taps as she sank to the floor. I followed, bringing into a hug as she clutched my shirt and cried into my chest. "M-my crown, my title, even my ship. I'll give anything, just please bring her back to me."
I had felt something crack when she hit me. The pain was unimaginable, yet I pushed it aside and begun to slowly pat her on the head. "We were able to stop the bleeding and bind her wounds. You said you were the pinnacle of the Dreadnought design; it's going to take more than this to do her in. She just needs some rest."
She continued to cry. "But I want her now, I can't live without her."
"I know. We just need to be strong for her now." I tightened the hug and continued to slowly pat her on the head, hoping it had the same effect on her as it did with Javelin.
Eventually her breathing begun to slow and her grip weekend as she cried herself to sleep, with my back against a bulkhead, I shortly joined her as the lack of sleep caught up to me.
When I eventually awoke, I could feel a weight on my back. Someone had come and thrown a blanket over us at some point. Elizabeth was still sound asleep, one of her hands was still loosely holding onto me while the other had moved to grab the blanket.
Along with the blanket they had also left two cups of water just off to the side of us. From the lack of engine noise, I guessed we had arrived at our destination. With no real reason to go anywhere I decided to stay and let her sleep.
As I was starting to fall asleep again, I felt Elizabeth move slightly before she slightly opened her eyes. "Warspite?" she blinked, "Oh, right." surprisingly she just sighed and moved the blanket closer to her. "You." she swallowed. "You said you were able to stop the bleeding. Is she really going to be alright?"
"I wish I could say she is, but I have no idea what you girls are capable of enduring. But one thing I do know is that she's a fighter." I felt her head push into the hand that was on it, prompting me to slowly move it. "She told me she wouldn't trade the time you spent together for anything in the world."
"Mm." She wrapped her free hand around me and closed her eyes. A tear ran down her cheek. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do without her."
"The people we love are always with us, right here." I softly placed a finger on her chest. "In our hearts. And the best thing we can do for Warspite right now is to keep our chins up and carry on. We'll get through this together, I promise."
She moved to and sat up, I passed her the cup of water and begun to drink my own. The usual aura of nobility Elizabeth had wasn't present as she drunk. From hours of crying, she was probably incredibly thirsty. Once we were finished, I got up and moved to pick up her crown from where it lay on the floor.
There was now a large dent on the metal from where it had hit the wall. Elizabeth moved next to me. "I don't deserve that anymore. I have no real title; Queen is just my name. And what good is one who cannot even protect her own sister?"
It hurt me to hear that, I knew how much she enjoyed being called Queen. "Do you know how monarchs are able to rule." she looked at me with confusion before I continued. "By divine right is what they always say, but there is so much more to it than that. History shows it's the people under them who truly allow them to rule. Whether it be a wish to keep the status quo due to its stability, or through their leadership that has brought them prosperity."
I got down onto a knee and looked up at her. "The burden of leadership is a heavy one. On my last ship it was something I tried to avoid, but now I'm in command of extraordinarily powerful beings against a foe I can't even begin to comprehend. And to be honest, it terrifies me. But you girls are willing to put your faith in me, and I will try my hardest to ensure your faith isn't misguided."
Elizabeth's eyes seemed to gleam as I paused to find the right words. "I'm sure you know by now what happened to the old monarchy, and how you have no true claim to a title. But Hood, Javelin and even your sister see you as their queen. Elizabeth, those girls are willing to put their faith in you, as am I."
I held up the crown. "The Royal Navy has returned to the seas. Elizabeth, name ship of her class. Are you willing to become its queen."
"But what if I keep making mistakes."
"Then we'll find a way to get around them. And no matter what, I will always offer you a shoulder for you to lean on."
For a while neither of us spoke. She thought through what I said, her eyes moving between mine and the crown. Eventually her body seemed to relax as a small smile appeared on her face. "I believe I have been rather selfish. Without my guidance, you would all surely fall to ruin, so I thank you for reminding me of my duty." I moved to give her the crown, she stopped me with a wave of her hand. "Please, I would like you to have the honour."
I smiled, seeing her usual ceremonial mood return. "Very well. I crown thee, Elizabeth." I placed the crown on her head. "Queen of the Royal Navy, may none question your rule."
As I went to stand, she offered a hand to assist. "I thank you for helping me. While my heart still aches for my sister, your words have proved to be a soothing balm. I can see now why miss Javelin speaks so highly of you."
"Any time. Now shall we go check on everyone, it's been a few hours and the ship has stopped moving. We should be at Scapa flow by now"
"Scapa flow? I'm guessing Hood recommended this destination." I gathered the blanket and cups as she spoke, trying my hardest not to move my chest much.
"Yeah, she did. Said it was an old mustering ground for the navy." We left the boiler room and begun walking towards the upper deck.
Elizabeth nodded. "Yes, Warspite and I spent a rather long time stationed out here, it was one of the safest places a ship could be. However, we must keep an eye on that young submarine. This place holds bad memories between our navy's."
