While it was just as unfamiliar to her as the rest of human territory, the persistent strangeness that surrounded everything she experienced seemed to dissipate at the Library. The feeling hadn't made much sense to Trinitite, until she realized how little she needed to do to blend in here. In this building, one was usually only expected to be quiet and read, things that came quite naturally to the abyssal. She'd seen signs about 'library cards,' 'kids programs,' and plenty of future training exercises, but the Wo-class wasn't obliged to worry about any of them yet.
If there was a way to borrow one of these computers, like the books plenty of humans left with, she was unaware of it, but that was probably for good reason. Trinitite couldn't begin to understand the mysterious human techniques that allowed the computer to access so much intelligence, but considering the cables that lead away from the device it was probably anchored here. It was a shame, too. This place was relaxing, but fairly far from her workplace and a little too close to Everett. Still, she hadn't found anywhere else where she could access similar equipment. Perhaps there was a computer in the worksite's office, but even if Trinitite wasn't afraid to ask, there was no way she could get through her research list without having to answer some awkward questions from Dan.
Hmm… perhaps the specifics of the computer's systems could use some more research. As the Wo-class slid a chair away from the desk, she considered adding that topic to her research list… but wasn't sure exactly what kind of term would get her a useful answer.
Deep, she had run into this problem already, hadn't she?
Sitting down and logging into the library computer, her attention drifted back to her research list. Best to work on what she knew to look after, and keep adding new questions until she had what she wanted. Clicking on the white box at the bottom-left of the screen, Trinitite looked down at the keyboard, mentally checking her list. Last time, she'd focused her intelligence gathering on job-related activities, such as definitions for parts of human structures. Those were now dutifully crossed out, but above them, she noticed that she'd skipped a term.
Sexual harassment.
The Wo-class involuntarily shivered. Further research into that was going to wait. Indefinitely. Sure, it was important, meaning she was going to have to look into it eventually, but not soon.
The next couple of items on the research list were also a major priority, perhaps more so because they dealt with logistics: Where to buy Steel, aluminum, rubber, and wood. Eating simple food improved her supply situation, which included these desperately needed materials, but she could still feel that the majority of her aircraft weren't combat-capable, and a lot of work needed to be done before she had any confidence in her deck again. Her headache wasn't going to fade entirely, and her elevators weren't going to start working without yard time, but some proper materials would go a long way towards improving things.
Besides, the sooner she could get rid of her dull headache, the better. She couldn't distract herself from it all the time.
She started typing, carefully finding and pressing each labeled button until the white box was filled with her needed question.
Where to buy steel
Satisfied she'd spelled everything correctly, the abyssal clicked on the adjacent arrow and a familiar window appeared. Surprisingly, whoever made this machine must have built it to recognize 'buy,' because the normal links had been pushed downwards for a line of images of steel bars and sheets, their prices underneath each image and label.
Just in an abstract sense, the computer's complexity astounded her. How its builders managed to plan something so versatile and complicated was amazing, let alone how they managed to build the thing. Compared to abyssal fire computers…
Any more thoughts on human technology abruptly died when she quit looking at the listed prices and actually read them. The abyssal quietly hissed in surprise, an incredulous whisper slipping from her lips.
"Four feet for three hundred and twenty dollars?" She hadn't misread a decimal point, had she?
That was three days of work for Dan, for hardly anything! On top of that, the steel beam, pitifully short and thin by any ship's standards, was hollow as well, and only about three inches wide! It was blatantly apparent that any steel she got would be through general food, not by bowing to these insane demands! How was anyone dealing with that fleet?
She paused, anger fading as realization dawned. Of course other fleets were dealing with the one that sold steel, but they were fleets. They could pool the necessary resources to get such things, instead of insignificant individuals like herself. Out of no doubt several groups doing everything they could to make steel rare, Trinitite could think of one in particular, who was inadvertently making Trinitite's life that much harder.
Damn you, Navy. First you kill my fleet, then you take my princess, and now you're hoarding all the steel I need...
