After all this time, all this failure, and all this effort, She'd finally done it!

Trinitite still couldn't believe it. By the end of tomorrow, the Abyssal would have human money in her hold, a full one hundred and fifty dollars! Trinitite wasn't entirely sure what that would mean in terms of bunker oil, avgas, munitions, rations and repair material, but it did mean the supplies in her stores weren't all she'd have to work with anymore. That was a huge weight out of her hold.

She still didn't know much, but the job didn't seem half-bad either. Sure, her future 'manager' talked a little funny (You start tomorrah. See me in this auffice at six-thirdee), but he was still perfectly understandable, and if the potential for misunderstanding was his largest flaw Trinitite would be pretty lucky. Whether or not it was, with how fragile humans were, their commanders probably couldn't get away with as much abuse some Abyssal Princesses she'd worked under did. Add in the fact she wouldn't have to worry about enemy submarines lurking in the mud, and she was feeling pretty confident. As long as her disguise remained intact, she didn't have much to worry about.

More importantly, it meant she had several free hours to make some more tangible progress in her mission. If she hurried, she might be able to find one of those libraries everyone talked about. Alternatively, she could start her real mission, and begin her planning for reconnaissance on the northwestern Naval base.

Judging by her luck so far in finding a library, the former probably wasn't going to happen. However, while reconnaissance was the overall goal of her operations in human territory, it wasn't something she could afford to make a mistake on. She had to approach the city slowly, ensuring Trinitite had ample opportunity to spot enemy vessels before they could do the same, and leaving in a similar manner. Did she have enough time for that? How many enemy ships could she expect to be wandering outside of the base?

If her dead reckoning was correct (and despite her constant corrections with the roads she was following, it probably wasn't), she'd just entered within ten miles of what her stolen chart called Naval Station Everett. There were roughly three other Naval bases on her chart, but this one would be the easiest to access from her job site. She might have to get a new Job once she was confident her Mother hadn't been taken to Everett, but more job hunting was the last thing the abyssal wanted to think about. Considering more immediate issues, the carrier paused, halting her walk as she studied her map more closely. If Everett was an island or Atoll, Trinitite might be able to guess at what kind of air and sea patrols she could expect to deal with, but on land, with all of these trees and buildings? She wasn't sure.

Ten miles wasn't quite knife range for ships, but for an aircraft carrier she already felt uncomfortably close. The fact she didn't see any evidence of a nearby installation was unnerving. If she hadn't run into their perimeter yet, where could it be?

That was tonight's plan. Trinitite needed to know how close she could get to Everett, what kind of security measures she could be looking at in the air and on the ground, and how many enemy vessels she could expect in the town itself. There was a good chance she wouldn't get to see the bay around the base before having to withdraw to her job.

Thus, the map was significantly less important than her own rangefinders. She needed to keep her eyes focused on the people and buildings around her, with her crew at general quarters and her air crew acting as additional lookouts. With any luck, she'd be able to spot an enemy before they did the same, and avoid them without incident.

Right now, the road was surprisingly empty. There were plenty of cars, of course, traversing the four-lane road either alone or in disorganized groups, but so far humans had been rare at the concrete pathways to either side of the asphalt.

This was good, because for a while the path she was traveling had been perilously thin, with speeding vehicles to Trinitite's left and vegetation to her right. Not impassible, but the Abyssal had no idea what was on the other side of those bushes. Now, without a wall on one side and speeding metal on the other, there seemed to be many more escape routes, if she could reach one in time. She'd have to run several yards before breaking line of sight in case an airplane flew over or a destroyer jumped out of a passing vehicle, but she wasn't seeing any other humans darting bush-to-bush, so for now she wouldn't either.

However, even a ship's attention couldn't remain focused for ever. Slowly, inexorably, the Abyssal's rangefinders started drifting away from the people hundreds of yards ahead of her, and towards the buildings she was passing.

What were robins, and why would a building be dedicated to 31 of them and their basking?

There were a lot of vehicles parked in the compound labeled "Apartments," but Trinitite couldn't think of many reasons for it. Maybe these buildings were some kind of Barracks, or perhaps she was passing the town's HQ.

This building had a US flag in front of it, but beyond that Trinitite couldn't see any security measures. It probably wasn't military, then, but it had a larger vehicle pool than the post office. What would that be for? The Carrier's attention lapsed further as she focused on the unassuming sign marked on the front, its small white-on-green text difficult to read from a distance.

Mill Creek Library.

Library.

…

Of course!