I wanted to ask her about what she meant, unfortunately I spotted Hood walking down the hallway towards us. "Ah, Javelin said you two were awake." She looked at Elizabeth with a sly smile. "Did you have a comfortable rest, your majesty?"
"It was nothing!" Her face turned slightly red. "I... I hear we have arrived at Scapa flow. I wish to know what our plan is moving forward."
"I was just talking to Javelin about that. Now that your awake, we can properly gather and discuss our next move. However, before that wouldn't you like to go and see Warspite your Majesty? Unfortunately, she is still unconscious but her condition has improved."
Surprisingly Elizabeth shook her head. "Nay. My presence would do nothing to aide her recovery, it is best for her to get some rest. We shall have this meeting first."
Hood looked surprised at her reply, but merely smiled and nodded. "Very well, if you would make your way over to the navigation room, I shall go retrieve Miss U-556. Apparently, she has decided to sleep ontop of the rear turret." With that she turned and headed towards the rear of the ship.
"I notice you are walking slightly hunched over. Is anything the matter?" Elizabeth asked. We had begun to walk again.
"Turns out sleeping on the floor of a warship isn't the best for your back, don't worry its noting serious." I lied. The real reason was from the sheer amount of pain I was now feeling. When she had hit me, something had definitely cracked. I knew she would only feel gilt if I told her so I decided lying about it was for the best.
"Very well. You must ensure to get some proper rest; I cannot have you falling ill on me now." She walked with her hands behind her back and her head held high. "A-also that thing you did with your hand on my head earlier, it would most please your queen if you were to do it again."
"Huh? Oh, yea anytime." Thinking that she wanted one now I moved my arm out and gave her a light headpat, being careful not to hit her crown.
"Wha, I didn't mean right now!" I went to move my arm away, only for her to grab it and move it back. "T-that doesn't mean you should stop."
I continued to pat her head. "As I said, as long as we're not doing anything overly important, I'm happy to be here for you, whether it be headpats, needing a shoulder to cry on, or if you just want to drink tea together."
She stopped as we reached a narrow stairway. "May I ask. What was spoken between us down in the boiler room remain private, everyone already has enough to worry about."
"Don't worry, my lips are sealed." With a smile she began to walk up the stairs.
We soon found ourselves inside Javelin's navigation room, it was smaller and simpler than Warspite's but still had everything you would need. Javelin sat half asleep in a chair on the other side of the room, she had slowly begun to nod off while looking out a window
"Anything interesting going on out there?" I asked. Javelin jumped slightly as my voice woke her back up.
"Ah James, sorry I was keeping an eye on the radar. We arrived at Scapa flow just over an hour ago, apart from some seals and seagulls, there's nothing out here." She looked at me and Elizabeth, I spotted a slight frown before she returned to her usual smile. "Did you two enjoy, your rest."
Along with the pause I noticed her tone had changed slightly. "Yeah, we didn't mean to fall asleep but we were both exhausted. Anyway, apart from the animals what else is out there?" Changing the subject, I walked over to a window. "Hood said this was an old naval base here. Anything useful we could use?"
"Unfortunately, no there isn't. All the budlings on land have fallen apart and the dockyards have rusted and collapsed." Looking I could see what she meant. The sea this far north brings heavy winds and violent storms, without proper maintenance, noting would last long. "I had to anchor out here as I didn't want to risk running aground or hitting some underwater wreckages."
Whenever I had looked at maps of this area it was just a bunch of unimportant islands just off the mainland, nobody had ever mentioned an old naval base. The siren had said something about changing history, was information about this place also manipulated? "This area is fine Javelin, thanks for getting us here."
Our conversation ended as Hood and U-556 walked into the room. There weren't any chairs so we just stood around a table, Hood was the first to speak. "Now that were all here, we can assess our current situation. Unfortunately, Javelin and I have already found that we have expended our medical supplies, and as all our food and equipment was onboard the Warspite, until she recovers we are unable to access them."
I went through my pockets, thankfully I could feel the cubes but I had left the money we had inside my cabin in the warspite. "Well even if we were to get to a port, we can't afford anything." I mentally kicked myself, we were penniless again.
Hood Shook her head. "Maybe not." She reached into her dress and pulled a small bag out. "Tell me, where is the nearest port?"
"Well, there really isn't many this far north anymore, closest will be Edinburgh."
She seemed to think for a minute. "Mm. If I was to forgo my ship and just use my rigging. I could make a round trip in about a day and a half. And as for money, well, you can thank your charitable personality." opening the bag she showed the third of the money I had given her back in London.
"Wait, No. You can't go alone! It's far too dangerous."
She gave a smile. "While I am flattered by your concern for my safety, I am more than capable of looking after myself. The benefits outweigh the risk, we are in desperate need of supplies, but with our injured we are currently stuck here. One of us must go and gather more, and I am the best suited for this. "
I looked to the others to gauge their thoughts on the situation, it was obvious that Javelin was already aware of her plan, but the others were looking to me for my opinion.