There was no real venom in the thought, however. This kind of setback was so common now she wasn't surprised. Anyways, next to the hideously expensive image of steel lay much smaller quantities in the thirty to fifty dollar range. Presumably, they were lower quality as well, which would explain how her current fleet dealt in so much rebar. Still expensive, but could be a decent snack if she just wanted the taste instead of getting enough to fix herself. Noting that, she crossed the item off her list and moved onto the next.
It was a similar story with aluminum, but thankfully rubber and wood seemed somewhat reasonably priced. Those probably wouldn't be a problem. It was a good thing she could get the other valuable resources out of regular food, otherwise the Wo-class would be forced into more Fred Meyers-style raids.
With those logistics questions answered, Trinitite turned to a much more serious one. It had been a question that had faded with everything that had happened, but reading it catapulted the Wo weeks back in time. She already had the answer to it, but knowing that somehow her princesses had been… turned only led to more questions. Given her experience with human opinions on abyssals over the radio, she wasn't sure she could trust any intel she received from this, but she clearly wasn't getting anywhere with what she knew. Hopefully whatever information she could find would have hints she could use to build a real picture of what had happened to her mother.
Can abyssal princesses turn into shipgirls?
As always, the window went white for a moment, before populating with another list of links. Unlike last time, however, the link's labels were anything but helpful.
FACT CHECK: No, shipgirls aren't former abyssals.
Are some Shipgirls former abyssals? (False)
Biting her lip in disappointment, Trinitite sighed. Those clearly weren't right. Either the humans there were spreading false intelligence, or were victims of it. She was tempted to read one of those just to see if there was anything she could confirm, but the next couple of links under 'videos' told an entirely different story.
Are Shipgirls really ABYSSALS IN DISGUISE? What the NWO DOESN'T want you to know!
Investigation: How many shipgirls are actually princesses?
CNN ADMITS TIES BETWEEN SHIPGIRLS AND ABYSSALS
Well, that was a change of pace. Even though their titles alternated between lower and upper case letters for no obvious reason, the fact they differed so much from the other links could probably tell her a lot. Did the fleet that controlled that radio show have better control of videos, instead of everyone else who trusted the Navy's story?
The impression of The Navy (Trinitite guessed the N in the 'NWO' acronym meant just that) and the insane radio station warring over control of this… Bing suddenly came to her. Infighting between princesses could be brutal, why not between humans? Just because she couldn't begin to understand how such a conflict would be fought doesn't mean it couldn't be happening.
It would probably involve having some sway over the fleet that had built this computer. Scrolling to the top of the page and checking the fleet's name written in the upper left-hand screen, a memory suddenly returned to her.
She recognized the name Microsoft, didn't she? Yes, during her job-finding mission in Redmond, she'd tried to join that fleet, but had practically been laughed out of the door. Specifics weren't coming to her, but she did remember passing a lot of buildings with that label on it on the way past. So… they built computers, then, like the one she was using now.
No wonder they hadn't taken her seriously. Their installation, which must have been what she passed on the way here, had dwarfed most of the other fleets she'd seen. It certainly compared to some naval installations. Perhaps they had both points of view displayed here because they were so powerful that the The Navy and whomever was behind those radio transmissions couldn't control them… or they just provided a few computers to the local area, and thus had no issues dealing with or supporting anyone.
Sitting up, Trinitite shook her head. She'd sidetracked herself. The videos would probably attract too much attention here, but she could probably read some of the Navy-influenced links. It would be bad intelligence, but they were lying to humans, not abyssals like her. Hopefully she'd be able to recognize the worst falsehoods.
FACT CHECK: No, shipgirls aren't former abyssals.
Below the title, an image of a shipgirl dominated the window. She guessed it was one, as while the woman was walking on land, she hadn't seen this type of clothing on any regular humans. There wasn't the instinctual recognition she had when she'd seen the shipgirls at Seattle, but she assumed it was more due to the computer's technical limitations, like how some of her aircraft's cameras could only take photos in black and white. Besides, she recognized the face somewhat, although she couldn't immediately place where.
