Sitting in a dimly lit corridor, on a faded plastic chair, the vanguard of the Eagle Union, Enterprise rested her head on her fists, all the while trying to stay awake. The moon was high up in the sky, signaling the end of a very hectic and nerve-wracking day.
To start, what should have been a routine custom of growing stronger with the help of Purin, turned sideways when her Commander suddenly intervened and vanished before their very eyes. She had no time to come to grips with what just happened because the Sakura Empire had launched an attack on their shores.
Once that was taken care of, they found out from Brooklyn that the Commander had returned, but was severely injured. By the time she and the others got to the medical ward, Brooklyn had strapped him to the hospital bed, while Vestal was injecting him with who-knows-what at regular intervals.
Seeing as having more people in the room was only going to risk the infection, Vestal ordered everyone else out. This only happened upon the insistence of Cleveland, Enterprise and Z23.
'Ah, that's right,' she thought, gazing at either side of the corridor 'where is Z23?'
Enterprise remembered how Z23 almost collapsed seeing him on the hospital bed and how she refused to leave him, even after he became stabilized. After staying with him for a few hours, Vestal had to send her out of the room. She went up and down the corridor more times than Enterprise could count, before disappearing while deep in thought. It seemed that right now, the girl was either still in the room with him, or outside, collecting her thoughts.
'Honestly,' she thought, tapping her left hand against her thigh 'I wish he'd have just talked things over, instead of just rushing in like that.'
Perhaps, this excursion would serve as a lesson to him and would serve to curb that impetuous nature of his. Enterprise wanted to chastise him after he returned from wherever, but right now, she was only concerned with him waking up.
At that moment, she saw Vestal emerging from the room nearby. The woman took deep breath, wiped the blood off her hands and looked to Enterprise, her expression was more worrying than reassuring.
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"We'll need to amputate his arm," said Vestal to Enterprise, inside the room.
"Is surgery the only option?" she asked.
"Unfortunately, yes," Vestal replied "but that's not the real problem were dealing with."
"There's more?"
"He's lost a lot of blood. The amount he needs to function is already dangerously low. If we're going to amputate, he's going to lose more blood. For him to survive, we'll have to do a transfusion."
"So go ahead," said Enterprise "if it's blood you need then take mine."
However, Vestal's stern expression made Enterprise realize one major problem. The Commander was an otherworlder. From a biological standpoint, he was a complete unknown and if Vestal was to go ahead with the transfusion, there's no telling the adverse effects the procedure could have on him and the recipient.
"I'm pretty sure that our blood isn't even compatible with his," said Vestal "if we had the time we'd do more tests and find a suitable candidate but….."
"We have no time," said Enterprise, looking like the decision was made "Use my blood for the transfusion."
"Did you not hear any of what I just said?" spat Vestal, her voice only remaining silent because it was so late at night "he could die, you could die, both of you could die; and that's not even considering what mutations could occur."
"There's no point in us standing here and speculating," said another voice. The pair turned to see Z23 in the distance.
"If not Enterprise, then use me," said Z23, marching towards the two of them.
"Why are the two of you so ready to do this, despite the dangers?"
"Because he's my responsibility," she replied, clenching her fists.
"Even if you wanted to, Z23 you are not old enough or have enough blood for the transfusion," said Vestal "unfortunately, only adults have enough blood for the process which is why we need to use Enterprise."
Enterprise could see how angry the young girl was. Although she and the Commander talked a lot, Z23 was with him longer than anyone else.
"I'll make sure he comes back," she said, putting a reassuring hand on Z23's shoulder "just so that we can both knock some sense into him."
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It was a week since the operation. The base was working normal as usual, teams were sent out on commissions, some were relaxing in the dorm and others were helping with the supplies. For the most part, the base was working as expected.
However, inside a meeting room, Eugen, Wales, Illustrious, Belfast and Z23 were listening to a report provided by Vestal.
"Both the amputation and the transfusion was a success," said Vestal "although we were very worried about the difference in biology could have caused some dangerous consequences, it was successful…. For the most part."