Apparently, like enemy submarines, libraries only surfaced when you stopped looking. The Abyssal stopped, staring at the building and resisting the urge to rub her forehead.

She wasn't surprised, exactly, as she hadn't had any idea what a library would look like in the first place, but it certainly was frustrating. For something everyone kept talking about, this didn't look special at all! How many libraries had Trinitite missed since she entered Seattle?

No matter, though. Trinitite needed information, and scanning 30 or 40 books would be much safer than running blind into an installation or patrol. It was time to see what made these libraries so special.

As the abyssal cleared the second set of doors, a wave of warm air washed over her. An unfamiliar, but not unpleasant, smell greeted her. It was faintly reminiscent of the forest she'd crossed several days ago, but distinctly different. Distilled. After a split-second of inspection, she knew why.

"So many…" The abyssal whispered, stopping only a few steps from the entryway. Shelves dominated the majority of the building, arrays of books spanning from the floor to halfway to the ceiling. Deep, there must have been hundreds of them! It put her own library to shame!

Judging by the size of the building, she shouldn't have been surprised, but the carrier had a hard time believing there were so many things to write books about. There was no way she'd have time to review all of them!

"Hello… Oh my god!"

The Abyssal's attention was abruptly diverted by a human, not too far from her. She stared in shock, ignoring the thin display in front of her as she stood.

What? She hadn't been discovered, had she? The woman rounding the desk and walking towards her was certainly no ship, but something about Trinitite had to have distressed her? Her camouflage was still applied correctly, right? Still, the human advanced. Trinitite took a cautious step back, the question of how someone almost half as tall and thousands of times less powerful could still be intimidating failing to occur.

"You're soaked!" She hissed, lowering her voice. "That's dangerous, you know!"

"What?" Trinitite whispered back, genuinely surprised. How could getting a little wet be dangerous? Humans didn't dissolve in water, did they?

"You must be freezing!"

"That's bad?"

"Of course it is! Ever heard of hypothermia?"

She hadn't, but nodded anyways. The short woman seemed to buy her lie, her eyes darting around before she raised her hand.

"Okay, stay there." The stout human ordered. "We've got towels in the back room."

With that, the library's… commander(?) turned, leaving Trinitite to her own devices as she fled. The abyssal looked down at her clothes, removing her scarf and comparing it with the rest of her clothes. Her future commander (Flaghuman?), Pratt, had said something about temperature as well. Was that the real issue? Humans were strange, but even they had to enjoy getting wet every once in a while. If getting too cool was legitimately dangerous for humans, than she'd have to look more at warming up to avoid suspicion.

The scarf was still fairly dry, water discoloring the garment where it had rested on her shoulders. Almost sheepishly, she ran her hand down her shirt, squeezing out a stream of water which splashed against the rubber mat she was standing on. She hadn't been in the rain for that long, had she?

The human returned with a sheet of ragged cloth, motioning for Trinitite to follow as she walked deeper into the building. Trinitite followed, her lookouts surveying the building as they walked. They skirted the edge as the human headed towards the restroom, but she saw enough to notice a more than just books. In a corner of the structure, several humans were sitting in front of glowing displays, each showing radically different patterns and colors.

Why would a library need that much high-tech equipment? All of the Lilly's displays had a reason behind them, but an unmoving structure like this library would have no use for radar, sonar, or one of those GPS devices. Besides, several displays were unattended! They took up a lot of space, so they had to have some utility, but no matter how she thought about it she couldn't determine what it would be.

The question continued to dig at Trinitite as she got the worst of the water out of her clothes.

"We've got a heater in the corner." She added, wringing out the soaked towel in the sink and handing it back to Trinitite. "You should be good there, as long as you keep your clothes away from the paper. Let me know if you need anything, alright?"

The abyssal nodded, and the human left for her other duties. Good thing, too. A part of her was expecting the human to ask her to change clothes, and after the incident with Elizabeth? No thank you.

Belatedly, she realized it would have ruined her disguise, too. Where were her priorities again?

It took her twelve minutes of dabbing her clothes and wringing the towel out before Trinitite was confident her clothes weren't going to leave a trail of water behind her. It wasn't something she was used to worrying about, but if getting too much water on you was so unusual humans started worrying, she'd have to find a way to avoid it in the future.

'You know, a waterproof coat would help a lot on the jobsite, too.'

She'd grabbed several coats and jackets in the Fred Meyers raid, but they'd remained in storage up until now. For one, another layer of stiff and fragile clothes didn't seem particularly practical. Until now, she wasn't sure what their purpose was. Did humans use them for inefficient protection? Some extra pockets? Besides, sometimes she just liked getting wet, and a heavy coat like she'd seen on other humans meant no more of that!