It was a little difficult to make out too many details from her clothing, considering that her and her escort of strangely-uniformed humans were walking perpendicular to the camera, but what she could see of her far shoulder demonstrated some kind of rectangular shoulder pad. If that was the flight deck to a carrier's rigging...
Suddenly, Trinitite realized where she'd seen that face before. Whatever had happened to her mother… the same fate must have befallen the Abyssal Crane Princess as well.
Trinitite had hated her, especially after she'd gone so far as to threaten battle with The Crossroads Fleet, but she'd never doubted the dense carrier's conviction. To know that she hadn't merely been sunk in her ill-fated Okinawa campaign…
The Wo-class shivered. The Human Fleets had gotten to her, it seemed, and it had completely reversed the only thing Trinitite knew about her. If the process had changed this princess so much, could there be anything left of her mother?
For seconds, she allowed herself to contemplate the idea. Had her mother really been killed at Bikini? Had Trinitite, as wounded as she'd been, done nothing but sit and watch as Jellyfish was not only sunk, but completely erased, never to return? At least if they had torpedoed mother, there was a chance she could return, but not anymore. Perhaps the only way to get Jellyfish back would be through violence, and even if Saratoga only looked like Jellyfish, Trinitite wasn't sure she'd have the strength to sink her.
Finally, reason reasserted itself and the Wo-class calmed. The way Jellyfish had reacted to 'Lexie' proved that the two versions of the ship had some connection, and a personal one at that. Jellyfish would be in there. She had to be.
As for the former Crane Princess, Trinitite didn't know anything about why the carrier had hated humanity so much, and what could change that. With The Jellyfish Princess, things had seemed straightforward. As an abyssal princess, she'd lamented the loss of her daughters, until one of them showed up after the battle at Bikini and proved that they were alive. The specifics still eluded her, as well as the human's reasoning behind sinking the rest of her family before telling her that information, but there was enough answered questions for Trinitite to loosely grasp events. Maybe the Abyssal Crane Princess, for all her brutality and stupidity, had been suffering in her own way, and the humans at Japan had found a way to exploit that.
Checking the image's caption, Trinitite dutifully added 'Zuikaku' to her research list. Maybe looking into her service record could shed some light on both her hatred of humanity and what had happened to make her switch fleets. Perhaps this was expecting too much, but maybe she could find some clues about her mother, as well.
Unfortunately, the article itself wasn't particularly informative. Frustratingly, it avoided actually denying that shipgirls and Abyssals were linked, claiming the notion to simply be 'ridiculous,' before focusing on a collection of posts made on something called 'social media.' It described how the photographs featured had been faked or doctored, but by the time the article had gone into details the abyssal had mostly lost interest. She didn't want to call this question properly researched, but she had learned something important: Jellyfish hadn't been the only abyssal princess who'd been… converted. That not only opened new opportunities for her to get intelligence, but also had some pretty serious implications. How many battles had ended not in the abyssal princess being sunk, but instead joining the ranks of the enemy? What did that mean for the human fleet's strategy?
These questions… that was something she didn't want to put too much thought into without a map of the pacific, or someone to bounce ideas off of. With so much information she didn't know, it was going to be far too easy to draw a dangerously incorrect conclusion. She'd move down on the list for now, and return to this topic later.
Besides, the next item on her list wasn't that important anymore, but she still wanted to know what in the deep circuit breaker coolant was.
Hope you're all having a good summer! It hasn't technically started yet up here (and has come and gone for you folks in the Southern Hemisphere), but it certainly feels like it for me. My job has me working outside most of the time, and I got a bit delusional from heat exhaustion while writing this chapter, so if any passage in stopped making sense or anything, please let me know.
Did some thinking about this arc, and what I'm doing next, and realized I need to draw up a much more specific plan for how this'll happen. I don't want to get Trinitite stuck in a holding pattern of fluff, but I don't want to rush through this, either. I know what I'll be writing next chapter, and have known some scenes and broad strokes for a long time now, but I want to get a much more detailed outline ready so I know how long until the next arc, which I'm pretty exited to get to.