"'For the most part?'" repeated Illustrious, "did something happen?"
"It was three hours after the operation," said Vestal "once Enterprise's blood started to mix with his system, I noticed his skin tone reducing a few pigments."
"Then for some reason, his hair turned white. Similar to Enterprise," she added.
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Unlike the last time when he opened his eyes to an empty room, this instance was different. He saw Z23, seated on a cold metal stool, her head resting an inch away from his stomach.
He reached his hand out to remove some strands of hair from her face, only to be reminded that he had no left arm.
'Ah, that's right," he said, looking at the bandage covering his arm 'well that's what you get for being an idiot.'
He now lifted the sheet on him and was not surprised to see much of his chest wrapped in gauze and bandages. As much as he wanted to continue staring at his injuries and mentally kick himself for his mistakes, he noticed Z23 stirring a little, her expression looking troubled.
'Must be having a bad dream,' he said, using his right hand to stoke her head. As he did, he noticed how she calmed down.
Then, perhaps realizing what had happened, the girl's eyes burst open in shock, looking at him.
"Hey," he said, doing his best to smile and not worry her.
The effort didn't work as Z23 let the floodgates open and quickly fell on him all the while sobbing and shouting the same word over and over again "Idiot."
In light of everything that's happened, he figured this was the least he deserved. He remained silent, letting her pour out all her sadness before she calmed down.
"How many days was I out?" he asked, as she moved away from him.
"Seven days," she replied, rubbing her eyes "the base is still running smoothly so no problems there."
"And no one noticed what happened to me?"
"They did and asked questions. All we said was you were attacked by an SE ambush so you had to undergo an operation."
"What else?"
"The others are meeting in the briefing room. I think Vestal's giving them a run-down of what happened."
"Then I need to go there," he said, raising himself up.
"Are you actively trying to kill the remaining brain cells in your head?" shouted Z23, practically pushing him to the bed "you need to recover."
Usually he'd come up with some crazy excuse about why he had to go meet them, but right now his mind was not in the right place.
"Fine," he said, "then do me a favor and bring them here. No doubt they'd probably want to after hearing I'm awake."
That was something she could agree to, as the girl got out of the hospital bed, wiped any trace of tears away from her eyes and headed out the door.
While she was away, he was left alone with his thoughts. He turned one side and then the next, noticing how empty the hospital was.
"'If the Commander is doing his job then the hospital won't have to do there,'" were one of the many sayings his teacher imparted upon him during his training days.
As he was reflecting on the thought, he saw the door open and saw Z23 first, followed by Belfast, Eugen, Wales, Illustrious, Enterprise and Vestal. He noticed how Enterprise was moving a little slower than usual.
Vestal quickly came forward, examining him to see if anything was wrong.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, moving back.
"No worse than usual," he replied "why? Is there something I don't know about?"
Vestal didn't reply immediately. Wales went out, returning with a mirror and held it up to him. It was only now he noticed how his skin had turned lighter and his hair changed color dramatically.
"Was the shock of losing my arm that bad?" he asked.
"Not exactly," said Eugen "Vestal says that you needed a blood transfusion to survive the surgery and the only one available was Enterprise."
"And is Enterprise okay? There's no telling how our different physiologies will affect her."
"I took the necessary tests with Enterprise," said Vestal "because you're generally weaker than everyone else in this world, there's no chance of your blood affecting her or anyone else."
"But apparently that doesn't work both ways," he said, pulling down a strand of his white hair for him to examine "can you explain how this happened?"
"Unfortunately no," replied Vestal, "right now, I'm just glad you didn't die. I'll have to run a few more tests on you but for the most part, I'd say you're out of any immediate danger."
"Alright then let me have it," he said, looking at the girls.
"Have what?" asked Illustrious "were we supposed to bring you something?"
"No…. aren't you going to announce that I've been put on administrative probation pending an investigation into whether or not I'm capable enough to be the Commander?"
The best way to summarize how out of left field that statement came from Eugen, who remarked "What?"
"I did something stupid, hugely stupid that put the entire fleet in danger," he elaborated "isn't there anything in place when an instance like this happens?"