Either way, they had reminded her too much of the few Re-classes she'd had the displeasure of knowing, so avoiding anything with a hood had come naturally. No, she wasn't 'half the ship' they were! Anyone with a sliver of sense would know trying to be a carrier and a surface combatant meant half-afting both jobs, but those over-engineered torpedo magnets strutted around like everything else on the water was obsolete!

…Deep, Trinitite hadn't talked to one in over a month and they still managed to get a rise out of her. She needed to think about something else, lest she leave the building's head in a foul mood and attract everyone's attention. Plenty of the coats she had weren't too similar to a Re's clothes, and if she closed her own up, she probably wouldn't look much like one. The limited range of movement was an inconvenience, but not an unmanageable one.

She was taking too much time here. Grabbing the towel and wringing it one last time, the Abyssal draped it over an arm and left. Returning that was important, right?

As she walked towards the front of the building, she took a moment to study the line of displays further. Four humans operated the line of terminals, a handful of other machines lying dark and abandoned between them. Each terminal displayed a completely different pattern, meaning they probably didn't have identical functions, but they certainly looked similar.

"Oh, thank you!"

Trinitite's attention snapped away from the row of woman from before had left her station, meeting Trinitite halfway between the head and the entrance.

"I'll take care of that." The human took Trinitite's towel, the Abyssal thanking her as she turned for a backroom. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Will do." She replied, unsure if the human had heard her. It wouldn't matter either way, as the Abyssal certainly wasn't taking her up on her offer. Trinitite knew the value of asking important questions from her time training herself, her air wing and crew, but if another abyssal sailed up to her and asked what a radio was, she'd get a little suspicious. Trinitite needed to rely on the information gleaned from Elizabeth and inconspicuous observation, until she knew the right questions to ask.

For example, how do you operate those glowing machines? Trinitite feigned interest in a nearby shelf, grabbing a book at random and approaching chair near the heater the human had mentioned. As she walked, Trinitite feigned interest her pick.

A neverending story, huh? How was that possible? It wasn't particularly large for a book. Perhaps pages were added as time went on to depict current events? While it's pages were hidden behind some protective material. A pretty smart idea, actually. If water was so damaging to human books a shell would only be practical. Curious, the abyssal turned it over, analyzing the label on the back.

A shimmering fantasy world?

She'd heard all of those words, but never together. Importantly, the word fantasy, which she'd remembered from many a princess's rant. The Harbour Princess's Celon plan was nothing but a fantasy. If the Southern War Princess thought the Supply Depot Princess could spare eight thousand tons of bunker oil, she must be living in a fantasy. Even her mother had used the term, dismissing one of Midway's proposed battle plans as such.

In every instance, fantasy had meant roughly the same thing: Foolish, unrealistic, and implausible. Did that mean this was all fake?

Wasn't that a disappointment. If it didn't have to be accurate to a real event, Trinitite could easily imagine a machine which could churn out gibberish non-stop. What kind of book was this, anyways? With a click, Trinitite opened the book cover, taking a look at the first… page?

What was this? She guessed a hollow disk didn't technically have an end, but this disk-circle-book-thing was completely unreadable!

She was getting distracted. The mystery behind the neverending story was baffling, but not particularly important. Trinitite stayed where she was, studying the pseudo-book like she'd seen other library humans do. From her chair, the Abyssal had a good look at one of the humans working at the display. Her optics couldn't focus on the words on the display, but Trinitite could get a good look at what he was doing.

It seemed to be split into two primary sections, each displaying text. The human would use a device with one hand to switch between the two sections, moving them up and down with the same instrument. He'd then switch to using both hands on the other instrument, adding text to one of the sections on the display. Some kind of writing and reading tool, then?

What was he reading, then? With an audible click from the first instrument, the text he was reading disappeared, replaced by a third wall of information. Just how much could you fit in one of those? Overcome by curiosity, Trinitite closed her disk-book and stood. She was going to have to figure one of these out eventually, and watching could only accomplish so much.

Choosing an unused position, sitting at the end of line of displays and distant from any watching humans, Trinitite took a seat. The dark screen lit up as she brushed an instrument with her hand. Instead of anything she'd seen before, the Abyssal was met with a photograph of a lake, surrounded by a multicolored wood and craggy hills. In the center, a simplistic human silhouette was displayed, hovering over a single word.