She was right. I wouldn't dare ask Elizabeth to leave her sister and U-556 would stick out too much with both her clothing and her ascent. These types of decisions had always been why I had avoided taking up responsibilities before. but if these girls were willing to trust me, then I had to put faith in their abilities. "Just, promise me you'll be careful."
"I'll be back before you know it." Her smile helped soften the blow.
"Now that that has been decided, could we get some information about what transpired yesterday? We spotted a Siren, but she left before we could get close, was she attacking the facility?" Elizabeth asked.
Now was the real hard part. "She wasn't attacking the place; from what we saw she was running It."
They all looked confused. "A siren working with humans? That makes no sense." said Javelin.
"She was using some kind of disguise, to make her look like a normal scientist. The whole place was set up to analyse data they gathered from the cube. To what end, I'm not sure." I decided to hide what had become of the people working there. From the look she gave me, Hood could tell I was holding back information, but she decided not to press me on it.
Elizabeth put a hand on her chin. "Sirens researching cubes? Now that really makes no sense. From what we know, their technology far surpasses ours. Though, noting they've ever done has ever made sense to us."
"The three ships I fought had a blue tint to them. That and the way they attacked me was different from how they normally fight, though that was my first time fighting in this body so it may be due to that."
U-556's comment made me remember something the siren had said. "New combat doctrines. She said something about trying them out before she sent the ships out to attack. We had seen the siren ships docked with wires running all over them. Maybe the entire facility was to upgrade their ships?"
"That is a possibility. Was there anything else she said that might give us a clue as to her motivations?" asked Elizabeth.
"She didn't say much, and what she did barely made any sense." I remembered Warspite's reaction to discovering our history had been altered. I could see morale was already low. To hear that their entire past has been forgotten would make things even worse.
"Well, she has already made the first mistake by revealing herself, and our numbers shall continue to grow. The next time we meet, we will be even stronger." Hood looked over to a porthole. "Now if there really isn't anything else I must make my leave, daylight is burning. While I am gone, you all must get some rest. James I would like a word before I go."
After saying her goodbyes, we walked out onto the deck. While the surrounding islands acted as a buffer for the worst of the winds, it was still very cold outside. "I know you are hiding something from us, but I also trust your judgement in doing so."
I knew she had seen straight through me. "I thank you for not saying this in front of the others. There were some things we saw and heard that I'm still trying to make sense of. I just need some time to come to terms with it."
"Very well. However, that wasn't the main reason I asked to speak with you." She looked downward to my chest. "may I see?"
There really is no hiding anything from her. Taking a look to make sure nobody was watching I lifted my shirt to show her my chest.
"Good heavens." she gently put a hand on my injury. "How bad is it?"
"It only hurts when I breathe."
She lightly felt around. "Something is definitely cracked, if not broken." Her face turned somber. "you humans really are far too delicate. We should be getting you to a hospital."
I lowered my shirt. "it's really nothing serious. Don't worry abo-" I was stopped as she put a finger on my lips.
"Please don't." I noticed a tear slowly travel down her cheek. "Please. We have all lost so much, to lose you would hurt us all." she rubbed her eyes, stopping any more tears. "Please promise me that while I'm gone, you won't get yourself into any more danger, and that you will get some rest."
"I will. Just make sure you come back."
Smiling she went to grab the pendant on her dress, before placing it in my hands. "This is very dear to me." I had a look. Etched onto the pendant was a crow holding an anchor. "Now I have to come back." With a blue shine her rigging appeared behind her.
Without thinking I moved into a hug. "I'll look after it until you do." she returned the hug for a few seconds before I took a step back.
"Don't look so down, I will be back soon." with a bow she jumped over the side of the ship. I looked over to see her give a wave before turning and starting to glide away.
I continued to watch for as long as I could, until she was too far away to see. With a sigh I put her pendent carefully in my pocket and started making my way inside.
Deciding to follow her advice I went to get a short rest. I was walking down a hallway when a tickling feeling at the back of my throat developed into a large coughing fit.
"Oh, that can't be good." I had felt myself cough something up and once it was finished, I looked to see a large amount of blood on my hand. "Yeah, bed sounds like a good idea." the closer I got to my cabin the more tired I started to feel. By the time I had arrived, I was struggling to keep my eyes open.
Foregoing getting undressed I laid down on my bed. Within seconds I was starting to fall asleep, the pain of my injures was insignificant in comparison to my bodies fatigue.
I don't know how long it took me to fall asleep, but the next conscious thought I had was hearing someone hum.
(A/N)
So fun fact, the part about Scapa flow was decided long before the event came out, so that's a fun coincidence.
I pushed myself to get this chapter out, as the next few weeks are going to be really busy for me so I won't be able to get much work done and I didn't want there to be an overly long time between chapters.
Thanks to everyone for reading and I hope you look forward to the next chapter.