"You're the first Commander we've ever had in the history of this world," stated Wales "that status gives you a degree of freedom that no one else here has."
"All the more reason why the investigation needs to be held," he countered "over the coming days, you need to observe my interactions and determine whether or not I'm in the right frame of mind and am still capable enough to lead the fleet."
"Also," he added "you need to figure out when the investigation starts and ends and don't ever tell me when you're observing me."
"Alright Commander," said Belfast, putting her hands on her hips "say we find that you're not capable of leading? What do we do then?"
"Enterprise will take over my position," he replied, wasting little time to respond "she's the most familiar one in the fleet, she has a good track record in operations and sorties and can actually have an impact on the battlefield compared to me."
"Ok Commander," said Enterprise, raising her eyebrow and casting a quick glance to Wales.
"If Enterprise is leading," said Wales, "who will be in charge of training the soldiers and devising strategies?"
"Training will be Eugen. She's admittedly tougher than Enterprise, which will take a period of getting used to for the troops."
"For strategies Illustrious and Wales can handle It. I read Z's report on how you effectively used Belfast, Unicorn and Eugen to beat the girls from the Eagle Union without injuring them too much. You two would be ideal in deciding how the fleet will move during operations."
Wales then cast the same glance to Illustrious who asked "and what about reconnaissance?"
"That of course has to be Belfast," he replied "she's the fastest one here, so she'd be perfect in learning about enemy locations and leaving before things get dicey."
"Also, Yorktown and Juneau would still be teaching the kids while Hornet stayed in charge of supplies and the cafeteria," he added
"Well then," said Illustrious, looking at Z23 and the others then turned to the Commander with a smile and said "It looks like you passed the investigation."
"Wait, what?"
"I had a feeling that you wanted to punish yourself for what had happened," said Z23 "so I told everyone to judge your actions when they entered and decide whether you are suitable enough to lead."
"Considering how critical you were towards yourself, it showed that you understood your mistakes and had no intention of making it again," said Illustrious.
"And you had a clear plan of who to lead and how to allocate our forces as best to make up for the gap you created, without disrupting the regular operations," added Eugen.
"Sorry Commander," said Enterprise with a shrug "you're not getting out of this position that easy."
At that statement, he could only chuckle at how they were ready for his actions.
"Well now that you're back, we don't want to keep you from resting Commander," said Wales.
"Can Belfast and Z23 stay back please? I need their help with something," he said.
The pair in question nodded then said goodbye to the rest.
"What's on your mind Commander?" asked Belfast.
"This arm loss is going to affect me, both physically and mentally," he said, with his head lowered "it's safe to say that any form of CQC I've learned has gone right out the door."
"Belfast," he said, looking at her "you're the best in hand to hand combat. Please teach me how to fight to make up for this defect."
"Commander," said Belfast with a troubled expression "even if you want to fight, you can't make up for the vast difference in power between you and us."
"I'll never be strong enough to actually beat anyone," he said in a matter of fact way "but if there's a time when someone attacks me, I can hold my ground long enough for you or anyone else to bail me out."
"And Z," he said, turning to her "I need you to help me with my daily duties as a Commander."
"Like what?" she asked.
"Relax, you don't need to help me bathe or put on my clothes. I'll figure that part out myself," he said to her "jobs from administration to assigning girls for the commissions. Until I've properly overcome this change, I'll need your help with this."
"Commander a quick question if I may," said Belfast, raising her hand
"Go ahead."
"Why us?"
"Well Z23's been with me since I first came here. She knows me better than everyone else. And Belfast, you're our best close combat fighter."
"Ah, so it's like that," said Belfast, looking a little annoyed.
"Huh?"
"Nothing Commander," she said, pouting a little "Nothing. At. All."
"I'm sorry for putting you on the spot like that," he said "if you don't like it then feel free to tell me."
At that statement, Belfast's expression changed to a smile as she said "relax Commander. I'm just playing with you. Of course, I'd be happy to help."
"Thanks, I owe you two a lot," he said, lowering his head in an effort to make it look like he was bowing.