Public

The words 'Sign in' were also displayed, set in a box underneath the title. Okay, what did that mean?

Mimicking the other humans, Trinitite loosely gripped the smaller of the two instruments. With a slow shake, Trinitite spotted a marker move on the display. Experimentally, she moved it in a slow circle, noticing the box light up as the marker crossed it. The marker swung around again, hovering over the box before she experimentally pressed the left button.

Click.

The landscape abruptly slid upwards, revealing an entirely new display. The abyssal recoiled, leaning away from the abrupt change. She'd known humans had impressive technology, but she hadn't prepared for something that responsive. It also shed some light on how this worked: This device acted as a kind of multi-instrument, with the marker Trinitite controlled her method of interacting with it, treating the display as a set of buttons to 'press.'

Testing her theory, Trinitite moved the marker over a colorful icon labeled 'Recycle', watching a square appear around it as she hovered. How this machine could recycle anything was beyond Trinitite, so she didn't dare press it, instead moving down the line of colorful images. Chrome? Office? She wasn't going to experiment with those until she had more of an idea of what they did.

Instead, Trinitite's attention drifted to the bottom left of the display, hovering on a white box labeled 'Type here to search.' Search? Technically, that was why she was here. The Abyssal slid the marker down to the white box, before pressing the left button again. This time, the screen didn't change entirely, instead generating a box which covered just over a fourth of the screen.

Hi! How can I help you?

That was… an oddly familiar thing to say, for a machine. Not particularly helpful, either. Carefully, Trinitite turned her attention to the array of buttons on the larger instrument. The letters were a fairly solid giveaway to what they did, but after looking at how they were arranged, Trinitite suddenly wasn't so sure. The numbers near the top were obvious, but why have a second set of F-numbers? If you wanted to tell the machine F2 couldn't you just press the F button, followed by the 2 button? Speaking of which, why was the F button in the center of the device? Wouldn't it come after the E button, near the top? Why was Q first?

Trinitite shook her head, pushing past the point. There must have been some logic behind this baffling arrangement, she just hadn't grasped yet. Apparently it made since to her communications officer, so it must have been common for some reason. So, where was the J button? There, also near the center. Tapping the button with her index finger, the Carrier began her search for O. There, not too far from J. After finding the B button and pressing that as well, Trinitite returned her attention to the screen.

job

jobs

job Search

jobs near me

jobs Mill Creek

jobs Seattle

That was more than she expected. From watching the human, she knew there was some knowledge stored in these things, and she'd already been pointed to these libraries with help with jobs, but she didn't expect to see eight different items on the topic of jobs. Sure, finding someone to work for was important to humans, but important enough to fit eight different articles on the topic into one of these machines? Just how much was there on these things?

Could it have information on her mother?

Trinitite admitted it was a stretch, but she had to try. A. The military probably didn't make their capabilities public so just anyone could go and figure out what they had. I. Even if they were so trusting, why send sailors down here and update the machines in the library? R. There was no way they'd gotten around to doing that so far, right? C.

Trinitite glanced back up at the display before moving onto the next letter, before pausing.

aircraft

aircraft carrier

Huh. She wasn't going to be so direct, just in case this machine logged what she did, but if they were going to suggest it, than it would be suspicious if she didn't investigate, right?

The display changed once she'd pressed on the term, displaying another list which filled the screen. Mimicking the human from earlier, Trinitite took the wheel in the smaller instrument and spun, moving the list and showing even more entries.

How was that possible? The abyssal wheeled her chair back, looking under the table. There, suspended in a metal rack and connected to a bundle of wires, a box smaller than a light bomb was hanging from the table.

No way they could fit this much information into that thing.

The library had many answers, but Trinitite found her questions increasing much faster than they were being answered.

At the top of the list, the label 'News about aircraft carriers' topped four photographs, each with their own label.

Work on the new USS Enterprise Resumes as Repairs to Newport News Continue.

VIDEO: Illustrious just threw a truck. Just how strong are Shipgirls, anyways?

JS Izumo is Back in Action- but are Japan's F-35 Carriers Worth it?

Akagi, Enterprise, Arc Royale: Which Is The Best Carrier?

They'd come with dates as well, and Trinitite was surprised to see none of were older than her landfall! If the Southern War Princess knew information on the Enemy's movements was this easy to get, she'd blow a boiler! How many devices like this one sat rusting and unused in Abyssal-occupied territory? How did humans update these so quickly? Did all of this information get radioed to this machine? How do you radio an image?

She would have lingered more on those questions and items, if the next thing hadn't been exactly what she was looking for.

List of aircraft carriers in the United States Navy

Perfect.

With another button press, the display reset, and Trinitite was looking at a wall of information to go over. It started basic, with the definition of an Aircraft Carrier, but soon dove into history, and got interesting quickly.

"Langley…"

Even in the quiet library, Trinitite's whisper was audible only to herself. Was that the name the Navy had given her mother? It would be nice if it came with an image, or maybe a better list, but she'd have to figure it out somehow.

Click.

The screen reset, and the american flag in the corner was replaced with that of a carrier. Disappointment flowed through the abyssal's decks as she leaned back in her chair. She was certain she could recognize her mother in an image, but anyone in the pacific could tell when a carrier didn't have an island. How did she go back?

There was blue text labeled United States Navy, like in the initial list. Maybe from there she could find her way back to that list? Hold on- The navy was one of Eight uniformed forces? She knew of the Army and Navy, and she couldn't forget the Firebringers from Mom's stories. What were the other five? She moved the marker that text, this time trying the other button on her instrument. 'Open link in new tab?' Sure?

When The screen reset again, Trinitite noticed the words 'United States Navy' in the corner of the display. Ah, this must be one of the 'tabs' the prompt had mentioned. She could read through the Uniformed Services text, then go back to the Navy and search from there.

Finally, it was time for some answers.

"Uh… excuse me?"

Trinitite blinked, her world suddenly expanding past the display in front of her. With how focused she was on these Wikipedia Articles, she'd failed to notice the approach of the human from before. After drawing the abyssal's attention, the human spoke up again.

"Sorry for the interruption, but we're closing in 15 minutes. Do you need a ride home?"

"I'll be fine." Trinitite assured her. "Thanks."

"Okay." She replied. "Have a nice night!"

The human turned and left, leaving trinitite with the machine and hardly any time. How long had she been sitting here? Her attention turned back to the display.

Atlanta was a casemate ironclad that served in the Confederate and Union Navies during the American Civil War. She was converted from…

How'd she get here again? Trinitite glanced to the top of the display. So many tabs were crammed together she couldn't read more than the first few few letters from each one, an array of articles extending an unknowable distance beyond the edge of the window. Of almost all of them, she'd hardly read a paragraph, before falling into another blue link. She'd learned a lot, of course, like the fact the Enemy had gone to war with themselves in the past, but nothing too useful, and even then the details and vocabulary were already fuzzy. This machine was… dangerous. Her chronometer showed over two hours had passed, and she'd done little more than get lost in a whirlpool text!

Okay, she needed to wrap up soon. One more article, then, and no links this time! Earlier, she'd noticed a box labeled 'Search Wikipedia,' and now it seemed perfect to find one last Article.

Let's see… A is at the end, there, while B is practically in the center. Y was above that, with S back next to A. A second S, followed by another A…

Apologies for the time it took to get this chapter out. Beyond regular writers block, I blame school programming projects, finals, work, and Ace Combat 7(seriously, I just got this game and I'm already on my third campaign run! Who knew final fantasy jets could be so addicting.).

This chapter breaks my 4k word limit rule, but only barely, and I couldn't find a good place to break it up. Guess that's an advantage of working under your own rules.

I still cut a lot, though. For example, I was going to have some adventures of Trinitite after she left the library, but I can save those for future Everett Expeditions after Trinitite's grown more established. We'll have one more Interlude (No one has asked 'What's the Canadian military's opinion on this,' but I feel like answering this question, so it'll happen.) and then I'll get started on Trinitite's first day at work. At this point, some of you might suggest I'm delaying, but I'm just moving at a natural pace, honest! Maybe because the only two serious fiction attempts I'd made before this took place over very short time periods, but I just don't want to rush things, you know?

Speaking of cutting things, I had a much longer Rant/tangent about coast and the Re-class planned for Trinitite, but I cut it down because it was starting to read more like an author filibusterer than a resentful co-worker. I know that Re-classes and Wo-classes generally get along in fan media, but it's fairly easy to see the easygoing nature of Res rubbing the more calm and collected Wos the wrong way. Yes, Trinitite will use practical arguments for why aviation battleships are a bad idea, but this is Kantai Collection, so completely dismissing things because they're not practical for a human-or-ship-sized-magical-spirit-thing feels... mean spirited. Sure, BBVs are a bad idea, but nothing some more displacement couldn't fix, right?

Anyways, I gotta go back and edit some of the earlier chapters. Merry Smissmas, everyone!